IKnowBrianYancey's GameLogBlogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=958Super Columbine Massacre RPG (PC) - Mon, 23 Feb 2009 03:00:02https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3655This is my final entry for Super Columbine Massacre RPG and it has remained at a constant level throughout the entire game experience, awful. The game seemingly attempts to prove certain points about how the kids were often made fun of or overlooked by society which could have caused their downfall, but this is all overshadowed by shock value tactics and rudimentary game play. After playing the game for a little over an hour and a half all that I have come to the conclusion of is that I want my hour and a half back and I think I need to go pray. As previously stated, this game was sickening to me. There was a myriad of people affected by this incident and the developer of this game basically turned it into a sprite RPG mockery. Although the game might not be blatantly mocking the situation and the developer has released a reason behind the game which does not include mockery, the game achieves nothing more than mockery. This was a serious incident in which many people lost their lives, and to turn it into a game is just cruel and unusual; it is scary how well it was probably received though. After my last escapade with the game I decided to walk around the building a little and try not to kill any more students or faculty members. This was a little tough to accomplish considering many of them would walk in seemingly random patterns at a pretty quick pace and you were bound to run into someone in many of the small classrooms. It was sickening how many of the students wouldn't even fight back, they would just cower and protect for the next attack. I can't imagine what was going through the head of the developer of the game as he was designing this. After walking around for a while and killing as least as possible I found the library and the scene in which you kill yourself. As this occurred I thought the game was over and I could stop playing, but no, I wound up in Hell which was somewhat of a redeemer. At least at the end of the game (I didn't get past Hell so I don't know what awaits me on the other end), it shows that after you commit all of these crimes you are sent to an eternity of pain and anguish (riddled with old DOOM characters). I did not collect all of the items throughout the game to help me through Hell and I kept running into the monsters that would just kill me repeatedly (and quickly). After trying over and over I was sick of watching all of those depressing photos of the victims and their families for five minutes and decided to quit. The photos seemed like a nice touch on the cover but were a little sick. After you just controlled a character to walk around and kill others, you had to watch the real families and friends grieve over their loved ones (and the crime scene photos of the murderers suicide). This made me feel even worse about playing the game. The major redeeming factor of the game is that I realized that you can walk through the game without killing anyone technically. If you are able to avoid everyone and get to the library quickly then it is at least a little more bearable to play. Overall this game seems to be an attempt at turning kids away from school shootings and violence, but it does so in such a sadistic way that it fails at its objective (if that even is the objective). Technically all of the killing is in the hands of the controller considering it can be avoided, but with lack of direction this is hard to understand at the beginning. I like to think that this game did not do well and was not downloaded much, but I know that many people wanted to either see what it was about or actually play the game for fun. This makes me question the moral fabric of society holistically, but this can be questioned through the success of many other games and films as well. I only hope that everyone is able to separate reality from the video game world, but I know this is not true with everyone.Mon, 23 Feb 2009 03:00:02 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3655&iddiary=6870Super Columbine Massacre RPG (PC) - Mon, 23 Feb 2009 01:42:16https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3655Today is my second day playing Super Columbine Massacre RPG, and it has gotten worse. I was hoping that maybe, just maybe they would take a higher route and make the murders something easy to swallow (if that is possible). But that did not happen in the least, I again felt awful playing the game and questioned why someone would make it. After I play this game, I feel like I need to go pray in some religious institution. The amount of pain that people had to suffer through these incidents is overwhelming, and for someone to make a video game based around these events where you play as the murderers is just sickening to me. I know this must be a redundant statement, but in this case I cannot play devil's advocate and back up this game in any way shape or form. To back off the moral logistics of the game for a moment, the game play has not evolved at all either, if anything it has degraded. I am not an RPG fan in any of the sense, but I do enjoy the occasional RPG. This one was confusing which lead to missions lasting longer than they should because you do not know what to do. I walked around for like fifteen minutes trying to find the spot that I am supposed to stand to watch the bombs go off. This was a huge annoyance that made me almost quit, but I finally found it. After the bombs went off, the murders began and again I felt like leaving the game. Killing the students (appropriately named "Preppy Girl" "Jock Type" "Nerdy Guy" ect.) was