The Game Journals - Interestingly what cleared a good portion of my backlog
- Dezaos
- May 1, 2024
- 8 min read
May 1st 2024
I learned there's a Video Game Studies class at FAU. For this course, I had to write small journals of games I play during the weeks I had class. Below is a complete description of the journal. If you are interested some game concepts, look out for my other articles!
Instruction from Canvas Assignments
*This is a copy and paste of the assignment instruction. I add this to show what was expected from up.
This weekly assignment is part of building a reflective journal on playing a wide range of games to help you develop a thoughtful and personal process in understanding and discussing games. Every week you will play a different game; it cannot be a game you previously submitted to the weekly journal assignments. The game types that can be used are: a console video game, a retro video game, a portable video game, a mobile game, an arcade game, a board game, a card game, or interactive art (installation or gallery art). If you have any questions regarding what these are or if there are other options, please speak with the professor. In your own words describe something from your time experiencing the game that stood out to you, was a unique experience that that game provided, or a non-plot related curiosity that emerged when playing. Note that you are not reviewing the game, not saying if you like/dislike the game, and not commenting on the story/overall experience; choose a moment or a string of connected events that happened and spend time talking about it. Some questions to consider:
What was the interaction like? How did it impact you or make you feel?
How are you interacting with the game? What physical material, controllers, or parts changed how you interact? What are elements that you feel affected you personally? What made that moment special? Was it parts leading up to that moment or only happening in that singular moment?
Now that is out of the way, enjoy these journal entries. SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THE GAMES BELOW:
Journal 1 - Telltale's The Walking Dead Season 4 (2018)
This week I completed Telltale's The Walking Dead Season 4. Interacting via PC, I decided to use keyboard and mouse over controller, making the quick actions a little difficult to maneuver to a liking, but adaptable over time. Throughout the experience it made me reflect as a Christian through the actions I could do with Clementine's character, and the development of AJ. Emotionally, it made me understand the relationship a found authority figure could have on someone and what actions results from those upbringing. Personally deciding to find a morally sound path, I went on Clem's path to becoming a matured mother figure that teaches her adoptive son AJ, what is the proper way to live in face of opposition. I mercy killed a person who was on the brink of dead and honored Clem's word to kill the person before they turned, showing AJ that mercy is honor. Another path was teaching AJ to atone for murdering Marlon, showing that bad actions have consequences that can still be lead to a path of redemption. A special moment in the series was towards the ending where I had thought I gotten an ending with Clem dying and AJ getting tougher as a choice was to kill Clem rather than have her turn into a zombie. It was the same fate she had to endure with her mentor, Lee, in season 1. I had thought, "This is the mark of a honorable mentor, to sacrifice for the safety of the future generation." but was surprised to see AJ sparing her life and amputating her leg instead, leading to AJ knowing how to make hard decisions that he wont regret. Earlier, he had an imbalance on the concept of death, and his sparing made it all the clear that he will grow into a wiser man later.
Journal 2 - Alien Vs. Predator (2010)
For the week, I played Alien Vs. Predator (2010). I searched up how to play the three campaigns and was a little irritated on how much deep diving I had to do for what should have been an easy answer. I played Alien, Marine, then Predator. Playing as Alien, I felt a little discomfort as the keyboard controls allowed you to transition from wall to wall, being upside down or upright. This in turn lead to slight motion sickness that put me off for the rest of the campaign. I also had to change a few inputs for a better hand motion with the controls. Overall, I finished Alien, and marine’s campaign the same day as both were quick to go through. Personally, I would have implemented a better navigation system that would make it clearer for where players needed to go, and a simpler digestion of the game’s story. One thing that did happen that was interesting was the introduction of the alien queen and how simple of a boss she was. It was just a one click, leading me to be disappointed as I recalled my time playing Alien Isolation (2011) and how the alien in that game was immensely better coded. Here, the aliens didn’t feel threatening at all. Both games are a year apart as well.
Journal 3 - Bioshock trilogy
This week, I played Bioshock and Bioshock Infinite. The interaction comparing the two titles was interesting as both shared the same universe and feel in story. Playing both on Pc, I experienced more mouse control issues on Bioshock 1 as it was a newer remaster. I was interested in the shooting and combat difference in both games as I had a better time with Bioshock having all the weapons available than Infinite’s limited to 2 at a time system. One thing that was special was finding more about a German song in the first game that ties into Nazi propaganda during WW2 and the evolution of this song. I was trying to find out what the song was, it was rereleased by The Andrew Sisters prior to its use for propaganda, this in turn being an originally Yiddish song.
