Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=459https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3207Entry #2 Gameplay: I am not going to lie, as each hour passes playing this game, the more I feel myself becoming hooked on this game. There seem to be infinite features to explore. To go through all the possible combinations of furniture and houses and rooms would take more time than I have in college I think. For two hours of straight play, the second was much more meticulous than the first. Each piece of furniture had to be placed just so...and I started color coordinating. It made me hope I was very rich in the future so I could do this to my house. I started getting fancier too, not just adding furniture, but buidling onto the house and changing the floors, doors, and windows. Luckily its all perfect and you do not have to build technically. You just click, and bam, new door. I love it. I really am addicted to building though. The point of the game is to play as the Sim and with the other members of family and community, however 2 hours is not enough to even start the game. Without amenities such as showers, toilets, kitchen appliances, and beds, the Sims will get sick and start to complain. Without TV or entertainment, they will get bored and start to be destructive. So, even in two hours, I was only able to create a family, build a new house, start to furnish it, and barely start to learn how my Sims will act in this environment. Design: Like I said previously, the most fascinating feature is this God-like status you are given. Sort of like a scientist doing a social experiment on people living in a bubble. The controls are made so you can rotate 360 around the house and neighborhood. You can zoom in and out as well. However, I would have made them a bit differently, because not only are they sometimes hard to use because of the restrictions, but I would like a "Sim's eye view" of the house. Playing as the Sim would give a whole new dimension to the game. Just looking at the house and watching the Sims intereact is a bit boring at times. As far as computer game design goes, this is not the most advanced looking game by far. The people are shaped like people and move mostly like people do, however, sometimes they appear rather flat and disinterested looking. Their faces do not hold much character. As for the neighborhoods, from a distance, it looks a lot like the original Sims game, and up close not much different, except maybe slightly more detailed. With all the feel of advancedness that eminates from this game's goal and mode of gameplay, the art design leaves a bit to be desired. It is no Doom '95 but it is not that interesting to look at for a game released in 2004, almost 10 years later. Though by no means would I call the design "simple" it does make the player focus more on the goal of the game rather than the outward facade the game offers. The 4 discs included in the Sims 2 set offer tons and tons of gameplay and my hours spent (now totally around 8) have not been enough to scratch the surface of the game. It is hard to sit around playing for hours on end because its all about perfection and, being a perfectionist myself, if you do not stop in a timely fashion, you could end up playing for hours on end a night.Thu, 06 Mar 2008 18:00:40 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3207&iddiary=6037https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3207Summary: In this game, The Sims 2, you are back in the Sim world to live your life as a bachelor, bachelorette, or as a family in one of three locations. You interact with other Sims, get married, expereince deaths, buy homes, and do other life imitating activities. Like in real life, the Sims can speak to other Sims, though their language is not understandable. The goal of this game is to meet all your Sims's needs and keep them alive and well, both socially and physically happy. Gameplay: For the Sims 2, I have one word: addiction. This game was extremely fun to play. I made a family, bought a home, and started to furnish it. However, I found that I ran out of money in a very short time and was unable to play the game fully, so I solved this by getting a cash bonus cheat. This gave me $50,000 per cheat and was infinitely usable. After using this I was able to pimp my house. I found it to be entertaining not only to make my own dream house, but to live the lives of these little Sim people who have their own loves, wants, needs, and lives. Since this simulates real life, it was interesting to see how the characters acted or did not act as if they were real people. Mostly everything was extremely sterotyped. The teen boys would be mean to little sisters, the smaller children would be hyper or shy, but overall very sweet to their parents, giggling a lot (which got annoying), while the parents and adults alike had goals that were mostly sexually driven, with flirting and kissing being happiness motivators. It was almost too much to see how stereotypical the game portrays certain age groups, and like I said, it got sort of annoying. Luckily, unlike real life, if you do not like your family grouping, you can change it (either by letting one die, as horrible as that sounds, or