scatfist's GameLogBlogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=684Beautiful Katamari (360) - Thu, 06 Mar 2008 02:29:56https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3142GAMEPLAY: Upon playing this game even further, I've realized that I still don't know the plot of the story because even the english text translations of the originally japanese text makes little to no sense. Any culture other than the Japanese would not understand pretty much anything in the game other than that you have to roll things up to a certain size in a set amount of time. The songs in the game also add to the over all ridiculousness and hilarity of Beautiful Katamari. The funny japanese elevator music and weird pop music makes the game just that much more fun to play because you have no idea what is going on, yet you can't seem to stop rolling things up into a ball. This aspect is also what has made this game and its predecessor so successful, in that both are so ridiculous and japanese that it becomes almost fun to play to enjoy its weirdness. This game is awesome to play and is probably the most trippy game possibly made by man. GAME DESIGN: The level design in Beautiful Katamari is strange in the fact that all the levels are just the same setting, but on different scales. Thus, you end up rolling things in the same place a majority of the game, but as the objectives become bigger, more of the world is rolled up. In the last level of the game, you go from being the size of a person on a small street view, to rolling up planets and stars and weird intergalactic items such as the character's mother, the queen of the cosmos. The game keeps the player interested by allowing different and more awesome things to pick up. Like in one level for instance, you have to pick up a bunch of xbox 360s and it's just strange surprises like that which make the game more alluring. Like nothing could be more awesome or trippier than rolling up cities, pieces of land, full continents, and eventually the earth.Thu, 06 Mar 2008 02:29:56 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3142&iddiary=5923Beautiful Katamari (360) - Thu, 06 Mar 2008 01:55:00https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3142SUMMARY: This game is extremely trippy. The entire game is founded like its well known prequel, Katamari Damacy, and basically rolling things up into a ball provides for amazing fun. You play a so called prince who's father is the King of the Cosmos and you have to roll up items in ordinary life, like shovels and people. This in turn somehow creates planets and you need to make enough planets to eventually gain enough mass to roll up the sun and the stars. It's pretty intense. GAMEPLAY: This game would be amazing to play on acid. The game has somewhat primitive graphics and the dialogue boxes which pop up during gameplay get a little annoying but everything else about the game is pretty fun. The way you pass levels is by rolling the ball up to the specified radius or in special levels, keeping it a certain temperature or something else ridiculous. The bigger the ball you are rolling, the bigger things it can pick up. After you've collected enough to move up to the next size of items, you can move to different areas and pick up crazier and crazier things. The growth of the ball is exponential pretty much, so the end of the levels are always intense, with growth level going on extremely fast near the end of the time limit. After you reach the goal, it lets you know, but you keep going until the time limit runs out, so most of the time the planet, or 'katamari', is bigger than the goal of the level.Thu, 06 Mar 2008 01:55:00 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3142&iddiary=5858Shadow of the Colossus (PS2) - Thu, 21 Feb 2008 02:31:33https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2830GAMEPLAY: Upon playing San Andreas further, more and more of the storyline unfolded as I beat mission after mission playing as CJ. As you beat more of the game, you get more "rep" for your gang and cause your crew to be bigger and more powerful. By playing more and more, your skills in the game go up and your character becomes better and better with more missions beaten and more playtime. By playing this second session, I achieved the highest skill level of "hitman" for my assault rifle and submachine gun which allows me to kill more efficiently. I've been adhering to the missions pretty much the whole time and have unlocked much of the city which I was not allowed to travel to when I first started playing. I also realized that Los Angeles is not the only city in the game and that San Francisco is also in it along with many other places in it. The only complaint I might have about the gameplay is the repetitiveness of it as well as the small annoyances of things in the game. Without the missions, the game would be lame because there would be nothing to change up to nature of the game. Also, little things such as getting in the wrong car multiple times in a row or getting busted by the police as you're about to beat a mission for tapping their car causes a lot of frustration by the player. The ability to customize your character's appearance to a certain degree adds to the game's entertainment level a bit because by making him look as ridiculous as possible with an afro and a handle-bar mustache makes the fact that he is a hardcore gangster that much funnier. DESIGN: This game is of course amazingly fun and will consume many many hours of late nights. The control over the main character is not that amazing however. I felt that the controls didn't allow for as much control of the