Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Three breadths of choice

The three game titles I have selected to analyze the choices that are given and discuses the outcome of the choices are;
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion:
Grand Theft Auto IV
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double Agent.



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The first game I would like to discuss is Oblivion. There are thousands of possible choices you can make in this sand box style RPG that will change little bits and pieces of the game. The part I am at in the game at the moment is dealing with Vampires. I have heard talk from friends about what the effects where but wanted to find out for myself for this assignment. I went and found the first vampire I could find. This is what happens...

***Spoiler***

I have played the game as a non-vampire, very much enjoyed it and decided I wanted to try to finish it as a Vamp. It didn't take long for me to fight a vamp and get bit, it took three to four days for the effect to kick in, but once it did, trust me you know it! My skin begin to change and my eyes started turning dark red... this was not cool, people would not talk to me and I could not walk around in the day light. I decided I needed to start thinking like a vamp, I decided to try and attack someone for there blood, this didn't work very well, I was easily hurt by fire, but was VERRRRYYYY strong in other ways, this was good to know. Luckily one night I went to rob someone, while they were sleeping and the feed option was there in my dialog box. I decided to feed no matter what it did to the other person (NPC), I needed to get better, and better I got. I was able to rest and go out in the sun, not for long but it was better then before. My skin started to change back to normal, not 100% but at least some people would talk to me, and I could get some of my quests going again. I have been playing as a vamp for a good 2 weeks now, and it is very different then playing as a normal person but it does have some benefits; Night Eye, Vampire's Seduction, Reign of Terror and Embrace of Shadows to name a few. Some of the downfalls are; Weakness to Fire (you are always weak to fire, but even more so now!), Weakness to daylight (meaning you have to work in the night, hindering your ability to acquire missions), Character changes to look like a vamp (hindering your ability to talk to NPC and get missions). I have not finished the game yet but can tell you this, it is far more difficult to play as a vamp. There is a cure out there and I may just have to start looking for it...



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The second game I decide to play around with the choices is GTA IV. This is a classic final mission choice.









***Spoiler***

There are two choices at the end of the game you can decide from. We will call the first one Deal and the second one Revenge.

If you decide to do Deal (take the money), Romen who is Nikos cousin dies at the wedding and you later find out that Romen was going to be a father.

If you decide to seek Revenge then Kate who is Nikos love interest get shot by accident. At Romen's wedding they decide that if they have a girl they will name it Kate to honor her.

I will be 100% honest with you. I really did not care for either of the ending.

In Deal you have to make a deal with Dimitri, which is stupid because you know it's not going to work anyway. Of course, Dimitri betrays you and you end up with a weird and unsatisfactory $250,000 which just feels out of the blue. On the upside, Roman gets killed which makes for a "wow" moment and Dimitri becomes your "final enemy".

In Revenge you get to kill Dimitri right then and there which feels much more satisfying. Unfortunately, Kate is the one who gets killed which feels very "so what" and Pegorino somehow becomes the "final enemy" which feels very anticlimactic.



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The final game I decide to make a choice in was Splinter Cell: Double Agent, this was by far the easiest choice for me to make. While yes, you have a trust meter that must be monitored by the player to see who's good graces you are currently on JBA = Bad Guy / NSA = Good Guy. There is a choice toward the middle of the game where Sam Fisher (the main character) must decide if he is going to kill his boss to get on the good side of the JBA. I decided to replay this part of the game but do it both ways to see if there were any effects that happened with this action. I had played the “good guy” way and taken the gun and turned on the JBA agent and rescued my boss the first go round, this made it harder to finish the level because I was in the JBA's headquarters, but I just thought it was the right thing to do. Now, that I have been asked to play the other way, it makes it that much more fun. I took the pistol in my hand given to me by the bad guys and aimed it at him, fired it once, it was over. My meter dropped down almost falling off the chart but leaving me just enough to not have the game end. Was this it? I had killed a good guy, shouldn't I be attacked by the good guys or something... nothing... It made it easier to finish the mission I must say because they all trust me now, but the NSA had now formed trust issues with me, rightfully so! I thought that there would be a big deal made about it but I guess the meter is more for me to keep myself in check and not necessarily help me go down a non linear path.

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