by creating a new family altogether). This is another interesting aspect of the game. It is completely fantasy. You get to play God. Other than raising Sims from the dead, you have complete control over the lives of these fake people. You can make them happy or sad, live or die. You can execute your dream house or make the Sims live in a shack. That is the most interesting part of the gameplay experience to me, the God-type of control. It is rather exhillarating and i think it brings you into the magic circle of play very very quickly. Once you master the controls, it is easy to see why this game is so addictive.Thu, 06 Mar 2008 17:14:07 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3207&iddiary=6036https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2884Gameplay 2: In my second hour of play I found myself much much more frustrated with this game. The music was so fun and silly sounding, it started to drive me crazy (yet the marble penguin made such cute sounds!) It made me realize more that when designing a game one must put in varying music, lest the player want to chuck the console out the window. There are a lot of songs on marble mania, however, when on random, I seem to have gotten a lot of the same songs repeating, thus causing my distress. But on an exciting note, I got 15 green bonus crystals and unlocked 5 secret Kororinpa levels! most thrilling. Also, I do not have much experience on the Wii, so playing with the remote control in the way this game requires was difficult. There is lost of wrist contorting (thus the challenge) but it really impaired my gameplay and caused a lot of frustration. Design: On the note of frustration: I found that this game was designed so amazingly, yet so frustratingly challenging. It is not a game that a typical "video game person" would be good at. Nor would it be good for someone who was particularly good at sports (like some sports games are for knowledge sake; except maybe someone who played tennis with exception wrist strength). Point being, it is a very unique game that is so addicting, yet so maddening, it is difficult to play. I have gotten to level 31 and have found each and every set of levels (in 3s or 4s) to be unique and inspiring. From artistic design perspective, this game has so much to look at. Each level has intense ammounts of color and extreme details in the background as well as on the puzzles themselves. All the backgrounds light up and move in some way, some even have things walking across the surfaces. The puzzles each have details as well. The "toy" level is mostly made of wooden things, and the wood looks so real! The skyscrapers are made of roadways and have little yellow divider lines going down the centers of the roads. No detail goes overlooked, and even when you turn the puzzle upside down and view the sky, the sky has little realistic details (as does the underside of the puzzle). As someone who is interested in the art perspective of video game design, this game is extremely appealing because it has so much to explore in one level, let alone 50. However, the bonus levels, though cute, (and i only have 5 so far) were not nearly as complex as the regular levels, which was sad, however, they had such an intense amount of crystals (70 in one level!) it was so much fun, and extremely visually appealing. It is most amazing how the game is set up. It is 3D, which in itself is cool because then it has to apply all sorts of pysics to make it actual work with gravity. Like I said in my gameplay, I found that I could make my own path of play in which I tip the puzzle and make my marble land in a spot on the path below, skipping ahead to a later place. I found this especially helpful once you fall of as a way of moving the level along more quickly. Though that was one complaint I had on some of the more difficult levels. The checkpoint spaces did not come soon enough (if at all) on some of the really hard levels, proving the game much more difficult to play on that level. I would have designed it in a way that there were more checkpoints in the longer levels and at least one on the difficult levels. Note to player: If you get frustrated by the game, just walk away! If you keep playing, you will find your time just gets worse and worse. This game is best played when stress free!Thu, 21 Feb 2008 02:51:59 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2884&iddiary=5446https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2884Summary: The goal of Kororinpa: Marble Mania is to guide a marble through a labrintine puzzle suspended in mid air while collecting orange crystals that unlock the exit portal. After collecting the required number of crystals and making it to the exit, you unlock other levels with light-hearted, yet challenging themes. Gameplay: In my first hour of gameplay I found this game to be extremely challenging, yet satisfying in a way. Unlike a sports game where there is a set goal (ie- touchdown, basket, etc.), this game's goal can be achieved in many ways. It was satisfying mostly because I could find the fastest way to get all the crystals, checkpoints, and goals in my own way. I did not have to follow a set path. I could tip the marble over the edge and make it land