Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=161https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1520The Color of Hope presented by Tom Bowles and Kathryn Rieser is a fascinating game that made use of the RPG Maker. In that sense, the title is a big clue as to what the game is about. In perhaps what was just five minutes, the story is set up that the main character April, is walking around town meeting people which at one point you learn the reason why. They even include a basic tutorial, going against a doll! Quite humorous, perhaps one of the two hated dolls as a child. But anyways, the story sets up with meeting with Mikhail who ironically lives on my floor as well, and that his mother has a message for him. As you follow him around, you discover he has now become the sole guardian of the color green. The importance of it is not really known, except right after he goes outside and is taken away, and the world is covered in black and white. Is this perhaps the reminiscent of the old gameboy era in which all games are essentially without color. So it becomes the players mission through April to not only rescue Mikhail, but also bring back hope to the world that there may be color one day. In all a very captivating game, I just wish I saw how much depth to it had. I would definitely play it.Mon, 12 Mar 2007 18:25:07 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1520&iddiary=3186https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1422In my second hour of playing, I have definitely improved. I still have to read the directions to each mini-game, as my fellow players refuse to offer any helpful hints because they want to win. And thats alright, I just hope I have some luck. Yet during the game I was sent all the wrong places, and did not collect any stars. But despite my lack of good stars, I was still enjoying the game. Even amongst the trash talking that was not directed to me, I still got a good laugh. Mario Party gives players interaction not only in the make believe world of dice and mini games, but in the real one as well. As far as this game goes, its simple puzzles built in one major one. It encourages players to practice constantly, and understand each of the mini games. This require hours of practice, and although I find it a waste of time, this does improve a players ability. This is the best game I have ever played, and theres nothing more that can be said except to definitely try the game yourself.Fri, 23 Feb 2007 14:17:19 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1422&iddiary=3003https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1422Mario Party represents the array of characters that Nintendo has produced over the years, to duke it out in one final battle. Well perhaps not to the death, but certainly the winner of a board game. Where the player must roll a dice, move along, collect some stars, and the party of it all is play the mini-games. And like all board games there are strategic ways to collect more stars, and send other players to lose some. Yet the game creates a magical circle in which all the players are captivated to continue playing, even though a new player may have not much of a clue of what is going on. What is great about Mario Party is that it is able to include all four players in one big screen, as opposed to the little corner area to yourself. Not only that, the array of games test different skills, besides just pressing A and B. Perhaps the only game I would not want to play is the one where many people have had blisters on their hands. In my first hour of playing, I was already last compared to those experienced friends of mine. And despite the score disparity, I was enjoying myself because I knew I was getting better after each game. Even though the first game had ended with a winner, and that person not being me, everyone was up for another round. And each time there are more games to play, and more things to learn. This is exciting, because the game creates certain dynamics not only as the game progresses, but amongst the players as well. Like I mentioned earlier, some games require good time reactions, while others encourage the player to rapidly press a combination of buttons, its safe to say nobody is quiet during the game. And that’s what creates the great chemistry of this game, the ability for the players to trash talk before the game, and duke it out on the mini-game. This is also showing in the characters they pick, which one made an impact on them as a child. As Toad perhaps was the cutest, Toad was funny, and Mario was simply the symbol of the Nintendo era. No matter what this game reaches across to all audiences, even to those who are unfamiliar with the Nintendo series.Fri, 23 Feb 2007 14:08:44 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1422&iddiary=2999https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1157What has evolved over the years involving Tekken is the camera usage and backgrounds of the room. Characters in fighting games are able to elude their opponent by shifting sideways, as opposed to the traditional left to right attack! What this does is create opportunities for the player to attack an opponents weakness, especially if the character chosen is quick and speedy. This also presents an opportunity for the player to use a grapple move, any combination of two buttons simultaneously grabs the opponent and performs a set move. An interesting note that has prevailed throughout Tekken is some characters are meant for beginners, and others for the intermediate, and some the more advanced. Perhaps the easiest move in the game to develop is from Law, in this case Marshall Law, his punch combos are simple, repeat square and triangle and the rest is history. And press up and circle and you’ll do the move that made him famous, the moonsault. While other characters such as Gun Jack which rely on being blocked by the first move, and then connecting on the second shows persistence pays off. While others such as Heihachi rely on pure strength and technique, other characters such as Hwoworang allow the user to tap the same button and all of a sudden the opponent is flying through the air. Other characters can save you a lot of trouble, but with some luck and perfect timing. Paul as well as Jack, Law, and Wang have one move KO’s, which if landed right will send an opponent flying through the air with their health bar nearly reduced to zero. This is exciting the