Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=464https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2957Entry #2 GAMEPLAY During my second session of gameplay, I played as the other character, Ghost. In the game, Ghost plays a different role in the game. He is the shooter or he handles the weapons when both he and Niobe are working together in the game while Niobe is the one who drives the car or the ship. Like Niobe, Ghost also has some cool martial arts skills and he is also skilled with weapons. I like the fact that both characters in the game are able to move in slow motion by using their “focus.” While using the “focus,” Ghost can move in slow motion and he can dodge bullets easily. While using the “focus,” you are able to see the bullets fly passed you as you dodge them in slow motion. While using the “focus,” you also get a little bit stronger and you are able to defy gravity. I really like using the “focus.” I think it is very cool and I haven’t seen it in other video games that I have played. Being able to use the “focus” makes me feel like I am able to do the gravity defying stunts that are seen in the movie, The Matrix. In my opinion, one of the aspects of this game that makes it very interesting and very fun and exciting to play is that it really feels like I am in an action movie where I am the main character. In this game, you fight the bad guys or you run away from the bad guys and that is what makes the game very thrilling and suspenseful. I really like suspense and that is one of the reasons why I like to play this game. DESIGN In my opinion, I think the design for this game is great. The developers of the game really captured the world of The Matrix movies. The design of the video game characters really looks like their real-life counterparts. The video game character, Niobe, really resembles the actress, Jada Pinkett-Smith, who plays the character in The Matrix movies. The design of the gameworld is somewhat realistic. The design of the gameworld definitely does not have a cartoonish quality to it like some of the games I have previously played. It is certainly not whimsical. The design really has a real-life feel to it. For instance, the buildings are modeled from buildings that you would see in metropolitan cities. One thing I also like about this game are the cut scenes. The cut scenes are actually extended scenes from The Matrix movies. The cut scenes really setup the narrative of the video game. The cut scenes also function to give fans of the movies a little more insight to the world of The Matrix and a little bit more of understanding what is going on in the movies as well as the video game itself. This game really has some innovative elements that I haven’t seen in other video games I’ve played. I really like the concept of the “focus” in which the video game characters can move in slow motion to help them get a little bit stronger and also help them to dodge bullets. I haven’t seen this feature in other video games. This feature really makes the game fun and thrilling to play. This feature is also one of the interesting things about the whole video game. It really makes the game unique and innovative. Wed, 05 Mar 2008 18:57:01 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2957&iddiary=5675https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2957Entry #1 SUMMARY Enter the Matrix is a 1 player action role playing video game in which you can either choose to play as two different characters, Niobe or Ghost. The characters and the video game are based on the movie, The Matrix. There are two main objectives in this game. Niobe and Ghost each have their own objectives to complete. The main objective of both characters is to help save Zion, the humans’ last living city that is located underground, from annihilation by the Sentinels, a group of machines that are trying to annihilate the human race. GAMEPLAY This game is unlike any other video game I’ve played. First of all, I really like The Matrix movies and to have a video game that is based on it was a great idea. This video game gives the player a chance to “enter the matrix.” It gives the player the chance to feel like they are in the movie. When I play the game, I really feel like I’m in the movie. When I play the game, I really feel like I’m in an action movie. The video game allows the player to enter the world of The Matrix. The video game also allows the player to do things similar to what the characters do in the movie such as “the bullet time” effect where the player can move in slow motion and dodge bullets. The video game characters also know martial arts similar to the characters in the movie. In the game, you can use cool martial arts moves on your enemies. I really like the fact that you can choose to play as two different characters. Each of the characters, Niobe and Ghost, have different roles in the game. For instance, when both characters are working together in the game, Niobe is usually the driver and Ghost is the shooter. This game is also very interesting and very fun to play. The game is also very exciting. During my first session of gameplay, I played the game as Niobe. Niobe is a strong female character who can kick some butt with her martial arts skills and she also has great driving skills. Other than using martial arts to dispose of enemies, you also can use various weapons that you can use against your enemies like guns and grenades. For my next session of gameplay, I plan to play as Ghost. Wed, 05 Mar 2008 00:36:27 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2957&iddiary=5632https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2669Entry #2 GAMEPLAY During my second session of playing, I was able to defeat three more colossus or giants. I realized as you move on and progress to the different colossus, they get harder and more challenging to defeat. Each colossus is different from the other one. They all have different attacks and the ways in which to defeat them are different from one another. I really enjoy playing this game. I enjoy the challenges of figuring out how to defeat the different colossus. Defeating the colossus is like solving a really complex puzzle. That is one aspect of the game that makes me enjoy playing it. At times, I did get a bit frustrated because it took me a while to figure out how to defeat one of the colossi. Once I start playing this game, it is a bit hard to stop. After you defeat one of the colossi, I get the urge to want to find