Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=673https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3210GAMEPLAY If surviving this game wasn't hard enough, the designers also put in a special "chain" scoring system that adds even more difficulty to this game. I've played to the point that killing everything in my ships line of fire in any order of color has become relatively easy. However, the chaining system simply boggles my mind with what must be done to keep a "max chain". Chaining works like this: the player must destroy 3 of the same colored enemies to make one chain (ie: 3 red baddies or three blue and vice versa). After destroying 3 of the same color, the player is free to alternate colors to keep the chain going (ie: 3 red, 3 blue, or 3 red, 3 red 3 red, 3 blue... etc...). After 8 chains the player acquires a "max chain" boost which awards the max amount of points. The object of utilizing this scoring system is to keep a "max chain" for as long as possible. With 20 enemies of different colors on the screen shooting multicolored bullets at you, you can see why chaining 3 of the same color continuously would become rather difficult. I've managed to chain the first 3/4 of level one, but after that, it simply becomes too hard for me. However, I'm always up for a challenge. The last interesting thing about this game is when you absorb enough of the enemies shots (you also get points from this), you can use a "special" which shoots out up to 10 bolts of energy of your current color to seek out the enemies on screen. Because which enemy each bolt seeks out is random, it becomes hard to use this to keep a chain (it is possible though). DESIGN The graphics in this game for a SHMUP and especially for a dreamcast is utterly stunning. The designers did a good job in giving the backround a nice 3D feel, truly immersing the player in the fantasy world. This is rare in a SHUMP, because most of this "scroller shooters" depend purely on gameplay rather than 3D and great graphics to capture an audience. The bosses are also beautifully animated and challenging which gives a real sense of completion of each of the five levels. Don't let the five levels trick you into thinking this is a game with a small quantity of gameplay. It probably took me 20 to 30 hours of game time simply to beat the game on easy (without chaining), and I have been attempting different difficulties since as well as utilizing the chaining system. The five levels have definitely kept me entertained for the past year when I first started playing. Even though the difficulty of this game would probably turn many players away, my advice is to stick with it, for it is one of the finest SHUMPs ever made.Thu, 06 Mar 2008 19:57:25 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3210&iddiary=6043https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3210SUMMARY Ikaruga is a beautiful example of what can be done with the typical scrolling space shooter genre. This would probably be the epitome of the "manic" SHUMP as there are at least 100+ bullets heading towards your ship at any given time during the harder stages. What I found extremely interesting about this particular SHUMP is the ability to change color to "absorb" the enemies attacks. The two colors "dark red" and "light blue" are the two colors the player can utilize defend one's self against corresponding "dark red" and "light blue" bullets. Another interesting concept is that firing a color that is the opposite colored enemy does double the damage. GAMEPLAY As stated above, the thing that really makes this game interesting to me is the ability to change color. This simple concept really makes this game something special and unique compared to other shooters. Even without this color change ability, Ikaruga would probably still be a pretty solid and challenging SHUMP, but this little add-on bumps this game up to one of my favorite games of all time. One thing that should be noted is the difficulty of this game. It took me a LONG time to beat it on easy with three continues and the max amount of lives (5), but I loved the challenge so the time just flew by. Many of my friends who played this game thought it was fun, but gave up after dieing fifteen times on the first level for the fifth time. Even the first level can get completely crazy, and it requires a great deal of concentration to really utilize the "color change" ability. The first level, out of five, is pretty straight forward, as there is usually only one group of enemies of the same color on the screen at one time (although sometimes the mix it up to make it a little more tricky). However, towards the end of the level and advancing to the second, third, forth and fifth levels, the game starts to get completely crazy, as there are about 300 bullets of two different colors that are mixed together on the screen at all times. This is when it gets exceedingly tricky, and one must really concentrate to prevail.Thu, 06 Mar 2008 19:44:04 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3210&iddiary=6042https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2917GAMEPLAY Even though the single player campaign is simply amazing, I felt that where the game really flourished was its multiplayer. Not only is there a basic “deathmatch” mode, but there are also unique settings such as “license to kill” (one shot kills) or “the man with the golden gun” (where only one person can carry the most powerful weapon in the game, the golden gun, and killing him/her yields points). The game play in