Final Studies Project Proposal

I think for my final studies project I want to do some research on female gamers. I really want to take a look around for female critics and see what games they are interested in and what games they are playing. I also want to take this further and look at a few games for the Playstation, the Nintendo Wii, the X-BOX 360 and even the Nintendo DS, and see how many games I can find that have female characters as their main characters, compared to the male character dominance. To take that study just a little bit further I thought that I would then look at the games that have a female as the main character and see what the rating is, because I have a feeling that most of those games are for children rather then directed toward the adult female gamer. I am interested to find out what the gamers are thinking and if they have the same opinions as I do, that the gaming world is too controlled by male dominance.

City of Heroes Comment

When I started reading Myers’ article I was really shocked. My brother is always playing those online role playing games with other people. How can someone be so mean? I sympathize with Myers. He was only playing the game how it is supposed to be played. There in the rules for the game the good heroes are supposed to defeat the villains. To me, that concept sounds simple. I do not understand why everyone does not like him for playing the game. If the players decide that they do not want their characters killing the opposing side then why even play? Plus, if they are so moral to not kill other characters on the game, then why are some threatening to kill Myers or wish bad things on his family? To me that sounds a little hypocritical. I found myself getting mad at the other characters or players in the game. Why would someone think that is ok to say to someone?
Another thing that I thought while I was reading this article was, the characters, because they were being so mean and crude, had to be teenage boys, who sit at home all evening and play this game and have nothing better to do, that were mad because there was someone out there that was better then they are. When I read that the average gamer age was 24 I was shocked. The statistics kept going which made me more shocked. Many of these people had jobs and only 2% is unemployed. That is a pretty good ratio, considering the economy we are in. But it still shocked me. Why are these adults saying these things?
My question took me back to my past with chats. When I was in junior high, the cool thing to do was chat to people online. My mother did not like it very much and she always said to me, “you never know who is on the other end.” I stopped after that comment form her. I figured out that she was right and I did not want to get into more trouble. I then got into chatting with my friends on an instant messenger. I can remember getting into arguments about little things, and my mother again had words of wisdom for that also. She never liked that I would instant message my friends because we would always end up in a fight. She would say, “Why do you think this is fun, you do not know if the person on the other end means it, and most of the things you say when you are arguing, you would never say to their face so don’t say it online.”
This got me thinking about this article. Most of these people are probably saying these things but they would never do these things in real life. There might be some online that would, but in general, I do not think that most people would really “wish your mother gets cancer,” or even, “find you and kill you.” Still these comments would scare me quite a bit.

Uncharted 2: Among Theives

I have to admit, after I purchased “Uncharted 2: Among Thieves” from my local store, I was a bit wary that I may have just wasted sixty bucks. I never played the first one, “Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune,” but from what I’ve been told, I know that it’s basically a mediocre Indiana Jones rip-off with pretty graphics. But I had heard good things about the second installment, so I decided to give it a shot. Good news is, it was completely worth the buy.
Let’s start out with the story. You play Nathan Drake, a treasure hunter and thief extraordinaire, with a witty personality and enough firepower to make John McClane from “Die Hard” blush with envy. He gets hired by an old friend to steal a lamp from a certain museum that may house the secrets to a lost fleet, belonging to Marco Polo, which was carrying a huge load of treasure from Kublai Khan, and suddenly vanished off the coast of Borneo. Nate is intrigued and agrees to help, only to be (kind of predictably, really) double-crossed by his friend, thus beginning a quest to find the treasure before the bad-guys.
But that’s not when we first meet Nate. Oh no, the game is actually a flashback, for the most part, and the beginning starts with Nathan climbing up a train that is about to fall off a cliff. And no, that isn’t a cutscene, either. You play every second of it, climbing for your life as pieces of the train fall off and break. Most of the game-play revolves around moments like this, where something incredibly exciting, and amazing to behold, is going on and you’re forced to continue climbing/shooting/running until its over, and I found my heart racing like it would if I were watching an action-packed movie. It’s an absolute blast.
Another aspect of the game is the gunfights. They’re large in scale, and the aiming and hand-to-hand fighting is smooth, which makes each firefight seem like a scene from an Indiana Jones movie, which I’m a huge fan of, so it’s awesome. The game keeps a T for Teen rating, so the blood is light, but that adds a bit to the style, focusing more on the acrobatics and the actually fighting, rather than how much gore is spewing out of a dude’s bullet wound.
Of course, all of this is assisted by the graphics-engine, which can be described by three words; “Holy Crap,” and “Awesome.” They are probably the best I’ve seen on the Playstation 3, with textures that look incredibly real and people who, while they have pixelly edges at times, look, move, and act as if they were actually alive. This all adds to the action scenes, making moments, like climbing up the train, so engaging and eye-catching that you can’t help but be dragged in. Also, when one of the ladies in the game kisses Nate, their lips actually pucker into a realistic kiss. I know that’s a weird thing to notice, but in most games when characters kiss each other, it reminds me of a little girl that’s pressing her Barbie-dolls’ lips together to fake a kiss, with a plastic “clunk.”
In conclusion, “Uncharted 2: Among Thieves” is a fantastic game, and though I never played the original, if people say it was mediocre, than number two really makes up for it. It packs great graphics, great platforming, and a story that I really wish the new Indiana Jones movies would have had (maybe it wouldn’t have sucked then). The game isn’t that long, maybe only about six hours, but I loved every second of it and actually plan on going back for more.

