Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=156https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1413Having played more of SMB:3, I can definitely say that the life system is really all I would chance. I love the way the levels are set up; They feel very different from sonic and even from each-other. Perhaps this comes from SMB:3 being the first Mario game I've ever played, but in Sonic all the levels blend together. Indeed, even the games often blend together. The first level is always a grass-based-level, then you have ruins or Technology, then more ruins... It's become predictable. SMB:3 probably became predictable too; But I have not played enough Mario to know. Other than that, I really did enjoy how the game worked once I got the hang of it. The art doesn't strike me as being quite as high quality as Sonic art, though I realize that this was for the NES which doesn't have even close to as powerful spec's as the Genesis. Still; I would have liked more content in the art. But yeah. I'm not really sure what else to say. It's definitely an interesting game either way. I look forward to playing more of it.Fri, 23 Feb 2007 13:05:48 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1413&iddiary=2982https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1413Gamelog I'm not really sure where to begin with Super Mario Brothers three. The game is incredibly expansive and, as this is my first time playing a Mario game, I'm not exactly sure what, specifically, is new. Mario is one of the quintessential platform games out there, perhaps second only to Sonic in being Iconic to the genera. I am, as a whole, not a big fan of Mario. Perhaps this stems from the fact that I played Sega as a child, and never had the urge to touch a Nintendo. Indeed; That probably is where my feelings come from. After all, back in the early 90's, it really was one or the other. You couldn't like both at my age. It just wasn't done. Anyways; In regards to Mario. I like a lot of the aspects of the game. The vast array of power-ups present in SMB:3 gives the game a very unique feel for a platformer. The one thing I truly dislike, however, is that you lose powers on collision and that you cannot stack powers. Perhaps these are just views brought on by my experience with more recent games; But perhaps not. I dislike games where you only have two or three hits before you die. In sonic, you had the opportunity to go and pick up the rings you lost. In Rocket Knight Adventures, you had hearts much like in Zelda. In mario, however, two hits and you're as good as dead, three and you are dead.Fri, 23 Feb 2007 13:05:40 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1413&iddiary=2980https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1238WoW:TBC Part Two When one compares the original Warcraft with the new warcraft, one finds that there is still hope for the game to become something better than it is. The Burning Crusade marks a sharp shift away from many of Blizzard's long standing ideas that had plagued the original WoW for most of it's life. As a prospective game designer, It's something I'm glad to see. Given that blizzard payed almost now attention to WoW's players before the expansion it showed me that they can change their minds and add new things. Alas, there is still a lot of stuff in WoW:TBC That simply is not done well on the PVE side of things. For example, one of the most highly anticipated additions was the Flying Mount. The Flying Mounts, however, do not really live up to the hype. It may just be that the first mount moves at the very slow speed of 160% of your base movement speed, a 40% drop from the Epic ground mount. But there is more to it than that. The Epic mounts use the same interface as swimming, which is not an overly well done portion of the game, to say the least. This leaves the mounts lacking in terms of interest. It is impossible to do anything overly interesting with them, such as loop-de-loops or summersaults. Now, this is perhaps not an overly important issue, given the total lack of any mounted combat, however there are signs that mounted combat may soon be added. There are several quests which allow players to drop bombs off rented mounts, and numerous NPCs now have graphics for mounted combat. The other things the Mounts are lacking is a way to decline at a reasonable pace. Other than flying straight down or jumping off, there are no other options. Compare this with the ability to rapidly rise by 'jumping' on the mount. Perhaps what mounts need most is a 'free fall' button that would turn off the flying aspect until it's hit again, so that you can get down from some of the boarder-line ridiculously tall towers at a reasonable pace. All in all, however, I'm pretty impressed with how TBC Turned out. There's a lot here that I still need to digest, but I look forward to doing so. Hopefully we'll see more good ideas from Blizzard in the future.Fri, 09 Feb 2007 13:36:34 