multiplayer is especially smooth, where up to four players can play simultaneously, in cleverly designed levels . Some of the levels come from the single player campaign, while others were specifically made for multiplayer. Another interesting concept is that you can play from a wide range of Bond characters, not even from the movie Goldeneye, such as Jaws or Oddjob. After beating the game, you can unlock more characters which are all of the enemies you have faced in the game. Another interesting thing about this game are the cheats. Unlike most games, it is not as simple as “up up down down left right left right A B start” and actually requires some skill. Many of the best cheats in the game (purely used for fun) are unlocked in the hardest ways, such as beating the second level on 00 agent in 2:05 seconds or under (Most people take at least 7:00 minutes to complete such a task). This unlocks invincibility. Basically acquiring cheats becomes a time trial, but instead of just the bragging rights for completing a time trial, you also get game cheats to use for fun as well! DESIGN The level design in conjunction with the AI was cleverly thought out in the sense that although the game is of progressive gameplay, the designers managed to put a lot of emergent qualities in it. The AI (for the most part) will act differently depending on what you do as a player, for the levels provide adequate cover and vantage points to make every gameplay experience somewhat different. And the different weapons the player can use are astounding. Even though the weapons are named differently than their real life counterparts, all the guns are in fact modeled after real life weapons, such as the AK47. The designers obviously put some time into making this game as realistic as possible. Enemy character animations are spectacular. Rag doll physics didn’t exist at the time, so instead the designers animated over 50 death and wound animations. It might sound somewhat masochistic, but the different animations give the game a more “realistic” feel, which makes it much more enjoyable to play. The damage is also location based, so shooting someone in the foot will to a lot less damage by a well placed chest or head shot (even if it is funny to see them hop around on one foot).Thu, 21 Feb 2008 13:21:42 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2917&iddiary=5500https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2917SUMMARY In Goldeneye 007 64, you play as the ever popular James Bond from the 007 series, specifically the 007 movie “Goldeneye”. Because the game is played as a first person shooter or (FPS), it realistically simulates the feeling of acting as James Bond. As Mr. Bond, you venture through various levels (some taken directly from the movie), completing objectives like most progressive games. Although somewhat violent, the object of the game is to shoot (or karate chop) your way through these various levels in order to complete your objectives, which vary from planting a bug on a truck to blowing up all the gas tanks in a facility. GAMEPLAY When Goldeneye first came out, it was critically acclaimed as the “best shooter ever made”, while this title may not stand today, I still consider it one of the best FPS I have ever played. The game play is really where this game shines. Bond moves very smoothly and swiftly like any good spy should, and most of the weapons are a blast to use. In the first level, “The Dam”, I spend a lot of time creeping around taking out enemies silently with the infamous spy weapon, the “Walter PPK” (nicknamed the “PP7” in this game). Even though this is not necessarily a game of espionage with the advanced “creeping” technology of Splinter Cell, I still managed to pick soldiers off without them seeing me, as long as I used a silenced weapon. If I chose not to use a silent weapon, the soldiers sometimes managed to run away and pull an alarm, often ending in a huge group of reinforcements, sent to take me out. The unique part about this game is that there are three standard difficulties for this game. Not only does the AI get stronger and smarter as the difficulty gets harder (like most games), but new objectives come into play as well, opening up many new possibilities for levels where I thought I explored to the fullest. For example, in the first level on “agent” difficulty (the easiest level), your only objective is to get to the end of the level and bungee jump off the platform. On harder difficulties (secret agent, 00 agent) you then must disable all of the alarms and mainframes as well. I thought that this was done extremely well, for the game gets progressively harder at a modest pace, but doesn’t get so impossible that the player becomes extremely frustrated.Thu, 21 Feb 2008 13:21:00 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2917&iddiary=5499https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2516SUMMARY Many praise World of Warcraft as the best MMORPG of all time, and inherits the popular nickname World of War “Crack” because of it’s incredible addictive elements that makes players spend hours on end to complete just one more quest. For those of you who do not know, MMORPG stands for “Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game”, which separates itself from simple “Role Playing Games” because of the huge and expansive game world shared with real life players, rather than a solo trip through a world battling just computer controlled monsters. Much like an RPG, however, the player chooses an avatar (a total of ten races and eight