the next one and try to defeat it. I get to urge to want to see what makes the previous colossi different from the next one. One other thing that I noticed while playing the game is there are no other enemies that you have to deal with. Once I defeated the fourth colossi, I started to figure out that the game might me like this throughout. I think this one aspect of the game is what makes it unique and different from other games of the same genre. The only enemies you have to worry about are the colossus. DESIGN I really like the design of this game. The graphics are great. The graphics give the game a sense of realism. The design and the graphics of the game make it feel like I’m watching a movie or that I am in one and I get to control the main character. The camera for this game I think is also great but it does get annoying sometimes. The movement of the camera can get a bit disorienting by the way it moves but I do like the camera angles. This game is in the third-person perspective and I think the camera work and the camera angles for this game is great for one that is in a third-person perspective. For instance, when I am riding the horse and the camera is right behind the character, I get to see the vast landscape right in front of me and I think that is what the camera for this game does well. It makes me feel like I’m in a movie. The controls of the game are very simple. The only modes of transportation in the game are either walking, running, climbing or riding on Ando, the horse. There are only two weapons available to you to defeat the colossus and they are a sword or a bow and arrow. This game is very simple. It doesn’t try to be too complicated as many games sometimes are. All that you pretty much do in this game is find all the colossus, figure out how to defeat them and move on to the next one. This certain aspect of the game is what makes a unique as well as a fun game to play. I also like the fact that to be able to find the next colossi, you use the light that reflects from your sword to point you in the right direction. The design and the graphics for all the colossus are also great. Each colossi have their own characteristics and I think the graphics and design are all well done. The developers of this game really did a great job at making each colossi different as well as a bit daunting. All in all, I think every aspect of the design of this game was well done. Wed, 20 Feb 2008 17:38:56 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2669&iddiary=5118https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2669Entry #1 SUMMARY Shadow of the Colossus is a 1 player action/adventure role playing video game. The story of this video game is a great one. It is almost like a movie. It is a story of a man who wants to bring back the woman that he loves back to life. In order to do that, he has to defeat a certain number of colossus or giants. The main objective of this video game is to defeat all of the colossus or giants. There are total of sixteen giants that you have to defeat. Each one is different from the other. GAMEPLAY After just a couple of minutes of playing the game, I found that the game is very interesting because of the graphics and the story. The story and the concept of the game are unlike any other game I’ve played before. I haven’t heard of or seen this game or played this game before. When I was playing the game, I felt like I was in some sort of epic fantasy movie and I get to control the main character. It took me some time to get use to the controls for the game. During my first session of playing game, I was kind of surprised that I immediately had to face the first colossi or giant. Now the first colossi or giant was a little bit scary. I felt my heart pounding a bit because it looked scary and a bit terrifying. It was huge and hairy and it was also holding a huge club in its hand which I presumed it would use to try and kill me. Looking at this humongous creature, I was wondering how I was going to be able to defeat it. It took me quite a while to figure out what I was suppose to do. I felt a little frustrated that I couldn’t figure out what I was supposed to do. Luckily, the game gives some clues of what to do. When I finally managed to defeat it, I felt relief and I now had an idea of what I was going to be facing as I progress further into the game. Wed, 20 Feb 2008 17:09:56 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2669&iddiary=5109https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2352Entry #2 GAMEPLAY One thing I’ve noticed during my second session of playing the game is that the gameworld is spread out. There are different places or levels that you have to go to and they are all spread out from one another. For instance, to get to another place you have to use a boat. I like the fact that to be able to use the boat you have to finish a specific task first. I like the fact that you have to achieve specific objectives and tasks to be able to progress through the game. I slightly like a puzzle trying to determine what to do first or next so that you can progress through the game. I also like the fact that when you go to different places in the game, there are new things to see such as new enemies and the setting is changed. For instance, there is a place in the game called “Misty Island” and this place has a spooky quality to it because it’s foggy and you see bones everywhere. The game does a good job of setting the atmosphere because it helps me get emotionally invested in the game, in other words, I am well inside the “magic circle” when playing this game. For instance, when I’m On “Misty Island,” I can’t help but feel a little bit cautious because of the setting. I haven’t played this game in so long that I get to notice things about the game that I took for granted playing it the first time. DESIGN I really like the graphics of this game. It has a cartoonish quality to it. It is not like other action/adventure games where they try to be realistic. All the characters have cartoonish qualities like they have large ears or large eyes. One of the characters, Samos, has one big eye and one small eye and he has a tree trunk on his head. Jak’s sidekick, Daxter, is a furry little animal. He wasn’t like that at first but he got turned into a furry little animal. I also like the mechanics of the game. Jak’s movements are very fluid. The controls of the game are also easy and simple. One button does a specific thing like X is jump and if you