Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=595https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3085GAMEPLAY: In my second game session I decided to focus more on the different playable classes in TF2. The nine different classes are broken into three different categories that include offense, defense, and support. The offense classes include the fast but weak Scout, the good all-around Soldier, and the high damage dealer the Pyro. Defense includes the Demoman, Heavy, and Engineer. Finally, the support classes include the Medic, the Sniper, and the Spy. Each class is very unique in many aspects such as health, damage, and abilities. For instance, the Heavy class has the most health, making it the best class to be healed by a medic. This is why players often see a heavy being fallowed around by a medic healing them. Each class plays very different from the next, which keeps the game play very interesting and fresh. It is also a nice feature that players can change their class whenever they feel, so it doesn’t feel like you get stuck with something you don’t like playing. The medic class is arguably the most important class in the game, which is funny because I find it the most boring to play. Injured players can call for a “MEDIC!!!” in hopes that someone playing a medic is close enough (and nice enough) to come heal them. Most FPS’s out today do not have a healing class, which is one reason why TF2 is so much fun to play. The Engineer class is another very unique class for a FPS. Engineers are very weak when it comes to weapon based combat, but they can build very powerful machines to help out themselves and their team. They can build teleporters, health vendors, and stationary turrets to help out their team. On top of being able to build cool gadgets, engineers can upgrade these gadgets through multiple ranks. This means that the longer an engineer can stay alive, the more powerful they become. DESIGN: Having played the original Team Fortress years ago, the first thing I noticed when I started playing TF2 was how drastically different it is from its predecessor. Team Fortress was a mod on the original Half-Life engine, and was a very different game than TF2. One of the first things I noticed upon playing TF2 was that there were no alien weapons, alien maps, or any aliens at all! In fact, TF2 decided to completely overhaul the TF series while leaving the core game play almost untouched. The game play consists of squad based first person shooter mayhem, 9 distinct classes, and lots of action. Just like the original, the games consist of very large team battles with lots of carnage. Unlike the original, TF2 decided to go with a new look. The new graphics are very stylized and have a cel-shaded look. Players in the game look like exaggerated caricatures with very large arms and hands, and very small legs and feet. This new look works well with the unrealistic style of the game and makes the game stand out from other on the market.Wed, 05 Mar 2008 23:20:54 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3085&iddiary=5748https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3085SUMMARY: Team Fortress 2 is a multiplayer based first person shooter developed by Valve. Players can choose from nine distinct classes and duke it out on many different levels. The game has a very stylized, almost cartoon-ish look to it, along with very unique game play. GAMEPLAY: Team Fortress 2 has very unique game play; different from any other first person shooter I have played. Unlike most FPS out today, players in TF2 seem to have a lot of health on top of the fact that weapons don’t seem to do very much damage. This makes for very interesting game play because fights between players take on average 10-15 seconds, while in other FPS they might last 5 seconds or less. Another interesting aspect of the game are the health packs and medics, which are rare for a FPS. The game play in TF2 is really fast paced, while also being slow paced at the same time. At any one time in the game there are countless explosions, deaths, and bullets flying everywhere, but at the same time you won’t find your character dying instantly. The game has very fast paced action, but slower paced player versus player conflicts. This makes the game play more forgiving than most FPS’s, which is good for beginners or newcomers to the genre. Team Fortress 2 has some very fun game types that were not in the original. There is a capture the flag type game were players must captures the other team’s intelligence briefcase along with a territory style match where players must capture and defend certain points on a map. These game types are very fun and work perfectly with TF2’s non-stop action. Both game types are equally fun and offer their own unique challenges.Wed, 05 Mar 2008 23:20:31 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3085&iddiary=5747https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2761The gamelog site bugged out and added this gamelog instead of GTA: San Andreas. This is NOT my gamelog entry and I'm not sure how to delete it. Please read my GTA: San Andreas log for grading.Wed, 20 Feb 2008 23:44:50 