Tag: Playstation

  • I Didn’t Know You Were Called Dennis: The Order: 1886 Review

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    The Order’s story is too short. The Order’s cutscenes are too long. It is a Gears of War clone.

    Blah blah blah.

    The question I asked myself after finishing The Order, despite all the previous complaints from other reviews being true, did I have fun with The Order: 1886?

    Yes. Yes, I did.

    Alright. Good review. Thanks for coming.

    In all honesty, some of the crap that has been heaped on The Order is founded. I would have liked less cutscenes and more gameplay. The story stops right when it gets to a good start. I will play devil’s advocate here and say that while these things irked me, they also had a somewhat positive effect.

    The cutscenes are beautiful (like the rest of the game) and gave me time to appreciate what may be the best looking PS4 game yet. It is so much so that, more times than I care to mention, I would sit there for an undisclosed amount of time thinking the cutscene was still going when my character was standing there in gameplay wondering in his A.I. brain, “who the fuck is this artard that gets me shot in the face and doesn’t know when to move?”.

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    Playing as Galahad in a steampunk Victorian London for an order of knights that trace back to Arthur all while fighting werewolves has to be the most drug-induced game idea ever and since The Order was announced I have wanted to go to there. The story’s characters and plot are not the problem, pacing is. For the first two-thirds of the game The Order meanders around treating your playthrough like it is the first two hours of a twenty hour adventure. You should know that it is actually the first four hours of a six hour story.

    Here’s the thing; the last two hours set up a sequel that I fucking want to play. I just wish the developers had known when to push the gas pedal down instead of puttering along like an elderly lady on a Sunday drive.

    Gameplay is nothing new. By nothing new, I mean it is basically Gears of War. While some may mark off for this, for The Order, it is just enough. I am being shot at. I do not want to be shot in the dick, face or elsewhere so I need something to take cover behind. The mechanics and actual controls of the game are serviceable and can be expanded upon if there is a sequel.

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    When Sony unveiled The Order: 1886 over two years ago with a spooky trailer that made you wonder what was in the shadows, it made you think it would be Sony’s next big franchise. I was expecting more after such a long development cycle, but it turns out what was in the shadows wasn’t big and scary, just disjointed and underdeveloped.

    The Order: 1886 might not be the game we expected, yet there is still a decent time to be had despite its shortcomings. A franchise is here somewhere. We may just have to wait until 1887 to get it.

  • Sony Bundling The Last Of Us With PS4’s Again (Permanently?)

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    Remember when you would open up the box to your new NES and had a copy of Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt ready to play? Your SNES with Super Mario World? Seems like Sony is going back to the days of that.

    The Last of Us bundle that Sony sold over the holidays will be making its way back to stores shelves for an undetermined amount of time. There was no mention of this being a limited time offer. It appears the PS4 will now come bundled with one of the greatest games of all time from now on.

    Not bad for $399.

  • Playstation Turns 20. Feel Old Accordingly

    Playstation is celebrating their 20th anniversary today. The original Playstation went on sale in Japan on December 3, 1994. I would say it was somewhat a success, selling over 120 million consoles and taking the crown from “untouchable” Nintendo (which pains me to say as a Nintendo fanboy). The system would go on sale in America on September 9, 1995.

    I remember playing the demo for Wipeout at Toys R Us and thinking “this is the f***ing future”. Then I played the demo for Battle Arena Toshinden and said “this isn’t fun, I’ll play Wipeout again”.

    While I may hold on to the fact that Nintendo 64 was my console of choice, I always have memorable moments with my PS1. Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy VII, Gran Turismo. Hours of gaming that will never be forgotten.

    Happy Birthday, Playstation.

  • Let’s Rate Sony’s Gamescom Announcements

    Sony kept proving why they are the place to go for indie games during their press conference at Gamescom. They showed off a lengthy array of games as well as announcing substantial upgrades for the PS4 and a milestone for the system.

    1. PS4 has sold 10 million consoles.

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    This was a self-high five announcement, but it was impressive anyway. The PS4 has only been available ten months and people have adopted it quickly.

    Nerd Rating- 8/10

    2. Where the hell is the Vita?

    Self explanatory.

