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Feb 9th, 2008 at 01:10:04 - Mario Party DS (DS) |
Game Entry #2
Gameplay:
Alright, since my previous gamelog entry, I have gotten my roommate, my girlfriend, and my friend to play Mario Party Multiplayer. Since we only have 3 DS's however, we were stuck alternating a DS (person in last place gives up their DS). Anyways, to describe the overall experience, in one word, would be say it was Incredible. What about it was incredible? Well to begin, the atmosphere. When playing Mario Party alone, I was not really into it. Granted it was entertaining, but compared to playing the game with actual people, Multiplayer rules, single player sucks. The atmosphere in the room was electric. We were yelling, groaning, and cursing each-other with excitement. Perhaps this sounds a bit exaggerated, but anyone who has gotten themselves involved in a serious game of monopoly (or any other board-game) knows that the spirit of competition can make even the most banal game riveting.
Apart from a change in competition, there was also a change in the game elements. Among the things that I didn't notice before are the use of items, traps, and "awards" given at the end of the game. The way those things tie into the multiplay aspect is that they allow the players to get ahead or sabotage one another. Also the inclusion of the "awards" makes the game unpredictable because even after the game is over, the person in second or third place can rise to first place if they get enough "awards" at the totaling up of points. Needless to say, the awards are somewhat arbitrary which gives the worst players a sense of hope and the best players a sense of doubt.
Game Design:
Overall I would say the game design was pretty good. The inclusion of lots of mini-games, game extras, and unlock-able content definitely brought value to the game. I would like to make of note of the mini-games in particular. Though the mini-games got redundant, the variety, including the options for the amount of players, made it fun. Also the mini-games made great use of the DS mic and touch screen. Some games required a lot of blowing (candles, wobbling bricks, etc...) as well lots of touching (leaves, pencil, roping, etc...).
The level designs (board designs?) were also well thought out. Each one was themed and had their own twist. The Library Board in particular had a neat concept of teleporting through books. The reason this was necessary is because parts of the puzzle were only accessible through teleporting. Also there is a race to find Stars, and in order to get to a place faster one might try teleporting (though it doesn't always work in your favor). Another thing I found neat about the levels was that a lot of the scenery was functional. That is to say, that almost everything you saw played some role in the progression of the game. Currently I am still discovering new mini-games and strategies to getting better at this game. Overall I would say that this game as High replay value and is recommended to anyone with a DS who likes party games.
This entry has been edited 1 time. It was last edited on Feb 9th, 2008 at 01:12:37.
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Feb 8th, 2008 at 01:16:28 - Mario Party DS (DS) |
Game Entry #1
Summary:
Essentially, Mario Party is a turn based board game with a Nintendoesque twist. The player roles dice, moves an avitar across a board, and tries to score points. In the DS version, the player has the option to choose from playing "Story Mode, Party Mode, Minigame Mode, Puzzle Mode, and Multiplayer". "Story Mode" has a very weak narrative revolving around characters from the mario franchise. "Party Mode" skips the narrative and allows the player to play on any of the unlocked "boards" or stages. "Minigame Mode" allows the player to play unlocked mini-games without playing on the board. "Puzzle Mode" allows the player to play puzzlesque games that are similar to bejeweled and SPF2. Lastly. "Multiplayer Mode" allows the player to play any of the above game modes in multiplayer (up to 4 players) via local wi-fi (and only one game card is necessary).
Gameplay
So last weekend I had a few bucks to kick around, and with no PS3 games interesting me, I though I'd get a new DS game. Needless to say the game I got was Mario Party for the DS. First off let me say I love how many options this game has. Its like buying a 100 games in one cartridge (but not really since there all mini-games) That said, this game is All mini-games with a board game concept connecting them. Sure there is a story mode, but all thats good for is unlocking more boards. When playing the "Story Mode" I felt the narrative was pretty cheap. Sort of an excuse to make the player play across all the boards and succeed. The reason it feels cheap is because it feels like it was tacked on to give the game purpose. Essential this is a board game. I feel that board games don't really have narrative. That said, the other game modes are really fun.
The boards themselves are also really fun. Instead of being stuck on a single track moving across the board, there are short cuts, special items, and traps that allow the player to move anywhere across the board (and sometimes to new a location thats not accessible via the normal path) Each board is themed, which I also really like. Jungle, Library, Castle, Garden, etc... Needless to say, each board theme has its own music which adds to the whimsicality of the game. I found the music to get annoying at times, but overall is something that fades into the background so you don't really notice it.
Another game element that keeps the game "upbeat" is the mini-games. The mini-games make great use of the touch screen and are overall fun to play. When I was playing the game earlier to day, I noticed that the games do get monotonous simply because you play them so much. Because this is a turn based game, you also have to watch all the other players (which are the computer) play out their turns. This can get boring and cause anxiety because your just waiting for your turn to come up. Im sure that the game is a lot more fun when you play Multiplayer, but I will leave that for my next Game Entry. Hopefully I can get some of my friends to come over with the DS and play (the single card option is a nice touch considering that no one else I know has this game).
This entry has been edited 1 time. It was last edited on Feb 8th, 2008 at 01:17:26.
