Schua's GameLogBlogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=567Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (PC) - Thu, 06 Mar 2008 19:59:32https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3209Entry #2 Gameplay: As I play more of this game I begin to find the fighting somewhat disappointing. Whenever you encounter an enemy, the game pauses and lets you decide to use what skills you desire for the upcoming round. Therefore the fighting is round-turn based which doesn't fit to my taste. I prefer more like active fighting such as World of Warcraft play style where you and enemies fight with no pauses to choose your next course of action. Despite this, the jedi skills that you will gain are pretty entertaining. The effects are nicely done and implemented. The arts are detailed and characters' attacks have some nice nifty moves. The game promotes social interactions quite nicely due to the variety of responses every time when you encounter a NPC. Some of these responses are quite funny and you can share with your friends. Some choices are difficult to decide because all the choices seem to be quite appealing to choose. I occasionally would ask my friend to decide my next course of action. I was playing this game in my dorm with my roommate, we decided that one of us would follow the path of the light while the other decides to follow the dark. It was quite entertaining to find all the variety of responses offered as we played through the game. Design: Without a doubt, the most innovative elements added to this game is the ability that user are able to choose what response to answer back to the NPC's. Depending on these choices that user made, NPC's will respond in differently and with different tone. This makes the game very interactive not only in the game, but also in real life. Players must give thoughts on predicting what the NPC will answer next as well as what side (dark or light) are they trying to lean on. The map level of the game is brilliantly done. Each world that you travel to have a completely different surrounding. Throughout the journey, you will have to travel to worlds that are forest based, desert based, and city based style. This allows the player to never be bored of their surrounding and gives the player a chance to explore where ever their heart desires. It adds variety as well as more effects to the game that keeps the player continuously interested to play. The only thing that I would change about this game would be the fighting style that I mentioned earlier. I think this is the downfall of the game because it makes the fighting much more boring due to the fact that the game literally pauses so player can chooses their next course of action. Furthermore, clicking on the skills is quite painful because you must literally click to scroll through the skills. The game does not offer a long hot key bar like World of Warcraft, so you must be constantly click to select the skill or item you desire. You are technically stuck with one skill throughout the game if you are too lazy to click to scroll for skills. Overall Knight of the Old Republic is a decent game to play considering the time it came out. I find it very entertaining and anyone who is a Star War fan would find this game entertaining.Thu, 06 Mar 2008 19:59:32 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3209&iddiary=6044Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (PC) - Thu, 06 Mar 2008 18:58:32https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3209Entry #1 Summary: In Star Wars: Knight of the Old Republic, you play the role of a Republic super soldier who is fighting against the evil Sith. This is a RPG game that as you progress in the game, you will find many new items/weapons as well as new skills when you level up to aid you on your quest to defeat the dark side. You will also gain many allies as you travel from planet to planet whom all have different traits to aid you in your journey. Gameplay: I have been playing this game a while and I have to say that the story of the game is extremely rich. The story slowly unfolds as you progress through the game, and you find out that you play a great role upon defeating the Siths. I find the story very entertaining, but the best part is that any NPC's that you talk to in this game contains background story of the world you're in so you can learn even more about the Star War galaxy. The game is extremely fun to play too because of the multiple skills that you can earn from levels throughout the game. The most intriguing aspect of this game is that you are able to perform evil tasks on any interaction given to your character and eventually join the dark side. So from the beginning, you already able to choose what to do to join what side you want. Whenever you interact with another NPC's you are given multiple of responses to answer back. Each response can affect the destiny of your character. The characters that you talk to offers a variety of personality. One of the features that impressed me was that they actually spent time to implement voice acting on practically each NPCS, sort of like Oblivion. You can use your force powers to persuade NPC's action to offer more aid that will benefit you. Character response may have a mean tone or gentle tone depending on what NPC's you encountered. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is a very fun game that captures every aspect of what a RPG game can offer. I recommend this game to anyone.Thu, 06 Mar 2008 18:58:32 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3209&iddiary=6040Super Smash Brothers (N64) - Wed, 20 Feb 2008 21:45:48https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2736Entry #2 Gameplay: As I played more of the other features of the game, I find them very entertaining to play. In story mode (there's no story really behind), player must go through each stage that presents multiple events that player must complete through. In practice target mode, player must master the character's acrobatic maneuvering in order to defeat the various random location of targets. Sometimes I think Nintendo made the practice target challenge a bit too hard which is one aspect of the game I don't like. Even though this game is fun to play especially with friends or families, it is by no mean easy to play. It is a competition of skills. Player must master their combo configuration quick for the character they control or else they will get knocked out pretty fast by the more veteran player. Thus, to be good at this game, player will need to spend some time to familiarize with the game's functions. If you're playing this game in a party and there's line behind you, good luck to you if you're not good. One of the coolest part of the game is the various stage that they made. Each stage belongs because to one of the character's origin. For example, Hyrule's Castle belongs Link and the stage Dreamworld belongs to Kirby. There is also various items that you can use in the game and the greatest part about it is that you have the option to turn on or off certain items. Therefore, you can have a game with only pokeballs on high drop rate and have your own mini pokemon match with your friends. Even though this game is not easy to play, with a little patience and some time you can have a great deal of fun. Believe me, beating your friends in an efficient manner can make your bad day turn into a good day. Design: I think the predominant element of this game is drawing random famous characters from random popular games and put into a game in which player can choose their favorite character and battle to the end to find out the true victor. No other games has ever done this, this is certainly something new and is obviously successful. Everyone always wonder since when they were young while playing these games, what game character is the strongest, but no one made something like this until Super Smash Brother came out. The game certainly made the players interested on playing this game because they offer so many choice of random characters to choose. Each character has its own unique attributes and skills so in order to be the truly best, player must spend a great deal of time mastering each character. Not only that, each character has its own timed battle for each event offered in the game that player can beat. If you don't like time challenge, then you can beat the game to simply unlock secret stages or characters. There is always something to do in the game. The game promotes a great deal of interactivity because of the various moves each characters offered. People playing this game can talk all day long because of the indefinite moves used to counter each other. In team battles, you will be interacting with your team all day long to defeat your opposers. Then when you are finally bored of talking about the game, you'll be talking about each character's background so it'll never end. I think the overall design of SSB was well developed. It keeps player continuously interested because of the many features offered in the game. It isn't like the other 2D fighter game where you beat it and that that. This game has replay value and you'll always be playing it whether to simply to improve or to get a better time in time challenge. I recommend it for anyone.Wed, 20 Feb 2008 21:45:48 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2736&iddiary=5167Super Smash Brothers (N64) - Wed, 20 Feb 2008 20:54:08https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2736Entry #1 Summary: In Super Smash Brother, player controls a character that are from other famous games or television series and attempts to attack each other through combo attacks and acrobatic maneuvers in order to be the last person standing. There are also a variety of game plays in the game so players don't necessarily have to battle each other. Players can perform team battles, story mode, or hitting practice targets in a limited time. There are also secret stages or characters that player can unlock as they progress through the game. Each character has its own unique attributes and attacks that are related to the origin of where the character came from. Gameplay: This is an extremely fun game to play with friends or family especially in parties because it allows so many players to be on the same screen instead of splitting the screen for each individual player. Everyone is forced to combat someone on the screen which promotes competitiveness and interactions. Skills of the players is what determines the victors of the game so there are no unfair picks. Even bystanders who are watching other players play will talk about the different aspects of the game. What makes this game so interesting to play is that characters are all from different backgrounds and most people who play multiple games would know immediately what games they are from. Even people who don't usually play games may know some characters because of their popularity during their times. Famous characters such as Link (Legend of Zelda), Jigglypuff (Pokemon), Pikachu (Pokemon), Samus (Metroid Prime), etc are all in the game. They all have attacks that are similar to their original game. It's like putting characters from random popular games together to fight each other. Playing this always bring me constant excitement especially when I am fighting a friend. I just want to crush them as bad as I can in the quickest manner. The battles becomes even more intense when the players' skills are evenly matched so outcomes are unpredictable. I find this game a great game to play with anyone at anytime. There's always something to teach to others whether its plain skills or secrets so interactivity is always high.Wed, 20 Feb 2008 20:54:08 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2736&iddiary=5153Metroid Prime (GC) - Wed, 06 Feb 2008 