Feedback in Games - First Person

Call of Duty: Ghosts - First Person Game

The main menu for Ghosts is similar to the ones which are used in The Last of Us as the colour scheme are near the same as they both use black and white. The menu system is easy for players to use as there are only four options in which the player chooses from, underneath each option there is a small description which briefly explains what it is about. The person to the right is important as well as the mask he wears is the main attraction for Ghosts, as it is seen on most posters advertising the game. The menu as I said before if easy to navigate through as there is only four options, this is good as a player you don’t want a menu system which is overly complicated to navigate through.  When you compare this to an in-game menu, it again is fairly easy for players to use as the user can only use three or so buttons, one for selecting options, one for going back to the previous page and finally the directional buttons which help the player navigate through the menus.

The input methods as I spoke about above, there are really only three buttons which the player can use, one for selecting, one for going back to previous pages and the direction pad for navigating. The menu systems are all very smooth when using them, the best thing about the menu system in this game is that the player can swap to either game modes such as switching from the campaign to multi-player very quickly unlike the previous installments of Call of Duty where it took a little while for the game to load each game mode up.

In the game there are certain actions that the player can perform such as sliding and the obvious one of jumping, the controls in the game enable the player to slide and almost instantly ready their weapon by aiming down the sights, this is a very unique feature as it really benefits the player’s who like quick or fast paced games. This blend also allows players to jump and aim at the same time, this also can be beneficial to player’s when playing his game  as you wouldn’t want to have to wait till your jump has finished before you can then aim, in most situations the player’s character would have been shot.

Some of the methods that this game gives feedback could be when the player is on the main menu screen and is choosing one of the options available, the way the game gives feedback for this could be the button next to it pulsates which is better that it just doing nothing, this way it has its own animation. Another way for feedback to be given to the player could be when actually playing it, an example could be when playing through the campaign, when finding an objective other computer controlled characters would show the player the direction in which they are supposed to be going to.

In the game there are a few ways it can trigger a psychological response, one of those being when you unlock camouflages for your weapons, the highest ranking one would be the gold camouflage, players see this as the best you can get, it is seen as a prestigious status if a player has this camouflage, other players seeing this might make them determined to get this for themselves. Other ways could include the HUD (Heads up Display) this gives the player feedback on their ammo count, score count, the time remaining, match leader- board and a mini map. All of those aid the users playing the game and is good feedback for the player’s along with how it shows the player has been shot or injured by covering some of the screen with blood splatters as it has done throughout the whole Call of Duty franchise.