Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=683https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3109Super Mario Galaxy has very fun and fresh gameplay. As stated previously, the flow of the game adds to the gameplay a lot. Of course, there are many other reasons that SMG is arguably the best platformer on the Nintendo Wii. The controls are extremely tight; I thought this in particular was one of the reasons that I loved SMG so much. SMG is very much like Mario64, which I also enjoyed, but I never thought the controls for it were tight enough. In SMG, the controls are far beyond par for platformer controls, making the experience of playing it all the more enjoyeable. The platformer elements of most games as well as other Mario games are literally turned on their head in SMG; in SMG, the new ability to take advantage of the gravity mechanics and physics in a space environment make for a great addition to the usual platformer fair. DESIGN One of the most innovative elements of SMG is the gravity mechanics. This allows for an incredible change in how the levels are designed compared to previous Mario titles and other platformers in general. The player still technically has a "path" they will follow in any given level, but it feels much more open than other platformers. Mario can literally circumnavigate entire spheres in space, given the designers much more freedom with placement of enemies, rewards, and checkpoints. It also allows for more special hidden rewards such as Red or Green mushrooms to be hidden very easily. SMG makes very good use of the special power-up suits that are common in Mario games. Instead of having power-ups that make it easier to defeat enemies as in earlier Mario titles, the suits in SMG allow the player to navigate the world in different ways. For example, the Bee suit allows Mario to hover for periods of time, and the Ice suit allows Mario to skate on water, turning it into ice under his feet as he goes. This also allows for very interesting level design in SMG, as it allows the designers even more freedom in how they place the player's path. The game's reward structure is also very well tuned. As you play, you collect very common star bits, less common gold coins, and rare 1-ups and red mushrooms which give the player extra health. Collecting star bits in itself is fun because it makes good use of the wii-remote (point at a star bit and you collect it). Star bits are also used as currency sometimes in certain levels if you talk to the right Luma. Coins and star bits both give the player an extra life if enough are collected, and star bits can even be used as ammunition if you decide to shoot them as projectiles by pressing the B-trigger on the wii-remote.Thu, 06 Mar 2008 01:06:00 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3109&iddiary=5805https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3109Summary Super Mario Galaxy is a platformer on the Nintendo Wii that takes the loveable Mario through various galaxies. As you play, you collect stars to unlock more galaxies and eventually save, you guessed it, Princess Peach. Gameplay Super Mario Galaxy's characters are all very cute, though shallow. All of the characters are very brightly colored, unique, and many of them are recognizeable from other Mario games, but like the story of Mario games, the characters in SMG don't actually have much "character". The "lumas" that help Mario in his journey usually repeat one line to you over and over if you talk to them, so there isn't much information you can get out of them. Also present is Rosalina, the woman that Mario meets on the mysterious world he wakes up on after Bowser catapults him into space at the game's start. Mario is as likeable as ever, but like always he's not much of a talker. The same goes for Bowser, Luigi, and Peach, who all make appearances but are really only more likeable than the Lumas because we as an audience have known them for so many years. The story of Super Mario Galaxy is just as flat as any other Mario game. Princess Peach is kidnapped by Bowser, you play as Mario and have to save her. As stated previously, at the game's start, Mario is flung into outer space by Bowser and wakes up on a planet. The player is then introduced to the Lumas and Rosalina, who watches over the stars in the galaxy. You spend time in between each level on her observatory which eventually becomes mobile once you have collected enough stars, allowing you to travel to the center of the universe and save Princes Peach, though probably not once and for all. SMG's gameplay has excellent flow and pace. The levels aren't ever too long or too short, and new elements are introduced (such as surfing, skating, or new power-ups specific to certain levels) often so that you don't ever get too tired of playing the game. The landscapes and music also change just as often as the pace of the game does, making for a much better gameplay experience.Thu, 06 Mar 2008 00:38:13 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3109&iddiary=5786https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2872GAMEPLAY I found that the pace of Super Mario Brothers 3 is very easy