213CR - Studio1 - Exploring games and Identifying Games Concepts

In our first studio we were tasked to list a number of games that all group members are familiar with, ascertain which genre they belong to and rate them as a group from 1-5, 1 being outstanding and 5 bad. We were then instructed to identify the game concept for a chosen game from the list and decide what it is about the implementation of the game concept that makes the game good or bad.

The games we chose are below preceded by the ratings we gave them and followed by the genres we've assigned them:

1. Grand Theft Auto - sport/racing

2. Half Life – 1st person shooter/adventure

3. The Sims - simulation3. Commandos - strategy

4. Painkiller – 1st person shooter

The game we chose to analyse in detail is grand theft auto, the basic concepts were agreed to be:

- race

- kill

- survive

- evade police

- make money

in respect of concept implementation, what makes the game good is:

- freedom

- violence

- pace

The game is played on virtually mapped out streets of a real city, bringing it that much closer to the world we know, only in the game there is a slight inversion of the reality we are familiar with, where crimes can be committed regardless of the consequences.
It is also true that this same reasoning could be used to prove this game is bad due to an overabundance of violence and a lack of clear objectives.