Reviewception

As some who enjoys playing video games it would be assumed a review is the first place to go for an overview of what to play... How wrong that is. I dislike reviews with a passion. Although I understand how an individual can have an unsure view on a game, and that it can be calmed by the opinions of others, I think that there are too many factors coming into some ones personality which could adjust their view on the game, despite what anyone else says about it. Also, by the time you come to decide whether to play a game or not I’m pretty sure you have to brain capacity to make your own opinions though a simple search into game play, or any other factors you look for in a game. If an individual allows a review alone to sway their opinion on a game then it’s mildly pathetic… but that’s just my opinion. Ironic how I find myself in a state of reviewception.

Although I don’t necessarily agree with the concept of making money off of something that can be formed yourself, I can see how it can be a painstaking task. With 19 working days to put together a review magazine, at least sixty thousand words has to be written to fill about 150 pages – this being the stage after researching, with the rush to fulfil the demand leaving little time to contemplate anything. I guess this wouldn’t be so difficult to manage if it wasn’t for budget cuts and companies laying people off in an attempt to save money. They rely on the ego of humanity, how courting individuals with content for them to write about not only gets their jobs done, but is done easily as favourable coverage for anyone wanting to get their games out there. An example of this being the game ‘Uplink’ in 2001, how it went from being a small, bedroom programmed indie game to being sold in store thanks to some kind reviews, and lead to further development in being ported to Mac and translated for over-sea audiences.  This is also seen today with the game ‘Limbo’, a small indie game that originally could only be purchased online that can now be found in stores.
Many reviews go on a ranking system for games, focusing on a specific number out of 10. I've experienced enough objective ranking through entering competitions for tae kwon do to know how it’s a medicore way of grading and placing things into an order of what’s “hot” and what’s not. The ranking lacks any form of personal contribution, as well as standardisation and doesn't consider so many outstanding factors making it a lazy way of placing something into a category. It’s not necessary in the gaming industry, or so I wouldn’t say anyway, as games have different genres, styles, stories and game mechanics. Not to mention the different opinions from different review companies - reviews are too subjective to add an objective ranking system.

The term ‘NGL’ was coined in 2004, and it refers to reviews in which personal anecdotes, references to other media, and creative analyses are used to explore game design, play, and culture. This increased the personal feel to the reviews, throwing away the rules of standard journalism such as the attempt to objectify creative outputs and focusing on the single, subjective experience of an individual. Although I don’t necessarily agree with the objective ranking of video games, I feel an entirely subjective, emotionally based review isn’t necessarily the best path forward. A variety in the quality of writing could reflect badly on a game due to something like an emotional, overly personal input – for example a negative review on a game could come about solely due to the online community.

My own writing style, other than being close to non-existent, varies somewhat. I don’t necessarily know what I prefer, as both subjective and objective styles have pros and cons. Subjective is solely too opinionated, and although I do prefer it as it does account to being an actual human being, I honestly don’t see the point as opinions vary too much to allow anything to be taken seriously, or even considered due to the fact a lot of individuals like to see their subjective views as stone cold fact – or so I feel anyway. Objective is too narrow, categorising and removing any form of emotional stimuli focusing around a game - and more than likely a game will gain an emotive response  turning it into an “it looks pretty 10/10 would play again” response. However, it allows a simple overview, covering each mechanic within the game in a systematic and understandable way. Nothing like being awkward and valuing both and neither styles at the same time, and there's nothing like boring someone with a wall of text.

Reviews can come in other forms than written, with the rise in websites such as YouTube it isn't rare for you to stumble across reviews such as the one above, which take an objective style however using comedic imagery to attempt to prevent the video from being too boring, this being a style that would be difficult to recreate in a written review due to the relevancy of each image used being lost, or the flow being lost due to it needing to be explained. However, video reviews such as the one above still lack the standardisation of an objective scoring system, giving a 7/10 - which could be reviewed as an average score.

