Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=661https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3107Game Play: I Believe that Roller Coaster Park Tycoon is a great game that give the player vast control over all parts of game play. That said there are several problems with the game. The first and most major is that after playing this game through several levels having to wait 3 years(in game time) to complete an objective when you have already satisfied the conditions a little after year one is really annoying. The time it takes to complete a level can be an asset in the beginning but after some time at this game it is a major drawback. Another flaw that this game has is that even if you have new roller coasters and new theme parks, the theme of the game is still the same. You can only build roller coasters for so long before it becomes boring. After the first couple of levels you are just going through the same motions to complete objectives that you have already completed. Another problem that occurs in the game is that sometimes your theme parks are so small you are unable to build some of the big coasters that the game has. At certain points in the game you fill up your theme park before the goal is met and the only thing left to do is sit there and what the time pass. This can be really boring. Another aspect about the game that can be both good and bad is the need for handymen and mechanics. While it is cool that when a ride breaks down the game automatically send someone to fix it there are some cases where the computer controlled character is so stupid he will wander around the same part of the theme park and get lost. When this happens your rides don’t get fixed and you loose money. In general this is a very good game if taken in little increments. One level a week will enhance your enjoyment of the game while hiding the flaws that pop up so often. Design: The games design is very well done. All of the rides have a lot of customizing features even if you pick pre made coasters. The game also gives you the ability to advertise, hire employees, alter terrain, build one of a kind rides, and alter how money is spent all through out the park. These elements of game design are really very innovative and only seen in games like the Sims. This game allows you near total control over all the actions taken in the park and how your park will be run. The roller coasters are really cool looking and only get better after investing money in ride improvements. All the levels vary from flat grass lands to hilly forest, and desert areas to lakes and islands. Because certain rides are very particular about where and how high they can be built it is often times a challenge to find the right peace of land to put your ride without taking up to much space for more rides in the future. Sometimes you will be given a park that is almost completely vacant and you need to make a Roller Coaster Park from scratch or you will get a working park and will need to improve it in some way. Often times when playing the game you will realize that you don’t have enough money for a particular action. You are allowed to take out a loan from the bank but your line of credit is limited in the beginning. You must also learn what is an appropriate amount of money to charge for rides and admission. If your prices are too high people will not come and you will not make any money. The tone of the game is often times happy and up beat and this is reinforced by the music that is playing in the background of the game and all the sounds that are common to a theme park. This is a very god game despite some pretty large flaws and the design for a game of its time is very good.Thu, 06 Mar 2008 01:05:12 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3107&iddiary=5804https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3107Summery: In Roller Coaster Park Tycoon the player is given control over their very own theme park. They have different goals that they mush accomplish by building up their theme park with roller coasters amusement rides and stalls where people can buy things. Once you have completed several challenges new parks and ride open up for you to try. Game Play: I decided that I wanted to play a game where there was a little more control over the game than you find in most platform games. I like the ability that I have in the game to control all aspects of the park. I love to see how much money I can make and how cool I can make all the roller coasters that I have access to. It is even fun to build roller coasters that are so over the top that no one will go on them, just because you can. Each level lasts for quite a long time; I can spend hours on a particular level before I have completed the objective. Even beyond that if there is a park that I feel can continue I can still build on it even after the objective is finished. In my opinion this is a very fun and engaging game but it is a very one player oriented game and it can drag you in and make you forget about the time. It is fun thou to show people what you have constructed after you have completed a level. I always love to show off my coolest original coasters to friends and family after they are completed. I have been yelled at for spending too much time playing this game. The game is relatively easy and very engaging in the beginning but it does get harder as time progresses. I feel that the flow of the game keeps people interested and can very easily make one loose track of time while playing.Thu, 06 Mar 2008 00:34:35 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3107&iddiary=5783https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2819Game Play: I mentioned that one of the really terrific features about Super Mario 64 was that it was open and expansive. While I still fee that this is a great part of the game I do feel that some of the levels were too confusing and too open. Sometimes looking for that last star or figuring out how to complete that last quest can be really irritating. Another flaw that I saw in the game was lack of story. The reason that I always fall back on long RPG’s is that I like story that keeps you playing and keeps drawing you back in. It is kind of like a good book where you just want to read one more chapter before you go to bed. I think that even standard games can be fun if there is an interesting story tying everything together. That said I feel that after the first hour the story needed to be better. I had played several levels by that time and I was getting bored. I could see picking this game