Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=112https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=338I've come to like Life. When I started playing it, I was a bit confused; one of my first thoughts was "what's the point?". It still doesn't have a point in the sense of an ultimate goal or getting a high score, but that's okay. It doesn't really need one. I find that it's fun just to watch the patterns play out: for me, that's the point. When I'd first started playing, I watched the preset patterns, but I found that I didn't like looking at them, because it was much more fun to find my own, even if they weren't as impressive. Watching the preset patterns was more like watching someone else playing a game.Mon, 20 Nov 2006 13:18:05 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=338&iddiary=1011https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=338I played around with patterns some more, seeing how they'd run. I easily made several patterns that would end up in a constant state or disappear completely, but it was a little bit harder to get something that would run for a long time without settling into a pattern. For me, the game's appeal lies in creating a large setup that will run for a long time... bonus points if it looks cool while doing so. Mon, 20 Nov 2006 13:08:07 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=338&iddiary=1009https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=338Life is pretty, and it's kind of neat. To familiarize myself with how the game works, I let several of the pre-made patterns run. After that, I picked some of the smaller patterns, and manipulated one or two cells to see how it would change how they lived/died. My favorite was one that ended up switching back and forth between two states once it had grown to a certain point.Mon, 20 Nov 2006 13:00:09 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=338&iddiary=1008https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=334The only thing I've found to like about The Sims is that in this psuedo-intro/tutorial bit it doesn't introduce new goals until an amount of time has passed or the old goals have been cleared. I still don't get the game's appeal. My sim borrowed money to pay the bills, and he won some money from the radio station. More accurately, his mom won the money, and gave it to him. My sim now supposedly has enough money to move out, but he still doesn't have a job. He claims he's too depressed to get one. He's also too depressed to study. I figure it's because I'm still having trouble raising those fun/social stats. Almost all of the appliances in the house are broken because he takes so long to fix them, but I can't get him to read the book about mechanics in order to make it go faster. I'd have to continue playing in order to test it out, but I would think that doing something like repairing the TV or the sink or whatever should raise the skill level... But, at least with cooking, which my character has done a lot of, the stat doesn't seem to raise from the hands-on experience. Maybe it just takes a *lot* of hands-on experience. Or maybe it doesn't affect the skills at all. Now that I have a better idea of how the personality stats that get set when creating the character (supposedly) effect things, I considered restarting, but I didn't really want to go through it again if the stats didn't end up changing much. I have not been impressed with The Sims. Maybe Sims 2 is better, or maybe one of the dozen expansions... but I really don't feel the urge to try them out.Mon, 20 Nov 2006 12:43:55 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=334&iddiary=1005https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=334Second time playing, and I -still- don't like this game. I can't seem to ever raise the "fun" or "social" stats high enough... as soon as I stop reading or dancing or talking or whatnot, the stat drops like a rock, and I don't have enough time to spend on them because of talking care of the other stats. My sim's mother keeps watching TV or listening to music while my sim is trying to sleep, so it's hard to keep the energy and comfort stats up. He fell asleep in the kitchen in the middle of cleaning up a spill because he was too tired, but he woke right back up because his mom turned on the TV. I turned it off, and she turned on the radio... and then proceeded to go to bed and yell at my sim for the radio being on. I don't it.Mon, 20 Nov 2006 12:34:00 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=334&iddiary=1003https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=334I've heard good things about The Sims in the past, but I'd never played it, so I wasn't sure what to expect. And the general feeling I've walked away with is that I don't like it. After customizing my character, I was given control of the character right away, with little idea of what to do with him. His mother would give hints/suggestions when a stat got too low... and by "too low", I mean that the representative bar was completely red, or at least almost completely. I read a book about mechanics so that I could fix her TV, but she kept complaining that it was taking too long to fix and she was thereby missing her soap operas. I read a book about cooking so that I could fix my sim something to eat, and he was able to successfully prepare his food. The rest of my sim's time was spent cleaning up after his mother and neglecting the "fun" and "social" stats.Mon, 20 Nov 2006 12:29:38 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=334&iddiary=1002https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=321I went exploring again in Wind Waker, mainly to fill in some of the spots on Link's map. After a while, I came across one of the huge whirlwinds and fought the critter on a cloud inside of it. Even though it made it rather hard to aim at the critter properly, I really like the fact that the winds from the tornado affected the arrows