press X twice, Jak does a double jump. I really like some of the concepts of the game like Jak can use what the game calls “Blue Eco” so that he can be quicker and stronger. The blue eco also helps Jak do certain things and also unlock certain things. With the “blue eco,” he can launch himself into the air when he steps on these launch pads. Also with the blue eco, he can lure game tokens to him such as the “precursor orbs.” When Jak has absorbed blue eco, the orbs would come to him. One thing I also like about the game is the atmosphere. The developers of the game did a good job at setting the atmosphere. For instance, in this gameworld, the sun sets and rises frequently and when the sun is set and it becomes dark, you see fireflies flying around. Also when Jak is near water, you can hear waves crashing or when he is near a waterfall, who can hear it. In my opinion, the design of this game is very well done. Thu, 07 Feb 2008 22:01:30 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2352&iddiary=4515https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2352Entry #1 SUMMARY Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy is a 1 player action/adventure role playing game for the Playstation 2 game console. In this game, the main character, Jak along with his sidekick named Daxter, he has to achieve certain objectives or tasks so that he can receive game tokens called “power cells.” The main objective of this game is to collect all of the “power cells” available from each level to be able to progress forward through the game. GAMEPLAY This video game is very fun to play. This game is from the same creators of the Crash Bandicoot series which is another video game I enjoy playing. One of the things that make this game fun to play is the certain objectives or tasks that you have to do. Some of the objectives are pretty easy and simple to do while other objectives are slightly more challenging. Another thing that makes this game fun to play is that it is an adventure game. In this game, you get to explore the gameworld. Within the gameworld, there are various enemies that you have to get rid of by using special moves the Jak has such as a punch move, a spinning move or a jump move. Another aspect of this video game that makes me enjoy playing it is the cartoonish quality of it. The gameworld environment as well as all of the characters of the video game looks like they come straight from a cartoon. Although I say that this game is fun to play there are some things that make it slightly annoying. While playing the game, Jak’s sidekick, Daxter, makes funny comments and helpful hints or suggestions to what to do next in the game. Daxter is somewhat the comic relief of the video game however he does get annoying at times. We never get to hear Jak talk but we always get to hear Daxter. Despite that fact, I think the game is still fun and entertaining to play. Thu, 07 Feb 2008 00:06:57 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2352&iddiary=4492https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2040Entry #2 GAMEPLAY During my second session of playing Super Smash Brothers, I played the game against the computer. When playing with the computer, you can pick the level of difficulty of the computer. I picked the highest level which is level 9. Even though it is the highest level, I feel that the computer is so easy to beat. The AI or artificial intelligence of the computer characters is not that intelligent for this video game. I find that when playing with someone else instead of playing with the computer is much more challenging and fun to play. I feel like when I play with the computer it is predictable what the computer will do but when playing with someone else, it is unpredictable. Playing against the computer and playing against a real person are two different video game playing experiences. When playing against someone else, you get to interact with somebody else. During my first session of playing the game, there was a lot of trash talking going on. However, when you play alone and against the computer, you don’t have any one physically to interact with. You can however interact with the TV or talk to yourself which I do sometimes. DESIGN As I’ve mentioned before, I really love that the video game characters in Super Smash Brothers come from different Nintendo video games. I like that each character has a certain fighting style and also superpowers that they can use against their opponents. I like the graphics of this video game. The graphics are actually pretty good given the time when it was made. I like how all the fighting arenas are each based on a specific character in the game. One negative thing I would say about the fighting arenas is that the characters are confined in a small space. There are however some fighting arenas that allow you to roam around in a much larger space but some are too small and there isn’t much room to move around in. I do like the controls for this game. I find that the controls are really simple. I like that the controls are the same for each character. They have the same control for each character but what each character does is different. There are games out there where there are different controls and buttons that are only specific to that one character. I like how each character has certain moves or powers. This is what makes this a unique and different from any other fighting video game I’ve played. The fact the each characters have certain powers and moves as well as being able to use all sorts of weapons against your opponent is what makes Super Smash Brothers so much fun to play. Fri, 25 Jan 2008 02:39:25 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2040&iddiary=3997https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2040Entry #1 SUMMARY Super Smash Brothers is a 1-4 player fighting video game for the Nintendo 64 game console. In this game, you can fight as, with, or against different characters from different Nintendo video games characters which includes Mario, Luigi, Pikachu, Star Fox, and more. There is a Versus mode where you can either fight one on one with somebody else or the computer or fight as a team of two or more. There is also a 1 player mode where you can fight all sorts of characters including a Giant Hand. There are unlockables that can be unlocked when the player achieves certain objectives such as hidden characters and fighting arenas. The objective of this game is to unlock them all and also try your best