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Jan 26th, 2008 at 01:57:31 - Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES) |
Gamelog entry #2
GAMEPLAY
Characters: There's something about the silent protagonist that draws people. It works for the weighted companion cube and it worked for mario in this game. It probably has to do with the fact that players can project whatever they want onto the character. At the time though I think it was particularly appealing because there was very little to connect with in terms of the characters in gaming, a game like tetris or pong may be fun but there's nothing in it like "Mario." So I think there was this desolate gaming landscape in terms of personality and then here comes "Mario" he's go this unique look to him, suspenders, a funny hat, and this goof mustache. Nowadays we've got games like Bioshock with incredible depth in characters but you can't help but like "Mario," so even though there isn't any story on him he's still likable.
It's certainly interesting to play. The levels never feel repetitive, so it manages to feel fresh as you go through the worlds, each of which has its own theme. It's not so interesting however when you hit a plateau and have to play a level over and over, and if you die you start over.
DESIGN
I can't speak to how innovative Super Mario Bros. 3 was because I don't know what the platform market was like twenty years ago, but it's a classic because it was a very good game. I keep trying to apply modern standards to the game, but it's twenty years old! The fact that I can pick it up and have a good time after playing Mass Effect speaks to the calibre of the game. It's a solid game, the enemies are unique and the level design is creative. On the negative side you can't save, but it's hard to complain about that because it wasn't a feature of games at the time. It's like complaining about the game not being in HD, it's an unrealistic standard to apply. I can however complain that the game doesn't have much of a story, that's not unrealistic because The Legend of Zelda came out on the same system and the scale in that game is nothing short of epic.
The tone of the game world is fantastical and comedic with a dash of the macabre. It maintains this tone with unusual enemies and whimsical settings. These include but are not limited to goombas, flying turtles, piranhas, and Bowser who I suppose is a fire breathing dragon-turtle. It gets a bit darker in the castles where "Mario" has to dodge flames and lava without being crushed by giant spikes, it still keeps that whimsical tone though with cartoonish ghosts and skeleton turtles.
The game fosters social interaction between players through its multiplayer mode. In this mode one player controls Mario and the other Luigi, and they switch off playing levels. This promotes cooperation as the two players must work together to complete worlds. When one player runs out of lives the worlds that they completed become locked and have to be played again. There is also a level that the two players can compete in at the beginning of each world, it's optional, and as far as I can tell there is no reward to be gained from it. The gameplay in this level is much different, as it is a single stage with multiple platforms that enemies file across, and the first player to die loses a life and the stage ends.
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Jan 26th, 2008 at 01:07:53 - Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES) |
Gamelog 2: Entry #1
SUMMARY
Let's kick this pig. I played Super Mario Bros. 3 for the NES. The player controls "Mario" a mustachioed Italian plumber. The game has a World select menu in which the player selects which sidescrolling level to play. Mario must navigate the various platforms in these levels to reach the end of the level, along the way defeating enemies. Very few enemies actively attack mario, most of them move in a scripted pattern, but nearly all of them can be dispatched by jumping on them. The object is to reach the end of all of the worlds, and while I was unable to do this I'm imagining there's a princess there, she might even be in another castle...
GAMEPLAY
My roommate, his girlfriend, and I took turns playing the game when I first brought it back. We approached it fairly arrogantly, because the game was released in Japan around the same time we were born, how hard could a game this old be? Besides, we're next gen gamers, we don't just dispatch alien hordes, we do speed runs and solo legendary. Yeah well... Answer: It's hard, very hard. So our "emotional state" during this first fourty five minutes was frustrated and befuddled. How can this be happening? Did a flying turtle just kill me?
We started to get the hang of it and on the end of the last level of the first world a bit of story was introduced. A king has been turned into a dog and my job as "Mario" is to board a flying pirate ship and steal a wand so that he can be turned back. Thank God for that little bit of exposition or I would have been really confused. In short, Mario is lacking in story, every so often there's a bit of explanation about why you have to do this or that but it really just muddies the water even more. Who is this king? Why was he turned into a dog? Why am I the one that has to do something here?
The game didn't flow particularly well for three reasons:
1. We kept dying.
2. You can't save.
3. There's no transition between levels. You go from a cave to floating platforms in the sky to a lava filled castle without any explanation why.
When these three are combined it's a confusing and exasperating experience. That being said the more we played, the better we got, and the easier it was to get through the levels and back to where we were in the game before we turned it off or died. If nothing else, my gaming ego has been considerably battered and bruised.
