Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=259https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1470After playing SCIII a bit more I briefly tried some of the other game modes but found that they just don't feel right and I felt bored pretty quickly so I went back to quickplay. One of the things I like about SCIII system, that admittedly I remember being a part of whatever version I used to play, are the unblockable attacks. Its nice to have something to use against my guard-happy-wait-forever-dodge-and-block friends who essentially sit there until you try to execute a longer move, then pop you with some short kick to interrupt your attack and start a combo of their own. SCIII is a good fighter, with a bit to many bells and whistles, but I guess you have to have some new stuff to make people buy the game, it just all feels a bit the same to me, although I'm hardly an expert on fighters.Fri, 23 Feb 2007 19:55:37 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1470&iddiary=3092https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1470I had played Soul Calibur 1 (or maybe 2?) back in the day on dreamcast (I don't care what anyone says that was a sweet console) and it was one of my favorites, so I decided to give Soul Calibur III a try. Let me just preface this by saying although I enjoy fighting games, I am by no means good at them. One of the things that frequently upsets me about them is how even when I try to learn combos, execute them at the opportune moment, utilize reversals and in general play with strategy, I am routinely buried by some friend of mine that just randomly spams buttons and movements as fast as their fingers will let them. In this regard it seemed to me that Soul Calibur III is like a lot of other fighter. Still the game is fun and the fighting styles/weapons are really unique and cool. I have yet to try some of the other modes as i've mainly been focusing on learning the different fighting/weapons styles.Fri, 23 Feb 2007 19:54:48 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1470&iddiary=3091https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1265Today I started doing Karazhan with my guild. Its a 10-man raid instance that takes a lot of teamwork to complete. Its a bit wierd raiding with only 10 people since in the days before the expansion you needed 40. Since my guild was built to run 40-mans, we have way to many people and are forced to make multiple groups in order to get everyone a spot, and has created problems making sure each group has the right amount of each class to be successful. Overall though its been really fun. The upside to the smaller group is that the raid is much more focused, less downtime, and we get more done. I've also been doing some player vs player (PvP) trying to gear up for the upcomming arena season that will be launched in the next few weeks or so. Its been somewhat fun, but not a lot of people are PvPing at the moment especially from my guild so I end up playing with random unorganized groups of people, which can be frustrating. I am looking forward to being able to play in arenas where I know everyone on my team is good, and where we will have good teamwork.Fri, 09 Feb 2007 17:01:43 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1265&iddiary=2692https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1265The Burning Crusade (TBC) is the expansion pack to the extremely popular game World of Warcraft. I've been playing TBC over the past 3 weeks or so since it came out. As a huge WoW fan I've found TBC to not let down at all. Basically the expansion adds 1- more levels your character is able to attain, and adds skills/talents to go along with them. At level 70 (the new level cap) you also have access to purchasing a flying mount which lets your character move around the world with a lot more ease. TBC takes place on a new continent which adds tons of new zones/dungeons and a new arena PvP system that puts small groups of player in fierce competition with one another in a ranked season. It took me a bit more than a week to reach 70 on my first character and since then I've been enjoying the new content and getting ready for when the Arena season begins and the rest of my guild gets ready to do the new raid dungeons. In the meantime I have also been leveling my alt to 70, currently hes at 62. I'd have to say the thing I am enjoying the most at this point is getting back in to 5-man dungeons as opposed to the 40-man instances that I have been running for upwards of a year. The smaller team size means you have to depend on a lot less people to not suck, and makes coordination a lot easier. Furthermore, the new instances feature some great new bosses that are much more challenging and complex than the 5-man bosses were at 60. Character wise there is so much more customization in TBC. From new enchants, new armor patches to the new socketed items, you can tailor your character's stats the way you want, and with the new talents and abilities, you have a lot more directions in which you can take a particular class.Fri, 09 Feb 2007 17:00:46 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1265&iddiary=2691https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1082The multiplayer in GoldenEye is ultimately what keeps you playing the game. I