My Personal History of Video Games

As can be guessed I was surrounded by video games when I was a child – being the youngest in the family means I got the joys of sitting and watching my family battle as to who’s turn it was next, whether it be computer or console. The earliest I can remember is the personal computer my dad built, sat in the dining room dominated mainly by my dad as he sat and played Doom, Quake or Duke Nukem. I, obviously being observed as “too young”, was shooed away only to crawl back and hide, watching from a corner.

The earliest games I can remember myself playing didn’t feature and form of 3D graphics. Coming from the late 1980’s and through the 1990s I started with games by Humongous Entertainment –Putt-Putt and Freddi Fish to be more precised. These simple, brightly coloured point-and-click puzzle games, not only filled with Androgyny due to the fact Freddi was actually female, were the starting point to my own video game timeline. Point and clicks feature heavily in my past experiences with video games – simple and slow paced. The Monkey Island series was a favourite amongst my family, and although never getting the chance to play it through fully I remember watching my sister and dad play for hours on end.

Toonstruck and one of it's more.. questionable scenes

A point and click I definitely want to mention is Toonstruck, and after only just remembering it recently and looking into the game again, I question as to why I was allowed to play it when my Dad thought Doom was too violent for me to watch… The game is an interactive adventure featuring a combination of real life and cartoon-stylised 2D gameplay, where you play as the character of Drew Blanc – who is played by Christopher Lloyd. You play as a cartoon animator, struggling with an idea, only to end up being sucked into the world of Cutopia, surrounded by his own creations. The aim of the game is to stop Count Nefarious – voiced by Tim Curry – from turning the world into a dark and twisted place.
All in all, the game features scenes that could be considered BDSM/Dom and Sub with barnyard animals and incredibly creepy snot-nosed clown, and was a family gathering point as to how to complete certain tasks. Due to the fact point and click games are what I played most when I was younger, I would love to see more of them in the future – more than likely due to nostalgia.

When we finally invested in consoles, my sister was the one usually in possession of them. Because of this, I had very little opportunity to play them – I usually spent my time on my sisters floor, or from the door when I wasn’t privileged enough to come in, watching her play. I got told recently we had an Atari – the fact I can’t remember much of it showing how young I was when we had one. So I’ll move onto the Playstation, reminding me of the time I hit my brother in the face to remove a loose tooth whilst she played FF7… good times.
By the time I came into possession of consoles they were all hand-me-downs, due to my sister losing interest for a while and my brother gaining new-console rights. The SNES was the first in my possession – playing Donkey Kong Country and Super Mario World on an old 5-channel TV which you had to hit the top every now and again to make the display work. Once the SNES broke, I gained the N64 alongside Conkers Bad Fur Day, Zelda (Ocarina of Time and Majoras Mask) and Paper Mario – of which would occasionally disappear as mum would sit and play them.

When my brother got the original Xbox, I was introduced to The Elderscrolls games. My dad “acquired” Morrowind for my brother, so I naturally snuck in when I heard the promise of elves and lizard people. The introduction to RPG’s led me to play Fable, and naturally I enjoyed it to the extent of finishing it within a day. This was followed by Oblivion and Fallout 3 in 2008, which hooked me into the world of modding, and are more than likely what made me want to do something revolving video games for a living. Their environments, soundtracks and combination of gameplay and immersion were incredible, the story for Fallout 3 was amazing – and both of their open world designs were a true awe. It’s here that, unfortunately, my days of pc gaming ended – my computer was not able to support them due to its outdated system. So I needed a solution, and an Xbox 360 was a cheaper solution to updating a computer that broke completely 2 years later.

Bioshock concept art

With the Xbox 360, although the controls are sometimes not the best, and the vanilla game is not as beautiful as it could be, I discovered some of my favourite games of all time. Mass Effect was one of the first games I played, finding the controls too clunky after a transfer from PC controls I removed the game from my life for a while. Dragon Age and Assassins Creed are all games of which I truly enjoyed before I revisited Mass Effect – starting with the second before I revisited the first one. Bioshock and Dead Space made me fall in love with video game concept art, playing through the games then looking at the enemies’ designs and inspirations for said designs was truly amazing for me.

