Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=581https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2989GAMEPLAY Continuing to play Supreme Commander I'm still impressed by its massive scale, no other RTS has ever come close to implementing battles this large. Though on the downside this makes the game an enormous system hog, even my dual core system with a 512 mb video card occasionally slows down. Multiplayer is quite a bit of fun, but as stated before its quite a time hog. I do enjoy the subtle maneuvering and jockeying for position mixed with all out head on combat. Occasionally I do feel though that sometimes all strategy and though goes out the window and it becomes a matter of who can fling more guys faster at his opponent. On the social side of gaming, because multiplayer games take a long time, it does make for some interesting joint strategies and or backstabbing in these longer and larger games. In playing I've also found it can be difficult to effectively use navies and aircraft. They are extremely vulnerable , and for the higher powered units require very high time and resource investments. It is also worth mentioning the “experimental” units. These are what make the individual sides unique. For the most part each side is a clone of each other, but these units are extraordinarily large and powerful. One of the cybran's for example is a large walking robot with missile launchers and an enormous laser, that takes the combined firepower of 40-50 tanks to destroy, and still takes a large amount of time, or for the UEF side you can build a mobile factory or submarine aircraft carrier. These units add flavour and a nice goal to reach for in playing what would otherwise be extremely similar sides. DESIGN The Good: HUGE scale never done before as well or effectively. Zooming feature is new and intuitive, allows for easy navigation of the battlefield. You can quickly zoom out to view the whole map just with the mouse wheel, and then position the cursor on the map, use the wheel again and zoom in on where the cursor is focused. Unit and building queuing also new and intuitive, and VERY useful and time saving. You don't have to constantly tend your builder units, but instead can give a series of orders telling them where and what to build in one go. Experimental units are a blast to play with, visually stunning, and impact playing styles. Ferry system for transporting large numbers of units. You can set up two points on the maps and your transports will automatically move your units between these two points with a minimum of fuss. The Bad: System hog, the large scale of the game can kill some systems. Limited field of view due to the large interface. The 3 sides you can play are basically clones of one another with only a few distinguishing units, as opposed to warcraft III or starcraft with very unique sides lending themselves to very different styles of play. Can be overwhelming to play at times trying to keep track of ten zillion units wandering around. The formations for units kind of suck, very limited. Bottom Line: A blast to play, if a bit intimidating in its scale initially.Wed, 05 Mar 2008 02:49:36 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2989&iddiary=5642https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2989SUMMARY Supreme Commander is a large scale real time strategy game where the player takes control of one of 3 sides and battles it out over large maps using armies of air, ground and naval units. GAMEPLAY First off, the story, while not much in of itself, the story is semi-engaging and while some what humdrum (the standard “only you our best commander can save our way of life”) it isn't annoying. I don't get particularly worked up about it, but its enough that keeps me interested to see how it progresses. For example, in completing one mission against the “Cybran Nation” you find out that your efforts though valiant weren't enough to stop the onslaught motivating the following missing to protect and evacuate a base. The interface is clean and crisp, but a little obtrusive into the play field. You have a strip down the center for your view of the battlefield and it can occasionally get annoying when you would like to see the action, but cant maintain any sort of decent control at a zoom level where you really get to see it because of this limited field of view. I can definitely say that time flies by when playing this game. It is very engrossing and keeps you busy due to its very large scale, and battles involving literally dozens of buildings and hundreds of units across literally square miles of virtual battlefield. Its impressive, and occasionally annoying, the enormous scale of the game. The fastest air units (scouts) can literally take minutes to travel across the largest maps. But the flip side of this is that you really do feel like a general as the player, moving vast armies across huge terrain which allows for a great deal options in terms of maneuvers, feints, and ambushes. The enormous scale also brings up one of the games (sort of) negative points: time expenditure. Some missions require several hours of play to complete, and a large multi-player game can occasionally take even longer if you get stalemated.Wed, 05 Mar 2008 01:06:00 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2989&iddiary=5634https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2628GAMEPLAY Continuing to play Super Mario World Ive found that the variety of levels combined with its art direction is its greatest appeal to me. Though like any platformer, the levels are variations on a theme, Mario World does an excellent job keeping things mixed up. One level I might be doing the standard Jump And Bop the whole way through, the next I might have to bet timing jumps between moving platforms, the next riding a boat on a pool of lava