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Oct 28th, 2009 at 18:24:06 - Super Columbine Massacre RPG (PC) |
The final act of rampage in real life was in the Library and much of the carnage happened. The game is no different as you are faced with many instances that happened in the real attack. For example, Dylan runs into one of his friends and tells him to go home and play games because he is killing around the school. Also, he asks a girl, "Do you believe in God?" to which she replies with no finite answer and is then killed. It is very frightening to me that such acts happened in real life and when they are exemplified in the fantasy world, it makes it even more scary.
When I got by the windows of the library, I decided that I wanted to end the game there. The player, after seeing the two fight off the police outside, is faced with the choice of committing suicide there and ending the killing, or continue the rampage on the school. I chose to commit suicide in what I thought would end the game. Boy was I wrong! The picture montage and continued thoughts of the boys was an upsetting 5 minutes for myself, especially the pictures of the two shooters dead and bloodied. When the texted talked about attacking New York and then showed pictures of 9/11, it felt like the makers of the game were trying to imply that the boys were the masterminds of 9/11 and that the Taliban just carried out the attacks. Then the worst part of all is that the game continues as you play as Dylan in Hell.
In Hell, you only have 2 weapons , a gun and brass knuckles. You have to attack demon soldiers, imps, and other various creatures of Hell as you try to get revenge for being in this situation. At this point, I had had enough of the game and did not want to play anymore. I was troubled by the implications the game made even though it was fake and did not appreciate the certain photographs of 9/11 and the dead shooters. From the last levels of the game, it is evident of how mentally unstable Eric and Dylan really were. These boys faced a lot of problems in their lives and approached a solution in the worst possible way with a rampage. The fact that this game was made however glorifies what they did and is exactly what they didn't want in publicity and fame. They were making a statement for all the wrongs they faced and got it across.
Playing Super Columbine Massacre RPG! was quite an experience. Although I do not approve of the implications it makes (especially towards the end of the game) as well as glorifying the acts of the shooters, the game shows the shooting from the perspective of the shooter's and reasons for why they did what they did. The game delivers the content of Columbine to the player in a way that the news never could and never will. In this aspect, the game is successful, but overall the game felt like a 1990s Game Boy game and was not an overall enjoyable experience.
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Oct 27th, 2009 at 20:37:12 - Super Columbine Massacre RPG (PC) |
As I continue to play, there are a lot of things that stick out about the game. The first thing is the violence; for a game with graphics comparable to a Game Boy, the violence was intense and bloody. The game play was very much like that of a Game Boy play as you encounter the enemy, chose what to attack with, and then perform the attack. It felt like Grand Theft Auto with limits in play but all of the violence. The entire point of the game is to mimic the rampage on Columbine High School, so who ever gets in your way is supposed to be killed.
There is a ton of attention to detail in the characters that you attack. With all of the typical stereotypes like jock, cheerleader, church girl, sheltered girl, gay guy, black guy, and countless others, the game really felt high school based. The makers of the game made a point to have certain stereotypes show up more than others like the jock because jocks were Eric and Dylan's main targets in the real life shootings. During an attack, I found it ironic that when a victim or the character avoided an attack. They "avoid matrix style" as if to accentuate the influence of violent content such as The Matrix on the shooters.
The makers of the game subtly leave hints of violent content's influence on Eric and Dylan. During cut scenes leading to the shooting, the band Rammstein is playing in the background, a metal band that both of them listened to. As well as the music in the background, the characters referenced other bands and games like Doom. It was a good way to let the player into what influenced these two teen's actions and a possible reason of why they went on a rampage.
I spent a lot of time going around the school just trying to find the different kinds of victims that were throughout the school and didn't even find half of the characters until I reached the second floor. The farther I snooped around the school, the more victims came out and made the game feel more monotonous and boring. It felt like I was performing the same action every time even though I tried mixing it up to try and keep me interested, but it didn't really work. At this point I just wanted to end the game but at the same time I wanted to finish the game.
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Oct 26th, 2009 at 21:25:57 - Super Columbine Massacre RPG (PC) |
When I first started to play Super Columbine Massacre RPG!, I was disturbed at the fact that a video game had been made about the shootings at Columbine High School. It didn't seem right that an act so horrendous in nature should be re-enacted in the virtual world. That being said, after starting the game, right away the anger and frustration of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold had with their peers was evident. The conversations the two had before the infamous day gave players an insight to the back story of what was planned for the shooting. It was clear that these two teenagers had been heavily influenced by violent media including music by KMFDM and video games like Doom.
Violent media was not the only factor evident that caused these boys to plan the attack. Several of their peers made fun of them as they were part of the "Trench Coat Mafia", an homage to the movie The Matrix. The game starts off with the events of the day leading up to the attack, where you play as Eric Harris preparing all the weapons with Dylan and bringing them to school. The flashbacks that are shown help give the player an idea of why these two decided to go on a rampage. Much of the gameplay here is scripted, so there is not a lot of freedom to roam around the environment.
During my first experiences with the game, I had many frustrations. The level in which Eric has to plant the bombs in the cafeteria was confusing me because I did not know that the bombs were to be planted on opposing sides. It took me about 15 minutes to figure this out which added to my frustration of constantly being caught by either the cameras or people in the hall. Another irritating thing about the game is the text when a conversation is occurring. The text is very blurry and hard to read so many of the words don't make sense unless you try really hard to read it. Other than that, the game really felt like a game boy game with graphics like the old Pokémon games.
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Sep 22nd, 2009 at 23:00:15 - Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas (PS2) |
While I love the San Andreas storyline, I suddenly remember what really pissed me off about this game. The ridiculously and unnecessarily drawn out mission times and objectives. It is not unique to GTA, but I have found in San Andreas that these missions are many. For example, Sweet is trapped at his girlfriend's apartment because enemy gang members from the Seville Boulevard gangsters are shooting at them. Your objective is to get him out and take him back to the hood. If only it were that simple, as I had to deal with exploding cars, firefighters, and dumb AI enemies that would run into the walls. The mission that should have taken 5 min ending up being 15 min long and annoying as all hell.
Even though that was quite annoying, the things I love best about GTA:SA were plentiful. The mission where you steal weapons with Ryder from an old man is a very fun and rewarding mission (from a GTA standpoint, not real life). Not only do you perform the robbery in the mission, but from that point forward can perform robberies at many houses in SA while not on a mission. I love the little things that you can do in this game that the other games don't have. I have found that in replaying GTA:SA, I tend to play all the missions closest to the save point (CJ's house) rather than driving to Big Smoke's house to finish those missions.
At this point in the story, CJ is still faced with animosity from his old friends and ends up getting back into old habits he originally stated he didn't want to do. He has pretty much broken some of the biggest laws in the books such as, murdering gang members and stealing guns & cars. CJ is fighting to find his mother's murder but is he doing more harm than good by doing all these acts? I don't think so because he just seems to be doing the dirty work of the Grove Street Families while getting no rewards so far. I look forward to continue playing this game and remember all what happens. All in all I enjoyed playing GTA:SA again and have found that it is still my favorite GTA game by far.
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Boonedock has been with GameLog for 15 years, 2 months, and 28 days |
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