Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=264https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1315Going back to ZOE:2, again, I think some of the level design is not very good. I spent a good amount of time running around in circles in one level just because everything looked the same and i could not get out. Additionally, alot of the game features extremely linear challenges of the format "defeat x enemies to progress" Which works for the game, but is nothing extremely new or interesting. The game also has massive sometimes crippling camera problems. The way the autotargeting defaults to selecting an enemy, even when they are in the far distance and nowhere near where you are facing often makes simply navigating extremely hard. Also, only be able to sort through your targets unilaterally makes it very awkward to select enemies that are causing you to die, which often gets you killed. For all that, the aformentioned sense of speed and shooter like aspects make for a very entertaining experience when technical issues aren't getting in the way. Finally, there is a fight near the very end that manages to communicate a sense of epic Warfare so extremely effectively I think it is likely one of my top ten moments in gaming. So, this game, while extremely flawed, still provides a very satisfying experience, at least for me.Tue, 13 Feb 2007 00:35:17 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1315&iddiary=2814https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1315The first thing that stands out about this game is that it looks absolutely amazing for a ps2 game. additionally, it manages to pull off a sense of speed that gives the game a very cool feel.I played this game in the past, and bought it because of some fond memories of truly awesome moments had in this game. In alot of ways, I feel like this game has alot of the feel of a vertically scrolling shooter except in 3D; the mass numbers of small enemies that come in waves, the boss fights, and the configuration of some of the weapons all add to this. also, on a neat sidenote, one of the characters pilots a robot called "vic viper" which transforms into a plane (vic viper is the name of the pilot in gradius, and the ship's weapons are modeled after gradius's) Given all that, some of the scripted events in this game are extremely frusterating in their difficulty and occasional lack of interesting action. One aspect of the game i had forgotten about that is less endearing then the rest is the ridiculously poor voice acting. The story is not very compelling, simply because the dialogue is badly written and terribly delivered.Tue, 13 Feb 2007 00:29:26 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1315&iddiary=2812https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1046After playing Final Fantasy 12 for a while, I did start to get back into it. its true that the story is linear and often segmented into little sections of a format where the player fights some monsters till they get to location x, hears a blurb of story, then does it again; however, some of the fights are challenging, which is always entertaining, the quickening system is enjoyable though ridiculous, I was finally able to get out of the dungeon i had been stuck in. Though I certainly enjoy this game and got over my initial problems after coming back to it, i think it has some glaring flaws compared to the rest of the series, in its weak main character, nigh-on useless summons, and occasional tedium. Also, from a design perspective i think its ridiculous to put in unlockable items that a player could NEVER figure out how to find on their own (read: the zodiac spear) NOT opening chests is the most ridiculous mechanic in an RPG I've ever heard of. Finally, I ended this segment of playtime by fighting a boss (king bomb), and i found that fight extremely frustrating and unsatisfying; the boss keeps healing himself, and pretty much the only way to prevent it is to wait for him to run out of mana, which is extremely tedious. in addition, the fact that his life bar keeps going back to full makes the player feel like they aren't making any progress.Wed, 31 Jan 2007 14:08:54 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1046&iddiary=2249https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1046I had been playing through Final Fantasy 12 with a friend, and so hadn't played since i last saw her, which was about a month ago. Upon coming back, i was very surprised by a few things. To begin with, the game seemed alot less engrossing then i remembered it; when i think about it the format it follows is a fairly standard one for an RPG, but it feels extremely linear. additionally, the character building has seemed sort of out of sync; all of my characters have pretty much every liscence they could ever need, but just the same i can't keep up with new gear. All in all, my preliminary experience when coming back to this game was extremely unsatisfying. The average battle in this game feels alot like a fight in an MMORPG, and i'm not sure i like that. Finally, the story feels very segmented, and I don't like the way the main character seems to have no reason to be there or real roll in the plot.Wed, 31 Jan 2007 13:53:10 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1046&iddiary=2241https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=763After my second hour, I was totally hooked. This game is absolutely amazing, And the collosi are ridiculously gorgeous for something rendered with the PS2's dusty old hardware. There seems to be a very wide gap between the