    Nerd Rating- 0/10

    3. Firmware 2.0 coming this fall

    PS4’s Firmware 2.0 will not be a small affair when it releases this fall. Share Play will let players “loan” their games to friends on their PSN list to play co-op games even when one player does not own the game. The ability to load your gameplay videos directly to YouTube is also in the update

    Nerd Rating- 8/10

    4. DayZ coming to PS4.

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    The PC game that is so close to how human society will act during the apocalypse is coming to PS4. They didn’t announce a release time, but this is a good get for Sony.

    Nerd Rating- 8/10

    5. Trailers Galore!

    -WiLD

    -Until Dawn
    http://youtu.be/SNZOlK81eKs

    -Bloodborne

    -Tearaway

    -The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

    -The Order: 1886

    -Rime

    -Hellblade

    Nerd Rating- 10/10

  • Sony Shows Off “Project Morpheus” VR Headset

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    Sony had a surprise for everyone at GDC 2014. They unveiled a VR headset codenamed “Project Morpheus” for the Playstation 4.

    The Oculus Rift has been the big name in VR for the past year and it seems like Sony wants a piece of the futuristic pie.

    Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios president and great tweeter, Shuhei Yoshida, made the announcement followed by a video of the development process that has been ongoing since 2010.

    The Morpheus is being devised to take use of the Playstation Camera, Move and Dualshock 4 to create a new sense of immersion in games. Demos of Morpheus were made available on the GDC show floor to give an idea of how far Sony has come.

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    My initial reaction is measured hope. Sony has promised many things over the years that have failed to garner much more than regrettable purchases. The Move still sits on store shelves for some reason with no support whatsoever and I have not purchased a Playstation Camera for my PS4 because there is no way to justify the purchase.

    Oculus Rift has been getting people excited that VR could actually work and if Sony can make this accessible to a wide audience through the PS4, we may be entering the future promised to us in the 90’s.

    Now we just wait patiently for Mattel to get that hoverboard working.

  • Outlast Free On PS4 In February. PSN 14 For 14 Sale Begins Today

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    More reasons to be a PS Plus member as Sony has announced that the survival horror game, Outlast, will be free to Plus subscribers on PS4 in February. The game was released for PC back in September and will be available for download on the PS4 on February 4th.

    Today also sees the start of the PSN 14 for 14 Sale where 14 games on both PS3 and Vita are over 50% off as well as 75% off for PS Plus. The games range from Crysis 3 for $5, Tales of Xilia only $10 and Killzone: Mercenary on Vita for $9.

    Check out the full list of games on the Playstation Blog.

  • Sony Announces Playstation Now Streaming Service. This Is A Big Deal

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    Sony spent $380 million dollars in 2012 to buy streaming service Gaikai which we all knew would become a way to stream Playstation games onto your PS4 and Vita but Sony has taken things a step farther.

    The service is called Playstation Now and will be able to stream Playstation games (PS1, PS2, PS3, PSP) to you PS4, PS Vita as well as your television, smartphone and tablet. Playing The Last of Us on your Kindle is almost a reality. In fact, they had the Naughty Dog game running on a PS Vita using Playstation Now at CES. Sony also said that their 2014 line of Bravia televisions will support Playstation Now.

    Talk about backwards compatibility. Being able to draw from the entire well of Playstation offerings over the past 19 years on a host of devices is indeed the definition of that.

    Playstation Now will launch this summer with a limited amount of games including The Last of Us, God of War: Ascension, Beyond: Two Souls and Puppeteer. The library will no doubt grow from there. The service will be subscription-based or you can rent games one at a time. If they decide to bundle this with a PS Plus subscription I will be all over this. I would not mind paying $100 a year for PS Plus and the ability to stream games from PS Now. That is an easy sell.

     

  • 1 Million PS4’s Were Sold In First 24 Hours

    Photo courtesy news.softpedia.com
    Photo courtesy news.softpedia.com

    Sony revealed over the weekend that the Playstation 4 sold 1 million consoles in North America in the first 24 hours of it going on sale. That is a great start for Sony’s next generation console that they are hoping to sell 5 million of by March 2014. Assuming Sony can keep stores replenished with PS4’s through the holidays they should have no problem meeting that mark by spring.

    There are still some consoles that are having problems out there including HDMI ports that wont send signal to the TV (which is due to a bent prong inside the HDMI port) and some not booting up at all. Sony has been responding to complaints with ways to try and fix the console or sending it back to them for a replacement. Even if it is a very small number Sony does not need this hanging over them as the Xbox One launches this week.

