Firstly I kinda enjoyed the talk we had from Rare, i thought it was quite insightful, however it did seem quite like an advert for that new game they had out what was it called......... haha

Anyway ive probrably used a lot less consoles than most people on this coarse but out of the ones that i have used, that the easiest to use was either my sega megadrive or my most recent ps2 slimline. Which i got when my crappy normal ps2 busted up, design flaw. (however my boyfriend recently fixed it, and so by default gets to keep it)
Naturally out of the two consoles the sega would be easiest to use as it had directional buttons and a jump and punch button, its simplicity was what made it easy to use.
However getting the cartriges in the drive so that they loaded was not easy and i could sit there for hours just trying to get them in right, just to have an error screen pop up.
The PS2 i think, is also quite easy to use because evrything on the controller seems to be in the right place, and right where it needs to be, which is why i have some issues with the x-box, on which they seemed to have just moved the playstation controller round a bit and just to be different moved one of the analogue sticks.
Apart from the controllers i think that the x box, 360 is probrably the best looking console out of them all, its shape and colour looks the most attractive, and although the ps3 looks quite good, it looks bigger than my ps2 which is a bit off putting, (and i know im moaning alot in this one and this has nothing to do with any thing but why is there a dvd player in all these controllers-just go and buy a dvd player)
the 360

I really dont want to think that the normal bog standard PS2/3 controller is going to die out. However with the arrival of the "Wii" it seems that some users may want their controllers to encourage them to be more active, and a bit different. They may also want to see a newer and different type of console, which is why i think that the wii is so popular.

Personally i hate the Wii, and i think it is just an excuse for people who want to lose weight to say that they did some "excersise" that day. I also think that its for people who dont want to be seen as lazy gamers, beause they sit in front of a TV all day on a proper console. Which is why i have much love for my PS2.

As for the "joystick thing" i had one of those for my megadrive and it was the hardest thing to use, ever.

(And on a happier note, they still make most of the new games for ps2, which i found out today, when i saw the new call of duty next to manhunt 2, in HMV.

First of all Donnie Darko- weirdest and most confusing film ever. Anything with time travel in it hurts my head.

And secondly I'm sorry about the Reading thing again because I still feel really stupid about not being able to read those incredibly boring and picture-less books.

Anyway I feel that the story in a game is almost as important as the story of a film, and it really annoys me when people just concentrate on the graphics quality. Most of the reviews I read mainly talk about "how good the graphics are" or bad depending. I'm sorry but, yeah quality of graphics is important, as is game play, but how long can you sit in front of a game and go "wow look at that rock texture". For me, personally if a game has no story, then it just doesn't interest me. Which is why I don't like the Sims (and because its extremely boring, who wants to watch a character clean the dishes?)

However I don't think that just a good storyline could support itself on its own, people have different interests. I mean this is just me, when i first started playing Lara Croft on the PS1 i couldn't remember the storyline at all and half way through I remember asking my sister what the point of the game actually was. Those games in my opinion are more game play based. Needless to say, the Lara croft games aren't one of my favourite.

There are other techniques used with storytelling to also engage the player:

Techniques to get a player to identify with the character he plays;
Techniques to get a player to bond with an NPC (a Non-Player Character)
Techniques to give an NPC a quality of emotional depth, even if the NPC speaks just one line of dialogue.
Techniques to take the player on an emotional journey

https://vle.dmu.ac.uk/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_343384_1%26url%3D

The storyline of a game can help or make the above points happen and without a proper storyline, the above cant happen properly or to its full extent, therefore making the player more distant to the character and less appreciative to the game as a whole.

So in all I personally believe that the story is by far one of the most, if not the most, important part of a game. Coming either ahead or tying with game play depending on the players preferences.

Well i just had that morning hour with Mike, and now i feel like my blog is one of them "twatty" ones. I'm going to be worrying about that, i thought it was meant to sound like an essay.

I am actually going to write about the film we watched this week, mainly because I'm shocked that Ron Perlman can speak french.

