Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=713https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3008GAMEPLAY: This gameplay session introduced me to a new gang. The previous gang was the Hoods a group of gentlemen who liked wearing either ski masks or pantyhose over their heads. The new gang is a group of white trash white supremacists that call themselves the Skinz. Unfortunately they aren't much smarter than the Hoods, an can still be easily dispatched using the 'make a noise then hide' tactic. One new gameplay element that was introduced in this gameplay session was the wire. Stealth kills with the wire decapitate the enemy, then their severed head can then be picked up. The heads can be thrown to distract other (still living) enemies an lure them into an ambush. Other than that the gameplay remains much the same, hiding in the shadows and figuring out where and when to dispatch the enemies. The level design is okay, but the levels take place in a variety of dilapidated shitholes and the problem is that the design sometime just isn't all that convincing especially when compared to S.T.A.L.K.E.R. which was a masterpiece in terms of convincing dilapidated shitholes. DESIGN: The three tiered kill system is an interesting idea but in many ways to fails to live up to it's potential. Ideally it would be a matter of risk vs. reward, the problem is that the only reward the player receives for completing a red level kill is a more violent kill sequence, and even the most bloodthirsty gamer will grow tired of the scripted kill sequence after 4 or 5 times. I can't help but think that if there was more of an in-game incentive to take the risk the game would be much better, for example if the player pulled of the more difficult kill it would be quick and quiet, while a more hasty kill would be drawn out and loud, drawing the attention of anyone nearby. This would give the player a much stronger motivation to take the risk of getting seen. While much of the log has been deeply critical of the game, I still think that there are some elements of the game that are quite good. For example the film director's voice actor is very good and manages to capture the director's bloodthirsty insanity distressingly effectively. But also the director manages to serve as something of a satire of game developers, arbitrarily forcing the player to perform tasks for their own sick pleasure. Taken from this angle Manhunt becomes a blood soaked satire of videogame conventions and manages to be fairly successful at it. While the gameplay is not always stellar I'm interested in playing for at least a little while longer to see if the developers go somewhere with this angle or not.Wed, 05 Mar 2008 13:20:53 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3008&iddiary=5656https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3008NOTE: I played this game on PC, not PS2 but for some reason GameLog won't let me add a PC version of the game. The gameplay is exactly the same across all versions, except that the PC incarnation has higher resolution graphics and controls with mouse and keyboard. SUMMARY: You play as the rather stupidly named James Earl Cash, a convicted criminal who is given a reprieve from his death sentence by way of a disgraced film director who recruits you to be the star of his snuff films. Gamplay takes place in a third person perspective, and consists primarily of sneaking around and killing the gang members that patrol the various levels with a variety of melee weapons. Later levels feature some gunplay as well. GAMEPLAY: The first section of the game consists of a tutorial that introduces the player to the core gameplay mechanics. The main mechanic is the stealth kill system. The player sneaks up behind an enemy and holds down the attack key, a targeting cursor will appear on the enemies head, the cursor will go from grey to yellow to red the longer the player holds the button down. The color of the cursor corresponds to the brutality of the killing blow performed on the enemy. Grey is quick and simple, red is elaborate and brutal. The execution is viewed through a faux video camera view (example: http://pc.ign.com/dor/pc/621239/images/manhunt_042004_008.html). The effect of this presentation is oddly distancing, but not in a bad way. The hand to hand combat is much less interesting and is simply a matter of exchanging blows with the enemy, there's little or no strategy and is pretty boring. So far the enemies have been pretty stupid, all of them can be taken out by simply making some noise and then hiding in a nearby shadow. Any nearby enemies rush over and look around for awhile, then go back to wherever they came from. As they walk back they are very easy to sneak up on, and can be easily dispatched with whatever weapon is currently at hand.Wed, 05 Mar 2008 12:46:53 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3008&iddiary=5655https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2792Gameplay: The next game I played was golf. The controls are pretty simple, and there's no way to deliberately slice or hook the ball. The courses are fairly interesting but the early courses are pretty simple, the truly compelling courses only show up near the end. There are only nine courses total, I wish there were more since I really enjoyed playing the last 3 holes. Next up was tennis. Tennis was very similar to baseball in that it's pretty shallow. The player doesn't control anything but the tennis racket, so the gameplay simply consists of swinging the wiimote around at the appropriate time in order to hit the ball. Design: From a pure gameplay perspective the games present in Wii Sports range from simple to laughably simple. But the action taking place on screen is only part of the experience of Wii Sports. The most enjoyable part of the game is the social aspects of the game. Since the games are so simple they're easily graspable by non-gamers and so they can be easily enjoyed by a