first fifty times the moves connects, if you miss you are totally open for a big combo, but if you make it luck is definitely on your side. Yet after the next fifty times, I began to feel bored with the move and only used in desperation. Aside from that, the player is given the task to be a true master of the game of attempting to master all the moves of each character, and some of the moves in this game are very hard to even attempt. Or you do not have to be an expert, just a person who can intuitively press the right buttons at the right time, and you can pretend you are a master. In essence I love this game. This is the game I could play for hours and I’m glad its made it to the fifth series. Hopefully they come out with these graphics and the next Tekken Tag.Thu, 08 Feb 2007 01:03:51 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1157&iddiary=2486https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1157The Tekken series is what has put Namco the creators of this game as legends. They have created a series of fighting characters that has not only evolved from the graphics of the original Tekken, but the style of play has also become more realistic. In taking this from a newbie’s perspective, this game is not at all difficult, compared to my previous post from Soul Caliber. The game is simple, defeat your opponents with the chosen character. The character has a set of moves that you must utilize or else you will be defeated. This is one of those games where pressing the button really fast or pressing the same buttons all over again can result in a combo. Players do not have a lot of patience in learning all the detailed moves of each character, they simply want to play the game, and I think Tekken accomplishes that well. I am a Tekken fan myself, and seeing the evolution of this game has made me realize how much goes into this game. The simplest mode is the arcade mode in which you choose one character and he/she battles other opponents till the end of the game. After in which a little movie ending is played, and a new character is revealed. So the reward is simple, beat the game and you receive a new character. There is a motive for the player to keep on playing, even though it does sometimes become monotonous. Yet this is where Tekken can have the affect that Mario Party has, you can play with two players. With having two or more rounds, friends can duel between their favorite characters or randomly choose one. What makes Tekken Five special is the new feature of Tekken Bowling, in which the characters bowl against each other for the high score. After my first hour of playing, the character I have chosen has gone through forty eight rounds, and the opponents are the same, just the difficulty has risen. This presents new challenges as my strategy to defeating must be cleaner, and I must be wary of their attacks as well. Yet in between the first ten to thirty minutes, I was beginning to feel bored. What I do not like about this game is how in previous Tekken games how some characters moved has changed, for example Lei, or Jin. In the past Jin was a hybrid mix of moves between his father Kuzuya and his mother Jun. But with the addition of Devil Jin, it seems the new Jin has a different fighting style all together and does not match the old Jin. With the Devil Jin he is not as agile, clunky because of the wings that is attached to him, but now he has the laser beam, the worse move in the game. The game play in Tekken Five does not change much, the characters appearances are changed because of the steroids they must be on. It seems even the much older characters instead of becoming gray and fat, have become much more muscular and power. This is what Tekken is all about, no matter how old you are, you can still fight like a champion. Is it just me, or do the women in this game get much hotter? Well, besides their appearance, they are the toughest characters to hit in the game, but do take the most damage. Especially the girl version of Eddy whose name is Christie, is one of the most difficult characters to hit especially if you know the moves of Eddy, they are exactly the same. So in essence, the continuation of this game is really well done. The creators do not mess up the original game play and instead let the player decide how much they want to have with it.Thu, 08 Feb 2007 00:39:14 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1157&iddiary=2485https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=947 After a dismal hour of playing, I am starting to wonder how Soul Caliber made the lists as a classic game. I decide to venture into the realm of the one player mode, in which I engage in the story mode, a common feature in fighting games in order to escalate the plot. Yet after defeating an opponent, the player is given a list of paragraphs to read, either search for this mystical “Soul Edge,” or some other trivial mission. Each choice you make affects the opponent you face, but in the end it really does not matter. You meet the “Soul Edge,” but are not allowed to use it because the character then becomes possessed. What is the point in having such a weapon if it is not attainable? This part of the game really just irritated me. Even though the game was already unlocked with all the possible weapons, I still could not find myself wanting to play this game more. The variety of swordplay was accurate, from the samurai stance to a fencing stance, however it lacked some good basis character. I believe Namco, the creators of this game as well as the Tekken series, lost some basic skills in character development. One such character is Yoshimitsu, whose character has a sword just like in Tekken, and even their fighting style is exactly the same. What is recognizable from the start is the circular movement of the kicks, and the slash that this character makes. Was this a direct idea from Tekken, this lacks originality and I am very supportive of this game to not ever be on anyone’s classic list. What still amazes me in my second hour of playing, is how my friends and I still did not know how to do specific moves. Unlike other games where the player can develop some type of muscle memory as to what buttons do what, I often felt the same way I started: confused. There is nothing to say more about this game but to save before you turn it off, or all your hard work goes away because the game is filled with glitches that love to corrupt your memory card data. Good