The Sims 2 on PC

In the The Sims 2, you direct your Sims over a lifetime and mix their genes from one generation to the next. You set your Sims' goals in life; fame, fortune, family, romance or knowledge. Give them a long, successful existence or leave their lives in shambles.

Take them to extremes, from getting busted to seeing a ghost, from marrying an alien to writing a great novel. Unleash your creativity with the all-new Create-A-Sim, new building options, and the new in-game movie camera. Get ready to mix their genes, fulfill their dreams, and push them to extremes. What do you want to do with your Sims' lives?

This blog is going to analyse the visual style and game-play of Sims 2 on PC.

Visual Style. . .

This part of my blog is going to analyse and describe the visual style of the game. I'm going to start off with the style of graphics used within the game.The style of graphics that are used in Sims 2 are colourful cartoony graphics. They are 3D so the game looks realistic but not up to very high standards. The game designers has done this to enhance the game play so when playing the game it feels as real as it can. As for the characters they are made to look like a real person. The only downfall is that even though thing look realist its still cartoony. Maybe they will improve this in the next Sims 3.

The Sims 2 has different games modes, you can play free-play, this is where you can create your own town, your own house and charters or there are 3 re-made towns to play that include a story line. These consist of Pleasantview which is based on 25 years after the town in the original The Sims game, Strangetown which is based on the supernatural and is loosely connected with Strangetown and lastly Veronaville which is based on Shakespearean characters. As for the environment in these towns they are all pretty similar house wise, there are normal houses with gardens. I think the games designers has created different environments in each game mode to keep the player interested as if there was just free -play the gamers could get bored. Below shows a picture of a town on The Sims.

As for characters in The Sims it's endless, as you can create multiple characters and switch to play other character at any time. I think the game designer has done this so the gamer is limited to what they can do, as its their town, if you want loads of people living in your town then do so. However they are some set characters in the pre-built neighbourhoods like Romeo and Juliet in Veronaville. There are no enemies in the games unless you create one, however characters can fall out with each other if they don't socialise regularly.

Through out the game cut-scenes appear when performing specific tasks. When a Sim proposes to another Sim a cut-scene of the two characters are shows celebrating or maybe not depending on what the response is. Other cut-scenes appear when performing 'woohoo', when a Sim gives birth and when the baby grows up. The pre-made towns each have their own cut-scene when you first entire the town that shows what the town is like for example when entering Strangetown a cut-scene of an alien abduction is shown.

Game-play. . .
This part of the blog is going to analyse and describe the game play of The Sims 2. I'm going to discus certain topics and how they are used within the game to enhance the playing experience. Firstly going to describe the interaction model, this is how we use the character to play they game. We can move the Sim by clicking on an object to interact it so we can't fully control the Sims, I don't this enhances the game-play as to get full use of the game you should be able to move the Sim better yourself, like you should be possible to be able to move limbs separately. 

The Sims 2 does not have a defined final goal; the game play is open-ended. However Sims can have life goals. wants and fears, the fulfilment of which can produce both positive or negative outcomes. These wants and fears don't have to be for filled, but if player want to for fill them then it gives them more stuff to do on the game. Due to there not being any goals there isn't anyway of scoring or winning the game as the game is endless. 

The games designer of The Sims 2 game had tried enhancing the game-play by using realistic sound effects, like when your Sims flushes the toilet, you can here a real toilet flushing. The use of these realistic sound effect makes the game feel more real and almost feels like you are inside the game doing what ever your Sims is supposed to be doing. 

The addiction level to Sims is very high, the more you play it the more you want to do more things on their. Due to the Sims having expansion pack makes it even more addictive. The expansion packs add more items, houses, towns/cities and more characters. The expansion packs include university, night-life, open for business, pets, seasons, bon voyage, free time and apartment life.

The Sims don't have any on-line play or multi-player function. however users can download special items like furniture, ready built houses or towns. This enhances the game-play due to the players being able to have more items to use and new houses to decorate and in the long run more stuff for you to do. 


Overall, all the above has effected the visual style and game-play of The Sims 2 on PC.

Harvest Moon on Nintendo DS

 

Harvest Moon is a farm simulation video game for the Nintendo DS. The player plays a young boy who lives with his friend Takakura on a farm in Forget-Me-Not-Valley. 

The Witch Princess conjured up a prank that went too far! The player has to seek out all 101 Harvest Sprites as you plant fields, tend livestock and find the right wife to share your farming dreams with! As the player find the missing Harvest Sprites they can help with chores around the farm or unlock various activities or important information. 

This blog is going to analyse the visual style and game-play of Harvest Moon on Nintendo DS.

Visual Style . . .

This part of my blog is going to analyse and describe the visual style of the game. To start with I'm going to analyse and describe the style of graphics. the graphics on Harvest Moon are also simple, they are almost exactly the same as the game Pokemon on Game Boy Advanced as you can see below (Harvest Moon the the left, Pokemon to the right). The game designer may have done this to maybe replace the game Pokemon that was very popular back in the day. The game designers has also use bright colours to make the game more appealing for people to play.