I actually liked this film, more than the others we watched mainly because some parts of it were meant to be funny unlike some of the other films, and know that sounds a bit bitchy but if you think about the crazy preacher man who walked like a zombie, its true.

Well back to it, an art director is basically either in charge of most creative aspects of a game, and is responsible for making sure that the game is kept as it was designed.
I found this site which explains what exactly the job entails from someone who works in the industry:
http://www.gamecareerguide.com/features/501/an_artist_grown_reflections_on_.phpThis link also explains that, this particular art director(Robert Chang ) "oversees the art quality of all the games the company develops and publishes, including advertising and publishing material." Which shows how wide and varied the job is.

After reading the above article by Robert Chang I believe that being an art director is not as artistic as the title suggests because not only does he watch over the art quality, he also has to deal with the publishing and advertising. so really he has to watch over everyone Else's work and watch them being artistic.
I also found this article use full because it outlines the various steps the game process has.
I personally haven't heard of many art directors, except for one Aaron Garbut who worked on most of the grand theft auto games and of coarse Manhunt which is one of my favourite games ever so its not really a surprise that Ive heard of him.
To be an art director one of the things you would need is mainly experience, as you would need to be able to spot where the people below you are making mistakes and be able to know what is needed for the games you are working on, and to be able to keep the game artistically on track. So in all (although its not the most artistic jobs) it is one of the most important jobs in the gaming industry.

There are a number of issues that face reviewers, one of which is whether to go on their likes and dislikes of go straight for the technical qualities and to review it objectively.
However if the reviewer does decide to include their own opinions they must also decide how much to include and how to balance their piece without sounding biased or one sided.

The articles taken from the NGJ are subjective. In my opinion the subjective reviews from such websites are more useful to the consumers as the objective reviews are more likely to be set into 1 category and may just focus on the negative parts of a game for example if a game has poor graphics, which may then just label the game crap and not up to standard. Whereas a subjective game reviewer may write about small details which an objective reviewer may not have taken into consideration, such as side missions in a game etc.


The following review is taken from: http://www.eurogamer.net/ and uses objective comments to explain why the reviewer liked the game

"I got this game for Xmas as did most people, and I immediately fell in love. Everything is so perfect with it there is not one bad comment I can say about it, graphics are lush, framerate is stunning and controls are like silk."

"When i have been playing on it I have been thinking,why is this game so good. And just the other day I realised that the combination of good gameplay and suberb graphics is going to result in an outstanding gameing experience. My two mates woody and scott have both played on the game and both say the graphics are good."

Although this review is obviously quite biased, the reviewer has explained why they liked it using technical reasons such as the quality of the graphics and controls, whihc would generally make this game subjective.

I value subjectivity in game reviews as most of the time issues like the quality of the graphics and the game play dont usually affect whether i personally like a game of not.

For example games like "Bully". I found so many glitches in that game (especially in the cut scenes, and the controls) but i still loved it. However other games like the first Devil may cry, the graphics quality only helped me to enjoy the games more. Whether or not i like a game mainly depends on my personality. I love Manhunt and Grand theft auto, but don't like the more family based games like the Lego games. So my enjoyment of a game comes from the storylines and how much the player can do within the game which is anther reason i like bully and grand theft auto because there are small side missons and unlockable items which I feel is a subjective opinion. Whether i like a game is based mainly on genre, and audience, but aesthetics and game play may also play a part.

Over the past few years the gaming industry has seen higher quality consoles being created and sold, including the PS3 and the 360. Compared with their predecessors-the PS2 and X-box the main development are noticeable. Including the graphics, (the aesthetics of the games and its characters), the size of the games in general, which has increased (this is probably due to the quality of the graphics).

These recent development to the gaming industry lead to new pressures, such as how to make the quality of the graphics better and to continue to impress with the quality of the characters and their surroundings. This may then lead to the size of the games increasing, and there needing to be more up to date consoles being created which can handle the increasing size.



