Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=1932https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6672For this play through I continued with Team C to see if the choices I made affected the story at all. I chose the next fragment at random, it began with Akane and Carlos waking up locked inside the pantry. Akane has a heart to heart with Carlos about how much she appreciates Junpei, who coincidentally is missing. After Akane and Carlos find their way out of the pantry they find Junpei's decapitated head. It's also announced that everyone in D team is also dead. After they get over the initial shock of it Carlos and Akane accuse each other of killing Junpei. They player is forced to choose who killed Junpei despite the game not giving any solid evidence for either of them doing it. I chose Akane. Carlos and Akane then go at each other which results in Akane dying and Carlos suffering massive injuries. The game's story is so non-linear and confusing that I want to keep coming back to it even though it's leaving me with more questions than I initially have. I also find that having the player make uninformed decisions that result in people dying is much less emotionally effective than making them have to make those choices in full consciousness.Thu, 29 Mar 2018 03:06:45 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6672&iddiary=11803https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6672I played the game again earlier today for around 40 mins. After splitting up the votes between the 3 groups so that none of them died, a ton of new fragments opened up. From what I could tell there was no way to determine how to do them in order so I picked a random one from group C. In the scene Carlos, Junpei, and Akane had to find an antidote hidden in the infirmary to avoid getting killed from poison. The gameplay then consisted of investigating the room and solving puzzles in order to find the antidote. After Team C took it an announcement was made that Team Q had died. Team C then sent the rest of the antidotes to Team D in hopes of saving them from dying as well. The previous fragments I played explicitly said what actions would lead to people getting killed so I thought it was weird that this time I had no influence over Team Q's fate. The game is still very enjoyable though.Wed, 28 Mar 2018 19:28:32 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6672&iddiary=11779https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6672For this log I played Zero Time Dilemma for about an hour. I had never played a game in the Zero Escape franchise prior to this so some of the exposition was confusing but still engaging. The game focuses on 9 characters locked in a bomb shelter, and the only way to escape is for 6 of them to die. They're then split up into 3 groups and forced to vote on another group to be killed, and if a group refuses to vote then they automatically will be the group to die. I split up my votes so that each group only received 1 vote, I have yet to see how this affects the story though. So far I find the game to be very interesting and I appreciate how frequently it makes the player question their morals.Wed, 28 Mar 2018 06:52:21 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6672&iddiary=11769https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6610I continued onto the main story for my last play through. This time Talion encountered a captured uruk named Ratbag who offers to give information regarding the black captains if he is freed. Talion frees Ratbag, who then becomes a mole for him after Goroth is killed during the uruk ambush. After this mission, the next one I did involved having to prevent Ratbag’s execution. The game only gives you 4 minutes to save Ratbag and take down the enemy uruks. At the end of this quest Ratbag’s hierarchy standing increases after Brogg the Twin is killed. I thought Ratbag’s storyline and quests were an interesting way of tying in the nemesis system with the game’s main plot. The game also brings up some interesting morality questions. The use of spies and interrogation are prevalent in real life war and political scenes, though these tactics are often seen with distain by the general public. However, the game doesn’t seem to treat these decisions with as much emotion as it could potentially have.Thu, 15 Feb 2018 19:48:13 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6610&iddiary=11683https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6610I continued from where I left off last time in the mission to defeat Gimub the slaver. I found the stealth mode to be incredibly helpful in defeating the uruks, as I’m still getting used to the controls of this game and stealth mode often leads to a quick and easy kill. After defeating him my next mission was to follow a weird creature into a cave where there was also find an artifact that showed a part of Wraith’s past, while also facing a caragor and uruks in the process. One thing about this game that stood out to me is the nemesis system, where enemies that kill you progressively get stronger and harder to kill. I’ve never seen anything like this in a game before and it serves as good motivation for the player to get their revenge, which has also been the main theme of the game so far. However, I still find the story to be very confusing though as there isn't much building upon what it is. The player is just kind of thrown into this massive fantasy world and just has to accept it and learn as they go.Thu, 15 Feb 2018 06:26:26 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6610&iddiary=11672https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6610I played Shadow of Mordor for around 45 minutes & I was incredibly confused the whole time. Foremost I am very unfamiliar with the Middle-Earth series and didn’t even know that it was related to Lord of the Rings/ The Hobbit until writing this log. The game begins with a series of confusing flashbacks that also allow the player to get familiar with the controls. During this we are introduced to Talion, his wife, and