Tuesday, 25 February 2020

Case Study: Assassins Creed 3: Liberation




TEXT
Genre: Action-Adventure
Avatar: Focuses on the life of African-French Assassin Aveline de Grandpre. There are three persons: the Assassin, the Lady and the Slave. There are differences between their navigational skills, strength, speed and blending options.
World: This was set in 18th century New Orleans (towards the end of the French and Indian War. The game takes place in open world and is presented in the third person perspective.
Goal: The goal of the game is to stop the Templars gaining control over 18th century New Orleans, which leads her to seeking out and eliminating the mysterious leader of the group in their operations.
Multiplayer: This consists of players tapping nodes on maps, using different characters to capture bases and collect supplies.

INDUSTRY 
Ownership and Franchise

The publisher of Assassin's Creed 3 Liberation is Ubisoft. Ubisoft Entertainment SA is a French video game company headquartered in Montreuil. It has published several games such as Assassin's Creed, Rayman, Just Dance etc. As of March 2018, Ubisoft is the largest publicly traded game company in the Americas and Europe in terms of revenue and market capitalisation.
Assassin's Creed is an action-adventure stealth video game franchise created by Patrice Désilets, Jade Raymond and Corey May. It was developed and published by Ubisoft. It is inspired by the novel Almut written by Slovenian writer Vladmir Bartol. The first game was released in 2007 and has featured 11 main games in total, the most recent being 2018 Assassin's Creed Odyssey.

Production/Distribution/Format
Assassin's Creed was released on: 
PlayStation Vita in October 2012
Liberation HD PlayStation 3 in January 2014
Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 in January 2014
Liberations Remastered PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in March 2019
The game was released in North America, Europe, Australasia and Japan.
The game is only available in psychical form which means you can't play online and have to buy the game.


Marketing and Advertising 
How was game advertised ( trailers, posters, articles etc.) and what elements of the game/format were featured and focused upon and why?


Reception
There were mixed reviews for Assassin's Creed. Based on 71 reviews, the game scored 70/100. Shaun Mclnnis, a reviewer for GameSpot, gave the game a score of 6.5/10. He praised the protagonist as "...a woman born from the romance between a wealthy father and a slave mother, someone who has overcome her uncertain upbringing to find a new life in the Assassin Brotherhood". He also praised the setting and writing. However. one fault he found was that the game "squanders its most unique ideas...Liberation takes little advantage of its own narrative format" and that the plot is "largely aimless and hastily delivered".

Regulation
Summarise the role of the organisation responsible for regulating the game's content and giving it a relevant age rating.

The game received an 18 rating from PEGI due to violent content that is seen as gross as certain acts may be sen as horrific methods of killing.


Consider the impact of digitally convergent media platforms on global production, distribution and circulation:
It is significant that the Assassin’s Creed III:
Liberation hand held game could be linked to the full PS3 console version of the game (owning both versions would unlock additional game content). This use of convergence is relevant in terms of promotion/marketing and circulation.
The internet/Wi-Fi functionality of the PS Vita allows users opportunities to download additional content (DLC) such as weapons, characters and “skins” or outfits.It also affords users the chance to engage in multiplayer versions of the game. These features promote gamer engagement and identification with the game.
Convergence - The merging of multiple media forms into one platform - Assassin's Creed being available on different devices.

Thursday, 13 February 2020

Production Analysis

Self-Reflection on SideKick TV Show Poster
My TV show was inspired by Fox show Star. Two girls who were best friends become enemies in the music industry and face a lot of drama and unexpected murder.
For my poster I tried to pick a font that would not overshadow the picture but match the genre. The colour of my font i.e. the title, the reviews are in black and white to contrast the background. The release date, the broadcaster, day and time its showing are in red so that it stands out on the poster. It brings the audiences attention to the important information.
I picked the main image from a range of pictures I had taken. I picked this picture because I felt that it portrayed the emotion and matched the storyline of the TV show.
I also used the black and white theme to show that there are two different sides to the story but although they are contrasting colours, they still go well together. This represents the relationship between my two main characters. I think my editing of the background (making it black and white) worked out really well because I then able to create a theme of the poster.
I think I would improve the quality of the work. I think there are aspects that could look better for example by editing the background, making black and white. There are some mistakes. 

Wednesday, 5 February 2020

Computer Games


1.  How have video games changed through history? 

Create a timeline highlighting major changes of each 

decade from 1970s-2020 


1972 - Pong
1978 - Space Invaders
1980 - Pacman
1983 - Manic Miner
1984 - Elite
1985 - Super Mario Bros
1989 - Gameboy
1990 - Monkey Island
1991 - Sonic the Hedgehog
2000 - Sims
2001 - GTA (Grand Theft Auto)
2003 - Xbox One
2005 - Xbox 360
2006 - Wii/ Wii Sports
2007 - Guitar Band
2009 - Angry Bird
2011 - Minecraft
2013 - Flappy Bird/ PS4/ The Last of Us
2016 - Pokemon GO!
2020 - PS5


2. What is the PSVita and when was it released? What was it created to compete against? How?

3. What do the following terms mean?
  • MMORPG



    AUGMENTED
    REALITY



    PERSISTENT
    WORLDS


    CRPG


    AVATOR