to fall into, and for most of the game manages to keep a strong balance between challenge and reward. Mario rewards players in many ways which are scattered around the game. Power-ups are very common to find in levels themselves, as are coins. In addition, power-ups can be given to a player by visiting one of Toad’s Huts on the game world. Super Mario Brothers 3 also has an overwhelming amount of secrets hidden in its walls; the player is bound to find at least a few of them in every world just by chance. The game also manages to keep the extra lives coming pretty often. When you do inevitably die in a level, death is not met with too harsh of a penalty. You lose a single life and whatever special suit you had at the time of death, and must start your level over. In many cases, the frustration caused by dying itself over and over again in the harder parts of the game is punishment enough to the player in its own way. As far as multiplayer gameplay goes, the game is fairly limited. From the main menu you have access to single player game, a two player version of the game, and a mini-game built for either one or two players as well. In the two player version of the main game, players switch off after every death or level completion, one player playing as Mario and the other as Luigi. In the Mario Bros. mini-game, players run through a level of floors split up by green tubes, turning monsters over and then jumping on them. DESIGN Overall, Mario is a game that is obviously meant to keep people happy. The game is accessible to people of all ages, it isn’t too difficult, and it has a very accessible aesthetic style. Its bright color palette is put to good use in all eight of the different worlds to play through. Though it isn’t particularly innovative in and of itself, I enjoy the themes provided in each unique world (Desert, Ice, Grassy, etc). One of the very innovative elements of Super Mario Brothers 3 was the use of a game world map. In the first two Mario games, players would simply move to the next level in a shabby cut-scene, whereas in Super Mario Brothers 3 you actually move your avatar there. This allows for better gameplay because the player has a say now in how he or she accesses the game. Many of the levels in the game are mandatory to play, but there are many levels which are played solely to receive a Toad House afterwards, or perhaps there are two separate paths through the world entirely. This new use of choice in a platformer like Mario was quite innovative in its time. Super Mario Brothers 3 keeps the player interested by providing a good pace to gameplay and a good rewards system. Individual levels in the game do not ever take too long to beat, so you don’t really get tired of playing the same level over and over very often (though I do admit that some of the end-game is quite difficult). The game also manages to add content at a good pace. As you play, you very often will be faced with something new. Often it is a block type or a new level design gimmick. New enemies and power-ups/suit types are also added very often, keeping the game interesting. One other aspect of Super Mario Brothers 3’s design I very much enjoyed was its use of sound and music. The Mario soundtrack has always been very recognizable and fitting to the game. Its use of sound in the game is not very complex, and usually aids in alerting the player to what exactly is happening in the game world. If the player throws a fireball, a certain sound will be made. This happens also when Mario jumps or swims, when the player kills and enemy, when an enemy hits the player, when the player collects a coin or power-up and many other cases. Though it isn’t examined by the player very often, the game’s use of sound is very key in alerting the player to the events happening on screen.Thu, 21 Feb 2008 01:54:31 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2872&iddiary=5365https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2858SUMMARY In Super Mario Brothers 3 the player controls Mario, an Italian plumber with a penchant for princess saving. The player takes Mario through eight different worlds in his quest to save Princess Peach from Bowser and his goombas. GAMEPLAY Like most of the other games in the Mario series, the story isn’t particularly overwhelming, but the platforming elements keep the game fun the whole time through. The player controls Mario across a number of levels in eight separate worlds. At the end of each world, Mario takes an airship to the next world and follows the letters left by Princess Peach. In short, the story isn’t good at all, but that’s excusable. All of the different characters in the game are given very unique and identifiable personality, regardless of the limitations of the hardware the game was made for, or the lack of individual narratives. I applaud Super Mario Brothers 3 for not having to be overly complex to keep the audience interested. The game is just difficult enough that every platform you face on your way to the princess is usually very fun. Though when you break it down there isn’t much to the Mario formula, the game is still very fun and interesting to play. One of my favorite