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Jan 24th, 2008 at 22:05:42 - Shadow of the Colossus (PS2) |
Gamelog Entry #2: Classics List: Shadow of the Colossus
Gameplay
Its been about 12 hours since my first post and I have gotten quite a bit father in the game since then. The gameplay itself hasn't changed much except a few things have been added/come to my attention. First off, in my pervious post, I wrote that there was no music when roaming the countryside. Since then, I have found certain parts of the map that play subtle music for ambiance. These areas are often dark or moody. That said, other things I have found since my pervious post are the ability to swim, do tricks on my horse, and climb parts of temples. Swimming was a bit interesting because few games allow you the ability to dive, swim, and do any water related. Other, not so interesting things I noticed, were no real noticeable load times and checkpoints. By this I mean, I spent hours wander around and the game never had a "now loading" type of message or pause. Also there are checkpoints, but are activated only after you find a colossi.
As for the new colossi I have encountered, each seems more epic than the one before it. Also what I found really interesting about the colossi was that they weren't all land creatures. I found one colossus that was airborne and one that was underwater. Also the colossi don't share each others weaknesses. This makes each colossus its own challenge. There was one colossi in particular that was difficult because it was covered in armor, was small (just a little bit bigger than my horse) and ran really fast. This required me to interact with the environment to figure out its weakness. Overall I found the gameplay really fun. The only downsides were that it takes forever to get places and that the game gets monotonous if you don't take a break in between colossi. Other than that the gameplay was awesome.
Design
So what makes this a good game? I feel that the story's simplicity, great music, and innovative colossi are the cause of this. To start, this is game is VERY simple. No long drawn out plot. Straight up kill 16 colossi to bring your girlfriend back to life. Second, great music. Music equals atmosphere, and this game as tons of it. Third, innovative colossi. The interesting this about this is that each colossi is a puzzle. You can't just run up a colossi and kill it, you have to figure out how to climb it and where to stab it. The design of each colossi is also really neat. They remind my of aztec monsters or something from a culture that has been long gone.
In terms of the mechanics of the game the controls, load times, menus, and map were all really good. The controls were really easy to learn and get used to. During the first mission, even before you see the colossus, you are given a quick tutorial to help you get oriented. The load times, as I said before, are virtually undetectable. The only time the game stops play is when you beat a colossus and are give the option to save your progress. The next thing is the menu/map. When you hit the pause button during play, the screen zooms out really fast showing a cool effect. Think google earth, but like a drawn map instead. From here, you have standard, OPTIONS, LOAD, QUIT. The option menu has pretty basic options which I don't need to get into. Overall everything is well thought out in the game. My only annoyance/pet peeve is the camera. In the game, you have total control of the camera, but it also tends to move on its own. This can be annoying if you are trying to aim with your bow, or swimming underwater. Its something that is easy to get used to but always annoying. Overall, amazing game.
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Jan 24th, 2008 at 03:19:22 - Shadow of the Colossus (PS2) |
Gamelog Entry #1: Classics List: Shadow of the Colossus
Summary:
I would describe Shadow of the Colossus (SotC) as an adventure/puzzle game of epic proportions. The game revolves around a young man and his horse who are trying to bring a beautiful young woman back to life. In order to do so, they must destroy 16 colossi which are hidden throughout the land. However, destroying the colossi is no simple matter. Each colossi is a puzzle of its own, and the main character must figure out each ones weakness. To give you a mental image of the game, imagine David and Goliath. Then imagine that Goliath is an enormous stone creature the size of the statue of liberty, and David is a regular guy with a horse.
Gameplay:
Though this isn't the first time I have seen SotC, it is the first time I actually have sat down and played it. My initial reaction was, "yeah... alright this is kinda cool I guess..." but after spending a few hours playing it, I can say that this game is defiantly something special. The first things I noticed, before getting to the colossi, is the attention to detail. This game has by far the most realistic horse and scenery I have ever seen on the PS2. The landscape especially is both visually and emotionally moving. I found myself wandering around on my horse just exploring the landscape. The developers of the game did an amazing job making the game seem vast and almost endless. I say almost endless because the game obviously as to end somewhere, but it feels like your really wandering around a real countryside. In fact, the landscape is so vast that even with the horse it takes a while to get from one part of the map to the next. Another important thing to note is that there are no houses or people. There is a temple that you start out in, but other than that your alone.
Ok, now for the colossi. I only have beaten the first two colossi so far, however, based on that I can definitely say the game is worth buying (The copy I am playing is borrowed, but I definitely intend on buying it). The first colossus I encountered was enormous, was bi-pedal, and could stop the hell out of my character. Using some skills I learned in the very beginning of the game, it was pretty intuitive how to scale the colossus. After the first colossus fell, I felt a sense of accomplishment and amazement. Seeing a gigantic creature fall is very moving. The second colossus was a lot more difficult because there is no explicitly told way to bring down the colossi. The second colossi is even bigger than the first and resembles a bull. Upon killing the creature I felt accomplishment and amazement with a strangely guilty. I believe that a lot of this emotion stems from the amazing music during the battles. During normal gameplay, when your wandering around the countryside, there is no music. When encountering the colossi, orchestrated epic music kicks in. More specifically, the music gets more intense when you finally figure out how to mount and kill the colossi. When the colossi finally fall, the music gets epic-ly mournful and you have a sense of guilt for killing such a majestic creature. Anyways, this concludes my first gamelog. Hopefully by my second game log I will have beaten a few more colossi.
This entry has been edited 2 times. It was last edited on Jan 24th, 2008 at 03:21:35.
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