Benladen's GameLog

Super Smash Brothers (N64) - Fri, 23 Feb 2007 23:11:59

Fri, 23 Feb 2007 23:11:59 CST

After playing some more, the single player has struck my fancy. The game, in the single player mode, is great. Especially for a fighter. The colorful, prototypical Nintendo graphics mesh perfectly with the level-by-level approach that the single player mode takes. The intermittent minigame-esque additions are all really well done, and feel like they fit very well. Furthermore, the final boss fight with the Master Hand is really unique; most bosses are simply stronger characters, whereas in this game they take out the usual method of winning and replace it with the more conventional (with regard to other games) method of reducing HP. The brilliance of Super Smash Bros is the balance that it presents. It's not the most technically balanced fighter; it's certainly no Tekken, where every character plays differently but similar. It's a game that is balanced within itself, and not with regards to characters. Everything feels like it has a purpose, and fits into the overall construct of the game, which is really all you can ask for in a noncompetitive fighter.

Super Smash Brothers (N64) - Fri, 23 Feb 2007 14:41:37

Fri, 23 Feb 2007 14:41:37 CST

This game, to me, is more a contemporary classic than anything else. I can still remember stealing it from my friend for months at a time on the pretext of forgetting. Now, however, I can appreciate more technical aspects of the game. The first thing that a gamer should notice is the abnormal level design. Maps like Pokemon Stadium have interesting set ups, and then they add things like Pokemon who assault you at set intervals in order to, presumably, give new players a hard time and veterans a laugh. The levels are all relatively well done in and of themselves, some more than others (Corneria being the default favorite, of course), although their gimmicks have a tendency to get annoying after a few rounds, where you just want a decent, non-competitive fighter to play around with your friends. Luckily, the sequel fixed this by making Final Destination a playable level.

Call of Duty 3 (Wii) - Fri, 09 Feb 2007 21:16:24

Fri, 09 Feb 2007 21:16:24 CST

In order to clarify my reasoning behind ignoring things like level design, atmosphere, and character development, I'll actually delve into them. I started out on some random level relatively far into the game; me and my roommate are switching off, and he's a lot more enamoured with the game than I am. The squad members, I've noticed, have that archetypical video game character feel; the squad leaders are all straight out of Platoon, the main character is Rambo, and so on. This ubiquity of cinematic tropes is the hallmark of the "blockbuster videogame," especially the world war two shooter. Or really, any widely sold piece of merchandise. This one-dimensionality, existing everywhere from Sex & the City to Superman comics, creates characters that almost anyone can relate to or, at least, immediately be aware of how to identify as good or bad or likable or unlikable due to societal designation (or, if you'd like to be less positive about it, stereotyping and groupthink). These characters then go on to do what they aren't supposed to do; that gives them development. The good ones die and the mean ones save your life. The only thing that seperates this game from any big budget film is that the characters aren't predestined to die; they just almost always will, regardless. This games level design is the norm for blockbuster games of today. Realism over all else seems to be the developers motto since the release of the last generation of consoles, so teams were sent out to Paris, and a load of other locales, where buildings were sketched and maps were consulted and all that. This means, of course, that not only is the game marvelously historically accurate, it's essentially a clone of a million other games. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, just not one spending a whole lot of time deconstructing. Similar is the atmosphere. The gamer knows exactly what they are getting into when they play a game like Call of Duty, so the atmosphere is pretty much there regardless of how well the team does (unless they botch it completely). The controls in this game have actually started working out a lot better, like I hoped they would. The learning curve is a little steep, but I expected it to be for an entirely new style of gameplay. But after you finally get down the ability to aim and shoot and punch and everything, this game really does come together.