    We now get to see if the Xbox One can meet or surpass the sales numbers that the PS4 did last week. I know Microsoft is hoping for a smoother launch than their competitor.

  • Some Early PS4 Systems Are Reporting Problems

    Photo courtesy news.softpedia.com
    Photo courtesy news.softpedia.com

    The Playstation 4 does not officially release until tomorrow but there are reports that some systems are having problems including HDMI output that has stopped working.

    A winner in the Taco Bell “Play the Future First’ contest which received his PS4 early reported that his console was delivered D.O.A. He says the console would turn on but not send a signal to the television. IGN had the same problem out of their retail version of the console also.

    This is not what Sony needed to happen right as the PS4 launches but it appears it is a very small number of consoles. The system has a one year warranty on it standard.

    Now trolls are out in full force already damning Sony for a few consoles that have gone bad. I would be extremely upset if my console experienced the same issue but let’s not forget the Xbox 360 had an almost 50% failure rate on first run consoles before anyone starts throwing stones.

    Read the complete story on IGN.

  • Review Roundup: Killzone: Shadow Fall

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    The first reviews for Playstation 4 games are rolling out today and in today’s Review Roundup we are going to take a look at how Killzone: Shadow Fall is performing. It is the biggest launch title for Sony’s new console and the one title that shows off the power of the PS4. Let’s see what other outlets are saying about the franchise’s freshman effort in the next generation.

    IGN– 8/10

    “I absolutely adored how it often challenged me to go about things in different and unique ways, especially on certain maps where you can go in any direction you please. Early in the campaign, you find yourself on the Helghan side of the wall in a stunningly beautiful forest searching for the crew of a downed Vektan aircraft, but before you do, you can stray to the far side of the woods to take out the security station. If you’re seen, you could use your special robotic friend, OWL, to shut off alarms and stop reinforcements from coming, or you could simply shoot everybody in your way. There’s not only inherent strategy to be employed here; there’s inherent replayability, too.”

    Kotaku– NO

    “Another thought bubbled as I kept neck-stabbing and shooting through Shadow Fall: if this game wasn’t so astoundingly gorgeous, I’d be bored out of my skull. It’s a cliché that beauty fades and Shadow Fall‘s pulchritude is no exception. Once the wonder faded, it became clear that the game is a collection of missed marks and recycled design.”

    Polygon– 5/10

    “The game constantly fails to find any sort of trajectory or direction, and it suffers as a result. In Guerrilla’s attempts to depict the horrors of a divided society, they often crush the life out of the game with extended “playable” cutscenes showing awful though pedestrian moments in day-to-day New Helghan. But, ironically, the parts of the game where I was able to wander through and soak up the often stunning environments that make up Killzone: Shadow Fall were the moments of the campaign I enjoyed most.”

    Destructoid– 9/10

    “I like Killzone: Shadow Fall for its change of direction from previous series games, as well as its change of pace over other first-person shooters. Guerrilla has tried a few new things this time around, and should be commended as such. I welcome the almost sandbox-ish level approach, and the stealth segments did a nice job of breaking up the standard shooting action. It’s really nice when gameplay concepts win out over big set pieces and cinematic events.”

    Gamespot– 7/10

    “The problem is that none of these activities are particularly interesting. Helghast soldiers roam the larger areas, but they are too few in number, and don’t offer much challenge. There are precious few large-scale shootouts; instead, you typically face a small handful of foes who take your bullets and collapse into a heap of ragdoll limbs without too much trouble. More troublesome is how much time you spend doing relatively little but moving through the game’s admittedly gorgeous spaces.”

    Eurogamer– 7/10

    “Alongside the technology is the craft. The fidelity of the artwork is eye-watering in places; a narrow alley in a shanty town can be just as breathtaking in its detail as the vertiginous, aerial establishing shot that runs under the credits. What you really notice is the lighting – dear God, the lighting. The PS4 has unthrottled the artists’ access to this art and they have run amok, drenching every corner of the game in luscious sunsets, glistening reflections, glaring lens flare and richly coloured, mote-filled shafts of neon. It’s not subtle, but who cares, it’s gorgeous – and it gives even the game’s smaller-scale locations and more intimate moments a glossy, opulent air.”