classes) and slowly progresses through a game world. The objective is to vanquish monsters, complete quests and even destroy players of the opposite faction (alliance and horde) to make one’s character stronger, through experience and better magical items. GAMEPLAY The game play is very smooth and crisp, and at 15 dollars a month, it very well should be. There are two factions, the Alliance and the Horde, each with 5 unique races. Although they each have their own benefits, they are well rounded enough where their special racial abilities are not enough to make them a “bad” or “overpowered” race. I play a melee damage dealing class called the “rogue”. The “rogue’s” unique abilities are the “stealth” feature that turns me invisible and allows me to sneak around and perform deadly surprise attacks followed by a flurry of lethal blows. The downside is the fact that I have no way of healing myself and I have fewer hit points, making me a fragile target. Each class has similar benefits and deficits, and it seems that it’s almost like a more complicated “row sham bow”. The difference is that everyone has a chance of winning, rather than a set outcome of rock beating scissors, or paper beating rock. The single player campaign can become tedious. Most of the quests are: kill 15 imps or, collect 30 rocks. But the development of skills and new items makes the quests quite enjoyable, and there are many other things to do besides questing such as interacting with other players or leveling professions such as herbalism and leatherworking. You can gather herbs to level herbalism while you craft items from leather to improve leatherworking. These aspects of the game are well thought out and can really make the monotonous dull times worth the effort. Sat, 09 Feb 2008 02:13:11 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2516&iddiary=4836https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2516GAMEPLAY There are virtually no loading screens, which make this game, unique from other RPG’s and MMORPG’s alike. The only instances where there are loading screens are in fact, “instances”. “Instances” are also known as dungeons, or simply a small group’s effort of five players who team up to complete objectives. While the normal game can be played through as a team effort, Instances require the effort of all five team members, and it’s an aspect of the game that really makes it shine. These usually take 1-4 hours, depending on the instance. So be sure to have enough time to finish one before you start; your group members will surely become annoyed if you suddenly have to leave, and having a bad rep on you’re server is not a good thing. The teamwork element is truly astounding. The way it usually works in a five man group is; you have three damage dealing classes such as the mage or rogue, while the “tank” of the group (someone who takes damage, such as a warrior) holds off the enemies from killing the rest of the group, while the healer (ie: preist) keeps the tank, and everyone else alive. It gets slightly more complicated than that at higher levels, and the players start to really pay attention to what is going on to complete their objectives. The “big brother” of instances are raids, the 10 to 25 man versions of instances. This is where the “tank and spank” method becomes a bit more complicated. Even if the main elements are similar to instances, strategic leadership of the positioning becomes more of a huge part of the overall success of the group. DESIGN WoW is simply an ingenious concept. It seems to be a game that everyone can enjoy; it’s addictive, and incredibly fun to play. Even with outdated graphics, and some tedious game play, it looks great and plays smoothly, which in my opinion is way more important than impeccable eye candy with horrendous game play. The reason why this game appears to be addictive is the sense of challenge players get from playing the game. In truth the game is incredibly easy and requires very little hand eye coordination to really shine through as a tremendous player. I found that one exception of concept of skill is healing other players. The ability to think fast and target teammates is a difficult skill to master, and can be one of the most enjoyable classes to play. With that being said, however, there is still enough challenge elsewhere to keep even the most skilled player engaged with the instant gratification of receiving praise and epic equipment to keep them hooked. PvE (Player versus Environment) is perfect for a relaxed gamer. You slay animals and enemies for quests and items, and you slowly get stronger, you start to look better, and the world around you becomes more and more complex. If you take things slow, quests can still be difficult, but nothing will ever seem to be impossible. For players looking for a greater challenge, one can participate in PvP (Player versus Player) to compete against other players in the world. There are certain PvP games such as capture the flag and king of the hill that puts players of the opposite factions against each other. Although skill is more of an issue here, it still becomes slightly frustrating going against someone who has some of the best equipment in the game, where your skill soon becomes completely obsolete. With that being said, it is still a great game if you have the time for it, and I strongly recommend it to anyone with an interest in role playing games. Sat, 09 Feb 2008 02:11:44 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2516&iddiary=4834https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2275GAME