Game design: from pong to next gen

Right, so before getting into this I want to first talk a little about the term Game-play itself, it seems like everyone says it but what does it actually mean, most people probably can't tell you. Now I did a little research and I found this quote " A game is where 2 or more competitors compete for set goals within the confines of a set of rules".
Now taking into account this definition is clearly referring to sports or board games, this does not mean we can't apply the same logic of thinking to a video game. For example in an online multiplayer game such as Call of Duty , players compete against each other for either the most kills or the most flags etc, this is your set of goals, the set of rules applied is what guns are available to you along with gear and perks. Whereas in a single player experience you are competing against an AI or the game itself to win, your goal being to complete the game and the AI's goal is to stop you, both of you still have a set of rules you have to follow, the AI's usually will differ from the players but it still has rules otherwise you would never win.

So taking this into account this means that game-play is the manipulation of the goals and rules the game is built around, enjoyable and well thought out goals and rules in-turn results in good game-play and vise versa. Meaning good game-play is the core of any game, because controls should be built with the rules in mind and visuals an sound are only stimulants to enhance the experience of completing the set goals, as most people wouldn't enjoy staring at a page of code and inputting values to progress.

But to complicate things further you do have to take the genre of your game into account when creating your goals and rules, for example an RPG is going to have much more complex goals and rules than say a point A to B shooter simply due to the nature of the game with varying paths, gear, exp progression, skills and side quests being a few of the main points.
But on the whole I feel that as long as you abide by the fact that your goal needs to be challenging but fun and your rules are fair then you will be okay.

My personal opinion on who some of the lead developers in Gaming include, Rockstar for their GTA and Red Dead Redemption games.

Red dead Redemption at its time of release was highly praised for being a huge open world game with great horseback and gunplay mechanics, it captured what you imagine to be the spirit of the Old West perfectly. Along with this it had great online multiplayer modes where you and your friends would set up a posse and wage wars against other peoples gangs, fighting over land and supplies.

Rocksteady for the Batman Arkham games.

To be frank the Batman Arkham games are the only good superhero games ever made, in my opinion obviously, they introduced us to a fluid fighting and combo system that was previously unheard of in games, shame it's been poorly ripped off by many other series'. On top of this the games sport tight controls, interesting environments, tonnes of content and stellar voice acting.

Naughty |Dog for the Uncharted series, Jak and Daxter, Crash Bandicoot ad The Last of Us.

If you want to know about The Last of Us you should read my blog on it.

I didn't want to think of just AAA titles so I want to include Behemoth for the Alien Hominid games, Castle Crashers and Battleblock Theatre.

Behemoth always make fun an innovative co-op experiences that hearken back to the 16-bit era where you would invite a few friends round and sit down with Golden Axe and just have fun.

What i find most important when I play a game is to ask myself  " am I enjoying this " because generally if your not enjoying playing the game then there is not much point playing it, now not enjoying the game doesn't mean it's bad, it may just not be your style, so finding what kind of games you like is the most important factor. I absolutely love playing RPG's, spending hours molding my character, finding the best gear, doing side quests and exploring the world. But I have friends who hate that now does that mean Skyrim for example is a bad game? No, no it does not, it just means it isn't right for them.

Gaming is all about personal opinion and choice, my girlfriend will spend hours on end day after day playing Animal Crossing, because she enjoys collecting all her things for her house, interacting with her town and so on, I find it dead boring yet Animal Crossing sells millions, so am I wrong? Again no, for me it is dead boring but for her its the exact opposite, it is for this reason the term game-play has such a abstract and watered down meaning, in turn causing knowing what makes good game-play hard to put your finger on.

I feel Sid Meier, creator of the civilization series, quote to have hit the subject on the head.
He says "Gameplay is best defined as a series of interesting choices set out for the player".
The key word here being Interesting.

The Last Of Us is a Masterpiece (No Spoilers)

So where do I even begin with this game, I suppose I could start by saying if you own a PS3 and haven't bought this yet, go give Naughty Dog your money because they've earned it. This game was the reason why I bought my PS3, it's the only game I own for it, but you know what; it was worth it. Yes its that good.



























The Last of Us is a third personal survival / shooter / horror experience. Now I'm going to try to explain the premise of the story without actually spoiling anything. Joel and Ellie (above) are the stars of this game, you take the role of Joel, a down to earth, tough but fair trader of sorts, who for reasons I won't divulge ends up escorting the feisty young girl Ellie across post apocalyptic America. I'll get into characters a little more later.

First lets talk visuals, this game looks astounding it's quite possibly the best looking game on console. From the clouds in the sky all the way through the city-spaces down to the moss and mold on the ground, every inch of the world oozes detail, rays of sunlight refract off broken window panes, leaves sway in the breeze, water moves and reflects dynamically.
Simply gorgeous, if your not convinced take a look at these in-game screenshots.

Character and enemy models are no exception from this. Both Joel and Ellie's models are especially detailed and the enemy clickers are quite a sight to behold. The below image is an in-game shot of Joel's face, check out the detail.

Next I want to talk about the actual mechanics of the game and how it feels to play. Not surprisingly it plays rather like Uncharted except ten times more fluid and accurate, its clearly the games spiritual successor. The gameplay features advanced enemy AI, as well as optional stealth and scavenging, these three points combined create one of the best survival experiences in any game I've played too date. Being given the option to completely bypass entire sections of combat is extremely liberating for the player as well as rewarding the player with additional loot for exploring.

While on the subject of loot, I may as well explain how the system works.

