Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=724https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3019GAMEPLAY: The more I played the game the more interesting it became. The levels are well made and each have their own unique characteristics. One part of the sand level which I found very funny was the penguins. There is a field of maybe 10 penguins pacing horizontally across the level. If you hit the penguin then you get flipped over and it makes a funny penguin noise. This heightens the intensity of the game due because you see the penguins but it is hard to avoid them. This is somewhat of an equalizer because everyone has the same probability of hitting the penguin and same chance of lagging behind. Another level has a bunch of spinning tea cups, symbolizing the ones from Disney Land. These are almost impossible to avoid or dodge. This results in all the characters getting stuck in the same place, bouncing off these tea cups. Everyone gets to share the frustration. The flow of the game is really fast paced and easy to play. You can see a large distance of the level in front of you, unless you are going off a jump. If you go off the jump in a straight line, you will not hit any walls or objects on landing. You have to acquire coins through the level so you can get weapons. Another way to acquire money is through tricks, so if you are able to land enough tricks it doesn't matter if you don't get coins. If you don't have money it is devastating because when you hit an item box you just bounce backward, losing all momentum. That is a big factor in this game you have to keep your momentum because the acceleration is very slow. DESIGN: This game is one of a kind, I haven't seen a game combine snowboarding, tony hawk, and mario cart into one game before. It also has a special way of separating items. There are two boxes on the top of the screen, one for red item boxes and one for blue. They cost the same, 1 coin, but serve as different functions in the game. The red box is for shooting items, weapons used to knock the player over or inhibit him from keeping his momentum. There are various items as weapons: you can shoot them with a parachute and knock them into the air, turn them into snowman, blow them up with a bomb, freeze them, or hit them with a hand. They each have their own method of stopping the player, which leads to different strategies for using them. The parachute boosts them in the air and makes them slowly float down back onto the level. The best time to use this weapon would be on a jump, because he will have the maximum amount of falling distance allowing for you to make your pass on him. The ice weapon is also good right before a jump because they lose all their momentum and are not able to do a trick. The other kind of item, the blue item box, are weapons that alter the game play but do not actually shoot at specific players. Some are even just for your advantage, for example the fan which boosts you and the invisible board which can protect you from incoming fire. You can also set rocks on the snow which cause people to trip over them, but it is also possible for you to run over them. This is were the coin rat can be obtained. You can steal everyones coins and become filthy rich. This item would best be used right before a player is about to run into an item box. So not only would you steal their coins, but they will run into the box and bounce back. Another interesting part of the game is the way you make laps. It is somewhat realistic in the perspective that you have to go on a ski left to go back to the front of the level. The way you do this is by running into the lift entrance at the end of the level. The lift only allows one person in at a time, and it takes a while before the character actually enters the lift. So, two people are rushing toward the entrance, the first person there will be let on while the other person is knocked backward and looses all momentum. During this period another person can pass and take the next spot on the lift changing the character's placement in the race. This can be very frustrating at times.Wed, 05 Mar 2008 17:51:04 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3019&iddiary=5671https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3019SUMMARY: This game is a cheaper, but fun version of a snowboarding game. You don't have to press anything to go forward, you just start boarding down hill. It is not at all like real snowboarding because the point of this game is to gain the most speed possible, loop around the track the required amount, and reach the end first. There are many jumps throughout the levels, some trick jumps which are there for the character to do flips and tricks off of. The way you do tricks is very interesting, it is like tony hawk pro skater controls. You have to hold down the jump button A and press a direction, when you release the button he will flip or spin in that direction. It also has qualities of Mario Cart because it has item boxes, which allow you to attack the other players. GAMEPLAY: I had tons of fun playing this game, and everyone that has played it has loved it. The simplicity of the game allows for a steep learning curve and even battles. One thing thats easy about the game is the home seeking shooter items. Almost every single one of them are home seeking and you don't have to lead off the character or shoot directly at them. The characters are very interesting, they only have 3 characteristics, and 3 stars for each. So there are not many variations, but they are very distinct. Each character has the same sum of stars, just in different permutations. Not only are you able to choose which character you want, but you get to choose what kind of snowboard you want to use for the race. Each snowboard also has the same sum of stars and different permutations, allowing for you to choose the smartest combination of character and snowboard. The narrative is very simple but catchy, especially to people that like to snowboard. The story