LO3 Game Review: Assassin's Creed 2

LO2 Game Reviews of Day Z Comparison Analysis

Written Review

Reference: Edge Magazine #264th issue (March 2014)

The reviewer, Edge Magazine talks about the Standalone game Day Z.

The genre is said to be a survival mod of a game called 'Arma II' which as a military simulator, and is now turning from a mod to a standalone game.

The reviewer doesn't talk about the target audience but if there is any conciliation to the creator, Dean Hall, the target audience are fans of the outdoors.

There isn't much of a description of the narrative what the magazine makes, but they do say that the goal of the game is to survive and that the setting is a post-apocalyptic world that's full of zombies.

They have said that the characters in the game are either you or another person online, and that the character is effected by environmental and physical torment as you can be killed by other players and zombies, plus you are effected by having wet clothes which can give you a cold or fall damage, finally they also say that you as the character become more monstrous as you play and less trusting.

Gameplay is mentioned quite a bit in the review as it's all you do in the game as there is no cut scenes or anything and so you play the game all the time, because it is a survival game the mechanics are very realistic and create realism in the game as you can be handcuffed, drink water or even break your leg which can be fixed by morphine.

This game is only played on one platform, which is PC, as it's mentioned at the very start in which the magazine has a bubble that contains the name, publisher, developer, format/platform, origin and release date.

My personal recommendation for this reviewer is that it takes it seriously and that the people who write the review actually enjoy the games they play and give an honest review, there is sometimes some humour in the review too.

Video Review

Reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiNSuilPHTs (Monday 21st September 2015 at 12:10PM)

The reviewer Kevin Vanord (GameSpot) says that the game is a successful survival simulator as it has all the conventions of the genre and it also goes deep into those aspects such as eating rotten fruit can make your character ill.

Like the Edge magazine review the target audience isn't spoken about in the video.

Once again the narrative is said to survive as long as you can by collecting resources.

The characters are roughly explained as the reviewer basically says the same as Edge magazine but with less detail as he says that the other players/characters can betray you as they make you think that they are a friend but then lead you into an ambush, I think he means that the character can be whoever you want it to be, an ally who helps you or a bandit who try to kill you.

The reviewer mainly talks about the gameplay as he probably goes into more depth about the bugs (As it is an Alpha) and stuff you can do, than what Edge Magazine did.

Once again the platform is PC and is explained by a mini title at the start of the video just like Edge Magazine.

My personal recommendation of this video review is that it can be humorous at times which can be good as it means that I would likely be able to remember it. But he does go into more detail about the gameplay than the other subjects as this game is nearly all focused on the gameplay as there is no need for narrative as it's a simulator.

Comparison

They both agree that it's a successful Survival simulator genre type game and that it has the conventions of the genre, such as real life scenarios that can affect your character., They both haven't mentioned anything about the target audience, probably because whoever reads or watches the review are the target audience themselves. The narrative is obviously the same as it's the same game, unless is was choice game where your decisions mattered, in a way Day Z is this because it's a simulator so everyone is going to play it differently. The reviewers both say that the other players can betray you, or make friends with you. They both mention that the game has bugs as it's in alpha and hasn't been fully developed and is still being updated with bug fixes and new things. They both didn't give a score out of numbers or rating but did give their own recommendation in words.

LO1 Game Analysis of Forza 6

(Xbox One)

Forza Motorsport 6 is a single and multiplayer racing game. It shows conventions of a racing game as you can choose a car from a wide variety of selection, you can also choose from a variety of tracks, you can upgrade and improve your car so it performs better in races and it also includes multiplayer, like most racing games, such as; Mario Kart, Gran Turismo and Need for Speed: Carbon, which allow you to race with friends. So this racing game is similar to other release with the same genre as you can't do anything very initiative with realistic racing games like this and Gran Turismo, but on the other hand a racing game like Mario Kart could do lots of things different because it isn't realistic whilst Forza is and needs to stick to the rules of real races.