luck on figuring out on how to do combos, because it is a total mystery to me. Wed, 31 Jan 2007 02:23:07 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=947&iddiary=2167https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=947In Soul Caliber III, this is a fighting game which incorporates the use of weapons. Not guns or slingshots, but ones that can be swung at an opponent in order to kill them. I myself am not a big fan of this game, because one has to very familiar with the game in order to really have a good time. The graphics of this game are not out of this world, it seems up to par with the rest of the fighting video games out there. And although I did not play this video game from right from the beginning, because a friend of mine had beaten the game many times, there was not a big reward for accomplishing such a feat. The only treat that he said was the hidden characters and the new weapons each character can have. But to a novice such as myself, the significance of these weapons really did not matter to me. This is what I find wrong with fighting games; everyone should have an equal chance of winning that is the human players should be given all available tools to succeed. The actually fighting of the game could be improved as well. I do not agree with the concept of knocking your opponent out of the ring, it is more of a sumo wrestling ideology. Now a fighting game that I do enjoy and sword fighting games should model more closely is Bushido Blade. There is more realism to the game, unlike Soul Caliber with characters like Nightmare who appears to have a claw as a sword. And perhaps what is a more traditional fighting game such as Street Fighter; combos are only attained with pressing a button, and the directional pad, whereas the modern era of games relies more on the button pressing to do combos. The game also moves away from most fighting games with blocking as holding the back button. To add real element of blocking with a weapon, the button “X,” is used to block sword attacks, but leaves you vulnerable to a kick, punch, or a charge. What was oddly disturbing as I continued to play the game was that I continued to play much worse; I was not able to discover any good combos, nor develop some strategy as to how to defeat my opponent. Unlike in Tekken, a player is able to pick up what the character is about after a couple of rounds, but after six rounds using Nightmare, I still did not know what he was capable of. What is perhaps the biggest flaw of this game is not the game play, but rather the consequences of forgetting to save your progress. As I did not want to find out for myself, I discovered Soul Caliber in general has a way of easily losing a player’s progress on the memory card. If the player does not save each time before they turn off the console, the likelihood they will not be able to open their file the next time they turn on the game. Data file corruption is one glitch that Soul Caliber has neglected to fix, and really irks me the fact you must save constantly, or else! In all, this game is quite boring and I do not why I bothered to play it. The rooms are not the amazing, the characters are not that flashy, and half the time I did not know what I was doing. Somehow I managed to stab the opponent, but I would not know how to again. This game is clueless, and I am left unpleased. Tue, 30 Jan 2007 20:15:32 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=947&iddiary=2107https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=694 This game does allow a novice player to gain the skills necessary to become a better player, of course through practice. In the arcade mode, the player is given set objectives, and fulfilling them has great rewards. What I have not done but understand is that there are secret characters in the game, further motivating the player to see all the way to the end. Unlocking these special characters promotes a further completion of the game, as well as discovering the many secrets of the game. This game then follows the convention of many arcade games as far as strategy, objectives, and level bosses. While this may further make the game complex, in actually it creates an identity for the player. As there is not one universally considered best character, many of the players today do not necessarily have the same favorite character. What this game is doing is not only promoting itself through this game, but makes the player think of the array of characters from which original video game they had made their debut. What I often find myself intrigued with is the settle nuances of the game that is slowly picked up. The secret levels are so secret, often times they are produced with an elaborate array of pushing simply buttons. To access these secrets is a trademark of Nintendo finding your own way till you get it right. Alas some of these other rewards are not accessible without the useful help of a guide to the game. In some sense this helps Nintendo collect more revenue, as players are desperate for the edge over their opponents, but takes out the elusiveness of the game. Yet no matter how a guide helps a player, the skill is only developed through constant practice and thorough knowledge of all the skills the characters possess. And even then, the player must have the right strategy, good reaction times and some luck to win. However one feature I did not appreciate as I got older is how much Pokemon there was, not only did it feature its trademark character Pikachu, but there was an item of the actually pokeball in which when it was thrown a pokemon came out for a short while and did some damage. Personally this feature became annoying, as it seems the creators were riding the popularity of the Pokemon era and its target audience, instead of including more of the original Nintendo characters such as Peach or Wario. The atmosphere of this game is very important, because the magic circle is not limited to one person. Instead of having a four screen split with a limited view, all the players can see visually the interaction amongst their friends. This excitement in the dual further pushes the need to have rematches, a little bit of trash talking, but overall a fun experience. For those who ever criticize this game, this is definitely one of the best ever made. Of course there had to be a sequel, as the game still left for improvement, but in Super Smash Brothers Melee for Game cube, the game play still has not