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Eric Rogers May 20, 2014

Games You Should Know About – Call Of Duty

call-of-duty
Call of Duty: Black-Ops 2

This is the third post in my Games You Should Know About series. Checkout my posts on Minecraft and Starcraft 2.

What is Call of Duty?

Call of Duty is a military FPS franchise published by Activision. The early games were set in World War 2. Subsequent games have been set in periods ranging from the cold war to the near future.

Call of Duty is the rated R action blockbuster of video games. The single player campaign plays very much like an action movie. It is extremely story driven, with the player given little, if any, choice in what to do or where to go.

Here is a video of The Rad Brad playing through the beginning of Call of Duty: Ghosts (beware – strong language ahead from both The Rad Brad and the game).

Call of Duty also has a major multiplayer component. The player starts out with a limited number of guns and accessories. They earn experience points through killing opponents and completing objectives or challenges. These points unlock levels, which gives them access to more weapons, equipment, and perks.

Call of Duty is an extremely lucrative franchise, having sold over 100 million copies. Activision setup a rotation with the developers to allow it to release a new game in the franchise each year. The developers it uses are Infinity Ward (the original developers), Treyarch, and Sledgehammer Games.

Should you be concerned about anything?

As I mentioned, Call of Duty is equivalent to an R rated action movie. Anything you would expect to see in those movies you will see in Call of Duty, baring nudity or sexual content. For example, here are the rating descriptors for the latest game in the series, Ghosts:

  • Blood
  • Drug Reference
  • Intense Violence
  • Strong Language

If you want to keep your gamer away from violent games or would not allow him/her to see a rated R movie, you will want to stay away from Call of Duty.

The other thing to keep in mind is that online multiplayer is a big component of Call of Duty. You never know what kind of people your gamer will meet playing online. For the most part, this will not be a problem but some people can be real jerks in game. You will want to keep the dialog open with your gamer about their experience if you allow them to play online.

How do you connect through Call of Duty?

Call of Duty is one of those games that can be very intimidating to play. The people playing online have a LOT of experience and are extremely skilled. Not only that, but the controls can take a while to get the hang of if you are not used to playing FPSs.

Here are 2 suggestions to help you overcome this.

  1. Start out with a slower paced game to learn the controls. A great game for this is Portal 2. The controls are the same but the action is much slower. Plus, you can play with your gamer while you are learning.
  2. Play through or watch your gamer play through the single player campaign. You can go at your own pace without worrying about what other people are doing. You can also talk to your gamer about the story. It is not be anything earth-shattering but it can be entertaining.

Similar Games

One thing I want to do with this series is give you a list of games that are similar to the one featured. This will include games your gamer might enjoy if they enjoy the featured game as well as any good alternatives with lower ratings.

Here is a list of similar games to Call of Duty:

  • The Battlefield franchise – This is the main competitor to Call of Duty published by EA.
  • Counter-Strike – Multi-player only FPS. This was originally a mod to Half-Life but is still extremely popular.
  • Team Fortress 2 – Team-based, free-to-play FPS.
  • Medal of Honor Warfighter – Another military FPS
  • Arma 3 – A hardcore military FPS that takes realism to the extreme.

Here are some FPSs your gamer might enjoy that are not military style (meaning they tend to be less realistic in the guns and/or setting)

  • Bioshock Infinite
  • Deus Ex: Human Revolution
  • F.E.A.R.
  • Halo
  • Half-Life 2

It is a little hard to find FPSs without an M rating. They tend to feature violence and blood since shooting is the main mechanic. Portal 2 is the best recommendation I have.

Filed Under: Games You Should Know About Tagged With: Games You Should Know About, Guides

Eric Rogers March 25, 2014

Games You Should Know About – StarCraft 2

starcraft-2
StarCraft 2

This is the second of my newly renamed Games You Should Know About series. The first was Minecraft.

What is StarCraft 2?

