Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=590https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3114GAMEPLAY: For the second play period, the play was much the same as the first; I continued playing new songs, and started making a list of songs that I'd like to play but do not have at the moment - Dragonforce, Freebird, etc. You can get some extreme gameplay here, or extremely placid gameplay - it really is entirely up to which song one chooses. DESIGN: Where to begin? This game follows the overarching design philosophy of 'ride your music,' also the game's tagline. When playing, the mechanic is very, very simple: run your ship into blocks to get groups of three of the same color. Certain ships have special powers which can be activated by clicking the right or left mouse buttons, which means that the entire game can be played with nothing but the mouse and good coordination. What strikes me most about the design of this game is the elements that end up taking away from the brilliant gameplay. The designers got one thing right, which is the focus on the music being both played, and played, if you'll excuse the pun. What's missing is a good menu system and file browser implementation; if you're going to have the user be looking for music tracks, you want it to be easy to find them from within the game. The other complaint I have is the lack of a 'playlist' mode, where the player would be able to queue up several tracks and play each one sequentially. As it stands, the player must be forced out to the game menu before choosing the next track to play, and the play experience suffers for it. So that it might not sound like I'm set against the game, I will say that the part where the player is actually PLAYING is a study in design excellence. The game engine produces game tracks that seem like something out of a Technicolor dream, with bright colors and spinning geometry to liven up the landscape if the player has a moment to glance away from the oncoming blocks. The tracks are shown suspended in a black, grey, or white emptiness; downhill slopes represent relatively fast sections, and uphill slopes represent relatively slow sections of the song. The goal of the play, and it is a goal that is admirably achieved, is to make the game all about the music.Thu, 06 Mar 2008 02:26:11 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3114&iddiary=5910https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3114SUMMARY: Audiosurf is a rhythm game where users can 'ride their music.' Players can select any track from their computer in a variety of formats, whereupon the game engine will analyze the features of the selection and create a sort of highway covered with colored blocks. Players earn points by running a car into these blocks and creating chains of three or more similarly colored pieces. GAMEPLAY: I can sum up Audiosurf in one word: Addicting. Since buying it yesterday, I have played it for no less than ten hours, rediscovering my music collection in the process. The game provides several different skill levels, each with several different modes of play. I prefer the Ninja Mono, where players have to dodge grey blocks and collect as many uniformly colored ones as possible. The control scheme is as simple as can be - move the mouse left or right. The real trick - for me, anyway - is to know WHEN to move left and right. The game will become harder if one chooses to play a very intense song, which meant that my trying to play 'Helter Skelter' by the Beatles on the hardest difficulty setting did not exactly turn out well. Skeltering aside, what I found as I continued to play was that I was listening to music that I hadn't bothered to listen to in years. I had fun anticipating how the game engine would handle certain tracks that I chose, and I had fun trying to attain the various achievements for each particular character. This game definitely encourages lots and lots of re-play, and even if you don't want to play the game, you can simply use it as a media player and watch the crazy multicolored tracks that are generated by the game engine. I'll be back with more, shortly.Thu, 06 Mar 2008 01:30:56 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3114&iddiary=5828https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2796GAMEPLAY: This second play period was marked mostly by my increasing enjoyment of the game. Having played it only sporadically when it came out, and not at all in the last five or six years, I was pretty much seeing the game with a fresh perspective. There's so much to explore that I couldn't possibly fit the game into the time given for the gamelog, but I'm liking it so much that I will probably keep playing it even when I'm done with this. Also as I progress, I'm struck by the variety of the missions. The goals I have had set for me have never been duplicated, and if I get bored with one particular world I can just move on to the next. I find the level bosses particularly clever so far, but even then, not every level has a boss. One particular mission had me returning a lost baby penguin to the very concerned mother, a task complicated by the fact that the baby was at the top of a snow-covered mountain. It's things like this that make me love games. DESIGN: When talking about the design of a 3D platformer, the control system will inevitably be brought up. Super Mario 64 must have set the benchmark for control implementation - the game's controls are intuitive and very responsive to player motion. A huge variety of action is afforded by the N64 'trident' controller - varying combinations of buttons and joystick action allow the player to run, walk, tiptoe, crouch, jump, backflip, bodyslam, or slide, to name a few options. The game world itself allows for additional contextual actions, such as climbing trees and poles, or swimming. All of this adds up to enormous possibility for gameworld interaction. The gameworld itself is no less polished; from the very start, players are allowed to roam freely around different landscapes to a degree that was impossible in previous platformers. Birds can be heard chirping, butterflies flutter around, water flows in streams, and if one tires of walking around, one can simply admire the scenery by using the manual camera controls. Critical to this serene atmosphere is the lack of a time restriction on most levels. It is perhaps the most important design decision in the game; players can spend as much time as they like exploring, and get to the actual mission only when they decide they want to. It makes for a much more