up and playing for a little while but nothing like my 12 hour marathon on Elder Scrolls 4 Oblivion. The game play is fun but not completely unique and there is not much beyond that to encourage a person to play it for more than a couple hours at a time if that. Because this game is solely a single player game there is no draw for other people to want to play it with you and once you have gained all 8 stars from a level the only reason to return to it is if you want to shoot yourself out of a cannon just for fun. I think that this is a good game but I feel that in some areas Nintendo did actually use Super Mario 64 as a crutch making certain aspects of the game really good and completely missing others. This makes for a game that is not too well rounded and a burden to play sometimes. Design: Super Mario 64 capitalized on the then state of the art aspects of the N64. The 3D aspects of the game are phenomenal and make for a great non linear game that has loads to offer. The challenge of the game is that unlike most Mario games before and since which were very linear this game makes use of the 3D environment to create big open worlds to explore and more than one way to complete each level. This is also one of the drawbacks. With so much free movement and so many ways to complete the level it is often easy to get lost and turned around. Because each level is different each room housing the “painting” that allows access to each room as well as the level have different music suitable to the mood of the level. In the dungeons the music is spookier than it is on the floating level that is wide open and sunny. Also because the rewards that one gains either don’t affect the play of the game or don’t appear often it is often the case that the rewards are not as important as they could be. For example, stars are gained at the successful completion of each level but they only unlock new levels. They don’t have any barring on Mario or his progress in the level. The hats that Mario gains like the wing, invisible, or metal cap don’t appear all that often and even when they do they are often difficult to use well. Thus I feel that the reward system leaves a lot to be desired. This is an ok game from a game play perspective but it is a remarkable game from a design format, for a game of its time.Thu, 21 Feb 2008 01:39:23 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2819&iddiary=5336https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2819Summery: In Super Mario 64 princess peach is once again kidnapped by Bowser and it is up to Mario to save her (yet again). In the game Mario enters Bowser’s castle and must find the castles stars in order to find Bowser and defeat him. In the castle the way to get stars is to enter the worlds of the various paintings in the castle and complete certain objectives. When you have enough stars you advance to fighting Bowser, and then to other floors. Game Play: The game is relatively easy to control considering that you are in a 3D world. I often times get engrossed in games that contain massive amounts of story and linear progression and in Mario sometimes it is just fun to wander around and see where a new path takes you. The openness of the game leads to a lot of player choice but also requires you to complete various objectives to keep you on the story line. An example of the openness that players have is in the very first level. Some times it is fun to complete objectives and gain new stars but other times it is just fun to get the wing cap that allows you to fly and shoot yourself out of a cannon for no other reason than because I can. I feel that Mario is and will always be a classic Nintendo character. I feel that to a certain extent Mario is used to much by Nintendo as a crutch and some of their Mario games suffer because of it. In this particular case I do not find this to be true. I think that Super Mario 64 is a fantastic game that was and is innovative fun and challenging to play.Thu, 21 Feb 2008 00:14:14 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2819&iddiary=5249https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2534Game Play: As you progress into the game Okami the story starts to flesh out and you begin to meet new characters. You gain new weapons and new fighting moves that you did not have in the beginning. This adds a new feel to the game because it enriches the fighting of the game which started to lag. The brush part of the game still remains fun and you find new and fun ways to use it in both battle and just wandering around. It does get glitchy sometimes. If you try to bloom a tree for example, which become very important, you can be an inch off and the brush stroke will not work but move the circle up just a little and everything is fine. The brush can also be very demanding whine it comes to closing a circle and making strait lines. If things are not perfect then nothing will happen. That is not to say that once you get the hang of it, it is still a problem. I took about 30 minutes but I finally solved the problem and have not had problems since but those first thirty minutes were hell. In the beginning of the game the voices are easy to ignore but after two hours of play the characters voices get very annoying and there are cinematic that can not be skipped over. This can become a great source of dislike. For me it is not enough to cause me to stop playing but it is annoying. Design: As I have stated before that design of the game is very unique. It looks like a Japanese ink painting. Because the realism of the game is not there but the game has its own beauty and in many cases it is a very refreshing change from graphics intensive games on the market today. The brush is also another concept from Japanese culture that is very foreign to Americans. It is a very interesting change from the only power that matters is that of nukes and other WMDs. This uses Japanese faiths to bring a new feel to American videogames. So far the levels have been different but not varied. The levels look different but what is required in each is very much the same. It goes along the basis of, revive tree, do quest, get treasure. While this is fun if things don’t change it will get boring fast. The space in the game world or use of it is very nice in Okami. You are not forced onto a narrow path most of the time, instead you are put into a nice big open area and are required to find various treasures and complete the quests the game gives you. This allows a great amount of freedom when you are running around exploring. The tone of the game mostly