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2761&iddiary=5228https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2800GAMEPLAY: One of the many new editions San Andreas brought to the series was the ability to customize and build up your character’s stats. This added some RPG elements to the open world action game that make for some very fun game play. You can work on increasing your character’s respect, strength, driving skill, weapon skill, etc. Along with these stats you can change your characters physical appearance. You can change every element of your character’s clothes, add tattoos, and change hairstyles along with many more options. These elements don’t really make the game better, but make your character much more personal. While on the subject of stats, there are new driving and weapon skills you can work on maxing out. As you increase your driving skill, by driving for extended periods of time without crashing, you make your character handle vehicles better. This is a nice feature because it feels like your character is improving along with you. You can also get weapon skill for each different class of weapon. If you play enough you can earn the gangster skill level with all weapons, which makes you more accurate, deadly, and even gives you the ability to dual-wield some weapons. Yet another new feature of San Andreas is the ability to recruit gang members and participate in gang wars. This fits right in with the urban 1990’s gangster feel of the game. Your character now has the ability to recruit gang members (the number of people you can recruit depends on your respect level) and try and take over rival gang member’s territory. This is a very fun aspect of the game because it adds mission like structure tat any point of the game. The player could be joy riding around the city and decide that they want to start a gang war. DESIGN: The design of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is amazing. There is so much content in the game it is amazing everything works so smoothly together. San Andreas added a lot of new and innovative features to an already hugely popular series. Rockstar did an excellent job of adding tons of content to San Andreas without making it lose its charm. San Andreas looks, feels, and plays like previous GTA games and that is definitely a good thing. One thing that was always very frustrating in GTA games was that your character could not swim, yet there was water all around. San Andreas finally allowed your character to swim, and what a difference it made. No longer would you progress through 99% of a difficult mission only to have it all end when you flipped your car over a guardrail into a river. The ability to swim has been long overdue in the GTA series and it is great that San Andreas included it. Another example of the excellent design of the game is the sound. This includes sound effects, voice-acting, and of course the music. GTA games have always been known for their killer soundtracks and San Andreas is no exception. Although the music selection isn’t as catchy as GTA: Vice City’s, it is still far superior to most games on the market. On top of great music, the voice-acting is top notch which is a nice change from most video games.Wed, 20 Feb 2008 23:42:52 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2800&iddiary=5225https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2800SUMMARY: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for the Playstation 2 is an open world action game that takes place in the fictional city San Andreas. You play as a young gang-banger named Carl Johnson, CJ for short, looking to make it big in the world. San Andreas is based off of the real cities San Francisco, Las Angeles, and Las Vegas and is divided into three parts. Although GTA: San Andreas has a story, the game’s main draw is its open world game play. Players can use many different types of weapons and drive many different types of vehicles including cars, boats, and planes to name a few. GAMEPLAY: One thing that the Grand Theft Auto series has always been known for its open world game play along with very large detailed worlds. San Andreas is no exception and boasts the largest map in the GTA series. Almost immediately upon picking up a controller and playing the game you will notice that there are no objectives you must complete. You can run, drive, swim, or fly around doing whatever you want for as long as you please. The game is a continuous world with people, weather, day and night, etc. If you choose, you could play San Andreas for countless hours without completing a single mission in the game. It is the freedom to do whatever you want that makes GTA games so much fun. Although doing whatever you want in San Andreas can get boring, which is where the games story comes in. In San Andreas, like in all previous GTA games, your character receives missions from different characters that you complete for money, respect, and to progress the plot. There are missions that are linked to the overarching story of the game along with side missions that do not advance the plot. The missions in the game are all very distinct, but also very similar. Most missions require you to