The stories for racing games are very simple as it is the career of your driver, which is technically you, the player. The story is informed by gameplay because the gameplay is the story itself, as you progress through your career as a driver. The only other possible characters who, apart from yourself, are the other drivers, this can be either another player, or a bot. Either way you would most likely feel anger towards them as you are trying to beat them and win the race and so will them and so this can cause frustration when they are overtaking or crashing into you and so makes you angry. The story connects with the audience as the target audience is most likely racer wanna-be's and so creating a realistic experience with the career mode is a very immersive experience for the target audience.

Forza Motorsport 6 was developed on the DX12 Unreal engine 4 or also known as the Forzatech engine by Turn 10 Studios and was released in September 2015 and was fist revealed in January 2015 at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. the new engine allows higher graphics than the last game and also includes wet-weather racing which means that when it rains it effects the cars by making them lose traction and control of their car, even before this was added the games handling of the cars was almost perfect and realistic which gave the game an immersive experience for the target audience who love cars and want a good experience. They even went into so much detail, the designers visited the real tracks from the game to see where actual puddles formed which gave the game a touch of hazard and consequences. Turn 10 Studios also included commentary in the game to make the race feel like it's been watched, especially by partnering with BBC and would include commentary from James May and Richard Hammond, two presenters from the car show 'Top Gear' and also a previously used Digital cousin of the Stig from Forza 5 and also the test track from the show.

The characters in Forza 6's case is the cars as they are really the only thing you interact with, either A.I. or real. This means they are relevant to the audience because the audience are most likely into cars, otherwise they would of brought this game, and so with so many cars, more than 450 cars to choose from, the audience can upgrade and improve everyone of them. The characterisation of this racing game is the same to most of todays racing games like Mario Kart and Gran Turismo 5 as these let you customise the cars too. The characters are quite strong in the sense of that they feel more real and human with a drivatar algorithm which makes the other cars feel more challenging.

Their are 2 challenges in the game, the other racers and the track. The other drivers can either be real, with the power of multiplayer, you can verse other people and then their are the bots which can either be very realistic, like the drivatar, or it can look like it is a computer. Then with their being more than 30 various tracks in the game, each track is different with challenges to your skills as a driver, such as; weather conditions, turns and hills which can mess up your race if you don't drive properly. Each tracks have their own difficulties and doesn't have a variety of challenges concerning the other drivers as  the only thing they can only crash into you and overtake you. The main successes of  Forza 6 with it's gameplay is the realism of the car's looks and performance alike, as this created an immersible experience for the audience and is quite different to most racing games today that don't have the compared graphics and performance of the cars.

The target audience can be for anyone as young as 7 as it doesn't feature anything offensive or violent and so it suitable for that age, it would be lower if the game was easier to handle as the performance of the cars are outstanding and so you need skill to drive them and so would be hard for people younger than 7 to control. The gender can be for both genders as race car drivers are an occupation that can fit both and seen as Forza 6 is almost a perfect simulator of that it makes sense that both genders would want to buy this game. You can tell this game appears to that target audience because they made the gameplay as realistic to actual races as possible, so they can make it immersive to the audience. Forza is very similar to most of the other games aiming at the same target audience.

Finally, Forza MotorSport 6 was released and is a XBox One exclusive, meaning that it only works for the XBox One as it it is made for it, this is shown by example with the fact that the controller is made to vibrate with certain movements of the car in game, like turning a corner sharply with cause the remote to vibrate excessively.

LO1 Game Analysis of Just Cause 3

(PC)

Just Cause 3 is a single player, 3rd person shooter, open world action-adventure game. It shows conventions of its genre, such as; Free roam, gun play, a plot and mission objectives. It sits within the genre as a unique title as its series has always been know for action, guns and explosions, it also introduces a new game mechanic by using a grappling hook, a gliding suit and parachute all used to get around the map and to use in combat.

The story of the game follows several years after the events of the second game, where the main character Rico Rodriguez, returns to his homeland Medici (Fictional Location) now under a dictators control, and Rico, with the help of his friends, will liberate the islands by conquering the soldiers who have taken control of areas through out the map. The story is informed by the gameplay as the way you progress is by using your tools, including vehicles, grappling hooks and explosives to destroy propaganda around the map. The characters are quite strong in personality in the narrative, but the game focuses more on the action than story, and your approach to the main character, Rico, is that he is a soldier built for action as shown by the gameplay too, the other characters aren't as strong in personality than Rico, other than Mario, Rico's friend, who we get shown some personality as we see the bond between the two as friends. For example, Mario nearly gets killed in a part of the game and you must go and collect the resources needed to help him survive.

