Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=614https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3110GAMEPLAY: During the second play of this game I decided to play with some friends to see if the gameplay was changed at all. There were some pluses and some minuses in doing so. Primarily, my friends all knew how to play the game well so there was a definite advantage while playing. Basically we would "pub stomp" and completely dominate every single game. Although this would be fun in the beginning it gets old very fast. The game then become very fun to play primarily but then later on became quite boring. We quickly found a solution to this problem by facing another group of five friends on the other team to evenly match our skill level. One thing that I did notice while playing with friends is that it brought a completely new kind of gameplay. It was no longer focusing on what items to get or how good your hero is, but on what heroes to pick to work well with your friends heroes and having good combos. The teamwork aspect of gameplay was greatly increased when playing with people that you know. This game also seemed to bring a new wave of social interactions between the players. When you play with someone you know, it is harder to "act tough" online and you start acting more or less like yourself even though there is still a slight change. Not to say there is no smack talk, but it definitely is less when playing with friends. DESIGN: The design of Dota is quite interesting to analyze because it is not really a commercialized game, yet it has become so popular with at least one hundred thousand players at any given time. The game was designed using WarcraftIII's custom game creator so the tools and resources were limited, but the game design was still a success. This proves that you do not need crazy graphics to make a game successful, although they do help. The hero design was basically ripped straight off of WarcraftIII and they were given different names and different abilities, but most of them were seen already in WarcraftIII. As the game became more popular however, the creator started programming his own abilities and his own heroes in the game which attracted even more fans. It basically became a whole new game. The items are also taken from the original WarcraftIII game but tweaked in some way to make them original and inventive. There are all types of different item designs. The three basic item types are strength, agility, and intelligence items for the respective type of hero. There are also damage items to get your hero to do more damage. But these basic items are not the main event in dota, it is the combining items that was the designing achievement. Items can combine to do things such as hex opponents, make images of yourself, heal your whole team, and to get an insane amount of damage. With so many variables the design of the game is very difficult to keep error free, and therefore the Dota creators release a new patch almost every week. The nice thing about this is that in these new patches they are able to add more items and more heroes which make the game basically ever growing. I have been playing Dota for years and it has still never disappointed me and is definitely a game worth playing for anyone interested in starting a new and innovative RTS. Thu, 06 Mar 2008 01:47:23 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3110&iddiary=5842https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3110SUMMARY: Defence of the Ancients (DOTA) is a custom game created on WarcraftIII that is basically the only reason people play the game nowadays. The basic premise is you control one hero, there are two teams, five on five, and you have to push a constant stream of creep spawns through a series of towers to the other teams base and take control of it. GAMEPLAY: DOTA's gameplay is quite unique because it involves a great deal of teamwork and a large amount of dependency on the individual players as well. There are basically two things to go for while playing the game, levels and items. As in WarcraftIII it is possible to gain experience by killing either heroes or the other teams creeps. When you kill one of these creeps or a Hero you get gold as well. This gold can be used to buy items for your hero. One of the main gameplay aspects of Dota is the fact that you can combine your items to form a vast variety of items. This brings an array of possibilities and variables in each game. Many say that it might get repetitive since you start at level 1 at the start of every game but there are so many heroes, 104 to be exact, and so many item combinations that each game is fresh and new which makes it so fun to play. The interactions that I noticed during gameplay were those that are normally seen in these online PC games. A lot of verbal conflict like smack talking, and a large range of players from skilled to completely newb. The problem I see is that Dota has an extremely steep learning curve and the only way to really learn how to play is to watch someone play and have them behind you teaching you while you play. Overall because I know how to play the game, and am pretty experienced the game is fun almost every time. There are so many variables and outcomes that the gameplay is amazing and I definately recommend Dota to anyone who is willing to learn.Thu, 06 Mar 2008 00:58:56 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3110&iddiary=5798https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2732GAMEPLAY: During the second hour of gameplay I decided to analyze more of the multi-player aspects of the game rather than the single player. I decided that the single-player mode is good for a one time thing but after that the majority of gameplay will be in the multi-player mode. When I play with friends, first of all you know the game is good when you suddenly realize that you have been playing the game for 5 