Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=672https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3180Gameplay I thought the controls to the game provided interesting game play. I was able to use the lasers, and if I held the laser button down I could charge up the laser to a homing type missile to lock on enemies for a guaranteed shot. I also liked the use of bombs, and the Arwing’s maneuvering capabilities. For example, in one of the stages I was engaging in a dogfight between Fox and some of his enemies in which I had to utilize the loop action to get behind enemy planes for a clear shot. There was also this barrel role action which put the plane into a spin role that acted as a protective barrier against enemy fire. The different types of actions available brought a lot of control freedom to the game. There was this multiplayer mode in which I played against 3 of my friends. The multiplayer setting allowed for dog fighting scenarios in which 4 players engage in combat against each other. My friend beat the game so he unlocked the secret character modes in which players on top of the Arwing, have the option of choosing a tank or playing as Fox without any vehicle. I think these elements made the multiplayer pretty fun because it added a lot of variance and competition between the players. Design I thought the level design to Starfox was good. Each planet or world had its own unique design, and despite the constant scrolling, it felt like each level provided a sufficient amount of freedom for the player to explore around corners and different paths to discover new enemies or new rewards. I thought the rewards implemented in each level were done well too. I had the ability to pick up coins and even these coins provided challenge because with some I had to use the loop function to grab 2 or 3 coins stacked on top of each other. The bosses in each game were unique from a clam in one of the levels to a lava monster in another which provided a lot of diversity to the game. The unique levels, and the unique bosses, along with the different templates for world to the different rewards kept Starfox entertaining throughout game play. The sounds in the game were very high quality and unique. The voices used in the game brought an authentic feel to the game because each player provided its own voice to match his own character. The soundtrack to the game however wasn’t all too great or dramatic. What was frustrating about the game though was the limited view that was brought on by the scrolling view of the level and the view from the back of the plane. I felt like I was constricted to a certain area on the screen, for example I could only got so far in a diagnol direction until my plane ultimately gets squished to the top side of the screen while im stuck on a focused view of the oncoming landscape and enemies. Also when making a loop I was just viewing what was in front of me so, I couldn’t really tell whether or not an enemy was behind me unless I saw lasers pass by, or my wingmen told me, or I crashed into enemy vehicles, so the limited camera angles restricted me a bit, but in the general sense each level and the scrolling format still had enough freedom to spark interesting game play.Thu, 06 Mar 2008 02:45:49 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3180&iddiary=5947https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3180Summary: Starfox 64 for the Nintendo 64 is a scrolling shooter game in which a player controls Fox Mcloud and his futuristic air ship known as Arwing. Accompanied by 3 other pilots, Fox must numerous levels to defeat enemy ships and bosses using his lasers, bombs, and maneuvering capabilities like the U-turn or loop, to ultimately get to and defeat his arch-nemesis Andross. Gameplay I really liked the characters in the game because each character was very unique, from the type of species used for each character to their voices. For example, Fox Mcloud, obviously a Fox has this strong voice that expresses leadership, while Falco, most likely a Falcon, has this bitter/condescending voice that shows the stubbornness he displays in the game. Each character also provided his own expertise, for example Peppy provided in game tips while Slippy analyzed and displayed each boss’s life meter. The flow to the game was smooth. The initial introduction displayed as a scrolling text like Starwars basically gives the player the background story to the game. After that, there is a map that allows three possible routes to the planet Venom, each route providing different levels. This map, I thought, helped the flow of the game as it provided the player a visual display of the progression of the game. After each selected level the player jumps to the planet to explore and defeat enemies, and this switch between the map and the actual level play provided flow to the game.Thu, 06 Mar 2008 02:45:11 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3180&iddiary=5945https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2776Gameplay: After playing a bit of the solo mission I played the multiplayer with a couple of friends. I think the multiplayer is extremely fun especially with friends because you basically get to interact with a total of four players running around on different maps shooting each other. The fun comes from competition and flaunting your skills in the game. I thought the flow of the game was smooth. Before each mission there was a briefing about what was going on in the story along with mission objectives. During the levels it was pretty much straightforward killing enemies, but I found that some missions required a little bit more, for example in the second mission, you had to acquire a key card from a guard to get access into a control room, and from there you would be able to open a locked door. Also, after each mission there was a small cinematic showing what had happened after the completion of each mission, which I thought helped the game progress smoothly. Design: I thought the game's artificial intelligence was very good. For example, enemies who know you're behind a door won't always rush in to get slaughtered, but instead wait inside for you to enter before they attack. Also the design of the enemies was very realistic. Although the graphics aren’t up to par with many modern games, the design was very good for its time. There would be different ways that enemies died depending on where you shot them, for example if you shot an enemy in the