The game was developed by Avalanche Studio on the Avalanche engine, beginning in 2012, which the company was also developing the 'Mad Max' game alongside it, with 75 members on the team developing it. The game had a few helping hands from other development companies, such as Criterion Games helping with the car handling in the game, as they are well noted for developing the game series 'Burn Out'. The game also had some inspired mechanics like the asynchronous multiplayer, which is a type of leader board mechanic, trying to beat other players scores, this mechanic was inspired by games like 'Forza Horizon 2'. Another mechanic is the destructive mechanic, which like 'Red Faction', lets you destroy most parts of the environment and this led to a smooth game, where the destruction you cause feels like you actually did something. The developers also went out and took pictures of actual Mediterranean islands, especially Morocco and the southern area, to create an immersive game world.

The main character, Rico, is quite relevant to the target audience as he represents the inner child, of the mainly male target audience, because kids around 8 to 10 year olds typically like action and explosions, and to live through that would be cool to them. Even at the older age of  target audience age of 18, you would love action, and this makes him relevant to them as you can play through those scenario's and because it's free roam, you can do anything. The character does fit into the conventions of the action-adventure genre as the usual characterisation of the characters are weapons and upgrades which you unlock through missions.

Their is a variety of challenges in the game, which gives you hours of gameplay, these are things like NPC enemies, Propaganda and the actual landscape and environment. The enemies don't have much variation as they are all pretty much the same, the only thing that raises the difficulty are the vehicles and weapons they use. The next challenge is propaganda, which you have to get rid of to liberate an area, which lets you unlock things and get ally NPCs to fight with you in that area, their is a variation of the propaganda, such as; Billboards, Statues of the dictator and enemy bases. Finally, there is the environment, and this is mainly a challenge when your gliding with your wing suit or parachute, it can also be a danger when fighting enemies as their is a destruction mechanic which destroys the place around you, and you can get hurt by falling buildings and exploding cars. The reason this game has such good success, is because of it's predecessors and the main feature, destruction. No other game can have the same magnitude of destruction as Just Cause 3, especially with the size of the games world, this is also the reason it's unique to other games with the same genre, even though it may borrow some idea's from previous games. The game evolves around unlocking new weapons and tools like turbo jet explosive and rocket launchers, which makes it easier to kill harder enemies later in the game.

 The target audience for Just Cause 3 is an average of 18+ years old, and typically males, as it contains a lot of violence which would be unsuitable for younger ages and violence may not appeal to the female audience.

Finally, the game is released on the current generation consoles, PS4 and Xbox One, but also the PC. The game is more suited to PC as the controlling of the character is easy to do, it looks better with a higher graphical quality with a more stable frame rate, compared to the restricted console releases but their may be future updates for it will make it more stable on the consoles.

LO1 Game Analysis of Borderlands 2

(PS3)

'Borderlands 2' is a 1st person shooter sci-fi with role playing aspects, it shows this by including some of the conventions including; Skill trees, perks, buffs and weapons. It is unique to most other titles with the same genre as it introduces ranks as well as levels, the ranks give you tokens which you can use to unlock permanent stats for all the characters you make and unlike most RPG's its 1st person instead of the typical 3rd person.

The story being told through the game is that you're a vault hunter and the antagonist (Handsome Jack) wants you and all the bandits on the planet "Pandora" dead so he can start it anew, to do this he wants to unlock and control "The Warrior", a mysterious guardian of one of the vaults (A main part in the game series), so that he can rid the planet of bandits. The antagonist "Handsome Jack" is represented as a bad guy through out the game, even though his intentions are good and that he believes that he's the hero of the game's story, but soon enough you begin to hate him after he kills your friends and leads to you to killing his own daughter.

The game was developed by Gearbox Software, it was tested and ran on "Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3", it was created using he development tool and integrated with many middleware technologies through the engines partner program which could create realistic animations, inventive audio and amazing terrains. The game was released in September 2012.

