Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=525https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3043GameLog Entry #1 SUMMARY Burnout Paradise is a game where you drive around an imaginary city called Paradise City and compete in various competitions while unlocking new cars. The object of the game is to get the best drivers license, meaning that you need to beat every competition and unlock every car. GAMEPLAY During the first hour of my gameplay experience, I was trying to familiarize myself with Paradise City. I chose the cop car, Citizen, in a white finish, which ended up being a fairly indestructible vehicle, except for when it came to head on collisions or the occasional "wall that popped out of nowhere." I liked the fact that there were no pedestrians or drivers within the game, which took away from the realistic aspect of the game, but made for simpler gameplay. As I continued to roam throughout the city, I started noticing hidden jumps on the sides of the streets and one's that propelled you onto the tops of bridges. You have to use your turbo boost when trying to get a long distance, which in my case usually ended with "WRECKED." I really enjoyed the realistic graphics and slow motion crash scenes, which adds to the appeal of the game. GAMELOG ENTRY #2 GAMEPLAY During the second hour of my gameplay, I realized that Burnout is a game based on how good you can drive badly. The more dangerously you drive by barreling into oncoming traffic, narrowly missing crashes, and riding on two wheels, the more rapidly your turbo bar goes up. When the turbo bar goes up, it makes it easier to crash which starts to get really frustrating and irritating after a while because it adds a 5 second penalty. After I familiarized myself with the city, it became mundane to simply just drive around. A friend of mine showed me a mode that's called Showtime, which is when you rack up money by crashing into cars. But instead of actually driving, your car jumps and tumbles destroying every vehicle in its path. If you hit a bus, it multiplies your score by one, and accumulates there on forth. I really enjoyed this mode because it allows you to set high scores on certain streets, which is beneficial when you're playing X-BOX Live. DESIGN Burnout is particularly exciting because the races take place on regular streets and freeways with hundreds of ordinary cars minding their own business and obeying the traffic laws, adding a very fun dose of realism to the game. Burnout has realistic characteristics, but some of these characteristics go beyond game world rules. It’s a real world game, but goes above real world capabilities in the fact that you can knock down street signs and light-poles without it hindering your speed. I think the design elements within this game are very good and realistic, but the only thing I would change would be to add more cities to explore and race in. I really liked the fact that the car is so easy to steer, unlike many other racing games. The controller was very sensitive to movement, which made it easier to speed through traffic and other obstacles in my way. I also really appreciated how fast my car could actually go. In most racing games my finger usually gets sore from pressing the gas button so hard, thinking the harder I push it, the faster i'll go. But in Burnout, all I had to do was push the gas and turbo at the same time and it would actually give me a feeling of vertigo.Wed, 05 Mar 2008 21:26:19 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3043&iddiary=5702https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2845GAME ENTRY #1 SUMMARY Diddy Kong Racing is a racing game, like that of Mario Kart, but with a slightly different main objective; to rid the land of Wizpig, the antagonistic alien pig wizard. The levels progress in difficultly as you play and change in methods of transportation from a car, hovercraft, or plane. A world is complete once you've completed your tasks and the boss has been beaten. GAMEPLAY The first level starts at the Dino Domain. The objective is to hatch three dinosaur eggs, which is a pretty difficult task when your friends think its hilarious when they steal your eggs; you ultimately want your egg to hatch. Having never played this game before, it was a delightful change to play a game where your able to explore the land instead of being in constant competition. I enjoyed the fact that I had the option to choose what kind of vehicle I was using while exploring, though it was predetermined for some levels. The game was fairly easy to play for the most part, except for it was frustrating when I would bump into things and my vehicle would slow down. By the time I regained speed, my opponents had sped passed me. As I played more, I realized the importance of the boosts in those situations and how to use them effectively. GAMEPLAY #2 The second round of gameplay was more comfortable than the first because I was familiarized with the controls. I liked the fact that the every world contained multiple levels that were different from the others, but they started getting repetitive because they contained the same objective. Racing around the track three times is exciting, but not as exciting after the hundredth time. I noticed the intensity of the game started decreasing amongst my opponents as well, as they grew tired and frustrated with its repetitiveness. We switched to single player mode and took turns between all of us playing. Single player, or adventure mode, gives the player more freedom and control as opposed to multiplayer. DESIGN The design of the game is brilliant, as