Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=522https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3050GAMEPLAY So this game is fun. How do I know, well when I sat down to play – which I planned to only do for a short period of time – I ended up playing through about half of the game. That's about 5 hours of game play. I'm not sure what it was that drew me in to continue playing, but once I started on each case I just felt like I had to finish it. I mean, for example, the first case the game throws at you has your mentor killed and you left to solve the murder and prove her sister (and you) are innocent. For some words scrolling across a screen the game is pretty intense. For me, who enjoys reading mystery novels in his free time, this game has proven to be one of the best I have played in a while. Even though the game relies on some of my least favorite game play elements to continue the story – 'GO TALK TO EVERYONE THAT EXISTS, MAKE SURE YOU EXAMINE EVERY SINGLE THING EVER, TOO. HAVE FUN, KTHXBYE.' - it still proves to be a fun and interesting experience. Further, the player really feels like they are doing their part to solve the mystery. DESIGN The Phoenix Wright series does an amazing job of using game elements that aren't innovative – text based interaction, 2d sprites, murder mystery – and putting them into a very innovative and different setting from one that the player is used to seeing in video games. The game play itself is not so new and original. In fact it is almost like a text based adventure game. However, the position of a defense attorney given to the player at the start of the game is unlike any other game I've ever played – and I haven't even heard of any other games that revolve around a court room battle. But even though the setting is innovative, the game play can drag on at times. In fact, when the player is not taking action in the court room, and is instead gathering evidence, the game seems to falter a bit. Instead of going from place to place searching for clues it instead becomes talk to x until you learn y, then move to place a so that person c can tell you more about y. And this can go on for the entire investigation part of the game. Don't get me wrong, it isn't particularly un-fun or bad, but it can get extremely tedious. Even with these minor flaws though, the setting of the game, and of course the tone it creates makes for an amazing game play experience that I would heartily recommend to any who have not heard of the game.Wed, 05 Mar 2008 22:03:31 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3050&iddiary=5715https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3050SUMMARY The Phoenix Wright series has the player control the character, Phoenix Wright. Phoenix is a defense attorney in the near future where, due to the vast number of cases being tried in court, court cases have been limited in time to three days. The player must find evidence and clues as to the truth of the murder and then use that evidence to prove his clients' innocence. GAMEPLAY I am not a big fan of games that have the player constantly clicking, or pressing a button, to get through hours of dialog. Of all the things that can decrease my enjoyment of a game, incessant clicking to get through (often) shoddy dialog has to be at the top of the list. However, when I sat down and started getting into playing through the first Phoenix Wright game, I noticed that, while the gameplay almost entirely consisted of dialog, I was still enjoying myself. The dialog can be tedious at times, especially when you think you've solved something only to find out you had the right idea but you picked the wrong evidence to support it with. But, even with that, the story is extremely enjoyable. Further, the player's interaction, through Phoenix, with the other characters in the game is about as animated as it could get for just being the player viewing a 2d sprite and reading some words. Each character has their own set of mannerism and actions that become apparent when talking. Each is fairly unique, even going so far to have hilariously outlandish names, such as Yanni Yogi, or Dick Gumshoe.Wed, 05 Mar 2008 21:50:25 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3050&iddiary=5707https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2860GAMEPLAY After taking a break to rest for a bit, the four of us came back and started up a exlposives only game on the classic map Facility. Once again we were back to shooting each other, trash talking and complaining about screen watchers. For me at least, most of the fun wasn't from the game itself, but instead from the interactions between me and my friends as we played. One thing I noticed time and time again was that although the controller is bulky and the controls arent perfect, we would be having fun. The game itself was innovative at its time, setting the stage for nearly every console shooter to come, but playing it make it seem somewhat bland. Even though the games are fun, the game itself isn't what is interesting. DESIGN Continuing with the idea of the game itself not being so much fun when compared to the interactions of the players, it would seem the developers definitely took the right approach in creating a split screen multi-player mode. The controls aren't particularly amazing, and with the controller itself being a problem, it is surprising they didn't just scrap multi-player altogether. However, the multi-player is not the only aspect of the game. In my opinion, Golden Eye features some of the most well thought out and designed levels of its time. The player, although put onto a path, can play through each level the way they want. From speed running, to carefully and stealthily defeating