aspects of the Mario series is the use of power-ups to aid in playing the game. Mario 3 was the first in the series to allow the player to save the power-ups he had collected through playing the game. This made for some very fun strategies in certain levels.Thu, 21 Feb 2008 01:30:18 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2858&iddiary=5327https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2515GAMEPLAY In the second play session of the game, I was introduced to more advanced aspects of the game. The story itself branched out a little and allowed for more player choice as far as where your ship actually goes and what objectives you and your teammates are actually trying to complete. The enemies remain very interesting and watching your characters grow and learn new abilities, while par for the course, is always exciting. One fun aspect of Mass Effect is the weapon and armor customization. If you know that you are going to be fighting certain kinds of enemies you can customize your entire team's armor and weapons to take advantage of certain characteristics of the challenges ahead. Although the manner in which this aspect of the game was designed could have been better, that will have to wait for the next section. Sure enough though, I'm glad the feature is in there. Another great aspect of Mass Effect is how your actions dictate your Renegade or Paragon meters (bad/good respectively, pretty much). While this has limited effect on the game until bigger decisions are at hand, it's fun to get to roleplay a character, especially with a conversation system as excellent as Mass Effect's. DESIGN I think the general pace of Mass Effect is in itself not revolutionary, but unique and applauded. In playing it for some hours you find that you go through phases of combat scene after combat scene, then slow the game down for a good 20 minutes by talking to person A who needs help with person B, then the cycle starts all over. It works out very well in the end and makes for a great pace and flow for the game. As I stated earlier the ability to customize not just characters themselves but their equipment as well is welcomed, but the interface and pace of doing so could have been designed much better. It takes much too long to go through the unorganized list of upgrades available to a character who has been playing for more than couple hours. The same goes for selling items. There is no traditional drag and drop inventory system. Instead you simply have a list of crud you are hauling around, most of which you don't even want. The user interface for the inventory should have been scrapped and completley replaced, in my opinion. One of the other flaws with the game is definitely how long it takes to pull resources from the disk. While Mass Effect is a beautiful game, it takes much too long to get all the resources from the disk when moving to a new area, even taking an elevator to another level in the building you are already in (I figure many of the same textures and what-not should be being reused in a situation like that). The designers should have made a HDD necessary in playing Mass Effect, or perhaps added an option so that you could cache resources to your harddrive instead of spending up to a minute and a half waiting in an elevator. Obviously, the game is more good than bad though. The game lends itself very well to varied environments and enemies given that you are indeed traveling from galaxy to galaxy and planet to planet. The amount of artwork in the game is absolutely amazing. Varied characters, textures and sound all make for a great experience that doesn't feel the same going from one world to the next.Sat, 09 Feb 2008 00:09:06 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2515&iddiary=4743https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2446GAMEPLAY In the second play session of the game, I was introduced to more advanced aspects of the game. The story itself branched out a little and allowed for more player choice as far as where your ship actually goes and what objectives you and your teammates are actually trying to complete. The enemies remain very interesting and watching your characters grow and learn new abilities, while par for the course, is always exciting. One fun aspect of Mass Effect is the weapon and armor customization. If you know that you are going to be fighting certain kinds of enemies you can customize your entire team's armor and weapons to take advantage of certain characteristics of the challenges ahead. Although the manner in which this aspect of the game was designed could have been better, that will have to wait for the next section. Sure enough though, I'm glad the feature is in there. Another great aspect of Mass Effect is how your actions dictate your Renegade or Paragon meters (bad/good respectively, pretty much). While this has limited effect on the game until bigger decisions are at hand, it's fun to get to roleplay a character, especially with a conversation system as excellent as Mass Effect's. DESIGN I think the general pace of Mass Effect is in itself not revolutionary, but unique and applauded. In playing it for some hours you find