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Feb 21st, 2008 at 02:22:26 - Shadow of the Colossus (PS2) |
GAMELOG ENTRY #2
GAMEPLAY
The game is interesting to play because of the exploration that the player can do. With each successive GTA game the world gets larger and has more depth, so it's no surprise that by the fifth iteration it's nothing short of massive. The majority of the buildings can't be entered, and huge chunks of the game have horrible textures, but despite these shortcomings they maintain a very distinctive artistic style, and a number of easter eggs that make the player want to keep exploring. For Example, on San Fierro, the island that represents San Francisco there is a section of the city called "Hashbury" that represents the real life Haight-Ashbury. The visual style of Hasbury differs greatly from the rest of the city, most of the vehicles are beat up vans, the pedestrians are hippies, and the streets are lined with rainbow posters. It's this kind of attention to detail that makes the game interesting to play.
I played this game with two of my friends watching. The results were troubling. They're backseat gamers, so when I started playing they gave me suggestions as to where to drive, and alerted me to the presence of hidden packages I had driven past. But as I progressed their demands became more outrageous: "Run that guy over!" I watched as the horror that is Grand Theft Auto slowly devoured my good natured friends. Their violent hedonism climaxed when my friend Jon shouted, and I quote: "Hit that old lady with a bat!" That's when we decided it was probably time to take a short break.
DESIGN
The RPG elements of the game are aggravating, and generally distract from the overall gameplay and story. They're mostly comprised of mindless, time-consuming tasks. For example, in order to level up the swimming skill you have to go out into the ocean and hold the analog stick in any direction, for eternity. Actually it's more like 30 minutes, but if you're just trying to sit down and play through a mission and then stop it's aggravating to have the game tell you that you need to go swim before you can progress. In addition to the swimming, the game also requires that the player eat. If you don't get food approximately once in a gameworld day they player starts to lose fat and eventually health. This wouldn't be unreasonable if Grand Theft Auto were a simulator, but it seems completely out of sync with the world that I can drive a semi up the side of a mountain, parachute off of it, and then steal an attack helicopter uscathed, but if I don't fit in time for a salad in there at some point I die. It's inconsistent with the gameworld.
The game provides a number of different challenges. The two main challenges however are avoiding being arrested by the police, and avoiding death. The player can be arrested if a cop knocks them to the ground and is in range of shooting, or if they are pulled out of their vehicle by a cop. Once arrested, the player loses all progress they had on the current mission, and all of the guns they had collected. The player dies if their health bar reaches zero, this can be a result of combat, or falling from a great height. There is also challenge in the form of resource management. The player has to effectively balance spending their money on houses, food, guns, and cars. There is also gambling available at betting shops and casinos in which the player can wager their money on games of chance. The system can easily be exploited if the player saves, bets all of their money, and then loads if they lose it. It's a rather seizable flaw that makes an important part of the gameplay effectively meaningless.
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Feb 21st, 2008 at 01:41:33 - Shadow of the Colossus (PS2) |
GAMELOG ENTRY #1
SUMMARY
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is a sandbox game in which the player controls "CJ" a thug whose goal is to commit various crimes to restore his gang's honor. The player can free run with "CJ" climbing buildings and running around the city, or they can steal automobiles, planes, boats, and helicopters. There are also RPG elements to the game as the player can upgrade their skills in flying, driving, swimming, and shooting. The player also has to eat to stay alive, and exercise to avoid getting fat, and to build muscle.
GAMEPLAY
"Wanna be a -- baller, shot caller
Twenty inch blades -- on the Impala
A caller gettin laid tonight
Swisher rolled tight, gotta spray my ice
I hit the HIIIGHWAY, making money the FLYYYY WAY
But there's got to be a BETT-ER WAYY!
A better way, better way, YEAH-AHHHH"
-Lil' Troy
My emotional state while playing the game, I suppose I felt like a baller. That's the desired result of the game at any rate, and it achieves its goal. This is primary a result of the music, and missions that the player, "CJ" must execute, and the customization that the game allows for. GTA: San Andreas doesn't make use of a soundtrack, but it does have radio stations that the player can tune through in the vehicles. As much of the gameplay is spent driving, the player will hear the dulcet tones of Lil' Troy as they roll through the city with their homies. I grew an emotional attachment to the "Grove Street Families" through missions where I would "gat" their enemies, and then we would chill at our crib. The voice acting during these cutscenes contributed to the attachment, the voice acting is on par with a movie, and it was similar in terms of scope.
The characters in the game are incredible, they all seem to have a great deal of depth. Physically their models look horrible, but there's an all star voice acting cast, and a great script so they have personality. The characters develop through cell-phone calls, cut-scenes, and missions on which the player works with them.