just plain terrible. Also, it was not made clear how many students you have to kill (if any), and where you need to go. I spent the rest of the time walking into every student I could pressing the auto play button. It became very redundant and I was bored within five minutes. I stopped playing after hitting every room in the main hallway and entering the side hallway, realizing how many students I have to kill. I do not know if I have to kill all these students, but it appears that I might. This game almost makes a mockery of the incident. The ease at which you can kill, reload, and get health packs is unbelievable. I was really hoping that maybe the game was trying to show that school shooting is wrong and it should never be done, but this game almost glorifies it and its ease. I really hope that I am able to find a way out of the school without killing many more students, but I thoroughly doubt it.Mon, 23 Feb 2009 01:42:16 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3655&iddiary=6868Super Columbine Massacre RPG (PC) - Sun, 22 Feb 2009 01:16:23https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3655This is my first experience playing Super Columbine Massacre RPG, and I was able to practically assume what the game was gonna be about through the title; but it was still a shock. The main menu of the game was just plain over the top ridiculous. I cannot believe that they would actually use the real captured images from the Columbine massacre. The music chosen is obviously chosen in consideration of the music that was stated that the two murderers listened to (KMFDM, Marilyn Manson, Nirvana, ect.). Right from the start I knew that I was not going to have too much fun playing this game, I kind of picked up on the fact that it was almost trying to place shock value over game value. Starting off, I had a good laugh at the sprite graphics that are very reminiscent of classic Super Nintendo RPGs. Of course though this was quickly reverted when I realized they were using the real pictures of the characters on the talk screens. After walking around the room a little and finding a DOOM disc and turning on some music, I walked down to the basement and picked up some propane tanks and duffel bags; it just keeps getting worse. After talking to my partner I made it to the school and armed up with my propane tanks. After walking through the halls a couple of times I realized that I couldn't run into anyone or walk in front of camera. This tedious task took me quite a few times to master and when I finally did I was irritated to learn I had to walk out of the building without getting spotted again, or I had to start all over. After this was all completed I decided to save in the parking lot and save the rest for another time. I tried to prepare myself for what the game was going to present me, but no matter how much I prepared, it could not prepared me for this. I felt disgusting playing this game knowing full well how many people perished in this massacre. Playing as this character almost frightens me, especially considering I know what is inevitably going to happen. Overall the game play is quite boring though (it probably does not help that I cannot connect to my character in the least), and the MIDI versions of Nirvana, KMFDM, and Smashing Pumpkins is quite annoying as well. Hopefully my next experience with the game will be less shocking considering I've started playing and have a feel for the game (I doubt it) and the game play picks up a little bit.Sun, 22 Feb 2009 01:16:23 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3655&iddiary=6830Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas (PS2) - Wed, 21 Jan 2009 01:10:41https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3550Tonight was my final night of playing San Andreas and this time it was a little different. This time I ended up playing with a couple of friends so it was a different experience altogether. Also this time I decided to not focus on the missions or trying to be morally good, I ran around and killed as many people as possible (which made the game playable). As I have previously stated this is the major problem with the game, the playability rises as the morals decline. To start off this round of playing I decided to play from my friends save point so I was stacked with weapons and was wearing some ridiculous clothing with an afro. The amount of weapons I had made the game more fun, but took away any of the skill. Anytime a police officer would show up I would just blast them away with the shotgun which was usually one shot kill if you were close enough. After picking up a few prostitutes and killing them for their money I decided that my rampage needed to continue via ambulance (at which point I remembered you could do side missions in the taxis, ambulances, police cars, ect.). This added a whole new level of morality to the game that I forgot about in the previous two playings. Now I was able to be the police officer or the ambulance driver and save people. There was a choice in my hands and I was able to go either way with it without having to lose all of the fun in game play (the taxi mini game reminded me of a poor version of crazy taxi). Now that this concept is out of the bag the game does seem to have two major options: good and evil. The evil still prevails the game considering you have to be to complete the missions and actually beat the game, but if you want to drive around being a cop saving people, you can. This small side of the game still does not make up for the other morally unjust portions considering they overwhelm the game entirely. Overall the game is a fun experience, but is only rent worthy. Children definitely should not be allowed to play the game but