Compelling Gameplay Mechanic

In this blog post I will be writing about a gameplay mechanic that I personally think is good and then writing about another gameplay mechanic that isn't particularly very good. Firstly I will be writing about the game mechanic that I personally like which is the Versus Mode on the game Left 4 Dead 2. When you play in this mode it allows you to set up a lobby which consists of 8 players which half can play as the survivors and then the other 4 can play as the special infected which includes the Smoker, Hunter, Boomer, Charger, Jockey, Spitter, Witch and the occasional Tank. Players can only become the Tank once per level in each campaign. Paying as the special infected can be more fun than being the survivors, there aim is simple, to survive and get to the net part in the campaign, whereas playing as the special infected give the player a fresh new perspective in that you must try and stop the survivors from getting through the level, after each round the players swap sides the infected become the survivors and the survivors become the special infected.

Next I will be talking about another gameplay mechanic which I personally don't think is very good. The game that I have chosen is Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3's demolition mode, my reasons for choosing this game type if because when you first start there are 2 bomb sites in which you're supposed to destroy, it's fine when there are 2 bomb sites but when you destroy 1 of them then the opposition team which is defending will then always "camp" at the final target. The term camping mean when a player consistently stays in the same spot and doesn't move. Players will find this frustrating because they will find it increasingly more difficult to destroy the target. Camping always ruins a game for all players, not only is it frustrating but it's never going to stop. Camping is in all games, there's always a different way to "camp" in every game. 

Great Story

In this blog post I will be writing about 2 games, 1 that has a good story and then comparing it to a game that doesn't have a particularly good story. First off I will be writing about a game that I think has a particularly good story and that game it Fable 2. My reasons for choosing this game are firstly that the previous game before it called Fable was such a huge success in my opinion, the second game had to be up to the standard to what the first one was. Also another reason that I chose this game was because of the campaign, the campaign was very engrossing. At the start of the campaign you start off as either a orphan boy or girl and you must make your way through the slums of an old town and then work your way up by fighting terrible creatures in order to gain experience to level up and progress through the game and then eventually become the ruler of Albion. Another reason why this game's story was so good is that the game gives you the chance to make your own legacy for example if you make an evil decision then the 1 decision could impact on the whole world and then the same if you make a good decision.

Now I will be writing about a game that I personally didn't think the story was very good, that game is Left 4 Dead. My reasons for choosing this game was that there isn't much story to this game, it's very similar to other zombie horror games which the main aim is to just survive and get through the level. When playing through the game all you do is proceed through a level and then at certain points you get ambushed by a horde of zombies, also when playing through a level the story does get quite predictable in that you can tell when there's a horde of zombies about to decend onto you because of the music the game plays before, although every campaign is different and hordes spawn at different points in the game everytime you play, you can always tell what kind of monster is being spawned for example there's a soundtrack for each special infected so when a boomer is being spawned you hear a trumbone sound which indicates that a boomer is spawning.

Single Player Experience

This part of my blog I will be writing about games that have a good single player experience and compare it to a game that has a not so good single player experience. Right for the game that I think has an excellent single player experience which is Heavy Rain which is only available for the PS3. the main reasons that I have chosen this game ahead of other is because of the story within the single player side. The story in this game was very gripping, I played it and was so hooked on the story that I didn't realise I had been playing it the whole week, obviously I slept and ate, but when I had any spare time I was on that game playing as much as I could and that's how addicting this game is. Another reason for this game's single player experience being so good is for the fact that when you're playing you develop this emotional attachment to certain characters for example one of the lead characters, Ethan. When playing as Ethan you experience his whole world falling apart after his son goes kidnapped by the origami killer, then you focus on what it does to his relationship with his wife as they split up because of this. And finally the other reason I chose this game was because this game is so influential with choice making for example near the end of the game you get a massive choice in finding your son, making the wrong choice could determine whether your son lives or dies, so this game can be very gripping at times and at the very end of the game you will be very surprised when you find out who the killer really is, I know I was..