on a lower platform that it was meant to travel upon later. However, though I was excited to get through so many levels in the first hour (19!) I found my times getting slower and slower as the game went on (most of the time). This was very frustrating, however, it made me glad that the game was presenting real challenges in the levels and not the same boring, repititious puzzles. I was also frustrated by the bonus crystals. Though they were a good challenge in the beggining, towards later levels I found their locations to be absurd and impossible to get to without falling off (which is not the worst thing since you just start over, but it does take up time!). My favorite thing about playing was choosing the marble ball you got to play with. Penguins are my favorite animal in the world, so when I unlocked the penguin (with cute sounds and all!) I knew I had my favorite marble. However, I decided to try other marbles and see how they worked. I found that the "easy" ones were in fact easier (what a concept!) to play with, where as ones such as "galaxy" marble and "soccer ball" marble are much more difficult. It was extremely impressive that all these marbles had such different rolling "personalities" if you will. The animals make adorable sounds while the sports balls bounce. I can't wait to unlock more! It is an awesome reward for me :)Thu, 21 Feb 2008 02:37:02 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2884&iddiary=5430https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2525Gameplay: Hour two was much tougher than hour 1. Both on the level of difficulty of play and of my physical ability to play. My fingers were getting all cramped up which slowed my gameplay greatly. I unlocked a lot more songs and got further in my "career". I also got a bunch of bonus songs (and though they don't unlock levels they add to your overall score, and besides, I like a lot of them). Design: This is a game of progression that has very few qualities of emergence (though they do exist). You have to follow a set of songs in order to get to the next set of songs, however, you only have to beat 3 our of 4 songs in order to progress to the next set. In this way it is a bit of emergence, because if you feel like the song is too hard, you can choose a new path. However, overall it is progression, because you have to beat 3 of the 4 songs in order to reach the status of "rock star" (in the end). As I said in my previous log, I explored the reward system more in this hour of play. I find the structure more interesting now because, though you can get songs with the "money" you make, who cares about the clothes and the extra guitars. I am not looking at my character, I am looking at the guitar, because thats how you play the game. Perhaps it is for those who want to have every bit of the game complete including all the characters and owning all the clothes, songs, etc. However, I am not that person, so the reward is less inviting for me. The only reward for me personally is unlocking more songs and the bonus songs and this is the whole goal of the game, so it only makes sense to do so. So I wish there were more rewards and secrets that had more bearing on the game rather than the characters, like more story based levels that you had to complete tasks to beat them. Could be fun. The graphics still suck, which makes me sad. If I designed this I would have at least put more effort into the crowd or to the stage atmosphere. In this way it feels more like a "rock" environment. I have found that when playing this with friends the environment takes on a much more concert like environment with people cheering and the guitarists dancing and acting crazy. The problem is that playing by myself I lost a lot of what brings you into the magic circle, that is the environment.Sat, 09 Feb 2008 02:28:45 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2525&iddiary=4850https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2525Summary: Playing Guitar Hero III was a fun experience for my gamelog. I had played in the past, however, since it seems to be so popular (and I did not own one of my own) I never had a chance to play for a long period of time. I started a band in career mode and beat several levels and, after an hour on medium, I got "sponsored" (aka- I beat 3 sets of songs+ additional encores). Gameplay: Playing for an hour straight was intense. I could have taken a break, but I wanted to challenge myself to see how far I got in an hour. I did not get very far, but since each song is a set ammount of time, timing myself is not the most appropriate challenge for this game. I found after about 40 minutes my fingers started to hurt. I also found that after several songs in a row, my eyes would hurt from the downward scrolling of the guitar on the screen. I think this affected my gameplay greatly because if your hands and eyes get tired, you will not be able to play as well, and subsequently the game became less enjoyable. However, though I was tired, it was fun to see what levels I could unlock. It is not like it is some big secret what is going to happen in the game, yet still the drive to "become a rock star" is a huge force in the game. I thought that since I had played on medium before