Borderlands classes

Borderlands is another which I loved, its art style being something I had never seen before in a game – the use of the visible outline on something that’s 3D, borrowing the style of a comic book or graphic novel then outputting the style in a different media was fantastic to see done effectively (in comparison to games such as The Walking Dead, which is not so effective).

After I got a laptop – the overheated monster I currently type on, propped up on plaster hands in an attempt to stop it from melting any more candles that are on my desk – I reinvested in PC gaming, only to be devastated that Fallout 3 wouldn't work on Windows 7. I wasted money on The Sims 3, only to enjoy creating characters, and after being gifted Batman Arkham Asylum I realised how fussy I had become over games, as I became bored by the combat and representation of certain characters in the game. Another game that was disappointing on game play was Skyrim – as nice as the environments were, the story was boring and lacked the immersive feel I got from Oblivion. The “miscellaneous” quests were boring and the guild quests were rushed. It’s on the same level as disappointment that I got from Fallout New Vegas – where the story line has no emotive response and is absolutely nonsensical for the playable character to go through it.

For the future of games, I’d like to see more in-depth and immersive stories, environments and characters that are designed thoroughly, with iconic aspects about their designs. I’d like to see a female character that hasn’t been turned into a baby-faced cute little girl over time, and where rape isn't considered a plot point (The new Tomb Raider reboot).

History of Computer Games - Pt 3

Game development Costs 1982 - 2007

In comparison to previous years – for example the Atari port of Pacman in 1982, the production of video games has grown in length. Pacman was programmed by a single developer over the space of a month costing $100,000 – whereas Halo 2, released in 2004, had 190 people listed in its credits, a 3 month production period and a $40 million development cost. In the period of 22 years the cost of developing a high profile game has rocketed, and will no doubt continue to increase. However this also means an increase in developers and designers needed – as competitive as this may be I guess it poses a good sign for employability trusting the market doesn’t suddenly drop due to pirating games, or a sudden lack of interest.

Nokia N-Gage 2003

The year 2000 saw gaming become more readily available to everyone, with introduction of mobile games. In 2003 simulation games in the form of virtual pets, as well as puzzles had been developed to not only use the phones accessories such as cameras, but utilised 3D graphics seen on the Playstation. When Nokia released its N-Gage phone and handheld gaming platform in the same year, more interest was brought to mobile gaming – its revenue passing 5 billion dollars in 2007. By the time the IPhone was released, by 2008 more than half of apps sold for the phone were games.

Throughout the 21^st century graphics within video games improved greatly – focusing on higher definition, realism and immersion within an environment. The development of High Dynamic Range Imaging – or HDRI – allows the accurate representation of intensity levels found in real life, for example direct sunlight and shadows. This means that we will have a feeling of being even better immersed in the game action with all good and bad consequences of this unprecedented experience.

2004 saw the introduction of seventh generation consoles – the era being started with Nintento introducing the Nintento DS and Playstation the PSP. The competition of the consoles continued – with Playstation setting the standards for graphics and power whilst Nintendo experimented with a novel control interface of dual screens and a touch interface. Whilst the PSP attracted more veteran gamers, the DS maintained dominance in handheld gaming – updating in 2006 (DS Lite), 2008/9 (DSi).

In 2005 Microsoft bring forward the Xbox 360, soon followed by the PS3 in 2006. Both set high standards for high-definition graphics, large hard disk-based secondary storage, integrated networking and online gameplay and stores. Upon launch both systems challenged personal computers power output and remained relatively cheaper, however the PS3 being the more expensive out of the two due to its blu-ray disc and wifi.

