Unit 6 Assignment 1

Unit 6

Defining Media Audiences

Quantitative audience research

- Quantitative research is the numeric side. e.g. how much something sold for and how many were sold. a good way to collect quantitative research is questionnaires.

Qualitative audience research

- Qualitative research is the descriptive side. e.g. if you were asked about the audio on a game you would write up as much you could, describing it in the most detail you can, a good way to collect qualitative research is focus groups and questionnaires.

Audience classification

- Audience classification is what type of person will buy your product, e.g. if you're creating a new football game, you will be wanting to aim it at people who like football.

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Finally a revive of the stealth genre. With only little imperfections here and there it's an unforgettable ride. No nursing, lots of freedom, outstanding level (or should I say - world) and sound design, solid graphics*. 

Controls: 

Smooth, precise, no automation allowing a great deal of freedom of movement. People complaining about it are usually accustomed to Assassin's Creed type of aids or plainly didn't grasp the introductory tutorial of Styx. After few hours I'm looking like a Quasimodo returning from a ballet lessons! 

Good camera movement BTW. I've never seen a serious clipping or obstruction problems with it. 

Story/world: 

Mature fantasy world with interesting, original twists. Again, mature and non-trivial! 

AI: 

A little bit short-sighted and quickly dropping the hunt for you if you manage to run away after being detected but aside from it. A solid work. 

Game mechanics: 

Like a well-selected orchestra! 

Initially I thought that some elements I've seen in the trailer are misplaced and that I won't use them. So wrong. Everything has its place and purpose and everything has its limitations, avoiding boredom and making a specific item too commonly used during gameplay. A stealthy run through a guard-crawling level on the highest difficulty level will leave you thinking you're a god :) It's all hard work, patience, planning and execution all put together. 

Good representation of Styx's limitations. A jump 15 meters down and you're a goner. It's not anime... 

Audio: 

One of the biggest selling points of the game. Apart from repetitive dialogues of the guards that is. The soundtrack should be sold separately! Well done and, as with the story and world design, a great deal of originality. 

* Very well optimised! Radeon 6850 allows for perfectly smooth maxed-out gameplay at 1080p

From what this this guy has said in his review, I’d say he likes the game. The part where he talks about people complaining because they’re accustomed to AC, he’s not far off because that exactly what I expected from the game. He mentions that the camera movement is good, I agree with this because on some games at a certain angle the camera can jolt into a wall and therefore getting you killed, I never experienced this problem in the game.

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I tried to get into the game 4-5 times, but it’s plain too boring. And yes, i enjoy patient games as well, but this is just not entertaining. You can’t properly attack if discovered and can’t run away either. The parkour is unintuitive and poorly executed. You will very often drop from ledges, miss a jump or simply not know whether you can make it or not, because there is 0 indication as to whether something is too far away or not. 

The levels claustrophobic and difficult to navigate, let alone memorize. First missions consist of multiple levels, utterly useless and fake paths that lead nowhere, nor are needed on any occasion and i have yet to find how to lunge onto someone from a higher position. Right now you could stand behind someone, but if he is like 5cm higher or lower, you can’t execute him. 

Looking through stuff you can acquire with skill points, there is nothing worth playing for. No cool, extra abilities, no game-changing mechanics. If you release a game that attempts to combine goblins, ass-creed and dishonoured, but have only a stinking goblin who can puke out another stinking goblin, you get Styx. And it’s bad

From the sound of this review, this guy didn’t like the game. First of all the guy must not have got past the first 5 minutes of the game. He describes the levels as ‘claustrophobic’ and ‘difficult to navigate,’ I do not know why he said this because I found it the complete opposite, the rooms were always large and spaced out, and the game always told you where you had to go.

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This is a great stealth game based as a prequel to "Of Orcs & Men". You play as "Styx" (the stealthy one from OOAM). Stealth mechanics are generally good. Game engine is based on tried & tested UE3. Graphics aren't bleeding edge but they're well optimized and certainly more than good enough (it seems to be the trendy 'in thing' at the moment to chirrup "omg teh GFX suck!" no matter how good they are...). Sound & voice acting are good. There are often multiple pathways / options to complete your route. This is also one of the few games in recent times to have a decent optional quick save system instead of just the dumbed down hyper-consolized "checkpoint only" system, so another +1 for that. If you're the type of person who loves "Thief" like gameplay, this is definitely worth a go

From what this guy is saying, it sounds like he enjoyed the game. What I like most about this guy is that he isn’t too one sided, if a certain aspect of the game has something good about it and also something bad, he won’t just point out the flaw. E.g. ‘Graphics aren’t bleeding edge but they’re well optimized.’

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I am not normally a stealth game type person. I normally get bored and crave something more, the latest "Thief" game is a good example in which this has happened to me. For some reason, with Styx: Master of Shadows, I can't stop playing. 

Pros: You get to be a Goblin assassin. The best kind of assassin. 

Expansive and creative level design offers a multitude of paths for your creative enjoyment. 

The controls work well and I have had no problem with "ledge detection" like other people have stated. 

Movement animations are nimble and feel right. Kill animations make you feel powerful and gritty. 

Beautiful graphics especially the lighting and main character, Styx. 

Good story and a cool way of telling it as far as I'm concerned. 

Cons: Subpar voice acting. I really feel like this is the only thing keeping it from a 10/10 to me. If I had to rate the voice acting it would be a 6/10, not horrible but it could have been better. 

All in all, this is a great game for about 25$. I've enjoyed it more than most games I've bought this year for over twice that price.

This guy has pointed out both pros and cons of the game, other than just being one-sided. This guy has pointed out a flaw that no of the others have the yet, the mouth animation (animation does not match up to voice) that is the only problem with the game that I can think other than cloning.

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Bought it today and don't regret a thing. It beats the snot out of the new Thief game (probably not that hard actually) and is currently my favourite stealth game (sorry Mark of the Ninja xD). Like others said it does have a few quirks here and there, but the price is super fair and the rather big levels can be solved in a variety of ways. Plus - the clone you can send to distract guards is a very nice feature. 

Overall I'll too rate this 8/10 lie Vanaran did - if you're a fan of stealth games and you don't mind a few quirks here and there, there is a lot to be liked about this game!

This guy didn’t have a lot to say about the actual game, just how much he likes it, but he has mentioned the price and I agree that £24.99 is a good price for the game. He mentions that you can use a clone to distract guards, although this is a good feature of the game, I believe it’s a bit over powered, because you can complete the game with just the clone.

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My conclusion is that the game is a game that you either like it or don’t like it.

All of the reviews at least mention one thing that is wrong with the game. They all mention that the mouth animation could be improved, I agree.

The results I got back from my questionnaire are completely different to these reviews, because the results I got no one had actually played the game.