Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=478https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3187GameLog ~ Last entry Gameplay2: The next day I logged onto the game and my shell had nothing scheduled planned. So that made me excited and I wanted to do something that I don’t normally get to do, Merit. Meriting is a type of experience points you get once your character is level 75. It is different from regular experience points such as, every 10,000 xp u get while in merit mode you receive 1 merit, with a maximum on holding up to 10 total merits. These merits are used to buff your character up in certain attributes like upping your strength, a job ability, and many more. So I wanted to make a merit party (group of seven people get together to kill monsters to gain merits). After about 30 minutes of making the party with a few friends including myself and two other complete strangers who were seeking for a merit party the party was complete. The process of creating a merit party is very hectic for me. I generally don’t like to make the parties, since it is very stressful but this time I had no other option of wait some 2 extra hours to get an invite. The party consisted of Paladin (me), Redmage, Bard, Thief, Samari, Warrior. We decided to party at Bhaflau Thickets and kill sea puks and Mamool Ja’s. The style of merit parties is very different from endgame, the concept is the same but the style is entirely different. In merit parties you want to kill the monsters as fast as you can. It is a nice rush in the game. Because every mob in a merit party is only alive for an average of one minute, and the next one is there and ready when the one you’re fighting dies. I like the rush, and I was most certainly getting one while parting. The party lasted two hours and we each got about 3 merits. Making that about 15k exp an hour, which is pretty average to today’s standards. Some parties get up to 20-25k an hour. It is very interesting how people get such insane amounts of experience points per hour. It drives you to obtain better gear and up you skill at your job to do better in the experience point area, because if you are good at that it makes the game so much easier. I am not all the way and am driving myself to be better especially for a paladin. Design: What I like a lot about FFXI is the free world environment. How you can basically walk anywhere you please with no level restriction applied. And what makes the free world environment even better is the 3-D graphics that FFXI comes with. The movement in the game I would say is pretty good. I have never had any complaints and don’t see how the following aspects could be improved. The interaction between people in the game is amazing. Because you can talk to them specifically with a /tell “name”, to a group of people in your party by /party, talk to your linkshell with /linkshell, to a group of people within you region with /say, and to anyone that is on the map with /shout. So it is pretty nice how they set up the chat functions in the game. Some things I would change about the game are I would like to see some jumping action put in. It is nice entertainment to see my character jump while running etc. The main one would be the balance of jobs in the game. I know each one has its own advantages and disadvantages but some jobs that are in the same class as others have more advantages. Like say Dragoon compared to Warrior. Warrior has the most strength in the game with Dragoon pulling up the 5th highest. Warrior is a far better Damage Dealer than Dragoon could ever been. A really pimped Dragoon could keep up to parse with a decently geared Warrior. But if the Warrior was really pimped out the Dragoon would have no chance. And because of this people lean towards more jobs than others and basically make the other jobs extinct in the game anymore. So that would be a nice change, to balance out the jobs in FFXI. Thu, 06 Mar 2008 13:01:55 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3187&iddiary=6023https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3187Gamelog ~Final entry Final Fantasy XI Summary: Final Fantasy XI is a MMORPG that is played around the world. From Japan to Europe, and most definitely America; you interact with a character that you choose from 5 different races (hume, elvaan, tarutaru, mithra, and galka) and name at the beginning. Once you get your character activated you have basically started a whole new life on a specific server with the console of your choice being pc/ps2/or xbox360. FFXI is a never ending game, even if you complete all the missions, and level all the jobs to 75, you still are on an everlasting quest to buff your character up and fight notorious monsters. I have been playing FFXI for the past four years. Since I have been playing for such a long time I have been able to level Paladin to 75, a tanking class to the max level in the game, complete 4 out of the 5 storylines, and a HNML (high notorious monster linkshell) in the game, and obtain many pieces of gear to improve my