Adaption

There are several styles of games, but they can still be sub-divided, regardless of genre. You see, you have the simple games, which use a new idea, and carry on from there. But then you get the games that are just additional merchandise for films. Often, when a film comes out, a game is made of it, for most consoles. Why don't the makers ever realise that you may get more money, but you're unleashing pieces of crap unto the world? There are very rarely any that succeed, due to repetitive gameplay, or an obvious storyline. Examples are Superman Returns, Little Britain and Spiderman.
Then there are games that are adapted into films. When are filmmakers ever going to get this right as well? I have never seen a film that is even half as good as the game it had been based on, with the exception of Resident Evil. What most films do is remove the gameplay aspects that make the game brilliant, and replace them with (mostly cliched) storyline, which is maybe acceptable, due to it being a film. But still, films like Silent Hill, Alone in the Dark, and Hitman removed the suspense, tension and general awesomeness of the game, and completely messed it all around, added random and useless bits, satuck on the same title, and called it a film adaption. I now hear that a God of War film adaption is happening. Half of me is thrilled by this (the greatest game of all time as a film has POTENTIAL) but the other half is screaming NO NO NO!!! THEY'L MESS IT UP, GET RID OF THE COOL BITS, AND INCLUDE A LOVE INTEREST!!!! Film adaptions of games, they just don't work

Good Hunting

What actually makes a game good? Some people like to play a certain genre of game, while others focus on only individual aspects. This is what I think contributes to making a game good.

• Graphics. If it looks realistic, you can at least admire the neatness. Some games even have camera blurring, mouth sync and other cool hints of realism.
• Fighting style. There are only a handful of games that don't feature a bit of violence, but fighting style is good to look at. Look at Prince of Persia. Sands of Time was great, but the fighting style was repetitive, but the other game play made up for it. Warrior Within and Two Thrones introduced an open ended fighting style, but were let down on story and game play. Still, fighting style is important. The only fighting button in Rise to Honour was the right analog stick, but look at the combat! Jet Li kicking ass all over the place.
• Length. Some games just drag on and on, and it eventually comes to a head when you want them to end. Free roaming games are an exception to this rule, but story line games need to have an appropriate length. The Sims is a good example. By the time you work and you have to raise mechanical skill or whatever, and then do so, about three hours have gone by. I didn't give a toss about my guy eventually.
• Story. Whilst this isn't a prominent feature in most games, some games introduce a really good story, which acts just like a narrative. Good examples of this are Prince of Persia and God of War.

The One Game

I guess as a gamer, I've got to have my favourite games, and I do. Some of them are undoubtedly awesome, but some of them are more my own choice. I'll give you a rundown of some of them, giving the platform and reason for liking it as well.

• God of War series: PS2. Now as a gamer, this is one of the best games I have ever played. Millions of people have to agree, that Greek mythology has never been so brutal, so violent, so bloody GOOD. The story of Kratos and his revenge on the gods is formatted into a third person adventure, supplying endless hours of fun and violence. The highlights are the Blades of Chaos/ Blades of Athena, an elaborate weapons system taking the fighting to a new level of cool. The button press system was the first of its kind, causing many games to follow suit with the idea of finishing moves, though none are as satisfying as Kratos's style. Also, the storyline. This is a rarity in gaming, when the storyline is equally as good as the gameplay. All in all, a hell of a game.
• Resident Evil 4: PS2. Despite RE5 being released with much better graphics, 'real time' cutscenes, and a wider variety of landscape, RE4 seemed to have something that RE5 couldn't quite manage. It was just some type of magic that was lost on Chris Redfield. Maybe it was the hero, Leon S. Kennedy, a smooth government agent easily dodging laser grids, and dispatching enemies in equal measure. Perhaps that was it. RE5 featured Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar teaming up and taking down Uroboros, but with the help of a huge helicopter, Delta Team, Jill Valentine and two handy rocket launchers. What did Leon have? Ashley Graham, who kept getting killed by the enemy, or carted off somewhere. Leon was a one man army, endlessly shooting through hoardes of enemies just to get the damsel in distress home. He was abandoned and left to fend for himself. Maybe that gave the game an edge. I was thrilled to discover the shock value the game had as well. It was quite new to me to see a dead grey thing on a table, then to pick up a key in the opposite room, hear the door behind me open, and realise that the grey thing wasn't dead. That creepy atmosphere wasn't quite captured in RE5. The only shocking thing in that was realsing that the new Dr Salvador had the most messed up laugh ever.
• Elder Scrolls: Oblivion: PS3. I was informed before I played this that this was a nerdy game, but still brilliant. I wasn't dissapointed. I was asked what race I wanted to be, and then had to select from the oddest bunch of people ever, including a cat thing and a bright red lizard. Still, I persevered, and by the time I had reached good old Kvatch and seen it burnt to the ground, I realised it was a hell of a game. The story line can be ignored completely, and our carcater has a huge amount of freedom. You can become good or evil, and people will react to you in a different way if you do. There are loads of factions to join, from assassins, to mages, to vampire slayers, to gods of madness. Your characer also has a huge amount of clothing at his disposal. I grew tired of my boring old glass armour when I realised that the enemies couldn't get close enough to me to damage it, as they were killed so quickly by a daedric sword in the face. So, I went shopping, and chnaged my attire to a nice brown shirt and trousers. The gameplay is either first or third person, depending on what you prefer, and the map is huge, boasting eight cities and bucketloads of people, enemies, harvestable plants and caves and forts and animals. Training your character is easy as well. For instance, blade training. Find the worst dagger you can, find a sheep, put the difficulty up to max, and hack away. Seriouslyu! It took me ten minutes to kill the thing, but I went up 29 leve;s. Result!
• Destroy all Humans!: PS2.A dwarf of an alien throwing a tank at a man and knocking him clean off his feet. Speaks for itself.
• House of the Dead: Sega system. Now this is quite a classic. The first game I ever played, and I was terrified by it. Zombies coming up to you, biting, scratching, hacking, slicing, it was scray. I then tried it again a few years ago. The lightweight gun had seemed much bigger when I was six. Still, off I went. This is one of those games where there's a storyline, but you either don't care about it, or you just forget. The reason for the zombies being there? I can't actually remember. What I DO remember is blasting down hoards of zombies, shooting a fat guy with a chainsaw in the stomach, and desperately trying to fend off those weird worm things. Its a classic of mindless, repetitive, brilliant violnce. You can ignore the bad graphics, the weird reloading system and the badly done voices, just shoot away and see if you can survive.

well that's just a few of them, but I have quite a few more, but now's not the time to talk about them. My opinions are open to debate, but I refuse to listen to anyone who thinks that God of War is bad. But that's all.

Gamer

I am Chris Seaman, and I am a gamer. I guess that I'm serious about it, and I can't really imagine myself parting with my dear old consoles, so until then, I'm going to share my opinions about consoles, games, and the whole gaming system in general