every enemy, the player can choose how to finish.Thu, 21 Feb 2008 02:10:33 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2860&iddiary=5382https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2860SUMMARY In GoldenEye 007, the play controls James Bond, famed MI:6 agent 007, as he follows the plot of the movie of Golden Eye. The player controls the game as a first person shooter. The story is a near exact copy of the movie. However, the main draw of this game is its excellent multiplayer aspect. GAMEPLAY I'm glad my roomate has an N64 as it means I get to play some of the best old games available. One of the games we play a ton is Golden Eye. Four player split screen is always fun. Running around dodging bullets and grenades to get the RC-P90 and going to town on everyone never gets old. Even more telling is that we, the four of us playing, lost track of time playing the game and ended up playing for almost 3 hours the first time we sat down. Even though the maps are all blocky and similar and the graphics are terrible compared to the norm of today, the game does a very good job of holding players in.Thu, 21 Feb 2008 01:37:17 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2860&iddiary=5333https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2512GAMEPLAY A major selling point for EVE is the player driven economy. Outside of the starting safety areas, that is space owned and controlled by one of the four empires, the economy – that is EVERYTHING in the economy, including ships, ship equipment, trade goods, minerals, and other manufactured goods – is entirely driven by player input. I put money into the EVE economy by occasionally mining for minerals. However, those minerals can play a large part in the production of ships. Taking those minerals I mined, I can then create ammunition for the weapons on my ship – or even another ship itself. And while I am not directly interacting with another person, by mining minerals for others to use I am contributing to a group of individuals in its goals. DESIGN As I mentioned in my comments on the gameplay, one of the most innovative elements of EVE Online is the completely player driven economy. The players mine the ore, process them into minerals, manufacture ships and weapons with the minerals, buy ships to shoot each other with, and lose those ships. The economy in EVE is mind boggling in its scale. If one was so inclined, he could plot which NPC regions needed what trade good and make millions of isk (the ingame currency) just by moving around a trade good from where it is readily available to where it is needed. The same holds true for minerals and ships in player owned space. However, the economy is not the only great feature of EVE Online. In fact a feature that I hold dear to my own heart is the ability for groups of players, corporations, to take and hold space under their name. This ability to hold space has led to some of the greatest territory wars imaginable. Having two sides fighting with over 300 people on each side is an amazing sight to behold, and the incentive provided by holding space has wrought the formation and destruction of many powerful alliances in the political arena of EVE. By giving the player so much freedom to choose and do what he wants, EVE is one of the most open ended games I've seen. All of the goals in the game are created by the player. There is no set level structure – a very good design implementation as it allows relatively new people to still be useful in fighting – and players rely on each other to hold and control space. However, even with this, the game is still bland from the actual gameplay perspective. The control of ones ship is extremely limited. And combat is literally a few clicks to target a person and one button press to tell your weapons to fire at them. There is very little strategy involved in the actual combat, all strategy falls into a larger perspective emergent goal based view. All in all though, the gameplay is bland, but fun enough to keep the player involved.Fri, 08 Feb 2008 23:54:25 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2512&iddiary=4735https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2512SUMMARY EvE Online is a MMORPG set in the universe of New Eden. The player picks a character from one of the the three dominant races and then can go on to affect the player driven economy and political structure of the galaxy. GAMEPLAY The actual player interaction with the game of EvE, that is controlling ones spaceship and flying around doing things, is extremely boring. It is not a space flight-sim, like the X-wing/Tie fighter series' – where the player controls the ships from a first person view and has precise flight control. Instead EvE has the player control his ship by clicking around in space. However, I still find myself constantly drawn the the player driven parts of the gameplay. The universe of new eden is vast, and much of it's space is under direct player control. I am a member of one of these corporations. The current war we are fighting against an enemy corporation keeps me drawn in and continuing to pay for the game. Were it not for the interaction between the different players of the game, surely there would be no one playing the game at all.Fri, 08 Feb 2008 23:38:58 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2512&iddiary=4725https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1642Gameplay Stepping back into the world of the Witcher, the first thing I notice as I move into the first quest line of the game is the variety of the NPC interaction. Like The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, the game world is populated by many NPCs, each of them interacting with each other, or