character as I would have liked. The variety of weapons was improved in this edition of GTA and the new additions such as cars with hydraulics and the ability to carry a crew of gangsters in your car makes the game different in many aspects from that of the previous games in the series. Such new additions are what set this title apart from that of say Vice City or the original GTA. I also enjoy the long lasting storyline of the game. The game does not end after just one or two days of intensive play, but after many many days spent working towards completing all possible missions. It starts out simple with CJ's homecoming and getting the gang together again, but soon becomes an enormous and intricate story including numerous run-ins with al types of gangs and unique characters. The endless quality of the world with so many numerous NPCs makes GTA: SA endless in a sense, which makes the game playable forever without running out of things to do because the game world is constantly changing. The player can kill pretty much infinite numbers of people and yet they will continue to keep coming.Thu, 21 Feb 2008 02:31:33 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2830&iddiary=5418Shadow of the Colossus (PS2) - Thu, 21 Feb 2008 01:30:11https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2830SUMMARY: In Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, it's the same old grand theft auto, but this time in what is supposed to be Los Angeles. You are a character by the name of Carl Johnson who came back home from being gone 5 years in Liberty City when his mother was killed. Now he is trying to restore his gang's former glory by reppin his hood (Grove Street) and being the baddest gangster around. As you complete more and more missions, new and more intricate storylines unfold including tagging rival gang territories and pulling drive-by shootings of other gang members. GAMEPLAY: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is just like all the other GTA's, entertaining and addictive. I played the first GTA as a kid and every time a new title would come out, beating it would be my #1 priority. The controls are simple enough and easy to pick up after not playing for a long time, as I discovered playing this game after not playing for years. The graphics were not as amazing as I had remembered them being back in the day, but graphics seem to be getting exponentially better with each game that comes out. Even though the main character has been changed once again, I was immediately engulfed in the complex world that is Carl Johnson's gangster life. When rolling with your crew in the game, you pick up new and interesting weapons like the chainsaw and quite a few different types of shotguns and assault rifles. The story of the game is unique as are the other GTAs because of the players choice to adhere to the missions or to go do random other things throughout the city such as going on a killing rampage until your wanted level causes the military to come. The game world is so incredibly large in San Andreas and since I grew up in Los Angeles, it's fun to see parts of the city which I recognize. The vast amount of possible ground to cover in the game gives the player the feeling that they can go just about anywhere. Doing the missions provides for some fun, but sometimes the game is most entertaining when going off on random tangents throughout the city.Thu, 21 Feb 2008 01:30:11 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2830&iddiary=5325Super Smash Brothers (N64) - Sat, 26 Jan 2008 02:33:35https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2121Game play: The main focus of the game is multi-player which is possible with up to 4 friends. This quality of the game makes it more social than most other games and gives it that classic game appeal. The controls are easy enough once you get the hang of them. The whole game is combo-attack based so coming up with combos results with success most of the time. The great thing about the game is that each character has unique abilities able to beat other players, the only determining factor of who will win is the skill of the player. The more adept the player is at playing Super Smash Bros, the more he will win. It is definitely a skill oriented game and the more skill you have, the more you will own your friends. Game Design: The game design is pretty much flawless and thus it has become a classic. The controls are easy to get the hang of, yet it is hard to become extremely good at the game. I purchased my N64 in elementary school and yet, I still play Super Smash Bros from time to time with buddies because it's not just about beating the game, its about the competition between friends. This game design aspect gives the game a "party" feel, where up to 4 people can play at a time and not leave people out. The use of objects and different game types also gives advantages to certain players and gives the game its uncertainty of who will win every time. The greatest part of Super Smash however, is the integration of other classic video games into it. The ability to battle in levels of Starfox or Zelda or Pokemon makes the game attractive to all kinds of gamers and thus its popularity arose. The fact that its characters and levels are all borrowed from other classic video games makes this game appealing to most all age groups and gaming preferences.Sat, 26 Jan 2008 02:33:35 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2121&iddiary=4337Super Smash Brothers (N64) - Sat, 26 Jan 2008 02:13:05https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2121Summary: Super Smash Brothers is a nonstop fighting game in which