Game Review 2 Kingdom Hearts 358/2

The game I decided to review this time was Kingdom Hearts 358/2 for the Nintendo DS. I am a big Kingdom Hearts fan and when this game came out I was really excited because I like playing them. The first two games Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2, I thought were really good games. The action and interaction was really fun. The games would show you characters that you remember from childhood since most of the characters and worlds you travel to, are from Disney. The rest of the characters are a mixture of Final Fantasy characters. This game takes a different approach.
In this game, it takes place between the first and second Kingdom Hearts. Sora the main character from the first and second is now a Nobody named Roxas, and is in Organization 13. Roxas doe not know what is going on or who he is, and finds out throughout the game that he is important to the Organization because he can collect hearts for Kingdom Hearts. The goal of the Organization is to collect hearts from Heartless to open Kingdom Hearts and ultimately get hearts for themselves, because as Nobodies they do not have hearts. The only way hearts can be collected are from those who have a keyblade, which is only Roxas and Xion. The game goes through many of the Disney worlds that are in the first and second ones and you see characters, but are not able to talk to them, because the Organization wants you to keep a low profile.
The game sends you on all kinds of missions that test how well you are performing in the game and these missions are to the Disney worlds. Most of them being, fighting heartless, or collecting information about the worlds you travel to. Like I said before, you see many of the characters that you befriended in the first and second games but are not allowed to talk to them. This is a little hard because in the other games when you befriended them you got to fight with them, and they made the story line fun and exciting. Some of the worlds you get to travel to are; Agrabah from Alladin, The Beast’s Castle from Beauty and the Beast, Halloweentown from A Nightmare Before Christmas, and Wonderland form Alice In Wonderland. This of course is only a few worlds there are a few more.
The story line was what made the game for me. From the first game to the second game there are a lot of questions that I found myself asking and when I started playing this game I realized that some of those questions were going to be answered. In the first game you end as Sora, but in the second game you start as Roxas. What happened in between that caused this shift? And who is Roxas? You find out who Roxas is in the second one, but not for a while. I wanted to know more about what happened when he was Roxas and this game does exactly that. Plus I am a big kid at heart and still love my Disney movies, so to see Disney characters being incorporated into big name games is exciting for me, because I love all of them.
Another reason the game was a good choice was the graphics. For being a game on the DS with such a small screen I wasn’t too sure how the graphics were going to be, but I was greatly surprised. The graphic for this game I felt held up to the other from Playstation 2. They had bright vibrant colors and the action scenes were done very well. The only thing I was disappointed about were the characters faces while they were talking. The lips never moved just the head in general would move to show their mood. So if they were sad, if you looked carefully their lips were still in a smile. If you wanted to see their emotion you had to pay attention to their faces on the dialogue boxes. That showed how they were feeling, whether happy, sad, surprised, so on. This was just a small detail and I did not let it bother me too much, because I did not think that was a reason to say it is a bad game.
The sounds tie into the last comment I made. Most of the talking is done in dialogue boxes which I found a little disappointing. I like to hear the characters voices but there are only a couple cut scenes that the characters actually talk to each other, the rest of the game you have to read what they are saying. That got a little annoying because I did not want to read anymore. The other sounds were pretty good. The music for each world was different for everything. The general music would change whenever there was an enemy around so you would know to keep a look out. But like I said, in each world the music changed a little bit to give that worlds’ sound to it.
For being a DS game I barely used the touch screen. This was fine with me because some fighting games are very hard to play on the touch screen. The only use the touch screen gave in this game was to turn the view of the character around. Which I found I could use select also and I used that most often. I like the touch screen for some games but it was not necessary at all in this game. Most of the game it held the room map, which came in handy to find a way out of the room.
In all, I enjoyed this game and would recommend it to anyone who liked the Kingdom Hearts game. It answers a lot of questions that I had so I am assuming there are others that had some of the same questions after playing the second game. Plus the story line is fun, the graphic are good and the sounds are pretty good. This was an interesting game and a fun one at that.