Loot comes in one of eight varieties each with it's own purpose, scissors, rags, alcohol, sugar, explosives and binding tape are used for crafting items, where parts and pills are used for permanent upgrading.

For example, rags and alcohol can be used to create a Med-Kit, Sugar and Explosives for a smoke bomb, but all creations have components that overlap with each other. The Molotov cocktail requires the same parts as the Med-Kit, this aspect of the system combined with the entire crafting process being in real time forces the player too make tough decisions on the fly.

Weapon customisation can only be done at a crafting table using parts, aspects such as accuracy, recoil and damage can be upgraded, pills are used for permanent buffs to Joel himself such as extra HP and Abilities.

The enemies in The Last of Us come in a decent variety, from military soldiers to bandits, thugs and the infected. Humans come in different roles, some wield grenades, others rifles and shotguns, some with simply an axe or crowbar. Infected also come in a few varieties the most common being the runners and the clickers, the human enemies are challenging opponents as they communicate and have weaponry; but the infected are the real danger in this game, they have no concept of pain or fear and wont flinch or retreat in the face of a shotgun like the Human AI will.

They are usually vast in numbers and will easily overwhelm you especially the Clickers as they will one-shot you on any difficulty. Luckily the clickers are blind due to fungus sprouting from their face and rely on sound to navigate akin to a bat with sonar, they do this by creepily wandering around clicking to map their surrounding hence the name. 

The noise they make is truly horrifying and would always have me on edge when entering an infected zone, this brings me to another point that the audio in this game is top-notch.  

Runners causing Joel more trouble than he expected while a clicker edges ever closer.

This video gives a good insight into what the games all about, it is only five minutes long so i would recommend watching, if the video doesn't work there is a link URL below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-GcQsA9o5w

I know this post is quite long already but there is just so much to talk about with this game.

I want to touch on characters a little without spoiling anything lets just say you meet quite a few people on your journey across America; some bad some good. What The Last of Us does that most games fail to do is it really gets you invested in the characters, even ones you have only known for maybe half an hour or so. 

The way the game does this is through Joel and Ellie's interaction with these people it makes them feel less like some random NPC who's here to guide you through this area of the game, and more like a real, relate-able person who is struggling to survive and has real issues just like Joel and Ellie.

Speaking of Joel and Ellie, their relationship throughout the game starts out quite shaky but you get too see them slowly begin to grow on one another and the interaction between the two main characters always creates interesting dialogue as Ellie is often questioning Joel about the outside world and the way things used to be as she has never known a world before the Infected.

Above is a photo of the character Bill who you meet fairly early on in the game, he's my personal favourite of all the characters you meet purely because he's a bit unstable and shouldn't be messed with.

This is probably a good point to end on, one last thing too mention though is that this game isn't short by any means it took me around 24 hours to complete on hard and there is even a new game plus mode and  the survivor difficultly to tackle.
So in conclusion The Last of Us is a superb example of what video games can really achieve and is a must own for any gamer.

Pacific Rim blew me away, the game not so much

Recently I went to the cinema to see Pacific Rim, a film about a group of giant human piloted mechs known as Jaegers fighting against giant Kaiju ( monsters ). Now I wasn't expecting much as far a characters, acting and story; if I'm honest I was simply there to see some amazing visuals and cool fights. But the film really surprised me it actually had good acting and a main character that I genuinely began to care about, on top of that the visuals were better than any CGI that's come before it.

Now even as similar the film may be to a certain Japanese anime series from the 90's known as Evangelion, you can't really compare or knock it, because Evangelion has never seen Cinema release in the western world.

Now onto the game, its available for 800 MS points on Xbox arcade which equates to around £7.

The game works as a 1v1 fighting game akin to a PS2 title called "Destroy All Monsters". or many of the Godzilla games released in Japan.
Now the graphics in this game are not awful by any means for an Arcade game they're decent enough. Check out these screenshots.

The problem comes when you realise that the developer has spent more time on creating what can only be described as a farce of a story mode, rather than on the multiplayer aspect of the game which actually shows signs of a good game. Let me explain what I mean in more detail, for example the story mode has you playing as the Kaiju, and even pitting the Jaeger's against one another, this makes no sense at all and simply feels like a cheap way to extend the campaign.

Now the combat system the game employs at first may seems rather basic but it has a few neat features that add a decent amount of depth, for example, there are two basic attack buttons, a special attack and a block. This is all basic stuff. where the combat shines is each character has its own unique special move, can do dodges and rolls as well as charge up basic attacks for slower more powerful hits, this makes fighting a human opponent a decent amount of fun as you try too read their moves and it is genuinely satisfying when you manage to land your special attack and send your enemy flying through buildings and onto his ass.

What baffles me is that there's no 2v2 mode even though a scene in the film it supposedly follows has a tag team fight. The leveling up system and exp gain is simply a joke to be frank, the online match-up system works off a xp system meaning players that have no skill but have grinded can be pitted up against players much more skilled leading too frustration for the weaker player.



All in all the game is okay, its nothing special and I wouldn't recommend it unless your a really die hard fan of the film, if your just after a game where you play as a giant robot I would suggest looking into MechWarrior Online, Crome Hounds or Mechassult for original XBOX.

Bioshock Infinite DLC

Anyone Interested or who has played Infinite should check this article out and watch the video interview as this looks more like the kind of experience I wanted from Infinite in the first place.

http://uk.ign.com/articles/2013/08/07/how-playing-as-elizabeth-changes-bioshock-infinite