is that of doom and gloom. The areas that you explore are usually cursed until you are able to revive the guarding tree of that area. If you step into the curse you will be surrounded by endless blackness and haunting music, and when you fight monsters you enter their realm which is the same as the area you were just in but dark and gloomy. This adds to the separation between cursed land and purified land. I feel that it is a very unique game with a lot of potential and I have really enjoyed playing it. It is new different and fun and in today’s game market that is saying something.Sat, 09 Feb 2008 01:26:22 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2534&iddiary=4790https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2534Summery: Okami is a game that centers on the power of the brush. You are the goddess Amaterasu reborn into the body of a giant white wolf. Your quest is to seal away the evil of the beast Orochi and cleanse the land as you did 100 years ago. You travel from place to place regaining the lost techniques of the brush that allow you to cut, create, bloom, bomb and many other god like abilities that alter the world around you. Game Play: I decided to play this game because it was demoed in class and it looked fun. I have always been infatuated with Japanese culture and the Japanese aesthetic really drew me in. The entire game looks like a giant Japanese ink painting. It is very unusual to say the least and I have always been drawn to that particular style of art. Along with the Japanese art look the names of the characters from Amaterasu the sun goddess in the Shinto faith to Issun the sprite that rides around and gives you advice which comes from Japanese fairy tales. I was interested in a game that I could play for a decent amount of time something between 20 and 30 hours. I am now in the middle of two 100 hour RPGs and I needed something that was quick but still had substance. The story so far is very entertaining and the characters are fun. The brush techniques that are incorporated into the game are very different from American games and are a lot of fun to play with. The difficulty level of the game is not so hard that it is always a challenge but the use of both combat and brush makes it tricky to use sometimes. All in all I highly recommend this game.Sat, 09 Feb 2008 00:46:04 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2534&iddiary=4763https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2147Gameplay During the second hour of game play I was still in the mood for mindless fighting so I did not get bored of the game, but as a single player I can see how the game can get boring. At some point I started to repeat some of the levels and characters that I had already played. No matter how you stretch it the only thing there is to do as a single player is whip the computer. One of the downsides to the game is the items that are periodically dropped for character use. The problem with these items is that some like the pokeball can cause instant K.O. while some of the other items are completely useless. This normally causes a mad dash to the items and gives the victor a perfect chance to kill his opponent. The game flows well because the game does not run on life but on percentage of damage taken. This means that a skilled player can continue a game for much longer than it would normally last with a set fixed health bar. All and all it was a load of fun and just what I needed. Design: The game is one more in a line of trademark 3D looking games. The characters have substance as do the surroundings but you are still limited to a 2 dimensional area to play in. This makes it necessary to jump and use objects both higher and lower in order to get around an opponent. The levels are tailored to each character but because there are only so many characters and thus so many levels at some point pretty quickly you run into old levels a lot. One of they ways that the game can be made more interesting is by increasing the difficulty level. That could mean decreasing the amount of lives that you have and or increasing the ability of the computer. Because the game centers around fighting and most if not all the characters are from other series’ there is no story or character bio driving the game. In multi player mode the game will tell you once a match is over who won and who lost but it will also tell you who did best on an individual basis. Thus several people can play as a team and still compete with each other. This allows the game to remain interesting and keeps people competitive. One aspect of the game that I do not like is that there are two characters that are able to fly to some extent. While I tend to use these characters a lot it does give a terribly unfair advantage to the person who can fly. A hit that would normally kill Mario will not kill Kirby. While this does not detract from the enjoyment the game gives it does tend to make it an unfair contest when you are playing against your friends. For its time the game was very impressive to look at but simple to use this is a very useful concept that many gamers myself included seem to like. This might be something to incorporate into my own game.Sat, 26 Jan 2008 02:02:03 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2147&iddiary=4293https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2147Summery In SSB of Super Smash Brothers for the Nintendo 64 the player controls one of several different characters from various games such as Mario, Pikachu or Kirby. In single player mode the object of the game is to defeat all the other characters as well as some bosses at the end. In multi player mode you can fight friends or computer controlled characters in anything ranging from 1 on 1 to 2 on 2 to 3 on 1. You can unlock different characters and play the levels on any difficulty mode that you like. Game play: Some times it is a lot of fun to play an in-depth 100 hour RPG but sometimes I just want a fun sometimes mindless fighting game. There is not much about SSB that is bad. The characters are old favorites and often fun to bash and smash. They all have various different special moves making playing with each character new and exciting. And each character has his or her own special level to play on. There is really no story behind SSB that is why it is such a great game when you just want all out mayhem without having to think much. This is a good game for single players but the best part comes out in multi player mode. This mode is not limited to multiple players though, it is better that way. One