that you go through phases of combat scene after combat scene, then slow the game down for a good 20 minutes by talking to person A who needs help with person B, then the cycle starts all over. It works out very well in the end and makes for a great pace and flow for the game. As I stated earlier the ability to customize not just characters themselves but their equipment as well is welcomed, but the interface and pace of doing so could have been designed much better. It takes much too long to go through the unorganized list of upgrades available to a character who has been playing for more than couple hours. The same goes for selling items. There is no traditional drag and drop inventory system. Instead you simply have a list of crud you are hauling around, most of which you don't even want. The user interface for the inventory should have been scrapped and completley replaced, in my opinion. One of the other flaws with the game is definitely how long it takes to pull resources from the disk. While Mass Effect is a beautiful game, it takes much too long to get all the resources from the disk when moving to a new area, even taking an elevator to another level in the building you are already in (I figure many of the same textures and what-not should be being reused in a situation like that). The designers should have made a HDD necessary in playing Mass Effect, or perhaps added an option so that you could cache resources to your harddrive instead of spending up to a minute and a half waiting in an elevator. Obviously, the game is more good than bad though. The game lends itself very well to varied environments and enemies given that you are indeed traveling from galaxy to galaxy and planet to planet. The amount of artwork in the game is absolutely amazing. Varied characters, textures and sound all make for a great experience that doesn't feel the same going from one world to the next.Sat, 09 Feb 2008 00:08:34 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2446&iddiary=4741https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2446 (This entry has been edited2 times. It was last edited on Sat, 09 Feb 2008 00:09:22.)Fri, 08 Feb 2008 20:30:39 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2446&iddiary=4644https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2205SUMMARY Super Smash Brothers for the Nintendo 64 (N64) is a unique fighting game best suited for multiplayer battles. Its roster of characters is made up of many familiar faces from other Nintendo games, including Link from The Legend of Zelda series, Ness from Mother/Earthbound, and Pikachu from Pokémon. GAMEPLAY One of the best features about the gameplay in Super Smash Bros. is definitely the character roster. Though there are not as many characters in many other fighting games such as Soul Calibur or Tekken, the fact that most people are already familiar with all or most of them gives the game a more personal and approachable feeling. The settings in which players fight also give the game the same personal and approachable feel as the character roster does. All of the battlefields used are inspired by Nintendo games, allowing you to battle on Hyrule Castle or Fox McCloud’s starship. This also allows all the maps to be architectured very uniquely, allowing for much better game play than just having flat surfaces with different backgrounds. The single player game, which is what I played for this portion of the game log, is what is expected of most fighting game. You control a single character as you play through various stages, fighting the other characters available in the game with a non-playableFri, 25 Jan 2008 23:13:37 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2205&iddiary=4176https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1864SUMMARY In World of Warcraft, an MMO RPG, the player controls their own personal avatar, running, fighting, and spell casting their way across the famed landscapes of previous Warcraft games. As the player defeats monsters and completes quests, the player is rewarded with new equipment, money, and experience points which increase the player’s level eventually allowing for new abilities and even further character customization. GAMEPLAY Though I was never particularly impressed with the half-dozen MMOs I tried in the past, I must say that after spending a few of hours with it, World of Warcraft seems much more compelling than its massively-multiplayer brethren. The starting portion of the game is just about as good as you can hope an MMO’s to be. That is to say, you can’t expect a game which revolves around the attainment of ever-more powerful and impressive spells and equipment to be very exciting to begin with. The beginning quests are fairly straightforward par-for-the-course MMO fare. Take package X to person Y, conveniently acquire another quest from person Y and collect Z dropped items from one monster or another. Make no mistake though; World of Warcraft is indeed fun to play, even at the beginning stages. With every critical hit my Gnomish mage scored, I felt a grin slide across my face. Likewise, I definitely felt a bit frustrated when my life was ousted by the likes of an