Link shot off. Really, wind seems to be implemented better/more in this game than most others... which is appropriate, considering its theme. I just wish more games with weather effects -had- actually effects from the weather, not just pretty graphics. (Not that I object to pretty graphics.) After beating the cloud-guy (which thankfully only took three hits; getting an arrow to make contact was a bit difficult), I got to learn a new song, which lets Link summon a wind to teleport him to different locations on the map. I appreciate the teleport feature, as it makes travel when you've got a destination in mind -much- faster. I tried out the different locations, and eventually ended up inside one of the islands I could 'port to. There I got another level-up from the alien faeries: fire and ice arrows... used them to get more power-ups from a couple of fire and ice themed islands. Clear mapping is always a good thing, 'specially when you don't quite remember where you're supposed to be heading.Sun, 19 Nov 2006 10:20:48 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=321&iddiary=985https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=321After some debate, I decided to pick up where I left off where I stopped playing two years ago instead of continuing to replay, as I know I would've simply rushed through until I'd caught up. So, when I loaded up my old game, I was on an island with a traveling merchant and a forest sprite. The forest sprite wanted some forest water, so I decided to get that for him and just explore a bit instead of attempting to remember where I should be going according to the main plot. I'd forgotten how big the world was... or at least how big it feels. Compared to its representation on Link's map, it feels bigger; I kept being surprised about how long it took to cross a square of the grid sine you can see islands from a fair distance away. The world also seems to be a lot more populated than Link's map gives the impression of. I think Link's map makes it seem small and empty, but it feels big and busy. I took a roundabout path to the Forest, going treasure hunting along the way. One of my treasure maps was for an island nearby, and once I remembered that shiny spot equals treasure, I searched every spot I ran across. I also got the charts for a few more islands and stocked up on my bait. After I was satisfied with treasure hunting, I decided to head straight for the Forest, but I was waylaid by a sea creature emerging from a sudden whirlpool. I couldn't remember what to do about fighting at sea, but the creature had a lot of yellow eyes, which I figured called for arrows. I was right about the arrows, and my aim was pretty good right off the bat, but I took too long fighting the creature, so it shot me off to the other side of the island. I sailed back to where I fought it, but it was gone. I finally reached the Forest and got the water for the sprite. I tried to take the short way back to the sprite by going south so that I'd end up at the top of the map, but the ship claimed it was too dangerous in that direction and wouldn't let me continue. I don't know if the option of sailing around the world opens up at some point, but if it doesn't, it's a plausible thought: you're exploring a portion of a larger world rather than its entirety. Or the world is flat. Either one. Because I couldn't take a shorter route back to the sprite, I headed north, treasure hunting along the way again. I ran across a different sea monster, which I defeated; a fairy rewarded me for my efforts. That leads me to my final thought for this entry: back when Wind Waker was still in the works and they'd shown the first images, I was among those who really didn't like the new style because of a fondness for the realistic look from the earlier trailer. After I started playing Wind Waker, the style quickly grew on me, but I still can't get used to the design for the faeries. I think they look -weird-.Sun, 19 Nov 2006 00:47:59 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=321&iddiary=983https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=321I'd played some of Wind Waker a little over two years ago, but never got around to finishing it because I was too busy. Since I remembered little about where I'd left off and needed to reacquaint myself with the game mechanics, it was back to the beginning for a refresher course... I was able to pick up the system again pretty quickly, though I was disoriented for the first few minutes when I kept wanting to press some button, any button, to jump. Camera control also took a minute to get fully reacquainted with. Like the other Legend of Zelda titles I've played, Wind Waker wastes no time in starting up the story. After the backstory runs, you run around Link's village for barely minutes before Link and his sister spot a girl (Tetra) in trouble. Saving her leads to the first part of Link's quest: Link's sister Aryll is kindnapped by the bird that had been carrying Tetra earlier, and he must rescue her from the Forsaken Fortress. My taste in games tends to run along the RPG side of things, so the quick start is a refreshing change from some of these stories that can take hours to get rolling. Granted, as soon as Link sets off with the pirates to save his sister, you get throw into a training event, but it's all in the name of learning how stuff works and honing your skills... At least the training is fairly engaging, unlike running errands for some crotchy old lady could be. I'd say the one drawback of the fast beginning is that Aryll may be kinda cute from her two or three lines, but until Ganon showed up, I didn't really feel compelled to go save her for any reason other than Link wanting to and to progress the game. Maybe it's just because I've been here before. Next time: the quest continues, or I pick back up where I left off in '04.Tue, 14 Nov 2006 18:36:15 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=321&iddiary=968