head from afar, he would flip over and die instantly which I thought was very cool, and brought a lot of realism to the game. The music used in the game came off the soundtrack used for the film which also helped reinforce the realistic theme between the movie and the game. The signature 007 sound was used often and so as I played I felt as if I was actually 007 completing different spy missions. Also the sound effects to guns and explosions are varying and realistic sounding which I thought added a lot of quality to the gameplay. The level design in the game is very intricate and has a lot of depth. It ranges from straight shooting, to search-and-destroy levels that require more strategy, and information gathering levels. Each level is distinct and poses multiple challenges given the mission objectives. I especially liked the second level where you were rushed by a ton of soldiers in a room that was being gassed.Wed, 20 Feb 2008 22:53:16 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2776&iddiary=5196https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2776Summary: GoldenEye 007 is a first person shooter for N64, based on the 1995 James Bond film Goldeneye. Playing as James Bond, you are given a variety of weapons to use and the goal is to complete certain mission objectives for each level depending on the level difficulty chosen. Gameplay: While I was playing the game there was a rush of adrenaline every time I was being shot at because as you are being shot at, a health meter appears with your life on the left and your armor on the right. As my health bar got lower and lower, the game got a bit more intense as I tried to avoid being shot and as a result I had to play more strategically to kill enemies. From the first level I was given a variety of weapons from the PP7, to a sniper rifle, to the Ak-47. I personally like it when a game gives you a variety of options to go about completing each mission so the different weapons made the gameplay more interesting.Wed, 20 Feb 2008 22:53:03 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2776&iddiary=5194https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2395Game log 2 Game play: Thus far, the story seems to be pretty interesting, although I am a fan of Matrix and anything about it would probably arouse my appeal. The game uses a mix of extra footage from the film with cinematic scenes to help the story progress, and I thought this was a pretty good way of telling the story because I enjoyed the breaks in between to watch a short clip. This game has a fairly deep fighting system, you can choose either to take out enemies with the wide array of guns at your disposal, or you can go on close and use hand to hand combat to take them out. When you get in close to the enemy your character automatically switches to hand to hand combat. The fighting mechanic coupled with the slow motion mechanic made the game play very fun. Design: The soundtrack and sound effects in the game was very well produced. For example, when hitting or punching someone it makes that whoosh sound like in the movies, and when you are shooting or getting shot at in slow motion you can hear the bullets going past you. Every gun sounds different which also adds realism to the game. The soundtrack used in the game came straight from the movie and this added to the realism of the game as it made a connection with the movie. It gave me the same excited feeling I had when I watched the movie. The slow motion mechanic in this game was probably the key to making the game somewhat interesting to play. Using the focus button you become stronger and faster (although you are moving in slow motion) while it is pressed you can cartwheel and do flips in order to dodge incoming bullets, and it is really effective and opens up many options about how to defeat an enemy. Using the focus button you could run up to a wall and do a cartwheel off of it, ending it with an aerial kick, or you could jump and roll around to dodge bullets. This game element gave me complete control over how to use my character allowing me many different possibilities to use a combination of martial art moves and gun fighting to defeat the enemies. One of the bad elements in the game was the camera views provided. I personally did not like how I had to run in a circle in order to view what was behind me. The character couldn’t just turn around and even when attempting to run backwards, he would peddle backwards rather than immediately turning around. This made the game a bit awkward for me since I was always spanning around most of the time. Another negative element that I noticed while playing was that if I got close enough to any enemy, I was virtually invincible especially with the bullet time mechanic. Although the kung fu moves and combinations were interesting and fun, I thought that if I played another hour of the game, I would get bored of the repetitiveness and the lack of challenge in fighting enemies. However I think what the developers did to combat this was to put the player in long aisles most of the time, where running up to an enemy and bashing his brains in wasn’t the best option. Instead you would have to resort to gunfire, but sometimes there were so many enemies and so little ammo that I found myself dying quick. Going along with my opinion that the game was underdeveloped, Id have to say that if the gunplay was as satisfying as the hand to hand or if the designers spent more time balancing issues so that you got an even mix of both, then the game would have a greater replay value.Fri, 08 Feb 2008 20:38:25 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2395&iddiary=4647https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2395Game log entry 1 Summary: Enter the Matrix for PS2 is an action adventure game that incorporates the bullet time (slow motion) mechanism. The plot of the game is set in a side story of what happened in the film Matrix: Reloaded. In the game you are given the option to use either Ghost or Niobe, both minor characters in the actual film. Using either character, you must complete each continuous stage, fighting enemies using weapons, bullet time, and martial arts. Game play: First off, I really liked the bullet/slow motion mechanism that they used in the game. The use of the mechanism distinctly tied the game to the actual movie with its use of slow motion, only now the player has complete control over when to slow time and dodge bullets. The use of this