ability to do my job/class. A HNML is a basically where many people get together in the game to take on very high leveled monsters together, with different rolls to defeat it, because they cant be beaten alone. Gameplay1: I figured I would explain how my HNML and I took down a very popular NM (notorious monster) in the game the duration of two hours. I logged into the game on Kumar, my character, and onto my HNML shell named Apex. Everyone was gathering together to take down the NM Proto-Omega. Proto-Omega is a NM fight that only allows 18 people in at once and gives you a 30 minute time limit to defeat the mob. I got to the area where we were gathering, and only 10 people were there and I couldn’t wait to take down Omega. So we had to wait awhile tell the rest of the people showed up to start the fight. In the process of waiting 30 extra minutes I talked to some of my linkshell mates. When playing FFXI you make friends on the game as you would in real life. So to waste time just sitting and waiting, I was laughing and messing around with my online friends to keep myself interested. After the wait and having to enter, we had a total of 15 people there and decide to get ready for the fight so I was disappointed. Since three of the people decided not to show, it made it harder on us to defeat the nm. Even though it was still possible it was still a let down because it would be harder. Getting ready for the fight, we went over the strategy. On how many tanks we would have, healers/mages, Damage Dealers, support jobs, etc. So we could successfully pull of this fight with a win. I was actually a little bored because this was about the 10th time I have done this fight before and all I wanted to do was just get in there and kill the sucker. Once we were done with that and entered, myself (one of the tanks) and my friend entered towards the nm first. Holding it to gain some hate, than after a minute or so and establishing enough hate with the healers keeping us alive the DD’s (damage dealers) move in and start waking Proto-Omega to a pulp. At this time I was having a blast. I love tanking; it is one of the most player concentrated jobs in the game. You have to be solemnly focused on the mob and others. Making sure you have hate and it is only you getting hit, because if you die basically everyone will start to die. I love the rush I get while tanking. After 10 minutes of fighting, Proto-Omega drops. We had won he fight, with only 2 deaths in the party and a successful linkshell win. The reason why people take on NM’s is mainly for the drops that come from killing it and the right to say you have killed the mob. I am no longer in it for the glory of the kill but for the drops. Proto-Omega drops homam pieces which 5 job classes thief/paladin/dark knight/blue mage/dragoon can equip. I am currently 1/5 on the drops of Omega, only having the legs. The homam pieces are some of the best tanking gear for paladin in the game and overall some of the best for most damage dealer jobs that can equip it. This time the head and feet dropped. I was excited because I need the feet and do not care for the head, but sadly I lost the lot on the feet. But I was glad it was going to another member who would bring them to good use. (This entry has been edited1 time. It was last edited on Thu, 06 Mar 2008 03:39:05.)Thu, 06 Mar 2008 03:38:09 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3187&iddiary=5982https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2857Gamelog4~entry2 Super Mario 64 Gameplay2: Playing Super Mario 64 has to definitely be one of my most favorite games on the Nintendo 64. After progressing more into the game, with the levels getting more challenging to achieve the small tasks you are asked to do. I realize how long the game really is. That you can beat the game as soon as you get enough stars to enter and defeat the final Bowser, but collecting all the stars in the game is the real challenge. I believe it is 150 stars. I didn’t now have enough time to beat the game, so my goal was to collect as many stars as possible within the next hour of playing. I was pleased to no matter where you went in the game, you were not limited to which moves you could use. The wall jumps, triple jumps, long jumps, etc. I was left to how I wanted to finish the level how I wanted. At the end of the game play I ended up with about 55 stars. I wasn’t fully satisfied but realized how much I had done within 150minutes of game play I was pleased. Defeating the first two Browsers, and collecting about 1/3 the total stars in the game. Design: I liked how Super Mario 64 was in a 3-D world. It brought me more into the game because it made it more realistic. Also the fact that you can change your camera angle (which took awhile to get use to) almost too any position you could think of was amazing. So no matter what angle or weird position you were in you had a view. Although it brought the realistic approach to the game through 3-D it was able to bring the player back to reality from the bright colors and