the player. But not just that, the NPCs even have a reaction to the weather. As I ran through a small town, a light rain started, all of the nearby NPCs immediately ran to cover and continued their conversations there. Somewhat of a shocking experience compared to many of the other games I have played where, if there is weather, the NPCs have little to no reaction to it at all. This of course immensely helped the feeling of a real world that the player existed in. Further the game has just been fun so far. It is hard to put a finger on why. The combat seems to flow fairly well into the game, and the interaction between the character in the world is quite polished. The story, while still unfolding, seems to be heading in an interesting direction. All of these together seem to propel the player through the world. As, aside from some minor control inconveniences, the movement and flow of action and social interaction is quite brisk and enjoyable. Design I do however have somewhat mixed feelings from a design standpoint. Having only experienced a small portion of what the game, hopefully, has to offer, I find the design of the world itself to be somewhat bland and restrictive. The first explorable area is a relatively small village on the outskirts of a city, which you cannot enter due to story reasons. The area itself is not particularly boring or poorly laid out, but in order to complete one of the quest lines, the player is required to run through the village, form one side to another, multiple times. By the time I had run back and forth three times it was a fairly frustrating experience. Further, around many area's in the village are fences that the player cannot cross. These low wooden fences seem like they would be no impediment for someone who slays demonic hounds, and yet there they are blocking the path. This is really just a minor frustration though. Much of the rest of the game, however, seemed rather sound from a design perspective. In fact, having played many action RPGs, the style of timed clicking in order to execute combos was a nice break from the standard hack and slash style of games like Diablo. Switching between sword styles is easy as well, with just on press of a button. As the game will challenge the player with different types of enemies, it is extremely helpful to be able to switch between sword styles easily and quickly in order to experiment with what works best. Further, the game promises a whole new type of sword in the later levels, which will allow for an even greater selection of styles for players to choose from. Choice with an easily noticeable outcome is helpful for the player, and the game handles this well with the different sword styles in combat. Oddly enough, with the story providing all of the conflict in the game, I find that it is almost as much fun to play the game for talking to the other characters as it is to follow the story quests. Many of the NPCs provide useful tidbits about people or quests in the area, and almost every NPC I talked to had something different to say. There was no case of generic line number 25 being used over and over again, and I personally think this will draw in many players who are interested in seeing a realistic game world where every person is different. On top of that, many other characters will have extra dialog options if you have certain items equipped that show your affiliation with a certain faction. Simple touches that make the game world seem much more immersive. (This entry has been edited1 time. It was last edited on Tue, 15 Jan 2008 13:25:54.)Sun, 13 Jan 2008 02:40:19 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1642&iddiary=3371https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1642Summary In The Witcher, the player controls a 'witcher' or, as the game describes them, a anti-monster specialist. A specific witcher, named Geralt. Built on a revamped Neverwinter Nights engine, the game is either a top-down third person RPG, or an over-the-shoulder view third person RPG. Gameplay Playing the game was both fun and frustrating at the same time. As abilities unlocked during the introduction/tutorial level, the player would be required to use them at a certain time. Especially for the sword styles, this confused me. Geralt is a master swordsman, why can't I use all of his abilities immediately. Spells too had much the same problem, as Geralt – as per the common story cliché – has forgotten everything he knew when the events of the novel (on which the game is a continuation of) took place. However, even with this minor griping aside, much of the gameplay was also fun. The combat is a refreshing change of pace from other third person RPGs, like Diablo or Neverwinter Nights. As combat progresses in The Witcher, the player is required to attack in time so the the succession of blows creates a combo for the most damage. Also, the story is amazing. Aside from some dialog that feels really tacked on, which isn't too surprising as the game is translated from Polish, the interaction with each character feels fresh and unique. Sure some of the characters follow common clichés, but the voicing and the dialog make them feel unique and real. For example, one the first characters you meet, Lambert, acts with an egotistical air to another character, Merigold. As you talk to others about the two, you almost feel as if you can understand them better. Even with the frustrating beginning, the character interaction available seems to allow for a 'ton' of immersion, which is definitely something I enjoy in an RPG. (This entry has been edited1 time. It was last edited on Tue, 15 Jan 2008 13:25:37.)Sun, 13 Jan 2008 00:43:40 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1642&iddiary=3363