My Current School Project (Updated x3)

For my Design and Development class I have to do this big analysis project. This is what I have so far. It is, obviously, a work in progress.

Multiplayer: World of Warcraft (MMORPG, Mac)

Positives:

+  Extensive world. Many unique places to visit, quest in, explore. Feel like it could be a real world.

+ Varied player interactions. Players can quest with each other, run dungeons together, fight other players in groups or in 1vs1 duels. Players can just sit around and chat or even roleplay.

+ Multiple talent specializations for each class. Players can customize their character’s talents in such a way that it can be totally unique to someone else playing the same class.

+ Ability to reset talent points or even purchase “dual specialization”. If a player doesn’t like the way their character currently plays they can reset their talents and try something new, or purchase dual-spec and be able to switch between two different talent specs on the fly.

+ Auction house. Players can put up any item not bound to their character on the auction house for their chosen price and other players can buy the item. Allows for a certain amount of player-run economy. A trade channel in the main cities also allows for a player economy.

+ Customizable UI. Player-created add-ons allow for the UI to be customized in nearly any way imaginable. Other add-ons are available that do not affect the UI but provide tools for the player that help with certain aspects of the game.

Negatives:

-       Player vs. Player balance problems. Healing is too powerful in PvP and needs to be toned down. Healers likened to “raid bosses” in PvP.

-       Player-driven Auction House economy can be harmful to new players. Veteran players with lots of in-game gold are willing to buy things for inflated prices which in turn causes sellers to inflate the prices. New players don’t have the funds to purchase some things they might need or want.

-       Cookie-cutter talent specs. For each class there is a certain combination of talent points that is the absolute best for damage dealing, healing, or tanking. New players, or people experimenting, are looked down upon for not using the optimal talent spec. Not enough flexibility to pick up ‘fun’ talents and still be effective.

-       Large time investment. Not easy to just pick up and put down. Raiding requires multiple hour play sessions, plus however long it takes to prepare for the raid. PvP is easier to pick up and put down, but gear requirements mandate either lots of playtime or you risk being useless.

Thoughts:

~ Game has greatly evolved in the two expansions since the original. Many features and classes have been totally overhauled. The world has more than doubled in size and thousands of new quests have been added. Burning Crusade expansions made moves towards making the game better tuned for casual players without hours to devote to the game. Wrath of the Lich King expanded upon this even further. This is good for the majority of players, but the ‘elitists’ feel like the game has been dumbed down too much.

Would Like:

• Greater roleplaying support. Many servers, specified as roleplaying servers, end up having their greater population inhabited by non-roleplayers. Better support by the GMs both in policing player activity and character names would help keep these servers focused on the roleplay.

• PvP to be more easily accessible. Right now there is an intense gear grind before you can be effective in PvP. It would be nice to see that grind lessened. Obviously the best PvP gear should be difficult and take effort to obtain, but as it is right now it is very difficult to start PvPing if it isn’t something you’ve focused on before.

Flash: Happy Wheels (http://www.totaljerkface.com/happy_wheels.php)

Positives:

+ Comical art style. Cel-shaded 2D realism, but there is a tongue-in-cheek humor about the whole game and that is prevalent in the character designs.

+ Level Editor. The game has 3 official levels, but the level editor makes it possible for other players to post their own levels, which are the only reason the game doesn’t lose its allure after a few minutes.

+ Over-the-top gore to the point where its hilarious. Some with weak stomachs may not be able to handle it, but the draw of the game is the gore and the:

+ Crazy physics. Realistic to a certain extent, but it is obvious that most of this game would not be feasibly possible. Between the physics and the gore this game is a load of laughs.

+ Ability to save replays. With all the laughs this game creates it is great to be able to share them with others.

Negatives:

-       Not many characters. The 4 available are all unique in their own way and fun to play with but it would be nice to see more. Perhaps a runner or someone rolling on a big ball.

Thoughts:

~ Special abilities make each character unique, but some of them seem unnecessary or useless. Father and Son have the ability to put on the brakes, but there are very few applications for this. Segwayman and Grocerylady both jump, which is useful in some places but it would be nice to see something else. Wheelchairman’s rocket boosters are truly unique, but not terribly useful. The best applications for these abilities are in player-made levels that are created with these abilities in mind.