Now for the game that not personally is a bad single player experience, but has a fair few bad reviews about the single player campaign. This game is Fable 3. I have chosen this game purely for the fact that it's had so many bad reviews about its single player Experience. There are a few reasons why this game had so many bad reviews, but I'll just use 3 reasons instead of the many that can be found on the internet. Right the first reason why this game's single player experience was bad is because traditionally is the Fable series you would start as a poor boy or girl and then something happens to you which makes want to change for example in the original Fable your village was burned to the ground and your mother and father were slaughtered by bandits, this would lead the player into avenge your mother and fathers death but you find a few surprises in the game. Another reason would be that the campaign in Fable 3 was very short, you could finish it in about a few days if you really wanted to, halfway through the game you become king and have to make tough decisions regarding the safety of your people from an ultimate evil. Finally the final reason is that Fable 3 was one of the most anticipated games of that year, the as soon as players played it they uncovered all the faults with it such as what I've said above about starting as a child and the the story was very short.

3rd Person Games

This post I will be writing about 3rd person games for example which ones I think are good and display the 3rd person camera well to a game where I think the game doesn't really use the 3rd person camera very well. Right first off I will be writing about the game I think is really good for using the 3rd person camera.. This game is Gears of War 3. The reasons I chose this game is because it really does well by only using the 3rd person camera throughout the whole game, it's a different take on a shooter style of game, normally everyone is used to the everyday shooters for example the Call of Duty franchise or maybe even the Battlefield franchise purely for the fact they're all first person perspective. Gears of War 3 really do well in using the 3rd person camera and it's a different kind of game which is why I think most people enjoy it and it's become a real contender with the big names from Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3. Another reason for this game being successful is that the character placement is placed on the left-hand side of the screen which then mean the cross-hair is free to be moved about when targeting enemies.

Now in this part I will be talking about a game in which personally I don't think uses the 3rd person camera as good as Gears or War 3, this game that I have chosen is Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. The reason that I have chosen this game as the one with the poor 3rd person camera is because Oblivion is mainly a first person perspective game rather than a 3rd person which has only been added to the game. Other reason for this game is that once you're in the 3rd person the controls become increasingly more difficult to use for example whilst in the 3rd person camera the sword-fighting and archery becomes harder to do purely for the fact that the placement of the character is right in the middle of the screen which then blocks the cross-hair which essentially is important if you're aiming at something

2D Games

in this blog post I will be talking about 2D games. Which ones are good and which ones are bad, but the main thing in this post will be to discuss one 2D game that is good and then comparing it to a 2D game which isn't particularly good. Right for the game that I think is a pretty good 2D game would be Super Mario Bros. I have chosen this game for the fact that it can be enjoyed for all audiences and not just for 1 specific audience. Other reasons for this game being decent is because the game uses bright and vibrant colours for the games. It uses all these bright colours to try and catch the eyes of viewers the are playing and throughout the whole game there doesn't seem to be a specifically dull colour, the majority of all colours that are used are all eye-catching. An example of the colours that the game uses can be seen in the picture to the right. As you can see all the colours used in this picture or this part of the game are all bright and inviting colours.

Now I will be talking about a 2D game that I don't particularly which in my opinion is a game called Tekken 2. Even though this game is a fair few years old I still believe that it could have been better with the visual graphics. Looking at the graphics and visual style in the picture to the left seem quite dark and gloomy compared to Super Mario Bros. The game does however use some bright colours with the health bars for the players, but mostly the other colours that are used aren't as bright and vibrant as the game I chose earlier. Also as I said before that Super Mario Bros was appealing to all kinds of audiences in my opinion, but Tekken I believe is mainly aimed at probably one type of audience which could have an affect on the graphics, but that's just my opinion, I could be entirely wrong.

Cutscene's

In this blog post I will be writing about cut scenes/trailers in games. One trailer that sticks out for me is the new Call of Duty Black Ops 2; Zombies trailer purely for the fact that I'm a massive zombies fan for the Call of Duty franchise. Watching this trailer give the viewer a sneak peak to what the new zombie’s mode will look like. It does this by giving quick scenes of game play footage. Also watching the trailer is gives the view hint that there will be new characters that you can control rather than the 4 default ones that where in the previous games for example Dempsey and Nikolai. Looking at the trailer the idea of zombies looks to have changed from past Call of Duty games where in the previous games you just had to grab guns and survive for as long as possible whereas in this mode it looks to be more of a campaign style of play rather than the usual zombie apocalypse that the 2 previous Call of Duty games have done with zombies. Looking at the new style of zombies, it looks quite interesting and unique and a change from the previous games which in my opinion is better and it freshens it up in a way.
Click on the video to the right to view the trailer..