watching for enemies leaping up from below. I also found I enjoy the light puzzle elements that Mario World throws in, particularly on the ghost house levels, where you have to position move a power button around to the right position before activating it in order to make platforms appear for you to jump on. My personal favorite aspect of the game is when you get the cape power up, and be able to fly about and glide across levels, just plain fun. I have a hard time coming up with negatives for this game despite my normal animosity towards platform games (mostly stemming from the fact I suck at them). The levels are colorful and interesting, the music is entertaining, the game world is fun and light hearted, and there is a wide variety of play available between the numerous levels. DESIGN Though my ignorance of the time (I was very young when it came out) must be taken into account, it is my opinion that Super Mario World really pushed the platformer genre ahead in many areas. The game had excellent music for its time, it was lively, energetic and accentuated the mood of any given level. The visuals cant be overstated, at the time they were wonderful and light years ahead of most platformers available. Pleasant, bright, and colorful. The variety of levels and enemies is also paramount to this games success. The continuous game world and the ability to save was new for platform games, no more did you have to beat in one sitting or keep the power on. The check points in the level were of extreme importance for lousy or less experienced players like myself. This saves a tremendous amount of frustration in having to redo the level for those of us who almost finish only to die at the last moment. Given the time it came out, its very difficult to find something wrong with the design of Super Mario World, it truly was revolutionary for its time.Sat, 16 Feb 2008 19:39:36 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2628&iddiary=4987https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2628SUMMARY Super Mario World is a 2D side scrolling platform game whereby the player must control "Mario" through a series of levels and challenges in order to rescue the princess. GAMEPLAY Super Mario World first hit me with its wide range of colors and environments, compared to earlier platformers it was exceptionally vivid and took full advantage of the expanded graphical capabilities of the SNES system over the previous Nintendo console. This is hardly enough on its own though to make an interesting game. Story wise its the typical Mario story, which is really of no interest or motivation to me as the player, princess kidnapped, blah blah blah, go save her AGAIN from bowser. Controls and game play are standard fare for the Mario platformers, with jump and bop style play for taking on enemies, and then with the fire flower the ability shoot enemies. The ability to run, while not 100% new and innovative at the time of its release did add another dimension to the controls and play. Some of the new play concepts in Mario World were the ability to pick up some objects (Were you able to do this in Super Marion 3?), a new method for flying with a cape, and the ability to "Save" one power up for use later in the game or level. Despite the (in my opinion) lack of any coherent story, the characters were interesting and fun, if lacking any sort of personal depth. They are all colorful and exhibit unique play characteristics making the game more engaging. There is the obvious Mario player avatar, but also a new helper yoshi who can eat enemies. The enemies ranged from some of the classic ones like the turtles and ghosts, to an armored football guy who charges you down. These colorful (if simple) characters add alot of life an personality to what could be a drab game.Sat, 16 Feb 2008 18:55:35 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2628&iddiary=4986https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2400GAMEPLAY Continuing to play Gal Civ 2 I'm gaining an appreciation for some of the options it offers the player above and beyond the typical 4x strategy game. For one I particularly like the ability to coerce other colonies to join your race with out using direct force. Visually the game is quite pleasant to look at, graphics aren't spectacular by any means but get the job done and add to the over all vibe of the game. I still enjoy the light hearted humor that comes through in various parts of the game (for example when researching a new type of engine, you are told that space is 'really really really really big'). Economic side of the game also interesting as trade with other races can make up a significant portion of your races income, and when you go to war, you lose that income, making the decision to go to war or not considerably more complicated. My favorite part of the game was designing my space fleet. In addition to visually customizing your ships, you choose their weapon load outs as well. This isn't merely eye candy as how you load out your ship affects how well it fights others. On a negative side, the time commitment for this game, even after you learn the basics, is quite considerable. This is not a game that is well suited to playing 15 minutes here and there as there is simply too much going on at any given point during the game. This can be alleviated to a limited degree by choosing easier difficulties and smaller maps, but ultimately is still an issue. I also was initially excited by the diplomacy model as it seemed to offer a lot more options than the typical diplomatic system found in 4x games like civilization and master of orion. But after a while it seemed really superficial and really didn't have too much an influence besides trading technology and declaring wars, much like any other game in the genre. DESIGN First some points that I feel give the game a leg