PLAY With my negative comments noted above, each character also has every enjoyable aspects that although difficult to play, can be really fun to use. They designers did a great job in animating all the characters to have very unique and flashy moves that are directly from the original games they came from, such as Mario’s fireball and Yoshi’s egg toss. I find myself playing link simply to use his boomerang attack and powerful sword animations. The arena also plays a big part in the game play. Samus’s level (from metroid) has lava that continuously rises in attempt to burn players, while Kirby’s dreamland has wind to blow players off the map. While these aspects are fun, certain players can really take advantage of dangers of each arena. Link’s jumping makes it hard to make it back when jumping against the wind, while Ness can absorb the shots fired from R-wings in Star Fox’s level. DESIGN I thought that the design of the levels and characters were ingeniously thought out. Who wouldn’t want to play game with their favorite Nintendo Characters? Even with the imbalanced issues of the game, there is simply so much to do that each game is never the same. The game is designed so even though some characters are “better” than others, I find myself playing the “weaker” characters for a challenge and to experience their well animated move sets and abilities. The music is also a wonderful addition. Each arena has its own slightly buffed music from their original games. The single player is a bit weak, considering there is only about 11 levels with different bonus stages (time trials involving hitting targets and jumping on platforms). The AI can be tricked easily, even on the hardest difficulty. I found the only reason for playing the single player game is to unlock some of the bonus chars and set records for speed runs. But the real reason why people play this game is never for the single player. The multi-play is so vast and well thought out that one could spend hours thinking out new strategies and combos.Sat, 26 Jan 2008 02:58:15 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2275&iddiary=4359https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2275SUMMARY “In Super Smash Brothers 64”, the players choose various characters and have them battle in different “arenas”. The game is unique in the sense that all the characters and “arenas” are based off of other games made from Nintendo, such as Mario from “Super Mario Brothers” and Ness from “Earth Bound”. The story is slightly convoluted in the sense that they never textually tell the player what is going on, but what I derived from the opening scene is that a kid is playing with his action figures (Mario and the gang) and he or she is making them fight in his imaginary world during playtime. Since this is a “fighting game” it doesn’t get any more complicated than that, and it is simply a blast to pick your favorite character and have the ultimate faceoff in nostalgic arenas. GAMEPLAY What’s so unique about “Super Smash Brothers” is the game play. Even though it is a “fighting game” the characters do not have “life” that slowly diminishes over time every time they are hit by a move. Instead, the characters have damage meters that start at 0% to a max of 999%. The more damage a character has, the more the characters fly when they are hit. The object of this game is to hit the characters off the map into all four edges of the screen, instead of depleting their life. “Super Smash Brothers” has to be one of my favorite fighting games of all time. At a certain level of proficiency, however, there are certain nuances of the game that can be used and abused to make it impossible for other players of lower skill levels to even stand a chance. The “throw” ability, is easy to execute, and some characters such as Ness and Donkey Kong have extremely powerful ones that easily dispatch other characters at 70-100% (The average % to be eliminated is around 140%). There are also several characters that have balance issues that make them far superior or inferior compared to others. For example, Link (from Zelda) has horrendous jumping abilities that make him extremely viable to be killed at 40% if the player is not careful. Ness, (as noted above) has an extremely overpowered throw, as well as powerful jumping.Sat, 26 Jan 2008 02:38:40 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2275&iddiary=4348https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1853GAMEPLAY #2 Playing on the expert difficulty provides an exceptional challenge, and really makes it feel like the real thing. Because in truth, the player is actually playing as many notes as the real musician, the difference being it is on a toy guitar with five buttons. What I really like is that fact that it gives the illusion of being a musician without the horrid intonation and bloody callouses that have yet to develop on the fingertips. The aspect of teamwork is what really separates "Rockband" from "Guitar Hero". Since everyone is playing as a band, the players, although they may be playing on different difficulties, must all perform at a certain level of proficiency. If one drops out by failing, everyone starts to fail until he or she is brought back through the use of overdrive. This process can only be used three times on each player. Activating overdrive ("Rockband's" version of starpower) is a fun concept of "Rockband". It is activated by mimicing a rockstar's movements and actions. For example, the guitar's overdrive is used by tilting the guitar