Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=319https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1493For the second half of my assignment I decided to just drive around. I could do this for hours, stealing cars, doing crazy stunts and getting the police to chase after you. I found the cheat codes online, that helped to make the game more interesting by providing all the weapons necessary to really get into with the authorities. I found the free flow gameplay of wandering around and interacting with the environment to be way more enjoyable than the missions. The cheat codes added some fun elements, but overall after you've played the game for a while you're ready to move on.Sat, 24 Feb 2007 23:40:04 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1493&iddiary=3144https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1493San Andreas expands upon the previous GTA games, but overall seems quite similar to Vice City, except for the environment. Where Vice City was in Miami, San Andreas is on the West coast in an LA like city. I've played before, but for this entry I decided to start a new game. After playing for 45 minutes or so I got past a few levels, but can't seem to get past the hydraulics level where you must bounce your car in the order that the computer does it. The missions are simple and frankly I think I like driving through the environment more than actually completing the missions.Sat, 24 Feb 2007 23:37:10 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1493&iddiary=3143https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1281For the second half I decided to try out some explosives. These also seem to be regarded as cheap weapons, but it seems to me that a lot of people just don't know how to use them. There are a number of grenade launchers with limited rounds (usually 6). The rounds go fast and relodes take a while, so there is a definite strategy to using them. Given a good position, you can sit back and wait for the other team to walk by and shoot the wall behind them. The grenades are powerful enough to get them. Repeat six times, or until the other team realizes where you are and come from a different direction. Overall a very useful weapon. It seems to me that there are similarities between most rocket like weapons across different games, and I seem to be best with them, whether it's Golden Eye 64, Halo 2 or Ghost Recon.Fri, 09 Feb 2007 22:29:06 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1281&iddiary=2737https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1281Ghost Recon multiplayer is my roommates favorite game, so playing it wasn't hard to do. Online multiplayer is similar to other FPS, except that when playing alone you have the option to be in a third person view. When more than one person is playing on the screen you are forced into a first person view. Unlike Halo 2, which I play a lot online, Ghost Recon has a more realistic feel. It doesn't take too many bullets to hit you before you die, so stealth becomes necessary. There are a few tricks to being stealthy, including crawling and the use of the camera gun. The camera gun allows you to look around corners and works well, but is regarded as cheap by a lot of players and often turned off on servers. Forty five minutes flew by, we played three games and won the first two. Games seem to be decided fairly early on, with one team having a large lead, but turnover is possible.Fri, 09 Feb 2007 22:24:27 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1281&iddiary=2736https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1070After playing for another 45 minutes I remember why I don't like this game. It is the same thing over and over. For the first period of time after learning the controls I sort of got into the game, but after over an hour I'm quite bored. It is strange as I like other multiplayer games that lack story and the purpose is only to kill the other players, but Super Smash Bros. just isn't my thing. I would prefer playing another fighting type game (soul calibur), though I'm not a huge fan of those either. I do see how it could appeal to a certain crowd, there certainly is a desire to win and beat the other players as well as a certain type of strategy.Wed, 31 Jan 2007 16:26:03 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1070&iddiary=2293https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1070My roommate is a big fan of Smash Bros. and so testing out the N64 version was no problem. I had played it before but never really got into it. Starting out I picked Donkey Kong as I remembered by brother (who is good at this game) using him. I started out just button mashing, the only thing I've ever been able to do in this type of game. As my roommate beat me over and over again with Link I decided I better change my strategy. I asked him what some of the buttons did, and figured out what direction to put the control stick in and what buttons to press. I started doing better at this point and gave my roommate a run for his money, but I'm still not that good.Wed, 31 Jan 2007 16:25:49 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1070&iddiary=2292https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=805After 45 more minutes we are all having just as much fun as before (too bad I have to stop to go to class). Level knowledge is definitely a major advantage to this game and other FPS. My two friends that were a bit rusty on their level knowledge had a hard time keeping up with my roommate and I. Another benefit (or vice) of the console is that you can see where other people are and use their View to a Kill (sorry, corny). Personally I have always benefited from my multitasking ability and keeping everyones position in mind. Another neat aspect of GoldenEye is the ability to customize certain elements of the multiplayer game. License to kill is a fun mode (one hit kills), but you can also control individual health levels of characters as well as have teams. So for example my brothers and I used to make a "Juggernaut" match like the one that exists in Halo, where one person is super strong and everyone else has to attack him, he is on his own team. This type of gameplay holds up well even though it is not a standard setting. My friends and I had a fun time making use of the "Juggernaut" mode. All in all a fun re-visit to a classic game.Fri, 19 Jan 2007 14:53:16 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=805&iddiary=1797https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=805GoldenEye is one of my all time favorite FPS, multiplayer in particular. The only games that compare are probably the original Marathon series (Mac only) and more recently Halo (Also made by the Marathon people). I decided to get some friends together and play a multiplayer match of GoldenEye. One of the first things you'll notice is the lack of being able to jump (common in even later games by Rare). Once you get playing though you really don't notice this as a problem. Rockets are still my favorite and so our first match started with them. Gameplay is smooth and everything seems to fit. The rockets shoot and they explode and if you get caught in the fire you die. I find most of the physics to be quite accurate, didn't ever feel like, "Hey I shot you with that but you didn't die," as often times occurs in Halo (especially online with laggy connections). We played a couple other game types, all of them pretty standard and just as fun as they were years ago.Fri, 19 Jan 2007 14:17:23 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=805&iddiary=1784https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=606After playing Halo 2 online for another 45 minutes I had some interesting thoughts. First of all I had varying degrees of success in my later sniper matches. When I win I seem to do better, even during one match. The psychological effect of being killed over and over again has a major impact on my composure. I noticed this during one game where my team was winning (and I was doing well) through about two thirds of the match and all of the sudden I died a number of times in a row (as did my teammates). I caught myself becoming more frantic in my game-play with less confidence in my ability to beat the other team. Realizing this I quickly regained my calm and played as I had earlier in the game. My team promptly won. Now in previous matches where I died a lot in the beginning it is a lot harder to calm down and play well. This is the psychological impact that winning seems to have in an online match of Halo 2. Obviously better opponents will still be able to beat you even if you maintain a certain sense of composure, but it does help your game-play.Fri, 12 Jan 2007 15:01:48 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=606&iddiary=1415https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=606I play a lot of Halo 2 on xbox live, so for my first entry I decided to play a few games and write about it. One thing I find is that it takes me a little while to get up to speed, a lot of the people on live are really good and the first game I play I usually do pretty poorly at (unless the opponents are really bad). After a couple of games though I get back in the swing of things. For these first matches I played all sniper rounds. I have a new xbox live account so my rating is fairly low, (and Halo 2 pairs you with similarly rated opponents). The first game as expected I did pretty bad at, but it also seemed that some of the opponents were really good, spawn, dead spawn dead. My second and third games were much better. I came in second both times with 20 or so kills and only 7 deaths. For some reason Halo 2 doesn't factor in peoples deaths when ranking them at the end of the game, but this can contribute a lot to the other team. Now that I am up to speed and have a couple of good games under my belt I'm going to play some more and see how my experience changes.Fri, 12 Jan 2007 14:07:35 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=606&iddiary=1399