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Edexcel Level 2 BTEC First Diploma in IT

20137377 Andrei Placinta

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Contents

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Images taken from:

front page taken from: http://www.wow-mop.net/MoP_wallpapers.htm

Assassin’s creed image taken from: http://www.fanpop.com/spots/the-

assassins/images/31818509/title/assassins-creed-3-wallpaper

Skyrim’s image taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

The_Elder_Scrolls_V:_Skyrim

Starcraft II image taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

StarCraft_II:_Wings_of_Liberty

The Sims 3 image taken from: http://www.electricpig.co.uk/2009/05/01/the-

sims-3-online-features-revealed/

Brain Training image taken from: http://www.drjack.co.uk/does-brain-training-

really-work-by-dr-jack-lewis/

Fifa 13 image taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_13

World of Warcraft taken from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/

carolpinchefsky/2012/08/26/a-world-of-warcraft-player-reviews-guild-wars-2/

League of legends image taken from: http://betweencontent.com/league-of-

legends-quiz-hard-one/

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Action Games

These games favour challenges, where hand–eye coor-

dination and reaction-time are most commonly found.

Games in this genre usually contain parts of other gen-

res.

The game starts off usually with a catastrophe that the

player must repair by playing as the protagonist. The

player has a set of attacks and abilities that he can use

to eliminate his enemies. These games contain tempo-

rary or permanent power-ups (items that give bonuses

to certain things like attacks, defense) that the player

must take advantage off in order to progress easier.

An example of a new action-adventure game is Assas-

sin’s Creed III. This is a historical game about an indian

child who is trained to be

an assassin and to drive

off the invading british

during the independence

war. This game is part of

a game series.

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Adventure games

An adventure game is a video game genre in which the

player plays the role of the protagonist in an story driv-

en by exploration and puzzle-solving. Because the

game is focused on the story, the multiplayer design is

difficult so they do not usually have the option. This

game genre contains an inventory in which the player

stores items to solve puzzles.

This game genre usually goes well with action games

and other game genres. This genre is based around

story development where the player unlocks piece by

piece of the story as he goes in a linear development.

An example of an adventure action game is The Elder

Scrolls V: Skyrim.

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Comparison

While the Xbox and PS3 are good gaming con-

soles, the PC is above them because of the sim-

ple fact that we can change its components and

improve it as technology improves, it also has

the most power and will always do. PS3 is a good

console because it has Blu-ray incorporated and

therefore it can be used as a Blu-ray player. Xbox

is good because it can hold a mouse and a key-

board therefore improving the aim on shooting

games. A Microsoft Xbox 360 Console with

250GB costs £160 nowadays, while a Sony PS3

Slim Console with 500gb Hard Drive would cost

£250 and a good PC costs about £300 with about

250GB storage memory. All of these can be

found easily in markets and the easiest ones to

setup are the consoles. The number of games

available on the PC are far higher than the other

consoles.

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Handheld Consoles

Nowadays there are a lot of handheld Con-

soles on the market: Sony has the PSP

PSPGO and the PSVITA Nintendo has DS and

3DS. These can be found in markets, they

are cheaper than the classic consoles but

they have small screens, bad graphics and

the games made for them are cheaper but

smaller in length due to the limited capabili-

ties.

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Strategy Games

These games require the players to have a dynamic

thinking, to balance their defense with their economy

by building armies along with building constructions

and using a city’s population to gain resource and thus

building the economy.

The game starts with a small village which the player

expands as the game goes on and grows his economy

along with his army.

These games are usually seen somewhere between the

overview and the perspective.

An example of a new strategy game is Starcraft II.

This is a game about 3 factions which are at war: Ma-

rine, Protoss and Zerg. This game is

part of a game series.

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Simulation Games

Simulation games are made to simulate real life

situations so people can experience situations

which would be life threatening or which a per-

son would need to see how it is to understand

how it is. These are mostly used with educational

purposes so pilots can simulate real life flights

and doctors can simulate real life operations

therefore gaining experience without putting

people’s life in danger. Astronauts can use the

simulations to train using the real life situation

simulation so they can make quick decisions in

case of problems outside

of the simulation.

An example of such a

game is The Sims 3.

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Games Platforms

Handheld game platforms: Gameboy, Gameboy

Color, Gameboy Advance, PSP, PSP GO, PSP VITA,

NINTENDO DS, NINTENDO 3DS, N-Gage.

Game platforms: PC, NES, Super NES, Nintendo

64, Dreamcast, Playstation, Playstation 2,

Playstation 3, Xbox, Xbox 360, Sega Megadrive,

Sega Saturn, Nintendo Wii, NeoGeo, Game &

Watch, GameCube, Commodore 64.

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Technology

While technology advances, so do the comput-

ers, along with them the graphics cards which

provide better graphics quality and games keep

up with the ever changing graphics quality by

improving their game graphics. While computer

improves, so does the artificial intelligence used

in games where it’s at the point of having the

possibility of selecting how good it performs ac-

cording to a system of levels. While technology

advances, so does the control method, better

controllers, better sound effects on the audio,

more control on the possibility of actions we can

do, everything is improving to improve the gam-

ing experience, everything along with the

scripting, the code from which the game starts.

Nowadays other devices like TVs and smart

phones can be used as consoles to play games to

make them more interesting to gamers.

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Educational Games

Educational games are made with educational

purposes in mind therefore they are made to

teach different things, from how to calculate to

what things are and how to read and write.

There are 2 ways of teaching a concept, either

through a game or directly teaching and using a

game to exercise. Educational games are nowa-

days used for learners who are kinaesthetic ori-

ented learners.

An example of such a game is Brain Training.

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Sports Games

Sports Games are made having different sports

in mind. Each game is made to be able to play

one or more sport games by the rules of the spe-

cific sport you are playing. Real life sports are

separated in 2 major categories: indoor and out-

door, and subcategories like: board games, dice

games, physical games and so on.

An example of

such a game is

Fifa 13.

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Individuals and Games

While psychological factors are involved in

games like competitive gaming, use of sound to

give the impression of reality and levelling sys-

tems that create a false sense of satisfaction

when advancing levels and having greater expec-

tations with each level, every such pleasure has

bad effects on bodies like drugs have, in this case

games can cause eye strain, repetitive strain in-

jury and decrease exercise routine while we

should increase the exercise routine to improve

our blood circulation.

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Games in society

Games can affect people by socially isolating

them, by making them become addicted and

have excess playing time. While some people fi-

ind their alternate reality better than their reali-

ty they tend to separate themselves from reality.

While games can have bad influences on people

who play games too much, they also improve

hand-eye coordination and improve thinking and

strategy skills because they force the person to

adapt and use what they know to advance and

survive.

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Massively Multiplayed Online Games

Massively Multiplayed Online Games are games

which require an internet connection and are

played only online where players interaction like

buying, selling, trading and teamplay is im-

portant. These kind of games use servers to sep-

arate big groups of players into smaller groups

and through servers they play online.

An example of such a game is World of Warcraft

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Role-Playing Games (RPGs)

A Role-Playing Game is a game genre which is

described as a decision driven story based game.

This genre was created to teach real life skills but

because games which combined it with action

and adventure genre became popular.

An example of such a game is League of Legends

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Mobile phones

While phones have evolved from being landline

to mobile, from simple to complex, from big to

small and to big again having PDAs incorporated

therefore improving the mobile phones’ utility

and power. Nowadays smartphones can play

games having quite good graphics for a mobile

phone.