Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=105https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=313Another mission in Okami involves finding more dogs. This mission is prompted by a lady who sends you out on this mission to find her eight dogs. Five of them are found in the immediate city that the player is in. However, once that is done the lady sends you out into the world to find the other ones. This began another slight frustration with open world design. There were three locations marked on my map that designated where the dogs where. I started with the one closest to me and searched forever and couldn't find the dog. After exploring for quite some time I discovered that you had to go to dog farthest away and then work your way back to find the others. There was no hint or sign that this was the case. Talking to people did tell the player a lot about the story, but did not advance him in the direction of the correct dog. It took a lot of exploration and feeling that I'm stupid for not being able to find the dog before I realized that he wouldn't show up until I found them in the correct order. This shows the issues with linearity in an open world game. Knowing that I could explore everywhere I assumed that order didn't matter, but it obviously did after trial and error. Fri, 10 Nov 2006 10:09:51 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=313&iddiary=960https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=313For this entry I want to talk about a failed side mission in Okami. I received a request to kill 8 certain enemies. The problem arises in both the open world design and the design of encountering enemies. From the instructions given I believe that these enemies could be found anywhere within the world. This presents the issue of having to explore a very large area once again to find what I'm looking for. The issue of finding these enemies presents even more of a problem than finding the dog. At least when finding the dog I found the cave and it was very recognizable once I had done so. Enemy encounters occur when Ameteratsu collides with a ghostly looking rug-thing. The problem is that all of them look the same so finding the 8 enemies I'm looking for involves exploring all areas of the world and trying to encounter enemies hoping that I just happened to run into the right one. This became very frustrating very quickly and digressed into me just hoping I would complete the side mission as I traveled and completed the main missions. Fri, 10 Nov 2006 10:03:43 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=313&iddiary=959https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=313Okami is a game somewhat similar to Zelda about a god Wolf trying to restore order to a world. One mission I encountered involved trying to rescue a boys dog. This mission was extremely frustrating because due to the open world nature it took me a long time to figure out where I was supposed to go. Eventually I ended up finding how to enter a cave and completed a Zelda-like dungeon "level" to rescue the dog. The dungeon was quite vast in itself. This type of game-design is interesting to me. It creates discrete "levels" but places them within an open world environement as to simulate non-linearity. In reality the game is fairly linear, but provides for a lot of exploration within the world. Often times exploration is necessary for progression of the game. In trying to find the dog I searched all the areas that I had previously explored and came up empty until I finally found the correct cave. This is an issue I believe open world games can cause. If direction and focus is not clear then it may become difficult to locate objectives. Sometimes it can just be frustrating to have to run all over the game's world to find what you are looking for. Both of these problems were present when I was trying to find the dog.Fri, 10 Nov 2006 09:56:02 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=313&iddiary=958https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=310The third mission that I completed was for the Mafia. The mission itself was simple. I just had to blow up some machine guns and steal a truck. However, the fact that this mission was from the mafia is what's important. It is not another country and your allegiance to the Mafia can really affect the gameplay. The Mafia offers a shop that provides a lot of really nice items that could aid in your missions. However, crossing the Mafia and losing their allegiance can cause this shop privelage to be revoked. From playing before I remembered that aiding one country can lose allegiance to another if they are enemies. The Mafia however is somewhat independant. However, getting on the Mafia's bad side can be a detrimental thing. This adds another level to the balance and cooperation found in Mercenaries. Thu, 09 Nov 2006 22:56:52 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=310&iddiary=957https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=310I entered a new mission and this one focused on cooperation between the player and NPCs even more. This mission came from the South Koreans instead of the Allies (U.S.). It involved protecting the borders of a city alonside other South Koreans. Success depended on moving armored vehicles that have weapons attached around so that NPCs could use the weapons to aid you. The women's voice is even more important in this mission. You constantly have to move around the city and her voice helps aid in prompting the player when to move. Without the aid of the women's voice and the South Korean NPCs this mission would prove very difficult. This mission also introduces the idea of becoming friends with other countries. Depending on your actions your friendship will rise and fall with other groups. If you are on their goodside then they may help out or at least not fire. If you are on their badside then it can be very difficult entering their territory as they will fire and try to kill the player. There was only a sliver of this in the mission I just completed, but was apparent nonetheless. So cooperation also plays a part in getting on a group's good side. Thu, 09 Nov 2006 21:46:27 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=310&iddiary=956https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=309I entered a new mission and this one focused on cooperation between the player and NPCs even more. This mission came from the South Koreans instead of the Allies (U.S.). It involved protecting the borders of a city alonside other South Koreans. Success depended on moving armored vehicles that have weapons attached around so that NPCs could use the weapons to aid