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1238&iddiary=2636https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1238Gamelog: WoW: TBC Part 1 Several weeks ago the long awaited Expansion to The Burning Crusade was released. With it came a host of new dungeons, 10 new levels, and more new content than we'd seen combined in the two years of WoW. Not only that, the new content was awesome. Most of the issues had been fixed. Today, unlike last time, I'm going to focus on the PVE side of things and talk about the instance known as the 'Shadow Labyrnth' or 'Shadow Lab' for short. Shadow Lab is the fourth and final wing (for now) within the Instance Series known as Auchidoun. Unlike the instances of the original WoW, many of the new instances have very little going on in terms of plot and/or quests. Shadow Lab is sadly no exception, despite how many opperunities there would be to add content. For the majority of the instance you're fighting Orc's and Demons of the Shadow Council, one of Warcrafts long time evil organizations. You're not really told why; Only that they're evil and must die. Oh, and they've summoned the Elemental Titan of Sound. All in all, however, the instance proves to be a rather amusing passtime. Like many instances in TBC, the encounters have been drastically increased from the simple 'Tank and Kill' type to much more amusing fights. The first fight, against the Illidari Ambassador, is ofcourse a simple Tank fight. However, before you can battle him, you must defeat a large number of warlocks keeping him banished. The Second fight is where things become much more interesting. After clearing a large room, you come face to face with an ogre mage. The fight begins simply, the mage casts a few spells, and mostly swings at the tank. However, at random intervals the Ogre will mindcontrol the entire party and make them fight eachother, generally draining manapools and causing havoc. A very interesting battle all in all. Then, after another few hallways full of the same old mobs, we come to the third boss. This boss, yet another warlock, has the abilitiy summon and eat voidwalkers. The players must not only down the boss, but kill the voidwalkers before the reach him, or he'll do a rather large ammount of damage and heal significantly. At times the Boss will also freeze everyone and port them to him, before dropping fireballs on their heads. Over all, the fight is fun if not overly challanging. It does finally show that WoW can have some very cool scripted encounters, however. Hopefully we'll see more of this sort of thing in the future. The final boss is against Murmur, the Elemental Lord of Sound. First off, let me just say I love the name murmur and always have. Other than that, the fight is interesting. Like all elemental lords in the game, (Ragnaros and Thundarrian), Murmur does not move. At all. Instead he uses a variety of interesting attacks. Perhaps the most interesting attack is one where he lashes out with a beam and flings the player around in circles. It's nice to see that WoW is losing its aversion both to knockback and to taking control away from players. Murmur also comes with several large and normal attacks such as a massive AoE attack, and a focused blast of sound that "liquifies your characers insides." Over all, Shadow Labrynth showcases what WoW can do. It is a fun and amusing instance.Fri, 09 Feb 2007 13:28:02 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1238&iddiary=2633https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1044So, after playing SC3 for another hour, I realized that all the impressive moves are inanely hard to do. I suppose this should be a down side, but some how it doesn't seem like it to me. In my mind it allows for a lot more skill to influence the game. In Smashbros, a lot of the high level skill comes from doing smaller exploits such as wave dashing, and other things that weren't intended by the creators. In Soul Caliber, from what I've seen, there's very little of that. Instead, you have people who actually sit down and learn not just the long code for the moves, but learn to enter the codes quickly and use the moves well. It adds a level of what I truly consider to be skill, as opposed to just knowing how to play better than other people know how to play. Other than that, I really do like a lot of the basic story of Soul Caliber. It's different from most sword epics, which are just "Boy has sword. Sword is Magic. Boy stops the ultimate evil." Soul Caliber, on the other hand, is much more focused on the Soul Edge; The Blade of Evil. More than half the characters are evil, and the ones that aren't have all be strongly impacted by the Edge. The Caliber itself barely shows up in the main plot, usually not manifesting until the end of the game to fix things. Of-course, in SC3 both swords are basically destroyed by Zazameial and create their own creature, Night Terror (Pure Awesome-sauce by the way). I'll be interested to see where the series goes from here; It seems like my favorite character (Nightmare) is