Call of Duty 3 (Wii) - Fri, 09 Feb 2007 15:51:53

Fri, 09 Feb 2007 15:51:53 CST

(I wrote this all last night, in notepad. That's my normal method, but I got slightly too distracted to create this gamelog and post it.) Call of Duty 3, on the Wii, is hard to judge. Especially when I had just played Call of Duty 2 on the PC less than a month ago, for the first time. The primary thing that one notices when playing this game is the control scheme; pull the trigger to shoot, thrust the remote forward to punch, shake the nuncuk to reload, shove the nunchuk forward to change weapons... it's all rather confusing, to be quite honest. The game itself is simply another Call of Duty. It's a World War 2 shooter. There's really nothing special about it, except that it is exceptionally well done; compared side to side with any Medal of Honor or Battlefield 1942, however, it really isn't anything special. Everything about the game is undoubtedly well done, but the genre is so oversaturated in todays mainstream video game market (as evidenced by the existence of things like Bloodrayne and that Snoopy's Red Baron game set in a fantastical WW2-esque environment) that things like level design and squad character development are so ingrained in the ethos of these games that it is entirely unnecessary to attempt to break them down, because they've all transcended their game-specific nature. The thing that sets this particular game apart from it's brethren, both in the genre and in the series, is the new control scheme (well, and the significantly reduced graphics). The importance of this new approach to games is important in the context of both the basic level, enjoyment of this game, and the overarching sense of the Wii, where the success of games like this and the eventual Metrod Prime 3 will determine what the particulars of control for the prototypical Wii shooter will be, as well as how common they are and commercially viable. Call of Duty 3 works. That is definitely accurate. It uses essentially the same controls as Red Steel, but they somehow feel better. Even though you might not be able to turn your gun, the ability to use either the default, intuitive Wiimote controls or the more conventional button-pressing of the D-Pad allows for this game to transition easily from a precedence-driven FPS to a new experience.

Katamari Damacy (PS2) - Wed, 24 Jan 2007 15:23:23

Wed, 24 Jan 2007 15:23:23 CST

I had a bit of a sleepless night last night. It wasn't bad though. I woke up at about 4:41. I knew I needed to get back to sleep, but instead, I figured a nice healthy dose of Katamari Damacy was what was truly required. I ended up playing for nearly four hours. One of the greatest aspects of Katamari is its ability to immerse you within its whimsical charm, despite not having ultra realistic graphics or a budget of millions. The simplicity of gameplay, as well as the novelty that never seems to wear itself thin, allows this game to achieve what tons of blockbuster games strive towards and fall short of. The main thing that I noticed this time around is, again, how strong the level design is. Even when it seems like you've rolled way beyond your limit, where you shouldn't be for a while (a difficult task to achieve due to the level barriers, but still possible), you can make a quick turn (not even necessarily backwards), and you'll find something to get you bigger. I've also noticed what seems, to me, like an inconsistency in the items. Items that should be easily obtained knock stuff out of your Katamari, while items that are awkwardly shaped and larger than anything else you can grab are swiped up no problem. I'm not sure exactly how the developers decided how to calculate what the necessary size was, but in my opinion it was a slightly flawed formula, even though for the most part it works out very well.

Katamari Damacy (PS2) - Tue, 23 Jan 2007 23:40:06

Tue, 23 Jan 2007 23:40:06 CST

Katamari Damacy, as well as it's successor We <3 Katamari, are two of my favorite games of all time. I prefer the second, but not by a huge margin or anything. After an hour of gameplay (after having not played for nearly a year), I remember why I loved this game so much. I started out slow, meandering my way around the tiny niches of that house and loving every minute of it. I noticed how easy it is to just continually roll around, with almost no stopping, and still find a decent amount of items to pick up. This is definitely a sign of strong level design on the developers part. After reminding myself of why I fell in love with the game in the first place, I reminded myself just how much fun it can be. I went and played one of the later Make A Star levels, and had an enormous amount of well designed, aurally pleasurable fun. After playing a few more levels, I must say that despite being graphically average, everything else in that game excels beyond reason. From the music being perfectly complementary to the gameplay being pure and simple fun, Katamari Damacy is a wonderful example of a video games ability to rekindle the joy of youth, as both a toy and a game.

Shadow of the Colossus (PS2) - Sun, 21 Jan 2007 15:01:47

Sun, 21 Jan 2007 15:01:47 CST

After extended sessions over the past two days, I have completed Shadow of the Colossus, and it may rank among my top ten favorite games of all time. Sure, the horse pissed me off. And some of the bosses were frustratingly difficult, to the point where I needed a break so that I didn't yell/cry. But it was so much more than payed off by the brilliant battles and the amazing subtlety of the game, where monsters as big as skyscrapers had body language as intricate as your stumbling, awkwardly running avatar.