player can designate anywhere from one to three characters as computer controlled on any of four possible teams. With friends you can have them take over for the computer making this game loads of fun and making its replay value skyrocket. With the use of the teams you can have even 2 on 2 or you can have a four way battle royal or anything in between. The game is simple to learn a little bit more difficult to master and a really good time.Fri, 25 Jan 2008 21:13:13 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2147&iddiary=4118https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1952Gameplay: In the second hour of play not much changed. I still believe that the game is strong in story and combat. The special abilities of each character are varied and the cut scenes are enjoyable to watch. The battles are always random but certain monsters do appear in only one or two locations. This does make them hard to find but when found easy to hunt. Hunting is one of the side quests that I have really gotten behind. You carry around with you a battle recorder. This keeps track of how many monsters you have killed. In each level there are around six or seven monsters and after you have killed anywhere between 20-30 of each monster you get points. These points are totaled on a board that lists the top 100 hunters in the galaxy. As you kill more beasts you gain higher and higher rankings and at certain points you get rewards for attaining certain scores. This is an enjoyable and easy way to earn cool stuff. Another aspect of gameplay that I find very interesting and unique is the stamina gauge. Your player can only attack so many times before their stamina gauge runs out and you are forced to guard while it refills itself. This adds to a more realistic feeling to the game that you are not just allowed to continually attack with no regard to stamina. Another aspect that is interesting is the dual weapons. Every character has two weapons. One is ranged and the other is for close combat. The ranged weapon will run out of ammo and will take some time to reload. Weapons range form guns and swords to bows and arrows and hatchets. This creates a very interesting feeling to combat. The bad elements of this game are that many aspects can be very repetitive and boring. One example is the weapons synthesis. You can take two weapons of low level and combine them to create a better weapon. In order to combine weapons they have to be maxed out which requires fighting with them for 10 to 20 battles. The problem is that only some weapons can be merged with each other. Because of this you may have to max out the same weapon four or five times in order to create duplicate weapons to combine with other weapons later in the game. This process while it creates very good weapons and is not a requirement to the game can become very annoying to those that want to get more out of the game than just the story. Design: The game world is designed very well. While many of the levels are strait forward get from point A to point B they do have a maze like quality where going in a strait line is either not advisable or not even possible. This makes the game simple to understand yet some what more difficult to execute. The levels range from a desert planet to a jungle planet to a world filled with the best technology the galaxy has to offer. That said many of the levels are very similar and many of the monsters are recycled. A monster that is called a mish will show up in later levels as an ancient mish. The differences will be that the ancient mish will be stronger and a different color but it is the same monster none the less. Another aspect of the game that is very well done is the music. The music that is played in the background adds the tone for the particular level that you are on. When entering a different area the music changes to signify weather you should be scared, alert, or safe. The music coupled with the stunning landscapes of the various worlds lends a feeling of reality that is often lost in video games. The story of the game does seem to be a little obvious at times but there are many twists and turns that add to the enjoyment of the game. There are a lot of cut scenes in the game but they are blessedly short, taking only a minute or two before and after major fights which allows the story to continue in a satisfactory manner without interfering in gameplay to much. For those that like to complete 100% of the game it might become a little repetitive at some points but all in all this is turning out to be a very enjoyable game.Wed, 16 Jan 2008 21:45:11 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1952&iddiary=3828https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1952Summery: Rogue Galaxy is an RPG centering around the character Jaster Rogue. Jaster is mistaken for a famous hunter named desert claw and asked to join the crew of the infamous pirate Dorgangoa. The story centers around the hunt for the mysterious planet Eden and the trials that Jaster and crew face along the way. The characters go from planet to planet and fight small creatures along the way as well as large boss battles. You can play as any of eight characters while two others are controlled by the computer. The object of the game is to get to Eden before anyone else does. Gameplay: The gameplay in Rogue Galaxy is on the whole very good. The characters are very enjoyable to follow. Most if not all have good back stories and many have mysterious pasts that make the story all that much more enjoyable. The story itself is something of a mystery in the beginning. You as a character are not told why you are joining Dorgengoa's crew just that he is looking for all the best talent in the galaxy. When you learn what the plan is you find out that you are searching for a planet full of treasure that disappeared over 10,000 years ago. The combat in the game is real time not turn based which makes the game more enjoyable and requires more skill. The combat system also allows you to pause the fight in order to access various menus. This is helpful for those people that have not mastered using a menu and frightening at the same time. The game claims that is has over 100 hours of game play so at times it can be a little long but for the most part all the aspects of the game come together to make the game flow very well and create a very enjoyable experience. Because this is a single player game it does not lend well to interacting with friends.Wed, 16 Jan 2008 20:27:16 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1952&iddiary=3827