Next I will talk about a cut-scene or trailer that I don't think is very good and/or just plain boring. I will be using a cut-scene from the game Metal Gear Solid 4 Guns of the Patriots purely for the fact that all their cut-scenes seem to run for ages, they seem to last for about 10 minutes or so. After you finish a part of a game you then have to sit through 15 minutes worth of cut-scene which will eventually lead onto the next part of the game. Don't get me wrong the graphics they use in the cut-scenes are amazing it's juts they last for ages and  you just want to play the game rather than watch that lengthy of a cut-scene.

If you click the video to the side you should be able to view one of the many cut-scenes that are quite lengthy..

Sports Gameplay

The game that I have chosen that captures the sport is the gaming series called FIFA. I chose this because this game really captures the graphics of the players but more specifically the better known players for example Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo. FIFA have always kept their high standard of their game every year that it's been released, they always find ways to improve the game either through downloadable content to the amazing graphics of the players. As I said before FIFA is always improving, on the previous game FIFA 11 whilst playing online if you wanted 1 player to run towards the opposition then all you needed to do was hold a specific button down, the creators obviously recognised this error or fault in the game then changed it and introduced the feature called Tactical Defending which was released in FIFA 12 to make the game more realistic rather than just having a player run at an opponent all the time. FIFA's animation of the players is quite unique also because they bring in actual footballers and then have them re-create the movements that they would use within an actual game of football for example taking a free-kick or a penalty. Also FIFA introduced a feature within the gameplay called 360 dribbling this basically means the player can run on the pitch in any direction more smoothly rather than in blocky movements which was what happened in the old FIFA games which made it quite un-realistic.

A game that does not cover the sport very well in my opinion would be the Pro Evolution Soccer series. My reasons for this are mainly because of their lack of decent graphics towards the players. Comparing it to FIFA the graphics are terrible. Compared to FIFA the dribbling system in Pro Evolution is quite like the dribbling system that was in the old FIFA games such as FIFA 2005. Whereas FIFA have corrected this to make to game more realistic, Pro Evolution Soccer are still yet to make the same move as FIFA and introduce the 360 dribbling control. Although in my opinion I think FIFA is better Pro Evolution Soccer does have its advantages so it's still worth buying both to find out which you prefer as they both offer a different gaming experience but both still capture the game off football in their own way. 

Character Design

This character was designed not to be the normal stereotype of character which usually involves them being of a male gender, Samus Aran is in fact a woman but you don’t really find this out until the very end of the game as the visor she has on her helmet covers her face. In the game Metroid the character Samus Aran was designed to fight alien like species that are from other worlds than our own, also Samus Aran has a double or evil sort of twin which is called SA-X which is in fact an alien called a Metroid which only mimics the appearance of Samus. The personality of this character is much hidden as you cannot see her face through the visor, so her facial expressions are covered or hidden from view so you can never really tell how she is feeling in certain situations. During the game you can never really connect with this character on an emotional level purely because of the fact that she never really talk in the game, it’s more physical action then you can tell how she is feeling for example if she threw something then you might get the impression that she is angry. The way the character has been designed is because of the fact that the game is supposedly set in the future because of what her armour looks like with the huge shoulder pads and the energy cannon that is attached to her arm. This character is part of a unique group of character that has the lead role of the game being female rather than being a male character, evidence of this could be Lara Croft from Tomb Raider or even in moves, Alice from the Resident Evil series who are all female leading characters rather than men.

 

These characters I feel is quite stereotypical because normal in all zombie survivor games such as Left 4 Dead 1 and 2 there is always the same style of characters, they include someone who is usually quite wealthy or rich an example of this could be the character Nick from Left 4 Dead 2, then someone who is an elderly character, this could be Bill from the first Left 4 Dead game and then someone who is of a young age, this could be Zoey from Left 4 Dead. I can justify this because there is the same type of style for characters as in the film Dawn of the Dead where you can relate the rich character of Nick from Left 4 Dead 2 to the character Steve who play a person who is well off but also quite arrogant and then you can relate the character Coach from Left 4 Dead 2 to the character Kenneth who is one of the elderly characters but can also still put up a good fight if needs be.