The characters in the game are relevant to the target audience by how they play, if they like to get up close and personal to the enemies, they'd most likely pick the assassin class in the game, but if they like to use guns, then they'd go for the gunzerker class. The characterisation fits the convention of the genre because of the different skills the classes can have and the perks given to you by weapons and armour (Known as shields in the game). You don't have a strong feeling towards your character but definitely more towards the other main characters, for example you don't talk much, but when you see and hear Handsome Jack he talks a lot, especially throughout the game, he becomes more annoyed by you and you can hear him get angrier, which is character development.

There are many challenges presented in the game, the main challenges are the enemies, whilst there being many other kind of challenges like races. The enemies are varied across different  levels and difficulties, with many different weapons they use, like tomahawks, pistols, shotguns, rocket launchers, snipers and grenades. They also have unique weapons known as "Elemental weapons" which cause extra damage to you or your enemy, depending on type (Fire, Corrosive, Shock, Slag) and can be very effective on certain enemies. As you go through the different levels the story changes and  the enemies get harder to defeat. The gameplay engages the player with humour, the ability of multiplayer and an infinite amount of weapons with different stats to the rest, they also range from Common to Rare. Finally, you have skill trees which as you level up can unlock perks for your character, at the top of each one there are 3 main skills which make the gameplay more fun as they let you do stuff instead of slightly increasing your stats.

The target audience for Borderlands 2 is 18+ and for the male gender, I think this is because it features some adult humour and cussing which would be unsuitable for people under 18 and the reason it may be unsuitable for the female gender is because of gore featured in the game which girls may find gruesome. Games with the same target audience do not compare much with this game as Borderlands 2 features more humour and is more action-packed than most RPGs  because they may take themselves more seriously. On the other hand, FPSs are more action packed than this game but are still less humorous than Borderlands 2.

Finally, Borderlands 2 was sold for PlayStation 3,Xboc 360 and PC. In early 2015, the remastered and improved frame rate versions were released in the Handsome Jack Collection for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The game is probably more suited for the consoles because the controllers are designed for people to play FPS games as well as other types of games.

LO1 Game Analysis of Fallout Shelter

(Android)

Fallout Shelter is a single player, ant farm view game that is a survival simulation, it simulates a scenario like all other simulators, but this one is based in the 'Fallout' series universe, which is different from most simulators that are based in real life. Fallout is a Triple A game series, and so this makes this mobile game extremely popular as lots of people knew about it, especially when it was used to build up a hype for the next game, Fallout 4.

The story of the game isn't forced, but it puts it simply that your the overseer of a vault and you must make the inhabitants, known as dwellers survive the outside and inside dangers of the world from infestations, fires, attacks and starvation. The story is informed by the game play as you let them survive and can organise them and assign them to jobs that fit there ability, so they can make resources to survive, you can also give them weapons to fight back dangers so they can survive. Your approach to the characters as A.I's and not characters as they don't develop any personality, there is a little conversation between two when they're both in the same room, but this is just a general conversation. You can name the characters, so this gives you a little attachment to them. The target audience of the game are people who have played the original series of games especially Fallout 3 and New Vegas, and know a lot about the lore of the game as they are more likely to be interested in the mobile game.

The game first came to thought in 2009, which is a long time to say it was released in late 2015,  it was developed on Unity by Bethesda Game Studios and Bethesda Interactive. Unity is a widely used engine used for mobile applications and games as its one of the best development kits for mobile, most of the games developed on it run smoothly on both Android and iOS. The physics of the game are realistic despite its cartoon look, this is things like fire's and infestations that can move to different rooms if their isn't anyone their to defeat it, then their is also radiation poison which decreases the characters max health unless you cure it, this creates the effect of the character slowly dying because of radiation poison.

The main character is you, the player as you’re the overseer of the vault and you organise everything that happens in the vault, so this is very relevant to the audience as you have to take responsibility, and then the other characters who you control and so doesn't appeal much to the audience. So the characters don’t have any development so you don't have any attachment to them.

