GAMEAHOLICS ANONYMOUS

GAMEAHOLICS ANONYMOUS 

World of Warcraft has been described by experts as the crack cocaine
of the gaming world.

With the addictive way games are being developed these days occasional play can soon become excessive, one of the most controversial games in this regards is World of Warcraft, whether it be soloing quests to level you're character or joining online raids of dungeons there is something for several type of gamers. It has caused several addictions in ages ranging from 15 - 40, some people even playing until they drop. Sven Rollenhagen, the author for a youth care foundation said 'There is not a single case of game addiction that we have worked with in which World of Warcraft has not played a part.' Personally I have sunk several hours into World of Warcraft's free demo up to level forty however the barrier that has stopped my from upping my playtime even higher is the price, I cant justify paying £10 a month for a game (even though I've sunk my fair share of cash into Heroes of the Storm).  People may not think that being alone isn't affecting them because they are on Teamspeak or Skype with friends, however when it comes to face to face interactions these people are severely under prepared.

Even though a gaming addiction can be a real problem there can be benefits of playing these games often. For example video games can actually improve a persons reaction time or preform as an alternative for TV or substance abuse. Gaming is also known to enhance creativity, this isn't just the modern video games but also board games or dungeons and dragons that can teach a lot of the essentials of storytelling and give a chance for social activity. So overall excessive play time on video game can cause major issues however there are also benefits to gaming, so as always everything in moderation.

Level 3 Games Design Unit 78: Digital Graphics for Computer Games Artistic Styles

Level 3 Games Design

Unit 78: Digital Graphics for Computer Games

Artistic Styles

Borderlands - Cel Shaded

The characters of Borderlands 2 (11 . 09 . 2012)

In each of the Borderlands games the developers 2K have used a cell shaded style. This unreal style matches the comedic writing and characters in the game. It has been toned up since the release of the original Borderlands which also matches the new UI that they introduced. Borderlands is quite a fast paced FPS RPG and the cel shaded graphics help it to run faster.



Tell Tale Games - Cel Shaded
Tell Tale Games often favour the cel shaded look for they're games i'm not too sure why, however it does match the unique style of game play in which you have to choose between various dialogue options to determine what happens further on in the story. The inspiration for several of their games is from several comic books like the Walking Dead or Batman, which may be why they choose this artistic design.



Far Cry - Photo Realistic

Drug fuelled flamethrower mission  

The characters and surrounding world in the Far Cry series are photo realistic, this is due to it being set on a real island and the occasionally gritty story line. Far Cry 4 is set in India so the animals exotic animals that you can encounter are realistic to match the back ground of the game. However there are several times where the main protagonist goes on several drug induced trips in which the artistic style becomes very abstract.

Tetris - Abstract

The abstract style often includes a lot of lines and geometric shapes, for example Tetris is comprised entirely of different geometrical shapes and is a very arcadey game which is often where the abstract style is found.

Heroes of the Storm Game Review

WELCOME TO THE NEXUS 

Both Teams Fight Over The Map Objective

Heroes of the Storm is unlike other games of the same genre like DOTA 2 or League of Legends for several reasons, there are currently 9 unique maps in the rotation, with two more being added on September 13th. Each map has a different objective for each team to fight over whether that be handing in gems to summon a web-weaver to push in each lane or collecting tributes to cripple your enemy's defensive structures and minions.
Heroes currently has 55 heroes with two more being introduced in September the Meta is constantly
Heroes of the Storm is one of the newest MOBAs on the scene,     changing. There are 4 different 

released on June 2nd 2015 it has recently celebrated its one year    classes in Heroes: assassins who 

anniversary. The creators of the game, Blizzard, are well known    have a low health pool but deal

for some of the most popular games in history including Starcraft  incredible damage; warriors that 

2 and World of Warcraft. Part of the charm this game has are that  have a high health pool and focus

the playable characters are taken from blizzards previous releases, on protecting they're teammates

 from the first Warcraft game all the way up to they're newest        with several crowd control abilities

game Overwatch. The core mechanics of the game are also            ;supports, that can heal, shield or
unique when compared to other games of the same genre, for        provide vision for the team; and
example when ever an enemy hero or minion is killed the entire    finally specialist who usually focus
team gains experience instead of just the one player. On average   on pushing a lane or buffing the
the length of the games is anywhere between 20 and 30 minutes    friendly team.
which is a lot shorter compared to some of the 2 hour game that
happen in DOTA, for this reason Heroes of the Storm is a lot
more suited to casual players.      

My Gaming Machine - Then and Now

My  Gaming Machine - Then and Now

PlayStation 2My first gaming system was the PlayStation 2 which was released on March 4th 2000, at this time I would have been around 7 months old and so inherited my older brother's PlayStation at the age of 4. The game format for the PlayStation was optical disk and the console had wired controllers, which consisted of 2 thumb sticks, a D-Pad, 4 buttons, and triggers. You were able to store data on both a hard drive and memory stick which had 4 MB of memory. The entire system had 32 MB of RAM which is nothing compared to the consoles these days. The PS2 allowed for multiplayer however only 2 players at a time due to there being only 2 controller ports. Something that the PS2 has that the PC actually doesn't have is a duel shock system in which the controller vibrates whenever a certain action is preformed in game. Although PS2 does have backwards compatibility it would require a internet connection in order for the system to be able to stream from the Sony base. 

PC - GladiatorMy PC the Gladiator Intel may be a slightly older model however it still vastly out preforms the PlayStation 2 on all levels. It has a 1 TB hard drive and 8 GB of RAM. Both consoles have a CD drive for disk input however PCs rarely use this any more due to online stores like Steam or Origin, on which you can quickly purchase anything. It even gives you featured and recommended games. Due to advances in wireless technology i can now play with people from all over the world online. Almost every game that comes out these days comes with an online mode. I play MOBAs a lot and on Battle.net each game is split in to regions:Europe;Americas; or Asia, this allows people to play with people you have never met before from around the world. A valuable feature of a PC is the fact that you can freely upgrade it as and when you want to whereas with a console you would have to go and buy the newest version and even then there are still limits. There has also been an introduction in VR technology recently, mostly with headset. All of these are compatible with PC.

GTA 5 on PC

GTA : San Andres on PS2