at a ninety degree angle while the singers overdrive is activated by singing or saying anything in a glowing section of the song. It is used for two things which really make everyone playing work together. It can multiply the total score income by x2 for each person who has it activated (up to a total of x8) or it can be used to "ressurect" someone who has failed out. My housemates and I ended up using this a lot for people in the "band" who insisted on playing on the "expert" level. DESIGN I thought the song choices were well thought out starting with easy-to-play ones like "Here it Goes Again" to Metallica's "Enter the Sandman". My only complaint is the lack of song options, but that is an easy fix given the use of the internet. New songs are available for download practically every day. The background is also really interesting to watch although it's hard to focus on playing too. Even though the graphics weren't the same caliber as "Halo 3" or "Gears of War", it was realistic enough to provide eye candy away from just the "notes". It was nice to hear the "crowd" cheer when my band played well, and inspirational to hear them boo us. It all adds to the feeling of playing music in front of a live audience. The beauty of "Rockband" is simply it's simplistic but ingenious design. There are only five buttons, but it does an excellent job of imitating the five strings, spree of frets, and limitless impossibilities on a real guitar. The drums are simply drums. Drummers say that if you can play expert on "Rockband" you probably have the coordination to play real drums, although there probably is the problem of knowing which color applies to the various parts of the drums et. But even the complexity of drums is narrowed down to the simplistic learning curve involving colors. It really involves everyone, musicians and non musicians, in a group effort to "play" music together without the use of a music teacher and diligent practice. With a little bit of getting used to the concept, everyone can be a rockstar! (This entry has been edited2 times. It was last edited on Mon, 14 Jan 2008 23:34:35.)Mon, 14 Jan 2008 23:19:28 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1853&iddiary=3652https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1853SUMMARY In the rhythm game Rockband, the player is given one of the various game controllers acting as instruments: guitar, drums, or a microphone; and is then challenged with the task of "performing" the song according to directions notated on the screen. The player then chooses a song from a list(generally the songs are pretty popular amongst the modern society) and plays the song tapping the correct colored buttons in rhythm to the colors shown on the screen. The user is then "graded" by his or her performance based on how many "notes" were played correctly. GAMEPLAY The phenomenon of rhythm games has taken the world by storm since "Dance Dance Revolution" hit the arcades. Then "Guitar Hero" was released and became one of the most popular rhythm games to this day. Recently, the rhythm game "Rock Band" was released and added to the simple but ingenious concept of interactive rock guitar in video games by adding bass, drums and vocals as well, all playable simultaneously, as if the participants really had a band in their living room. For those of you who do not know how the game works, the objective is to hit, strum of sing as many notes accurately notated by colors falling from the top of the screen. There are five colors acting as buttons on each of the instruments: green, red, yellow, blue and orange. Instead of having A, B, X, Y, etc. on a controller, you have these colors as substitution in order to make the game work. In the actual game, these five colors, in that order, are positioned at the bottom of the screen acting as beacons that light up when pushed down on the appropriate instrument. As the song plays, the different colors fall from the top of the screen at whatever tempo the song is, and the player's job is to push down and strum (or strike) the corresponding color (acting as a music note) when it is in line with the beacons at the bottom of the screen. If a note is missed, the song playing is interrupted by a "wrong note sound", meant to give the player the impression that you are actually playing the song. The vocals is a much simpler concept, and it is very similar to a karaoke machine. The only difference is that it grades the player's singing by a "pitch meter" that is notated by a line and an arrow. The arrow is the player's current pitch, while the line is the correct pitch. The object is to get the arrow lined up as close as possible to the pitch line. I especially liked the gameplay of Rockband. The designers really did a good job of adding that sense of accomplishment to the completion of a song. It gave me the feeling that I was really playing a guitar, drum or singing in a professional group, and the music that I was making was genuinely "rock" material. I am currently a music major as a trumpet player in UCSC, and it was great to capture the essence of playing a guitar without the steep learning curve. Virtually anyone can pick of a Rockband instrument and pass a song playing on the easiest difficulty, and it still provides the feeling of genuine accomplishment. I've seen it in the eyes of our neighbors who consitently come over to play (This entry has been edited1 time. It was last edited on Mon, 14 Jan 2008 23:33:06.)Mon, 14 Jan 2008 22:33:57 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1853&iddiary=3641