go to point X kill so-and-so and drive back to your safe house. There are exceptions and some of the missions are very fresh and exciting, but most fallow that simple formula. Another interesting aspect of the game play is the vehicles. There are tons of different vehicles that all handle uniquely. As you progress through the game you will have access to better vehicles that you can store in your garages. The garages save whatever vehicles you place in them so that you can go get them at a later time. This is important because those of you familiar with GTA games will know that vehicles randomly spawn just outside of your draw distance, and de-spawn after they are out of sight (too far away, around a corner, etc.).Wed, 20 Feb 2008 23:42:33 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2800&iddiary=5224https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2761SUMMARY: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for the Playstation 2 is an open world action game that takes place in the fictional city San Andreas. You play as a young gang-banger named Carl Johnson, CJ for short, looking to make it big in the world. San Andreas is based off of the real cities San Francisco, Las Angeles, and Las Vegas and is divided into three parts. Although GTA: San Andreas has a story, the game’s main draw is its open world game play. Players can use many different types of weapons and drive many different types of vehicles including cars, boats, and planes to name a few. GAMEPLAY: One thing that the Grand Theft Auto series has always been known for its open world game play along with very large detailed worlds. San Andreas is no exception and boasts the largest map in the GTA series. Almost immediately upon picking up a controller and playing the game you will notice that there are no objectives you must complete. You can run, drive, swim, or fly around doing whatever you want for as long as you please. The game is a continuous world with people, weather, day and night, etc. If you choose, you could play San Andreas for countless hours without completing a single mission in the game. It is the freedom to do whatever you want that makes GTA games so much fun. Although doing whatever you want in San Andreas can get boring, which is where the games story comes in. In San Andreas, like in all previous GTA games, your character receives missions from different characters that you complete for money, respect, and to progress the plot. There are missions that are linked to the overarching story of the game along with side missions that do not advance the plot. The missions in the game are all very distinct, but also very similar. Most missions require you to go to point X kill so-and-so and drive back to your safe house. There are exceptions and some of the missions are very fresh and exciting, but most fallow that simple formula. Another interesting aspect of the game play is the vehicles. There are tons of different vehicles that all handle uniquely. As you progress through the game you will have access to better vehicles that you can store in your garages. The garages save whatever vehicles you place in them so that you can go get them at a later time. This is important because those of you familiar with GTA games will know that vehicles randomly spawn just outside of your draw distance, and de-spawn after they are out of sight (too far away, around a corner, etc.).Wed, 20 Feb 2008 23:09:22 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2761&iddiary=5211https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2429GAMEPLAY: In this gamelog session I will be focusing on Halo 3's multiplayer. Multiplayer has always been what stood out in the Halo series, and this holds true in Halo 3. The multiplayer is very refined and is a nice improvement on Halo 2's multiplayer. Some of the changes I noticed were all of the weapons and vehicles seemed more balanced, which is essential for a good FPS. Each weapon has is ideal range and situation, but no weapons are overpowered in all situations. This keeps gameplay interesting because players are using different weapons. Each weapon in the game has a few standard characteristics that define it. These include effective range, rate of fire, ammunition per clip, reload time, and damage per bullet. Each weapon has a unique combination of each of these characteristics, and therefor has an ideal situation in which a player would want to use it. Learning when to use one weapon over another is one of the core elements of the gameplay and separates the elite from the novice. Another element of the Halo 3 combat that is a staple in the Halo universe is the beat-down, or melee attack. This can also be timed and when used effectively is very deadly. DESIGN: The design of Halo 3 is spectacular. The Bungie team spent a lot of time and money refining the game engine and it shows. They really learned from their mistakes in past Halo games and the series has really evolved. One of the main problems with Halo 1 and 2 were unbalanced weapons. In Halo 1 the human pistol was all you needed to kill anyone, whether they had a rocket launcher or sniper rifle. With the human pistol, if you could see someone