Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=329https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1280I just finished up playing an 8-way RA2 battle… and I won! It’s good to know that after all these years, I still seem to have the touch. The level I played was an extra-large frozen wasteland called “Arctic Circle,” one of the many excellent maps included with the game. (The game also includes the ability to play custom maps, but they often aren’t as high of quality as those designed by Westwood Games.) The map is a ring of smaller arctic islands surrounding a central landmass; the 8 players all start on their own individual island region. I played against 7 computer opponents, each with their nationality (different countries have different special abilities / units) randomized, and each on the highest difficulty setting: “Brutal.” I chose to play as the United States, arguably the most balanced and fair nationality, and found myself matched up against some Iraqis, Russians, French, Germans, et al. Strange match-up, but the game was on. I immediately set up walls around my base, which I found was located in the northeast corner of the map after a minute of exploring. By now, I’ve learned that the RA2 AI is not above sneakster tactics like engineer rushes; engineers are low-level units that can be built en masse almost immediately after the start of the game, and although they lack attack or defense, they have the unique ability to “capture” buildings from opponents forever simply by walking into them. By surrounding my base with even-cheaper cement walls, I could close that program loop and focus on the AI’s other algorithms. After building up to an Air Force Command Center within the first few minutes of game play, I deployed my first squad of paratroopers, they being the Americans’ special units. They secured the south corner of my base, and I began to build more ore miners as I slowly built up my Tech Center. Once I could build Prism Tanks, the game should’ve been just about over, but… Kirov Airships! Two separate Soviet bases to the east simultaneously sent fleets of Kirov Airships, and I had nowhere near the necessary air defense, as they were all off protecting a land site for my Mobile Construction Vehicle (MCV) on the center island. Luckily they shredded my Prism Tanks and not my Construction Yard, so when my backup arrived and finished cleaning up, I snuck a peak at the Soviet bases to the east and planned my invasion. I waited until Paradrop reinforcements were ready, rebuilt up critical amounts of power units, and took base after base until the game was over. It was about an hour and a half long, and it was very, very fun.Fri, 09 Feb 2007 23:50:48 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1280&iddiary=2745https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1280Yesterday I pulled out my old CD-ROM sleeve and decided this GameLog would be all about another one of my favorite games: Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2. Released in 1998, RA2 is my favorite real-time strategy (RTS) game. Prior to this game, I had very limited experience with the genre, so I learned a lot about strategy and multitasking when I first played it almost a decade ago. The wacky plot is creative but not extremely relevant, since the addictive gameplay overshadows it. In RA2’s alternate reality, Einstein invents time travel, and the Soviet Union travels back in time to turn the tide of World War II. Accordingly, the games units are interesting takes on real-life weaponry, albeit some more plausible than others. The Allies’ Grizzly Tanks are essentially Abrams M1 Battle Tanks, and Prism Tanks lug around powerful long-range focused light beams, useful in sieges against enemy bases. However, the Allies also employ to great effect Rocketeers – literally flying infantrymen with Southern accents. On the Soviet side, Conscripts march with AK-47s in hand alongside “Tesla Troopers,” strange B-movie monsters wielding deadly Tesla Coils. All the units share some degree of quasi-Cold War charm, and the standard RTS “structure tree” (the order in which structures can be built) consists of futuristic, sleek buildings for the Allies and grungy, smoggy European factories for the Soviets. Graphically, the game does not disappoint. The menu system emulates old analog radar consoles, from flashing red lights to security panels. Game entities are colorful and detailed, regardless of whether they’re driving, idling, shooting, taking cover, or defending. Many game entities feature multiple “joints,” places where separate parts of the model can hinge and rotate around each other.Fri, 09 Feb 2007 21:24:55 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1280&iddiary=2732https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1108The conclusion of the previously-mentioned Goldeneye mini-tournament: Alex 5, me 3. He kept getting me with the damn Golden Gun, which is an instant-kill weapon. We liked playing with the GG because we felt it was the closest to real life and thus we were getting some sort of tactical exercise out of the game as opposed to just throwing textured polygons at eachother and seeing what the outcome was. I didn't feel a connection to my character in the game. This was unlike Gears of War, my current favorite "shmup," in which the characters are all different looking, have different mannerisms and quips, and generally embody different player types, whereas the silent protagonists in 007 simply meander around the levels with their clunky control. Speaking of control. I can't remember how 007 used to be top-of-the-line shmup material... it's so awkward to move around the equally-awkward and aimless levels that I could only get kills in when I lured Alex into a room then carefully aimed and timed my shots.Wed, 31 Jan 2007 21:41:43 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1108&iddiary=2399https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1108My roommate / classmate Alex and I got our grubby hands on a copy of Goldeneye 007 for the N64. Memories of playing this game in 5th grade came flooding back to me. Being used to the fantastic Gears of War's graphics, gameplay, and overall feel, I was a bit shocked at how difficult and choppy 007 was. The graphics