Personally for the future of gaming I would like to see more original games and less copycat games, .eg copies of the Grand Theft Auto games etc.

I would also like to see more games for the PS3, then I would probably go out and buy one, but at the minute I don't think its worth it (and also at the minute I cant really afford one).
The game I would most like to play is Devil May Cry 4 because I am a massive fan of the series and want to see how it has changed since the 3rd game, which i think was the best, and to see if they have improved on it. Which sounds quite sad because it came out a while ago, but since I don't have a PlayStation 3...

The first ever video game was created in 1958 and was called "tennis for two" and was played on an oscilloscope at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. Then came the first game meant for use on a computer, called "Spacewar" created in 1967, This game ran on a computer called the PDP-1, when compared to the consoles of today would have been more than five times the size of a PS3

In 1972 one of the first computer game companies was created by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, which was called Atari Computers who in 1977 brought out the most popular home gaming console called the Atari VCS 2600.

The gaming industry seemed to grow slowly until an industry collapse in 1983 which had many causes, including too many similar consoles and poor quality games being sold.

However the industry began to make its way back up with consoles such as the Sega master system in 1986 and the extremely popular Nintendo Entertainment System in 1987.

In 1995 the PlayStation was released, this became one of the worlds most popular games consoles, this console had moved on significantly from the cartridges of the Sega master system, and now used CD like disks and were now able to make the game and its characters more 3D looking and more lifelike.
After the PlayStation 2 was released Microsoft brought out a console of their own the x box, and the two companies, Sony and Microsoft have both been at the front of the gaming world, both bringing out better consoles at similar times.
From the two eras the 1950s- Tennis for Two, and today's ever expanding gaming market, with consoles like the PS3. The main difference is the quality of the graphics, and over time becoming more 3D and lifelike. The size of the games in general have also changed dramatically with the consoles of today being able to hold much larger and longer games.

One of the first games I ever played, well remember playing was called monkey Island and I think was for the Atari console which my dad got for us second/third hand for cheep so obviously it didnt last too long. However most of my favourite games that I played on (before the Playstation) were for the Sega megadrive, my favourite was Alex kidd mainly because I loved the bright colours and the bizzare characters.
The most recent game that I have been playing and trying furiously to finish is Devil May cry 3. I love this game because I like the way the character have obvious personalities and are defined clearly by the way they talk and act. I also particularly enjoy watching the cut scense which are cleaver funny and well placed.
In between the first game I first played and the most recent game i am playing at the moment I also had a playstation 1. I enjoyed moving up from the Sega megadrive, but because we couldnt really afford new consoles we also had to get the playstation console second hand which meant that the playstation 2 was nearly out. This was one of the reasons that has kept me playing games over the years as i was still appreciating the older consoles as the newer ones came out but also wanting to see the improvement of both the sound and visual aspects of the games as the consoles moved on.

However my first gaming experience was much later on than the first ever game was invented

"William Higinbotham created the first video game ever in 1958. His game, called "Tennis for Two," was created and played on a Brookhaven National Laboratory oscilloscope."
Another of the earliest games was called space invaders and because we baught all of our consoles second hand we had the portable version of this game, and compared to the newest portable consoles, was quite large and heavy.

In all I am quite behind in the consoles and am yet to purchase a PS3, or 360 (but I prefere the playstation, probrably because of the controls) and am still apreciating the PS2 games.

Hi? I don't know what to say or how these blog things are meant to look.
Well my name is Katie Beardmore not Beardfacay that's what my friends call me (I think it was from scrubs) I'm 18, my birthday is in January and I love games which is why I'm on this coarse. My favourite game of all time is either Soul Reaver or Devil May Cry 3, I can start and finish soul Reaver in a day, I've played it so many times. I also like drawing, mainly people which is one of the main reasons I chose this coarse.
I have a boyfriend called Ashley and we've been together for nealy 6 months, I met him at Stephensons college in coalville where I was studying for a BTEC national diploma in multimedia