oafish boar that somehow resisted three fireballs in a row only to rend my face into the dirt. That only goes to show that you get attached to your character even after only playing for an hour or so. One aspect of WoW that I was sadly not surprised by was the lack of attachment to individual missions and NPCs. As you meet NPC quest givers in your travels, they all seem to be equally forgettable. I personally don’t care if you need to make a new kind of beer or get eight cogs to fix your machine, I just want my experience and a handful of coins to add to my coffers. In the same vein of discussion, I recall watching a cinematic of some type when I first started my mage’s life which detailed the history of the gnomes and their current state of living in the land of Azeroth. Suffice it to say that I care as much about the history of gnomes as I did when I first played Warcraft II in the first grade; not at all. I suppose at the end of the day it’s better than Blizzard included all of this rather than drop you in a land with no back story just to have NPC’s tell you “take this package to the guy marked on your compass and I’ll give you some gold”. It’s a shame that MMOs still don’t seal a bond between the player and individual aspects of the world. Regardless, the ‘World’ aspect of World of Warcraft is very exciting overall, especially if you’re familiar with Azeroth by way of the other three Warcraft titles (five if you count Beyond the Dark Portal and Frozen Throne). Having only played the few hours enough to reach level eight, my avatar is still stuck in a sparsely populated frozen area where not much social interaction takes place. I’m sure this will be curbed after the next two or three hours of play once I reach a more well populated area of the world. 2nd portion GAMEPLAY In my second session I tried to pay special attention to the pace and flow of soloing in these early levels. I found that on most missions where you either had to kill a ton of enemies (most of them, it seemed) the pace was a bit off, but perhaps that’s just because I was soloing a mage. I couldn’t kill more than two or three enemies in a row without having to wait around a good fifteen to twenty seconds to fully restore my mana and health. While this really isn’t too long out of context, it was enough to definitely slow the pace of the game. Even so, I found that after hitting level ten finally, the pace picked up a bit. I was able to restore my stats faster with new spells and could generally play better defensively and offensively. Also, my character is now able to experiment with talents which works much like the skill tree provided in the Diablo series, also by Blizzard. In addition, I could now choose my professions (I believe that’s what they’re called, I didn’t actually touch on them myself) but I can only imagine how much time could be lost collecting that last piece of iron ore or cloth for your character’s crafts on top of the hours people spend grinding away for experience. After reaching level ten, I can say I’ve definitely had fun with World of Warcraft, but being the frugal college student I am, I think I’ll have to stick with video games I only pay for once. That’s the plan, anyway. DESIGN If there’s one thing I must applaud Blizzard for with World of Warcraft, it’s how smooth I remember the launch of WoW being. Every other MMO I can remember ever coming out has been plagued with a slew of bugs; broken quests, inaccessible areas, classes that need to be nerfed. WoW had the smoothest launch I believe any MMO has ever had, and I applaud Blizzard for it. That in itself may as well be an innovation for MMOs. Having a working product is obviously an incredibly important part of game design especially when it comes to MMOs. WoW has a very clean and accessible user interface, allowing players new to MMOs or video games in general to not feel overwhelmed, unlike other MMOs such as EVE. The general MMO experience grind is still as addictive as ever, though the recipe for it is hardly innovative. Grind, loot, quest, etc. Of course, what else could be expected? Excellent art direction is one of Blizzard’s strong points in World of Warcraft. If you have ever played Warcraft 3, you will notice the obvious similarities in not just character design and canon, but also in architecture, tone, and use of color. The color and world design in particular made me feel like the game shouldn’t be taken too seriously; the world feels cartoon-like. Blizzard was definitely not going for monsters that made kids wet their pants, instead just making the world look great without going for the hyper-realistic look that video games are tending towards. In doing this, Blizzard also allowed their player-base to be more open to the game. Not because people would be turned off by a different world design necessarily, but because with this kind of art direction there is not as much of a demand for a horrendously powerful machine to run the game (here’s looking at you, Crysis). (This entry has been edited1 time. It was last edited on Tue, 15 Jan 2008 04:08:36.)Mon, 14 Jan 2008 23:42:04 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1864&iddiary=3660