remember countless hours playing with my friends after school where we would explore every last inch of the multiplayer areas. The level design for these areas is in my opinion light-years ahead of so many FPS games I've played, even recently. As I was playing it again for the first time in years, I was struck how well each area was constructed so that there was no real area that could not be assaulted from multiple angles. This makes the game such a fun mutliplayer experience because it forces you to watch your back at all times, which is ultimately not possible. Another great thing about the multiplayer is the weapons themselves. Between mines, rifles, grenades, grenade launchers, GoldenEye really strikes a nice ballence of tools to use. The game lets you hold on to a grenade, to shorten the time it would blow up after thrown. You can bounce grenade launcher rounds around corners. You can remotely detonate mines. Its not just the weapons themselves that enhance the experiences but the more subtle ways you can use them that really gives the game some personality. Take the remote mines for instance, normally you would chuck a few on to an area you think an enemy may be coming up, then switch to your remote trigger and lie in wait while watching his/her screen until they are within range. Only one problem with this: they can watch your screen and see that you have your trigger equipped, so they know right before you are about to blow the charges. So GoldenEye lets you detonate your mines by pressing 2 buttons while your mines are still equipped, giving your friend no time to react. Its a small and subtle feature, but its a great example of the depth of game play that GoldenEye has. You can tell by playing it that that developers really understood the game they were making, and not just turning out another cheaply produced game.Wed, 31 Jan 2007 17:02:57 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1082&iddiary=2309https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1082For this weeks gamelog I decided to play an old favorite of mine: GoldenEye. I've played a few of the Bond series games since GoldenEye and after maybe the second or third game I just gave up. None of them could quite catpure the engrossing single player missions, or the intense multiplayer action. For me this was by far the best game I owned for the N64 which is saying a lot because there was many great games. I'll admit, before writting this I thought "I probably won't enjoy this as much as I remember". After all this was the first FPS I had ever played, It honestly wouldn't have had to be that great for me to have played it blindly. But the fact of the matter is, GoldenEye is just an incredible game that stand up to time about as good as you can hope a game to. The attention to detail, be it different weapons, the design of the levels and weapons is really something that sets the game apart even from more modern FPS games. The single player aspect of the game is really a step up from a lot of shooters out there now. I love that the single player focuses on stealth and efficiency rather than charging in to large fights. Of course there is definately the potential for those huge battles, given the various alarms and situations you are put in. Still in any FPS its a given your going to have these big fights, what's not always a given is the suspense that comes with sneaking around trying to stay hidden.Wed, 31 Jan 2007 17:01:57 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1082&iddiary=2308https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=833Played the game for a bit longer and found I save I had where my character was involved in a gang turf war. Basically I had to run around capturing parts of the neighborhood and killing rival gang members while still protecting the areas I had already conquered. This was probably my favorite part of the game so far. After that got a bit repetitive I loaded up some weapon cheats and tried to create the most mayhem possible. A lot of the content in GTA:SA is geared towards just picking up the game and playing, which was something I appreciated after not playing the game for so long that I could just pick up at any point and start having fun without worrying about completing anything. After a while this gets boring, and then you can start doing the story again, but this balance is what makes this game a classic.Fri, 19 Jan 2007 17:01:41 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=833&iddiary=1841https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=833For this weeks gamelog I decided to replay one of my favorite games which happened to be on the classics list. GTA San Andreas is the 3rd of the 3D GTA games and by far the best. Its rare that a game has a storyline mode that it entertaining enough to follow, and still maintains a strong pick-up game-play, where you can have fun doing random stuff not directly tied to the story line. I started up a new game and played the story for a bit but lost interest eventually since I had already beaten most of the game back when it came out. So Inevitably I began killing pedestrians, cops and gang members and seeing how long I could keep from getting caught. I think what separates the GTA series in general from other similar games is the freedom you