Shadow of the Colossus (PS2) - Fri, 19 Jan 2007 15:37:46

Fri, 19 Jan 2007 15:37:46 CST

After another forty five minutes, and two more colossi, this game still stuns me. Every time I switch my viewpoint over to view the colossus that I'm doing battle with, I smile just a little bit. The developers did that well. Very well. I've also found that I'm relying more and more on the disembodied hints. They've gone from "His armor seems brittle" to "Stand on the platform in the lake to draw its attacks". I've circumvented my personal issues with the soundtrack (which, while it's good, doesn't really do it for me) by putting my own music on in the background; I recommend satanstompingcaterpillars - flower slides, but that's just me personally. Create your own game soundtracks! It's fun! I've noticed that the horse isn't just hard to control, it has its own "realistic" AI that just serves to infuriate even more. (edit: when I knock the score, by no means think that I am not appreciative of the sounds. The sound effects are some of the best I've heard, in a very minimalistic sense, and the score again works amazingly well, just not for me personally.) (This entry has been edited1 time. It was last edited on Fri, 19 Jan 2007 18:48:24.)

Shadow of the Colossus (PS2) - Fri, 19 Jan 2007 14:04:26

Fri, 19 Jan 2007 14:04:26 CST

I typed up an entry last night but, for some reason, the server decided that it would rather not save it. My impressions might be slightly less cogent at this point, but here they are. The opening to Shadow of the Colossus was dull, to be nice. The music had the contrived epic quality to it, with chorale backgrounds and strings that would fade in and out. Then came the gameplay, which was kind of like wrestling a horse to the ground repeatedly instead of riding one. Not to mention that the graphics are a bit underwhelming. The storyline was essentially filler, but I expected that. A girl who you love, I suppose, falls prey to something or other and the only way to save her is to complete objectives A, B, C, etc. in order. But then I got to the first colossus. He was a bipedal, hairy monster with a big club that he had a tendency to swing very elaborately at you. And to beat him, you had to grab onto the hair of his leg, and climb all the way up to his head while your strength meter diminished and he tried to shake you off. This guy took me about 45 minutes, travel time included. Then the second colossus; this time a quadruped, and your horse was with you. I promptly got off the horse, shot the colossus in the foot (at the behest of my roommate), and did away with it in ~10 minutes. I also murdered the third colossus, who was difficult, if only because I was forced to use the ledges on his body, and I wasn't used to that. The greatest thing about this game, so far, is that it feels epic. It plays as though you really are the only person for a huge stretch of space, and these colossi really are hidden out there somewhere. It is also a lot of fun to play with enthusiastic spectators, as everyone seems to have their own idea of how to best get into the attack position. The controls are pretty bad. The camera and the horse tie for the most difficult to deal with award, and the only real redeeming factor about the camera is that a quick hold of L1 will reveal a giant, towering colossus, often silhouetted by the sun, making you glad that you chose this game.

Trauma Center: Second Opinion (Wii) - Fri, 12 Jan 2007 12:58:19

Fri, 12 Jan 2007 12:58:19 CST

After another hour of Trauma Center, I can safely say that this game is not only a ton of fun but a really well designed game. The thing about this type of puzzle game (which is to say, the kind without the falling blocks) is that it needs to strike a particular balance with regards to difficulty; it can't progress step by step, because the player will progress with it and the component of difficulty (a large part of the fun of puzzle games) is essentially lost. It also can't exponentially progress due to the infuriating nature of some later missions that can be rather off-putting. So level design needs to take a path that is jagged in nature, while still being mildly progressive. It needs to have the correct number of "learning" missions; missions that are difficult in their own right, but are really just preparing you for a mission that is upcoming. This kind of design, done correctly, can be seen in the two missions: "Caduceus on a Plane" and "Pandora's Box." CoaP is a welcome respite after the, ahem, challenging mission "An Explosive Patient", and it introduces a stronger emphasis on time-based gameplay, which while not what "Pandora's Box" is based around, is important in dealing with the more difficult puzzles that this next mission presents. By tying these two missions together, an episode that should have been particularly difficult is relagated to one that only requires two tries instead of between five and six.