it is going to happen regardless, they just have to realize that it is just a game and that there is a difference between that and real life, otherwise the gaming world is going to continue to spiral downward into a pit of lawsuits and angry parents getting games taken off the market.Wed, 21 Jan 2009 01:10:41 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3550&iddiary=6675Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas (PS2) - Tue, 20 Jan 2009 12:44:44https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3550This will be the second time that I have played San Andreas for a half hour session. This time (for a laugh) I attempted to play the game without causing any harm to others and trying to keep morally just throughout my playing time. I found this to be a little bit more tough than I was expecting. This concept made me question the moral values of the game (along with pretty much every other aspect of the game). I decided to start all over again, but this time I did not do the missions. I rode the bike around for a little bit, stole a car from a parking lot (I tried to stay within the law, but its fairly tough). After driving at a normal speed and following all the traffic signals and other road laws I realized that this was very boring. As the character you do have a choice whether or not to break the law, but you have to break the law to beat the game/make the game fun. This brings up many questions about the games integrity and place in todays world considering games such as Fable that let you choose if you want to be immoral or not. Walking around buying food, getting haircuts, changing clothes, and obeying the law just is not fun in this game. There is no motive to the game if there are not police chasing you or you are doing the missions (which involve breaking the law). I just got extremely bored walking around seeing the same character models over and over again. Morally, this game is worthless, but it works as a sandbox game. One must realize that this is a game and even though it is more fun to walk around shooting hookers, it is not that way in real life. Next time I am going to spend my entire half hour causing havoc and compare these two experiences (I have a feeling the next gaming session is going to be a great deal more fun).Tue, 20 Jan 2009 12:44:44 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3550&iddiary=6641Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas (PS2) - Mon, 19 Jan 2009 22:46:05https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3550Today was my first of three sessions for Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas on Playstation 2. I have played this game before, but it has been a few years since the last time I have played it. To be honest, I feel that I was a little more shocked this time around then since the last time I played it; I picked up on quite a bit more of the anti-moralistic (and racist) values of the game. Overall the game was a fairly decent time waster, but I felt that there were several aspects of the game that are a little over the top. For this session I decided to follow the missions a little considering I never did that when I used to play it. The first mission was just a cinematic sequence (which I skipped), but it lead straight into the next mission which was a bike ride involving a drive by shooting. After this short mission was completed I continued to the next mission which consisted of me getting a haircut, buying pizza, holding up the pizza shop, and driving my friend home. This is where I decided to stop doing missions. After just messing around for a while I realized that it is not too easy to keep yourself out of morally questionable situations. It is easier to drive on the sidewalk and take out every pedestrian than it is to drive on the street, and the consequences are usually minimal. Along with the missions, being morally correct was somewhat of a bore. I found myself beating random people for money, shooting at cops, running people over, and just causing as much damage as I could more often than anything else. I found this to be a little disturbing considering how easy it was to get away from the police at most times. After killing about seven police officers and running over countless pedestrians all that happened is my car caught fire, exploded, and I magically appeared in front of a hospital with full health (a loss of money and weapons, but it seemed like a fair trade). I am not one to bash video games for excessive violence, profanity, or the occasional mercy killing, but this game takes it just a step too far (especially with the racism). It seems that the older I get, the more aware of these problems I become. Next time I think I'm gonna try to stay morally correct in my half hour session and see how that goes. Game play wise, it was a fairly decent sandbox game, minus the physics engine (but that did kind of make it more comical). The bike riding took a little getting used to, but it was fairly intuitive, along with the rest of the game. The button layout was simplistic and did not take too long to master, but it did seem a little lacking. Considering how old the game is, the graphics are not too bad, but when it came out it was just another stale Grand Theft Auto game with more racist characters. I feel that this series should have ended quite a while ago, but it continues to push out a few new games a year on different consoles. The obvious attempts at creating controversy has become almost offensive to its audience considering the lack of concentration on game play. Overall it was a fun game, but it does lose its luster within the half hour.Mon, 19 Jan 2009 22:46:05 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3550&iddiary=6633