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Sep 27th, 2009 at 19:33:23 - Fifa 09 (360) |
GAMEPLAY
During the second session I was able to learn a couple more moves to use against the enemy. These new elements couple with what I already knew changed the gameplay a little and made it more interesting. Apart from that I didn't notice any other gameplay elements.
DESIGN
After playing for a few hours the game seemed very repetitive. There are some other features designed to keep interest (changing the weather and other match settings), but each match was essentially the same; the only thing that changed was my skill level and the difficulty of the opponents I played.
The game does have a good reward system in place though. While not playing a match you can view your team's standings, and winning a game is needed to advance. There is also separate award system in the match. If you tackle an oppoenent from behind you could get ejected and have to play with less people. During one match my goalie tackled an opponent and was promptly kicked from the game which forced me to replace him with a less skilled goalie. In addition to that, making good passes and scoring goals helps you win and advance to the next game.
There were short cutscenes throughout each match. These involved short celebrations or outbursts of anger, and they would occur before penalty kicks or after goals were scored. They helped build each team member's background and character, but they don't really affect much and I usually skipped all of them.
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Sep 27th, 2009 at 15:03:57 - Fifa 09 (360) |
SUMMARY
In the season mode in FIFA, you start by picking a Country, League, and team to play as. You then play through the season against other competing teams. During the actual game, you control one player on the team at a time; you can manually switch between team members, or you can let the game engine switch control to the player nearest to the ball. The objectives are the same as in association football.
GAMEPLAY
The actual gameplay was decent for a top-down sports game; however, EA has been involved in the FIFA series for over 10 years, so I expected it to be better. In the season that I started, I got to pick one of my favorite teams, West Ham, which was nice. I haven't played a FIFA game since 2004, so I was pretty rusty at the controls, but even after practicing it was difficult to do a lot of things in the game. There is a system built in that changes who you control based on where the action is happening on the field. The system is pretty good, but there were times when it was a complete mess. If several players were crowded around the ball, then the control would keep switching to the next player in quick succession. Furthermore, sometimes I would be sprinting in one direction to keep up with my opponent, and it would switch the control to another player effectivly causing me to run in the wrong direction.
Passing the ball to different team mates was relatively simple and quite fun. After a little practice it became easy to accurately pass the ball to the player of your choosing. In addition to that you can also make long passes through the middle, a cross. This aspect, although difficult to do accurately, made the game better. Shooting goals, on the other hand, was terrible. There isn't a good aiming system, and the only thing you can control is when to take the shot and how much power to use. Hopefully after more practice the game will be more fun.
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Sep 8th, 2009 at 21:05:12 - Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES) |
GAMEPLAY
During this session I went back and played the first castle for the first time. The gameplay in the final castles differs slightly from the rest of the levels because you are on a ship that moves in two dimensions, and there are stationary cannons that shoot at you. After advancing past the first world I invoked the two flutes that I had collected and made it to the final world. The levels in this world are much harder, and there are different enemies added: bombs that follow you and timed jets that you have to dodge.
DESIGN
The levels in this game vary quite a bit, and each variations have different enemies or obstacles that you have to face. The first world consists mainly of just generic obstacles and enemies. This changes when you come up against the final level where you are fighting on a floating ship. The theme of the second world is the desert. This world introduses a sun that follows you as well as quick sand that you sink into. In other levels you are required to swim most of the time, and the final world includes a string of tanks that you have to navigate through.
The cutscenes are quite lacking in this game. The only time you are informed of the story line is upon the completion of a world. Once you beat a world you are presented with a paragraph of dialog that notifies you of your success and tells you what happens next. The dialog can be skipped and I was perfectly content with not knowing what was happening. The game was still fun even though the story was weak enough where it didn't matter if you knew what was happening or not.
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Sep 7th, 2009 at 16:12:46 - Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES) |
SUMMARY
In Super Mario Bros. 3, you play a character named Mario who is trying to end the chaos caused by Bowser in all of the different worlds. It's a plat-former, and you have to navigate through each level collecting power-ups and points to win the game. In each world there are Fortresses (Bosses) and castles that you have to defeat to get to the next world.
GAMEPLAY
This game can be very frustrating, but hard to put down. I almost completely quit after being stuck on one level for about 30 minutes, but finally got past it and I ended up advancing much farther. While the gameplay is pretty repetitive, the power-ups do help to mix stuff up and make it interesting again. For example, getting the "feather" power-up can completely change how you play a certain level. Aside from the power-ups, the way the worlds were built also adds to the game. The levels in some worlds will have you swimming the entire time, in other levels you are placed in a bottomless area while you jump from platform to platform, and in another world everything is four times its natural size. These different worlds significantly change the gameplay.
Throughout the game there are secret rooms, special items, and bonus areas. In one of the first levels if you hit a block right you are shot into the air and land in a bonus stage. Also, in the first world there are two secret areas that contain a flute. Using the flutes, I was able to get to the seventh world in no time. The existance of these special areas keeps you playing over and over again in an attempt to uncover more of the game.
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nknichol has been with GameLog for 15 years, 3 months, and 0 days |
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