Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=600https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3075GAMEPLAY For my second session, I battled some of my friends. They were much more experienced than I was, which meant that they knew how to utilize the individual characters and their modes and therefore won more often. The results of the game seemed somewhat random though, as I was able to just blindly press buttons and win some of the time, or at least beat someone up in an interesting way. Part of the pleasure of the game is just watching the avatars beat each other up. There is enough variety in the characters and their moves to make rather entertaining battles. Another pleasure of the game is that it is drawn directly from an anime series; unfortunately, not being familiar with the series this aspect of the game had little to offer for me. I learned the game just quickly enough not to fall too behind, but after playing I realized that I have a long way to go. DESIGN The graphics in the game are detailed enough not to look cheap, but sometimes rather simple. Though the gameworld is 3D, it is for the most part a 2D game. An avatar can move left or right, jump, and occasionally jump to another plane on which they can move in the same manner. The camera moves but does not change angles much, so that a battlefield is only viewed from one direction. The characters themselves have a number of different positions but are essentially flat and simply drawn, while the background is more detailed. Complex moves are shown with pre-animated clips. As a game which is based on player-to-player interaction, the computer does not act as a challenging agent, but only as a template with very structured rules. In addition to this, there is no structured level design; rather, the players can choose their own backgrounds, avatars, and the dynamic of their battles. This allows for a different type of gameplay and challenge than any single-player game or game of progression. Overall, the game felt pretty smooth, which was nice. Menus were good, graphics were good enough, and nothing felt particularly jerky or out of place. Furthermore, the graphics were interesting and made for a pretty visually entertaining game.Wed, 05 Mar 2008 22:53:37 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3075&iddiary=5736https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3075SUMMARY Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 2 is a 3D fighting game based on the anime series Naruto. The players can choose from a variety of characters and battlefields from the anime series Naruto and duel other players. Both players can use a combination of techniques to try to win duels by obliterating their opponent’s health. GAMEPLAY The Naruto game is pretty similar to Super Smash Brothers, but with an anime theme. For someone who is neither very familiar with Super Smash Brothers or the anime series, I had a fun time trying to figure out the dynamics of the game. The game is a game of emergence and the fun comes from the complexity of player-to-player interaction. Because of this, each game is unique. A change in characters, setting, players, or mood can result in a completely different gameplay experience. The game is difficult to master, and players can improve their skill with each experience. Because of the sheer wealth of different combinations of these elements possible in the game, it would take a long time to completely master the game. I began by taking advantage of the Training mode that the game offered. This gave me a better feel for what the different moves I could do were. Training mode let me battle a computer-controlled character without either character being able to die, which was a nice way for me to learn how to play and employ different moves/combinations without being killed. This took up pretty much the whole session.Wed, 05 Mar 2008 22:53:24 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3075&iddiary=5735https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2856GAMEPLAY This round of playing, I tried two more of the games: baseball and bowling. I don’t think baseball was as well designed as it could’ve been. Even though there were two players, only the one playing the batter really had any impact on the score. The pitcher just had to press buttons, and neither of the players had any impact on catching the ball once it entered the field. Each player would then bat until his or her team was out. I felt like the turns were too long and the game felt too slow overall. There wasn’t enough direct player interaction such as their was in tennis. In this way, I felt that the inherited rules of the game were a limitation. But my bias might also come from the fact that I have never been a big baseball fan in general. Bowling was a little more fun than baseball for me. It took me a while to get the hang of it, but once I did, I was almost flawless. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten such a high score in actual bowling! At first I thought it was too slow, but after a while I had fun working with the precision I needed to get a good turn. Overall, I think the game is easy to pick up and fun to play, especially with other people, but it is not a game I would get really hooked into. For the Nintendo Wii, it’s a good, simple starter game. DESIGN Compared to other modern games, their seems to be somewhat minimal effort put into the design of the game. It has a very bubbly, cartoonish feel which I neither liked nor disliked. It fit the light mood of the game. The characters are incredibly unrealistic, but their meager design proves that what matters is the gameplay itself. The best part of the character design in my opinion is that the player has a lot of control in their individual design. Therefore I could make a character that looked like me (or whatever I wanted to) and become attached to it. The best part of the graphic desing of the game was the playing fields. Bowling felt like a real bowling alley, especially with other games going on in the background, and the reacting crowds in tennis and baseball were entertaining. I felt that the transition from real life sport to video game was done pretty well. Their was just enough player control to make the game interesting to play without giving the player so much control that it became difficult.Thu, 21 Feb 2008 01:29:20 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2856&iddiary=5323https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2856SUMMARY In the game Wii Sports, the player can choose from one of five games which imitate real sports games: Tennis, Baseball, Bowling, Golf, and Boxing. The players can swing the Wii controller to imitate some of the actual movements used for the real life sports. Up to 4 players can play the game. GAMEPLAY I had a fun time playing Wii sports today. It’s a very simple game with its background in some of our culture’s most familiar sports. At the same it contains an unfamiliar element because I must play the games using the Wii controller. It seems like one of its main purposes is to show off the Wii controller. Using the controller to play the sports was pretty fun; I didn’t realize that videogaming could involve so much exercise! The first game we played was Tennis. It took me a few tries to get the hang of it, but afterwards it was really fun. Because Tennis involves several players (in my case two humans and two players that were computer generated) directly interacting with eachother, there is a lot of room for player interaction and variation. This can make a lot of complex gameplay. The most fun part of Wii sports was probably player interaction. The concept and the rules are simple and the graphics are underdeveloped, but I had a lot of fun just playing with other people. It doesn’t seem like it would be as fun if I was by myself.Thu, 21 Feb 2008 01:29:03 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2856&iddiary=5321https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2375GAMEPLAY The first time I played Bejeweled, I only played in “classic” mode. This time I played, I tried out Action mode and Puzzle mode. In Action mode, the timer is affected by how many combinations you makes, so that making a combination adds time to the timer. When the timer is full, you advance to another level. When the timer is empty, the game is lost. This was my favorite mode of playing because it felt more intense than classic mode, and I liked the feeling of the way that I played the game being connected to the timer, rather than just soaring through levels on a set clock. Unfortunately, I lost the game at the same level each time. In Puzzle mode, the player must solve puzzles by making sets of jewels in the right combinations so that all the jewels on the board are destroyed. To advance levels, 4 out of 5 puzzles on each level must be solved. This mode had a very different feel than the others, because for one, it did not rely on a clock. There were also lots of buttons to switch puzzles, undo, hint, etc, so it felt much slower. I was not very good at it and liked the other modes better, which felt more intense. It feels good that every time I play the game, I seem to get better at it. It is still very addictive. DESIGN The design of the Bejeweled is interesting because the way the game is played, the design doesn’t matter much at all. When the player is playing, he/she is only really concentrating on one thing, which is making jewel combinations. The game could be just as fun without the start menu, the level design, and the bridges between levels looking the same as they do. Even the idea of having jewels as the objects that are being played with could be altered to make a similar gameplay experience. The jewels themselves have some important qualities. Most importantly, they are made of bright colors and of slightly varying but bold shapes. This allows the player to distinguish objects without having to think much about it, which is crucial for the experience. But they are not so different that they can always be immediately distinguished. The design of most parts of the game seemed to be trying to convey a feeling of intensity and grandiose. There seemed to be a decent amount of effort put into giving the game a feeling of movement when bridging levels, and giving the levels a background, but not too much effort. After all, it is not a very important aspect of the game. I did enjoy how smooth everything felt. There was something nice about everything being a little bit rounded and not feeling like there was any lag. Though the specific details of the game design didn’t matter much to me, it was nice that they put some effort into it.Thu, 07 Feb 2008 23:03:52 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2375&iddiary=4520https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2375SUMMARY