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Mar 5th, 2008 at 23:25:50 - Halo 3 (360) |
Gamelog Entry #2
GAMEPLAY
I do have a small criticism of Halo 3 and the Halo series in general. I think that the series' characters are a bit underdeveloped. For example, no one really knows a lot about Master Chief's background, where he comes from, why he never takes his helmet off, etc. You do, however, get a solid basis of the core storyline describing the epic battles/wars between the alien species and the humans. Another character, for example, is Cortana. Again, no one knows where she came from, except that she is the amazing AI. Overall, I wish there was a little more description and character buildup in Halo 3.
One thing that Halo 3 did accomplish very well is flow in the game. I never found my playing experience interrupted by annoying text boxes or pauses in play to where I had to change weapons. The whole system of picking up weapons with the X Button and switching with the Y makes the game flow better. I personally find it very annoying when I have to pause the game to go to another screen just to change my weapon or item. I find the Xbox system of button pressing to be much more efficient.
DESIGN
One of my favorite elements of this game is the new addition of grenades and items that players can throw. For example, there is this shield called the bubble shield; no weapon can penetrate it and the people inside the shield cannot shoot the people outside of it. I personally find this to be a very innovative item that increases the possibilities of gameplay because you can use this bubble shield to come up with different strategies of defeating your enemies. For example, players can throw the shield on their enemies, run in really quickly, throw a grenade or two, and run out and watch the intensity of the grenades destroy their enemies.
Another item that I've had a lot of fun with is throwing air lifts. These are especially fun because you can strategically place them in certain areas to gain special items or avoid your enemies (or get to a key sniping position and gain the upper hand). All of these new items placed into the game adds in emergent qualities and allows the players to build new, more intense and intricate strategies. This also makes a very interesting round of Slayer.
Halo 3 helps foster social interactions among players because it helps the player release stress and anger (at times). It also is extremely fun to play with human players because they are better than any AI that could be programmed into the game. When given the weaponry and tools for annihilation, each player can come up with some very uniqe (and very hilarious) strategies at defeating people. This game also promotes extreme competitiveness through its 50/25 kill set up. The goal is to kill the most people out of all your other opponents - this leads to the extremely competitive nature of Halo 3 (and also the extremely addicting aspect of it).
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Mar 5th, 2008 at 23:01:13 - Halo 3 (360) |
Gamelog Entry #1
SUMMARY
Halo 3 is a science fiction first person shooter in which the main player is a character called Master Chief. Master Chief uses a large artillery of weapons as well as a huge span of vehicles to fight two enemies - the Flood and the Covenant (both of which are some form of alien). The goal of the game is to "save the world" and stay alive.
GAMEPLAY
I was pretty amped up when first playing this game. I recall many times when I was playing this game that I was shouting and cussing. I find the ways that you can kill enemies in this game to be extremely hilarious. Halo 3 allows you to defeat your enemies and kill your opponents with a statement. You don't just kill someone; you kill them and make them feel dumb about losing, just through the way that you annihilated them.
In contrast to popular opinion, I think the storyline in Halo 3 is quite interesting. Personally, I found the entire Halo series to have an interesting sense of progression. I also found it interesting when the Arbiter, a member of the Covenant, came and fought along Master Chief. I think Halo 3 has some interesting plot twists in general.
Halo 3 was incredibly fun to play. There are a lot of great design elements and new added techniques that make the game very intriguing (and addicting). I believe the designers did a great job in combining progressive and emergent qualities in Halo 3. The essence of the game is basically progressive by nature - however, there are many aspects of the gameplay, such as weaponry and environment, that allow the player to explore unique ways to overcome obstacles. I've seen many kills with a sticky grenade, all completed in entirely unique fashions. I believe that this is what makes Halo 3 partially emergent and I also think that this is one of the major reasons why it is so popular.
This entry has been edited 1 time. It was last edited on Mar 5th, 2008 at 23:04:03.
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Feb 21st, 2008 at 01:46:30 - Chrono Trigger (SNES) |
Gamelog #2
GAMEPLAY
As I continued to play Chrono Trigger, the game became more boring. Some added combination attacks between Lucca and Chrono added some interest to the game, but after awhile even this became tedious. I slowly became of sick of leveling up the characters and gaining more experience by killing the same (or very similar) enemies. I wish there was a little more variation in setting, enemy design, and attacks in this game.
I also realized that when this game said that it was multiplayer capable, it did not mean that it allowed two people to play. I believe in Chrono Trigger multiplayer means that the player is able to control more than one character. For example, I can control Chrono and Lucca in battle mode when fighting enemies and I can use their attacks in combination.
DESIGN
Overall I think Chrono Trigger is a good game for its time. One part of this game that the designers executed extremely well was the storyline. The plot is mainly linear - however, for some things you have to walk around town and talk to people to find out where to go and what to do next. If anything kept me interested in this game it would be my own curiosity to finding out the end of the story.
One of the main (and I think only) challenges in Chrono Trigger is the enemies the player has to fight. I think the designers did make a mistake here in limited attacks and not much variation. It could be that I just did not get far enough into the game to find more attacks, but as long as I played I still found fighting enemies to be extremely tedious. I have to admit though, when I first discovered that I was able to combine attacks between Chrono and Lucca I did find that fun.
Another thing that I observed when fighting enemies is that the player's motion is extremely limited in the game. You are fighting in the game, but the player is essentially only pressing the A button repeatedly as fast as possible. Otherwise you are just, in a way, waiting to take turns with your enemy. I think the designers of this game could have been a bit more liberal in designing their character's movement so that there would be a little more player interaction with the game; this would also make it a bit easier for the player to fall a little deeper into the magic circle.
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Feb 21st, 2008 at 00:02:51 - Chrono Trigger (SNES) |
Gamelog Entry #1
SUMMARY
Chrono Trigger is a RPG in which you use simple character level ups and a limited arsenal of weaponry to save Queen Leene. Chrono, the main character, goes back in time to save Princess Nadia but instead discovers that he needs to save the queen from the past to preserve his future world. Chrono Trigger is heavily plot based and there are many things to explore in this game.
GAMEPLAY
My initial emotional state while playing this game was boredom. I personally do not really like RPGs and I found this to be an extremely tedious game. Fighting enemies was not very interesting at all. "Fighting" would purely consist of me pressing "Attack" and watching Chrono take a stab at someone with a sword. The player's range of movement in this game is very limited and I found it to be too restricting in this game. It prevented me from taking interest and increasing the value of defeating enemies.
Chrono Trigger's storyline, so far, has been interesting. I do enjoy going around town and talking to people. I do appreciate how the game was made to build the plot and take interesting twists and turns. I also like how the designers incorporated two time dimensions of the same environment. The only part I do not like about the storyline is that it consists of the basic "save the princess" goal. I believe that this has been done way too many times already, but it could just be that this is an older game and I expect too much.
I also found it interesting that the game is designed to be multiplayer - however I do not see how it could be. I played with a friend and took turns being Chrono but it was not very fun and the person not playing was almost consistently bored. I think the multiplayer implementation definitely could have been better designed.
One thing that I really did appreciate about this game is the flow. This is one of the few games that I have played from older consoles in which the game flow did not feel choppy. Most of the time, whenever I read the plot in textual form I find this too interrupt the flow of the game. However, Chorno Trigger did not do this.
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Lunshine has been with GameLog for 16 years, 10 months, and 11 days |
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