As for the environment of the game it just consist really of lots and lots of farm land. In this farm land you can grow crops, raise animals or collect building materials (fodder, lumber (wood), stone and golden lumber). The town also consists of many places you can visit like the poultry farm, yodel ranch, supermarket, blacksmith saibara, carpenter gotz and church. I think the games designer has added these places to visit to break the game up a little so it just doesn't all consist of a farm which could become very repetitive and boring if played for a long time. 

Harvest Moon on DS includes many characters, as it would take me forever to name them all I'm just going to outline some of the main characters. All ordinary eligible marriage valley girls Celia, Flora, Lumina, Muffy and Nami. These girls are all available for your player to marry. All magical eligible marriage valley girls Leia, Harvest Goddess, Keira and Witch Princess. These can also be proposed to but are more special than the ordinary girls. All mineral town eligible marriage girls Ann, Elli, Karen, Mary and Popuri. These also can be proposed to but they come from a different town to yourself. All valley rivals Carter, Griffin, Marlin and Rock, these are all the enemies in tour Forget-Me-Not town. All mineral town rivals Cliff, Grey, Kai, Trent (Doctor) and Rick, these are also your enemies but come from another town.There are also ordinary villagers but there are to many to name. I think the game designer has produced many characters so your character isn't just farming all the time, he can socialise and get to know all of the people and even find the girl of his dreams. However i do find it bad how you can only be a boy in this game and you have to marry a girl, this shouldn't be limited to this as player may get offended and may not want to play a boy. Below is a picture of most of the characters. 

The game includes a cut scenes at the beginning of the game which shows the with Princess curse all the sprites. I think the was a good idea for the games designer as the game is quite complex and many things can be done while playing the games, so having the cut-scene gives a insight on what to expect from the game. 

Game-play. . . 

This part of the blog is going to analyse and describe the game play of Harvest Moon DS. I'm going to discus certain topics and how they are used within the game to enhance the playing experience. Firstly going to describe the goals of the game. Harvest Moon on DS has no specific goals that you need to complete however if you want to marry a certain girl then there is certain things you have to do to make them love you for example give them presents. You could set your own goals in your head if you want to make your farm really good, depending on how good your farm is the more likely you will get a girl to marry you. I think the game designer has done this to enhance the game play so the game is open to all ages of people, for younger children they may just want to farm they might not be actually bothered by marrying a girl, where as an older 'gamin geek' may want to achieve everything and get married to a girl.

As for your character there quite a bit you can do, as you run your character around the farming town you cane make friends, cook, mine, fish and hire sprites. By making friends with any of the villagers you can activate special events within the valley, you can do this by giving them gifts, talking to them daily and participating in festivals. To be able to start cooking you need the 2nd upgrade of your house, in this upgrade you can watch channel 2 on your TV where you can purchase a kitchen and all matching kitchen utensils. Once all this is purchased you can start cooking food. Another way to make money on Harvest Moon you can mine, you have to visit the excavation site in the north-est corner of the valley. Once inside you have to extremely careful when mining because your stamina levels will lower each time you mine. When you first start the game you will not own a fishing pole, to get a free one you can visit Galen. The valley consists of 7 different places to fish, each place contains different sizes of species of fish which change as the seasons change, below shows a map of the different fishing areas. In the game there are 10 teams of sprites, three of these teams won't be able to help you as they are busy doing other tasks, however 7 of the teams which have 12 sprites each can help perform a task so you don't have to. I think the games designer has done this to enhance the game play to break up the farming so it doesn't feel like your doing the same thing every time you play the game.

The sound design on Harvest Moon on DS just consist of background music which is very poor.  The music can become very repetitive and annoying as its the same music until the seasons change. This was a bad choice from the games designer, I tend to turn the music off or lower the volume down as it really is annoying music. 

Harvest Moon DS is not that difficult to play, but it does depend on what you may want to do on the games. If you want to marry a girl, so she can help out on your farm can be difficult but it all depends on who you want to marry. For example the ordinary valley girls are easy to make them fall in love with you than the magical valley girls. The game designer has done this to enhance the game so the game is open to more players, hard core gamers will probably want to marry the more difficult girls where as the no so harcore gamers might choose to not marry anyone or marry on of the easier girls.

The game can be very addictive, the more you play the more you want to do and the better farm you want to create. However if you don't mix the game up by maybe fishing, cooking or mining occasionally the game can become very repetitive which in the long run may bore you. The game designer has done this to enhance the game so player don't get bored of playing, however if still played for a long time it could still be come boring.


Overall, all the above has effected the visual style and game-play of Harvest Moon on DS.

Animal Crossing on Nintendo Wii

Game Cover

Animal Crossing allows you to step into a living, breathing world where seasons pass in real time and your destiny is yours to create.

Enjoy a new house, a new neighbourhood, and some new friends. You can try your luck in a Fishing Tourney, collect shells, or participate in special events and holidays. You can communicate with friends and family; travel to the new city and get a Mii makeover, and much more.The world is your sparkling, fresh canvas.