Would Like:

• More official levels. Or alternatively, a “Featured Levels” list of the best player created levels on the main menu without having to go into the level browser.

• More characters. As mentioned in the negatives, it would be nice to see more characters with their own unique gimmicks.

Controller: Red Dead Redemption (TPS, PS3)

The controller layout in Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption is quite standard for a third-person shooter. Left analog stick moves your character around in the game world and the right stick aims the targeting reticule. For face keys, holding X makes your character run, while tapping it makes him sprint. While on a horse, tapping X will increase the speed of the horse and holding it keeps it at its current speed. Square is jump, or climb if you are near a climbable wall or object. Triangle mounts a nearby horse or vehicle, or dismounts if you are already mounted. Circle will reload your currently equipped weapon, or if you are walking around a town you will greet the nearest NPC. L1 opens a radial weapon selection menu that you navigate using the right stick and left and right directional pad buttons. Holding L2 allows you to fire your weapon or punch your foes by going into a zoomed in aiming mode. R1 will make your character move into cover if you are close enough, or if you are in melee combat you will block. While holding L2, R2 fires your equipped weapon or punches. If not aiming this button does nothing unless you are near an NPC, in which case you will push them. The left and right directional buttons, while aiming, change over which shoulder your view is. The up directional whistles for your horse, calling it to you. Menu controls are very standard: X select, circle back, and move with analog stick or d-pad.

While Red Dead’s controls may not bring anything new to the table, there is a certain amount of safety in their simplicity. Someone new to the game with at least a rudimentary grasp of the controller will be able to pick up this game and play. There are no obscure tricks or anything to figure out, like in a fighting game. It is nice to be able to play the game and not have to worry about what button or sequence of buttons you need to press to execute an action and it allows you to focus more on the game, the action, and the scenery. The latter of which is absolutely gorgeous in this game. One thing in particular that could be improved about Red Dead’s controls I the ‘tapping X to sprint’ function. It is sometimes difficult to tap X when the action is hot and you’re trying to maneuver through gunfire or tight quarters. It would be better if the full sprint were accessible by holding X instead of tapping. The reason that it is like this is because with no weapons out, a full press on the analog stick causes your character to walk, rather than run as it is in most games. While this helps to immerse you in the game while walking around the town, it detracts from the experience gameplay wise. A fix could be add in pressure sensitive walking. A full press on the stick would make the character run, like holding X does now. If you merely bumped the stick a little bit forward, your character would walk; a feature that is present in many of today’s console games. This would free up the hold X function to be the full sprint.

Overall, the controls in Red Dead Redemption are very smooth and work well within the game. Standard they may be, but it allows the player to focus on what matters: the game, not what buttons they need to push next.

Menu: GTAIV (TPS, PC)

Grand Theft Auto IV has a couple distinct menus: the pause menu and the cell phone, in-game interaction menu. Hitting the ESC button accesses the pause menu and this is where you can change graphics or audio settings along with a few gameplay settings.  By hitting the Up Arrow Key you can access the cell phone, which is the main character’s way of interacting with other characters in the game, as well as accessing the cheat menu.

 The pause menu has a clean layout with all the sub-menus in a row at the top of the screen. An interactive world map takes up the majority of the initial menu. You can place waypoints on it as well as see where certain points of interest are located. Characters with missions show up on this map as well, their location marked by an icon of the first letter of their name. You can zoom in and move the map around to get a more detailed look at streets or specific locations. When accessing the sub-menus, such as Graphics options, the map is replaced by these options. The chosen font type is easily readable and the menus are laid out in an easy-to-navigate way.