New Games Journalism

I feel that new game journalism should definitely be about the experience the game brought on for you, rather then a ranting session about the game in general. When I look at articles about games I really want to see how the player felt while they were playing the game. To me that sounds more interesting to read then someone carrying on about the levels and how terrible the game was without explanation of why they felt that way. I do this when I am going to buy a new game. My brother will look up articles on games that we are going to buy and see what people are saying about them. He will take me to websites that are full of people blogging about games. I can’t tell you how many I have read for two minutes and had to stop because I couldn’t take the way they were explaining the game. I felt like they were giving me a walkthrough. It was frustrating and still is. Just recently when I went and bought a game for our coming up review I wanted to look and see how other people were enjoying the game first. I went and looked up the new Kingdom Hearts 358/2. I read so many people saying how much better it was then the last game that came out and that was all they said. Or they gave me the synopsis of the game. If I wanted to read the synopsis I would have went to the website and read it. But I also found myself asking why these people just said it was so much better then the last. I went and bought the game and I can say that it is a lot better, but that is in another blog. I wanted more from the people that just said the game was better. I didn’t have a long time to look hard for the feelings on the game. I finally found one that gave me a little insight of how he felt while playing it and I was relived. His comments were good so I went and bought the game, which some of you will read my review on Thursday. Bringing this together, I do feel that it is very important when writing a new game journal the author really needs to make sure they are writing what the people want to read, not what he or she wants to just get off their chest.