the characters are all classic video game characters. You can play as characters such as Donkey Kong, Mario, Kirby, Link and quite a few more. The game is geared towards multiplayer games between actual people but don't forge about the single player game. In storymode, you start out as your character of choice and continue to go from stage to stage, getting more difficult along the way. Eventually you encounter special characters such as metal mario and the final boss is a giant, gloved hand. Game Play: The single player game is remarkably fun even though you are playing the computer and doesn't get old very fast. The special abilities of each individual character is what makes the game entertaining, because there are so many different tactics for each character that you can't get tired of it, you just trying playing with another character. The different stages of single player mode provide for a variety of challenges and new things to do. The fact that each individual character has unique abilities makes the gameplay a lot more interesting. An interesting part of playing the game was the percentages of health in which the higher the percentage, the easier it is for the opponent to blast the character out of the arena and score a point. The fact that Super Smash Brothers is still popular to this day, even though it came out so long ago, is a testament to its fun factor and proves that even with its inferior graphics in today's gaming world, it continues to be a favorite among many many people. It is classically addicting and you continue to want to play it even when you have been playing it for hours because there is always the incentive to get better in order to beat friends and make them respect your authority. Sat, 26 Jan 2008 02:13:05 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2121&iddiary=4304Gears of War (360) - Tue, 15 Jan 2008 02:39:26https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1866Gameplay: One thing about the game which I found took away from the total awesomeness of the game is the lack of full control of the character. The controls were not as accurate as they could have been. I felt as if the character was doing random dodges and climbing over things I didn't want him to which in turn led to my virtual demise at times. An aspect of the game which makes it unique is that the concept of "cover" is essential to winning. In order to get past almost all parts of this game, you must take cover behind anything and everything possible in order to get to the next checkpoint. This makes gameplay entirely different than if it were not centered around cover by changing the strategy used to get from place to place and cover to cover. Game Design: Gears has many aspects which make it extremely appealing to the user. One such thing would be the amount of pure bloody gore used. When you get a headshot, for example, the skull explodes very graphically and blood sprays everywhere with other bits and pieces of cranium visible. Also, the melee attack with the assault rifle is a chain-saw bayonet which cinematically displays your character slicing through the body of the attacker which temporarily sprays realistic blood all over the screen. This accentuated use of gore and violence adds to the interest of the game in pretty much all males playing the game. This gives the game a more "badass" quality and thus, more pre-pubescent boys to full grown men want to play it. The game has three different difficulty settings which enables users of all levels of gaming to enjoy the game to its fullest. The hardest setting is extremely difficult which gives the gamer something to work towards and is always challenged. The graphics are stunning and it defintely adds to the game a lot. It may not be too realistic in things such as the size of the charaters, but the gore and surroundings are delicious.Tue, 15 Jan 2008 02:39:26 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1866&iddiary=3763Gears of War (360) - Tue, 15 Jan 2008 02:16:24https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1866Summary: Basically, Gears of War is about the near future in which Earth has been invaded by a force of monsters which emerge from underground. These invaders, called "Locust", continue to annihilate most of the human race and destroy most civilization. The user plays a soldier named Marcus Fenix who, along with his squad, attempts to destroy the underground network of tunnels in which the locusts dwell and thereby rid the earth of them once and for all. Gameplay: From the moment I began playing, I was enthralled by the storyline and soon became engulfed in it as I began to play more. Soon enough, more and more epic shit was happening which made it so I couldn't stop playing because I wanted to know whether the resonator would actually destroy the locusts' civilization. The storyline is definitely essential to the game's success and it's clearly evident why once you start playing it. The game at first was nothing more than a shooter, but as the game went on, I found that parts of it were actually scary. I was actually scared to go around corners for fear of radioactive wretches popping out and screeching before jumping and killing me. This fact about the game made it much more appealing than just any ordinary shooter because it actually had my heart-rate up and made me literally jump multiple times when something such as the lights suddenly went out and eerie creature noises filled the room. This dark aspect to the game definitely gave the game a more edge of your seat quality. Tue, 15 Jan 2008 02:16:24 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1866&iddiary=3730