up over the typical strategy game of this genre: Nice variety of options in how you go about taking over the galaxy, do you go for brute force conquering? Or for a more subtle political or cultural victory by coercing other races into joining your dominion. Full customization of ships is fun and integral to game play, and gives the player more of a sense that this really is “their” race that they are playing. Economics add extra flavor and dimension to war declaring. Used to just be a choice of “Can I beat their fleets” this adds the worry of “Can I afford it long term?” And now some Negatives: Steep learning curve and large time commitment. Not possible to really have a quick game, and is frustrating to learn initially due to a lack of a good tutorial in game. Lots of trial and error, and generally getting the crap kicked out of me in early games. Buggy, I had a few random crashes here and there. Diplomatic system could use work, all those choices on the screen really don't amount to much in the long term. Interface is slightly clunky on big maps, hard to see whats going when zoomed out, and constantly panning around the map when zoomed in.Fri, 08 Feb 2008 17:21:36 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2400&iddiary=4593https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2400SUMMARY Galactic Civilizations II is a 4x (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit and eXterminate) style turn based strategy game. The player takes control of one a number of preset alien civilizations (or customizes his or her own) and controls the economy, military, and research of their chosen side as they see fit in order to conquer the galaxy. GAMEPLAY Right from the start the game hits you with its depth and complexity when you are merely choosing (or customizing) your choice of race. There are many variables to consider and the choices are not trivial. Each race has certain advantages and disadvantages, some have better economics ratings (get more money per turn) while have rebellious or mercenary natures (hard to keep happy, might defect to another side). And this is just a few of the myriad of possibilities available to the player. Upon actually starting the game, you quickly become busy with the ins and outs of managing a galactic empire, sending out ships to create new colonies, allocating research, building upgrades on individual planets etc. Its obviously a very engrossing game with a large number of tasks that can be done on any individual turn. For me personally the game is fun to play and time flies due to how much there is to do each turn, and the variety of methods to expand. Do you attempt to woo an opposing colony over by making yourself seem culturally superior, do you conquer them by brute force, incite a war between two sides and pick up the pieces? It is initially quite a daunting game due to its complexity and learning curve, and I spent many hours and games trying and failing miserably even on the lower difficulty levels. The story while present in the campaign mode (which I do not focus on) is present, but not particularly engaging. Its really standard fare, galactic war, looming threat to everyone coming, etc etc. It is worth noting that the game does have a fun and whimsical light hearted sense of humor that does add some to the over all vibe of the game, despite its lack luster story. From the social stand point, this game really doesn't have much going for it. Its single player only, cant really be any sort of a party game, and difficult to compare your game to another due to its inherent complexity.Fri, 08 Feb 2008 13:29:49 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2400&iddiary=4561https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2042GAME PLAY Continuing on with gameplay, my emotional state during the game was mostly neutral, or frustration. This had to do with the steep learning curve and difficulty of the game. On the social front, I can see this being an okay party game, as it is easy to get into a game quickly, and fast paced. I also would be impressed with anyone who gets far into the game (personally) and could see it as a sort of one-upping your friends style competition. That said however, the game required my full concentration to play, so I cant for see any banter really between persons while playing this game. The powerup system is neat, but later on I can forsee it being frustrating as some sections would be FAR easier with powerups, and each death forces you to start over as far as your weapon powers are concerned. My over all opinion though is that this game is a fun shooter, and has a few innovative elements, but otherwise is fairly unremarkable and predictable in its gameplay. DESIGN The primary innovation in this game is the ability to select a weapon set prior to starting the game. This allows the user greater flexibility in playing style, and adds an element of management to how they utilize the power ups. EG does the user take speed boosts right off, or save them to get missiles a little later for a specific boss/enemy coming up. That said, otherwise the game is a remarkably generic shooter really lacking in creativity. Visuals are standard fare for the time era it was released in, as are the enemies and style of play. EG dodging enemies that shoot at you, some shoot straight ahead, travel in packs, etc etc. In my opinion it could really have used more color, the visuals were quite drab. Music was nothing to write home about, seemed neither interesting or complimentary to game play, but nor did it irritate. A final note is difficulty, the game was very difficult for a novice like myself to approach. This could be alleviated somewhat by perhaps having a player avatar that could take multiple hits, or a slower "ramp up" in terms of number of enemies and game play challenges. Thu, 24 Jan 2008 