However, not long after the PS3s release Nintento re-entered the competition of the consoles with the Wii – its motion sensor control system being hyped caused it to sell out Christmas on the year of its release, as well as the following 18 months. The motion control allowed a focus on gameplay, making games such as Wii sport and Wii fit to become hits, alongside these Nintento ported their classing franchise – bridging their well-known characters into new games such as Super Mario Galaxy, which became a success despite its standard-resolution graphics. However, whilst the infrared-based pointing system has been widely praised, its reliability was sub-par . These claims of unreliable motion detection lead to the release of the Wii MotionPlus in 2008. The motion sensor control is now seen throughout all three consoles – the Xbox 360 with ‘Kinect’  was the first motion control system capable of tracking the player in 3D space without the need for a controller, using a sensor and dual-camera device to track the motion of the players themselves, and PS3s Playstation Move, both surfacing in in 2010.

In the world of PC gaming, casual gaming rose – simulators like the Sims becoming incredibly popular, alongside puzzle games like bejewelled. In 2008, social networking sites began to gain a more mainstream popularity with the release of Happy Farm – a take on ‘Harvest Moon’ – followed by a rise of copies or similar simulator games, the appeal of which being from them being free to play with in game items being at an expense.

In 2011 Nintento released the Wii U – a new console with a 6.2 inch touch screen built-in to the controller, allowing some games to be played without the need of a TV whilst it can additionally be used as a secondary screen providing extra info and interactivity.

Not necessarily game art related but interesting none the less

How NASA might build its very first warp drive

A History of Computer Games - Pt 2

I don’t feel I can fully cover the golden age of arcade video games in the 1980s without covering the existence of Pong in the 1970’s, with the pong arcade machines being produced in 1972. Due to the manufacturing design of being built with simple electronic chips and tv set, numerous companies copied the pong design once it had reached the one year mark in the market. Many variations adjusted the Pond design lightly – focusing on areas of sport still, such as hockey or football, as well as bringing in a multiplayer option for the game. In early 1973 the first colour multiplayer pong game was produced by Nutting Associates under the name of Wimbeldon – the company having produced the first successful arcade machine in 1971 – Computer Space.

Space Invaders - 1978

Come 1978 we enter what’s referred to as the “golden age of video games” (bit narrow minded I guess considering we’re not dead yet and still have years of video game development ahead of us). Taito – a struggling manufacturer who produced pachinko games – developed their first computer game Space Invaders, in which a player is given the task of defending the planet from oncoming alien attack by using bunkers as barriers and a single shot turret as their weapon - the game featuring tension, weapons, character design and fast pace action. The simple black and white background allowed the overlay to gain the appearance of colour, causing uproar and is said to have caused a nationwide coin shortage, and helped see the rapid spread of video arcades across North America, Europe, and Asia.

Atari Football 1978

In the same year Atari released ‘Atari Football’ – the arcade game challenging the previous norm of machine design - with its table top screen. The game itself added an introduction to a more strategy-based game and featuring manoeuvres used in the footballing world.

Enter the 1980’s – arcade machines became more of a common occurrence, and in North America reaching a peak of 13,000 video games between 1980 and 1982.
            In this year speech appears in Taito's ‘Stratovox' – a galaxian knock-off. The games aim is to try and prevent the abduction of planet colonists by other aliens. Speech synthesis requires massive amounts of memory to execute, so the alien taunts and pleas from kidnapped colonists are highly distorted and limited to four phrases.

Pacman 1980

In addition to this, a great pop culture reference was created by Namco – Pacman – with it first being released in Japan. The game became a phenomenon amongst its popular predecessors, moving away from the space shooter genre which Taito and Atari had claimed and creating a new, gender neutral genre. An interesting aspect about the game is the enemies – most commonly known in the western world as ‘Ghosts’. In an interview the creator explained that each enemy has its own ‘personality’ in an attempt to lower the games difficulty as well as the entertainments expiry point.  This was obviously effective, as Pacman could be seen to be one of the highest selling games of all time.