Review #1 Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

For my first review I chose Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. I am a big fan of the books and I played the fifth game and loved it so I decided to do my review on the newest game. I know what you are thinking. Harry Potter, how is this going to be a good review, but I am not a fan of the most popular games out right now, and I can actually play this game and be good at it.
The events in this game are pretty easy to explain. Anyone who saw the movie is going to feel like this part is the synopsis for the movie. You begin the game at the Burrow, which is the Weasley’s home. All you do here is help out with chores and practice your flying skills. Flying on a broom, playing Quidditch is one of the main game plays of this game. So while you are at the Weasley’s home you begin to fly on your broom, trying to catch the snitch. After you play this and succeed it is time to go to school. You get into a fight with Draco Malfoy who wins and breaks your nose and cast a spell to keep you from moving. A friend, Luna Lovegood, finds you and walks with you up to Hogwarts Castle. On the way you are learning how to gain points for the entire game. Next you go to Potions class, which I found rather fun, because you finally get to create potions. I have wanted one of the Harry Potter games to let us make potions in class and finally they did with the sixth game. Harry was never good at potions, and he borrows a book, from the professor that has notes in it about easier ways to make potions. It says that is belonged to the “Half Blood Prince.” Harry tries these hints and he makes a potion perfectly. This is the point where Harry gets liquid luck. You then get to learn how to duel with other students. This part teaches you spells, to help you fight and defend yourself. With each new dueling level you learn a new spell. We find out that each house has their own Dueling club and you are invited to fight each of them. After you win your dueling match with your own team, you are summoned to meet with the Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore. He tells you that he will be calling on you every once in a while during the school year for private lessons, to teach you about your enemy, which is Lord Voldemort. In this first lesson you see a memory that Dumbledore had about the first time he met Lord Voldemort, or at the time Tom Riddle. He was in an orphanage and was the bully and outcast, because he could make things happen with his mind. Dumbledore then asks him if he would want to come to a school full of children exactly like him. After the memory you get to go play quidditch with your team for tryouts. After a cut scene you are able to try your skills at the Hogwarts Quidditch Pitch. Then you are able to join the Potions Club, which is located in the Greenhouses. The potions club is fun because the more potions you make correctly the more you unlock. I had all of them unlocked by the end. You then have to go back and play quidditch against another house, Slytherin. This is your rival house. Throughout this game your enemy at school, Draco Malfoy, is seen sneaking around the castle. Your character, Harry, suspects him of doing something wrong and no one wants to believe you. So you end up following him a few times but can never figure out what he is doing. Dumbledore summons you again and shows you another memory. This time Tom Riddle is a teenager and is talking to your current potions teacher, Slughorn. Tom is asking about Horcruxes, and Slughorn has altered the memory so that we can’t see what he has said about them. Dumbledore asks you to try and find out what he really said. Next you go and play more quidditch against Hufflepuff. You have to win all these quidditch matches or the game will not move on to the next level. Finally you get Slughorn’s memory and return to Dumbledore with it. Then you have to go back and play another, and the last game of quidditch with Ravenclaw, they tell you if you win this match you win the Quidditch Cup. Well you have to win. Dumbledore then takes you to a cave that is possible holding one of the Horcruxes, which we find out is part of Voldemort’s soul. This cave is dark and spooky. There is a lake that looks like glass, and as they are floating across the lake in a boat you can see that there are bodies, thousands of them, in the lake. Dumbledore ends up drinking a potion that weakens him and Harry, you, have to fight off these bodies that are now coming out of the lake. Dumbledore somehow finds the strength to fight with you and you both return to Hogwarts. We then find out what Draco has been up to. He has been fixing a closet that can transport people between two, and he was given the task to kill Dumbledore. He gets four others from the evil side, Death Eaters, to come to Hogwarts and help him in his task. Dumbledore ends up getting killed by Professor Snape. You run after them as they are trying to escape, and Snape tells you that he was the Half Blood Prince. He stuns you and gets away. This is pretty much how the game ends. You can still walk around the castle collecting points, but this ends the story line.

In all, I did not like this game. I felt like the game followed the movie very well, but I felt like the story line was a little boring. I know this book inside out, and there were key points that I thought they missed. I said the same thing about the movie. Plus, this game was supposed to be released last year, November. They postponed the movie, so they also postponed the game, for about eight months. I felt that they had another eight months to improve things on the game and they did not. It was a fun game to play, but for Harry Potter, it was not good enough for me.

Video games as art

My brother and I just had this conversation this weekend. We were talking about how we feel about video games being considered an art form. We both agree that they are. So I decided that my brother and my conversation from this weekend would be a good posting. My brother and I were talking about some different games that really could be looked at as an art and some reasons. The first one that we were talking about was the Fall Out series. We said it was a very artistic view of what the future could look like if nuclear warfare is continued to be used. Also, the first two being based in California makes it seem close to home. Another game we talking about or a mix of games are the Guitar Hero and Rock Band games. It takes the art form of music to another level. With these games older rock songs are being played and sung by the game players. Also, they add in some songs that are not well known among the population and these bands get more publicity and gain popularity. So in the end these games are actually promoting music. My brother talked about a game that I have never heard of before. It is called Little Big Planet. He told me that this game lets you create your own levels and characters and then log in online and play them. I thought this was very interesting because I had never heard about a game like this that enabled you to create a level that you create. The last game that we discussed was Star Wars Night of the Old Republic. My brother brought up the fact that some people have said that the story line of the game is better than the movies. I told him that this was impossible. Star Wars being so advanced for its time and is still some of the best movies created. As you can tell I am a big Star Wars fan. One other thing that we brought up was just the basic fact of that many games now let you have the capability to create your own character to make it look very close to the way you look or just how you want it to work. So in general, are video games a form of art? I feel so.