is that it is just a bunch of kids racing on snowboard for fun. This game has a surprising amount of social interaction. This is due to the creativity of the weapons and obstacles throughout the levels. One level in particular there is a giant snowman that shoots the snowman weapon, which if you get hit by it, you turn into a snowman onto your snowboard. Not only do you look hilarious but you are not able to turn. This means you can go straight into a wall and lose position in the race easily, or get lucky on a straight away and not lose your place. There are weapons that allow you to steal every characters' money supply, which is needed to acquire weapons. This in turn sparks a lively conversation of trash talking throughout the players and can be game turning.Wed, 05 Mar 2008 16:31:24 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3019&iddiary=5669https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2684GAMEPLAY: The more I played this game the more I began to notice how unique it is. The gameplay that is set up like a gameboard allows each player to "roll the dice" by hitting a block that randomly cycles through numbers. It has a very limited range of where you can walk. sometimes you have to choose between a fork in a road to follow the path to the star. Sometimes you can buy an item, or a win an item by landing on a green item space. These are another aspect of the game, which only one player plays. It is like the 1v3 except that there are no other players involved. The one I liked the most was the barrel switch, where it shows all the items, covers them in barrels and switches them around to try and confuse you. These don't really take time or a unnecessary skill like most video games. The controls are usually uniform throughout all the mini games. The player usually only has to use A B and or Z along with the joystick. Usually these games consist of jumping up platforms, pressing A and B repeatedly, and or timing the buttons at the same time. At the rare occasion that there are more buttons needed, there are instructions before the game. There is also a very nifty option that allows you to play a "practice game". You can theoretically play the game as much as you want with no penally to any of the players, just beneficiary practice time for everyone to become more acquainted with the game. DESIGN: This game was very well designed and I can see why it is on the classics list. There are many different levels, and each level has its own special secrets. But the one consistency throughout the levels is the mini games. The same mini games, 2v2 games, and 1v3 games are present in every level. Yet each has their own ending when the level finishes. There is a sequence of events that lead to a "mystery hero" which is then unveiled as the winner of the game. A big challenge of the game, which is somewhat out of the user's control is the random dice block. When a 2 characters are really close to a star, it is eminent that you get the larger number that makes it all the way to the star or it can mean the difference between being a winner or loser. Another frustrating part is when you don't have enough coins, so you want to get a number low enough to stand right in front of the star so you can try and acquire more coins in time. There is so much social interaction in this game it is ridiculous. After every round of board play, you face off with every other player with usually only one winner. A lot of the time you are chasing after another player trying to hurt them in order to pull ahead, but this can lead to other players intervening and messing you up. In the case that there are teams, then it creates social ties with the teammates, and an enemy team which allows for a lot of trash talking. This is intense because you have to rely on your teammate to pull through in order to be able to win the mini game. Both of your coin counts are at stake. In the event of a 1v3 this causes so much tension between the players that it almost starts a riot. Usually the 1 player has some type of advantage, but still a very hard obstacle to overcome. So if the 1 player makes, he has full bragging rights over all the other players, and if he loses; all the other 3 players gang up on him and he is the only person out of the 4 not to get coins. The game does exhibit emergence complexity due to its simple controls and simple goals in each of the mini games. There is also a lot of technique involved in these games. Sometimes you have to wait and learn the most efficient way for accomplishing the task at hand. Sometimes the task is to press Z and R. But this doesn't necessarily mean who can press it the fastest. Other instances are to jump in the air with A and press Z to pound something into the ground. With experience you see that the game puts in subtle differences in how high you jump when you press Z and how far the object you are pounding goes down. All in all this game is very fun and one of the most unique ideas for a video game I've seen in a while.Wed, 20 Feb 2008 23:44:56 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2684&iddiary=5229https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2684SUMMARY: This game is one of a kind. It has an overall game goal was similar to monopoly, due to the fact that you wonder around a board. But the game is also constructed from smaller very simple games (mini games) to acquire more coins. The purpose is to by as many stars as possible with your coins given. There are tons of variations of levels and secret passages ways you can choose from. They even have more than just mini games; like duels and battles. These are high stake games and can easily change the balance in a game. The game also seems to have a lot of lucked involved with where you land on the board, what spaces you hit, and what happens during the level's special event. The event is unveiled when a character lands on a (?) space. GAMEPLAY: This game was made very well, due to the balancing and random probability put into the game. This