hours straight. The lasting value of the game is incredible. Even though the characters are the same and there are only a set amount of levels, the outcome is variable each time we played another game. The characters of the game being Nintendo favorites, also had a tremendous appeal to the players as well as the viewers. Such favorites such as Mario or Fox or Link, make the game more engaging to those loyal Nintendo fans who have played the games previously. These characters form a strange type of bond to the players and more often than not the player will choose the same character over and over again. The best part that made the game fun to play was the fast paced action and the cool moves that each of the characters can perform in order to completely blast the other players away. All five hours of gameplay were just as entertaining as the last which made the game amazing. DESIGN: One of the most prominent design features of this game was the mood of the game. Here you have a bunch of characters beating the crap out of each other, but instead of having blood and guts, the game has successfully made it appealing without making it excessively violent. The mood is a kind of happy Mario type world mood. However, this does not take away from keeping the player entertained and into the game. There are fun animations from each of the characters when they smash you away that keep the player interested. Also there are many uses of items such as the pokeball which realeases a pokemon to do your dirty work for you. The combination of items and special moves create a vast array of animations that are able to grasp the player. One interesting design aspect was the controls. It is surprisingly harder to perform a smash move than it is to do a special move. They brought in the notion of just tapping the controller in a direction and then pressing the A button to smash. The specials on the other hand are very simple and can be done with any directional button and the B button. The designers however made the smash moves significantly stronger than the special moves to make up for this. Any experienced player would tell you that you should only use the special moves to save yourself from dying. That brings me on another interesting design concept, the game world. The world, or each of the levels is built as just a platform with certain variations based on the characters, and they have made it so if you fall off the platform, you die. However they have also created many ways to get back up if you are blasted away, making the game last longer since it does not necessarily end if you are blasted away. It also depends on how much damage you have taken. The designers had put in a very interesting take on damage. Instead of having a certain amount of HP, it is recorded as a percentage or how much of a chance you have of dying from the next hit. The more you get hit, the higher the percentage goes up. Usually if the percentage reaches above 100% then one smash should take care of you if you are on the ledge. All in all, they have made an incredible design that is both engaging to the player and entertaining, as well as not too serious of a mood making it a truly fun game to play.Wed, 20 Feb 2008 23:49:22 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2732&iddiary=5232https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2732SUMMARY: Super Smash Brothers is a single-player or multi-player fighting game with a cartoon-like look and feel with classic Nintendo characters. The objective of the game is to basically win against your opponents in each round. There are also a wide array of items and characters which makes the game unique. GAMEPLAY: Super Smash Brothers has some interesting gameplay. There are two basic modes, the single player and multi-player. In the single player mode, the basic story, or what I presume is the story, is that a child is playing with his/her toys, and fights them with each other until in the end you have to fight the player's hand itself. The gameplay is interesting because it is complicated enough for there to be different levels of players, but it is not that hard to learn all of the abilities to become a decent player. There are basically two types of moves, special moves and smash moves. The moves are variant for each character. The goal of the single-player game is to defeat each level until the Master Hand, which is basically fighting every single character in the game. Once the opponent receives enough damage, there is a possibility of being knocked off of the course, resulting in a victory. To beat the game you must defeat each of the characters on one of four difficulties. There is also a multi-player mode which is where I believe the game gets most of its pizazz. It is not emotionally engaging to continuously beat the crap out of a computer, but when its another human being, the game adds on another touch that makes it feel as if you are actually fighting the other person. The basic premise of the multi-player game is four people beating the living daylights out of each other until one of them remains to be the victor. I believe this game was very fun to play because of its cartoony Mario feel as well as the idea of your favorite Nintendo characters beating each other up with no consequences.Wed, 20 Feb 2008 20:28:49 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2732&iddiary=5144https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2146GAMEPLAY: MarioKart 64 the second time around was still just as fun as the first which tells me the game has a lot of lasting value. Since last time I figured out that the multi-player was more fun than single-player I spent most of the hour observing the multi-player characteristics of the game. The who race element of the game brought forth a new kind of competition between the people playing. Everyone really got into the game and the spirit of racing each other and trying to