whole range of people. The biggest problem I had with the game is that for a game that's supposed to show off how awesome the Wii is, some of the motion detection can be a bit dodgy at times. For most of the games I didn't find it to be a big problem since boxing, tennis, and baseball all rely on broad movements for the player control. But for golf, a game that requires a bit more precision, there were some major issues. When I was putting especially, occasionally I would make a small gesture with the wiimote that the game would interpret as a very strong swing sending my ball well beyond the hole and ruining my chances of doing well on that round. This happened to me at least twice, so I don't think it was simply a one time fluke. I don't know if these issues were due to poor programming or whether it's a matter of fundamental limitations of the hardware, either way it was very frustrating. (This entry has been edited1 time. It was last edited on Thu, 21 Feb 2008 01:11:48.)Thu, 21 Feb 2008 00:39:16 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2792&iddiary=5281https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2792SUMMARY Wii Sports is a collection of sports mini games. What it notable about the game is that it makes strong use of the motion controls unique to the Wii. For example, when playing the baseball minigame the player would swing the wiimote like a bat. There are five main modes: golf, baseball, boxing, bowling, and tennis. There are also a variety of sub games where the player takes on specific challenges for one of the sports (for example a golf challenge focuses exclusively on a chipping related task). GAMEPLAY The first game I played was baseball. I found it to be fairly uninteresting. The main problem is that there is little to no strategy as a batter since I cannot control any of the runners and bunting is worthless. The only viable strategy is to swing for the fences, and for at least a little while this is reasonably fun. but it quickly gets tiresome. Pitching suffers from much of the lack of strategy that batting did. While a pitcher does have a choice between various types of pitches, thats pretty much it since all the fielding is computer controlled. The second game I played was boxing. I thought it was cool that they used a combination of wiimote and nunchuck in order to simulate the two fists of the players boxer. The boxing itself is pretty simple and straightforward, but I found it to be reasonably fun. I really don't understand how a KO is decided though, it feels pretty arbitrary to me, though I might just not be paying enough attention.Thu, 21 Feb 2008 00:38:29 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2792&iddiary=5279https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2486Entry #2 Gameplay: In the first log I complained about some camera issues in the game, while the issues certainly haven't gone away, I did notice that when your characters get going very fast (going down a steep hill for example)your character goes semi-transparent so you can see what's directly in front of you. This was especially useful given that one of the challenges involves bombing down a steep hill and going through a fairly small area in order to hit a jump, without the transparency this challenge would be nearly unplayable as it is it's pretty fun. After I beat a few of the early challenges the city really opened up, I look forward to fully exploring all the sights that the city has to offer. Design: So far the level designs have been pretty good. All the areas I've visited nicely compromise between looking realistic while still providing lots of interesting objects for the player to skate in. I'm not totally sold on the control scheme, though. While I stand by my enthusiasm in the first entry, I'm finding very hard to perform some of the more difficult tricks with any regularity. This isn't a big deal in itself since the most difficult tricks are called the most difficult tricks for a reason, but it seems weird that if I make a mistake when trying to perform a specific trick that instead of crashing I simply perform a different trick. Speaking of crashing, I was impressed by the ragdoll in skate., rather than simply going completely limp upon crashing the movement of the players avatar actually looks fairly realistic. This can make some of the more bone crunching crashes downright painful to watch. Much of the games gameplay comes from shooting videos. The player about 30 seconds to perform specific goals in order to complete the challenge. The interesting thing is that the player can start the video pretty much where ever they want. This adds a much deeper level of challenge to completing the video challenges since the matter of finding the right area becomes as equally or perhaps even more important than just being able to perform tricks. This adds a very nice non-linear exploratory element to the game. One last thing, all the recycling bins in this game look like the helmet of the character from Timeshift. I found this really distracting for some reason. (This entry has been edited1 time. It was last edited on Fri, 08 Feb 2008 23:48:11.)Fri, 08 Feb 2008 23:40:32 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2486&iddiary=4727https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2486Log #1 Summary: skate. follows the player as they try to become a world class skateboarder in the fictional city of San Vanelona. The player participates in various skateboarding related challenges such as performing high scoring trick runs, performing tricks for a photographer, and high speed downhill races races. The game is a much more realistic take on skateboarding than the Tony Hawk series, that said the game is far from an attempt at a hardcore skateboarding simulator. Gameplay: The game begins with a live action cutscene, I can't remember the last time I saw one of these outside of the Command and Conquer franchise. I like this game quite a bit. The camera