StarCraft 2 is an RTS created by Blizzard. The player starts out with a small amount of resources and a few worker units. They gather resources, build structures, and build more powerful units. They then use their army of units to try to destroy the army and structures of the opposing players.

starcraft-2-match-start
StarCraft 2 match start as Terran

StarCraft 2 features three different races, Terran, Zerg, or Protoss. Each race has their own distinct units and play style. The player needs to understand the strengths and weaknesses of both the race they have chosen and the one they are facing. The tactics of a Terran player against a Zerg player are different than those against a Protoss player.

StarCraft 2’s single player campaign is split among 3 major releases corresponding with the three races.  The first release, Wings of Liberty, featured the Terran and was released on July 27, 2010. The second release, Heart of the Swarm, featured the Zerg and was released on March 12, 2013. The third release, Legacy of the Void, features the Protoss. No release date has been set for it yet.

This campaign is very story driven. There are cut scenes between each mission which drive the story forward. Each mission then corresponds with what is going on in the story.

The missions in the single player campaign vary a lot in their objectives. They range from the standard “build an army and crush everyone”¯, to escort missions where the player must protect specific computer controlled units, to rescue missions where the player only controls a small number of units.

Multiplayer in Starcraft 2 consists of matches between different numbers of opponents. These can be 1 vs. 1, 2 vs. 2, 3 vs. 3, or 4 vs. 4. The opponents can be other players or AI controlled.

The multi-player is run through Battle.net. It uses a matchmaking system to match a player with similarly skilled opponents. The player can advance through this system by winning their matches.

Why is your gamer playing it?

The last several years has seen an increase in the number of people watching esports. The proliferation of high-speed internet has led to the rise in online streaming. This has made it possible to watch esports tournaments for more and more people.

StarCraft 2 is one of the main games people are playing professionally. Blizzard puts on leagues and ladders every year that culminate with a tournament at BlizzCon. The winners of these tournaments win thousands of dollars.

The thing that sets StarCraft 2 apart from other RTS games is Blizzard’s dedication to balance. A game can only be a good esport if is is balanced. A lot of RTS games have one particular build or unit that dominates everything else. Those games boil down to who can build it the fastest. There is very little strategy involved.

StarCraft 2, however, is very well balanced. There is not one of the 3 races that is markedly better than the other two. That makes the matches very competitive. It also means a player can improve with practice. This is what makes it so appealing.

Should you be concerned about anything?

StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty is rated T with the descriptors Blood and Gore, Language, Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco, and Violence. The Language, Suggestive Themes, and Use of Alcohol and Tobacco descriptors pertain mainly to the single player campaign, not the multiplayer component.

The important thing to understand is Starcraft 2 does have a multiplayer component. The rating it received does not reflect anything a player might encounter from another player during a multi-player match.

The good thing is Battle.net includes some extensive parental controls. Here is how you set them up.

Setting up Battle.net parental controls

battle-net-parental-controls
Setting up Battle.net parental controls

You begin the setup process on this page. Scroll down to the bottom and you will see the two buttons above.

  1. Click on the “BEGIN SETUP”¯ button.
  2. Enter you gamer’s Battle.net account information and your email address.
    battle-net-parental-controls-setup

You will receive an email with a link to your parental controls. When you click on this link, you will see a page with 3 sections.

Battle.net Settings

battle-net-settings

This section allows you to set some restrictions that will effect all Blizzard games, including Starcraft 2, World of Warcraft, and Diablo 3.

The main thing I want to touch on here is Real ID. A lot of multiplayer games allow the player to create a list of friends. For example, when you add another player to your friends list in World of Warcraft, you will be able to see if they are logged in and what they are doing.

Real ID takes this a step further. You can see your Real ID friends and message them even if they are playing a different Blizzard game. You might start up a Starcraft 2 game and receive a message from a friend who is playing World of Warcraft and needs some help.

The one thing to understand is that Real ID uses your real first and last name. The idea is that you would only add people you know in real life to your Real ID friend list.

The important question to ask is, who do you want to see your gamer’s real name? The answer to that question will dictate which settings you use.