relaxing game experience when compared with a game such as Super Mario World.Thu, 21 Feb 2008 02:11:41 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2796&iddiary=5387https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2796SUMMARY: Super Mario 64 is a 3D platformer for the Nintendo 64 console. The goal of the game, as with so many in the Mario series, is to rescue Princess Peach from the clutches of the malicious Bowser. The player must run, jump, slide, bop, and punch his way through a variety of challenges in several different worlds to acquire Power Stars and thereby proceed through the game. GAMEPLAY: I started the game with the mindset of a present-day gamer; that is to say, I was immediately critical of the graphics, which now seem dated and ugly. As I played, though, I found myself caring less and less about the graphics, if only because the game exists in a world worth exploring. I find myself at a loss to describe what it was I felt as I explored the grounds in front of the starting castle, but then I've never played a game where chasing birds around was something I could do. The world is so colorful and so alive that I found myself forgiving the dated graphics and simply enjoying myself; only later, as I began playing through the challenges proper, did I begin to understand the breadth of the accomplishment of the game creators. It took me a while to remember that the game was first published over ten years ago, and when I did remember that, my awe only increased. I haven't progressed far in the game, but I hope that what I have experienced so far - living game worlds, excellent sound and level design, a certain innocent charm - will hold true through the rest of the game.Thu, 21 Feb 2008 01:36:32 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2796&iddiary=5330https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2181GAMEPLAY: During my second play period I found the difficulty increasing, especially during the boss battles. I got my first "game over" fighting the second boss in the game, and my second directly after the second boss. However, I didn't find it terribly frustrating to get a game over, if only because the boss battles and subsequent levels were so different from one another. I also felt that the bosses weren't arbitrarily hard; that is to say, I had to use my mind to figure out a way to beat them, rather than slugging it out in an endurance battle. This is something I particularly enjoy in a game. I don't know if it's proper to point out 'originality' in a 14 year old game, especially since I don't know what was genuinely new with the game, but I feel that based on how different the individual levels are from one another, the game itself must have been something new and exciting for a platformer. I never felt like things were getting repetitive, but then, I haven't played the whole game through to find out. So far, a fun, fun, fun game! DESIGN: On the design side of things, I have one immediate criticism - the game overstresses the NES hardware with regularity, to the point where the slowdown hinders gameplay. This is particularly noticeable with Kirby's special attacks when several enemies are on-screen. I had assumed that with console games (as opposed to PC games) the hardware capabilities of the system are uniform; that is to say, the developers know exactly what they have to work with before they even know what game they want to make. To make a game that doesn't suit the system one is working with is a bit silly, especially in this case; Kirby's Adventure came out four years after the Super Nintendo was introduced; the hardware was available to make the game run smoothly and then some. In terms of gameplay design, however, the game is nothing short of excellent. As with any platformer, the focus should be on the design and progression of the levels, and with Kirby's Adventure we can see a careful design philosophy at work. As with most platformers, the game is broken up into several worlds; each world has from 4-6 individual levels, along with a boss. Each world has a theme, the most obvious example of this being the Butter Building; the player works his way up to the top through a series of levels that take place both inside and outside the building. Where Kirby's Adventure stands out is with Kirby's attacks. Kirby has the ability to suck certain enemies into his mouth and thereby steal their attack. By this method, he can gain the ability to burn, freeze, crush, roll over, hammer, or spike his enemies - and those are just the attacks I can remember off the top of my head. Not only are there many attacks, but some secret areas can be accessed based on what particular attack you have at the time. It is a unique game element, well-executed - much like the rest of the game. An excellent, well designed, well executed platformer all around. Sat, 26 Jan 2008 02:31:51 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2181&iddiary=4331https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2181SUMMARY: Kirby's Adventure is a platformer that details the eponymous character's quest to recover the seven shards of the Star Rod, a device that allows the inhabitants of Dream Land to sleep, perchance to dream. The game was originally released in 1993 and follows the standard platformer progression model of several 'worlds' each with several levels to beat. GAMEPLAY: When I first started playing Kirby's Adventure, I was immediately struck by two things: first, by the quality of the graphics relative to other NES games, and second, by the extremely cheerful, fun atmosphere of the game. It is the first game in a long time where I found myself not caring too much about the story, or about getting to the end - I was having too much fun just playing the game. In these days of ultra-competitive FPSs and MMORPGs, it is refreshing to play a game like this where it is so obvious that HAVING FUN is the goal. In terms of characterization, Kirby is a lightweight, both figuratively and literally. This game doesn't flesh him out much; all I've found out so far is that he is a round pink guy with truly amazing lung capacity and a penchant for fixing broken Star Rods. That said, he is well rendered in the game itself; at one point, I found myself purposely running him into walls so I could see the entertaining animation that was provided for that purpose. He runs, jumps, slides, puffs up, shrinks down, falls, faceplants, and sucks down enemies like some sort of demented video-game Hoover vacuum. I look forward to playing this game through!Sat, 26 Jan 2008 00:32:04 