intensifies the game play and allows for easy change of position in the game. There are even more variables called items, which can allow you to move many spaces, switch with a character, steal another person's item, and many other things. Also, there is a ghost whom you can pay to steal other people's coins and or stars. This creates a lot of room for back stabbing and tearing apart people's alliances. The characteristic that makes the game the most interesting is the mini games leading to buying stars. Mini games may not seem that important, but they are vital in winning the overall game. The entire game can come down to who wins a particular mini game for a star. These mini games are very original, and easy to play which makes the game so fun. The games usually don't use too many different buttons and don't require any independence. They are all usually timing, estimation, and or luck. The only frustrating part of these mini games is that you have no control over which game you choose. There is a random bar that cycles through a selection of 6 to 7 certain games, and stops randomly on one of them. What is so frustrating about this is that it can lead to many instances of the same game, and or all games that are not liked by everybody. This also allows for people to have their own special game, and when presented with the right game, they will always excel above the rest. Another aspect and completely different part of the gameplay is team mini games. There is a whole new set of mini games for this, both 2v2 and 1v3. These can influence the game in many ways, and sometimes are the most fun out of all the other mini games. The way the game decides this is if you land on a blue space or a red space. The green spaces just randomly choose blue or red before the mini game.Wed, 20 Feb 2008 02:35:34 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2684&iddiary=5061https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2589GAMEPLAY: The more I played the more I discovered about this game, and how it can be complicated. If you sack the quarterback twice in a row, then your team is on "fire". This gives you unlimited turbo running and an advantage over the other team. You tackle harder and the computer plays better on your team. It is possible to get it while on offense, you just have to pass and complete it to the receiver that blinks before the play. If you get fire on offense, it is a lot more useful because you are harder to tackle, and can throw the ball incredibly far. When people try to tackle you, the character just drags them on their back until tackled again by another player. This sometimes can mean the difference between a touchdown or not, which makes it really unfair for the other player. All this mayhem contributes to a great conversation between the players. A lot of trash talking is involved and game outcomes disrupted from the crazy rules of blitz. If you have 4 people playing, or at least another person on your team, it allows for a lot more strategy that the computer is incapable of. One example is the computer doesn't tackle the player until they actually catch the ball, which allows for unnecessary risks. You can just continuously tackle the player and not allow for any open targets on the field. On offense the player can actually knock over the defender, and create your own route. You don't have to follow what the play the quarterback chose. DESIGN: This is a very fun game to play, but the passing mechanics are really not user friendly. It gets very frustrating and annoying at times. The way the passing works is by highlighting one of the 3 receivers by moving your joystick to one of three options: right, left, and down or up or middle. Those choose between the receiver on the right, left, and the one in between them. This leads to many mis-passes and passing to people that are knocked over. Accidentally passing it to the wrong person is very likely. Especially if the receivers are running a route where they run past each other and switch field position. There are even more mistakes because sometimes a receiver will be running a route off the screen, where you can't see. So you think you are passing it to the guy on the left, but you actually are eying the guy in the middle. So you end up passing to a guy that isn't standing or that isn't open. The more I played the more I found out the probability of fumbling on a onside kick are exponentially increased. So there is really no point in kicking it all the way down the field, because there is a large chance they will just hail marry it down the field. It is very easy for the receiver to out run the defender, and let a 80 yard pass/touch down happen. If you are going to stop them, you have sack them and obtain fire or just take out the receiver quick enough, so it doesn't matter if they are all the way down the field or close to the touchdown. Therefore an onside kick is one of the best strategies in this game, you have a huge probability of obtaining re-possession of the ball. This can easily lead to another touchdown. I actually went on a few sprees were I scored 3 or 4 touch downs in a row, then still lost. It almost seems like if you are the first to start winning in the game, the odds are put against you and you fumble easier and throw more picks. This allows for anyone to win this game if they can just grasp the basic concept of it.Sat, 09 Feb 2008 18:48:48 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2589&iddiary=4922https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2589SUMMARY: NFL Blitz was probably the most fun out of all the football games I've played. This is because it is the least realistic football game I've played. Either the gravity portion was altered or just their strength and ability to launch themselves extraordinarily far. Almost every tackle is an amazing one, and every tackle looks like the guy got seriously injured. The purpose of the game is the same as regular football though, score touch downs and field goals. GAMEPLAY: