Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=145https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=455I continued playing, but I decided to focus on the features that go over and beyond the standard Mario Kart. I believe that the mission system is original to the DS version though it may have been in the GBA version which I never played. Each level of mission categories follow a similar pattern, 8 missions that you can do in any order and then the nine mission which is a boss battle is unlocked. Once you complete the boss battle, the next level of missions is opened all the way to 7. There's a variety of different things to do from collecting coins, to go through gates, to beating a certain character through a lap of course. Overall it is a fun system. However I think the most unique feature in Mario Kart, is also one that brings the player to have more of a connection to their racer. Most people will find a favorite driver and car combination or ping pong between a couple different ones. But this version allows you to go one step further and create a customizable avatar/symbol that will display on your car and next to your name if you decide to participate in online play, another feature that adds a whole lot of replay ability. The interface to draw your symbol is easy to use and there's a ton of online resources that you can use to create all sorts of symbols, from Star Fox to Metriod to pretty much anything you can think of. This feature creates a kind of bond between the player and his current driver and car, and leads to a greater sense of enjoyment from the gameplay.Fri, 09 Feb 2007 19:26:30 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=455&iddiary=2722https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=455This is the newest addition to one of my favorite series, stretching all the back to it's debut on the SNES. It features all the classic Mario Kart characters with two unique characters in Dry Bones and Rob the Robot. But that is not the only place this game delivers. It features tracks from every previous incarnation of the game. It has 8 grand prixs, totaling 32 tracks with 4 difficulty levels, a ton of missions, and the ever popular time trial, or you can battle with your friends. The game play is simple, navigate the tracks, collect item boxes and use those items to knock around your foes. There is some skill involved with proper item usage and timing your slide/mini boosts. Also a new driving feature has been added , Drafting. Basically if you drive directly behind someone you'll have less air resistance so your speed will increase allowing you to zip past them. All these aside, probably the best feature of the game is that it utilizes the single card multiplay features of the DS to all you to race with your friends, or strangers as long as they have a DS. Of course they're Shy Guys and the person with the card always gets to make the decisions, but from personal experience it's quite entertaining, and has lead to more sales of the game. Being one of my favorite racing games stemming from the SNES, it has sated me for the time being, but my anticipation is rising for my other favorite racing game from the SNES, Diddy Kong Racing, soon to grace the DS.Fri, 09 Feb 2007 01:42:46 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=455&iddiary=2551https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=940One thing that was heavily on my mind when I was playing, was romantic subplots. It seems like they've come up a lot recently in books, and games I've just started. More often than not, they seem to be used for either a pivotal plot point that causes the rest of the storyline, or just random events that happen continually throughout the game. In the case of OoT, it seems both exist to an extent. The plot arc of Link's love for Zelda seems to send him cavorting off throughout the world to save her from Ganondorf. That is if you interrupt his actions as a child to mean so. He could just be a courageous young man ultimately swayed by the power of the Triforce of Courage into saving the world for the greater good. I however like to think that there's some sort of feelings between Link and Zelda. But that leaves the other love interest sub plots. There's Malon the young girl at the Lon Lon Ranch, and the story alludes to possible feelings for Link. Then there's Sara on of the Kokiri, who has a special bond with Link that allows him to speak to her through the Ocarina. Then there's Ruto, the lovely Zora princess, who informs Link that they will be wed since she gave him the Zora Sapphire. However this is just one game, there's countless other games that use love subplots to accomplish things in games. It seems to work very well, at least for me. It seems like a nice change of pace to games where the world is ending, or some terrible event is going to blow up the planet. A little romance never hurt anyone.Tue, 30 Jan 2007 17:24:00 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=940&iddiary=2088https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=940Hey, Listen! I've been an avid fan of this series since I was young, and while not my favorite of the series, I love Ocarina of Time. At the time that the n64 came out, my family was having financial difficulties, so I was sadly not going to be able to get any of the new consoles that were coming out, so I was resigned to the fact that I would just have to keep playing my SNES and live vicariously through my friends. But I was one of the lucky ones, and managed to win a n64 at taco bell, and it came with Goldeneye, which is another great game. It was probably because of these that I kept the n64 close to my heart when I the next generation of consoles came out, which I could thankfully afford by then. And of the games that I played on my n64, OoT was my favorite. Gameplay wise it's a simple game. Each button on the controller performs an action, and they are usually displayed on the HUD. Also the game is very linear, there are a few side quests, and I do so love my side quests, but for the main part, you pretty much have to progress in a specific pattern, the storyline was heavily dictated by the developers. Really there's so much to say about I guess I'll just start out with the basics. The tutorial process can always be annoying, but OoT is one of the few games that I don't get annoyed by the tutorial process. The controls are relatively simple, and it's easy to pick them up quickly. I don't remember having trouble originally, and this time round they just came back from rote memory. Also the Kokiri are just fun to learn how to play the game from. And of course you always have help from your trusty, annoying, c-up whining fairy, Navi, the most annoying fairy in all the land. The tutorial process also goes pretty fast, but that could be because I remembered it all. And the graphics are pretty amazing, if you put them in context of what was happening during that time and what was released. (This entry has been edited1 time. It was last edited on Mon, 29 Jan 2007 22:44:56.)Mon, 29 Jan 2007 22:18:32 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=940&iddiary=2066https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=735So I've been taking my time going through the game trying to see if there's some deeper hidden meaning in the placement of everything, and I've come to a conclusion, playing the game like that is ridiculous. Playing through normally it's just as easy to spot why certain things are placed where they are. For example, power-ups like mushrooms and the sort are placed pretty much exactly where you'll need them, or if you get them and it doesn't seem like there's a use for them right there, there really is a use for them