jwirtz's GameLogBlogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=1492Columbine RPG (PC) - Wed, 12 Oct 2011 12:25:49https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4811Playing for the third time in Columbine, I continued the carnage of the high school. I was continually killed more and more of the kids while learning my motivation for actually killing all these kids. What personally bothers me about this game is the creator is trying to justify what these kids did through their flashbacks. Being someone who was made fun of in high school, it can really hurt, but committing a crime like this goes beyond rational thinking and logic. Instead of spending so much energy trying to pull of this plot, work hard to find people that have stuff in common with you and avoid the bullies. They do go away if you avoid them normally. I find it interesting to in the gameplay how you can use napalm bombs on jocks that are 5 feet away from you. If you are trying to make a real game, then make the gameplay live in reality. After finally blowing everything up, you die and wake up in hell. I definitely agree with this assessment because those kids deserve to go to hell. I guess you did have to include this because the game just would have been to short if it ended at the school. So you wander around with guns trying to kill demons and lost souls. Again, if you are going to base a game on a real life situation, have the actual gameplay based on reality. I don’t think you can normally kill Satan’s minions with a shotgun. Reflecting back on the game, I just don’t understand the point of it. You’re taking a very real and tragic event and setting it in a cartoon world so people would better understand it. The gameplay is really archaic and too basic for my taste. It just screams of unethical to base a game on a tragedy such as this. Why don’t we make a kind of deer hunter game and set it in Nazi Germany and call it Jew Hunter. Why don’t we make a Flight Simulator for 911 attacks. I would love to meet the guy who made this game because to me this is a harsh, unjustifiable creation that should have not been made.Wed, 12 Oct 2011 12:25:49 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4811&iddiary=8939Columbine RPG (PC) - Tue, 11 Oct 2011 18:48:29https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4811As I played my second day of Columbine, I began to really get into the grit of the game. After I figured out how to grab the bombs and duffel bags, we loaded up on ammo and were ready. I find their dialogue back and forth very interesting because they go from being pretty reserved and mature into a dialogue about all the people that deserved to die because they bullied them, to acting like 12 year olds when they are about to enter the school. I don’t think the video game takes into account enough what happens to make these guys blow up a school, but they also make the game seem almost comical with how the game is itself. We are playing a cartoon who is saying to fuck all the people who were mean to him and that they are about to blow up while hopping up and down. If you are going to make a grim game like this, you can’t use basic rpg characters that look like the Legend of Zelda. As you begin your killing of everybody, I love how they label every character as nerdy girl, or jock, or preppy boy. I have a feeling nerdy girls probably didn’t bully you, yet they go down in a splatter of blood just like any jock or prep. That the names they give the people such stereotypical names goes to how stupid this of the game was. This is again one of those games that you cannot be a good person; you can only advance in the game by killing random kids. Yeah, it makes sense that you would kill a jock who probably bothered the kid in the game, but why do I have to kill a nerd to advance? Again, this goes to the stupidity of the creator who thought we would better understand their decisions based on this. That makes me laugh. Maybe he wanted to do this to his school, but instead he made a videogame of doing it. I think it is based on my bias coming into this that I do just not enjoy the game. There is no fun in it. Not only is it graphically poor, and very basic; the story truly hurts the chance for it to succeed at least for me.Tue, 11 Oct 2011 18:48:29 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4811&iddiary=8898Columbine RPG (PC) - Mon, 10 Oct 2011 23:49:55https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4811As I sat down to play Columbine today it was really interesting as the first 30 minutes progressed in the game. Going into this assignment, it really bothered me that someone would make a game about such a hurtful and hanus event such as the columbine massacre. Should we be expecting a flight simulator for crashing into the world trade center or a game based on capturing and killing Jews to hit the shelves soon. Games are about a player enjoying the story and gameplay itself. I personally could never enjoy a game about such a terrible event to happen to innocent people. As you begin the game, I found myself remembering playing Zelda in the early 1990s on my Nintendo and Super Nintendo. For a recent game, it was extremely archaic. I couldn't read the dialogue