This game was very entertaining and easy to get into. I was definitively in the magic circle while I was playing this game. The rule alterations from regular football allowed for much different strategies. There are no rules against pass interference, which in this game is actually tackling the guy before he catches it, and there are no rules against late hits. You can actually do wrestling moves on them after they are on the ground. Body slams, choke slams, any unnecessary move you can think of were apart of tackling the person. The announcers for the game were also key in the game. They are always screaming and talking up the game to make it sound exciting. As soon as you catch the ball, and you have no chance of making it, they will still start screaming "He .... may .. go.. all .. the ..way!!!" and other phrases like that. So when a crazy play actually happens, which occurs a lot in blitz, it hypes up the game play. There is never a for sure winner, because of all the fumbles and interceptions that occur during the game. So you always have to be on your toes when you're playing this game, anything can happen.Sat, 09 Feb 2008 18:16:49 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2589&iddiary=4921https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2018GAMEPLAY The more I played Super Smash Brothers the more I realized the game does not get boring. Due to the vastness of variables in the gameplay, the match can go either way, not always depending on the skill level. Items are such a great way to allow any character to gain an advantage. I also found there are different modes of multi-player, one which uses time and one that uses stock lives. The timed version seems to be a lot more fun because of the way it is scored. The person with the most kills (KOs - deaths) wins the match, and in the event of a tie sudden death mode is initiated. This is where each character is an obscene amount of damage percentage, which in turn means the smallest of attack can send them flying. So usually it means the first person to inflict damage wins. DESIGN The percentage of damage is one of the most innovative ideas I've seen in a video game. Certain attacks do a percent of damage, and have a different degree of impact on the character(how far they fly after an attack). The higher the percent, the more vulnerable the character is to fly the furthest. So, when you have a character with high percent, and is hit with an attack that does a very low percent of damage, it is still possible for the character to fly out of the screen and be KO'd if the attack has a large force of impact upon the character. I also found that the characters have different ways of jumping back onto stage. The most common form is two jumps and one attack that boosts them into the air. There are many exceptions to this though. Characters that are small and are easily knocked off the level have more jumping abilities than the rest. And if a character is not knocked off easily, then they have fewer jumps or not as much range in their jumps. These qualities of characters are very important and actually make up a big part of the game. The slower characters have more powerful moves and usually are not thrown off the level that easy. Each good quality of the character is evened out with a bad quality , making the characters fight in their own special way. Each character has different strategies and combinations that they can do. The one most frustrating part of the game was people that are considered "edge campers", where they just stand on the ledge knocking you back every time you get close to coming back. After the character uses the certain amount of jumps awarded to that character, and they are attacked in the air, they are not able to jump anymore. So after you use all your jumps a person can just knock you back and you will just float helplessly off the end of the level. Thu, 24 Jan 2008 22:25:55 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2018&iddiary=3947https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2018SUMMARY: I can see why Super Smash Bros is considered a classic. The single player is almost the same as the multi-player component of the game. The purpose of the game is to knock the opponent off the stage or level, by either launching them too far to the left, right, up, or down. This allows for a lot of versatility in ways to eliminate your opponent. There are many attacks for each character, most of them unique to just that certain character. There are items that are dropped in the midst of battle, allowing for unfair advantages to be obtained. GAMEPLAY: The game was amazingly intense, because they added the option to hold onto the ledge if you come close to the side of a stage. There are also background noises of an imaginary audiences that cheer or "ooo" when there is a big hit or some one barley makes it to the edge of the stage. They even clap at good plays and at times even start cheering a character's name if you start doing really well. This makes you strive to do better and out do your opponent. The story line for the single player isn't really a story line, you just battle every other character as a computer. Sometimes you have the odds against you so you have other characters on your side, or the enemies are really easy to knock out of the level. It is really fun but really doesn't follow a story line or plot. There are also secret characters that you can unlock by beating the single player with certain handicaps. I had to look online how to unlock these characters because it would have taken too long to figure out how by just trial and error. The single player can take a while if you play on a harder difficulty. This was one of the multi-player games that had the most interactions because of the tension built up with the gameplay. There are boxes that sometimes have items, sometimes explode, and other computer interactions that are special to the level you are playing on. Like in one level fox's spaceship comes and shoots randomly at