This blog is going to analyse the visual style and game-play of Animal Crossing on the Nintendo Wii.

Visual Style . . .

This part of my blog is going to analyse and describe the visual style of the game. I'm going to start off with the style of graphics used within the game. The graphics in the game are very simple, almost cartoon like. The designer may have done this to make the game more appealing to everyone rather than just 'gaming geek's'. The simple graphics will also interest younger children as it makes the game easier to play as there is not much going on in the background. The designer have used so many vibrant colours which boosts up the overall design of the games as it does look very appealing, almost beautiful as you can see in the image below.

Due to the wii being know for its  abysmal graphics, it wasn't surprising to see that they haven't improved the graphics off the water effects. As you can see below, the water is appalling for a 7th generation game.

Below is a link with more information on the graphics used in Animal Crossing: 

http://www.wiisworld.com/wii-reviews/Animal-Crossing-City-Folk.html

As for the animal crossing environment, its very realistic. You have got many trees that grow fruit, houses, shops, a town hall, the beach and even a bus stop to catch the bus into town. I think the game designer has tried to make the town as realistic as possible so its more fun to play, however there is only so much fun you can have in the real word, and only so many chores you can complete in real life, so this may bore players after a long time of playing the game.

There are many characters on Animal Crossing, you have all the other animals that live in your town, however these can up and leave your town whenever they like. You also have Tom Nook who own the convenience store, Pelly who works in the Town Hall, Cooper and Booker who are the cordial guards, the Mayor, KK.Slider the musician, Bathers who is the museum curator, Mabel and Sable who own the clothing shop and the only enemy in the whole game which is Mr Resetti - shown to the left. Mr Resetti shows up if you don't save your game or you deliberative change the time of your console to fast forward time. He will give you a talking to so you won't forget to save or cheat the game. None of these characters are player able, you are the only character you are in control of. To make the game more interesting an interactive the games designer has made it available for friends to like there towns together, so you can go visit your friends town. I think the games designer has done this to make the game more interesting for players as there is only a certain amount of chores in real life you can complete, once they are done there would be nothing to do.

Cinematic sequences through out the game have stepped up a notch, due to a graphical improvement but only a small one. Through out the game there are two main cut scenes, these are when you first start the game, your inside a taxi and being driven to your new town and the other cut scene is when you catch the bus into the city. I think the games designer has done this so the gamers isn't bored while waiting for the game to load, it gives the gamers something to watch and read which should make the time go quicker while waiting. 

Game-play. . .

This part of the blog is going  to analyse and describe the game play  of Animal Crossing: City Folk. I'm going to discus the following topics and how they are used within the game to enhance the playing experience.

Animal crossing has no means of goals or missions to accomplish, the only goal Animal Crossing has are those that are set by yourself. If you want to become rich and have a big house or if your the leisurely type and would rather catch fish or bugs it entirely up to you. This has enhanced the game play as it can suit all the different players, as in some games that do have goals like 'Sims' players sometimes get board when they cant complete a certain goal. 

The narrative of Animal Crossing is a life simulation game, doing day to day real life activities.The player lives in a rural village that's populated with anthropomorphic animals. The Animal Crossing game is synced with the Wii system clock and calendar, which allows the game to be to be played in real time, which then effects the in game events like the time of day and seasons. This enhances the game play as every new season brings something new to the game, whether if its snow on the ground or blossom on the trees.

The difficulty is all down to the player due to the player deciding what they want to do, as there are no specific goals to complete. The gamer can make the games as difficult as they they or as easy they like. An example of the difficulty level could be to raise 1,000,000 bells and donate it to the town so that a windmill or lighthouse is built - this could be seen as difficult as it will take a long time to raise 1,000,000 bells. this enhances the game play as the game can suit any gamer, if it a hardcore gamer then they can set the goals high or if its just an young child wanting to have fun then can set the goals as low as they want.

Animal Crossing offers many rewards, some benefit the town and some are for the gamers benefit. The town rewards consist of a new bridge, a fountain and a windmill/lighthouse. Each of these rewards can be receive by donating a certain amount of money to the town at the Town Hall. The gamer awards consist of tool upgrades - golden shovel, fishing rod, net, axe, slingshot and watering can. These also can be achieve by doing various tasks for example catching every specie of fish rewards you with a golden fishing rod. In a way the rewards links closely to goals, as the gamer can work for something to get something in return. Having these rewards in place enhances the gaming experience as it makes the gamer want to peruse the certain task to receive these very rare items. 

The game mechanics of Animal Crossing are pretty simple as there is no way you can complete the game. Even if you unlock all the locked items you can still carry on with your day to day tasks on the game. The game is never ending which means gamers can play it forever!

Multi-play on animal crossing is not applicable, however you can play with your other friends through a WiFi network. I think the games designer has done this to enhance the playing experience as there is only so much stuff you can do on the game so talking to your friends can pass the time away on the game. 

Below is a link to some more information of the game-play of Animal Crossing: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Crossing:_City_Folk 


Overall, all the above has effected the visual style and game-play of Animal Crossing: City Folk on the Nintendo Wii.