Games

I have been keeping my blog entries on a notepad file, so I could just post them all at once.
I hope that’s okay. I tried to do several games a month.

SEPTEMBER GAMES: SSX Tricky and Lands of Lore

SSX Tricky
This is a Snowboarding game for Nintendo Game cube. I played this game a lot in college with one of my friends. When you play the game, you can select several modes of play. There is Free Ride and Practice, as well as Single Event and World Circuit. Most of the time, I played free ride or practice. I liked how the game gave you a choice of game mode, since I was a beginner. It was nice to practice where there were no other players to knock you down! There were a lot of interesting places to snowboard, and you could do a lot of great tricks, even if you didn’t know what you were doing. (Which was my situation!) I really liked this game. Every time I would go to visit, I would always try to play this game!

Lands of Lore
I played this game once when I was in high school, but never beat it. I gave up about halfway through because I got stuck. (I couldn’t get out of the Urbish mines.) When you start, you choose a main character. I always picked Conrad because he’s fairly well balanced. As I played the game the second time, I found it to be very easy to follow. It clearly explains your goals. It’s also easy to travel through the lands, especially once you get the map function! In the interest of time, I used a few cheat websites to help me get through the game faster. Sadly, it still took me a full two weeks, playing about 5 or more hours a day…. well, most of the days. There were some times I would get fed up and quit early, because I couldn’t get past the ghosts on castle level 3 or the jellyfish in the caves… or was it the dungeon? Oh, I don’t remember. It was really an interesting game, though. Someday I would definitely like to play it again. Maybe when I get through with my masters classes….? Ha.

OCTOBER GAMES: The Sims and Roller Coaster Tycoon

The Sims
I played this game a lot in high school, and have recently started playing here and there because of this class. I think my favorite part was that it gave me a feeling of control. You could control everything that your character did as they went about their daily lives. I had the game about two days before I discovered the cheat code for unlimited money. Of course after that, all my houses became mansions with only the best things in them! I even liked this game so much, I bought the expansion packs to go with it: Livin Large, Hot Date, and Unleashed. The latter being my favorite, because you could get animals! I think this game was so successful because there were so many things to do and see. I think it was addictive because there’s no end. There’s no way to win the game. Odd, considering that games are supposed to have a clear objective. Maybe that’s why I don’t play it anymore? Who knows.

Roller Coaster Tycoon
I played this game so much in college. Now I’ve been playing it a little because I had forgotten a lot about it. It was definitely my favorite there for a year or two. There are just so many different things you can do on there. I loved building roller coasters and creating interesting parks for my customers. There were clear objectives, and the game gave you immediate feedback if the people didn’t like something in your park, or if they were bored.

NOVEMBER GAMES: Neopets, School Tycoon, and Brain Games

Neopets
I have to admit, I was a Neopets addict there for a while. (Last Outpost broke me of the habit, though… and now I’m just addicted to Last Outpost, haha.) If you aren’t familiar with Neopets, it is a browser game where you can do about a million things. You can adopt or create a neopet; there are about 60 or so species to choose from. You can buy backgrounds and clothes for it, build a neohome for it, chat with others on the game, buy paint brushes and paint your pet, explore the lands, play games, etc. There are endless activities to explore. One of my favorite things on the website was the secret laboratory map. You can take your pet there once a day and zap it. Zaps can turn your pet into another species, change its stats, or make it change gender. If you’re lucky, it will be painted a cool color, like Island or Electric or Maraquan! You have to play games to earn neopoints, which is the currency on the website. With your np, you can buy things for your pet. Neopets is mindless fun. My favorite thing about it was that there was always something you could do!

School Tycoon
This was probably one of the more boring games I’ve played. I found the cheats the day I got it, so I had endless money. It was frustrating though, because even with the best things that money could buy, nothing you did was ever good enough. I think that after a while, I just gave up. I think that it’s important for games to allow you to be successful. There’s challenging, and then there’s TOO challenging. This one being the latter of the two. Actually, I think it was just more annoying than anything!

Brain Games
I expected more out of this game. There are only a couple of games on the CD and all of them are so simple that it’s not even funny. I thought this game would help me from being so numb-minded, but it didn’t really do much at all. I didn’t have to play very long to master all of the games. I think that there wasn’t enough variety of games, and that they weren’t challenging enough.

DECEMBER GAMES: Tony Hawk 2 and Tomb Raider

Tony Hawk 2
I think I could play this game for hours on end. It’s an oldie but a goodie! Like always, I have learned several cheats (Hey I can’t help it!) but the great thing is that the game is still fun and challenging even with the cheats. There are hidden places and lots of tricks to learn. You have a variety of tracks to skate on, and missions to complete. At the beginning of every run, it shows you a list of objectives for that tract that you need to complete. It gives you immediate feedback after your run, telling you how many tricks of different types you accomplished.

Tomb Raider
I played this game about halfway through when I was in high school. I picked it up again in college and played about the same distance into it. Recently, I played again just so I could refresh myself on the game. I played through the first level only, and realized why I stopped. That game makes me a nervous wreck! It’s fun, but things jump out at you and loud and intense music starts. Gosh, I’m getting tense just thinking about it! I do, however, like how after each level it gives you feedback. It also challenges you by giving you progressively longer levels, and larger (more hp) animals to kill.

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