anyone oblivious to stand in its path. It even shoots at fox, there is no exceptions to who gets attacked. Link's level has a tornado that starts randomly anywhere in the level and launches you in the air. These random level attributes contribute to the conversation. There are also items that can take away all your damage and can completely change the advantage mid battle.Thu, 24 Jan 2008 17:00:58 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2018&iddiary=3912https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1951GAMEPLAY: The more I played this game the harder it got in campaign mode. I disliked the fact that the missions were clear but it was unclear on where to go or how to complete them. I spent a lot of time wandering around with no idea where to go. The plot of the game amazingly parallels the plot of the movie, therefore further entrenching me into the game. The auto aim on the weapons gives the user an easy chance to shoot the enemies. There were also scientists that were not to be injured or your mission was compromised, which put another twist in the game. The intermission movies that connected level to level were very entertaining and gave me satisfaction in beating the level. There is no way to jump or even go off ledges, which constricts the mobility of the character, yet gives a certain path for you to follow. Interactions between players were few and not long, except when the mission concerned saving Natalia and escorting her to a check point. This made more time for killing and figuring out how to accomplish the goals in the level. DESIGN: The design on Goldeneye 007 was closely correlated with the scenes from the movie. Sometimes even the same missions that Bond so easily accomplished in the movie were in the game. It showed me it wasn't so easy being a secret agent. The only flaw that I think the game had was the aiming. The game made it so you almost had to always use the auto aim because the actual aiming was so hard to control. It was not only inverted, but always would be drawn back to the center of the screen once you let go of the joystick, almost making it impossible to keep it in the same position in the screen. This was very frustrating, especially when handling the sniper rifle. The point of a sniper rifle is precision, which was impossible due to the handicapped aiming. This was alright when playing multi-player because everyone was faced with the same obstacles of aiming. It allows everyone to evenly be handicapped for using the aimer. The more I played the multi-player mode the more I found out there were secrete walls and rooms. This made the game a lot more interesting and added a new dynamic to the game. Fake walls allow people to hide behind them and shoot you without being seen, therefore provoking turmoil and conversation among the players. One interesting aspect of the game was the weapon choices for multi-player. Everyone was able to choose what category of weaponry you wanted for each level, there for making each level have different strategies for different weapons. The one weapon I found the cheapest was the proximity mine. The golden gun is also cheap because of the 1 shot 1 kill, but it only has 1 bullet per round which evened it out. There was remote minds, which were manually blown up, and proximity mines which exploded once you got a certain distance from them. I discovered that you can throw these proximity mines underneath walk ways and it will still explode and kill the character walking above it. This is almost too cheap and made it so you can walk into a mine without even seeing it was there. Usually you are able to spot a mine and shoot at it to remove it from your path. Wed, 23 Jan 2008 19:31:55 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1951&iddiary=3881https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1951SUMMARY: Goldeneye 007 is a classic first person shooter game. The purpose for single player campaign is to accomplish certain tasks and missions assigned to you at the beginning of the level. You start out with just a pistol and the further you go throughout the level you are to kill the enemies and are able to pick up their more powerful guns. Some missions include bombing gas tanks or rescuing other personnel that are part of your government. The multi player was probably the funnest part of the game because you would just walk around levels of the campaign shooting at your friends, with everyone having the same opportunity to pick up more powerful weapons. GAMEPLAY: At times I was almost nervous because of the amount of enemies that were attacking me. Yet, for the amount of enemies present, there was just as much of lack of accuracy with their shots. They would miss so often and take so long to aim that it was almost impossible to die unless you stood in the open trying to make a peace treaty. The characters usually followed the story line of the movie with James Bond, and they did a good interpretation of them. Narrative progression was interesting and fun because everyone wnats to be a secrete agent. While playing the multi player there was a lot of interactions between the people because of the two way battles, and the sometimes stray person that comes in to take both of the kills when everyone is weakened. There was good flow to this game because the objectives were clear and easy to accomplish. There were also different modes of play were you can have more objectives to accomplish on the same level and more enemies to battle. This makes the game a lot more interesting because once you beat a level, you are able to go back and play the same level, but on a higher difficulty you travel throughout more of the level and discover parts that you didn't get to see the first time you played. The transition scenes are also really fun because he does the same type of daredevil actions he does in the movie. It gives you the feeling you are part of the movie.Wed, 16 Jan 2008 17:54:30 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1951&iddiary=3823