to be the last one standing. GAMEPLAY I love playing this video game. It is a very fun game to play. It is unlike any other fighting video game I’ve played. I love that all the characters come from different Nintendo video games. One of my favorite characters I like playing as is Pikachu. Pikachu is fast and agile and has some powerful moves. I love how all of the characters have certain fighting styles and also certain powers that they can use against their opponents. I also like the fact that the players can also use all kinds of weapons such as a beam sword or a bat or a pokeball and other weapons against their opponents. Although, there are certain weapons that I dislike such as the fan or the bumper and sometimes the bomb when another player has it but when I have one, I like it. I play with one of my housemates and he beats me most of the time. Sometimes I get really frustrated when playing the game because he wins most of the time. There are times where I do beat him and I get really excited since I rarely win. I believe it is only because he has more experience with the game than I have. I was only first introduced to this game last year. Prior to last year, I never played the game before. Last year, one of my housemates brought his Nintendo 64 and we played Super Smash Brothers all the time. Although, most of the time I don’t win, I still love to play the game because it is really fun. Thu, 24 Jan 2008 21:44:26 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2040&iddiary=3940https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1637Entry #2 GAMEPLAY When playing against the computer, the computer never makes a mistake. That's one issue I have with playing the video game. The computer never makes a mistake. For example, the computer rarely hits the ball out and it never serves a fault. If the computer was programmed to make at least some mistakes then it would make the video game seem more realistic. It does bug me sometimes that the computer rarely makes mistakes. The experience of playing the video game with someone else rather than the computer makes it very different experience. When playing against someone else, you have somebody to interact with, much like when playing real life tennis and also it's more fun to play. You can't play or enjoy tennis when you're all alone. I played with my roommate and we played singles and we played against each other. I won! Then we played doubles and we played with each other on the same team. We won! The emotions I feel when playing real life tennis, I get to feel when playing the video game. I get really competitive and I play to win. One other thing I like about the video game is I get a chance to get into some long rallies and that's when tennis is fun, when there are long rallies. I rarely get into long rallies in real life. I pretty much get to do stuff on the video game that I can't in real life. DESIGN I really like the mechanics of the video game. I think the developers of this game have really captured the real life mechanics or physics of playing tennis and have successfully incorporated them into the video game. The way the characters move in the video game is almost like real life. Sometimes it looks like it’s an actual tennis match on television. I’d like to mention again that I like how the tennis court arenas are exactly modeled from the real life tennis court arenas. They really look like the ones in real life. The controls for this game is easier than the other tennis video game I've played. In some of the other tennis video games I’ve played you either have to press two different buttons at once or press a button more than once but, for this video game the controls are simple. I also like the way the game was designed to let the player feel the same emotions as well as making the player think the same way as if they were playing real life tennis. I also love how all of the video game characters really look like the real life tennis pros. They also have captured how each real life tennis pro plays in the video game. For instance, they really capture the service motions for each player in the video game. I’ve actually noticed that some of the real life tennis players actually serve that way. So if you love tennis, you’ll definitely love this game. If you never played tennis before, this game is a fun video game to play. Mon, 14 Jan 2008 23:44:13 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1637&iddiary=3661https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1637Entry #1 SUMMARY Smash Court Tennis Pro Tournament 2 is a 1-4 player tennis video game. You can play as, with, or against 16 real life tennis professionals which includes Andy Roddick and Serena Williams. You can either play singles or doubles with or against another player or the computer. You can also create your own pro tennis player and help your player achieve to be the # 1 tennis player in the world. The objective of this video game is the same as real life tennis, win the tennis match and the video game also has the same rules as real life tennis. GAMEPLAY Since I am a HUGE tennis fan and LOVE to play tennis, I find this video game really fun to play. When I play it, I feel the same emotions as if I were playing on a real life tennis court, the only difference is that I won't get physically tired. While playing the video game, I find myself making the same decisions I would make while playing real life tennis such as do I slice the ball or hit it harder or throw in a drop shot or serve the ball out wide or do I charge the net. Also, like in real life, you can construct points however it is much easier to do so in the video game than in real life. For instance, in the video game, you can easily force your opponent to approach the net and then have the opportunity to hit a passing shot. One other aspect of the video game that I like is that I get a chance to play as one of my favorite tennis players such as Andy Roddick or Serena Williams. I also like the fact that the tennis courts in the video game are exactly modeled from the real life tennis court arenas such as the Rod Laver Arena at the Australian Open, the main court at the French Open, Centre Court at Wimbledon, and the Arthur Ashe Stadium at the US Open. With this video game, I also get a chance to live out my dream of playing a real life professional tennis tournament except it's actually virtual. Mon, 14 Jan 2008 23:24:27 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1637&iddiary=3654