many others would agree, making it the fastest selling video game in 1997 according to the Guiness Book of World Records. The vibrant colors in the game make it enjoyable to play as well as to watch. The fact that there are three different vehicles keeps the game intriguing because unlike Mario Kart, where you simply ride in a kart throughout every track, you have variation. The levels aren't extremely varied, apart from their visual aspects. They all contain the same objective, to come in first place and rack up the most points. The game would be more interesting if there was a different task for every level. This game gave me a few ideas for my game, which is a racing game as well. I would like to add boosts and points to my game, as well as give it a time constraint per each level. Though this seems repetitive after a few levels, it keeps the track and level interesting for the time being. I just need to figure out how to make my boosts disappear in the collision.Thu, 21 Feb 2008 02:36:18 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2845&iddiary=5428https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2616SUMMARY Being a major hockey fan myself, I was pretty excited for another excuse to play some more hockey. NHL 08 is the perfect game for beginners, hockey fans, and those interested in an intense, fast paced, realistic hockey game. Its a multiplayer game, that can even be played on X-Box live, intensifying the competition furthermore. It follows the same rules as a real-life hockey game, such as no offsides, penalties for fighting or slashing, and one point for every goal. An exception to the gameworld rules is that you have the ability to control every player on your team and who they pass to. GAMEPLAY Already knowing the rules to a hockey game is a definite advantage, especially when playing against those who have never played. Though as a first time player of this game I quickly grew frustrated with trying to memorize the different controls on how to operate my players. It takes a lot of patience and focus to be able to move your players around effectively and efficiently. I kept getting offsides called on me, which quickly grew old after the twentieth time. But nevertheless, I continued playing which ended up paying off when I beat a guy friend in a whopping 3-0. NHL 08 is an extremely competitive game, especially when your a girl kicking everyones ass. Like Super Smash Bros, it draws the attention of bystanders, further building up the excitement of the outcome. I really appreciated the games wide variety of teams to choose from, specifically the international league, which includes every country that hosts a national team. This option put us in some funny predicaments, such as when I played my Russian friend, who picked Russia as I was Poland. We agreed that the winner of the game would settle the dispute as to which country actually invented Vodka. Unfortunately I had lost 4-1.Mon, 11 Feb 2008 17:46:29 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2616&iddiary=4958https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2285GAMELOG #2 GAMEPLAY The second hour of my gaming experience was a little more intense than the first hour. The competitive spirt was reignited when we placed bets on who would win. Sad to say, I did not win, but came in a close second. Though I did not win, I learned a lot of new controls and damaging moves to inflict on my opponents. I also realized its easier to stick to one player throughout the game so I can specialize in them and learn all their tricks and sweet moves. This made the game more interesting because instead of repeatedly hitting A or B, I actually had some combinations to blast my opponents off with. Though the four player game didn't really follow a story line, it was still more enjoyable than if it had. But had I been playing this game by myself, I would have wanted a story line to follow, because "smashing" on player with no reason or ultimate goal is slightly boring. DESIGN The design of the game was very alluring. The fact that you can play and win using two buttons and control makes the design very appealing to non-gamers. Some good elements in the game where that, even though you were blasted off the platform, you still have a chance to stay alive by jumping back, but only if your damage isn't too significant. Also random little objects constantly fall from the sky, which is a key element in the game because if you pick up one of these objects they can either benefit you, like the hammer which instantly kills your opponents, or kill you like the bombs. I really enjoyed the different platforms, or levels, throughout the game. The platforms vary from size and shape, and are a broad range of colors which are appealing to the eye. Though the platforms are different they never really change in their level of difficultly, though some are more beneficial to play on depending who your character is. Also the game was really fun to play because of its simplistic reward structure. Though you don't get a prize for winning, you get ranked at the end of every game, giving you the satisfaction of beating your opponents.Sun, 27 Jan 2008 19:33:35 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2285&iddiary=4405https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2285SUMMARY Playing Super Smash Brothers for the first time was awesome. You basically have to kill off your opponents by throwing them off the platform by using your magical powers (each character has their own unique power). The percents on the bottom of the screen account for the amount of damage you have. The