you could kill them, regardless of range. Some problems that plagued Halo 2 were the over powered energy sword and plasma pistol. These weapons were far too deadly in the hands of a skilled player and took away from the fairness of the game. Halo 3 did an excellent job of ridding the series of over powered weapons and this shows in the multiplayer experience. Halo 3 added many new weapons, grenades, and vehicles, yet none of them seem over powered. This is a result of Bungie putting their heart and soul into Halo 3, along with hours and hours of play-testing. One really cool thing about Halo 3 is that if a player knows that they are doing they can kill anyone with any weapon. The player must learn the effective range of all the weapons and use their weapon when it is most effective while exploiting their enemies effective range. Players can spend countless hours learning these interesting and detailed dynamics of the game. I have played all of the Halo games since the original came out on the Xbox, and I am still learning new tricks. Halo 3 is one of the best first person shooters on the market. This title did not come easy, but rather from Bungie's passion and expertise in making a good FPS. It is Halo 3's balance and refinement that make it a great game.Fri, 08 Feb 2008 18:51:20 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2429&iddiary=4614https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2429SUMMARY: Halo 3 is a sci-fi first person shooter based in a fictional future where humankind is at war with an evil alien race called the Covenant. Halo 3 is the third installment in the halo series and your main goal is to "finish the fight" with the alien race, and save mankind and Earth. The game focuses primarily on multiplayer, but has an average single player campaign as well. GAMEPLAY: For this gamelog session I will be focusing on the single player portion of the game. One of the first things I noticed when I started playing the Halo 3 campaign was the major graphical overhaul when compared to Halo 2. Everything in the game appears to have a shimmering glow effect which looks very nice when coupled with the high quality lighting in the game. All of the textures are very high-resolution, even when you are looking at a wall right in front of you zoomed in through a sniper scope. There is also a nice motion blur effect and a depth-of-field effect that blurs things that are far away. All of these things can be noticed in the first few seconds of the first level of the single player campaign. Aside from the stunning visual aspects of the game, the gameplay holds true to the "Halo standard" and is very smooth and refined. If you have played any of the previous Halo games you won't notice much of a change, but "don't fix what ain't broken" right? One of the few changes to the control scheme was a few button changes to better utilize the Xbox 360 controller's added shoulder buttons. These changes seem foreign and frustrating at first, but after getting used to, are much more logical than the old controls. After making my way through a decent amount of the first level one thing really stood out as being new to Halo 3, and that was the enemy AI. In previous Halo titles, and many other FPS's the enemy AI is either too easy are too hard. They are either very stupid or they cheat and are too "smart". Halo 3 seems to balance this quite well and it makes for very interesting gameplay. The enemies react to their environment, by seeking cover or attempting to get the high ground on you. The enemies are also no longer scripted like in games of the past. Each attempt on a given situation will yield different results. This means that each time you retry a part of the level, the enemies will go different routes, use different tactics, and be in different groups. This keeps the gameplay very exciting and stops players from learning the encounters and exploiting them.Fri, 08 Feb 2008 18:29:20 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2429&iddiary=4608https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2021GAMEPLAY: After playing through a good bit of the early stages of the game, I can strongly say that this is my favorite Mario game. Each level is brilliantly designed and very unique. Some of the levels I have played include a classic lava level, sand level, ice level, and an under water level. Each of these levels feel very different in part because of the friction system in the game. All surfaces have their own friction rating that determines their "slipperiness". In the ice levels you will find Mario slides about 10 feet upon stopping, while on the sand level you will find it hard to even move on the quicksand. Slippery surfaces add a really interesting element to the gameplay that keeps you paying attention to what exactly Mario is standing on. After playing a bit more I have found even more of Mario's new moves. It is amazing how much you can do with 3 buttons (A, B, Z). Mario now has a butt/stomach slide, butt-stomp, a dive ability, WALL JUMPS, along with some cool breakdance style attacks. I found the dive ability to be incredibly useful for taking out enemies. The slide ability is not so much useful, but