finally redeeming himself, which is good, because he's much easier to play when not in oversized armor wit a giant demonclaw. Anyway... The game is looking good. It's been around for long enough that the series has weeded out most of the flaws, at least in my mind. there are definitely some overpowered moves, but all fighting games have that. As a whole, it's a very good game, and I eagerly await the next.Wed, 31 Jan 2007 13:41:12 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1044&iddiary=2237https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1044Soul Caliber 3! I have been a fan of the Soul Caliber series ever since I first played the original on the Sega Dreamcast. The series has a lot of stuff that works very well for it. Soul Caliber itself is a fighting game, and is probably one of the more complex fighting games out there. Matches are limited to two players, which is a downside, but the area you're playing in is three d, including some limited up and down depending on the field. As far as winning the game, there are two major ways to do it. You either need to reduce your opponent to 0 health, or you need to knock them out of the ring. Different fields make different choices more appealing, due to all sorts of factors such as walls, or a slippery floor covered with rats that are on fire. Character design, in my opinion, is another thing that Soul Caliber does very well, and Soul Caliber Three is no exception. You play the roll of one of a host of fighters, ranging from an undead hell-pirate from spain to a nunchaku wielding Elvis impersonator (Okay, former military officer who looks like elvis) from korea. Almost every different type of melee weapon user is given a nod in the game; From a roman deathknight to a whip wielding english girl, or a pole-arm toting girl. From greeks to the norse to strange creatures who defy explanation outside of really freaking creepy (Voldo). As good as the Character design is, I was unhappy with some of the new characters added in SC3, namely Zazamiel. His back-story is that he can't die, and wants to, so he'll use the sacred swords to do it. Okay. So who cares? It doesn't give a compelling plot, at least in my mind, at all. Then again, this is a fighting game, so we don't really need a plot. The final thing that the Soul Caliber series is a master of is moves. Every character has what looks to me to be well over two hundred moves, with some going even more than five hundred. Or, if you count Edge Master, Inferno, and Charade, OVER 9000?!?!?!. Anyway, many of these moves are hideously complex to use, but that doesn't effect game play. Unlike SSBM, which features a few moves in a number of variations, all of which are moderately easy to use, Soul Caliber's moves range from the easy, a simple vertical slash, to the inanely complex that you will never need but look really cool, such as the downward cross parry finished with a kick ending in the night behind stance. Having variety like this makes for very diverse game-play, as someone who uses only three or four moves repeatedly will get easily trashed.Wed, 31 Jan 2007 13:34:44 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1044&iddiary=2236https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=731 Okay, so, I went and played more Smash bros. As far as the game goes over all, it's pretty well done. I mean, it has to be to be as much of a classic as it is. The game is simple enough that it is more than easy to pick up after spending years not playing it, and it does have a good level of complexity. There are enough stages to keep the game interesting for a while, and there are also a good number of items which help to keep it fresh. How ever, I am rather disappointed at how few moves there were in the first version, and even in the second. It just strikes me as not being enough depth. We get the A moves, yes, and the throws, and then 3 (4 in Melee) moves with the B button. That leaves a lot of the buttons and easily done button combinations totally unused. Now, I have heard that this is being remedied in Brawl, and that we should expect to see a good deal more in the way of moves. My other complain has to due with the items. Many of the items are either too weak to be useful, or they are inanely powerful and make the match more of a 'who can grab the best stuff' rather than a 'show off your skills.' I prefer games where a lot of the battle is based on skill, so I tend to turn off the items. However, this means I'm missing a lot of the fun the items can bring. I would really have liked to see some form of middle ground. Other than that everything is good. The levels are enjoyable, often more enjoyable than the newer ones added in Melee. With Super Smash Bros Brawl just a few months away, the game is definitely looking up. Hopefully the rumors will turn out to be true and we can expect a plethora of new characters (Not just the four released new characters thus far.) Thu, 18 Jan 2007 22:40:03 