There are a lot of challenges present in the game such as; Fires, infestations, bandit attacks and if a character is out in the wasteland it will be wildlife and bandits. The player engages with these challenges by organising your dwellers around the vault to fight back, you can also give your dwellers weapons and Armour which help raise their stats and damage to the enemies like the Rad-roaches, Bandits and Deathclaws. The fact that it’s a Fallout game is one of the reasons it had a big success with more than 10 million downloads and 5 star ratings, and also because you’re controlling a vault people gets engaged because the dwellers are your people and so you feel responsible for them and the most of the gameplay was initiative to the genre. The gameplay evolves as you gain more dwellers, which unlocks more rooms which help you survive which help as you make your vault to get bigger so you can fit more dwellers into it.

The target audience is mainly mobile users, but also people loyal to the Fallout Series which are both male and female, the Triple A game releases are quite gory and violent, but this game hasn't got these and so appeals to both genders and any age. This Ant Farm simulator game may of been the most costly developed of its genre and it was used to excite its audience for Fallout 4, the game released a few weeks after this game.

Finally, it was released for both iOS and Android, it was originally planned for iOS devices but soon was released for Android too so the game may be more updated than Androids version.

LO1 Game Analysis of Assassins Creed 2

(PS3)

"Assassin's Creed 2" is the second installment of the 'Assassin's Creed' series and is a single player, open world action adventure game. It shows conventions, such as free roaming in-between missions, which let you get collectibles and side activities, this fits with the adventure side of the game, but the action is involved when free running and assassinating targets. Compared to its predecessor, which was very initiative at the time, introducing new mechanics to the genre, and Assassins Creed 2 basically has the same mechanics but a lot more smoother and introduces a few more (e.g. shops).

The story is that there is a waging war between the Assassins and Templar, and Ezio, the main character, becomes an assassin after is father and two brothers are killed because of a 'faked' treachery to their country. At first, he kills for revenge, but as you progress he becomes more mature and realises their's more to what he is doing, and leads up to killing the Templar leaders. The narrative informs you through the game play by setting your main goal, one of the targets, and each 'sequence' builds up to you killing that target, in which the story develops. You feel sympathy for Ezio because half his family was killed and you find it justifiable that he wants revenge.

"Assassins Creed 2" was developed on the Anvil engine by Ubisoft Montreal with a staff of 450 people working on the game, it was confirmed in November 2008 and was released in November 2009. There are lots of game physics involved in the game, as the game is meant to be realistic.

Ezio is relevant to the target audience because he wants to exact revenge on the people who killed his father, and at least once a person would be compelled to take revenge. If you play the whole series of Assassins Creed 2 (Brotherhood and Revelations included) you watch him grow in age and character you may grow attached to him as a character as you may go through the emotions he has. Ezio as a main character is a very strong character especially because the character is played through 3 games and you see the character develop,You feel sympathy for Ezio because half his family was killed and you find it justifiable that he wants revenge on the person who did so.

The challenges of the gameplay is that the enemies come in different variations (Normal, agile, seeker and brutes) which all have different strategies to kill you and more strategies to kill them. There is also free running as a challenge where you have to run away from  enemies and become anonymous, you can mess up and die from heights or guards with ranged weapons. The normal enemy is equipped with a normal sword and just attacks you, and you can easily fight back. The agile enemy can avoid your attacks and if your running away they can easily catch up with you and hurt you. The seeker is an enemy that, when your trying to be anonymous in a hiding place such as a haystack, bench or crowd of people, they break up or check your hiding place, you can either counter them and assassinate them and put them in the hay with you or run away and alert the enemies again. Finally, the brutes are enemies that use heavy weapons such as battle-axes and great swords, but they are slow and can easily be dodged, they normally are in pairs and so can make it difficult taking them both on. The enemies get harder as you go on in the game but this is countered as you have better weapons and more techniques to fight them, like smoke bombs for example, this can engage the player as it gives them more variations on defeating enemies.

The target audience are males that are 16 or over, this is because of the action and gore involved in the game that would be inappropriate for people of a younger age. The game itself is quite unique to other games of the same genre, like God of War or GTA V, as God of War is more unrealistic and mythical, whilst GTA V has a lot of realism in the game, meanwhile Assassins Creed 2 is a bit of both with realism and mythical aspects to the story of the game and gameplay. 

