Charlie Brooker: Games Wipe

1. What are the genres of games he discusses?
Platformer - e.g. Donkey Kong, Sonic the Hedgehog and Mario
Shoot-Em-Up - e.g. Space Invaders
           - first person games  e.g. 3d Monster maze, Doom and golden eye.
Simulation - e.g. Flight simulator and The Sims.
Strategy - e.g. Civilization and Command and Conquer
Puzzle game - e.g. Tetris and Portal
RPG ( Role Play Game)
MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Play Game)
Adventure Games - e.g. Hitchhikers Guide To the Galaxy
Casual games - e.g. (Rapidly expanding) Cooking Mama
Beat Em Up Games - e.g. Mortal Combat
Sandbox Games - e.g. Elite and Grand Theft Auto
Rhythm Action Games - e.g. Rock Band and Guitar Hero

2. Which advances does he discuss?

• Graphics are a lot better than they were before.
• There are more advances in the types of console you can play; the Nintendo have made the 'Nintendo Wii' and Xbox has made the 'Kinect' - where you yourself are the controller. The games become more interactive and become more attractive to the consumer to buy the best console out there.

above is the Xbox Kinect, below is the Nintendo Wii

3. What are the differences between the UK and the US?
The difference between the UK and the US is that the US were far more advance in the games industry than the UK, and so whilst here in the UK we were playing Super Mario and Sonic, the US had Beat-Em-Up games and Shoot-Em-Up games which were a lot more disturbing during the time period when they came about and criticized by the news as bad games for teenagers, men and boys to be playing.

4. What criticisms does it make about the games industry and consumer?
As Charlie Brooker interviewed a couple of other celebrities on games they had and have been playing, they came up with many criticisms about today's games. They found that they prefer to give up with some games due to the repetitiveness of what they are playing, such as in 'Gears Of War' where you had to barge through two doors with a monster chasing you and then come across a third, it just feels like a waste of time constantly repeating what you've already done. They also criticised that there aren't good enough game saving points, in most games if you get stuck or die you have to restart the level from the beginning which really frustrates the gamer. In games such as 'Rock Band' and 'Guitar Hero', you have to play through the music you don't really want to, to unlock the levels you do want to play the music you want. When you buy the game, you buy it because it tells you that most things will be available to you, when actually you have to unlock the levels to play the parts of the game you want to. Yet another criticism was that although the games graphics were getting a lot better, more detailed and having HD televisions to play on meant that the footage you were watching was good, the story line of games is going downhill. They make games into films now, rather than telling the story from a book where its more individual and will grab the gamers attention even more with a good story, one quote was that games are now "Charmless". Television and parents of a lot of teenagers seem to think that the games they play really are unsuitable, such as Manhunt and Call Of Duty, due to the violence and how graphic the killings are. Games aren't getting the response that they really want.