win. Basically you know a game is good if the people playing start screaming and yelling at each other while playing. I also noticed during gameplay that it doesn't matter how much of a skill level you are to start playing. Someone who just started has almost the same chance as someone who has been playing for a while. The learning curve for the game isn't very steep at all. They have basically made it so anyone for any skill level can win. Also, while playing the game, it almost doesn't matter what place you are in until the very end. The items they have given have made it possible to get ahead very easily, and the distribution makes it even more possible. i.e. the farther back you are the better items you receive. Basically the gameplay consisted of a full on battle race frenzy between eight people who all have chances of winning. DESIGN: The design of this game was a very successful variation of the classic racing game. Although some may argue it was a lot like Crazy Taxi for Playstation, this game brought a new kind of cartoony feel to it, making it more fun for the players. They also used the classic Mario cast making the loyal fans even more tempted to enjoy the game even more. The items used were interesting to see. There were defensive items and offensive items. Also there were items that made it possible for last place to suddenly get first such as the time clock or the lightning bolt. Some items such as the shells could be used to defend yourself from other items, or to shoot at others offensively. The gameworld tone also adds on to the amount of fun the player is going to have. When you see these cartoons racing and blowing the crap out of each other it is almost comical where-as if they were realistic the game might be more serious making less people want to play. Another interesting design feature I noticed was the level design. Each race course had a distinct characteristic about it that made it fun every time you played. Things such as smashing blocks and lava in the bowser level and random obstacles in other levels make the level design unique for each one. Also there were usually secret paths in each level making the more experienced player have a slight advantage, but still not too much of one. Overall, the design for this mario version of a racing game was very unique and fun to play over and over again, engaging the player with all of the different levels and items.Fri, 08 Feb 2008 21:02:58 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2146&iddiary=4656https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2155GAMEPLAY: This time around, since I knew that the multi player was more fun I just got some friends and played. It was basically an hour of comparing this game to a more recent FPS, Halo. The most evident flaw was that you could not aim and move at the same time. This was a problem to most people because it trivialized the whole FPS ideal. For many beginners, this would be a good thing because this shooter, with its auto aim is a lot easier than halo. However, because of my experience with more recent FPS games the gameplay was not desirable. Another flaw was the lack of variety in the guns and the levels. Compared to Halo, everything was just more simple, including graphics. I remember that back in the day, this games graphics were one of the best, but now it is just not as fun to play. DESIGN: All in all, the design of the game for its time was great. It brought out a new genre of gaming and being the first, of course had to have flaws. One basic design flaw was the fact that you cannot jump off of a level. The only way to get down is using the stairs. The programmers did not leave any freedom of movement, like the games of today. The levels in the game are also extremely basic. They do have secret passages and areas but all in all, the level design was very simple. It is also very difficult to aim in this game, which is why the auto-aim is useful. However this makes it almost too easy. The game even in its lack of graphics and gameplay was still able to hustle up some conflict. There is still the usual "smack talking" and excitement that takes place in most FPS games. This is probably because that genre of gaming is able to engage any player because of the idea that you are shooting someone down. Personally I would not change this game much if I was alive back when it was made, but now I would definitely improve the graphics, and improve all the flaws that the programmers did not think of back then. All in all, a fun game of its time, but thats about it.Fri, 25 Jan 2008 23:07:49 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2155&iddiary=4173https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2155SUMMARY: Golden Eye 007 is basically the first true FPS game, with James Bond characters. GAMEPLAY: This game was definitely a classic because of the graphics and FPS capabilities. There is a single player and a multi player mode both of which were very entertaining. The biggest thing that I noticed while playing was that even though the game was so great back then, compared the FPS games that are out right now, this game is basically nothing. There is only one degree of motion, meaning you cannot move and aim at the same time. Luckily the game was programmed with an auto-aim option so this wasn't as big a problem. The single player game was engaging and well made to keep the player enticed until the very last second. Once beaten however, like many games, I don't see myself ever playing it again. The multi player was addicting, but once again because of the other alternatives right now, I don't see myself playing anytime soon. I remember back when I did play the game that it was the game of the time, and you could play with friends for hours and hours. However, now I played with my friends for an hour, and everyone just became angry at the game and basically pointed out all of the flaws. All in all, a very great