The cell phone menu is slightly more unique in that it does not pause the action at all and the character directly interacts it with it. The on-screen character slows to a walk and takes the cell phone out of his pocket. It is an interesting dose of immersion. From the cell phone menu you can coordinate dates with love interests, or get-togethers with friends in order to increase your status with them. The cell phone is also used for accepting missions from other characters. They will call you up and a conversation will take place, then you are given the option to accept or decline the mission. If certain missions are declined it will affect the outcome of other missions or remove the availability of certain missions. If you fail a mission, the cell phone allows you to retry it. A nice touch is the ability to call certain numbers on the phone to call in the police or an ambulance, or even a taxi. If you’re listening to the radio in a car, you can call a number and it will tell you the name of the current song. Cheats are also activated or disabled through the cell phone menu, and the unlocked of cheats is done by calling a number. The ring tone when being called or texted can also be changed on the cell phone.

The menu layout of GTA IV takes some strong features from standard menus and puts them together in a way that works out for the better and in particular, the cell phone menu creates a deeper sense of immersion than other games are able to accomplish with their menus. It would be interesting to see more games implement their menus into the gameplay, rather than be something totally separate.

Dominant Strategy: Killing Floor (FPS, Mac)

Killing Floor is an online cooperative first person shooter that places extreme emphasis on working together with your teammates in order to survive repeated waves of “specimens” (essentially zombies). There are 4 different difficulty types available: Easy, Normal, Hard, and Suicidal. Dominant Strategy is less applicable to the lower difficulties, but can come into play in Normal. For new players, either to FPS games in general or just to Killing Floor, will find Dominant Strategy necessary in Easy as well. The Dominant Strategy present in Killing Floor consists mainly of holding specific choke points, but there is also a certain amount of it placed in the starter weapon of all the perks, the 9mm handgun.

Choke points are available in most maps, but not all. There are often areas in which the team of players can hole themselves up in and funnel the specimens to them for easy killing. Often, this is the only way to survive some of the tougher waves. An invaluable tool the game gives players to aid in creating choke points is the Welding tool. With this players can weld doors shut, preventing specimens from coming through. The specimens will either find another route to the players or begin attacking the door. Either way, this helps the players control an otherwise impossible situation. If the players allow the door to break before they are prepared, it can end in disaster. Therefore, it is crucial for one or more of the team to keep an eye on the door and keep it welded throughout the onslaught of specimen.

The second Dominant Strategy revolves around the 9mm handgun given to all players at the start of the game. Similar to Halo, this handgun has a fantastic balance of damage and range, making it a powerful weapon in the hands of a skilled player despite its apparent weakness. It is particularly devastating in the hands of a high-level Sharpshooter, a perk focusing on pistols and longer-range weapons like the Crossbow. A Sharpshooter can rely almost entirely on the 9mm until later waves when more powerful specimens begin to appear. All perks, however, are given the 9mm when they spawn into a game and it is unable to be sold to the Trader, an NPC that appears between waves allowing players to restock on weapons, ammo, and body armor. In this way it is always available for players to fall back on if, for whatever reason, they use up their primary weapon’s ammunition. The 9mm does not do very much damage when making body shots but headshots are lethal even on higher difficulties. While the 9mm is a very valuable tool, it is not to be used exclusively, as it does not carry the firepower to deal with the stronger specimens present in the later waves. Thus, it is always beneficial to carry another, more powerful weapon suiting your perk of choice.

The use of dominant strategy and teamwork is very prevalent in Killing Floor. On some levels it is nearly certain death to ignore the use of choke points and it is never a good idea to run off from the group and try to solo your way through the map. It is a very different playstyle from other online first-person shooters on the market today, where it is fine to Rambo your way through a level and ignore your team mates or choke points.

Game Balance/Ramping: Killing Floor (FPS, Mac)

Killing Floor is also an excellent example for ramping difficulties and game balance. The game is balanced for 1-6 players to work cooperatively towards surviving multiple waves of specimens. In order for 1 player to not become overwhelmed when playing solo, or 6 players to not become bored when playing together, the game has in place a ramping system that, based on the amount of players, modifies the amount of specimens present in a wave. This number also increases or decreases based on the chosen difficulty level. Easy players playing solo may find themselves facing 10-20 specimens on solo, whereas 6 people playing Suicidal might find themselves against 60 more specimens on the first wave. As difficulty is increased, so is increased the health and damage of the specimens. So not only are they greater in number but they take more firepower to go down.