angle is pretty low and close to the player which is nice an cinematic but it can be a little frustrating when I'm in a busy area since I can't really see a whole lot of what's directly to the right and left of me. The control scheme is pretty cool, rather than just pressing buttons to perform the various tricks, I need to perform movements with the control stick. While the movements hardly relate to the tricks performed it definitely gives a stronger sense of immersion than just pressing buttons. I participated in a head to head competition with some local skaters. The competition was interesting since all the skaters are simultaneously competing in a fairly small area, so I needed to really pay attention to who was around me at a given time. This simultaneously made the completion more interesting and complex in terms of strategy, but it also means that a great trick can be ruined by running into another skater which can be frustrating. This specific competition wasn't very hard so this wasn't a huge deal, but as the game gets harder I can imagine it could be very, very frustrating.Fri, 08 Feb 2008 23:08:23 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2486&iddiary=4705https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2152Entry #2 Gameplay: While Super Mario Galaxy is a very good game, it is certainly not without its flaws. Many of these issues are of little consequence earlier on in the game, but as the game progresses and the difficulty increases what was once a trivial annoyance becomes a significant source of frustration. Later levels sometimes feature strict time limits for completion of the level which force players to quickly and effectively navigate the level in order to complete it within the time allotted. Time limits by themselves are certainly not an issue, but having to quickly navigate a level force some of the game’s camera issues into the forefront. Generally the default placement of the camera is pretty good and the player doesn’t really need to worry about it, but when the player does need to move the camera around quickly many problems arise. The game will sometimes not let the player rotate the camera around for what seems like no reason whatsoever, this can be infuriating when the player needs to see what’s going on in from of them in order to plan ahead. Admittedly there are only a few sections of the game where this camera issue arises, but when it does it can be very frustrating. Design: Despite some of the camera issues mentioned above, I found SMG to be a very enjoyable game for most of the time I spent playing it. The only real problems in terms of camera and player controls don’t really become major issues unless the player is a completeist and is attempting to collect all the stars in the game. I think that SMG is a master course in creating a game that can appeal to players of all ages. There is no content that could really be considered inappropriate for younger players (such as sex, violence, drugs, etc.) but older players will find that the game isn’t ‘dumbed down’ and is more than able to provide a significant challenge for even series veterans. The use of small discrete worlds means the there really isn’t any room for the player to get lost and so the player always knows where to go and what to do (unless it’s explicitly designed as a puzzle). The minor downside is that the player isn’t really able to explore the area at their own leisure and is acutely aware of how linear the game is.Fri, 25 Jan 2008 21:50:42 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2152&iddiary=4131https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2152Entry #1 Summary: In Super Mario Galaxy players take the role of the classic Nintendo hero Mario trying to save Princess Peach, who has once again been kidnapped by Bowser. The action takes place on a series of small interconnected worlds. Mario jumps around these various worlds solving puzzles and defeating enemies. Gameplay: I found this game to be quite enjoyable. As someone who enjoyed Super Mario 64 I found that SMG retained many of the enjoyable parts of SM64 while providing enough new content so that it didn’t simply feel like a rehash. The worlds that Mario explores are very distinct from each other and each has a unique art style and a different set of challenges for the player. Since very few portions of the game take place in indoor environments, the player doesn’t really need to worry about the sorts of camera issues that traditionally plague third-person action games. The Wii motion controls are used sparingly so they don’t feel overly gimmicky and tacked on. Fri, 25 Jan 2008 21:20:35 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2152&iddiary=4121https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1925Entry #2 Gameplay: My experience in the second gameplay session was slightly less positive. Earlier in the game the weaponry was pretty much just pistols and double-barreled shotguns, as the game progressed the weapons got better and the enemies got stronger armor. The problem is the enemies seem like they can take much, much more damage than before. The reason this is an issue is that the weapons don’t seem to be increasing in power at nearly the same rate as the enemies are gaining health, for example at one point I ran up to a soldier and emptied about three-quarters of a clip into him at point blank range before he died. Now this specific example seems to be the exception rather than the rule since most enemies die quicker than that, but the enemies can still take a lot more damage then they could previously. Now obviously to the game needs to get more difficult as the game progresses, but I just don’t really like the way the enemies are getting harder. This change in the gameplay isn’t a huge deal when I’m just exploring by myself, but it made the escort mission I had to complete rather frustrating. Despite this complaint, the things I liked so much in the first gameplay session are