Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=627https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=30002ND GAMEPLAY: After getting some practice on the Koopa Troopa course, I was starting to finally feel a little better about racing my friends and doing better than last place each time. Finally, I got 3rd place and I was so happy. After that, we decided to try another course, and then I decided to play with another character. I decided to be Toad, and we tried the jungle course that I believed resembled a scene like Donkey Kong. I was doing a little better, which definitely made this round of gameplay a lot more enjoyable for me. Then, we decided to try the Rainbow course, which in my opinion is the hardest course in the whole game. There are a lot of steep hills, and it is extremely easy for the car to fall off the side into the black space. When this happens, you lose a lot of time and you get placed right at the space where your avatar fell. I did get last place again, but I was satisfied because I felt I had gained a lot more experience with it and I was definitely having more fun with the game. I'll probably play this game a lot more now. DESIGN: I am an extremely big fan of the graphics and the designs of each of the race courses in this game. There are a bunch of bright colors, and everything seems like it has a lot of detail. For example, like I mentioned earlier, the Koopa Troopa course had many detailed aspects about a beach, even including little moving red crabs. Little features like that gave each of the courses more of a realistic feel. I liked how even though this game is definitely not a platform game, it had some platform-like aspects. For example, in the Donkey Kong-like course, the avatar had to jump over the cracks of the cliffs in order to progress in the race and get the cubes containing the special powers. Also, in the Koopa Troopa course, there are ramps that your avatar must jump off in order to get a fast time in the race. Overall, the design aspects of this game are extremely appealing and they definitely drew me in to the gameworld and gameplay.Wed, 05 Mar 2008 03:17:36 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3000&iddiary=5644https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3000SUMMARY: Mario Kart is a racing game containing all of the characters from the various Mario Brothers games. The overall goal of the game is to try and win the race in the fastest time against the other competitors. 1ST GAMEPLAY: I have never played Mario Kart before, I had only watched my brother play it when I was younger, so this was kind of a trip for me. First, I decided to be Peach, and I decided to race on the Koopa Troopa course. This race course resembled a beach that had a bunch of palm trees, rocks, moving crabs, and many other elements. There were also red and yellow striped ramps that were on the sand and at the top of the ramps were the boxes that the avatars tried to get in order to achieve a certain power to help them out in the race. When I started playing, I was getting pretty frustrated. Mario Kart is definitely a game that is harder than it looks. The people who I was playing with were pretty experienced, so they knew about certain shortcuts to take and certain things to do that would allow them to get faster times and always beat me. I also kept going off the track and into the water which would make me go slower. After each race, I would always come in last place, and I was really starting to get frustrated.Wed, 05 Mar 2008 02:49:56 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3000&iddiary=5643https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=28422ND GAMEPLAY: As it turns out, my hypothesis was correct. For my second round of gameplay, I tried Wii bowling. I must say in my opinion, Wii bowling is WAY easier and more fun than Wii baseball. Once again, you act as if the controller is the bowling ball, and in order to roll the ball at the right speed without bouncing it on the lane, you have to release the controller at exactly the right time. I was doing really well with this, and I was definitely not as frustrated with the bowling as I was with the baseball. However, I'm not going to lie...at first, I kept bouncing the bowling ball on the lane because I was not releasing it at the right time. This was definitely frustrating for me at first, but after a few turns I definitely got the hang of it. As I took more turns, I was hitting more pins. I definitely got used to the buttons on the controller and I knew the right time to release. DESIGN: The design of Wii Sports is extremely realistic, as well as the sounds. I really felt as if I was literally inside a bowling alley, due to the detailed sounds and graphics. There were no levels or anything, but the graphics were still detailed enough so that the player could become completely engaged in what is going on in the game. Also, because it emulated actual sports games, the player is able to easily relate to it. I really like how the Wii controller and graphics were put together. Like I said before, it's really nice how the player can become so interacted with it that the game experience is way better than just sitting down with a plain old controller. I can definitely see how and why the Wii became so popular. It can only get even more popular from here. (This entry has been edited1 time. It was last edited on Thu, 21 Feb 2008 02:20:40.)Thu, 21 Feb 2008 01:40:53 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2842&iddiary=5340https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2842SUMMARY: Wii Sports, played on the Nintendo Wii, contains a combination of sports from baseball to golf. The overall goal of Wii Sports