more damage that builds up, the farther an opponent flies each time it gets hit. Each player has four lives and after the fourth, your character dies. GAMEPLAY Super Smash Brothers is a very interactive game. It allows you to "trash talk" to your opponents as Jigglypuff sings them to sleep or while Pikachu constantly says his name every time he throws his blue ray of fire. You can play with up to four people, so that keeps the game stimulating and interesting. We had many friends just standing around, awaiting their next turns, which made me feel like we had an audience, keeping the competitive vibe in the air. I really liked the assortment of characters from the big bad Donkey Kong to the cute and cuddly little Yoshi. And the fact that every character had its own special powers kept the excitement of picking a new player each game. After a while, it became clearly obvious that your choice in character really doesn't matter if you don't know how to use their powers. This was clearly displayed by my roommate, who was violently jabbing at the controls frustrated by the fact that her Donkey Kong was getting trashed by Pikachu.Sun, 27 Jan 2008 18:00:12 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2285&iddiary=4401https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1645GAMEPLAY During the second round of Guitar Hero 3, I moved up to medium. I started becoming really selfish and never wanted to give up the guitar because I realized the more and more I played, the better my skills were becoming. The game became more fun to play because I started playing harder songs and actually getting through them instead of failing them. Also I noticed that much of this game relies on memorization. In example, my favorite song is Paint it Black by the Rolling Stones, the more and more I played it, the easier the song became because I didnt have to look at the screen for certain parts because my fingers had memorized the notes. I also tried starting my own band, which is when you can pick from a variety of rockers and choose everything from their outfit to thier guitar. Playing in a band was more fun than quickplay because you actually follow a storyline and you want to keep getting through to the next level because you uncover more songs. Some songs even lead to an encore, which was usually a classic song such as Kiss's I wanna Rock and Roll All Night. Overall my second round in Guitar Hero 3 was more satisfying and gratifying than the first round for the simple fact that I beat my roommate in almost every song. :-) GAME DESIGN The game stayed interesting to me throughout the whole time because of things such as StarPower which is when you hit enough notes in a row and then lift your guitar, turning the notes silver instead of their usual color. This doubles your score and forces you not to rely on the notes color but rather on their place. Also the fact that you can change the levels of game play, from easy to medium to hard and even expert, keeps the game interesting because once you think you've mastered your skills, you realize how much harder the game can actually be. If I could change the game, I would add more songs to the levels because that would keep the excitement in uncovering new songs consistent throughout play. I would also change the characters so that when you play a song the actual band would be displayed according to the song, instead of some made up characters. Nothing in the actual game design actually frustrated me other than my own skill level, but the little cheesy lines before I would play a song started becoming annoying especially when they said that I sucked. But I really enjoyed the satisfaction in completing a song and and having the screen say "You Rock!"Mon, 14 Jan 2008 17:32:59 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1645&iddiary=3611https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1645SUMMARY In Guitar Hero 3 on XBOX 360, the main objective of the game is to play the guitar synchronized with the notes projected on the screen. If you fail to hit the notes on time or press the wrong button the song squeaks making it unpleasant to listen to. But if you play the song correctly you can rack up points by having 100 note streaks, have the chance to use your Star Power, and listen to a great song without interuptions. GAME PLAY Starting Guitar Hero 3 was not an easy task. I started on easy and quickly grew frustrated with my fingers for not being able to comply with the notes projected on the screen. But after a few attempts, I was quickly engulfed in the game. You can't help but want to be better than your friends who are sitting around you watching each note you hit or miss; so you keep playing, and playing, and playing until you move up to medium. Like Pong, Guitar Hero is fairly easy to play. It has a simple concept and a clear objective. You have the choice to either play in a band which follows a straightforward storyline or you can choose quickplay. Once you've mastered your guitar skills, the game becomes more social because you're actually able to talk to those around you rather than focus all your attention in the game. Overall, I really enjoyed the game but realized that the longer I stared at the screen, the more my eyesight was deteriorating. I would look at a wall after staring at the screen and it would morph for a few seconds and then look hazy. Another factor in the game I did not like was the characters. I wish that the characters would resemble the band, rather than just random people.Sun, 13 Jan 2008 04:18:01 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1645&iddiary=3373