have over your character, there is not much you are prohibited from doing, although whatever you do has at least some consequence. The other thing I love about GTA is the attention to detail, everything from the multiple hilarious radio stations you can listen to while driving around, to working out at a gym to increase and maintain your characters physical abilities, are things that most games would just gloss over. You definitely get the sense of an RPG with the weapon skills system, without making the game into a RGP. By todays standards, or even the standards of the PS2, GTA:SA is noticeably lacking in the graphics department. I found myself longing for pre-rendered cut-scenes after going through a few of the first missions. Still the detail and size of the world probably required that the game be less graphic intensive, and I'm pretty happy with the balance that is struck.Fri, 19 Jan 2007 16:58:17 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=833&iddiary=1837https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=513Logged into WoW for a bit and did some dueling. Duels are basically 1v1 anything goes fights against another player for no gain other than bragging rights or fun. It one part of WoW I continue to enjoy because of how it changes and evolves. Unlike other MMORPGs the classes in WoW are extremely unique and quite complex. Add to that that each class can specialize in very different 'talents' and you get some really enjoyable fights. Before long however, you learn the strengths and weaknesses of each class and spec, and you can really start pulling out some crazy tricks in order to win against particularly hard foes. On my main character a rogue, one of the most difficult classes to beat is a hunter. Hunter's are ranged fighters who excel at destroying their enemies from range, and keeping them so. A particularly nasty aspect of a hunter is their ability to lay traps that when walked upon do various things such as freeze the enemy in place in order for the hunter to escape melee combat. As a rogue getting caught by one of these freezing traps is basically a death sentence. One way I like to avoid these traps in duels are to use items that counter the trap in creative ways. For example, there is a trinket that allows the user to repel frost based attacks for up to 5 seconds. If used when running over a trap it will effectively cancel the effect. Another cool trick is to use a trinket that creates a pet that follows the caster. If timed correctly the pet will end up tripping the trap, allowing you to continue meleeing the hunter. I guess the point to all this is that even though WoW has a pretty simple learning curve, the fights can get quite complex both in terms of timing and reflexes, but also strategy and planning.Fri, 12 Jan 2007 01:59:56 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=513&iddiary=1299https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=513A bit of background on my WoW experience. My main character is a 60 rogue on the crushridge server. I also play a 60 priest and warrior on the same server, in addition to a 60 warrior on ner'zhul (an alliance character I hardly play). I've been playing WoW since the game came out, my guild has done everything from ZG to Naxx (currently on Faeralina). I really love WoW and spend the majority of the time I spend gaming, playing it. I guess for me I really enjoy it because it constantly changes, and there is always some new aspect to explore. I've enjoyed leveling my characters, learning their class and tradeskills, competing against others in PvP, talking trash on the forums and more than anything exploring the world with friends. Every month or so new content is added to the game which is for the most part what keeps people coming back. I like that WoW is relatively friendly towards non-hardcore players. You hear horror story's all the time about some kid that played for three days straight and suffered some kind of trauma but the truth is that the game can be very rewarding for those that play it casually. I logged in today after reading some boards about a new item my rogue could make. It was a small toy that when used let the player assume control of a tiny tank that you can drive around and lay mines, or shoot things at other player's tanks. It took me a few minuets to lookup where I could learn the skill to make this device, and then a few more to go and do it. I quickly found that people were really having fun with these things, but on my server only a few people were selling them. So I bought a bunch of materials, or mats, from the in-game auction house (AH) and proceeded to make a bunch of these toys. I found that since it was a new item that people hadn't seen before, I could get a pretty good return on my investment. So I started making more and more of the little buggers. I started playing with them in populated areas to attract attention and when people asked me what they were, I offered to sell them one. I ended up making nearly 100g in a short period of time. These types of little things are what I love about WoW, soon enough people will start making their own [Tonk Controler]'s but in the meantime someone who acts fast can capitalize.Fri, 12 Jan 2007 00:49:13 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=513&iddiary=1273