more of a required part of the game in order to get to certain areas. Sliding is actually quite difficult to master and adds some difficulty to the levels. Now on to my personal favorite ability, which is wall jumping. This a another ability new to SM64, and it will make you wonder how you ever played a Mario game without it. Not only does the wall jump look awesome, but it can get you to areas unreachable any other way. Wall jumps can also be strung together into long combos that can get you to very cool places. On a side note, i really like what the designers have done with the level select system. When you start the game, Mario is alone at Princess Peach's castle. When you enter the castle you will find many rooms with giant pictures inside of them. In order to enter a level you simply jump in its picture. As you complete more levels and collect more stars, new levels, and new areas of the castle, open up to you. DESIGN: The overall design of SM64 is amazing. I really like the idea of a main neutral world with no enemies that you select the levels in. The castle has a really cool feel to it, and ends up being much larger than you would expect. I also think the star idea was a great addition to the Mario series. In previous games there were worlds (usually 8) and levels in each of these worlds. IN SM64 there is one world with lots of levels in it. The levels have star requirements in order to enter them, so a hard level might require 70 stars in order to enter it while and easy level might only require 3 stars. The stars are also cool because it adds to the replay-ability of the levels, considering there are 7 stars in each level, but you don't need all 7 to advance to the next level. So many times you will find yourself going back to the beginning levels to get that star you couldn't get before. There is also the addition of the hats in game. There is an invisibility cap that allows you to walk through some obstacles, a metal cap that makes you invincible and lets walk underwater rather than swim, and a flying cap that is pretty self explanatory. The way the game was designed, you unlock the ability to use the hat blocks in the worlds at certain points in the game. The cool thing is that the hat blocks appear on every level including the first one, so you wouldn't be able to get all 7 stars on the first level until you unlock that certain hat that you need. This makes you repeat the earlier levels if you want to collect all 120 stars. I also like the fact that you technically complete the game at 70/120 stars. At 70 stars you can fight the 3rd and final Bowser battle and save peach, but you aren't nearly done with the fun of the game. Even after the main story of the game is complete you can collect all the stars from the 15 different levels.Thu, 24 Jan 2008 18:22:09 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2021&iddiary=3921https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2021SUMMARY: In Super Mario 64 for the Nintendo 64 you play as the beloved Mario in a fictional world called the Mushroom Kingdom. Like the other games, the evil Bowser has stolen the princess from her castle and it is up to you to save her... again. There are numerous different world each with 7 stars hidden throughout that you must collect in order to save Princess Peach. Super Mario 64 is a 3rd person platform jumper, and was really the first of its kind. GAMEPLAY: One of the first things the player notices when they first start playing SM64 is that this game has everything you know and love about Mario games in it and it's 3D! The move from 2D to 3D with the Mario series was a great choice and really adds a lot of new gameplay mechanics never before seen in Mario games. When playing this game i quickly became very attached to the Mario character and he soon starts to feel like an extension of your own body. I found the controls and camera a bit confusing at first, but after 30 minutes or so i felt like i could jump Mario of a large structure and land him on a dime. One of the new editions to SM64 from the previous games was some new jumps and acrobatic moves. There is now a double and triple jump, along with a backflip and long jump. These add a lot of variety to the game and in turn make some of the level designs very unique and challenging. Another interesting gameplay mechanic is the effect momentum and velocity have in the game. Mario is now effected by momentum, and you will find that sometimes he will slide when quickly changing directions (i.e. left to right, forward to backward). Momentum and velocity are also used to calculate how far you can run up a steep slope. Like I said before, when you stop running or change directions Mario will slide a little bit. Now this in itself is not new to the Mario series but they have added a new element to the classic "Mario slide". Now if you can correctly time a jump during a slide mario will quickly do a flipping jump in the direction opposite the slide. I found these new slide jumps very useful for saving mario from hitting enemies or falling off the levels into the white abyss.Thu, 24 Jan 2008 17:50:12 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2021&iddiary=3917