Game Time Management

battle-net-game-time-management

While the previous section allows you to manage your gamer’s security, this section allows you to manage your gamer’s play. There are some really cool settings here. You can limit the amount of time your gamer plays daily and weekly. Your gamer will not be able to get into the game once they have hit those limits. You can also chose to receive a report of when they are playing.

The really cool part of this is the Play-Time Schedule. Checking the box will bring up a grid of the week. This allows you to set the exact times your gamer is allowed to play.

Here is an example of a schedule you might set based on your gamer’s play style.

Let’s say your gamer has a few friends that are really into Starcraft 2. They love to jump on and play some 4 vs. 4 matches together. However, one of them has soccer practice every Tuesday and Thursday and another goes to church on Wednesday. So the only time they can play together is Monday evenings and the weekends.

Here is how you might setup their schedule.

battle-net-schedule

This schedule gives them 3 hours on Monday and then the full weekend to play. You could couple that with, say, a 4 hour daily limit to keep them from playing for 12 hours on Saturday or Sunday. This would give them plenty of time to play with their friends while still leaving them open for school work and other activities.

Purchase Settings

battle-net-purchase-settings

This last section deals with in-game purchase. Some Battle.net games (specifically WoW and Diablo 3) have mechanisms that allowing purchase of digital goods in-game. Unchecking this will keep your gamer from making those purchases.

How do you connect through StarCraft 2?

I have talked in the past about how intimidating it can be to try to get into a new game. StarCraft 2 is the game I am thinking of for myself every time I make that comment. I have wanted to get into it for a long time but chicken out every time I try.

With that being said, however, Blizzard has done a good job of giving you the tools to learn if you are willing.

The first tool is the single player campaign. You can set the difficulty on easy to learn the basics of how to control units and move around the map without much stress. You can then ramp the difficulty up as you get better.

The next tool is “Challenge Missions”¯. These are small missions specifically designed to help you practice certain aspects of the game. For example, really good StarCraft 2 players know and use the keyboard shortcuts. The Harbinger of Death mission is designed specifically to help you practice this.

The last tool is the Battle.net matchmaking system. You play a few placement matches that it uses to evaluate your strength. It then places you in a ladder appropriate to your skill level. This gives you the opportunity to learn and improve against similarly skilled people instead of being crushed by higher skilled players all the time.

I can understand this seems daunting. Luckily there are other ways to connect with your gamer through StarCraft 2.

As I mentioned, StarCraft 2 is one of the main esports games right now. There are several tournaments you can watch online throughout the year. These include the World Championship Series and DreamHack.

The streams of these tournaments continue to get better and better. The commentators do a pretty good job helping you understand what the players are doing and why. It does help to know a bit about StarCraft to really understand what they are talking about but it is not completely necessary.

Another way to connect with your gamer through StarCraft 2 is BlizzCon.

BlizzCon is a big convention in Anaheim, CA put on by Blizzard. They use it as an opportunity to show off the games they are working on, make announcements about upcoming games, and talk to their fans.

One of the big things for StarCraft 2 fans as BlizzCon is the WCS Global Finals. This tournament brings in the top 16 StarCraft 2 players from around the world to compete for the grand prize, which in 2013 was $100,000.

Tickets to BlizzCon can be a little difficult to get. You have to be paying attention for when they go on sale and then get in quick. The good thing is Blizzard has started offering a virtual ticket. This allows you to watch a lot of the convention from the comfort of your own home.

Filed Under: Games You Should Know About Tagged With: Game Spotlight, Games You Should Know About, Guides, Parental Controls

Eric Rogers February 17, 2014

Games You Should Know About – Minecraft

minecraft-start
Minecraft Start

One of the big questions most parent have when it comes to video games is, what is my gamer playing? I am starting a series of articles to answer this question. I will layout the big games out there and let you know what they are all about.

Today, I am starting with one of the biggest ones. Minecraft.

What is Minecraft?

