LO2 Review Analysis

Review Analysis for Need for Speed: Rivals

Genre

The Genre of this game is a Racing Video Game. We know this as it is a car game do the reviewers didn't need to say this in their reviews.

Target Audience

The reviewer Matt Edwards doesn’t mention a Target Audience in his review. Although, he does mention that the PEGI rating is 7+. He also mentions that the game is for around 1-6 players. 

The video reviewer also didn't mention the target audience within his review. He did say though that you can play with anyone from around the world and that you can just join in different races. 

Narrative

The narrative of the game is to complete different parts of the game by completing challenges and races. There are many different parts to the game and as a racer you have to complete these challenges, as the police you are still racing but you are racing to catch the racers.

The video reviewer says that their is no narrative which he thinks is better as the story would get in the way. He did however, say that each chapter is structured around a 'speed list' which is just a chain of different objectives.

Characters

The reviewer says that the game can be played by the user either being a racer or the police. If you are the police then you get to chase the racers and if you are a racer you get to try and outrun the police and also race other users and you can also play multiplayer.

The reviewer didn't really mention much about the characters just as the magazine reviewer didn't this is because the game doesn't really contain any characters its all based around cars and not people.

Gameplay

The reviewer says that you can play the game as either a racer or as the Police. When you are a racer then you are notorious and try to get away from the police and also race against other players either in career mode (story mode) or you can drive around individually. When you are a police officer you have to chase racers when they are racing and to catch them the player has to crash into the racer to but them.

The video reviewer says that Need For Speed: Rivals is a combination of Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit and also Need For Speed: Most Wanted and in a lot of ways features all the best of both of these games. He says that the handling of the cars in the game is really good even on cars that have been struggled with before in other games. He says that the fictional Redview County's views also make the gameplay even better with its long winding roads making chases go on for longer. He also says that there are different events such as time trials and races that players can get involved in really easily. However he does think that being in pursuit is the best event and the handling of the vehicles is really easy and he says that even new players would pick it up after only a few games.

Platforms

This game is available on many different platforms such as PS4, which is what the reviewer has played it on, but it can also be played on the computer and also X-Box. 

The video reviewer didn't mention which platforms that the game can be played on but we know that it is available across a few platforms.

Personal recommendation from reviewer

The reviewer would recommend this game to anyone who enjoys these fast paced racing games.

The video reviewer gave the game a rating of 8/10 which isn't bad and is a great personal recommendation. He also says that the game is great and gave it a list of pros and cons. Which would help buyers and other players to decide whether or not it is worth it.

LO1- Game Analysis Mario Kart 8

Game Title- Mario Kart 8
Platform Tested- Wii U

Genre

The style of game is a family car game. The genre that it belongs to is the racing genre. It shows stylistic conventions as it contains many different types of cars and race tracks which shows the genre. It sits within the genre well compared to other titles as it automatically shows that it is a children's or family racing game what with the cartoon characters. Also it sits well in its genre as there are not many racing games that have characters and so it is unique in its own way.

LO1- Game Analysis Smule Magic Piano

Game Title- Magic Piano
Platform tested- Mobile Phone

Genre:

The style of this is a music game. It belongs to the music genre. It shows stylistic conventions through playing different genres of music when a gamer is playing and if the player gets it right then the song that they are playing will be right and the tune will sound right. In comparison to other games within this genre I believe that it is one of the best as the player can play all sorts of songs such as the new chart hits as well as classical music whereas the game piano tiles which is in high competition with this game, you can only play some of the classic songs and there are no chart hits or other music that people are into.

Narrative:

There is no story to this game as all a player does is play songs like they would on a piano. As the game doesn't have a story line it doesn't affect the gameplay at all. There are also no characters within this game and so there is no interaction with them. Again because there is no storyline it doesn't connect to the target audience in these aspects but it does however connect to them in other ways.