cartoonish look to the game. So you knew it was only a game, and you were the person controlling the outcome of it. Mario, Bower, toads, and even the enemies in the game were created very well. But was even better was how you (the controller of Mario) could use the game play space as you please. How you could go wherever u wanted in the game world, and have very few limitations. Plus how the monsters in the world would follows you no matter where you went, for a certain distance. The design of this game was fantastic and I don’t know how else I would have made it better.Thu, 21 Feb 2008 01:36:44 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2857&iddiary=5332https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2857Gamelog4~entry 1 Super Mario 64 Summary: In Super Mario 64 you are on a quest to rescue Princess Peach from the evil Bowser. Through out the game you collect stars from a variety of many missions within the paintings in Princess Peach’s Castle. The more stars you collect the more levels are opened up which brings you closer to the point of defeating Bowser and rescuing the princess. Gameplay1: This time playing Super Mario 64 and looking at the gaming aspects of it was pretty awesome. The story line was not much of a shock, pretty much every Mario game deals with him rescuing Princess Peach one way or another and in the process defeating Bowser. So the story seemed like it would be overall bland, but to my surprise it wasn’t. Taken as a whole it may be the same, but the journey to actually achieving your main goal is entirely different. I liked how the storyline took place inside her actually castle. As if it was overtaken by Bowser and you were the last hope to save the day. I also liked how the levels took place inside the paintings on the wall. It brought me more into the actual game because; there were so many different types of paintings which set you up for so many types of environment of game play. Because of this I couldn’t wait to try out all the levels more and more. To see all the different challenge and obstacles I was sure to face. While playing and going from level to level, painting to painting time went by quickly. An hour and a half had already gone by and I had already defeated the first Browser and collect about 30 stars.Thu, 21 Feb 2008 01:30:18 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2857&iddiary=5326https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2397Gamelog3~entry2 Gameplay2: Once I decided to get back on the game my friends and I wanted to play the storyline. This is what I was interested, from the eagerness to want to play more after leaving the game I was hoping that the storyline would disappoint me as the 2nd game in the series did. Beating Halo 3 on legendary is ridiculously hard. It is practical but from not as much experience playing the game as many other people I had a rough time. Even my friend who has had 6+ years on FPS games was having trouble even with the 4 of us working together. The storyline though (for how much I actually got to get done) was quite pleasing. I was not disappointed with it; I thought I was heading in a positive direction. We did not finish the storyline, but according to my friend, and what seemed to be true we got about half way done with it on legendary with 4 people. I hope that the ending (which I find to be really important) wasn’t cheap in some sort of way and ended on a high note. But from the playtime and experience I have had with the storyline I can not wait to get back to it and finish the game. Design: I was very pleased with design of Halo 3. Graphically I don’t think it couldn’t have gotten better. The images, color, and even the backgrounds were clear and very well made. It was what I expected and I am glad it was amazing. I thought some of the stages were a little weird, but each one was unique. They were all different and taking place in many environments making it more attracting to play. The control of the character and aim was hard for me to get use to at first. Especially because of the dual analog concept, but after awhile of practice I got use to it and didn’t have much of a problem anymore. Plus the limiting freedom of where your player could go on a stage was clear. How on some stages you were bounded by some sort of wall, or if you got past a certain point some sort of lasers would shoot you down binding you into the zone. It’s hard to think about what I change about Halo 3. I can’t say anything about the storyline, because I haven’t finished it yet. The characters seem to be pretty free due to the fact you can choose either Master Chief or Elite to be your character, and pick their armor and color. I would not say the game is perfect, there have to be some flaws either I can’t remember or haven’t figured out yet. But Halo 3 was an excellent well made enjoyable game. I cant wait to play more Fri, 08 Feb 2008 05:43:04 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2397&iddiary=4554https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2397Gamelog3~entry1 