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Jan 26th, 2008 at 02:57:12 - Super Mario 64 (N64) |
GAMEPLAY
Second time around, I’m still liking this game. It definitely gets harder as you play, and finding the secret levels and stars are a real joy. Come to think of it, the only way to play this game is to simply go through it on a new file. Playing levels I’ve already beaten has very little effect on me, probably because I think it’s so unnecessary. I really need that drive – the drive to complete the game – to keep me going. I think that’s true of most games for me, though.
Looking further into this exhausted form of gameplay, I realize that there are only a few extra things one could do in the game. You only need 70 stars to win the game, but there are 120 to unlock, and once they are unlocked, you can visit Yoshi on top of the castle. He gives you 99 lives, but that’s not much of a reward as far as Super Mario goes. There are a few secret stages one can find, but they aren’t all that hard to find. Really, one of the only ways of improving this game after 120 stars is timing yourself on the levels. This kind of play, called, “Time Attack”, is kind of pointless because these days, there’s YouTube. On YouTube, there’s a video of some guy who beats this game in 20 minutes with 16 stars. I guess I could try and copy him, but he’s some type of God, and I don’t have that kind of time or dedication.
But the game doesn’t exhaust itself that easily. It’s still fun to go through a level you forgot about, and you have many to choose from. Playing with friends also makes the game a lot better. I had a few people coming and going this time, and it’s really cool to have that interaction, even though it’s just a single-player game. I turned over the controller a few times when my friend challenged me to a time race. That was fun, but I think the game should have a built-in timer anyways.
DESIGN
Super Mario 64 is a pretty basic game… by today’s standards. Back when it came out, however, this game was a revolution. It was the first 3D platformer. It set the bar for every other game that would come after it, and that bar was high. The game may not have that much dimension by today’s standards, but it had EVERY dimension back in the day.
LEVELS – This turns Mario into Super Mario. The level design pretty much defines the whole game (almost. See the next point, 3D). The whole game is planned out so that each level presents its own, unique challenges. Each level is unique, and is set up with its own unique goals. The levels can pretty easily force you to go certain ways, and they have a broad range of things they throw at you. Also, the way the level is presented can have a big change in the gameplay. When you go underwater, you have to watch your oxygen meter, although strategically placed coins can save you at the last moment. Sometimes you have to go across bottomless pits, lava, etc… Sometimes you have to find switches that change the landscape, effectively making a 4-dimensional level! The maneuvers you have to do are pretty spectacular, and very hard to pull off in later levels. This game, like any other Mario, provides a good challenge to the player because it forces you to have good timing. Of course, other than the levels, Mario has very little. There are secret stages, but it’s not so hard to find them, and once you’ve done it all, you’ve done it all. Personally, I don’t really count Time Attack as a good excuse for extending a game because it becomes very redundant, something that I find is the main cause for game exhaustion.
3D - Super Mario 64 was the first Mario in the third dimension. Doing this forced players to think in a whole new way. At the same time, the potential for success in the third dimension was as potent as the potential for failure. Nintendo could have made something that didn’t follow off of Super Mario, but instead, they delivered something that was distinctly Mario, but even better. Basically, it made other Mario’s almost obsolete. Not to mention any other 2-D platformer.
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Jan 26th, 2008 at 02:42:18 - Super Mario 64 (N64) |
SUMMARY
Super Mario 64 is the three-dimensional version of Super Mario. You need to run, jump, and fly through the levels you find in paintings, collecting coins, defeating enemies, get the stars for each level, defeat Bowser, and save the princess.
GAMEPLAY
I’ve completely beaten this game before, but it’s always fun to revisit. I haven’t played this in a few years, and the first thing I notice is that I am WAY better at this game than I used to be. When I was younger, and my coordination wasn’t all that great, I considered it an incredible accomplishment to beat Bowser. Now it’s easy.
So that’s the difference these days, I guess; we’ve become so used to 3-D video games that these games, although difficult when they first came out, seem very basic to a modern-day gamer, but that’s probably because this game set such a precedent for video games back when it was released.
Anyways, my point is that the gameplay has changed for me over the years, but that’s why I like playing it again. There are some shortcuts I wouldn’t have noticed before. Plus, having played through the game already, I get to skip all of that, “I don’t know what to do!” stuff, something that I used to have a lot of trouble with.
So, the gameplay is pretty flawless. I mean, I used to screw up every now and then, and I would have to run back up an epic set of obstacles, but now I don’t really have that problem. Without those really bad mistakes, I can experience the game better. At least, I think its better. The game is set up so that you have a definite set of obstacles to overcome, and you’re expected to do it all in order. It’s kind of a restricting style, but it’s all in the way you do it that makes each game session unique. You can always challenge yourself to go faster. But, I digress again.
Well, I still like this game. The first couple of levels are pretty basic, though, but back when the game came out, they were anything but. It was a real eye-opener. I mean, it literally adds a new dimension to gameplay. As skeptical of the added dimension as I was at the time, however, I think they really pulled off an awesome game, and I couldn’t imagine Super Mario going back to the 2-D scroller, except on special occasion. The third dimension adds everything one would want as an added challenge in Super Mario.
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Jan 14th, 2008 at 00:13:53 - Diablo II (PC) |
GAMEPLAY
I played online for this session, and I must admit, it has a completely different feel to it. I like it, but at the same time, it can be unsatisfying. I can't seem to duel anybody because everybody who still plays is a lot better than me. Also, the game is very unbalanced in terms of dueling. The game is really just all about "boss runs" where you and a team of players fight a boss and collect his loot, which doesn't really make that much sense, come to think of it. I mean, loot is first come first serve. So if you don't click fast enough, you might get nothing (except the experience). Another bad thing about multiplayer is the arguments. When under a different identity, people figure they're free to do/say whatever they want with no consequences. I've seen people get into some pretty nasty fights online before, and it's not pretty.
