HA10 – Task 1

1. Callum Deighton 2. Action gaming is a genre of video games that emphasizes on fast paced action and good hand-eye coordination. It also focuses on physical challenges which rely on test of skill, such as puzzles, platforming or collecting items, and these are often under time pressure. There is usually and avatar that is the main protagonist, that must either defeat waves of enemies or face down a boss level, or times challenges. These types of games can include anything from first person shooters to real time strategy games. 3. Tekken Tag Tournament 2 is a Fighting game released in 2012, it is the eighth game in Tekken series. Unlike its predecessor, this game does actually feature a storyline, although it is non canon. Within the story, former King of the Iron Fist Heihachi Mishima has developed a new serum that can rejuvenate him and his powers. After choosing to consume it, he begins to host the new King of Iron Fist Tournament, aiming to draw in powerful challengers. 4. The gameplay is very fast paced and relies on performing fighting combos but this time the main component now being the 2 on 2 format with the tag teams being the focal point of the game which can be both controlled by one person or a second person can join in with one controlling each character. The game features a cast of up to 59 characters, which allows for multiple different combinations of teams which can even possibly have specific combinations which can allow the player to perform even more dangerous moves, although if the player desires they can have 1 player on their side instead of 2. 5. Other Modes in the game include a single player story mode which also acts as a tutorial as the player becomes a character called Combot which is a robot designed by another one of the games characters, Violet, who is teaching it how to fight, which is a subtle way of the game teaching the player on how to play the game. Throughout the mode it also allows the player to enter a move shop in which they can buy moves and combos from the other popular characters playable in the game and allow Combot to do it himself. The mode isnt too long but it does provide some entertaining challenges and by the time the player finishes it they should have enough skill to play the game. Other modes in the game include an arcade mode where the player fights up a ladder of stages in which they fight various teams with increasing difficulty which culminates with a final boss at the end as well as a Ghost battles mode which have the player fighting an unlimited amount of teams which have the data of other people who have played the game, so the teams can have a wide variety of fighting styles. A customization store which allows the player to choose any character in the game they want and create new outfits for them which consists of clothing the player can buy via in game currency is also in the game. Also included in the game is a online mode where the players can fight multiple players around the world and finally a Tekken Tunes mode where the player can replace the in-game music with music either bought from DLC (which consist of music from previous Tekken games) or music from the players hard drive which they can import into the game. All in all this gives tons of fresh content for the player which allows them to play the game for multiple hours. 6. Tekken Tag Tournament 2s engine is a vastly improved version of the Tekken 6 engine, which itself has been made from various components of previous Tekken games. The game has been released in various arcades around the world as well as on consoles like the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and the Wii U, which itself has unique differences including new game modes, the ability to paint on characters as well as the option to dress up the characters as various Nintendo Characters. This game is the second spin-off of the Tekken series which involves tag battles as its primary focus and is the eighth Tekken Game overall, releasing in arcades September 14th 2011 and on consoles September 10th 2012. 7. Tekken Tag Tournament 2s Common codes and conventions include: Tag Team Combat: The player can have 2 players on their side in which they can freely switch between during battle. Rage Mode: If the player loses a considerable amount of health in a short amount of time they can enter a Rage status where the attacks they perform for the next few seconds will have an increased amount of damage. Character Variety: The game consists of multiple characters which all have different variety in fighting styles which shows that the player can experiment with multiple unique experiences. Stage Variety/Destructible Environments: In the game there are multiple different stages the player can choose to fight in which have a wide variety of appearance and design. Some stages even have breakable walls/floors which the player can smash the opponent through which will lead them to different areas of the stage. 