In 1983 a large snag was hit - The North American video game crash. This was a recession of the video game industry  that lasted until 1985. Revenues that had peaked at around $3.2 billion dropped almost 97% and an abrupt end was brought to what is considered the second generation of console video gaming. The crash almost destroyed the industry and led to the bankruptcy of several companies producing home computers and video game consoles - this including Atari. The causes were multiple, a plethora of games and consoles combined with competition from home computers, a loss of publishing controls and the high-profile failures Atari suffered after the release of Pacman once they attempted to recreate it for their system. The main effects were that the home console market shifted from the United States to Japan – with Nintendo's NES being the leading player in 1985, in addition to the institution of measures to control third-party development of software.

The NES became an instant success, coupled with Super Mario Bros. The game reintroduced a previous character used in Nintendos’ 1981 platform game Donkey Kong – and later seen as an antagonistic character in Donkey Kong Junior. When thought about the game takes an everyday job of a plumber and throws it into a fictional world of damsels in distress, killer turtles and power items.

The 8-bit console also helped shift the default design of controllers – using a gamepad with a directional pad and action buttons rather than a joystick.

More genres developed over time, moving far away from the shooter science fiction and opening up to a multitude of alternate themes. The majority of these genres existence could be due to the shift in video game marked - as rather than focusing on what appeared to be a more historical focused development in gameplay, increased fantasy-based and story focused games came to pass. The action-adventure ‘The Legend of Zelda’ made its debut in 1986, with RPGs such as ‘Dragon Quest’ following later in the same year. Dragon quest was inspiration for the large selling success that is Final Fantasy in 1987 – currently with 65 games to its name. Stealth games also appeared with Metal Gear, and the precursor of survival horror appearing in 1989 in the form of ‘Sweet Home’.

Then to Now: 40 years of video game history (1980-1989)

The video link above shows that art styles throughout the 1980's, although it has remained pixel/sprite based imagery, more dimension appears towards the end of the years despite them remaining platform games - whether it be from rendering style or using an increased amount of detail within the art in the background images. In addition to this, a broader range has been developed for humanoid characters - other than use of colour - this giving them a more varied silhouette in comparison to one another. However, at this time it mainly reflects on the differences between the playable character and NPCs/enemies within a game.

From 1987 and ending in 1996 we enter the time of fourth generation consoles, these featuring games and systems programmed for 16 bit. This era not only saw an improvement in 2D graphics in games, but the development of 3D environments also – however pc gaming was more prevalent in this area, and compact discs became a viable port for video game sales for the first time. In 1990 the SNES appeared, beginning the first console war with the 1988 Sega Mega Drive/Genesis.

(Couldn't help but put The Left Rights in when writing about this.. how unprofessional of me).

1993 until 2002, the bigger names being the Nintento 64 and the Playstation. It was here where 3D was introduced to video games effectively - Super Mario 64 featured large, free roaming open areas with true 3D polygons as opposed to the 2D sprites. After its success, many other games tried to mimic this.

The use of 3D in video games allowed further genre development, introducing a more developed fighting game. Street Fighter 2 is one of the more memorable, mainly for its controls and the fact it has accurate joystick and button scanning routine, allowing players to execute special moves easily – more of a skill based game than a luck based one… Unless you button mash, of course.

First person shooters popped up during fifth generation consoles as well, alongside MMORPGs, Racing games, and interactive movie games, my favourite example for this being ‘Toonstruck’ from 1996, where you control Christopher Lloyd through a point and click adventure through a cartoon universe, featuring footmen who are actually feet and what could be seen as some quiet twisted scenes..

Resident Evil - 1996

Last but not least, survival horrors – with Capcom releasing Resident Evil in 1996 – taking inspiration from Sweet Home and Alone in the Dark, incorporating fixed cinematic camera angles and puzzle-solving characteristics.
Silent Hill in 1999 is another example of survival horrors, using real time 3D environments to its advantage, as well as moving away from a B-movie style, more towards psychological horror focusing on atmospheric suspense and away from visceral horror.

 It was here, with fifth generation consoles, that female figures in video games began to take on a sex symbol status – Lara Croft being considered one of the earliest, her design being memorable, based partially off of the comic book character Tank Girl – focusing on counteracting a stereotypical female video game character with her athleticism and intellect.