Note: The song I'm referring to here is Bei Mir Bist Du Schon. I want to write more about the history of this song as I do more thorough research than what I did for this journal.
Journal 4 - Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne (2003)
This week I continued my experiences with Max Payne and played Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne. Interestingly, it was made a few months after I was born, so I observed what a 20 year old game felt like. The interaction drastically was better as the game ran much smoother, the story felt better molded by incorporating more of Mona Sax, and as well demonstrated more changes in both mechanics and norms compared to the first. Elements such as higher difficulty was a surprise as it took me longer to beat because of gameplay rather than bugs like the first game. One thing that was somewhat nicer was the fluid animation the game presented, showing actual face models, unique faces, and improvements compared to the older and lower polycount models. A scene that was interesting to me was the ending as it too a good amount of time to figure out what to do, this was on my end as I could not directly find the hit points without assistance from a guide. I will say that I wish the alternate ending was canon as I disliked the death of Mona Sax, her character fleshed better in this sequel.
Foreshadowing for next week: I am continuing with MP3, and I got to mention that it is interesting this series has been through the 3 major gaming eras - Low polycount, low animation ; medium polycount and limited animation ; Now the 3rd game: AAA title, high definition models, international / Online content, smooth animation (Maybe motion picture?), launcher based.
Journal 5 - Max Payne 3 (2012)
So, we've finally reached Max Payne 3. Ah... Well... it was an experience. The interaction had some moments of frustration but also some moments of interest. Playing the game helped me understand a little more about the stereotypes of Brasil and understand their origins a little more. MP3 didn't deviate from the troupes unfortunately and rather painted more of Brasil's problems than benefits. Playing on Pc, it didn't help that there were a lot of bugs in the copy I played such as nocliping, freezing frames, movement issues, etc.. I continued to play simply to a means to an end. What impacted me the most (out of irritation) was the gringo speak of brasilian culture and names. While I understood Max wasn't from brasil, I felt that his character was more over pathetic in some situation rather than his usual craftiness from MP and MP2. "It's pronounced _____" was a thing I didn't expect to say over and over, but to be fair, this was more over the non-native NPS. And now the good things: The combat system was interesting as it reminded me of the change from BioShock 1 &2 to Infinite, where rather than have your whole arsenal, you had to pick up weapons as you go and use what you have on you. I'll admit the Portuguese in the game was quite nice as they had the subtitles in proper Portuguese (genuinely helped me out as Im learning how to read and write in PT), some mentions of foods I grew up on, and a small character moment with G on going to America to raise her child with Passos (Something relatable with my family's history).
One "neutral" thing was the difficulty, it was surprisingly hard! its cool the health system was based on where you got shot (some higher points than others) which directed me to do only headshots, which was difficult but trainable to master.
Journal 6 - Injustice 2 (2017)
This week I have completed Injustice 2 with both endings. I played on Pc with use of the steam controller which had some studdering due to unoptimized settings. I thought the story was interesting and I even started having more negative reactions to Superman. I chose the Batman ending over Superman’s as a thought came seeing the flaws written since the first game. One highlight was finally learning how to do combos as this was my first actually owned fighting game that I’ve completed and interacted through the week.
Journal 7 - Dreader by Donitz (2020)
Today I played Dreader by Donitz, a short Itch.io game that sees the player go through mazes. The interaction was interesting as I had a choice to either download the game or play through the browser. That was interesting as the only controls were to control your curser where to go, a point and click. One element that surprised me was the thought I had when it was game over, but turned out to be a rouse and the game continued pass the point. I had seen this game on Tiktok but didn't know where to play it. It was surprising as I did get a little scared by the end.
This is the download page of the game:
Journal 8 - Alien Isolation (2014)
This week I played Alien Isolation for PC. I wanted to see the difference between the Steam and Epic builds, and there seems to be a few key differences. The interaction had minimal glitches, but unlike the Steam version, it appears there is more sound design in the Epic build. I enjoyed the game as I grew to appreciate it for it's story telling and how "quick" it took me to play. (The first gameplay it took me a few weeks, but now on my 8th or so play, it took me roughly 3 day sessions, under 24 hours to complete) One moment that was special was when I reflected on how hard I thought the game was before and how interested I was playing a few more times regardless of difficulty. I used to think: "Im never touching this game again" when I completed my first time. Now we're here at 12:52am writing about another gameplay of it with a different perceptive of it.
Concluding Thoughts
So, in the end, I completed 8 different titles for this class, but in turn also helped remove some titles from my backlog. One of the goals I had was this: Before buying new games, I have to beat the ones I have. This journal did it's job, Thanks Professor!
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