Wednesday, 24 October 2012

Halo reach

HALO REACH

This is a very good and futuristic FPS game. It contains fictional content and is based on aliens attacking from outer space. You are the Master chief, a very famous character thats name is known by nearly every gamer. 
This game has many ways of playing it:
-Campaign mode, this is where you follow the story line and complete missions.
-Multi-player mode has many types:
     -Forge, where you do what you want, free build
     -Custom, play custom games that were already there like: Slayer or CTF.
-Firefight, up to four people(on same device) and survive waves of alien attacks.

This is a must try game, apparently it is legitimately only on XBOX!

Wednesday, 17 October 2012

What makes a game good?


Homework: ICT
Objective: Review on games; explain why they are appropriate on what age group.
Method: research on the criteria of what makes a game good, and appropriate.

Source 1: http://www.esrb.org/ and my past experiences.
Very reliable, can believe majority of information acquired here.

ESRB is a company that mainly rates the games that are spread world-wide. The company is very important because it is vital that the appropriate games are played by the appropriate age-group.
They have many methods of doing this:

The symbol has to represent the Rating level and it has to get the message across easily.
 
esrb ratings symbol for AO-rated gamesesrb ratings symbol for T-rated gamesesrb ratings symbol for m-rated gamesesrb ratings symbol for e10 gamesesrb ratings symbol for E-rated gamesRating Symbols:
Tfa

     
Symbol description:
esrb ratings symbol for ec games
video game content descriptor

The words in the box show us what the game contains and why it was rated this.
 
.
 



What makes a game effective?
The variables that make a game effective and good are mainly based on the customer reviews. The game has to have good graphics; it has to be “fun” according to the targeted age-group.
What makes a game “addicting” and so many people play it?
The factor that makes a game addicting is whether the main objective is simple or not, is it easy to play, and can you get variables so that you can compete with others? (E.g. Levels or weapons or armor…etc.) Games that are addicting are not supposed to be good for you, but it met its creator’s criteria. To have many people play it. Games that are addicting may vary between different people, so that not only 1 game is addicting to 1000 people, but 10 different games that cause 1000 people to play it regularly. It is finding the types of game that makes people want to play it. Usually the topics of addicting games are based on a life simulation, where you can “die” or lose, and simply “respawn” to continue. It is the fact that you get to a certain position in the game, and then “die”, but then knowing you are capable of getting to that position, and this time, determined to get better. The more you play, the more experience you think you have, and so the more determined you are to get better.
One of the most important factors of if its addicting or not is : Is the subject of the game popular out there now? Do people like it? Is it this time? The time, or as some would say, fashion? Those it seem right in the modern days, is it like putting Abraham Lincoln’s speech on Star Movies now? The popularity of the game subject changes all.
http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQJyojeHxb9Tv86QqIUWje-sO72OXTWfr8EhisADSMhbXv5oKlj3wAn example of an addicting game is Realm of the mad god, it actually tells you that the game is guaranteed to be addicting on the top of its home page. As well as that, research tells me that over 1,037,880 play it so far. 1 million is a pretty big number, me and my friends used to play it too! As you can see, RotMG is very successful for it followed the simply steps above…
Is it easy to get?
Is the game easy to get? If it is easy, like a free online download, then more people will play it. BUT the quality of the game mustn’t change, because if the free version isn’t HD, then less people will play it.

An example of a an easy to access game would be TF2 (Team fortress 2) I play it because it is free yet entertaining, people would think this too because if not, then 800,000+ people wouldn’t like it either. If you don’t make a game free, then it has to be really good/entertaining for people to buy it and think: “that was totally worth it!”
Then they would pass it on to others, (their friends mostly) and so the chain keeps on expanding, like the earth’s population.




Criteria for good game
-HD, it has to have “cool” and good graphics to make entertaining.
-Interesting base line/story board, the idea and main topic has to catch people’s attention.
-Many challenges, making people to want to play it more.
-Flexibility, I hate games that only have one possible solution, so you’ll have to figure it out, make it so that there are more than one possible solution.
-Combine realism into fun, make it seem realistic and fun, so that the player may think:” Hey! That’s life!”