22:58:07 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2042&iddiary=3951https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2042SUMMARY Gradius 3 is a side scrolling space shooter whereby the play controls a ship that contains a number of weapons (selected prior to starting) that can be used as one gets power-ups while playing. GAME PLAY NOTE: It has been a VERY long time since ive played a shooter of this type, so that must be taken into account in my opinions and view on the game. As with most simple shooters of this type, the story is essentially throw away in my opinion. Stereotypical save the universe from some evil, only you can do it, blah blah. Not particularly engaging, but I cant really fault it, the story is not integral to game play in any sense. Gameplay is fun, but a bit confusing at first with the power up system, as it seems you sort of "spend" power ups to activate your weapons and upgrade them. I also notice that the game is quite difficult to a rank novice like myself. I died multiple times before even getting halfway through the first level. Also annoying having to use powerups to speed up your ship beyond its incredibly slow starting speed, seems unnecessary. The main innovation in this game appears to be its system of choosing weapons to use pre-game, and managing power ups through out. I shall elaborate more after some more playing on how this affects gameplay.Thu, 24 Jan 2008 22:05:01 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2042&iddiary=3943https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1715GAMEPLAY In continuing to play Mayhem my thoughts on game are based mostly around its very fast paced (and sometimes short) game play. Since you jump right into the action, there is no story or character development even attempted, its simply "blast the tanks". While for some games this might be a detriment, here it really is fairly irrelevant, after all, the game is based on a single screen, has no movement, character, dialog, or even a beginning sequence. Here the whole point is action, and lots of it, and it delivers quite well. The game is interesting to play due to its novel use of physics in trying to bounce your shots and tanks off of each other in order to maximize damage. You also are giving a limited number of points as you destroy tanks in which to spend on upgrades and new ammo types for your weapon, giving the game a bit more longevity and variety. In the end though, this simple action is both the games greatest strength and weakness. It allows the player to quickly enter the game, play for a bit, and leave at his or her leisure without too much of a time commitment, but because of this simplicity and pace, it lacks depth and that immersive quality we often like to find in games that we play for long periods of time. The game is at its core a simple arcade shooter with a few novel twists in the form of simple physics involving the tanks bouncing around the screen. DESIGN As far as innovations go, use of more complicated physics in simple arcade games has been around for a while now, but often it is over done (e.g. Plasma Pong) or simply for visual effect with no real impact on gameplay. In this game the physics and momentum of varying sizes of tanks and projectiles have a real effect on how you play the game, without being over bearing and requiring too much thought or precision. HOWEVER, because it is physics heavy and there is lots going on on-screen, its performance can lag even on high end machines despite its very simplistic yet pleasant graphics. The level design here is almost too simplistic and cuts down on replay value, all levels and game types are simply waves of enemies approaching from the right, and you must stop them from getting to the left... simple, but could use more variety, even if its just in the form of randomly placed obstacles. As for what I would change, if possible I would work on optimizing the physics engine so its not quite so performance intensive, and would find a way to add more variety to the level structure. Also the feature of the "stability" of your shots I would remove. In game, the more points you have, the more stable your shots are, if the are unstable, there is a chance they explode when you try to shoot damaging your gun, which is a frustrating and random effect, that instead of adding any tension or fun to the game, simply adds an element of annoyance. Sun, 13 Jan 2008 22:17:35 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1715&iddiary=3442https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1715SUMMARY Momentum Missile Mayhem is Flash Based top down arcade shooter with a twist. You have a single "gravity launcher" cannon and try and destroy incoming enemies before they pass by you. The twist comes in the physics of it where you need to knock tanks into walls and each other in order to quickly destroy them with a variety of ammo types and power ups. GAMEPLAY Right from the get-go Missile Mayhem (from now on Ill just call it "mayhem" for brevity) is easy to pick up. Its essentially just point click drag and let of the button to fire shots at the oncoming enemy. Yup, thats the whole game in essence. Its simplicity to pick is part of its charm. It has no multi player mode to speak of (though you can save high scores online) and it has no real opportunity for social interaction as the fast pace of the game requires quite a bit of focus later on. It is this very fast pace that sucked me in to the game, time flies very quickly as even when you are doing well, you can be on the verge of losing byletting enemies past you as there are almost always swarms of them on the screen. Despite its simplicity it also has room for some strategy involving how and when you use power ups.Sun, 13 Jan 2008 21:14:28 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1715&iddiary=3431