that well and it just was too old graphics wise for my taste. As you begin, you are playing as Eric and preparing to attack your high school because of how they treated you. Instead of collecting hearts and rupees like in Zelda, you go downstairs to collect duffel bags of guns and propane tanks to blow up your school later that day. It just disgusts me how they did talk in the dialogue I read. As a gamer, I would never want to accomplish these tasks in a normal game. After you collect your items you head over to the school to get ready to blow everything up. When you get to the school you have to hide from the cameras and other students to not blow your cover. Instead of facing obstacles of bad guys, you have to hide from innocent kids who you want to kill. Eric and his friend go back and forth with vulgar language and these kids look like they are 5 or 6 years old because of the graphics. Overall for my first day, I am definitely not a big fan, and I don't think there is hope I will find this game fun, but there is always tommorrow.Mon, 10 Oct 2011 23:49:55 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4811&iddiary=8889Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas (PS2) - Wed, 28 Sep 2011 10:30:14https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4774Another interesting day on the streets of San Andreas. After I finally saved Sweet and his girl, there was a cut scene about how Sweet doesn't approve of his sister's boyfriend because he is not black. It is a very racist and hypocritical cut scene. My next mission was to go pimp out my ride at a garage in willowfield. After a paint job, I had to go to a gang meeting in my car. However, I lost the bouncing car competition. Only in a game like that is a mission where you have to bounce your car to a beat with some prostitute in the car with you. The one thing that really bothers me about this game was that it just doesn't seem to have a point. I only really played one other GTA game, GTA IV. That seemed to me to be much more compelling. Doing a bouncing car competition at a gang meeting just doesn't cut it for me. I also like how Sweet doesn't give you anything for saving him at the hotel. I understand the premise and idea and how people can love it, but for me, I want a game that keeps pulling you back into that world, and San Andreas does not.Wed, 28 Sep 2011 10:30:14 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4774&iddiary=8837Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas (PS2) - Tue, 27 Sep 2011 22:29:41https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4774During my second day of Grand Theft Auto, it was just another mission to build up your respect. Sweet got caught up in Sevilla and I had to go save him. Its very frustrating when you can take only a couple of shots when you die. What is interesting to me is that CJ is so willing to go risk his life to save Sweet. Its not like they were in Canton, but in Sevilla. After I died a couple of times, I got frustrated and stole a semi and drove around. I think its sad and scary that driving around and running over people and other cars can be a good time. I also went up to some random people and started fighting to see what would happen. I find it interesting that instead of saying "Game Over" or "You're Dead", they say you're "Wasted" when you die. What frustrates me especially with Grand Theft Auto is how the story line is not that enthralling. I'm a fan of games where the storyline is so exciting it makes you want to push through the game as fast as you can and it exhilarates you when you succeed. Grand Theft Auto just seems not to offer that. It just seems to me that is a how to game on gang warfare, and stereotypes alot which seems kind of unethical even with its mature rating.Tue, 27 Sep 2011 22:29:41 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4774&iddiary=8814Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas (PS2) - Mon, 26 Sep 2011 22:55:58https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4774So far, Grand Theft Auto has been interesting. I kinda jumped towards the beginning of the game through an old save slot of my brothers. I had to take a couple of guys into gang territory and do some drive by shootings. Not only did you have to kill the other gang members, but if your car crashed you had to deal with people beating your car up while your killing the other gang. After you kill all the gang members you have to go to a spray shop and lose the cops. I wonder where these Rockstar designers learned how to hide a vehicle from the cops? I think it is interesting how different and ethical some actions like killing gang members can be to the characters, yet we would see it in a much different light. They need to protect their territory in a much more primal and medieval way than we can imagine if we had to deal with such a confrontation. It is also amazing how a game like this can market to so many people. Maybe normal people like to be bad like this sometimes but they only do it through the game. It will be interesting tomorrow to see what I have to do now that I completed the drive-by mission.Mon, 26 Sep 2011 22:55:58 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4774&iddiary=8788