So far on Rachel does game art stuff...

Drawn archways and canals. Yay. One point perspective and all that. It'd be better if I didn't consider myself somewhat highly mediocre in the environmental side of drawing - especially when it comes to things like perspective. I'm much more used to drawing people with gills and fins than trees and water.

The initial thumbnails really expressed my lack of consideration for scale, with the reference points being what can only be described as really, really wrong. However, the first final piece came out somewhat impressive for my standards - foliage detailing unmentioned in that of course. Unfortunately I think I attempted to add tonal qualities a bit to enthusiastically, causing darker shades which are unsuited to the time of day in which I was drawing. The second version of which I did turned out much better in my opinion - not as deep shadows but still noticeably toned. But the perspective is somewhat of a miss still. Damn my inability to see and produce perfect sketches.

Moving on to week two - the archway one point perspective - where
the horizon line is not necessarily visible. Funnily enough I found this easier to start with than the canal, perhaps because I'd had the experience of getting angry over not being able to do water and trees. The detailing on the brickwork was actually somewhat enjoyable to do, with suggesting the different types of stone being easier than expected to convey - however scale still being an overall issue in my drawings. The archway is too low down in comparison to the height of that area of wall, with the gated arch to the left of the piece being too narrow. Perhaps more tone and texture could have been added to the tree to the far left to even out the piece, as well as more in the road however I wanted to avoid the somewhat over crowded appearance I had in my first final piece of the canal.

A History of Computer Games - Pt 1

It’s difficult to think back to when the idea of video games, or using computing systems for fun, came to be. The idea originally started by the two Americans Thomas T. Goldsmith, Jr. and Estle Ray Mann in 1947, with the ‘cathode ray tube amusement device’ – the earliest known interactive electronic game of which was never released to the public. The device itself is nothing remnant of video games today – it recorded and controlled the quality of an electronic signal and had no memory, computer or programming, and was described as a game of skill with the display resembling a WWII radar display. The player would sit in front of a ‘cathode ray tube’ (CRT) - a vacuum tube containing an electron gun and a fluorescent screen used to view images – and uses a knob to control the CRT beam to interact with the display.

Tick-Tack-Toe - 1952

From here the majority of early computer games were created as hobbies using university mainframe computers. In 1952 we come across A.S. Douglas, whom created the first graphical computer game – quite an achievement. What did he create, I hear you cry? The original Call of Duty? Maybe he looked into Goldsmith and Mann’s ideas and developed on a war simulator or some form of action adventure… Don’t be silly, Tic-Tac-Toe is the obvious creation. Using his universities EDSAC vacuum-tube computer he created the game to illustrate his thesis on Human-Computer interaction, using a 35x16 pixel display, and was played against the computer which was programmed to use specific algorithms to win.

However, it was William Higinbotham who gained the title of the person to first create a video game. In 1958 he created “Tennis for two” using an oscilloscope in Brookhaven National Labority, which was played by two individuals using hand controls.

Space War! - 1961

In 1961 three students who studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology – Martin Graetz, Stephen Russel and Wayne Wiitanen, created ‘Space War!’ on a PDP-1 computer using vector graphics to design it. Unfortunately as the game did not use a video display it technically couldn’t be considered a video game, however acted as an excellent precursor for the 1970s version. The debugger programme was found to generate random pixels, of which looked like stars – even more so once they simulated real constellations and variable luminance. It’s somewhat incredible that such realism was considered for something that nowadays would be seen as simple or perhaps overlooked so easily.

And now enters the apparently credited inventor of the video game! It was in 1966 that Ralph Baer designed an amazing television set which had the capacity to display video games, revisited his concept from 1951 that was turned down. He began to build the first prototypes – 7 in total- of which played several video games, the first of which being the game ‘Chase’ with the last prototype build in 1968 playing ball and paddle & target shooting games. From here, Magnavox signed an agreement in 1971 leading to the first video game system to be released in 1972 - The Magnavox Odyssey.

The Magnavox Odyssey - 1972