Production Process:


Characterisation:

There are no characters within this game. So the game doesn't appeal in this way to the target audience and also because of this the characterisation doesn't match the conventions of the genre.

Gameplay:

The challenge of the game is to hit all the correct notes and gain points which then helps the player to progress onto different levels of the game. Another challenge of the game is to complete the daily challenges everyday to compete with other people that play the game. Every song has three different difficulty levels which are easy, medium and hard, this is another challenge as on each difficulty you can earn a maximum of three stars which also boosts your points. One final challenge is to earn the awards and trophies within the game. The level of challenge differs depending on what song the gamer has decided to play. The game engages the target audience because of the amount of different songs and levels that there are to play. As there is no narrative the gameplay isn't affected by this. The gameplay does however evolve depending on what level of difficulty that the player is playing on.

Target Audience:

The game is targeted at anyone between the ages of 5 to late 20s-30s. The indicators of this is the difficulty levels and also some of the songs that are featured within the game. The game appeals directly to the target audience by telling them the latest chart toppers that have been featured within the game.

Platform:

This game is available on Mobile Phones and Tablets. The game is suited to both of these platforms as it is a game that could only be played on a touch screen device.                                                                  

LO1- Game Analysis of Episode

Game Title- Episode
Platform Tested- Mobile


Genre:

The style of this game is role-play. And it belongs in the Role-play genre otherwise known as RPG. This game shows stylistic conventions of the genre as there are many different stories that a player can go through and they have to play as a certain character in most of the stories and they have to choose how the story goes at different points of the story. In some of the stories you do get to choose who you are and the type of clothes you have, the type of hair, makeup and other things. It sits within the genre compared to other games of its type because it has a story which keeps people interested especially girls although it isn’t as big as other games that can be played on many other different platforms such as World of Warcraft which is a bigger more well known RPG game. 

Narrative:

There are many different stories that can be played within this game as there different people can make their own up for other users to play. A lot of the stories are either love or fame based. This appeals to the target audience because they want to be like the characters that they are playing as. The stories inform the game play because throughout the game it tells you how to do different things and gives you different options. Whatever option you pick can affect the way that the story that you are playing ends. The story affects your approach to the character and the interaction with them because of the options that you get given throughout. Depending on the option you pick the story could go in a different direction than what you originally thought. The stories connect with the target audience because the target audience want to be like the characters and want the life that they live and the relationships that they have.    

Production Process:

Someone called, Matt Gemmell on MGTwitterEngine, built this game.  The person who did the framework is called Jon Crosby on http://code.google.com/p/oauth/

Characterisation:

The characters are relevant to the target audience because there are so many different stories to choose from so they can choose who they want to be. In some of the stories though you have to be somebody that has already been chosen for you in the story. The characters have a lot of appeal to the target audience as they have lives that they want. As we know the target audience is girls. The target ages are 11-17. Many of the main characters in the game are falling in love or they are famous which appeals to the audience as they aspire to be them. I feel like the characters are very strong. Especially as they influence the audiences lives.

Gameplay:

There isn’t really a challenge in the game but there are different options that a player is given throughout the game, which can change the directions of the story in the game. There are also no levels in the game just different episodes of the same story where the player always gets different options. The game play doesn’t really evolve it stays the same throughout every story and episode that you complete.

Target Audience:

The target audience is girls aged 11-17. The thing that indicates that this game is for this target audience is the fact that all of the stories have a female lead and that they are all based around love and fame. The game episode is a lot better than most of the other games out there for girls as this is one of the only role-playing games that only really relates to girls. Granted, it isn’t as good as some of the more popular role-play games such as the World of Warcraft as it isn’t as well known and it hasn’t been developed by a popular game industry in fact it wasn’t developed by any game industry.

Platform:

This game isn’t really available on many platforms. But it is available on the computer and also on handheld devices such as tablets and mobile phones. The game is more suited to the handheld devices. It is suited to this platform because it is easy to use.