Minecraft was originally developed by Markus “Notch”¯ Persson, who later founded Mojang. It was released for PC in an early alpha stage on May 17th, 2009. Steady improvements were made until the official release on November 17, 2011. It has since been released on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, iOS, and Android platforms.

Minecraft is an open-world, sandbox game that can be played from either the first-person or third-person perspective. It consists of two modes, Survival and Creative.

In Survival mode, the player starts in a randomly generated world with no items. They gather resources by chopping down trees, digging up dirt, and killing animals, among other things. Those resources can be placed in the world to build structures or combined to create tools, such as a pickaxe or shovel.

minecraft-new-world
Entering the world alone and penniless

You can see two distinct meters in this screenshot. The hearts on the left represent health. The meat on the right represents hunger.

The health meter is depleted by a number of actions, such as monster attacks or falls. The player dies when the health bar is completely depleted. Upon death, the player respawns at their original starting point and loses the materials they were carrying.

The hunger meter depletes as the player performs actions, such as chopping down trees or killing animals. It can be replenished by eating meat obtained from animals. When it is completely depleted, the health bar will begin to deplete slowly. The health bar will slowly replenish when the hunger bar is near full.

Survival mode also includes a distinct day/night cycle. The monsters spawn in dark places, which makes the night time very dangerous for a new character. The player must build a shelter during the day to be protected from monsters at night.

The creative mode allows the player to build without worrying about survival. They can fly around the world, do not take damage, and have access to most resources without having to gather them. It basically acts like a virtual LEGO® set.

Why is your gamer playing it?

Minecraft has sold over 14 million copies. And yet, it is not your typical big budget game. It does not have cutting-edge graphics or a griping storyline. Everything is a made up of square blocks.

mincraft-pigs
Not the most realistic looking pigs

So what is it about Minecraft that has everyone playing? In a word, creativity.

Minecraft lets player create anything they can think of out of the resources they gather. These creations can then be shared by emailing the save file back and forth. It also allows for multiplayer servers, where players can build something together.

Players have created some amazing things in Minecraft. For example, one group of players recreated King’s Landing from Game of Thrones. According to their post on reddit, it took about 100 builders a little over 4 months to build. That is a crazy amount of work and coordination.

Your gamer is probably not going to build something that huge (although they could). But they can build cool things and share them with their friends. That is what makes Minecraft so great.

Should you be concerned about anything?

The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of Minecraft are rated E10+ with a descriptor of “Fantasy Violence”. While the other versions (PC, iOS, and Android) do not have a rating, their content is the same.

The content of Minecraft is not something that should concern you. However, you will still want to pay attention to what your gamer is doing in it for 2 reasons.

  1. It has a multiplayer component. The ESRB does not include multiplayer in its rating system. They cannot hold the developer accountable for what players do inside their game. It is possible that your gamer will run into some unsavory characters when they play on other servers. You will need to use the same precautions for Minecraft that you use for any social media applications.
  2. When I say players can create anything in Minecraft, I do mean anything. The truth is there are many immature people on the internet. It is not impossible for your gamer to download a map that has images you do not want them to see. Most of the time they will be fine. But you need to understand the possibilities.

How do you connect through Minecraft?

My goal is not just to give you information about video games but to help you connect with your gamer through them. Here are a couple ways you can do that through Minecraft.

  1. Talk to them about it. Here are some questions that will not only help you connect but can also help you keep tabs on what they are doing.
    • What have you created?
    • Can I see it?
    • Do you play on a server with your friends?
    • Have you built anything cool with your friends?
    • What is the most amazing thing someone has built in Minecraft?
    • Where did you hear about it?
    • What cool sites are there about Minecraft?
  2. Play with them. I strongly believe in the power of playing with your gamer. Minecraft is a great game for this. You can create a server in creative mode so you do not have to worry about dying. Then it is just a matter of coming up with something cool to build and building it together. Do not worry if you do not know how to set this up. Get your gamer to show you.

Filed Under: Games You Should Know About Tagged With: Game Spotlight, Games You Should Know About, Guides

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