User talk:Alexisntonfire

Game Reviews
ACN108 Alexander Michael

Assignment 2

In choosing the three games, all separated by the generations they were released in, I tried to choose games that I myself had experienced before. Whether it was interacting, observing or even hearing about them via word of mouth, having a brief knowledge of the game, I thought would help me asses and review each of the games. The games I have chosen for my review are; Monopoly the board game first published by Parker Brothers in the early 1930’s, Space Invaders the 2nd generation video game and one of the most successful arcade shooting games of al time and Resistance: Fall of Man a current 7th generation first person military/sci fi shooting game on the gaming console, the Sony Play station 3 (Ps3). Each of these games that I will review and asses, I will comment on, describing their attributes and features as a game in general and as a game in its generation.

I first remembered playing Monopoly at my babysitters at the age of 6 with my sister, my sitter and her youngest daughter. The game, from then on was always in my life, playing the game with friends and family and even owning two different versions of the game myself. Monopoly is a group game, which players can vary from 2 to 8 people from the ages of 5+. The game requires each of the players to travel around the board in a counter clockwise direction, purchasing properties and paying bills as you progress around the board. The aim of the game is to purchase as many properties and bankrupting your opponents. The game itself has some understanding to it, with some knowledge needed of real estate and strategy. The game can be played with very little knowledge of either of these elements and you will still be able to play the game, but in saying that, the extra knowledge will enhance your understanding of the games under layers of real estate, money and business and give you a upper hand in playing the game. Monopoly, depending on how many players you have, will vary your experience of the game. I will say playing with 3 or more players will enhance your experience of the game, with more opponents to be wary of, a longer duration of the game and mostly more people around to enjoy the game with. The appeal of the game is defiantly the power factor. The opportunity to build from nothing to something with your own ‘play money’, to have a small enterprise in less than a hour, to rule the playing board over the rest of your opponents. The control over your properties gives you the extra sense of power, a fake sense but a sense none the less. This sense of power and control isn’t necessarily a bad thing, even though the feeling will only last for a short while during and after the game it will still be beneficial for the player to have the feeling of successful. Another appeal of this game is the very real feeling of property owning and money. The realistic experience of managing your own money and property is also a bettering experience for the players, learning first hand in a make believe environment what it takes to own and pay for your own properties. As a fellow player and hardcore gamer of all generations of gaming, I would recommend that all should try out Monopoly at least one. With so many positive reviews, and attributes in the game it would be hard to pass up on any opportunity on a game of Monopoly. This age old game has had such a massive impact on the gaming world. Many try to copy this economical strategic game, but none come close. Monopoly has had over 500 million people play the game which has been outlined by the Guinness Book of Records, named into the Games Magazine Hall of Fame and as a brand has expanded its grasp on every media and become a world wide success.

Space Invaders, the 2nd generation video game has held its own till this very day as one of the most revaluating and influential arcade shooting game in video gaming history. I first came across Space Invaders at a young age, as I waited for my meal to be cooked at a restaurant with my family I asked if I could play some arcade games while I waited. So my sister and I went over to the games and Space Invaders was the game we both decided to play. After that I was given a pocket gamer of Space Invaders as a present from my grandparents, and that was when my admiration for the 2d shooting game started. The game is single player, 2nd arcade shooting game that consists of you, a fighter pilot defending off the aliens that are closing in on you as they attempt to invade the earth. The game is very simple and is able to be played by all ages as the objective in this game is much more simpler than Monopoly’s, ‘Shoot & Destroy’. The game requires hand and eye coordination as you aim and fire at the aliens as well as invading there attacks. To play the game is both exciting and stressful. With the thrill of destroying alien space crafts, it becomes more stressful as you try to destroy the closing in aliens before they reach the earth or else it’ll be game over. The appeal of the game has to be the simplicity of its concept and game play. With straight forward motives and objects and even straight forward controls, which rules out any form of confusion it is hard to not like the video game. It’s a positive that everything about the game is so easy to understand. It enables basically anyone to play the game. I would easily recommend this game to anyone. Space Invaders success is still visible today. It has had a massive impact on popular culture and it was visible of its success in 2005 when the game had made 500 billion dollars in revenue since its release into the world of video gaming. Created as one of the first 2nd generation video games, it was a smash hit on the Atari 2600, even though in this generation of video gaming we live in now, this game is one of the key foundations to arcade shooting games and would be an insult just to push it aside and only acknowledging its predecessors.

The most recent game I chose to review was a recent release by the Sony Playstation 3 called Resistance: Fall of Man. I first found game in my current roommates collection of games one day when I was bored on my day off from university studies. Amongst the collection, this was one of the games that I had never heard of, and I’ve only seen my roommate play it a few times before I thought I’d give it a try. This first person military/sci fi shooting game can be both a individual and a group game. The story of Resistance: Fall of Man follows an invasion of a unknown creature called, Chimera in the 1950’s who had taken over most of Europe and were moving in on the U.K., which is where the protagonist in the story, Sgt. Hail who had become taken on some of the Chimeras attributes, fights the monsters back to where ever the came from. The game controls in Resistance: Fall of Man was not made for novices. This shooting game takes the most advanced hand eye co ordination to perfect the movements and still after that you have to learn how to take down the different kinds of chimera without getting injured. This game can be complicated and even more so very difficult, with the ability to change the difficulty of missions and levels. When either playing in the single player mission mode, the co-operative mission mode or in a multiplayer face off, Resistance: Fall of Man is a not a diverse game but what it lacks in diversity it picks up in the one definable factor in the game, shooting. This military/sci fi game brings forward an intense warfare background story and undeniably good game play. The appeal of this game would be the heroisms in the story, the idea of one man taking on a legion of creatures that rose from no where is inspiring. But the storyline I believe is the selling point. Once I started playing the game I didn’t take on the story line until I found out it was set in the 1950’s, then I went back on reading the origins of the story. Creatures that use humans to create more monsters for there own use, a hybrid human defending a nation, alien tools in a century where the television was first being perfected, the story is so creative and one of a kind. In never seeing a combination of past and future before in a game, I think this is a bold and daring step that has paid off for the Sony. In drawing from both military and alien games and other mediums they have made a game that will rival some of the great games in the genre. In recommending this game, I’ll have to say that it isn’t the most suitable game for first time shooting gamers on the Ps3, for the controls are made for an advanced gamer and will be very difficult for someone who never has played before to pick up the skills to complete the game. So with a strong fan base of the Resistance storyline, the multiple gaming modes and the 7th generation gaming graphics and being released on the new platform of disc called BLU-RAY, Resistance: Fall of Man has quickly picked up a hand full of awards and great critical reviews even though some of which has claimed that the game visually depicted the Church of England encouraging violence. In my opinion, in this day and age it is hard to find something new and fresh in the video gaming market that will catch your eye straight away and only get better from there, but Resistance: Fall of Man did do that, and obviously others will agree with me when I say this game is one of this generations most promising series.