Little Big Planet is one game that I have played and researched. Little Big Planet was a PlayStation exclusive game that came out in October of 2008. This game was a huge success due to its originality and creativity. It held one of the simplest types of game being a platform puzzle game but it revolutionised its genre. The 2 layered platform game had the largest target audiences of… Everyone. They textured the game with bright vibrant colours, soft aesthetic sack people.
This meant that the game would appeal to a younger age group as it looked good, had fairly simple controls and a happy fun atmosphere. The game developers made it so that all you realistically do it jump, run, grab to push and pull and swing. However, because the genre is a puzzle platform game it meant that the game developers could make the campaign start off easy for the younger audiences and fairly straight forward and then the game like usual gets harder. Additionally, there were secret/ side missions that allowed for a more challenging game play. You play as ‘sackboy’ who helps 8 ‘creator curators’ of LittleBigPlanet but one of them has gone rogue and turned evil this allows for a very broad array of levels and side missions that the developers have made to once again appeal to all ages. This is because it’s one thing completing a level and it’s another thing to collect all of the items or get the fastest time. There is also a narrator who follows you and acts as your mentor throughout. You can customise your sackboy making him unique to everyone else and this can be done by different clothing collectables and stickers that you find throughout the game. There is also a ‘pod’ which is your home screen which you can further customise making it your own and allows you to generate a personal character.
Outlast is a survival Horror
game where you play a journalist who is recording a documentary and researching
into a psychiatric hospital away from civilization. This game is aimed at an
older target audience around 16-35. This is because it has scary moments and
fairly twisted plot lines with homicidal people. You are Miles Upshur who
cannot fight against the deranged people and so instead it’s like a big game of
hide and seek adding to the fear of getting caught. Additionally, the character
is enhanced as you have night vision on your camera but can only use this if
you have enough batteries that you have to actually collect throughout. The
developers don’t really tell you what you are getting yourself into and so you
have to find out and discover on your own. They represent the journalist as
weak and vulnerable with the ill people who have been test subjects as
‘monsters’. The representation of the ill is like this due to them being mutated and often bare clothed if any showing how they are not only deprived but also mentally not right and excluded from society, this can be seen in the illustration. 
Mario Kart Wii is
another video game and this is a racing game with Mario characters. You start off
with a slim choice of characters and at a bronze tier. You then as you progress
unlock different characters and so you can choose who you play as and also the
level of difficulty increases making it harder and more challenging. Certain
characters have specific storylines and some of the maps that you play on as
you unlock them are linked to them and therefore tells you bits about the
characters. Such as rainbow road linking to Mario showing he’s very bright
happy and skilled. The only real emotional drive is jealousy as you want to be
first and don’t like losing. You can’t really customise your character but you
can choose how you drive and play the game whether or not you try to obstruct
other characters or not is your choice. You can also play as your Mii character
and so there is customisation in that sense. Skyrim is a very unique free world game. You play as your chosen character and species each of which has different ability and weaknesses. The game allows you to choose your own missions and go about the game how you choose. You main aim is to keep your chosen colonies safe and fight off demons and dragons. You learn new things as you complete different quests and this allows you to defeat bigger and harder enemies. The game developers have allowed you to play the game how you want even if you just want to explore what the game has to offer environmentally. You take on various different enemies and people that you judge and the game is very stereotypical in the sense that females are usually very agile and the men are strong along with big beasts being slow whereas spiders and other things are fast and poisonous. You can practically decide your emotional theme whether you take on side quests and go on a more helpful route with sorrow and heroism or go personal in the fact that you do what needs to be done to better yourself. The game is practically fully explorable and you can loot, steal, rob, unlock doors, climb and fight to name a few things making it very interactive.
Grand theft Auto San Andreas is one of my all time favourite games which was brought out in 2004. This shows that in order for a game to be good it has to have the best graphics or storyline as it didn't exactly excel or get recognition specifically for that but is still a great game. The game revolves around your character Carl Johnson or CJ for short who is part of the gang Grove Street who has rivals such as the Ballas. You do certain jobs relating to your friends or gang or for business that allows you to gain respect and territory. There is a story line that goes through the emotional theme of betrayal and loyalty as some of your gang members who you would die for turn out to be snakes and are allied with the Ballas. The game is an Action-Adventure game that has a free world open environment. This third person shooter essentially allows for you to carry out what you want in the imitated city of LA. You start the game just seeing CJ arrive at the airport after having left the city after his brothers death. Instantly he is met by a policeman who he has history with and then meets up with gang members, gets shot at until he gets home where we find out that his mum is also dead and so within the first hour of the game we make a connection and know a bit about CJ. The game developers have forced you to participate in the first couple of missions but after the introduction you are free to do what you want. However the more you complete in the game the more things you can do and more efficiently as well such as running, fighting can be improved and you can unlock things like the Gym. The game is heavily based around stereotypes of gangs and policeman as well as other characters such as females who are skinny with big assets and always wear revealing clothes and this relates to their target audience of around 13-20 year olds even though its rated a M and so maybe slightly older at young adult males due to its requirement of drugs, sex, violence and some disturbing scenes. The story allows you to interact with lots of things for example whether you allow your character to get fat by eating junk food, Fit by constantly running or muscular by hitting the gym is completely up to you. You can also choose your own modes of transport and weapons so it really depends on how you want to play the game
All of the above games I have also played my self and so I know them first hand meaning that I have an understanding of how each of their storyline is played out and what it withholds. This is important primary research as I am not relying on someone elses opinion or word rather my own. This also allows me to ensure that it is reliable as I have first hand experience and if need to I could look further into it and verify any quieries or developments such as within GTA they had a recent update that allowed players to experience it from a FP perspective.
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