Finally, the game was available for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. The game would be best on a console rather than a computer, this is because the characters motion is quite slow when moving about, and then the free running would be quite hard to control on a keyboard as you would need to move from left to right quickly and this can only be done easily on a controller.

LO1 Sumo Digital Company Business Report Feedback Sheet

LO1 Sumo Digital Company Business Report

Unit 60- Games Industry

Games Company Research

Sumo Digital 

Structure

Sumo Digital was co-founded in 2003 by Carl Cavers (CEO), Paul Porter (COO) and Darren Mills (Executive Art Director and Director of Sumo India) in Sheffield, UK. Other current directors are Ash Bennett as technical director, Sean Millard as creative director and Gary Edwards, Steven Zalud and Gary Moore as development director. 

As of now they have 260 employed in Sheffield and the art studio in Pune, India. They are also a member of the non-profit trade association 'TIGA' which supports and represents the UK games industry. (Sumo Digital (2009) 'Who we are' 'http://www.sumo-digital.com/#who-we-are' [Accessed 28 September 2015]).

Platform Technology

Based on the last few years, they have created games mainly for the 7^th generation (i.e. PS3 and Xbox 360) even though the 8^th generation of consoles are quite mainstream at this time, they have produced 3 games for PS3, and 4 for the Xbox 360 (most being ported from the Xbox One). They have also notably done a few games for the Xbox One, PS4 and the Nintendo Wii U. They have done one game for PC which was also ported for the 7^th and 8^th generation consoles and most handheld devices (such as phones with Android and iOS and also PSVita and Nintendo’s 3DS). This shows that Sumo Digital have always made games for many different platforms and still do today.  
(Sumo Digital (2009) 'We make games' 'http://www.sumo-digital.com/#game-wrap' [Accessed 1 October 2015])

Game Types

Sumo Digital has mainly produced driving and racing games the past few years. One of them was a standalone expansion to another game they ported from Xbox One to 360 (Forza Horizon 2) called ‘Forza Horizon 2 presents Fast & Furious’. They also made a Kart racer expansion to the game Disney Infinity 3.0 (Which they did not make). A game that they made which wasn’t an expansion or a port from another console is ‘Sonic & All-Stars Racing: Transformed’ which is the second installment to the ‘Sonic & All-Stars Racing’ series. They have made many other racing games in the past such as ‘Outrun 2’ (2004) and F1 2011 (2011). Sumo Digital have also created a lot of sports games in the past such as ‘Sega Superstar Tennis’ (2008) and ‘Virtua Tennis World Tour’ (2005). A recent sport game is an exclusive and ‘Xbox Fitness’ (2013). Finally, a recent platformer they released was ‘Little Big Planet 3’ and this was an adventure platform puzzle game, its predecessors were developed by another company (Even though Sumo Digital helped develop the cross-controller pack for Little Big Planet 2, so you could use the PSVita as a kind of tool on the game).
(Sumo Digital (2009) 'Archive' 'http://www.sumo-digital.com/games/#2015' [Accessed 2 October 2015])

Games on Multi-platforms

They have developed; OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast for PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Microsoft Windows and Xbox, Virtua Tennis 3 for PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Microsoft Windows, Arcade and Xbox 360, Sega Superstars Tennis for Nintendo Wii & DS, PlayStation 2 & 3, Xbox 360 and Mac OS, OutRun Online Arcade for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, Virtua Tennis 2009 for  PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Windows and iOS, Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii & DS, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS and mobile versions on IOS, Android and Blackberry), Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed for PlayStation 3 and Vita, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii U & 3DS, iOS, Android and Microsoft Windows) and their latest game which they helped developed is Disney Infinity 3.0 for  PlayStation 3 & 4, Xbox One, Wii U, Xbox 360, Android, Microsoft Windows, iOS.

Regulatory Bodies:

As do nearly every game have an age rating, where films are rated by BBFC, games are mostly rated by PEGI standing for Pan European Game Information. Sumo Digitals games have mostly been rated 3+ for games like Outrun 2006, Sonic All-Stars Racing Transformed and Disney Infinite 3.0. They have also been rated by another company called ESRB standing for Entertainment Software Rating Board, which once gave their game Virtua Tennis an 'E' which means for 'Everyone'. But they mostly use PEGI now.