mechanism along with the characters, sound, and artwork of the game created this magic circle that closely matched the experience of what I felt when I saw the Matrix trilogies, except I was actually taking park in an additional story. Though I have only played Ghost, I think the characters used in the game helped support the story and where the game was going, although I would like to have used Neo. One negative aspect of game play that I noticed was the 3rd person camera view of the character’s back as he/she ran around. The character wasn’t even able to turn around and run in the opposite direction, but instead could only back peddle without the camera ever turning, which greatly limited the control I had over viewing my surroundings. As I got more into the game game, it felt like the game lacked substance. It felt like it was underdeveloped and it felt like the game wasn’t too interesting, almost as if the creators rushed the game without taking time to work on game play issues. I even ran into a glitch in the game where somehow I jumped through a wall of boxes and ended up on the other side having view of the room that I was in, but not having the ability to move. The only remedy was to exit the game and reload. The glitch was almost a matrix within the matrix and I am not 100 percent sure that what happened was in fact a glitch, but if it was then it supports my opinion of how the production of the game felt rushed.Fri, 08 Feb 2008 03:33:57 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2395&iddiary=4548https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2194Gamelog Entry #2 Game play: As I played more, there was still little known about the characters, which somewhat affected the flow and story of the game. Like I didn’t know why the character was on this journey. Was it because it was for love of the dead girl or did he have a different agenda? The lack of info just made it seem like I was just completing the task to ultimately beat the game without story or substance. Other than that it became a little more fun to play and a bit challenging as I had to find out how to defeat each colossus. Design: To start off, there were some good elements about the game. The artistic design was very good; from the vast landscapes and different terrain to each of the colossus themselves. It exemplified the hero’s meager size compared to the vastness of the environment and the colossal size of his enemies. It promoted this sense of fantasy that he was in some foreign land where gods and giants lived. Another good element of the game was the different colossi that I had to fight. Instead of classifying this game as an action-adventure, I would say it’s more of an action puzzle game. Each colossus represented a unique level in which I had to figure out how to use different tools whether it was my surrounding environment or the weapons given to me to defeat the boss. For example, for one of the colossi, I had to shoot the bottom of his foot with my bow and arrow so that he would kneel down allowing me to climb his leg to the top of his head where I could kill him. The design of the colossus was well thought of because although there were only a couple ways of killing each boss, the means of getting there was totally left up to the player. For example, for one of the bosses I had the option of scaling the giant by jumping onto his tail or choosing to jump onto some rope hanging from his chin, which was more difficult but faster. Some of the bad elements to the game were the navigation of the game and some of the controls. Like I described in my previous log, I was pretty much lost in the beginning of the game, which kind of showed that the navigation of the game wasn’t all too clear. The map given to you in the game has little to no use, because it only provides a map of the landscape and that’s it, no directions or no pinging dot about where you’re suppose to head. So, if you didn’t know how to use the sword, you would be left wandering the entire map. Although it was a little fun riding a horse, it wasn’t too appealing because it was like driving a bulldozer. The horse could hardly maneuver in small areas and in order to keep running I had to keep tapping x. Another problem that I seemed to start noticing as I played more and more was that the camera angles were always messing up my direction. For example, I was climbing up a colossi’s leg and he was shaking which moved the camera around, so in order to get my camera angle back on my hero, I had to manually rotate the camera to actually see where I was going. It felt like I was fighting the default camera view all the time, which made maneuvering difficult. Another drawback to the game was the time spent climbing or waiting for the colossi to do something so you can attack it. If I fell off the colossi I would have to wait another minute or so before he would try to attack me again, which became a little irritating. In another instance, there was a walkway that I had to walk up in order to reach the next colossi. At the end of the walkway was a jump that I had to make to get to another platform, but because I missed it and fell, I had to spend another 30 seconds or so walking all the way back up and trying the jump again. In conclusion, although each colossus was challenging and sparked a little amount of fun, the overall game and game play didn’t suit my appeal. The several drawbacks about the game allow little to no replay value and the lack of story makes the game a little bland. There was no reward system so there was a sense of repetitiveness as you were teleported back to the “main center”, just to go out and do the task all over again with no immediate reward. Although, one good thing that I take from this game that I might be able to use in my own project is the use of puzzles on a live action monster. The incorporation of puzzle like features into the action of the game was a genius feature.Fri, 25 Jan 2008 22:46:16 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2194&iddiary=4162https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2194Gamelog Entry #1 Summary: The game I have chosen to play is Shadow of Colossus on PS2. It’s an action adventure type game where you start off with a character named Wander who is attempting to revive the lost soul of a girl named Mono. In order to revive her he must defeat these colossal giants. Game play: While I started playing the game, I was a bit confused on where I was supposed to go