The game’s difficulty levels go hand in hand with the leveling of a player’s perks. As you play with certain weapons or do certain things specific to each perk, you will begin to level that perk up. For instance, to level Sharpshooter you must make headshots with the pistols or long-range weapons in the game (Crossbow and M14). To get from level 0 to 1 you must make 30 headshots, but to get from level 4 to 5 you must make 5500 headshots. As each perk levels up you gain increases efficiency and damage with that perk. The Sharpshooter will gain increased damage and lower reload speed, along with decreased cost of the weapons associated with that perk at the Trader. Due to the way damage scales with the perks, a high level player in an Easy or Normal server can completely trivialize the difficulty. Specimen health and damage amounts in Easy are balanced for players of level 0-2 and it ramps up to the point where level 5 and 6 players have difficulty completing Suicidal difficulty. Of course, player skill also plays into this, and so if someone were incredibly skilled or a good team player, a low level player might be able to make it through a Suicidal or Hard server. However, often they will just be a burden because their presence increases the amount of specimens in a wave and if they die that means the other player have to deal with more specimens with a decreased team count.

The game balance and ramping difficulty of Killing Floor is extremely well implemented. There probably needs to be some more work done on the power of certain weapons/perks, either in increasing or decreasing amounts, but altogether it all works very nicely together. Each perk has a very defined role, but it doesn’t prevent them from performing other roles.

Random Game Choice: The Settlers 6 (RTS, PC)

Positives:

+ Lack of combat focus. Most missions have a certain element of combat in them, but the focus is very much on creating a living, breathing settlement.

+ Creative, cartoony look of the game feels nice and clean. Realistic enough, but with elements of fantasy makes it seem like you’re playing in a medieval picture book.

+ Varied mission structure. Each mission has specific objectives required to complete, and each one is different. Some mission require you to trade with allies, or even gather goods with the direct objective of giving them to your allies. Other missions require you to build up an army and assault an enemy base.

Negatives:

-       Obtrusive UI. The ability to hide the majority of the UI helps this, but oftentimes the information present in the UI is necessary to have on hand. It would be nice to see the UI scaled down a bit, with perhaps more transparent elements. The artistic style is nice, but unnecessary.

-       Choice of Knight seems arbitrary. The 6 Knights available to choose form at the start of a mission each have their own abilities, but none of them seem necessary. The mission often suggests a Knight at the start and often that is the best to choose from. It is not clear whether the Knight choice has any impact on how the mission plays out. More description in this area would be nice to have within the game.

Thoughts:

~ Having most units unable to be directly controlled gives the player a more omnipotent presence. This allows the player to focus more on building placement or creating a good flow of workers from one place to another. Exploring is easier to do when you don’t have to focus on controlling every unit’s actions.

Would Like:

• Diplomatic solutions to some, if not all, missions. With the games lack of focus on combat it would be nice to see the missions able to be completed without engaging in combat.

TV Show: Psych

Positives:

+ Great cast of likeable characters. The actors all mesh very well and that is evident in the character interactions. It all feels very real.

+ Shawn and Gus, the main characters, have a fantastic dynamic. They constantly play off of each other in humorous ways.

+ Excellent comedy. Every episode, even when the characters are dealing with serious subjects, has laughs thrown in. Despite the show focusing on comedy, it also has a very good plot and each episode is more than just laughs.

+ Individual episodes have unique plots. Each episode is something different. Which is great. Often, comedies will end up rehashing ideas but this one stays fresh with each new episode.

+ All main, recurring characters are explored and explained.  Even the secondary main characters have distinct personalities and throughout the episodes you are given glimpses into their personality and past. Makes them seem real and the relationships between all the characters can be more dynamic.

Negatives:

-       Shawn’s major romantic interest not explored enough. Relationship begins, progresses too fast ‘behind-the-scenes’, and then ends abruptly. Should have been better explored and explained, either on-screen or implied, not just thrown in your face.

-       Individual episodes have excellent plots, but there is rarely an over-arching plot line. In later seasons there is a semblance of one, but earlier seasons have no episode-bridging plot to speak of.

Thoughts:

~ Shawn’s character doesn’t necessarily grow past his initial characterization. He is always a happy-go-lucky guy that cracks jokes throughout all the seasons. Even after getting into tough situations, it doesn’t really progress his character.