Bejeweled is made up of a board full of different colored jewels. The player swaps adjacent jewels to make combinations of 3 in a row or more. Each level is timed, with the timer getting progressively quicker as the levels advance. GAMEPLAY It was fun playing a very simple game of emergence. The rules were easy to learn but allowed an interesting gameplay experience. It is one of those games that without much variation in design as the player progresses through it, I could still play for hours. It is not seeing anything new that made it interesting, but mastering a single concept. I found Bejeweled personally very addictive. I was very quickly and intensely sucked into it. The timer made the gameplay experience seem especially intense, because I couldn’t take breaks or distract myself but had to concentrate on the screen. The music made it even more intense seeming, but was sometimes distracting. At several points I got so into playing the game and beating the timer that I lost the ability to actually play it for a few moments while I was in panic-mode. As I got to higher levels, I found myself improving skill-wise without even realizing that I was doing so. I suppose the goal of the game is to get a higher score, but with the timer on, I was so into playing the game that I forgot to even look at it.Thu, 07 Feb 2008 23:03:32 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2375&iddiary=4519https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2195SUMMARY I don’t have much more to say after playing Super Mario Galaxy a second time. For the most part, it was a continuation of the same experience. I got through another level or two. Luckily most of the storytelling took place in the beginning of the game, and I didn’t have to sit through more of it. It had also become easier for me to use the controller, although with gravity changing as much as it did, I was still baffled in some places. There was one part where Mario went from being right-side-up to upside-down and I had to make him jump in the right places without falling. I kept screwing up on this. The variety of challenges in different levels is nice. It kept me entertained and feeling like the game had something fresh to offer. DESIGN In part, the design of Super Mario Galaxy seems like a 3D update of the first games. While improving the graphics for the sequel, the creators also had to add some new elements to the game, while at the same time using familiar elements from the old games. Though many elements reflected the old games, they felt completely different. This was especially true because they are navigated using the new Wii controller, and because they are 3D. The idea of putting the game on a series of “galaxies” was interesting. This allows the game a nice level of variety and some interesting opportunities for the creation of the various levels. The gravity dynamic was also an interesting twist- it definitely made the game harder to navigate and gave it a whole new feel. The game was fun, but I think I’d still choose the old Mario game over it. Retro simplicity is sometimes a good thing. But overall, Super Mario Galaxy is a good update.Fri, 25 Jan 2008 22:47:11 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2195&iddiary=4164https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2195SUMMARY Super Mario Galaxy is another sequel to the line of Mario Games. The player uses the Wii controller to direct a Mario avatar through a series of challenges which in many ways resemble the previous Mario games, but are in 3D and take place on a series of planets with changing gravity. The overall goal is to rescue Princess Peach, who has been kidnapped by Bowser. GAMEPLAY For the most part, I spent this session getting through the first few levels and trying to figure out how to control the game. It’s been a long time since I’ve played any of the Mario games, and I had even more trouble trying to use the Wii to control Mario. I had a friend hold the second controller and help me along by freezing my enemies and such, and who could tell me how to play many parts of the game. A large portion of the session was spent being told the story which sets up the narrative. I don’t blame them for putting a story in, but I think I wouldv’e been fine just playing the game. I wasn’t terribly attached to the story itself, and had a lot more fun dodging and smashing things and beating challenges than listening to it being told. The game itself was pretty fun, but I think I’d rather still play the original Mario games in 2D. There is something ultimately rewarding about just going sideways. In this game, one of the challenges was to move through a constantly changing angle and gravity force. Another addition to the game was the use of the Wii controller, which can do things that the regular Nintendo controller cannot. That was fun. There must also be something very rewarding about the game being a sequal to one of the most classic games ever created. Anyone who loves the old Mario games can find pleasure in another recreation and expansion of that idea.Fri, 25 Jan 2008 22:46:48 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2195&iddiary=4163https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1888GAMEPLAY While the first time I played I only fooled around on different songs, this time I decided to start a career, which involves passing each