because I wasn’t given any direction until I realized that the sword when in sunlight focuses the reflection of the light in the direction you’re suppose to go. My initial thought on this game was that it wasn’t very explicit and easy to understand. For example, there was no background story to any of the characters, so it just felt like you we’re being thrown into a world without much information. Additionally when I came to the area where the first boss was located I was wandering around for 15 minutes trying to figure out how to get to the top of the hill. Only until I read the walkthrough did I realize that the character could climb, and that I had to climb a certain area of the wall to get to the top. I’d have to say that I was a little irritated running around the map trying to figure out what I was suppose to do. After scaling the wall I came to the first colossi. To defeat the colossus I had locate certain weak points by shining my sword upon it. Then I had to figure out that by jumping onto its leg and stabbing it made him kneel down, allowing me to jump on his back and run up to his head where his other weak spot was. By stabbing his head I was able to defeat the giant. So far, I like the graphics and art to the game because it gives it a real ancient majestic feeling. In terms of flow, I didn’t really feel the flow because I was stuck trying to figure things out for awhile and because of that, the game didn’t really arouse my enthusiasm, but I would have to see after another session.Fri, 25 Jan 2008 22:45:05 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2194&iddiary=4159https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1851GameLog entry #1 Summary: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is a first person shooter set in an contemporary military format with use of modern weapons such as the M4A1 Carbine and the M203 Grenade Launcher. In the single player mode, a player plays as a soldier for both the US or British forces completing different combat mission objectives to ultimately defeat rebel/terrorist forces. Gameplay: As I started playing, I felt my adrenaline rising as I took part in intense fire fights with the enemy. I also felt a heightened sense of paranoia as I was on the constant look out for enemies popping out of doors or behind cars. I also noticed that my eye to hand coordination had to be quick and very accurate because enemies would be able to hide behind objects such as cars and sometimes all that would be showing would be a small part of their head. I also thought that the game was very realistic and fun. The soundtrack to the game added the suspense of the different situations. The game mode, which is FpS as mentioned above, allowed me to have a front row seat to the action, which made it feel as if I was the actual character taking place in these intense combat missions. What also added to the realistic nature of the game was the AI's ability to react and adapt to some of my choices as I progressed through each mission, for example, the enemy would shift its forces if I attempted to flank or they would take additional cover if I fired upon them. What was also realistic was the fact that the character was only able to carry two primary weapons, as opposed to several in some other fps games. Also, certain cars would blow up if shot at and if I was close enough I would die from the explosion. The pyshics of the game made each combat very realistic. GameLog #2 Gameplay: As I played more I realized that there was more strategy to the game then the simple means of point and shoot. In one scenario, in order to clear a building I couldn't simply run in with guns blazing. In order to enter a room without being harmed I had to utilize my flashbang to stun the enemy before entering which also added to the realistic sense of the game. What I also liked about the game was that in each mission I was accompanied by a squad and a squad leader. The squad leader provided direction and leadership during the mission while the rest provided cover and fire support, just as if I was in a real regiment engaging in battle. I think the story was very fluid even though it switched back and forth from British and US forces. After ending a particular mission as a British soldier I would go to another part of the world to complete a mission as a US soldier, but it felt like the story was never interrupted and the flow of the game seemed to be continuous. I think the mission briefings were very detailed and informative, which attributed to the fluidity of the game. Design: First off I think the game engine is very good. For example, the game is able to distinguish different surface depths of certain objects such as cars or walls, so that when I fire upon them, the bullets may or may not pass through. It also distinguishes between different types of guns used and because each gun has different firing power, some guns would pierce walls better than others. I think another important aspect about the game that makes it fun and interesting is the many options and levels of interaction that a player has with the game. For example, I haven't counted, but there are at least more than 5 different weapons to use such as RPGS(Rocket Propelled Grenades), heat seeking rocket launchers, or even a combat knife. Also in each mission, though there is only one way to complete the mission objective, there are numerous paths you may take to get to the mission objective. The dynamics of the game are also well implemented, for example, after dying in a particular mission I would try a different route or do things differently and because the AI reacts effectively I ultimately got a different challenge every time. As I played more, I found that the different levels I played were very distinct and somewhat unique compared to previous missions. For example, in one mission I played a sniper who was in charge of assassinating a target. In another mission I was aboard a plane miles above the ground using infrared radar to shoot enemy targets. In other levels I was required to use night vision goggles and silencers. All these different types of levels added to the overall experience that I received because I was not restricted to a certain type of combat mode, but to several, which made the game very fun and interesting. (This entry has been edited7 times. It was last edited on Tue, 15 Jan 2008 01:30:55.)Mon, 14 Jan 2008 21:40:33 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1851&iddiary=3636