skill required to beat the first two collosi and what it takes to beat the third. Finding and beating the Third collosus probably took longer then my combined time on the first two. Also, I think its interesting how the collosi don't even fight back till the third; it makes you really question what you're doing. Also, everytime I kill a collosus, dark black tentacles flow from the collosus into the player character. The story, while presented competantly, is also very vague, which i think adds to the mystery and allure and uncertainty that so far pervade this game. Its nice the developers made this game feels action-oriented without any real sort of combat system: all you can do with your sword is swing when standing or pull back and stab while clinging to something, and your bow functions just like a bow in any of a multitude of other games; the longer you hold it down and the harder you press the button, the farther the arrow goes. Despite this extremely simple combat system, the game is incredibly engrossing and fun. I immensely enjoyed killing the third collosus, even though it got extremely frusterating. This one is located on top of a tower, and i fell of when i was still trying to figure out how to kill it, and for some reason it took me three trys to get back up, and given that its takes 2-3 minutes to climb to the place where I was falling, that got somewhat unpleasant. However, all in all, I think this is an extremely good game, and i plan to play it all the way through.Fri, 19 Jan 2007 04:10:32 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=763&iddiary=1725https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=763Shadow of the collosus is so far a very unique experience. From a design perspective, it's something that hasn't really been done before. Its sort of as if the designers decided to take the boss battles of an RPG or Adventure game, expand on them, and then turn the whole business into a game. That thought, in addition to some independant games i've been playing lately, got me thinking about game design, and about how those of us who grew up playing games, when we're thinking of a game, always have to make it conform to some archetype we know and recognize; be it a shmup, a first person shooter, or an RPG, or even some combination of multiple genre's, we always categorize. I think alot of the most interesting games that have been released lately are the ones that are hard to classify. E.G. Shadow of the Collosus, GTA 3, or Flow( an Independant game). Anyway, to return to the topic at hand, I'm greatly enjoying Shadow so far. i've killed the first two Collosi, and I had trouble making myself stop to write this. So far, the one part of this game that has really lept out at me is the moral uncertainty of your actions; When you defeat a collosus, you feel triumph at having overcome a difficult obstacle, but you also get the impression that you just destroyed something grand, perhaps even benign. I find it very interesting to play a game where morals aren't black and white, and from the little i've seen so far, I feel like shadow of the collosus was a very ambitious and successful work. The only problem i've had with the game so far, ironically enough, was when I couldn't figure out how to get to the first collosus in the very beginning because i couldn't figure out what to climb. My roommate eventually suggested a wall that appeared to be covered in vines, which i realized i should have tried pretty much the instant i saw it, as climbing walls covered in vines is an extremely common gaming convention, but for some reason the idea just didn't strike me. I don't if this was a failing on my part or the games, but I think that it was at least partially because a wall with green spots just doesn't visually appear to be something a person could climb.Fri, 19 Jan 2007 02:52:37 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=763&iddiary=1706https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=519having played WoW for another hour or so, all my old problems with the game are becoming readily apparent. I spent the entire time trying to find a group to instance with without finding a single complete group. WoW is an amazingly designed game in alot of ways, and i think that the new looking for group system is really well done. But for some reason people just won't seem to use it, which ruins all the work they've done. Designing a good MMO must be enormously difficult, because the gameplay experience is so dependent on player interaction, and you have absolutely no control over that.Fri, 12 Jan 2007 13:00:09 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=519&iddiary=1384https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=519Today I played World of Warcraft for the first time since the beginning of the school year. I'm enjoying it alot relative to how tired i had gotten of it, but the whole experience is remind me of why MMO's are far from my favorite type of game. A good number of the problems i remember WoW having when i last played have been fixed, but it still feels like a fairly incomplete experience. Really enjoying the game is dependent on finding the right people at the right time, and when that doesn't happen, the game can be extremely boring. Never the Less, the fact that rogues have finally been given the power boost that they have been so desperately in need of is enough to keep me playing for another few months at least, and not regret my purchase of the expansion pack.Thu, 11 Jan 2007 22:41:37 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=519&iddiary=1241