Halo 3 Summary: Halo 3 at first was quite boring. I have never been a huge fan of FPS console games. Call me stubborn but I just don’t like having to use two different analogs. Since I am majorly just a PC person, it’s hard to get use to from a keyboard/mouse environment. But after playing the game for awhile and getting use to the controls it becomes more entertaining. Gameplay1: I have never been a big Halo fan. When Halo was released, I got the game as a hand-me-down from my cousin for PC. It was fun, and the storyline wasn’t too great but at least it was entertaining. The online play was what me like it so much. Sooner than later thought it got boring and I moved onto other games. Halo 2 I’ve only had about 3 hours of playtime, and I didn’t really like it as much. I thought the story line in the 2nd was to much expected, and I figured the game wasn’t heading in much a positive direction. So I was hoping to get some sort of enthusiasm from the newest game of the series Halo 3. As I said earlier my first overall view of Halo 3 wasn’t too great, I found it boring, typical to the other Halos, and not as engaging as some other first person shooters. But from an hour in of playing with my friends online with slayer on several different maps and getting use to Halo again, it got exciting. The new weapons, maps, and vehicles were great and somehow made the game better than the first impression I was getting. After playing so much online with slayer, I noticed almost 2 hours had passed and I was tired. I had to take a rest from playing. My views of the game, were better than I had thought originally but I had this feeling inside of me that I just wanted to play some more. The longer I was away from the controller the more I wanted to get back on the game.Fri, 08 Feb 2008 05:42:23 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2397&iddiary=4553https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2247game log2: Wii sports Game Play2: Baseball was not one of my favorite games. It is fun to play in real life, but on the game it just didn't interest me. I have never been fascinated with baseball games that actually require you to swing to hit the ball. Yes, I see that it is what makes the game, but I hate to sound to noobish; I just suck at it. So quickly after experiencing baseball on the Wii I quickly switched to golf. Surprisingly golf was really fun on the Wii. I have never found golf to be interesting until now. The power you literally put into the swing while judging the direction the ball will go with or against the wind. It was intense. Also a small minor fact that I was undefeated on Wii golf through out the whole time of playing was a plus. Bowling was was probably my most favorite out of all the Wii Sports games. I myself love to go bowling whenever I am able. I don't know why I am so attracted to the sport, maybe its the objective of knocking over all 10 pins for a strike. Unlike real life bowling this was easier. The curving of the bowling ball was really easy compared to real life. That and also due to the fact that a game goes by faster on the Wii because once someone is done with their turn, the next person does not have to really wait tell they can bowl. Design: Wii sport's graphics were really good. The fact that they were cartoonish was awesome. You may have felt like you were actually there playing the game, but with the cartoonish environment it brought the user back to reality. What makes the game is really the console. The fact that you have to actually move your body to play the game. Because of this, the player get so much more into the game. I mean, image just playing all off Wii sports with say a ps2 or xbox controller, you would not get the same affect as if using the Wii controller/stylist. Wii sports, is an amazing game and the best part of it is, it comes with the Wii. Sat, 26 Jan 2008 01:23:13 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2247&iddiary=4269https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2247game log part1: wii sports. Summary: This week for my game log I decided to play the Nitendo Wii game Wii Sports. Wii Sports is a player interactive sports game where you can play tennis, baseball, golf, boxing, and bowling. It is unlike any other sports game on consoles. With Wii Sports you are drawn into the game, and feel the drive to play more and more of it even if it isn't the funnest game in real life like golf. What is a great thing about Wii sports, more so the Wii in general. You can make your own character like or unlike you, solemnly based on your preference. And play as them in Wii sports and some other games, building up points and ur ranking. So the person can actually picture themselves in the game. Game Play1: The first sport I wanted to play on Wii Sports was tennis. I remembered my friends playing it awhile go when they first got their Wii. They seemed so into the game, and were drawn in as if they were actually there. So when i had a chance, this time, to play i was driven to play tennis. It was really