were very blatantly polygons with textures mapped onto them, and the levels were... just giant groups of poorly-textured polygons. Unlike Gears, where the levels vividly depict ruined cityscapes and abandoned urban wastelands, 007's levels were all large, generic blocks with minimal detail. I feel as if the designers of 007 didn't push the N64 hardware as hard as they could, which is disappointing given the huge range of weapons available to the player. However, not being a picky fellow when it comes to multiplayer entertainment (if Pong can still be as fun as it was when demo'd in class, why can't 007?), Alex and I had fun regardless. We played multiplayer and tried out numerous different weapons setups per level. Gears lacks the wide range of interesting weapons in 007; if Gears had proximity mines -- mines that the player hides against walls which automatically explode on enemies -- the online XBox Live Gears dynamic would be totally different. Sneaky little tools, they are. We're about to play a best-of-5 games mini-tournament, so my next log will go into some more details of gameplay dynamics.Wed, 31 Jan 2007 18:48:36 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1108&iddiary=2367https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=837Who, among my generation, doesn't know what a "warp whistle" is? If this SMB3 reference went over your head, or you're unfamiliar with the acronym SMB3 for "Super Mario Brothers 3," pay attention. The warp whistle is like the Konami code. The former can transport you almost anywhere within SMB3, whereas the Konami code -- named so because it was implemented as a secret in a number of Konami's NES games -- can grant you invincibility in Contra. Both may seem like "cheats," but in reality I feel they represent a lost era of video gaming that may never return. Because NES developers only had so many kilobytes of data to work with (I could be wrong but I believe most NES ROM images are about a megabyte), the game designers whose games have attained "classic" status were those who packed the most "game" into their microchips -- more bang for your buck, per se. SMB3 and Contra are both games that are not cheapened by "cheats," but are in fact enhanced. I played Mario 3 for a few hours with a notepad next to me, which proved unnecessary as I was too busy toying with the game's impeccable engine to write notes. If you were to look up "platform game" in the dictionary, (or -- let's be realistic -- on Wikipedia,) I imagine SMB3 would need to be mentioned as (a) being one of the most successful traditional platform games, and (b) having one of the tightest, "analog" control systems ever. I say "analog" in that it's such a close connection between your Mario on screen and the rectangle NES controller in your hand that it doesn't feel like a series of binary calculations. Instead, it feels like a direct link between Mario's movement and your... soul? That is to say, there is some art in SMB3 manipulation. Grabbing turtle shells, bopping from falling platforms and floating gently in the clouds above entire levels are all extensions of the player's ability to master the simple 8-direction, two-buttion controls. If you're in for a treat, check on YouTube for some Mario 3 speed runs. Remember the tank, jet, and boat levels in World 8 right before Bowser's castle? Imagine those borderline impossibles levels as if played and pwnd by Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Classic games like Contra and SMB3 continue to entertain because they are games with excellent reward systems. Gamers of all different types can derive entertainment from these games, whether newcomers to the platformer genre (SMB3's worlds seem to reflect the grade level of the player: as a 1st grader, I could pretty much topple World 1, but I couldn't really defeat World 8 until 8th grade) or experts who have essentially downloaded the ROM image into their brains. By granting players the ability to cheat and jump ahead to the greatest challenges in the game, they eliminate the need for masters to bore themselves with the details of the lesser levels. It is why I was able to spend as much time and have as much fun replaying SMB3 as I did in order to write this GameLog.Fri, 19 Jan 2007 18:05:23 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=837&iddiary=1864https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=640Gears of War has consumed my life in the best way imaginable. I look forward to playing and continuously improving my skill. The gameplay is extremely well balanced. It's a tactical third-person shooter with first-person elements. There are a variety of weapons for the players to equip, and each one has its purpose, as well as two different ways of being used: ranged and melee. To use the ranged, the player uses the right trigger on the Xbox 360 controller, whereas the melee attack is employed with the B button. This is not a random placement: it makes sense to have the ranged command be linked to the controller's trigger as to better emulate firing a real gun; it keeps the ranged shots being used more frequently than melee shots and thus increases the pace / excitement of games; and it imposes a penalty on those taking their hand of the trigger to swing their fists / weapon at the opposing player. Not that the melee function isn't useful. As if dodging around the extremely large and detailed levels wasn't control enough, the melee function serves as a way of breaking combat from artificial video game scenarios into an effective approximation of real-life combat. There are no "safe zones" in the amazingly well-crafted levels. Ranged weapons, close-range weapons, and even grenades are only as effective as the player using it. A good indicator of the excellent emphasis on balance in Gears of War: when playing online, it could be 4 veterans against 4 complete amateurs, and yet both teams could -- and most likely would -- have a reasonably even distribution of points at the end of the game, with people of all skill levels capable of scoring kills. This aids the user in improving his skill, as the reward for attentive gameplay is increased ability in operating and understanding the game.Sat, 13 Jan 2007 00:14:30 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=640&iddiary=1474