song on every level with an encore at the end of each “show.” While exploring career mode, I was forced to play a few of the songs which I really didn’t like, or just didn’t care for. This is a bit tedious, especially if the songs are difficult and I didn’t pass them my first try, but after getting through them there is still a sense of accomplishment in having mastered everything. Career mode also involves choosing a band name and an appearance. There are several characters to choose from in the game, and new outfits and guitars can be purchased for money earned from the shows. I had a little fun with this. Having warmed up in my first session, I felt a little more skilled this time, and a little better at using the guitar. This makes the game a bit more fun. In some games, the challenge is the most interesting part, and the fun is in surviving and getting through it; after this is achieved, the game loses its value. In Guitar Hero, mastery of each song is just as fun, if not more. It is rewarding not just to play a song, but to play a song better. My goal this session, though, was just to simply get through everything. The best feeling while playing the game was probably whenever I accidentally played a hard part of a song well, when more muscle memory than thinking was involved and I was amazed at my own skill. The worst feeling was being just a little bit off which meant missing the notes completely, and then having to find my place again. DESIGN The design of Guitar Hero is interesting, as it involved a completely new controller made just for the game. Therefore the design of the “guitar” had to be set up to make it challenging but not impossible to master each song within a period of time that keeps the player entertained for just long enough not to get bored or fed up. The five note buttons to be played with four fingers and the strumming button to be played with the other hand was quite clever. It makes learning how to exploit the controller feel like learning an actual instrument. One of the design aspects which was sometimes painful was that the notes have to be played almost perfectly to count at all. It is an all-or-nothing situation, unlike real guitar where there is much more creativity and freedom, and a melody can be played slightly slower or a little different and still have the same effect on the audience. Guitar hero is not about being creative but about playing something right or wrong, and this can be frustrating. It also separates the exploitation of the game itself from the reality of the fantasy it is trying to emulate. The graphic design of the game is set up to help build the fantasy. There is a lot of visual effort that goes beyond a player simply playing notes. Behind the flying notes a band can be seen playing onstage in relatively detailed animation. The whole setup is constructed to fulfill a variety of clichés about the image surrounding rock music. The player can choose a guitarist from a selection, as well as guitars and costumes, so that they can select their own visual guitar hero which plays along with the music. The guitarist is accompanied by a full standard rock band. The stage changes for each level that the player achieves, getting more complex and (it would seem) expensive as the levels advance. Beyond the songs themselves even, the menus and transitions are made in a style that is meant to appeal to the same crowd. I didn’t like everything about the design, but I felt that it contributed to the overall fantasy of the game, and I understand how it would appeal to other people. It was definitely better there than not.Tue, 15 Jan 2008 00:24:21 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1888&iddiary=3671https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1888SUMMARY In Guitar Hero 3, the player uses a device shaped like a guitar to simulate the playing of rock music. A series of notes coordinated with the colors of the buttons on the guitar runs across the screen to match the guitar music for various rock songs; the player must play enough of those notes in sync with the notes on the screen to pass these songs. GAMEPLAY When I picked up Guitar Hero III, I was already familiar with Guitar Hero II, but I hadn’t played it in a while. Fortunately, it was fairly easy to get back into the rhythm of the game, and to rekindle the attraction of playing it. My friend and I rotated turns playing, each on our own level (unfortunately I was the least skilled). I mostly just fooled around, playing songs which I already knew I liked. Although some games are only really fun to play, Guitar Hero is almost equally as fun to watch. I was almost as caught up in his doing well on his songs as I was on my own ones. When I could, I gave him tips. And rotating turns gave me a break between songs to rest my hands, which got tired quickly. The most attractive part of Guitar Hero, though, is its fantasy element. Playing the guitar shaped controller almost feels like playing a real guitar. Mastering a song makes me feel like the real-life “guitar heroes” who played them in the recordings and onstage. Actually getting up onstage and playing guitar and having an audience who responds well is hard, but mastering Guitar Hero is rather easy, and can be done in a bedroom in front of a TV, and the simulation is rather rewarding.Tue, 15 Jan 2008 00:24:01 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1888&iddiary=3669