8. Tekken Tag Tournament 2 has a few various stereotypes, but they dont seem to be made racially offensive. An example is some of the characters featured in the game, one of which is a character named Marshall Law, who is highly based off of famous movie actor and martial artist Bruce Lee. Another stereotyped character is the character Ganryu, whose appearance is based off of Sumo Wrestlers, but not to the point of it being offensive. Personally I dont believe the stereotypes are bad and in fact I like the variety of characters as it brings many different, enjoyable personalities to the game. 9. Tekken Tag Tournament 2 leaves many great memories for me as I am a huge fan of the Tekken series because, as a fighting game fan I like to play all of the various fighting game series available with their different gameplay styles and stories, which consists from since I was at a very small age, where the first fighting game I really got into was Tekken, and Ive played every instalment since as I fight a lot of enjoyment out of it and I have enjoyed every single character they have used in the games as can be seen below. 10. Five Nights at Freddy's is a psychological horror strategy based game released in 2014, the first game in a Quadrilogy of games, the fourth of which is to be released on Halloween day, 2015. Although there appears to be a small amount of narrative and information readily available, there is a in-depth story behind this small, indie horror game. Throughout each of the 5 nights, the player will receive a voice mail message from a previous night guard. These will start out as instructive and friendly, and explain the mechanics of the game, such as the doors, lights, and animatronics, which are apparently left on a free roam feature at night. However, as the nights progress, it becomes apparent that there is something more than a free roam feature causing these animatronics to animate, as they become progressively more insistent on reaching the player in the guard room, becoming more active and having more animatronics attempt to pursue the player for unknown reasons. 11. The gameplay consists of the player being placed inside an office of a pizzeria in which their job consists of surveying the various animatronics around the pizzeria through some cameras which are stationed in various rooms and places. The animatronics will eventually start to move around various rooms of the pizzeria in an effort to get to the player. The player must stop them by keeping an eye on which rooms the animatronics are in and making sure they cant get in the office by closing the doors when they get too close, the only problem is that there is a limit to the electrical power through the pizzeria (the pizzeria itself has been run down for a while) and doing things such as viewing the camera, checking the lights and closing the doors to prevent the animatronics from entering costs power as shown in the bottom percentage and if the said percentage reaches zero percent, the entire power supply shuts down and the animatronics are free to kill the player, who now has no defence. As the week progresses the difficulty vastly increases each night which gives a tremendous challenge for the player. 12. When the player begins each night they are greeted via phone messages by an unnamed character which has been nicknamed as Phone Guy as he does not provide his own name. Although the phone rings, the message left behind is clearly pre-recorded. These messages are instructive to the player and can be viewed as the games version of a tutorial, as on the first night the animatronics are not a danger until the conversation has ended. Phone Guy instructs the player on the game mechanics, such as the relevance of the power bar, cameras, lights, and enemies. As well as this, the Phone Guy is one of two ways the story is developed throughout the game, the other being news paper articles and rule boards. He continues to explain that the animatronics are dangerous, that they will kill the player, and references that many others before him, and the player, have died during their jobs. He also gives relevant backstory such as The Bite of 87, and helpful advice when being caught. He is the only spoken voice throughout the game, and the only helpful and friendly character. 13. Five Nights at Freddys runs on a simple engine that runs smoothly on windows through steam, as it is an indie game. The game was initially released for windows computers on August 8, 2014; although the game was also later released for IOS and Android users, it did not run as smoothly, with delayed animations and numerous crashes. However, the two different versions of platforms produced unique differences in story, such as the power outage death lacking the same animation. There are also two additional modes within the game, which are the 6th night and the 7th night. The 6th night is a continuation from the previous 5 nights with increased difficulty, and completing this unlocks the 7th night. The 7th night is a custom night, in which the player can choose the difficulty of each animatronic, ranging from 1 to 20. There is also a 4/20 mode, which is the highest difficult in which the game can be played and is regarded the biggest challenge the player can get for the game. 14. Common codes and conventions used within Five Nights at Freddy's include: Power bar - This limits