Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=293https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1494Wow. Mario Party is officially WAY more fun when you're playing with other people. I recruited two of my friends to play with me for my second session, and the game is so much more interesting when you have other people invested in what you're doing, and when you are invested in what the other players are doing. It changed the gameplay immensely. After all, what fun is a board game when you're playing it solely versus yourself? Good multiplayer game desgin. Also, the computer on "normal" mode beat us depressingly. I would suggest "easy" mode. It's way more fun. :PSun, 25 Feb 2007 18:15:03 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1494&iddiary=3152https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1494Mario Party is really, really boring when you're playing alone. This is what I have learned from playing it alone. Also, I am terrible at mini-games. So yeah, overall the experiance has been rather frusturating. Controls are very easy, both for the main game and the mini-games (and unless you're trigger-happy like me, mini-games should not be THAT hard), because the game really only uses A, B, Start, and the control stick. I can see how it would be fun for many people- it's like a board game, really, with cool animations- but for one person, it's really not that fun to watch other characters constantly play mini-games and steal your coins. I'll wait and see just how much more boring it gets....Sun, 25 Feb 2007 00:58:49 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1494&iddiary=3146https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1492More Alice.... This game is still awesome. I'm still frusturated with the controls, but I've learned that saving strategically is almost vital. Weapons, which I now have four of, seem excellently designed- they are versatile, both in function and in mana usage, and changing them often really does make a differance. The puzzles are still interesting and somewhat difficult (although I seem to be having excellent luck with them....) I started this game because I needed something to play for a gamelog, but I would highly recommend it to anyone, and plan to keep playing. Always good.Sat, 24 Feb 2007 23:41:05 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1492&iddiary=3145https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1492Alice, so far, is pretty damn cool. Voice acting is excellent (with the exception of Alice, but whatever) and for a game that came out in 2000, the graphics are excellent. I'm still trying to get used to the controls, but so far, the game hasn't really pulled any punches. Level designs are complicated and even occasionally challenging this early in the game- I can't wait for higher levels. Luckily, it looks like I have plenty of map left to explore. I have a feeling I'm still in tutorial a little bit, but I've got two weapons now, and seem to have gone over most of the game basics. However, unlike some other games I've played, the tutorial wasn't invasive- characters told me what I COULD do, but most of the rest was left for me to figure out and use (or not) at my own leisure. It was a refreshing change.Sat, 24 Feb 2007 22:36:40 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1492&iddiary=3142https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1103Even after about two hours of play, I'm not sure why I like Ocarina of Time as much as I do. Looking at it from a design standpoint, it is not substantially different from other games in the Zelda series, at least not story-wise. Gameplay obviously has evolved from the earlier 2D games as it is now set in a 3D world, but the storyline, characters and items are almost identical to the earlier games. You'd think it would get boring. But it hasn't yet. I think it has to do with the fact that while the game's story is very linear (although it occasionally offers you "choices", you can't get out of the dialouge without making the right choice), the player has an extensive world to explore beyond just the area they are playing in. Also, the large variety of side quests and trading sequences add variety to the storyline, especially since they give the player with useful (and often vital)rewards.Wed, 31 Jan 2007 22:11:19 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1103&iddiary=2402https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1103I've played through Ocarina of Time twice now (once when I was really little, although my mom played most of that, and once more recently, when I decided to try to beat the game in a week), so I kind of know what I'm doing. However, I decided to take my time, exploring the game from a design standpoint instead of purely trying to beat the game. This means that I spent most of my first hour in Kokiri Forest, exploring the limits of my world as they are right now (and double-checking the tutorials so I'm sure I remember how to play). There were actually less cutscenes than I expected- the more recent Twilight Princess seems to rely on them much more, probably simply because of the more advanced hardware. Instead, most tutorials come from random NPCs standing around, and the odd sign. In fact, the experianced player could skip the tutorial almost altogether, if they didn't talk to anyone or read anything. There is actually quite a lot to do in the early stage of the game- although you're told you'll die if you leave the forest, there is all of Kokiri Village and the Lost Woods to explore, although most of the Lost Woods are unimportant at the moment. NPCs are (relatively) helpful, at least moreso than in many games I've played, and now I'm looking forward to getting on to a dungeon.Wed, 31 Jan 2007 18:40:07 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1103&iddiary=2365https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=740I played Goldeneye mainly because that's what they gave me at the Science & Engineering Library. I have very little experiance with first person shooters (the only ones I've ever played are Halo and Halo 2, and I'm TERRIBLE at them), so it's kind of an adjustment for me. So I'm at the very, very bottom of the learning curve, especially since I didn't find out that there was a control diagram until oh... about halfway through the hour I played for. So I was shooting blindly without a scope for most of the first mission, but I got it figured out eventually. The first level was not that hard, luckily (even though I finished it by accident). I actually liked how linear it was- clear one area, find the exit, clear the next area, find the exit, etc. Where I really started having problems was in the second mission, which was much less linear. The first-person view tends to throw off my sense of direction, so the lack of a map or spesific directions caused me to kind of run around aimlessly, killing anything that showed up. This got boring after the second time I died without progressing any further into the level.Thu, 18 Jan 2007 22:30:40 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=740&iddiary=1653https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=552More Black & White. Well, about 15 minutes after I started playing again, a rival god started attacking my village, and I saved what villagers I could and moved to a new map. The game finally started explaining things beyond very simple tutorials, and got WAY more interesting. I'm still not totally sure exactly what I should be doing with my creature, but now I'm building towns and such- it seems like there's a lot more of a point to the game. I think that's because I've moved beyond the tutorial world. What else... well, the controls haven't gotten any easier, but I'm getting more used to them. I hope the game gives me a little more storyline soon- I'm basically still doing what it tells me to, and being generally "good", not "evil" quite yet (although we'll see how long that lasts... hehe). Anyway, I feel like I'm still in the very, very beginning stages of the game despite the fact that I think I played about an hour longer this time than I was supposed to. Yeah.Fri, 12 Jan 2007 04:25:29 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=552&iddiary=1346https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=552I have wanted to play Black & White for... years. Right after it came out, one of my friends had it, and she spoke so highly of that it has been on my mental "to play" list ever since. At the time my computer wasn't fast enough, and the game was too expensive. So, when I found out one of my friends owned it and was willing to lend it to me, I leapt at the chance. Only once I got into the starting sequence did I remember that this game is oh... 6 years old, or so. It is not really a problem, but the first thing that struck me was how laughable the graphics are in comparison to today. I got over that pretty fast though, eager to get into actual gameplay. It took a while to get through all the tutorials, especially since I should probably be playing with an actual mouse instead of a touchpad, and to be totally honest, I think the controls could be much simpler. Even an on-screen navigational system would be easier than the click/drag system B&W uses. I have yet to figure out how to zoom in and out smoothly, although once again, that could have more to do with the touchpad than anything. I’m not too far into the game yet- I just got through all of the “creature” tutorials, and have only one quest-thing in the works, which only involves carrying wood and food to men building a ship. So far, there’s been quite a few cut scenes, and although they are handled quite smoothly camera-wise, they are still a little jarring in the overall gameplay experience. I think this is because your “conscience”, the NPCs basically guiding the player through the game, keep telling the player to go explore, and then interrupting that exploration with a cut scene tip or tutorial. My guess is that this will decrease as the game goes on- otherwise the player immersion in the game might be affected.Fri, 12 Jan 2007 01:35:51 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=552&iddiary=1286