is to win the type of game in which you decide to play. 1ST GAMEPLAY: For the first round of gameplay, I decided to play Wii baseball. It was EXTREMELY challenging. I was playing against my friend who had played this game many many times, not to mention he is actually a baseball player. I had never played anything on the Wii before, so this was definitely a new experience. The cool thing about the Wii is that you as the player are physically interacting with the game, as opposed to just sitting down with a simple game controller. Aside from the frustration, I really enjoyed this aspect of the Wii. The movements are also extremely lifelike. For example, everyone knows how to swing a bat from either watching baseball players or by a parent or someone teaching another. In the game, in order to hit the ball, you have to use the Wii controller as if it was a bat. I honestly was not getting any hits and I was not doing well at all. At that point I realized that I should probably try another game because I might do better with something a little easier than baseball.Thu, 21 Feb 2008 01:17:41 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2842&iddiary=5310https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=23932ND GAMEPLAY: When I played Bejeweled for the first round of gameplay, I played in Classic Mode. This round, in order to make the game more fun, I decided to play in Arcade Mode. Arcade Mode poses the exact same rules that Classic Mode does, except for the fact that Arcade Mode contains a time limit. Now, the player has only a certain amount of time to try to find all of the rows of gems. The time disappears extremely quickly, and I found that each level was more difficult than they were on Classic Mode. Because of the addition of the time limit, I was definitely having more fun playing this game. Even though this is a game of emergence--simple rules with more complex game quality, I got a little bit of adrenaline trying to pass the level while beating the clock. Also, because the cardinality of the game is only 2D, there is only a limited amount of playing space, therefore there is only a certain amount of combinations of jewel movements to create sets of 3, 4, or 5. I ended up losing a few times, but the experience was significantly more enjoyable in this second round of gameplay, because of the addition of the limiting factor. DESIGN: I have always really liked the design of Bejeweled. There are a variety of different types of jewels, and they are all designed so well and detailed that they actually look like the real jewels. In addition to this, the jewels all possess bright colors so that they can attract the eye immidiately. The sounds that the game make when the player collects points is upbeat and pleasing to the ear. All of the bright color schemes with the contrast of the dark background along with the ear-catching sounds make this game extremely appealing. I have found that many puzzle games do not seem to attract a lot of players, but this game definitely is the opposite. The graphics were definitely one of the main reasons that I have even heard of this game. I could easily play this game all day if I wanted to.Fri, 08 Feb 2008 03:18:59 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2393&iddiary=4545https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2393SUMMARY: Bejeweled is a puzzle computer game. The goal of the game is to find as many of the same gems in rows of 3, 4, or 5 before the time runs out, depending on what mode you choose to play in. 1ST GAMEPLAY: After seeing Bejeweled being played in class for the game demo for the midterm, I decided that I wanted to play it for my next gamelog. For the first round of gameplay, I played on classic mode, which was just utilizing the standard rules. At first, I was really enjoying myself trying to find all of the gems in 3 to 5 of a kind; I've always found this game to be extremely addicting. I was going through levels pretty quickly, and I was receiving a lot of points. After awhile, I was starting to get kind of bored. Even though I was doing really well and getting through the levels rapidly, I felt like there was really no challenge. Because of this, the game was not really fun anymore. It kind of made me feel like I was wasting my time; playing the game for absolutely no reason. That is when I realized that if I was going to do a second round of gameplay, I needed to change something to make my game playing experience a little more enjoyable.Fri, 08 Feb 2008 03:04:50 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2393&iddiary=4542https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2080GAMEPLAY #2: After playing Super Smash Brothers for another hour, I definitely got more used to the game. I still lost first every single round, but I lasted longer in the game. Then finally, I came in second place, and I definitely was not as frustrated anymore. I learned that I have to be more patient, even though often times I just want to do well at the game. Another reason that I started to like the game more was because I decided to play as more than one character. For the whole first hour I was playing as Fox, and then for the rest of the time I played as Yoshi, Kirby, Jigglypuff, Mario, and Pikachu. From this, I learned which characters are more useful and whcih characters do better in the fights. Varying between many different characters also makes the game way more interesting. DESIGN: I really liked all of the graphics in this game. For example, all of the different levels have a lot of graphic details. There was a level with bright green trees and a large pink heart. However, I noticed the moving clouds in the sky, because the characters would often times