the player in defending themselves and increases tension and reflexes, and increases panic when many sources of power are being used at once. Defence Mechanisms - These include door and light buttons, which are the players only form of defence, and creates a strategic side for the game. Screen Disruption - If an animatronic begins to move, all of the cameras nearby will display static until the animatronic has changed rooms. Clock - This clock represents the amount of time the player is requires to survive. It starts at 12am and ends at 6am, however as each of the nights continue, the time between hours increases, which in turn increases difficulty. Death Jump-scare - This creates a shock, as not only is it the only time you see the animatronic characters move (with the exception OF the character Foxy), it is also accompanied by a sped up scream of a small child. 15. The most common stereotype with Five Nights at Freddys is that it is heavily based on the company Chuck E Cheese and its chain of restaurants. This is due to the act that Chuck E Cheese is a pizza based restaurant with multiple moving animatronics as entertainment, very similar to which is seen in this game. In addition to this is the stereotypical haunting/possessing of items. This is due to the fact that the animatronics are hinted to be haunted by the ghosts of 5 murdered children, which is a popular theory. Personally, I do not find these stereotypes to be bad, on the contrary I see them as adding to the game to create a unique experience in comparison to the stereotypical Horror game Spin Offs such as the popular Slender games that dominated the indie horror industry. 16. Overall, although simple in nature, I believe Five Nights at Freddy's is an amazing game. It is unique in style as there are not many successful games like it, the play on childhood psychological fears is a brilliant twist, and although it is not easy to find, the story is relatively captivating. I personally believe there should have been more of a challenge within the game other than the power bar, however this was remedied in the sequels, and that the story should have been clearer rather than a one-off chance of spotting the articles in order. I am looking forward to the 4th game in the franchise. 17. No More Heroes is a Action-Adventure Hack & Slash game which revolves around a person named Travis Touchdown, a wisecracking guy who is into things such as anime and pro wrestling. After he buys a beam katana in an auction online he has no money left, so, after meeting a women named Sylvia Christel, he is convinced to assassinate another assassin for money. After he kills him however he finds out that Sylvia is part of an organization called the United Assassins Association, which holds a giant ranking board of the top assassins around the world. As Travis has killed the former 10th rank of the board, he is now the new number 10 rank and now there will be other assassins around the world looking to kill him and take his place on the leaderboard. Travis, now having no other choice, decides that he is going to take out all the other assassins ranked above him and become the Rank 1 assassin. 18. The gameplay of No More Heroes consists of the player hunting the assassin down via going through multiple stages which usually consists of fighting through waves of various enemies to reach the finish. Travis can fight enemies through various ways, the main way by his beam katana, which will eventually need to be recharged as it runs out of energy, but the player can get various upgrades for his beam katana throughout the game which increase damage, energy and other options. Other ways of fighting include the ability to perform a variety of pro wrestling moves which most of the time will stun the enemies, allowing the player to attack them further whilst their down and perform more damage. Another ability for the player is the ability to use a slot machine at various times throughout the game which can give the player abilities such as a rage mode where for a limited amount of time Travis can attack enemies with a lot more increased damage. Usually at the end of a stage the player will have a boss battle to defeat, all of them varying in difficulty and playstyle. 19. The game also has a free roam mode where the player can freely explore the fictional city of Santa Destroy of where the game takes place, Travis owns a modified scooter where they can drive around the city a lot easier, although the player is free to roam around on foot. Outside of missions there are various activities the player can do during free roam; there are side missions in which the player has to do various part time jobs in which they can earn money which can be spent on things such as katana upgrades, new pro wrestling moves, more advanced weapon combos and clothing. Some parts during the game however require certain amounts of money in order to progress so this can be a necessity for the player. 