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=731&iddiary=1654https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=731SSB Gamelog One of the most recent fighting games that can be truly called Classic, Super Smash Brothers created a true phenomenon. At first glance, Super Smash Bros seems like a very simple game, especially when compared to other fighting games of its era, and even those of earlier eras. And, indeed, SSB was pretty simplistic in its first incarnation Super Smash Bros Classic features three game modes; One single Player, and two multiplayer. The single player mode is a pretty standard fighting game idea, you battle through stages with the goal of reaching the final boss and defeating it. The raw fighting is broken up my some amusing variations, such as fighting a team of Kirby's with different abilities, or completing special stages such as 'Race to the Finish' (A race to the end of the level) and 'Break the Targets' (A game where, surprise surprise, you break targets.) SSB classic has no plot-line, I should say first off. You simply are a host of popular (or not so popular) nintendo characters going at it in an arena. There is a vague plot hinted at in the beginning of the game and in the last match of the 1-Player mode, which says that you are dolls being played with by 'the master hand'. However, given that you fight this hand as the last boss... Being a doll doesn't make a whole lot of sense. The characters themselves are well done. In Classic they are a number of Nintendo's most popular characters, including such familiar names as Link, Pikachu, Fox McCloud, Mario, Donkey Kong, and Captain Falcon. Each character has a number of moves, and each of these moves are at least moderately unique to that character. The moves are broken up into three categories. You have basic attacks, which are done by pressing the A button. Despite being the basic moves, these are by far the most complex variety. Depending on whether you Tap a, Hold it down, push a direction while you hit it, or do any number of other things, the moves will vary. The moves are also different in the air. Other than the basic moves, you have two other types. Each character has three special moves which they can use via the 'B' button, or by pressing B and either up or down. The basic B move is often a projectile of some sort, while the B up move for most characters results in an extra jump. B down varies greatly between characters, but often has some form of shielding attached to it. Finally, each character has a forward throw and a backward throw. Throws are powerful, but tend to be easily blocked. Two characters, Link and Samus can grab from a long distance, but the other characters are limited to grappling. As a whole... This is a rather shoddy selection of moves and special moves. Many other fighting games of the same time, such as Soul Caliber I had characters with a hundreds of moves. While having that many moves can add an almost maddening level of complexity to the game, it also made for a much more interesting fight in the long term.Thu, 18 Jan 2007 19:56:10 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=731&iddiary=1635https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=361Addendum: WoW Game Log 1/9/2006 So, WoW has managed to do it again. Or, rather, try and not succeed. For those of you just tuning in, the expansion set (Burning Crusade) comes out next monday night. And thus, to commemorate the event, Blizzard has started an in game event. Now, this is the third in game event, and thus far it has been by far the best. Which is sad, because this event is absolutely terrible. The first event was marked by server-killing lag, making the event unfinishable because it rolled back by 5 or 10 minutes every five minutes. The second was much more similar to the current event, and featured hordes of undead invading the realm. Well, more like standing around in a circle outside of towns and not doing anything. At all. In this event blizzard shows that it has at last managed the incredibly complex idea of 'Having Monsters that know how to walk in a line.' This, in and of itself, would be a fine premise for an event. Except that there are only about six of these monsters spawning at any given point, and they generally die within afew seconds of being spawned. Now, the event is supposed to last a week. From the /yells and conversation text of the NPC's, it sounds as though the event could pick up steam. Hopefully it will, at any rate, as thus far there is but a single quest which yields a novelty tabard as a result. And no, none of the invaders drop so much as a copper piece. The event has managed to accomplish one thing, at least. It has successfully fomented world pvp. The area in and around The Dark Portal (Which has, for some odd reason, turned green. This is unexplained.) is littered with corpses from rampant PVP. Alas, this means that if the event ever does pick up steam, we'll all be to busy killing each-other to do anything about it. Oh well. Ryle hira. More shall come