TomScanlan

This is Tom Scanlan's page. He likes video games and watermelon. Here he will be discussing his journal article Develop: Betas, demos make games better.

Putting together a game takes a massive amount of money, time, and labor to create. Stress kills game designers while they are trying to make the next big game. Betas and demos help calm this pain. Betas are games that come out before the real game in a test to allow gamers to see if they like the game and to teach game designers what to improve on. “Betas are used to test the game, get feedback and make adjustments,” Bach said. “Our demo from last year was needed to make adjustments in game balance.” Demos simply help gamers decide if they wish to buy the game in a rental version. However the beta is much more efficient because it helps both sides decide on what they think of the game. On May 3, 2010 Bungie will come out with its Halo Reach Beta. This is the most anticipated beta ever with 3 million people to be online. This beta is to let Bungie know if there are any glitches in the game to undo as the company has had problems with it in the past. This beta also helped game magazines to rate the games; Halo Reach has already been called the game of the decade. Games like Battlefield Bad Company 2 have already benefited from its beta. They had the game on the drawing board for nearly 2 years and finally made the game with great success as the biggest multiplayer game of Spring 2010. HaHHegergufsdgsfgus

BP is defending their safety of the oil rig, however the US is saying this is one of the worst oil spills in 25 years. This spill has shed light on the fact that BP has been making twice as much money as last quarter while they have neglected safety. The oil well which is 5000 feet under water is leaking 1000 barrles of oil a day. BP plans to unleash an enormous tent over the spill to capture the oil; this will take 4 weeks to build and the oil is supposed to hit the coastline by the weekend. The cleanup operation will cost $100 million. 1000 people and 32 ships and 2 hercules planes are currently working to help.