There are two types of multiplayer modes - closed battle.net and open battle.net. Closed battle.net is fun to a degree, but it can be repetitive, as I have mentioned before. Closed battle.net doesn't allow cheating in any form, but it does have more powerful items and uber diablo, a special super-boss. In open battle.net, anything goes. You can find some really crazy stuff on open battle.net. I just saw a guy who had a charm that created uber diablo whenever he killed an opponent. This version of the game can be fun...if you get into a game. In this mode, you aren't guaranteed to get into a game because of "hackers" who have set up their games in such a way that if you don't have a special patch (like an add-on program), you can't join. Hacked stuff is pretty awesome, though, and great for laughs.
DESIGN
There are a few major design characteristics that I see in Diablo II.
1. LOOT - The only way you get loot is to kill monsters, which each have only a small percentage chance of dropping a good item. What you get depends on some unknown combination of the level of the monster you killed (and there is no way of knowing what level a monster is during gameplay), your level, and whatever items you have that increase the percentage chance of finding such items. Personally, I don't like how this is set up. You never know what to expect because you can never know how the game works in this regard. All you know is that you need more levels and more items with +%magic find. In terms of loot and reward, I prefer games like World of Warcraft that have set rewards for certain quests and actual displays of monster stats. Either way, you would still have to play with another computer on so that you could refer to the item/monster database...
2. ITEMS - The items in the game are awesome. They have many categories. There are different levels of items. Basically, they come in mundane, magical, rare, crafted, set, unique, socketed, and ethereal, and that's only scraping the surface. This game has a huge assortment of items, but there is a drawback -- the game is heavily item-based. In other words, you are your equipment, which is painful because loot is random. So, if you're playing single player, you will be hard put to find anything that really suits your character...But when you do get that item you've been searching for, it's a party.
3. SKILLS - This is a pretty good system, but it is incomplete. There are many items that can enhance your skills beyond the maximum that your hero can train them. Other than that, they're pretty cool. Each class is fairly self-sufficient, with a broad range of skills that have amazing effects. Also, there are enough skills worth having for each class that it makes every class highly customizable.
4. COMBAT - Hectic, to say the least. You'll find yourself mashing the keyboard, using all the quick-key shortcuts (pressing one assigns a different skill to either your primary or secondary attack), and constantly, CONSTANTLY pressing the 1-4 keys. Those are your potions, which can heal your health or mana or both. The potions makes the game pretty unrealistic. I'll run through about 25-50 potions every game. Sometimes more. It feels like a bit of a cop-out on the designers' part to just put in a million potions, drinkable instantly, and at any time. Another thing I've noticed about this game is Attack Rating and Defense. What is that? I have no idea what it does, or how much more attack rating would help me hit what. The best the game comes up with is how likely it was for you to hit the last thing you were trying to hit. For example, if I was trying to hit Diablo, I can go back and check how likely it was for me to hit Diablo and how likely it was for Diablo to hit me. It just bothers me how little one gets to know about these things.
5. QUESTS/STORY - This is where the Diablo series really stands out for me. It's just an epic tale of one hero's battle against all the evil in the world. It's a very satisfying story that keeps me coming back. I mean, who doesn't like the sound of defeating the devil? Of course, doing the same quests three times (once for each difficulty) is tedious, but not without its benefits.
To sum it all up, this game would be a lot better if you could see the inner-workings of it all. Also, there are a lot of things that were implemented as a cheap way of adding to the game (like different difficulty settings). The game becomes repetitive, but before any of that becomes apparent, it is an unbelievably awesome game full of challenges with an engaging storyline. Overall, this is one of my favorite games.
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Jan 13th, 2008 at 22:57:22 - Diablo II (PC) |
SUMMARY
Diablo II is the sequel to Diablo, a fast-paced hack and slash fantasy-style RPG game. You choose from a list of classes such as barbarian, necromancer, or sorceress, complete quests, gain experience to train abilities and skills, collect magical items, and basically kill the legions of hell and eventually the devil himself.
GAMEPLAY
I've played this game a lot in the past and I have a set of characters that I like to play. It seems that the point of every game session I start is one of two things: 1. Just kill hordes of monsters, or 2. kill hordes of monsters to find better gear to fight harder monsters to gain more experience to gain more levels to improve my character so he can fight more monsters to find better gear, etc...
To be completely honest, I can't play this game for very long anymore. I used to be able to, but then it got repetitive. Sure, there are other difficulties, but they're just harder instances of the same thing. Although, when you do get to another difficulty, the gameplay changes dramatically, but after a while, it becomes routine again as all you have to do is find better gear and do the exact same quests as before.
Unfortunately, most of the joy of this game comes from playing it through for the first time, something I've done already. The gameplay is very challenging. Around every corner is a team of monsters trying to kill you. The boss fights are spectacular, not to mention nearly impossible if you aren't quite qualified for the fight. You have to be on your toes at all times, especially at higher levels and difficulties. There's something really satisfying about fighting your way through hell to kill the devil. Of course, after a while, you just end up doing "boss runs" over and over again, seeing as how every time you start a game you can fight them again and get their loot.
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mwyattma has been with GameLog for 16 years, 10 months, and 8 days |
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