~ ‘Breaking of the 4^th wall’. Often the characters will reference other TV shows or say certain things that break the walls between the viewers and the characters. It can be disastrous for some shows or movie, but Psych makes it work.

Would Like:

• An overarching plot. It would be nice to have some recurring plot that would keep everything tied together. The characters themselves tie the show together to a certain extent, but the show really needs to have something that ties everything together.

• Supporting characters should have some love interests that stick around. Shawn has Juliet that is always there, but seemingly out of reach. It would be interesting to see one of the supporting characters to perhaps ‘get the girl’ and create another dynamic within the group of characters.

Movie: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Positives:

+ Good characters, good actors. Johnny Depp puts on a stellar performance; it makes you wonder if he was actually on drugs for the 2 hours of screentime.

+ Memorable lines. Lines such as “We can’t stop here, this is bat country” stay in your mind after watching the movie.

+ Good humor. Many funny scenes had the characters playing off of each other.

Negatives:

-       Story was hard to keep track of. The movie seemed like 2 hours of watching two guys hopped up on a myriad of different drugs with very little plot focus.

-       Forgettable supporting characters. There were few recurring characters and none of them really stood out. Very little was added to the plot with their appearance, such that they felt unnecessary.

Thoughts:

~ There were some nice special effects and some very creative, drug-induced scenes. However, the seeming lack of a plot detracted from the overall experience. Often the viewer is left thinking, “Why am I seeing this?”

Would Like:

• A more obvious plot line. At the beginning of the movie it seems like the main characters are going to Vegas posed as reporters in order to find a man and kill him. However, at the end of the film it is revealed that Johnny Depp’s character was just writing an article for a magazine the whole time. The bulk of the movie did very little the support either of these plot lines.

High Rated: Assassin’s Creed 2 (Action, PS3)

Positives:

+ Took the original game and kept everything good about it, but added enough new features to differentiate it. The original Assassin’s Creed had a lot of amazingly unique features, and the second game was able to take those and expand upon them to create an excellent sequel.

+ Cool assassination gameplay focus. The ability to sneak around the rooftops and leap upon unsuspecting victims is something that isn’t seen in many games. It’s also neat to be able to walk among the townsfolk and silently dispatch of guards or an assassination target without being caught.

+ Excellent free-roam parkour implementation. The main character’s ability to climb nearly any surface and run along rooftops, diving across streets, and swimming through canals is gives you an incredible sense of freedom that other games have a hard time giving to the player.

+ ‘Conspiracy’ plot line. The whole plot between the Assassins and the Templars is amazing. It is drenched in secrecy and years of history and it is a truly great story. It was touched on in the first game and the second game further reveals more of what is really going on. All the ties back to famous figures in history are written in a way that makes you almost believe that it could be real.

Negatives:

-       Limited replayability. As fun as it is to run around the gorgeous cities and scenery of the game, once you’ve collected all the secrets in the game there’s really no reason to play it anymore.

-       Combat is simplistic. Better than the first game, Assassin’s Creed 2 still suffers from a few problems in combat. Often it is a perfectly viable strategy to stay in a parry-stance while facing a swarm of guards and only attack when able to counter. While parrying it is nearly impossible to be hit and counters are almost always a one-shot kill.

Thoughts:

~ Collection of secrets is interesting. There are two main secret collections to complete in Assassin’s Creed 2. The first being collecting feathers for your mother and the second finding hidden runes throughout the many cities in the game. The feathers are also hidden across the cities and landscapes and upon completion you are given a cape that when worn in any of the cities makes the guards attack you on sight. It is helpful I completing a few of the achievements in the game. The runes, on the other hand, give you further insight into the story. Each rune contains a riddle and once that riddle is solved a video clip is played that helps to unveil more of the mystery behind the story.

Would Like:

• More replayability. Taking a page from Red Dead Redemption’s book, dynamic events are a great way to add replayability to a game because you never know what you might find. In further installments of the Assassin’s Creed franchise it would be nice to see something along those lines thrown in. The massive cities are the perfect setting for random events.