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2181&iddiary=4227https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1726GAMEPLAY: Having spent some time with the game already, I found the game to be much less frustrating this time around. I was playing a different map, so perhaps that has something to do with it. I found myself having genuine fun while playing, and I was able to help out my teammates more than in the first round of play. I definitely got a more solid sense of the 'team' in Team Fortress 2. I'm starting to get more of a feel for the individual characters in the game, which is odd to say because multiplayer FPS like Counter-Strike don't tend to have any sort of characters, just two opposing teams. In TF2, the individual classes definitely have personalities. I've been playing the Soldier, who has a very gruff, gung-ho, war movie personality, whereas the Spy is a very reserved, fastidious fellow with a European accent; The Heavy is a thick-headed Russian, the Scout is a gleefully manic Brooklynite, the Medic is a German Dr. Kevorkian, and so on for all the rest of the classes - the Sniper, the Pyro, the Demoman, and the Engineer. All in all, I can say that my experience with the game, apart from my initial lack of skill, has been a very positive one! DESIGN: Team Fortress 2 is a very carefully designed game. The most obvious quality of the game from a design perspective is the garish, almost cartoony nature of the graphics. This makes the game an immediate standout among the crowd of modern hyper-realistic online FPS games, and also allows for a host of other design differences that would only make sense in an exaggerated environment. One of these differences is the use of color within the game. Territory controlled by the RED team is subtly warmer and redder, whereas territory controlled by the BLU team is cooler and bluer. This is most obvious on the map 2Fort, where the two team bases are static throughout the game. The BLU base is constructed of blue-tinted concrete and similar materials, whereas the RED base is made up of redwood and dirt. This design choice makes it immediately obvious when one is in enemy territory, but without being obnoxious. Another critical element of the gameplay is the assumed conflict between the BLU and the RED teams. The game rewards the execution of this conflict by awarding points to either team for successfully completing objectives while preventing the other team from completing theirs; however, this does not mean that the conflict is mandated. Put otherwise, the two teams can agree to a spontaneous armistice, as I witnessed in one particular match. Player agreement works in other ways, such as spontaneous agreements to attack only with melee weapons. While there is no "rule from on high" that this behavior is mandatory, players cooperate with the informal agreement to a surprising degree, and the result is a more fun experience for all. The game design allows for these meta-games by stripping the core game experience down to comparative simplicity, so that emergent behavior is almost guaranteed by player experimentation. If there is any part of the game I take objection to, it is the part that frustrated me the most - the initial period of inexperience that can only be alleviated by getting thoroughly beaten by other players for an indeterminate period of time. While it could be argued that this learning curve is common to all online first person shooters, I see no reason why some sort of tutorial or sandbox environment couldn't be provided to help new players learn how to play the game. It is frustrating and even embarrassing to play an online FPS for the first time, only to find that you are being utterly destroyed by more experienced players. I can easily see casual gamers and first-timers being discouraged by this if they have no other motivation to continue playing.Mon, 14 Jan 2008 04:00:07 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1726&iddiary=3565https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1726SUMMARY: Team Fortress 2 is a class-based team-play-oriented online first-person shooter. The game revolves around the ongoing struggle between the Builder's League United team (BLU Team) and the Reliable Expert Demolition team (RED team) for control of territory in a variety of maps. The game has a very unique, cartoony style with exaggerated gore and vividly colorful environments, making the game stand out among other, more 'realistic' shooters. GAMEPLAY: For my part, getting into the game took a while longer than usual, probably because I never really play any online first person shooters. I found myself dying pretty much as soon as I stuck my head out of the spawn point no matter what class I played. After a while I figured out that I could survive much better if I just kept moving, and things started to get a bit more fun after that. Once I got past the initial frustration of not being terribly good at the game, I started really enjoying myself. The game keeps track of your in-game statistics, such as kills per round, and tells you when you are close to beating your previous best scores. I found this system to be particularly motivating, and it definitely gave me more reason to to try stay alive, beyond the inconvenience of having to go back to the respawn every two minutes. I really started hitting my stride around the 30-minute mark, once I'd got accustomed to the controls of the game and the flow of battle. I made a point of trying all the classes for at least one round, and found that I played best as the Soldier. The Soldier is armed with a rocket launcher, a shotgun, and an entrenching shovel, the last of which led to some hilarious kills. I found something truly satisfying - and funny - in sneaking up behind people and whacking them to death with the shovel. The voice chat system was perhaps the most entertaining part of the gameplay, as I talked and bantered with the other players of the game. The chatter had a decidedly ribald nature, but the priority was given to tactical talk - when to make a rush on the enemy base, whether there were spies around, etc. Another thing I noticed and particularly liked was that there was no harsh criticism of unskilled players. Compared to a game like Counterstrike, where new players are bashed constantly and cruelly, this friendliness is like a breath of fresh air, and went a long way toward making the game enjoyable for me despite not being too good at it. Mon, 14 Jan 2008 02:22:40 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1726&iddiary=3524