Web-Hax

Here’s two short articles I wrote as part of an assignment for a stage one Media Studies class at Open Access College. I was pleasantly surprised to learn not long afterward they (coupled together) got an A+.

IV:

In the earlier days of video games the storyline/campaign/main game mode was usually very linear in structure with specific things to be done at specific times in specific scenarios, resulting in the same or extremely similar outcome each time. There wasn’t much space to store files for games to use as resources, and machines were big and costly to produce.

Over time things started to improve, more space for consoles and hard drives meant more room for files and better quality games, visually and overall.

GTA IV has one of the largest installed (ready to play) and un installed file size to date, the equivalent to 20+ full length movies as opposed to the average of about 4-8.

This extremely large size is because of amazingly detailed textures for every single building and model in the entire city.

One of the best additions to modern games so far is the use of realistic physics, demonstrated by what is referred to as “ragdoll” physics engines – Because the player’s model falls realistically like a ragdoll compared to the animation being pre-defined.

GTA IV utilises ragdoll physics extremely well through the use of the amazing “Euphoria” Engine, which as well as letting ragdolls move realistically allows them to be aware of their surroundings and react accordingly. (eg grabbing onto ledges as they’re being knocked or falling)

This a major improvement in comparison to the previous physics engines used in GTA 3, Vice City & San Andreas.

As well as the highly realistic physics the game also gives each NPC (non playable character) its own personality with different reactions based on its model additionally each NPC will do a different task unique to that person.

The use of realistic physics is also present with car damage, depending on the weight and size of an object the dents will have a different density and placement each time.

As a result of every collision in the game being different and having so many variables the player will never experience the same outcome twice.

Another highly used addition to newer videogames that’s also popular is sandbox or open-ended games, meaning the story or game never ends.

An example of a popular sandbox, or open ended game franchise is The Sims. Rather than the game ending when a players character dies, the game continues as the player has the choice to continue playing as other “Sims”, usually a family member or roommate – or if none remain, as a sim in another household. As a result of the use of open ended gaming where the player can play at his own pace, and with no specific objectives (usually) the game can literally last forever.

Grand theft auto IV has it’s own unique sandbox aspect, in GTA IV the missions are presented to the user via a location on a map of “Liberty City” (A GTA version of new york city featuring many landmarks with accurately scaled buildings. ) and the player can do them as they like, in whichever order they like. At many times in the game the player has a choice of doing one objective in a mission or another, each objective shaping the outcome at the end of the game. As well as all of this, after the player finishes the main story aspect of the game many additional side missions remain open to be completed, and the game remains fully accessible to the player. Even when players finish the story and all the missions it’s not likely for them to get bored of the game, because at times it’s much more fun to just do as you please in a living and breathing city than doing the missions anyway.

The amazing attention to detail (visible in high quality players/vehicle models and the huge to-scale map), as well as amazing physics and sandbox type game play really make Grand Theft Auto IV one of the games that truly takes advantage of advances in gaming technology.

DLC:

In the previous article I discussed changes and upgrades the video game industry have began to incorporate into video games over the last 5-10 years, and how GTA IV takes advantage of said changes/additions.

In this article I’ll be expanding upon one of the more recent additions to video games, exclusive to the current generation. (2005 onwards)

This addition is of course downloadable content.

Downloadable content for games isn’t anything very new when you think about it, people have been able to download modifications, additions, fixes and updates for pc video-games for over a decade now, the difference is now this content is being brought over to consoles.

The large difference between downloadable content on consoles and computers is that of variety and legitimacy.

When a user searches online for a modification or addition to a video game on a computer they are presented with any result containing the keywords specified in their search, literally searching the entire web for a string of text. This means that the user has to:

1) Locate the content

2) Know how to install the content

3) Trust the vendor of said content

Due to the overall vastness of the internet, censorship and copyright are two very difficult things to incorporate into the process of acquiring files from anyone anywhere in the world, as a result video game industries wanting to include the ability to update games with their content ( and not content produced by 3rd party developers) have began to interact with the producers of the consoles (microsoft, sony, nintendo, etc) to include a specific location for gamers to go on their consoles for official updates or additions.

When the playstation 3 & xbox 360 were released it became obvious the companies had listened, now when users are connected to the internet & Insert a game with an update available a prompt will come up on the screen & allow the user to either proceed with the update or postpone it until another time, all of the updates are installed completely for the user as well.

As well as updates or game fixes, many game franchises are beggining to take advantage of this new downloadable content system by releasing miniture sequals or “expansion packs” (previously updates and expansions were exclusive to PC owners) on consoles. These expansion packs add new content to the game in the form of additional game modes, objects, sounds or something else.

An example of a game franchize making use of downloadable content is (once again) Grand theft Auto.

In the most recent addition to the franchize (GTA IV) users can now purchase a “Lost and the Damned” Expansion (for about 1/4 of the price of the full game), this expansion which was released 6 months after the original game allows players to unleash themselfs upon the same city as a completely different character with a completely new storyline, new missions, new side missions, new vehicles, new weapons and a further improved physics engine.

The use of expansion packs instead of sequels allows companies to continuosly profit from the same title, instead of having to keep all the new ideas for the next sequel, as well as allowing them to apply fixes to existant problems, instead of having to re-issue a “fixed” version of the game. It also prevent the decrease in the fanbase for that particular title or console that would usually occur after dismayed gamers move on to other platforms seeking additional content.

The sims franchise have also taken advantage of the expansion pack concept for 10+ years, though on the PC instead of a console.

It’s become very clear that Downloadable Content is now an important factor of the console gaming industry, as it’s finally began closing the gap that’s made up of the differences between console & PC versions of games. The only remaining difference being that PC versions of games still allow users to download (or produce their own) un-official 3rd party content.