changed, only the graphics and characters have improved. In all this game has solidified itself in game history. Thu, 18 Jan 2007 00:53:03 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=694&iddiary=1579https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=694Super smash Brothers is one of the games that have defined the Nintendo 64 era, along with Mario Party. Utilizing four players under one screen has created hours and hours of memorable moments with the many Nintendo characters that it has produced. What makes this game great is the ability to reach a variety of audiences, from Pikachu, Kirby, as well as older characters such as Mario. What this game simply entails is certain objectives, one of them being is to outlive the rest of the players on the field. Each character performs certain moves that have the potential of removing other players from the game. But that’s not all; all the players have a percent damage on the bottom of the screen indicating how closer they will be to a knock out. The larger the percent, the chances increase of a fatal hit. What has been astonishing time and time again is how the players are able to recover and regain their place without losing a life. What this game provides is an atmosphere of excitement, frustration, and a sense of superiority for all the friends you beat. As a newbie playing this game, the character selection is not the best yet offers a good variety. Using the directional joystick as opposed to the directional pad is becoming more popular for games. Not only does it provide less of a thumb strain, but offers instead of a four directional movement a much more array of movements. With that being said, the stamina of the players increase, as the thumb strain does not become a factor in play. So your beginning to think this game is simple, but it is not. Like many of the traditional fighting games, each character has their own unique moves as well as their speed, strength, statistics are better than others. What a player may find is that some characters are easier to handle than others and they quickly want to learn all the available moves of the character. However as I was struggling to battle against my three friends, I had only discovered a relatively four to five moves, but I was happy nonetheless. And with the countless items appearing before me such as pokeballs, raygun, and an assortment of items, this game became more enjoyable as I learned how to utilize these items to gain the advantage. But as much as my enthusiasm to learn these games, the more experienced players were able to use their players abilities to stay longer in the game. What I often found myself doing was trying to recover from a fall by pressing certain buttons, only later to discover this effort only further helped me to my death. So as I was eliminated from the game, I am left with two provoking thoughts. How do I stay alive in this game, and the second being what are all the other buttons for? What I believe is like teaching, many of the more advanced players struggle with quickly identifying all the controls to a novice player because there are a multitude of tricks in the game. Simply stating which button does what cannot explain the vast amounts of attacks the player has, as well which combos serve the best as a recover. As I was playing, I just became fixated on the power moves such as Captain Falcon’s Falcon Punch, rather than the wimpy attacks that everyone else was using. Although this attack provided a lot of punch, it did leave Captain Falcon vulnerable to attacks from others if the punch did not connect. Overall in my first hour, this game creates an excitement of endless fun, as the player wants to discover the different ways to get better.Thu, 18 Jan 2007 00:08:30 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=694&iddiary=1574https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=374As I first began to play, I do notice the way I push the buttons especially X and Square that the pressure I put affects how my car accelerates and brakes. What makes this experience different is that each car does not accelerate or brake as hard as the next car, furthering the need for practice in order to master this game. In particular to the career mode, you start off with little money in order to purchase a very bad car. In addition to having little money, the races that are unlocked require no license. It would take several hours to complete a second level license, and even then all of the games potential is still not unlocked. To obtain a license is to do a set of tasks under a certain amount of time while staying firmly on the road. These tasks become more difficult depending on the merit you wish to receive (gold, silver, or bronze). So why all these different status when in the end the same license is given. I remember as I started the test I thought "Oh I could easily get all gold." By the end of the test in which I have failed numerous times, even sometimes the ones I have passed before, I already wanted to start my career and earn some money and have a fancy car. And I think that in some aspects this is how the game can kill a lot of time, but cause a lot of frustration at the same time. These licenses don't make you a better driver necessarily, I think just playing the game over and over again produces this skill. Afterward the Nasty Exhausting Driving Tests (get it?), the actual racing begins. And even though you lose sometimes, money is made for upgardes to your already lame car. So after awhile those opponents who edged me on the track, was eating my dust thirty minutes later. This game essentially doesn't have an end, sure you may win all the championships and attain riches, but the game doesn't stop there. All you have to do is purchase a new car, and customize to one's own desires. In terms of game and play, the game is to win a race. That is the small circle of Gran Turismo itself. The big picture is attaining the funds to produce winning cars, which is caused by winning races. The strategy it takes is crucial because this game is a driving simulator, and not all cars necessarily have the same feel just like in real life. So there is no end to this game, only a new beginning, but by the time you completed all of the games potential, theres always secret cars to be unlocked by playing the game in some sort of perfect way.Mon, 08 Jan 2007 23:27:03 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=374&iddiary=1063