right there and you just need to find it. Like specifically in the first mini castle in world 1 if you make it through the entire castle without being hit you'll ultimately be rewarded with a leaf granting you your raccoon tail and the ability to fly. But why would you need the ability to fly in a castle? Well if you happen to realize there is only one suitable area to take off from, and fly along the wall right there, you enter one of the first if not the first secret areas, and you receive one of the whistles for your effort. Looking at it from the eye of developer made me think of all the thought that had to go into adding things like that to game. You don't want to put signs blatantly pointing to secret areas, but you need to give some sort of idea that this area exists otherwise people will never find it. Along those same lines you can't make areas too difficult that a person will give up on playing the game. Balance is a rather difficult thing to account for, and I hadn't really thought about how much background work must go into balance to make games as fun and enjoyable as they are. On a side note, this game always makes me think of that movie, The Wizard where the kid is really good and video games, specifically SMB3.Thu, 18 Jan 2007 23:02:09 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=735&iddiary=1657https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=735It's been awhile since I've played SMB3. The first thing that surprised me, is how much of the game I still had stored in my memory. There was a brief period of about a minute, until I remembered everything I would need to do. So instead of rushing to see how fast I could beat the game, though I doubt I could be the speed records set online, I started trying to figure out why so much of the game would stick with me after all these years. The first thought that struck me was ease of gameplay. It's pretty much move, jump, pick-up, and throw, with a few variations if you've transformed into raccoon, Tanooki, Hammer Bros, frog, or fire flower Mario. The goal of the game is to ultimately rescue the Princess, and if you so desire, to free the kingdoms that have been taken over by Bowser. I say if you so desire because the flutes/whistles allow you to basically skip all the way to world 8. But the goal of each level is to just survive making it to the end, and hitting the little picture square. Of course there's the little spade mini game levels and the mushroom houses, but it's ultimately a linear progressing game. Also gameplay wise, it really doesn't take much skill, what seemed like a gargantuan task when I was so young, was easily defeated with the experience I've gained throughout the years playing other games. I would suspect that most people would have a relatively fun time playing this game, regardless of there video game prowess. Over all my initial experience with picking this game back up has been fulfilling. We'll see what another session brings out.Thu, 18 Jan 2007 20:46:50 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=735&iddiary=1639https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=450So I sat down to play some more after I made my first post, and was once again sucked into side quest activities, but it seems that I've come to a stand still that I previously hadn't seen in the game. I'm not strong enough to survive in the areas that I have Marks for, and I'm not strong enough to advance in the storyline. It seems like I'm going to be forced to farm experience, thought the amount that I did that doing side quests I didn't think I would have any problems for the rest of the game. It's kind of upsetting but I'll get past it. Gameplay wise, it's not that hard to farm levels since I've had Golden Amulets equipped for the majority of the game so I get double the licenses points, which allowed for my main party to have the entire top license board full. So at twelve gambits a pop there's a lot of actions I'm having it do on it's own. This allows me really to just run at monsters and watch my roommate play Castlevania on his Ds. This is kind of a draw back to the game, but I'm a person whose not bothered by tedious things as long as I know the goal will be worth while, or if I can be occupied at the same time by something else nearby. I'm still really enjoying the game, and I can't wait to see what happens with the story line.Thu, 11 Jan 2007 15:16:41 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=450&iddiary=1183https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=460I loved the storyline in this game, much like I did with War3 RoC. This was probably why I ultimately spiraled into the much dreaded WoW, which sucked up the majority of my playing time until I escaped. I still enjoy playing TFT, more so DoTA which is a custom map for the game rather than the actually game play. This probably stims from my probablems with micromanaging units, which is probably rappidly apparent if you've read any of my other posts.Wed, 10 Jan 2007 21:48:26 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=460&iddiary=1153https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=459War3 RoC was really fun the first time through, seeing the storyline and how everything had changed from War2 which was one of my favorite games in grade school, probably becuase it was on the first ones that I played competitivly with other people. Of course I cheated to see the whole storyline as fast as possible the first time through, but like Starcraft, I went back through without cheating, and this game is difficult. Maybe it's just my inherent lack of skills in micromanaging units, or the way the computer cheats to build things faster in some occurances, I still managed to finagle my way throught to completion, just in time for The Frozen Throne to be released.Wed, 10 Jan 2007 21:42:04 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=459&iddiary=1151https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=450Side quests blasted side quests! If there's something that developers want to add that will immediately make me trapped in a time sink, it's side quests, and FFXII is full of optional material. Being a completion whore, I must have 100% completion, which includes optional sidequest materials, and there's a ton of them. A good idea on how long I've spent doing side quest material is a quick comparison, a friend of mine who focuses nearly 100% on the main storyline is about 30 hours into the game, at about 68 hours, I just passed him in the main storyline. Thus I've spent about 40 extra hours doing side quests. Let alone the fact that like half the side quest stuff, doesn't actually result in any sort of indication that you've done extra material, which confuses me cause I'm still walking around with a bottle of alcohol from Bhejurba that I've yet to find any use for. On a side note, I opened the four random chests your not supposed to open so that you can get the Zodiac Spear, and though I was close to 50 hours in, I was sorely tempted to start over, but common sense kicked in so I managed to continue on, mainly with the thought that I don't currently have anyone using spears anyway. But besides this ranting on side quests, so far the game is excellent. I'm enjoying the new battle system, and while I thought Gambits were a bit cheap at first, I don't think I would have the microing skills to keep my party up with the way I just run into groups of monsters. However Quickening seem to be a bit overpowered and broken, in the fact that if your luck prevails you could chain Quickening four times on a single mob, though you'd have to get lucky with the Mist Charges.Wed, 10 Jan 2007 21:13:43 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=450&iddiary=1142