still very much present so I’m still very much enjoying the game, just not quite as much as before. Gameplay: I think that the most innovative/unique feature of STALKER is the level design and atmosphere as documented in the first entry. The gunplay is generally well executed, but the realistic(-ish) weapon dynamics can be frustrating for players (like myself) who are used to more standard first person shooter gun physics since the firearms are much less accurate than I’m used to. The lack of accuracy can make the early game a little bit frustrating since the player starts out only having access to pistols, shotguns and submachine guns, all of which are fairly inaccurate. But the player will eventually learn how to deal with the inaccuracy of the weapons so it’s hardly a deal breaker. I really liked the world that the team behind STALKER created, but I wish it was more continuous. As it stands now the world is broken up into different areas and the player has to wait through a load screen when moving from one area to another, which can be rather annoying. Another issue with STALKER is that cash becomes pointless after awhile because the player gets so much money for completing the various missions and so they quickly end up with more money than goods worth buying. Given that pretty much everyone else in the world is just barely scraping by, it seems odd that the player-character is absolutely rolling in dough. I generally lean towards the school of thought that one of the main appeals of the first person perspective in games is the feeling of really being in the world, and that cutscenes that leave this perspective are to generally be avoided in most situations. STALKER features two types of cutscenes that could be looked at as leaving the first person perspective. The first one is various visions the player has at various points in the game. I didn’t really take any issue with these scenes since they’re visions and as such they take place in my characters head and so they don’t kill the sense of immersion (the voice sync is a little off though). The second kind of cutscene is when the player encounters one of the large scale battles that take place in the game. When the player encounters one of these battles the camera flies over the area to give the player an idea of what’s going on where. I think that this type of cutscene was a bad idea because I generally found this cutscenes distracting and annoying (especially since they couldn’t be skipped). I can appreciate that the developers wanted to let the player know what was going on up ahead but I think that given the player has a map and a radar, they can figure out what’s going on and so it’s really not worth the loss of immersion. One last gripe about STALKER is that there are no women at all in the entire game. This doesn’t meaningfully affect the gameplay in any way, but it seems like a very weird choice to make on the part of the developers. Thu, 24 Jan 2008 15:36:17 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1925&iddiary=3906https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1925Entry #1 Summary: S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl (which will be referred to as STALKER from here on out) takes place in the area surrounding the Chernobyl reactor called the Zone. The year the game takes place in is 2012, in 2006 there was a mysterious second explosion that caused much of the wildlife to horribly mutate and created all sorts of odd physical anomalies. The player takes the role of an amnesiac that was found unconscious by the side of the road, the only clue they have as to what is going on is a note in their PDA telling them to find and kill a man named Strelok. Gameplay takes place in the first person perspective and consists primarily of firefights with hostile characters and also exploring the Zone in order to find Strelok and attempt to solve the mystery of the second explosion. Gameplay: I like this game quite a bit. The game had a bit of a rough launch and even with four patches it isn’t perfect, but there are user made mods that can fix many of the remaining issues, and even with the bugs and glitches that still remain STALKER is a compelling experience. The sense of place is amazing. I can think of only a few other games that manage to feel like you’ve been transported to a whole new world. The game is divided up into discrete areas that you visit, so it’s hardly the expansive continuous world of something like Oblivion, but each of the areas is open enough to give the player the feeling that they’re actually exploring at their own pace instead of being forced down an arbitrary corridor. Much of the area is empty from a gameplay perspective, in the sense that there are no enemies to fight, nor are there usually any particularly noteworthy items to uncover, but this works to the games advantage since it make the world seems like it has reasons to exist outside of giving the player something to do. While climbing a hill to find nothing more than a burned out car and some grave sites doesn’t mean much in terms of finding some cool loot or getting into an exciting firefight with some bandits, it does wonders for the players sense of immersion. Also, at various points in the game the player needs to go into underground laboratories to find things that serve to advance the story. These sections of the game provide a distinct contrast to the more open areas that most of the game takes place in. Like the aboveground sequences the underground labs also have ‘pointless’ areas that serve to create of feeling of being in a real place. The labs are inhabited by various killer mutants and the like, but the mutants are often few and far between leaving the player free to speculate about what sort of Soviet mad science took place here. (This entry has been edited1 time. It was last edited on Thu, 24 Jan 2008 14:35:49.)Thu, 24 Jan 2008 14:33:06 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1925&iddiary=3904