jump on them. The movement of the clouds along with the bright colors make this game very appealing especially to the younger demographic. Another element of the design of the game that I really enjoyed was how the happy, upbeat music matched the characters' expressions. For instance, Jigglypuff's eyes got larger when he did something good, and then the music was all happy. The addition of the music with the detailed graphics of each level enhance the graphics even more. Not to mention, the characters bright colors make all the graphics stand out even more, which is one of my favorite elements of this game.Fri, 25 Jan 2008 03:37:23 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2080&iddiary=4009https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2080Super Smash Brothers--Nintendo 64 SUMMARY: Super Smash Brothers is a fighting game using the characters from various Nintendo games (Mario, Kirby, Yoshi, etc.) The overall goal is to raise the other players' percentages which would kill them off. GAMEPLAY#1: I have never played any game on Nintendo 64, so this was definitely a challenge from the get go. So when I first started playing, I had no idea what I was doing and I was extremely frustrated. I was just pressing the A and B buttons along with using the center controller, experimenting and seeing what would happen when I pressed a certain combination of buttons. I kept getting angry because I kept losing first, but I guess that's understandable because I have never played before. While playing around with the buttons, I discovered that I could do tricks with my character with the four smaller buttons. When I pressed these buttons, I noticed my character was doing all sorts of jumps and flips in the air over the other characters. Then, I noticed that with another combination of buttons, my character would occasionally receive weapons, usually in the form of a glowing sword. Unfortunately, I don't remember what buttons I used to get the weapons. So far, it seems like I need a lot of practice.Fri, 25 Jan 2008 03:24:09 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2080&iddiary=4008https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1784SECOND GAMEPLAY: So after playing for another hour, I became even more frustrated. We decided to play the Battle option. You can choose different difficulties for each player, and once a player gets a streak of correct notes, that player receives different powers that makes the other player do badly. If both players make it past the battle, the sudden death round occurs, and whoever messes up first loses. That part of Guitar Hero can get extremely competitive. I got extremely frustrated because I kept losing every battle, even when I decided to play on an easier level. Because I was frustrated from the battle it carried over to me just playing regular songs, where I didn't do as well. I realized that I liked just playing the song normally rather than with an intense, competitive battle atmosphere. It was still fun, but the battle portion can make the game a little less enjoyable. DESIGN: The principal controller of Guitar Hero is a guitar with five bright-colored buttons, with a "strum" button in the middle. On the screen a vertical guitar neck is shown with the different buttons. The Easy and Medium levels do not include the orange button, but the Hard and Expert levels require that button. The extremely cool thing is that even though it is a video game, the guitar is very realistic and you feel as if you are using an actual guitar. This game has become extremely popular because the songs in the game are all new songs being released right now. This means that the majority of teenagers will want to get this game more than others, because the music in the game appeals directly to the typical video game demographic. Another appealing aspect to this game is that in order to completely beat the game, you must beat the last bonus song on Expert, and everyone who plays the game strives to get to that point. The bright colors shown on the screen along with the strong element of pop culture makes this game extremely attractive to gamers.Mon, 14 Jan 2008 02:52:50 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1784&iddiary=3553https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1782SUMMARY: Guitar Hero III, Developed by the makers from ActiVision, is a video game that allows you to play along to classic rock songs with a guitar. This guitar has give colored buttons, and the goal is to hit the correct button at the right time in accordance to the song's rhythm. FIRST GAMEPLAY: So far, I'm really enjoying playing. There are so many songs to choose from, and it's nice to be able to choose the difficulty level of each song. My character is Casey, a blonde girl avatar, and I am playing against my friend who chose the other girl avatar with pink hair. Thus far I have been playing Pro Face-Off, which is when you pick a song for two players to play. Then you pick the level of difficulty for the song: easy, medium, hard, or expert. It's very fun to compete and play the song at the same time. I've noticed so far however that it's extremely frustrating when I miss a note. Once I missed a note, I became off on the rhythm of the song, causing me to miss even more notes. The more notes that are missed, the more likely it is that you will fail the song. I'm glad that with QuickPlay, you cam play whatever song you want, whenever you want; whereas with the Career option, you can't play certain songs without passing the ones before them. Once I start playing more songs, I'll have more of an idea of my skill level.Mon, 14 Jan 2008 02:34:26 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1782&iddiary=3537