you. The women's voice is even more important in this mission. You constantly have to move around the city and her voice helps aid in prompting the player when to move. Without the aid of the women's voice and the South Korean NPCs this mission would prove very difficult. This mission also introduces the idea of becoming friends with other countries. Depending on your actions your friendship will rise and fall with other groups. If you are on their goodside then they may help out or at least not fire. If you are on their badside then it can be very difficult entering their territory as they will fire and try to kill the player. There was only a sliver of this in the mission I just completed, but was apparent nonetheless. So cooperation also plays a part in getting on a group's good side. Thu, 09 Nov 2006 21:44:52 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=309&iddiary=955https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=310Since this is the first time I've picked up Mercenaries in quite some time I decided to start over. I went through a cut scene that had a girl's voice introducing me to the game and controls. I then followed her guidance to a building where I was informed of my mission by a military man. Then I went out and completed the mission of capturing a man and destroying some artillery. I noticed that embodied voices are characters that truly guide your actions. Secondary characters guide you somewhat as they do in GTA, but these voices that come through the military radio tell you what to do on your missions or your current state. When I ordered an air strike on some artillery the voice of the pilot told me that the target was confirmed and then told me when the bombs were released. The girl's voice told me where to go and gave me helpful hints on what to do next and how I might go about doing it. The sense that military personnel are truly helping out is present. Your success depends on cooperation and aid of other military members. The gameplay is based on this idea. This is very different from games like GTA where you are very independant and only receive missions from other characters while occasionally having some assistance. Mercenaries drives off this assistance from military personnel. Thu, 09 Nov 2006 21:04:43 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=310&iddiary=954https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=309This time I took a different approach to the Haitins mission. I tried to get some firepower this time to complete the mission. On the way to the firearms store I encountered another mission to pick up some drugs and deliver them. I completed this mission very easily and it felt as if it was just a side quest that I could complete and move on instead of a vital mission to the game. After several minutes of driving I reached the firearms store and every single weapon was out of stock! I bought some body armor and then headed back to once again try the Haitins mission. I had found a weapon on the streets earlier and decided to try that. It didn't work because every Haitin I wasted another appeared. Apparently I'm not doing what I'm supposed to in the mission and this is frustrating because there's either no clues as to what to do or they are extremely vague. This became frustrating since every time I died in the mission it took several minutes just to get back to that point to try it again. Thu, 09 Nov 2006 20:28:15 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=309&iddiary=953https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=309I've been stuck on this Kill the Haitins mission. However, I encountered something new this time around. I accidentally did some things to piss off the cops and increase my "wanted" level to two and the cops kept chasing me relentlessly. I tried to start the mission hoping they would back off and they did not. Three or four surrounded me and it became very difficult to escape, much less complete the mission. These cops, NPCs, made it very difficult to conduct a mission at all. They change your gameplay drastically and force you to take actions that you would otherwise not. I'm also finding that I am almost forced to find firepower to complete this mission. I tried several times to use a car to kill the Haitins. The problem is that the car ends up blowing up and killing me before I have a chance to get out of it. Firepower would make the mission much easier but also will require me to find a firearms store, which is nowhere near the mission area. This is one of my issues with open world games. Often a lot of time must be spent traveling to other areas that almost seem unnecessary or not worth the trouble. Trying the car method was not out of my way at all. Going to the firearms store will be bothersome but make the mission much easier to complete. Thu, 09 Nov 2006 00:14:45 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=309&iddiary=951https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=309This is the first time I've picked up GTA in quite a while. At first I just drove around and tried to drive as crazy as possible just to have fun and pick up the controls again. This got a little boring so I then went to do a mission. The cutscenes seem to serve two purposes: to introduce a character and to introduce a mission. Many characters are forgettable and somewhat unimportant because there are so many in the game. However, I realized one thing while playing the missions. The characters may not be the most developed and empathetic characters, but they drive the missions and story. Characters are constantly giving guidance for what actions can, can not, and should be done in order to complete missions. Often, missions are completed by paying attention to the radar and reacting correctly to the actions of NPCs. The gameplay is simple as I remember it, but many missions actually get pretty difficult to accomplish later in the game. The two missions I played involved stealing a tank and killing a group of Haitians. The tank mission was very easy as long as you avoided the fire from the military convoy that the tank is in. The Haitian mission was difficult because you either needed a lot of firepower or come up with a creative way to kill several Haitians which was very difficult. I did not complete this mission yet. Both times the characters were the driving force in my actions. The firing of the military forced me to react quickly and steal the tank quickly. In the Haitian mission I followed the lead of the Cubans I drove around, but then had to find my own creative way to kill the Haitians.Wed, 08 Nov 2006 20:54:54 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=309&iddiary=950