it would be better to play at that level than on easy because I may be bored waiting for notes to scroll on easy, and yet I found myself very rusty (even on such a low level). It is a very interesting game because the difficulty of the songs (quickness of notes, beat, etc.) frustrate you at the same time as entertaining you. Design: In the short time I have been playing this game I have come to notice several things: graphics and the reward structure. The graphics are not very good at all. Compared to Guitar Hero II for PS2, these are much much worse. This is sad to me because it was such a highly anticipated game and for those who do not have an XBOX 360 ot PS3 (and who rely on old faithful PS2) we get sort of sad graphics with automaton audiences dancing as one big unit. The loading screens are still witty saying things such as "dropping your pants on stage does not deploy star power", which made me laugh. However, the characters look slightly disinterested and the backgrounds are also equally boring. The reward system is something I will further explore in my next gamelog hour, but so far I have been "sponsored" by a lable, which sounds nice to me, and I keep making money. I am told there is a store in which to spend it to get songs and new stuff for my characters. I think this is a great reward, and can't wait to see what songs are offered in the bonus sections. Really the main reward is getting to hear what songs are on the next set, so the game in and of itself is a reward (because I really like the music on it). So far career mode is fun, but playing with a room full of people or a partner/competitor seems to be way more fun to "rock out" with.Sat, 09 Feb 2008 00:38:41 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2525&iddiary=4759https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2072Hello again, while playing my second hour for my game log I am happy to annouce I officially beat the game. I was a bit put off by the fact that I was unable to pick up continents and or galaxies in my day's rolling, however, I picked up most clouds, sea monsters, islands and one rainbow. Gameplay Beating the game was very fun. Though you don't really know when the game is going to be over, it is nice when it finally ends. It may be because it is a bit repetitive, but nonetheless it is still engaging to the end. It was when I started picking up buildings that I got very into it. I wanted to go further and pick up bigger things, but alas! The final challenge is to make the moon and you have 25 minutes. Compared to the first challenge that was 3 minutes, it feels like a lifetime. Design- Like I said before, the game design does not change too much as the game goes on. It mainly stays cute and very brightly colored. There are different placed to "roll" though. You can start in a living room, kitchen, garden or city. By getting bigger you gain perspective that the house is in the town which is near the city which is on an island which is in a in archipelago (presumably Japan)which is in an ocean on the world. It is great how it is designed in a real world perspective. Like we talked about in class today, it is sort of like a "room" in a game (except it is the entire game) with walls you can't see. You assume the screen is the wall but you keep rolling and rolling and as you get bigger you discover more places to roll to. Katamari is also unique in design because it is hard to categorize. It is not really a puzzle game, though it is puzzling when you have to find objects only smaller than yourself, it is not exactly an adventure game, and it not at all an action game (except for the terrified screams of those you roll up). All in all Katamari Damacy is rather unique. I am not really sure what cataegory of game it would be under (and I am interested in finding out).Sat, 26 Jan 2008 01:09:43 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2072&iddiary=4254https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2072Summary: Katamari is a game in which you play the prince of the stars and under the guidance of you God of the Stars father, you are making new stars for the sky. This is done by rolling your "katamari" around the world. This katamari is ultra sticky and picks up anything it touches. The goal is to make the size of your katamari match what size is given to you each round within the time limit (which gets up to 30 minutes at some points). Gameplay: This game is highly entertaining and fun. With its bright colors and crazy Japanese music, it is deffinetly easy to play for long periods of time. I have played this game to a fairly far point before, but I decided to start a new file for this gamelog entry just to see how far I could get in and hour. I suppose because of my experience I got fairly far. I made it to 8 stars and about 6 constelations. I enjoy making the constelations most because you are picking up sepcific objects. This game is so innovative. I have seen plenty of drab games with earth tones and guns before. Hoever, Katamari is the first I have seen where it is a serious game (and by serious I mean not a satire etc.) with neon bright colors and a purely light and fun theme. Its a lot of fun to be rolling up crabs for the constelation cancer