depending on the event's outcome and development.Wed, 10 Jan 2007 02:57:01 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=361&iddiary=1111https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=361World of Warcraft PVP Gamelog Section 1: (3:00-4:00) Game 1: Arathi Basin. (win) Game 2: Arathi Basin (Lose) Game 3: Arathi Basin (Lose) Interlude: World PVP Perhaps one of the more fun games I've played in quite some time, We managed a win. For those of you just tuning in, I play an alliance Mage. The Alliance, as a whole, tends to lose badly in these sort of games, though no one is exactly sure why. It could be that we're disorganized, or that there is an internal hatred against the alliance. Who knows. Regardless of the reasons, PVP in WoW is one of the two major things that players can do upon reaching Level 60. This PVP, however, is done only in extremely controlled situations, namely 'Battlegrounds'. The Battleground of the week is Arathi Basin, which at least functions under a somewhat interesting mechanic of being the first team to 2000 resource. Resources are gathered by taking and holding any or all of the five nodes on the map. While this idea is novel, it is not particularly deep. Infact, it is probably some of the least deep PVP I've ever encountered in an RPG, and feels like it would be significantly more at home in a Shooter game. While that's not a bad thing, per se, it means that the game gets very boring very quickly. Interlude: World PVP Occasionally, PVP in the 'wide' world of WoW does happen. I was fortunate enough to stumble upon some today. A group of horde had shown up in Iron-forge, and were messing around. This was pretty fun, and lead to me having a very dramatic fight with another mage on the Deeprun Tram. However, it ended pretty quickly. Second Section: (4:15-5:15) Game 1: Arathi Basin (Loss) Game 2: Arathi Basin (Loss) Game 3: Arathi Basin (Loss) Okay. While the first hour or so of WoW was very fun, and pretty rewarding... The second was significantly less so. By the second half, the games had slipped into rather repetitive monotony. While it's possible that this simply stems from the fact that there are a total of three battlegrounds, of which I only played one, I've come to believe that the issue is deeper than that. You see, it's not just that there are only three battlegrounds. It's more that, outside of a few changes to Alterac Valley, the battlegrounds are exactly the same as they were on the day they were first added. There is no feeling of accomplishment after most battles; It is simply another round. This issue goes to the core of WoW, however. You see; No matter what you do in the game, none of it remains long term. If you kill the opposing factions leader, that NPC will return in full health but a few minutes later. Quests are no different. I have thwarted the same plans of the same monsters time and time again. Plans which, Outside of the first half of a single plotline, not advanced at all. There are no world events. There are no lasting marks. There is nothing that we as players can do to affect the world around us in any meaningful way. An MMO should, in theory, present a dynamic and realistic world. Sure, some things aren't at all realistic, like death, but some of it has to be. The world cannot be perpetually locked in summer, with the trees and grass green year round, despite snowstorms that darken the sky. The World must change; It must live; It must breath. Instead, WoW offers a world that is pretty. But beneath that prettiness there is very little. There are a few quests, but most are the same. There are a few types of PVP, but two of the three feel like school yard games (Gnomes and CTF) and the final feels like a poorly implemented version of a very old game for Warcraft Three (Defense of the Ancients). And yet, despite all this, WoW is a run away success. It has well over 7 million players world wide. Obviously they must be doing something right. Section Three. The question the becomes, (for me at least), what I can I learn from Blizzard to make my own eventual MMO successful. As of now, I'm not certain what I would implement the same way as blizzard. Instead; I am painfully aware of what I would change. The List is as follows. -Death -PvE Game -PvP -Scope -Character progression and Development In other-words... Almost everything. However, Blizzard did manage to make one aspect of World of Warcraft work very well. Despite how complex many aspects are (They're not deep, mind you, just complex) WoW is still a very easy game to simply pick up and play. That is, perhaps, the lesson I have learned most from WoW. A successful game needs to be simple enough that anyone can pick up and play it with relative ease, while being complex enough to keep interest up long term. WoW has done a great job with the first part of this; The months and years to come will show how well it can do the second.Mon, 08 Jan 2007 21:15:39 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=361&iddiary=1051