his son; all of whom are killed by uruks. It’s then revealed that Talion has been banished from death and the only way for him to break his curse is to find the person that casted it on him. The story was confusing but the cinematic shots were impressive and the gameplay wasn’t bad either. In terms of morals discussed within the game it deals with freeing prisoners and slaves. This game gets great reviews and there are many things I did like about it, but how unfriendly it feels to someone who is a new player that is also unfamiliar with the series made it hard for me to fully enjoy it.Wed, 14 Feb 2018 03:05:13 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6610&iddiary=11636https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6528I continued into Chapter 2 for around another hour and a half for the final log, with the intention that I would progress farther into the story since my last time playing focused more on exploring Kabuchiko. There are so many substories that begin just from walking around the city though that at times it was hard to stay on track. One of the ones I did that stood out to me begins when you overhear a high school couple were arguing with each other; the boyfriend then asks Kiryu if he can go see if his girlfriend is selling herself since she’s been acting weird and has an unexplained increase in money. When you ask her about it she breaks down that she’s being bullied into selling her underwear. Kiryu then seeks out the girl in charge of the underwear selling business and asks her to stop and she immediately refuses. As Kiryu walks away the girl in charge has an obsessive and violent customer come up and pull a knife on her. Kiryu stops the man from harming her, afterwards she says that she’ll shut down her operation because the money isn’t worth the danger. Showing high school girls being involved with sex work is incredibly questionable and could be the start of many ethical discussions. One thing I noticed that seems to be almost a recurring theme in this game is that people that get involved in shady businesses aren’t necessarily bad people. Mina, the girl who was fighting with her boyfriend, got involved in selling her underwear because she was bullied into it, not because she wanted to. In regards of the main story, Kiryu continues to investigate the questionable Tachibana Real Estate and why they’ve been terrorizing and investigating seemingly random people. In Kiryu’s investigations he finds out that Tachibana wants power against the yakuza, Kazama, Kiryu’s mentor, is responsible for them meeting, Kiryu leaving the family was predicted, and Kazama knew he would go to jail, all as a part of his plan to get higher up in the family. Kiryu honors Kazama’s wishes and becomes Tachibana’s ally. Overall, I feel as if this game continues to live up to all the praise it’s received. The story is interesting and unpredictable, the gameplay is fun, and it’s a good mixture between serious and comical.Thu, 18 Jan 2018 09:48:51 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6528&iddiary=11541https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6528Game Log # 2 Yesterday I played the second chapter of Yakuza 0 for about an hour. Unlike the first chapter the second one has a lesser sense of urgency to get through the story and includes missions that encourage the player to interact with NPCs and explore the world, thus giving the player freer range over their actions in the game. After letting Nishiki know that you’re alive and out of the family, you’re supposed to then gather information on a shady real estate business. During this I also went to the disco, the arcade, bowling, the batting cages, helped a yanki band with their appearance, and met several NPCs the game encourages you to make friends with. All of these side mini games and missions are incredibly lighthearted and almost comical, it serves as a nice contrast to the serious story and violent gameplay. It also lets the player see a more human side to Kiryu, as it lets him be more than someone who is a serious and bad-ass former yakuza all the time.Wed, 17 Jan 2018 11:55:11 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6528&iddiary=11491https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6528Yesterday I played through the entirety of the first chapter of Yakuza 0, which took over 2 hours. I’ve never played any of the Yakuza games before and I knew nothing about them other than the high praise the series has received. From what I’ve played so far, I can see why it was so highly praised. The game focuses on the Japanese mafia in the late 1980’s. The protagonist, Kiryu, is framed for a murder he didn’t commit and is sub-sequentially expelled from the Dojima family in order to prove his innocence. During this it’s also made very clear that Kiryu has no actual family and his unfortunate situation growing up is why he is so dedicated to being a yakuza. There is a strong focus on the story and creating a world that is interesting and believable. This includes the politics within the Dojima family, nightlife activities, and dealing with the police; which is predominately shown through plenty of cut scenes. My only real complaint was that there was such an emphasis on telling the story through cut scenes that the actual gameplay, while simplistic is fast paced and engaging, felt like it was limited to tutorials and when it was absolutely necessary to progress the story. I also thought this game was an interesting take on morality, the opening scene is Kiryu essentially beating a man to death for money, but he isn’t necessarily portrayed as a bad person. If anything, the game makes it feel as if this is Kiryu’s only option in life since he has no family and its said plenty of orphans get involved in the yakuza. There’s also the question of if it’s even right in the first place to make a game about the mafia since it involves so much violence and the game could be seen as normalizing these subjects.Tue, 16 Jan 2018 13:22:22 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6528&iddiary=11448