21:11:27https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2347Entry #2 Gameplay: After a few hours of playing, the game can get repetitive. After all, all you do is shoot and find stuff. The part that keeps me going is whenever I find an upgrade which brings me back some excitement. It is still interesting to play because I enjoy exploring, but my excitement to play is slowly decreasing. As I progress further into the game I was able to find a few more weapons to add into my armament. I got a few new type of beams. Each beam had its own unique graphics design and effectiveness which was fairly cool. As usual, you don't really know much of the story unless you piece together background text, but you just know you progressed further in the game cause you killed a few more bosses, and your map GPS system becomes bigger as you explore more areas. The background text does hint something Samus may be a hero of a legend that comes to save the world. Design: I think the best element that Nintendo added into this game is the HUD display in this first person shooter. It gives player a grasp of feel of what is it to be like behind a suit and a helmet.I can lock on to things and scan new objects which gives me a description of it. I think Nintendo wanted player to get imbedded into this suit that Samus wears. The bad part of this game is how poorly the progression of the story is. I literally had to scan every object in the game to piece together puzzles in order to figure what happened in the past. This can get irritating. Good thing Nintendo made it that you can receive secrets unlocked if you scan a certain percentage of things in the game as an incentive. Even then I still become lazy to scan stuff or just simply forgot. Another bad thing is that even though the game has a lot of secrets, they are all well hidden. You may require a guide to figure out where to go or else you're not going to get very far in the game because things do get harder to kill. The map level of the game was designed quite brilliantly. There are 5+ big zones, each with its own unique terrain, and they are all puzzle-like basis. The game was made so you won't be able to clear out an entire zone in one sitting. You will eventually have to go back in each zone to unlock further secrets and stuff to progress further in the game. The game created interesting challenges by making players jump over variety of obstacles and solve puzzles. You must also go through many mazes that are filled with creatures that you have to kill to get to your destination. Then there is also bosses that you must kill with variety of strategies. Overall this is a fun interesting game to play. I try to view Metroid Prime as a classic adventurer game where I must explore a whole world by myself. If you do enjoy exploring and don't care much about the story, then this is a game for you. Wed, 06 Feb 2008 21:11:27 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2347&iddiary=4490Metroid Prime (GC) - Wed, 06 Feb 2008 20:19:39https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2347Entry #1 Summary: In Metroid Prime, you are a female bounty hunter named Samus Aran who has been chasing down space pirates that tries to conquer the universe. You discover they have been secretly researching deadly biotechnology on a planet named Talon IV and you attempt to stop them single handedly. The game itself is a first person shooter. Throughout the game you will have to solve puzzles to proceed further into the game as well gaining power ups to buff up Samus in order to defeat the space pirates and bosses. You will find lots of various weapons and tools to aid you across the mind puzzling map of Talon IV. Gameplay: When I first played this game, I was shocked by the stunning graphics that was displayed by the game. It made me feel that this game was made in the future was brought back in time only to be sold for more profit. The graphics was comparable to future console graphics which was quite hard to imagine. In the tutorial-like starting zone, right where I first start the game, I became immediately impressed on how Nintendo was able to make a realistic futuristic first person shooter in space. It just looked so real that I find it unbelievable. They made good use of the lighting and background. You can see astroids floating near around you. Like the previous Metroid games, the player only know Samus by just a brief description of what she does and who she is. You never really see her face except a brief glimpse of her eyes so she presents a bit of a mystery. The character also never talks since she's always alone, and there's no one to interact with other than just reading ancient scripts from a wall. The story unfolds more as you progress further into the game only if you read the background scripts but is still awkward to understand. It is like a jigsaw puzzle, you have to piece them together. You probably can beat the whole game without understanding a single thing on what is going on in the game. The concept is simple to get though, just go after the space pirates and stop whatever they're trying to do. The game is interesting to play because of the cool graphics, but may get you frustrated over the puzzles to solve. I think Nintendo really like their consumers to work their minds a little when they play. Social interaction seems limited, if you got friends watching you play, they would probably just keep asking the same question over and over again about where you going. The response would be quite similar too, just following the radar. Overall I still think it's a pretty fun game because of the variety weapons that you unlock and the variety of movements that you must master to get to you destination.Wed, 06 Feb 2008 20:19:39 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2347&iddiary=4486Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64) - Sat, 26 Jan 2008 00:53:37https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2141Gamelog