game at the time, but it has become obsolete.Fri, 25 Jan 2008 21:13:37 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2155&iddiary=4119https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2146SUMMARY: Mario Kart 64, is basically another racing game with characters from previous Mario games. The premise is to race in different cups, and get first place and beat all of the levels. The basic difference between this and other racers is the items that you can collect to slow down your teammates and win the race. GAMEPLAY: Mario Kart is one of those games that you can play over and over again as long as you have other people to play with. The basic gameplay is to go through races and win using the items. There are many items you can use to disable your opponent such as red shells, green shells, the time clock, as well as some to help you go faster such as a boost or the invincibility. The game has three basic modes: single player, multiplayer, and battle mode. In my experience with the single player mode, the races get redundant and it is really easy to win races against the computers. The multi player, however, is basically the same game with the cup races, but now you are playing against humans who can think and use their items the same way you can. This is when the emotions of playing the game come out. People generally feel happier when they win against fellow friends rather than against a computer. The battle mode takes the item element of the game and removes the race. You basically have to defeat your opponents and get rid of their three lives to win. This mode in my opinion doesn't have the same lasting value as the racing, but is still fun for a while. This may be because there is not that much skill involved at all during the battles. Mario Kart 64 is a quick and fun multi player game that I truly enjoyed.Fri, 25 Jan 2008 20:53:47 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2146&iddiary=4112https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1757GAMEPLAY: I played Guitar Hero III again, this time with a group of people, which I realized, was even more fun. You can play for hours and hours without it being boring. There was a time where we played the same song over and over again, and everyone was fine with listening to it again. It seems that the game has an incredible lasting value, especially in a party situation. Not only is it fun to play, but also very fun to watch. One of my friends was trying to beat a certain song on the hardest difficulty, and everyone would cheer him on and get into the game. Finally once he had beaten the last stage it seemed like he really had accomplished something. I have concluded that the game is challenging and entertaining and can be played over and over again. DESIGN: The reason that this game has become so popular and so effective has a lot to do with its ability to simulate playing a real guitar. The five buttons representing the frets, and the flicker for strumming, and the guitar shaped controller in itself make the player feel like he/she is really playing the songs. Also, the way the songs are played based on which buttons to press match more or less what it would be on a real guitar. Things such as chords, and whether notes get higher or lower are represented somewhat accurately. The levels they have put in the game also make it fun to basically anyone trying to play. Easy, being extremely easy, is good for beginners while the last difficulty, expert, requires a great deal of dedication to the game, but once reached you feel a level of accomplishment. Another great thing about the design is the songs chosen by the creators. The game basically has changed my taste in music from just alternative rock to all different kinds of rock. Already I know many people have downloaded the entire soundtrack for the game. The design of the game is very simple, yet has become such a hit. It shows that you don't need superior graphics; only a great idea to turn into such a great game. (This entry has been edited1 time. It was last edited on Tue, 15 Jan 2008 02:21:05.)Tue, 15 Jan 2008 02:20:24 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1757&iddiary=3735https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1757SUMMARY: Guitar Hero III, as said in the name, is the third installment of the classic game Guitar Hero. The basic premise of the game is to use the guitar shaped controller and the given set of songs. The guitar has five differently colored buttons, each representing a fret on a real guitar, and a white flicker to represent the strumming. The basic goal of the game is to complete all of the songs in the given list. GAMEPLAY: I have been playing this game for a long time, and even though it is a very simple concept, it is as addicting as hell. The game has an ability to engross anyone who is playing and make them think that they really are the ones playing the song. In reality of course, this game improves your ability to play guitar just as much as DDR changed anyone's ability to dance. Its still fun to be in a fantasy world for the five minutes the song is playing and pretend to play guitar. To increase the addiction, this particular installment of the game has an excellent set of songs. They have a nice variety in the rock genre, so basically anyone would like at least a few of them. The new features in Guitar Hero III include an extra multi player setting called Battle Mode. This mode was entertaining for a while, but got old really fast because it didn't allow the player to listen to the entire song most of the time. I think the classic multi player modes such as co-op with a bass guitar, and the pro face-off are more fun. All in all, Guitar Hero III is a very fun game, and I recommend it to anyone who wants to pretend to be a rocker and play some of their favorite songs.Mon, 14 Jan 2008 01:43:41 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1757&iddiary=3496