fun, the fact that you actually swing the stylist and the character swings as well based on how u swung it. It was really fun, especially when we played in teams. The Wii sports game i tried out was boxing, it was quite a workout. I actually felt like i was in the ring, just without feeling the blows to my body. Throwing the punches, and dodging my opponent was fun but i could only handle at the max 15 minutes of it.Sat, 26 Jan 2008 01:22:13 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2247&iddiary=4267https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1709Rock Band entry 2~ Game Play: Getting back to the game, i decided to try out a new instrument. I figured the drums would be a nice transition and enjoyable. Boy was it hard. Even on easy i had trouble keeping up with the beat. Songs like from Freeze Pop which are entertaining but yet a challenge to play. i was able to hold my ground on the drums while playing easy with Freeze Pop but once i tried medium i was boo'd out hella quick. After playing the drums for awhile i wanted to go back to the guitar. But this time i wanted the songs to actually be in guitar, and not bass. Boy was it a challenge, but a mighty fun one it was. When i first started playing, i wanted to relate how much Rock Band was like Guitar Hero. Guitar Hero, i havent played no more than half a days worth, but it was still an intense enjoyable game. Compared to Rock Band, i felt Rock Band had the edge over Guitar Hero. Not mainly because of the other position you can play, but because while your actually playing the guitar part of the songs in Rock Band, it actually has the solo part for you and tells you how well you did. Plus certain parts of play where you can play any notes you want to gain points, but have to hit the last one to actually get them. Although there seemed to be a minor delay between the play style of actually hitting the buttons between Guitar Hero and Rock Band, which i think was a setting on the TV. Rock Band pulled out onto in my opinion. Design: The overall Design of Rock Band i found to be very good. I thought the graphics were superb, showing what game designers today are made of. The organization of the game was pretty decent, meaning the settings/options on choosing songs, getting from place to place was well organized and easily understood by the user. What i found really cool about the game was the fact you could make your own character, so you could really visualize yourself on stage while playing the game. Just watching myself (character) as i rocked out to Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld. You just cant beat that feeling. I do not see how much better the game could have been. What i liked alot bout this game, was how when you were in the moment of playing that song. Doing well, and visualizing you were on stage, hearing the crowd cheering for you. What fascinated me were the moments where you just lost your sense of where you were and just focusing on the game. Even the challenging parts, that you were bound to fail at because you didnt have enough experience. That is what made the game for me, the drive, determination, the musical fusion feeling the player gets. Tue, 15 Jan 2008 01:27:56 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1709&iddiary=3699https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1709Rock Band entry 1~ Summary: Rock band is a fun, entertaining, mind blowing game that brings one to four players the enjoyment of pretending to be in an actual virtual rock band. You play a variety of classic and modern rock songs all while jamming out to an on screen crowd, as well as the others in the room. It’s a game that once you stop, you don’t want to let go of those drum sticks or guitar. Game Play: I was first intimidated to play the game Rock Band. It seems so challenging with all the tools that came with the game. I mean the guitar/bass, drums and drumsticks, even a microphone. Also due to the fact having no “rock band” experience, I was a little eye stricken at first. After awhile I gave in and played, boy was that a great decision. I started off with the bass. I figured it would be a easy way to start off, since the bass only has four strings. So strumming along to the songs would be easy. My first song was from Nirvana, I went on medium, because I figured it wouldn’t be too hard. I got through it all right, with a 40 note streak. After that first song I was entrapped within this game. I didn’t want to leave it. I kept getting more and more into the game. Playing some of the classics from Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Ozzy Osbourne, and many countless more. I was lost within the game, never wanted to get in. The game had over come me, I didn’t want to get off even with the soreness in my shoulder, hand and wrist. I was trapped within, my own Rock Band. (to be continued) (This entry has been edited1 time. It was last edited on Tue, 15 Jan 2008 01:27:23.)Sun, 13 Jan 2008 20:59:53 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1709&iddiary=3429