20. The game runs on its own unique engine that was designed specifically for the game. The game was released on December 6, 2007 for Nintendo Wii, with many of the elements within the game, such as swinging the beam katana, eligible for use with the Wiimote. The game later got remastered as No More Heroes: Heroes' Paradise, which upgraded the graphics for the game and included new elements such as more optional Boss battles for the player to take on, it was released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on April 15th 2010. A sequel for the game, No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle, was released for the Nintendo Wii on January 26th 2010. 21. Common codes and conventions used within No More Heroes include: Retro Throwbacks The game has multiple throwbacks to old entertainment media such as having some of the powerups within the game shown in an 8bit format, similar to the retro video games of the time. Another throwback is Traviss beam katana is a clear reference to the famous lightsabers from the Star Wars franchise. Power bar The games beam katana has a power bar which regularly goes down as the player fights enemies. Eventually if the player loses all his energy he will need to quickly recharge it. Plot-Twists The game has numerous plot twists that greatly changes the emotions of the plot throughout the game. For example one of the characters Travis interacts with is a character called Henry (seen in the picture below). Henry is a very quiet character who has unknown motives and is very reserved. After the player defeats the 1st rank and becomes the top assassin he gets confronted by Henry, who reveals himself to be Traviss brother who Travis has never known, he then challenges him to a battle to the death. 22. No More Heroes is one of my favourite action games of all time, I find that it has an amazing, original plot, a good cast of characters, all of which have a wide range of personality and amazing gameplay, which is consistent yet has a giant range of playstyles for the player to experiment with. I personally believe this is a very overlooked game and I hope a third instalment comes in the near future. 23. 1. http://d28xlskrkqci73.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Tekken-Tag-Tournament-2.jpg 2. http://static1.1.sqspcdn.com/static/f/721581/21210413/1390612579377/Tekken-Tag-Tournament-2-Screens- 41.jpg?token=NcjgK4GV4xl%2FY1q55xitVYn43G0%3D 3. http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/tekken/images/c/c2/TTT2_Crow.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20120918000003&path-prefix=en 4. https://www.bandainamcoent.eu/static/2012/08/14/customize-mode- jpg?9d94233f4a21cf384bf06359d2946016a59f2f33134495895878274f0541c9983783eea19bf24d1945&766a5bc988140fcf3bd966c1992e3f73&adc640e3 60 5. http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/tekken/images/3/3e/Tekken_Tunes_Menu.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20120914105252&path-prefix=en 6. http://i2.cdnds.net/12/38/618x347/gaming_tekken_tag_tournament_2_3.jpg 7. http://86bb71d19d3bcb79effc-d9e6924a0395cb1b5b9f03b7640d26eb.r91.cf1.rackcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/tekken-tag-tournament-2-roster- wallpaper-646x403.jpg 8. http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/tekken/images/1/16/13-tekken-tag-tournament-2-10.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20130819210851&path-prefix=en 9. http://www.fightersgeneration.com/nx3/news/tekkentag2-newstage5.jpg 10. http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/tekken/images/3/3e/Heavenly_GardenTT2.png/revision/latest?cb=20120914150200&path-prefix=en 11. http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/tekken/images/e/ec/Marshall-law-tekken-tag-tournament-2-picture.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20130106005035&path- prefix=es 12. http://www.fightabase.com/images/chars/game/ganryu-306.jpg 13. http://d2oah9q9xdinv5.cloudfront.net/cache/images/games/1/31/30118/crop_940x529/screen01.png 14. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9pfxtHeAYAU/U-5RAfLAM4I/AAAAAAAABsA/DFnKyebstCY/s1600/teddy.png 15. http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/545260203923825406/43057F35665E4D27CD0ACBA313A612D25BB65519/ 16. http://images6.fanpop.com/image/answers/556000/556381_1420523499788_221_229.jpg 17. http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140906040530/freddy-fazbears-pizza/images/a/a7/0-0-0-0_tryhardmode.jpg 18. http://i.ytimg.com/vi/x0TpXdHGpQM/maxresdefault.jpg 19. http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140827063313/freddy-fazbears-pizza/images/6/60/I_didnt_want_to_work_here_anyway.png 20. http://i.imgur.com/3c3NylC.png 21. http://www.myplaystationwallpapers.net/1920x1080/no-more-heroes-01-artwork-wallpaper/ 22. https://0verhyped.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/no-more-heroes-tgsh.jpg 23. http://insomnia.ac/reviews/wii/nomoreheroes/screenshot6.jpg 24. http://screenrobot.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/no-more-heroes1.jpg 25. http://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/original/9/93169/1379723-tradingcardno147.png 26. http://images.alphacoders.com/382/38223.jpg 27. http://orig11.deviantart.net/fd32/f/2012/259/0/0/no_more_heroes_ranks_final_by_faretis-d5ev9fg.jpg 28. http://www.deviantart.com/art/TEKKEN-TAG-TOURNAMENT-2-179674833