Last Tuesday, February 11, 2020, was my first time at Smith’s Gaming Lab. I usually don’t play any video games so it was interesting to see the variety in the types of games that were available in the lab. During my time at the lab, I played Fallout4 on a desktop and Mario Kart on the Nintendo Switch.
Mario Kart
I’ve never used a Nintendo Switch before so when I got the controller for the game, I wasn’t quite sure what all the button functions were for the game. For the first few games, I was only using the acceleration button and joystick to play the game. I found that it was difficult to steer my car in the right direction. After a while, I realized that I had access to the steering functionality; all I had to do was steer the wheel like you would a car. As I kept playing the game, I discovered the different functionalities of the controller to eventually made it easier to play the game.
From what I remember, it wasn’t easy to steer and press the other buttons at the same time. Being new to the game, I’m not quite sure if it is even necessary to steer and press the other buttons at the same time. If I had to change the design of the controller, I would put some of the buttons like the acceleration button directly on the wheel.
Fallout 4
“Fallout 4 is an open-world role-playing game developed by Bethesda Game Studios. In it, the player begins as a parent and spouse in the year 2077, but then must enter Vault 111 to survive the nuclear apocalypse.” (Plot of Fallout 4)
In the gaming lab, there are two versions of Fallout 4 that you can play. There is one on VR and one on the desktop; I only played the version on the desktop. Before playing the game, I had no idea about the goal/plot of the game. The game started from the beginning so I was really confused about what I was supposed to do. All I was doing was walking around and interacting with the world around me and since I didn’t have audio it was hard to fully connect with the environment. I found it hard to connect to the game since I wasn’t sure what the goal/plot of the game was and since Fallout 4 is a game that you play for a while to get to the end goal, it seemed impossible to get through the plot with the time I had.
