Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=1167https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4125Today I played the game once more from the beginning, Im starting to feel like this game wasnt meant to be started from the middle, but rather all in one sitting to get the full message of what the creators are trying to do. There are a few things that have popped up this time that I never noticed before because I was so distracted by the controversial nature of the content. Things like the handling of the characters, it is pretty smooth to move around when you have plenty of space, but it becomes annoying when you want to turn around and it moves a whole space over just to look another direction. I've never really been a fan of these style NES games (I've never played Final Fantasy, or anything like it, in my life), but I'm already glad I did. I didn't find the shooting gameplay enjoyable in the least. I feel like when you have to go through menus and menus just to hit someone it becomes a waste of time. This may be due to my spoiled experience of the new first person shooters but I don't see how it makes my opinion any less valid. I know what I enjoy in a game and this slow dueling style sucks the fun out of it (granted, shooting high school could never really be fun, but you get the idea). I also totally missed the point of the hell level at the end until I went through the room again this morning. They are just acting out their Doom fantasies, as odd as it seems, but coupled with the dialogue it gives the whole game a very different direction into the psyche of Eric and Dylan. I don't believe this game trivializes what happened at Columbine, but rather it encourages an open dialogue and forces people to talk about it. Sadly though, I feel that people like me who are more open-minded to think about it like this are also the type of people more likely to shy away from these style of video games, so the creators message is a bit limited by its technology.Tue, 23 Feb 2010 08:55:14 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4125&iddiary=7725https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4125Today I had to play Columbine on a different computer, so I had to start from scratch, but it did force me to reread all the dialogue between Eric and Dylan and it definitely changed my thinking a little bit about the purpose of the game. To be honest this time around I found it a little more interesting when I paid close attention to the dialogue. Like a lot of people I have seen the movie Bowling For Columbine, so I thought I already had all the facts I needed about the shootings, but when I played this game again it struck me as a more documentary kind of feel. This definitely clashed with the second half of the game after you kill yourself. When I first saw the island I really had no clue where the creators were going with this, but as the segment continued it certainly answered my question. The montage after that was a bit depressing, but in light of what transpired earlier in the game it was a fitting almost-ending to the game.Mon, 22 Feb 2010 19:45:39 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4125&iddiary=7709https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4125I didn't really know what to expect before starting this game. Seeing as it was a free downloadable game I wasn't expecting too much in the case of graphics or gameplay, so when the screen came up with something similar to final fantasy it wasnt a big shock. I do find it interesting (and necessary) that they start the game with the preparations the boys are making instead of going right into the school and shooting, it makes it a bit more engaging (whether that is a good thing for this subject matter is another issue). There definitely is a lot of talking in the beginning between Eric and Dylan, and the AI in the game is not very intelligent, it only took one try to "sneak" past the faculty in the hallway to plant the bombs in the cafeteria. As bad as it sounds, I was hoping the actual shooting would be more fun or more complex, but instead it was an even bigger let down. It was all very clinical and precise, the way you selected through menus just to decide how school children died, it felt weird after a while because I started seeing them as objects and not people (not like the animation helped) which began to play on my head a little bit. It definitely got me thinking about the real-life shooting and whether this was similar to how those kids saw their classmates as they moved through the school.Sun, 21 Feb 2010 22:03:50 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4125&iddiary=7699https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4077Today I decided to try some of the cheats for this game. GTA has kind of become one of those games that is notorious for its cheat codes and by this point in the series the designers have taken this fact into account when creating them. I tried using them with the missions and with free play, so it seems that if you do wish to use the cheat codes while completing the game you will have to pick and choose which ones to turn on and off per mission. The use of them did take away a lot of the suspense, curiosity, and care with my character now that I could make him invisible, max out his stats, and gain entry into parts of the map that shouldnt have been available at my point in the story. It kind of ruined the rest of the game for me since I can now pretty much play all of it without spending hours running around killing, stealing, and making money over time.Mon, 18 Jan 2010 20:31:06 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4077&iddiary=7638https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4077I spent most of today doing missions for Ryder, Sweets, and Smoke, which mainly involve driving them around as they kill Ballas and try to infiltrate rival gangs. The farther I'm going more and more stuff becomes available to use, I even bought my first piece of property (made a lot of cash from robbing places and people) and am starting to get a sense of where my character is located on the map. I got the bright idea of testing my knowledge of the island, so I hid the HUD and tried to drive myself home, but instead ended up at the airport. It was pretty cool to be able to hop in the Shamal, fly around until I saw the familiar bridges, eventually my cul-de-sac, and bail in mid air (not knowing initially that I had a parachute) and then parachute down a street over from where I was aiming for. This game has potential in the seemingly basic things it offers now that driving is getting easier (I'm not a fan of the dual-shock joystick, I prefer the arrows like in the other GTA's), I have some new clothes (like a leopard cowboy hat and a lower back tattoo), and Im learning to jump and climb to get places.Sun, 17 Jan 2010 10:56:52 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4077&iddiary=7624https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4077This is not the first time I've played a version of the classic GTA franchise, but this is the first time I played San Andrea's, and after this I probably wont play it again. The creators seemed to get really excited about adding so many choices and possible outcomes into this newer open-sandbox style game that a lot of the fun gets left behind. Ethically, the story itself is pretty trite, a gang member returns to where they grew up only to find its changed and have to fight to return it to what it once was (or what the character believes it should be). Almost all the missions are based on killing rival gang members for "respect", money, or different objects or things that can be acquired. The game itself doesnt really seem to deal with whether killing is wrong, but just assumes that for this game and this character it is necessary "on the streets" and to advance in the game. The only choice they don't really give is whether or not to kill someone within the story missions.Sat, 16 Jan 2010 16:28:20 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4077&iddiary=7619