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Feb 9th, 2008 at 01:31:57 - Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (360) |
GAMELOG ENTRY #2
GAMEPLAY
The more of this game I play the more fun it becomes. Primarily because of the skill tree, not only does it provide for a vastly different gameplay experience based on the specialization of the player, but the growth in that specialization is exponential. So, my first play experience I was limited to a very small set of skills, but now I have a vast arsenal at my disposal with which to dispatch enemies. There's now a great deal more strategy involved in the combat, I have to decide which armors, weapons, and spells to choose, and adapt it to my opponent.
It's also a lot more fun to play because I've realized just how vast the gameworld is. I was originally fast traveling between cities, but for one quest I decided to go on foot. It took approximately 20 minutes to travel the distance, and along the way I discovered very detailed environments, ruins and caves that I could explore, NPCs with quests, and enemies. I feel like I'm still just scratching the surface of the world, and it's fun to actually feel like I'm exploring a living world as opposed to going on a predetermined path in a game like Mario.
I've also learned that there's more social interaction with NPCs than I originally thought. If I've just completed a quest or attained a notable achievement they will chat with me about it. There's also a mini-game in which, based on my charisma level I can try to gain favor with NPCs. If I succeed then new options in the chat dialogue are unlocked, and they become more open with information about quests, and their tone becomes friendlier.
DESIGN
This game doesn't have distinct levels, but rather a world map with cities and structures that can be entered. The world map however is incredibly varied. It would probably take around an hour to walk a straight line from one end of the world to the other, and the player would never see the same environment twice. Different parts of the world have a very distinctive visual feel, there are plains, lakes, snow covered mountains, swamps, and they all transition between each other smoothly. It doesn't jarringly go from a mountain to a swamp, but rather gradually changes. It must have been randomly generated because no matter how large the team, it would take ages to meticulously design each environmental feature of the game.
The tone of the gameworld is unique to each city. Some cities are bright and prosperous while others have a very dark color palette. Similarly, the denizens of each city vary just as much. In one of the more impoverished cities the player might expect to find people sleeping outside, skooma (drug) dealers, and thieves, while in the wealthy cities there are aristocrats, merchants, and cheery well-dressed people. Architecturally they are also very different, varying based on the climate, and economic status of each city. The tone shifts dramatically when the player enters one of the game's oblivion portals (portals to a kind of demon world). Once through the portals, everything takes on a reddish color and the sky starts raining ash. Everything in the world becomes inhospitable and demonic creatures lurk around every corner.
I responded quite eagerly to the game's reward structure, because success on missions directly translates into both new skills and more gold. The use of gold as a reward works particularly well, many games use gold as a sort of abstract concept that the player can never take advantage of, but because of the many merchants in Oblivion, more gold means better equipment, new spells, and more potions. Success on a quest can also mean that an NPC will give you new equipment that is potentially not available from a merchant. The other reward for completing a quest is furthering the story. I didn't care much for the main story, but there were certain quests whose stories I wanted to unravel.
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Feb 9th, 2008 at 00:53:52 - Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (360) |
GAMELOG ENTRY #1
SUMMARY
In Oblivion the player controls a character of their creating who discovers a plot to tear apart the kingdom after the assassination of the emperor. The gameplay is first person, and depending on the specialization of the character it evolves into swordplay, archery, or spellcasting. The player takes on quests from various NPCs that range from clearing out caves of enemies to infiltrating secret societies. The primary goal is to rescue the kingdom.
GAMEPLAY
My emotional state during the game: I wasn't very connected emotionally to the main story of the game, frankly it's just bland and cliched fantasy. I got bored with it pretty quickly and decided to do some of the side quests. This is where the game excels, it's filled with thousands of NPCs, and despite repeat voice actors, they all have a very distinct personality. Some are excited, others nervous, and still some are indifferent, so it was much easier emotionally to develop a connection to the NPCs than to the main story.
Narratively the game progressed at whatever rate I wanted it to. I could choose not to stick to the main story and just do my own thing. There seemed to be a never ending supply of people who wanted my help so I could just pick and choose the most interesting quests. And if I got tired of it I could leave whenever I wanted. So, narratively there was a great deal of freedom.
The game is incredibly fun to play because of the depth of the skill tree. The game has an introductory level where the player has a chance to toy around with all of the skill sets and then decide which one to go with. Lighting rats on fire certainly has its novelty, but I decided to spec thief. Because I chose that skill branch the gameplay became almost like Splinter Cell or Metal Gear Solid, I gained the ability to sneak undetected and to stealth kill enemies. So, the game is fun because it doesn't force the player to adapt to the game, rather the game adapts to the player.
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Eaubay has been with GameLog for 16 years, 10 months, and 9 days |
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