Entry#2 Gameplay: After playing this game for another couple of hours, I find it amazing that N64 was able to incorporate first person shooting when you switch to sling shot or the bow. It was a genius thought and gave a style to it that was both unique and cool as seen. As I progressed further I was finally able to make contact with more NPC's in Hyrule's market. Ocarina of Time offered a lot of side quests which allowed the player to explore more of the world than just completing the main quest. I think Nintendo wanted the game to be like a freeform RPG without the tiresome leveling so it can keep people attracted. As for character synopsis, when I finally got to the Temple of Time and find myself growing old was just not my taste. I feel kind of sucked to be Link. Missing out seven years of my life all of sudden and finding my home world molded into a undead trash land was just not my thing. Of course you can just use ocarina to play a few songs or so to change things up a bit. I find this ocarina item must be the coolest thing Nintendo has ever done. Player must know how to play songs using the C buttons to change the event of the game is some pretty cool stuff. Design: Ocarina of Time is a game of variety. It included variety of weapons that player must get use to, a variety of mazes to keep the player keep using its brain, and a variety of music that blended well into the game. Player must interact with its surrounding and maneuver quickly behind moving objects to reach its goals. Game emphasizes patience and timing, and clever thinking which I think Nintendo wanted players to understand what a real hero would undergo through in a journey to save his/her kingdom. The game controls the tone of game through backgrounds and music. When you play young Link, music always seems joyful and happy, while when you play old Link, it always seems dark and quiet which shows the dark forces has taken over the world. The most interesting part of this game is that the player has the ability to control when the characters want to travel in time to become old Link or young link. Each time zone set off different events but are intervened with each other. This creates a unique plot twist because no game offered the ability to go back in time and change the future. Ocarina of Time foster a lot of social impact. It inspired game creators of next generation what a heroic journey should be. Dungeons filled with bosses and puzzles that players have to solve. It featured opened ended gameplay in which player can do anything at anytime without failing the main quest. The whole game is like telling a tale of hero. The hero grows stronger over time and finally saves the day when he reaches his final age. A classic story that has been translated into a game.Sat, 26 Jan 2008 00:53:37 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2141&iddiary=4241Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64) - Fri, 25 Jan 2008 22:31:45https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2141Gamelog Entry#1 Summary: In Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, the player controls an adventurer named Link who is given a mission to find the Triforce's existence before the evil finds it first. The player must journey through many dungeons and fight bosses with variety of weapons from a simple sling shot to sword and shield. This is an epic action/adventure game where the player must interact with his/her surroundings to solve dungeon mazes in order to achieve his/her goal. Gameplay: Playing this game brought me back childhood memories when I first saw this legendary game came out. At that time I didn't own a N64 so I could only watch my friends play with jealousy. Now today, I can finally play it to my heart's content in my own dorm. First off, just at the start screen, the game already tells me that it is going to be fun game from listening to the introduction music. Its grand orchestral theme tells a tale that few games possess. I enjoy playing games that has a great story because that's what keeps me addicted to it. The player start off with no weapons or whatsoever, instead the character must go find your weapon and shield before he could even head off to anywhere at all. I find it kind of fun because the game makes it like you're on a scavenging hunt. This style probably attract to little kids, but it also give players a chance to be familiarize with its movement actions and attacks which in my opinion is a smart thing to do. The gameplay was extremely fun and interesting to play, but requires you to be versatile and flexible. The player must learn how to dodge attacks and counter them so timing is important. You don't level in this game but you do gain more powers as you progress further in the game. Player can also assign items/weapons to the controller stick which gives them a chance to adjust the game buttons to their own discretion instead of forcing players to get use to the buttons. In each dungeon there is a maze or puzzle that the player must solve in order to progress further in the game. Sometimes I find that Nintendo put too much effort on making these maze because they become too annoying to solve. I guess this is also a good thing because it encourages kids to use their brain instead of mindlessly playing game just to beat it. The character, Link which whom the character control is somewhat of a mystery. He originally does not start off with a fairy like the rest of his villagers but instead was given one. This shows that there is something more behind him than he is just a mere woodland elf especially since he can grow big later on in the game. The story of the game is splendidly told. You are given a quest from an ancient tree in which you must recover ancient artifact known as Triforce before the dark side does. The plot unfolds more and more as you progress further in the game. Eventually you'll have to rescue your providence from the