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Jan 14th, 2008 at 14:07:52 - Mass Effect (360) |
Gameplay entry #2
GAMEPLAY
It's safe to say I'm in love with this game. Typical RPG's offer a great deal of customization in weapons, armor, skills, and if you're lucky appearance. Mass Effect doesn't just take it to the next level, it knocks these expectations out of the freaking park. Not only can I change my weapons and armor, adding upgrades and changing the ammo, but I can mold my very personality. Mass Effect is the spiritual successor to Star Wars: Knights of the Republic, and so it includes what could be considered light side and dark side points, called paragon and renegade respectively. I found out pretty quickly that renegade was quite a bit more fun. For example, one of the members of my party who had been with me since the beginning of the game stepped out of line, so I chose the more aggressive option in the dialogue and it turned into a heated argument. It escalated to me pulling out my shotgun and shooting him in the face three times! Whereas a lot of games today boast to be open ended, in Mass Effect if someone in your party disagrees with you, no matter how integral to the story they are you can literally just end their life. After that no one on board the ship questioned my judgement again, ever. This wasn't just a coincidence either, the members of my party had actually dynamically reacted to me because I had accrued enough renegade points.
And the story is phenomenal. I started out as an errand boy, solving mysteries fit for scooby doo, and worked my way up to the go to guy for the council that runs the galaxy. Yeah, no more mystery machine stuff, now when there's a rebellion on a planet that threatens peace and stability everywhere I'm the guy that goes to fix it. What was great is that the progression seemed so natural, there was no jump. Even despite how open ended Mass Effect is it managed to slip seamlessly between the overarching story that I slowly uncovered about a plot to destroy all of civilization and side missions. It didn't seem contrived either or like a rehash of another game. It was all fresh and highly entertaining.
DESIGN
My one real complaint about Mass Effect is that it's almost too open ended, there's no real tutorial that introduces you to combat or customization. It's almost assumed that the player already understand perfectly the mechanics of the game. While not being intuitive, I didn't have any challenge with it after an hour or so when I had the mechanics of the game down. I think Penny Arcade described it best with this analogy: "This giant pool is Mass Effect. It's vast and deep. We Made it for you. Now swim! Swim forever."
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Jan 14th, 2008 at 13:34:55 - Mass Effect (360) |
Gameplay entry #1
SUMMARY
In Mass Effect the player controls commander Shepard, a soldier in the year 2183. The gameplay is a third-person shooter combined with RPG elements to control which class Shepard progresses in. The various classes take the game from a cover based strategy game with magic powers to a more Halo based shoot everything that moves game, all controlled by the upgrades the player chooses. The game has very few cinematic sequences, and instead lets the player progress through the story by starting conversations with NPC's and choosing from several responses in the conversation. The responses a player chooses in the conversation change the personality of Shepard slowly from a xenophobic homicidal maniac to a philanthropist space crusader, all completely dependent on the choices of the player.
GAMEPLAY
Mass Effect is an incredibly engaging experience because of its frenetic space shooter gameplay and the literally thousands of options it gives the player in progressing the story. These two combined with an upgrade system, and a massive galaxy to explore make no two play experiences the same.
I had varied emotions while playing Mass Effect. When in combat I was pumped an excited. When a futuristic alien robot jumps out from behind cover and I waste him with my shotgun and watch him dissolve into a puddle of acid as a techno soundtrack blares and spaceships explode in the distance I was floored. But when I have to make a choice to save one party member over another that I've fought to save the galaxy with and both are pleading for their lives, and I know I can only save one it's nothing short of heart-wrenching.
The characters in Mass Effect are all very well done. None of them seem two-dimensional, and they all have a backstory that the player can investigate. This makes a seemingly trivial NPC come alive, for example I overheard a sulking alien and asked him what was wrong. After some persuasion he revealed that he was an ambassador to some backwater alien world and was being blackmailed. Talking to him unlocked a side quest that revealed a love triangle, a rogue general, a dying alien culture! This is just a glimpse of the depth in Mass Effect, I could have just as easily walked by the depressed looking alien and never even spoken to him.
Mass Effect flows impeccably well because it's literally completely dependent on the choices of the player how quickly or slowly the player progresses. There are a myriad of side quests to complete and hundreds of unexplored alien worlds the player can travel to. Alternatively one can blow through the main story and only scratch the surface of the game.
I took turns playing Mass Effect with a friend and we each had an incredibly different play experience. In conversations he would choose the more sensible option, and if possible spare enemies, hoping they would aid him because of his compassion. But I chose to play it more "bad cop" than him, running in guns-a-blazin' and coercing my way through the galaxy.
This entry has been edited 1 time. It was last edited on Jan 14th, 2008 at 13:40:33.
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Eaubay has been with GameLog for 16 years, 10 months, and 9 days |
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