and its very challenging to try and get 1, but the biggest possible bear, for Ursa Major. Though you are rolling up people (who scream or cry when you pick them up), mostly it seems like harmless fun. I think the best aspect of this game is that it plays of fantasies without being dangerous or lude. Unlike many games today, the idea of picking up cities and flying around the world (and eventually universe) is fun and not dangerous (because it is so unrealistic). Unlike many shooting or driving games, it isn't showing blood or creating a complacency with crime and violence.Fri, 25 Jan 2008 01:58:32 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2072&iddiary=3989https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1795Gameply #2- In my second hour of playing Pokemon Diamond I found I was getting slightly tired of playing the game. This is unusual because I really enjoy playing the game except it seemed (since I had beaten a gym leader recently) I was only fighting trainers and wild pokemon over and over. The most tedious part of the game is leveling up your pokemon. However, a new and fun feature is the "watch" you wear that shows you all sorts of things from how much your pokemon love you to the time to where the nearest berries are. I found in this last hour I have fed and battled with several of my pokemon enough that they are beggining to love me, which, as silly of a feature as it may be, gives a new sort of goal for those who are not as serious about making their pokemon intensely battle ready. A funny thing about playing is that the whole first goal is to defeat Team Galactica and free the legendary pokemon and the pokemon of the lakes. You beat the commanders then the leader, Cyrus, then the legendary pokemon itself. However you can catch the ledendary pokemon if you lower its HP and use a "master ball". I found it rather ironic that I got all the way up to this place in the game just to accidentally cause the pokemon to faint and not be able to catch it. I was very sad. However, if my Empoleon can beat the Dialga, then maybe I don't need it anyways. Design- The design of this game is very cute. It is much more advanced than its predecessors. It shocked me when I first started playing this game how 3D it looked in comparison to Red or Silver or even Emerald version. You character is either male or female and it appears this way on the screen as a mini figure. However, the difference is that when you link with other players over the DS wifi you can see what kind of trainer you are ("ace trainer", "beautiful trainer", etc.). Though I have not figured out what constitutes getting these lables, it is sort of cool to have different images of your character. Another cool aspect is the battle graphics. Though they have not made it so the pokemon look as though they are getting hurt by the battle moves (and that would be a bit disturbing for younger audiences), you can now see many more moves such as the bubbles in bubble beam. Lastly, I found out some fun new features when you are linked with other pokemon players. In the trading room (sepparate from battle room) you can talk, trade, and even draw with other players. Drawing was fun, sort of like MS paint! I really enjoyed doing that and thought it was funny because it had absolutely nothing to do with pokemon whatsoever.Thu, 24 Jan 2008 19:05:19 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1795&iddiary=3925https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1795Summary: In this game, Pokemon Diamond, you journey throughout the towns near your "home" with creatures called Pokemon. You goal is to train your pokemon by honing their skills in battle against other trainer's pokemon and to gather and sight as many pokemon as possible in order to become a "pokemon master". Gameplay: The idea behind this game is very simple. You follow a very simple town map in order to get from one town to another to battle gym leaders and get badges. The unique part of this game is the pokemon themselves. They are cute and fierce and very unique looking themselves. The game creates a reality for these fictional creatures to live in and there are laws you must follow. Pokemon can faint and must be healed before they can battle again for example. Gaining money and buying items is another thing that is real world like yet stil fictional. The money comes from winning battles, which is the incentive to play. Gameplay: Though there have been many versions of this game, for me, this version is the most advanced i have seen yet. Of course there are new things added to each generation of any game, but compared to the GBcolor or pocket games, the 3D like graphics in the game and the details on the battle scenes are phenomenal. The music is the same as always, slightly annoying and repetetive yet still remeniscent of childhood memories. I loved playing the Pokemon games when I was younger, and now that I am older, I see how much more puzzling the game is. Before it was just train pokemon a bit, win a few battles, get maybe 4 badges and give up on it because it got too hard. Now the challenge is fun and much easier to appreciate.Mon, 14 Jan 2008 15:55:33 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1795&iddiary=3605