evil Ganondorf. After all these years since the game first came out. I finally found out why this game has become a classic. My roommate still thinks Ocarina of Time is still the best version of Legend of Zelda out there. I don't know if that is true or not because I have not played the rest, but I wouldn't be surprise if I find myself agreeing with him. This game is certainly addicting both from the story and from the adventurous gameplay. Even when I mention the game to my friends they would all know the name and talk about his favorite part in the game. Fri, 25 Jan 2008 22:31:45 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2141&iddiary=4148F.E.A.R. (PC) - Mon, 14 Jan 2008 22:15:13https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1691Gamelog Entry#2 Gameplay: As I play more of this game I find this game more exciting and fearful at the same time. I became more indulged into the story about finding why am I receiving these random hallucinations. I also want to know more about this creepy little red girl whom I find out to be Alma. The character I control does not show much communication with the outsiders which still presents a mystery of whom I truly am. I think the gameplay is somewhat typical, you can move anywhere you want but there's only one real possible exist to go since it is mostly a maze. However, I do like the AI's ability to use surrounding object to cover themselves from my fire. I can also interact with almost any object in the game. If I shoot them, they can actually fly away or break apart such as glass. Design: I think the most striking part of this game's elements is their ability to control the intensity of the players. Using creepy music and combining the use bloody dead innocents creates a scary atmosphere. As player approaches certain areas, the game would all of sudden stop music which immediately causes the player to tense up. What separates this game from any other horror games is their ability to cause player to expect something is going to come up because of the sudden change in music, but in the end nothing happens. The game plays around with the player's fear. The level design of the game provided both fear and challenge to the player. The game levels would sometimes have multiple exists allowing AI's to come from behind you and ambush you or corner you if you are unaware. The level also presents a fear because you would occasionally find dead innocents lying on the floor which brings out a scary tone all the time. The visual effect of the fighting is actually quite realistic too. Throwing grenades at your enemies, then blowing them up can cause them to explode into a bloody mess. Shooting too much of your machine also causes debris that can obscure your sighting temporarily. Finally, whether you are in a office complex or a warehouse, AI's would always know to use what objects to cover themselves from fire. Fear not, you are also given the chance to kill your enemies faster by shooting explosive barrels (if you are in the warehouse) or crawling through vents (office complex) to get around your enemies to have a better advantage. What makes this game attracted to players in my opinion is story of the game. As you progress further in the game, you begin to find a more in depth story behind main antagonist that you are trying to kill. You become addicted to story because you want to know why you are receiving these random hallucination, why is the antagonist speaking to you telepathically to explain something, and who Alma really is. You are also neither bored of the game because AI's present a satisfiable challenge to match your cunning and skills. Mon, 14 Jan 2008 22:15:13 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1691&iddiary=3639F.E.A.R. (PC) - Sun, 13 Jan 2008 19:37:32https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1691SUMMARY: In F.E.A.R you are a one man super soldier trying to stop a psychic commander named Paxton Fettel who is controlling an army of clone soldiers telepathically. The object of the game to kill Fettel and therefore stopping the army of clones. To accomplish this, you must complete multiple objectives given by F.E.A.R headquarters as you journey through variety of locations that had trails of Fettel. This is a first person shooter and you are all by yourself as you journey through each mission. You face not only well trained clone soldiers, but also hallucinations of your past. As you continue through the game, you begin to learn that there is more connection between you and this mission than you expect. GAMEPLAY: This is a very graphical intense game. I find this game as an extremely fun first person shooter especially when you play this at night with all the lights off and by yourself. Like the name implies, there is a lot of scary things happening around you all the time. The game keeps you intense all the time because you will never know when will something pop out of your screen out of no where at random times. The game hints you when you will see a something paranormal but messing up with your radio. Just this action automatically raises your blood pressure because you know something is going to come up but just don't know when... The character that you control also presents a mystery. You never get to see your own character's face and you somehow have superhuman reflex that allows you to move so fast you can even dodge bullet. It's kind of like bullet time from Max Payne or from the Matrix. However, the key thing that gets me hooked on to this game the most is because of the story. As I begin to go deeper in the game I find a bigger relationship between me and this psychic commander I have to kill as well as the random hallucinations I witness from this creepy red little girl named Alma. I just can't let go of the game without beating it to find out the whole story.Sun, 13 Jan 2008 19:37:32 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1691&iddiary=3415