Tag: PS4

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

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?”.

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.

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.

March 2, 2015
Just For Pun: Rating The Order: 1886 Review Subtitles

Reviews for the PS4 exclusive The Order: 1886 have been middling at best. I will be reviewing the game when I pick it up and from what most reviews have said, it shouldn’t take me long to finish (it never does).

We will take a different approach to The Order since I have no review to offer you. I will review the taglines for the reviews for The Order, which range from brilliant to no effort at all. With the Victorian setting and Arthurian names the game is ripe for the subtitle picking.

“Gears of Yore”- NeoGAF

8.5/10

Starting off strong. Sterling wanted this one but GAF beat him to it.

“Short Order”- Jim Sterling

8.0/10

His backup was still strong and worth a good score.

“The Struggle Within”- IGN

6.5/10

Don’t forget, as all IGN commenters do not realize, that 6.5 is “good”.

“Uncompromising Cinematic Vision”- Game Informer

5.5/10

No pun intended I believe. Just there.

“There’s a word for games like The Order: 1886. Rental.”- Giant Bomb

8.0/10

Go right for the throat. I like it.

“7 hours out of ten.”- Eurogamer

9.5/10

Bringing it strong. This is how you do it.

“From hell”- Gamespot

8.0/10

Like the Johnny Depp reference. Gets a bump up for that.

“A half baked PS4 launch game…15 months late”.- EGM

7.0/10

Good enough to be memorable.

“Not enough chaos.”- Destructoid

6.0/10

No pun (or fun) intended.

“London calling”- Polygon

7.5/10

Should be higher but I am a Last of Us fan. If you get it, you get it.

“Ready at dawn, finished by the afternoon”- Videogamer

10/10

Winner, winner. Everyone see this? Do more of this.

February 20, 2015
Sony Bundling The Last Of Us With PS4’s Again (Permanently?)

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.

January 13, 2015
Nerd Rating’s 2015 Gaming Predictions

Scott

1. Starfox and Zelda Wii U will release in 2015.

Nintendo has said that Starfox will be playable at E3 and set for release this year. Zelda is also supposed to release this year, but I think many doubt Nintendo can make good on that. I think they know what situation the Wii U is in and is making 2015 the make or break year for the console. If Starfox and Zelda can not breathe some life into it, then the Wii U is a lost cause.

2. Resident Evil 7 will be announced. Will drop all unnecessary bullshit and be like Resident Evil.

Resident Evil 6 was the best selling of the franchise (no, you stop buying that!) and yet, I think Resident Evil 7 will go back to its roots and try to recapture the feel of the original. Maybe set in a mansion or large facility. Prediction or just one guy’s wild fantasy?

3. Xbox One will drop to $349 for good at E3.

Microsoft won the holiday season by dropping Xbox One to $349 along with some great bundles. The promotion ended on January 3rd and is now back to $399. While having more holiday sales is great, they still are playing catch up with the PS4. Early year sales should reflect the need to keep the price drop in effect. E3 will be a big stage to announce the new price.

4. Batman: Arkham Knight will lead into Rocksteady’s next unannounced game featuring the Justice League.

I know that the Batman: Arkham Knight collector’s edition statue may have spoiled the end of the game, but this is something I have thought would happen for a while now. Rocksteady said they were ending their Batman story with Arkham Knight, they didn’t say anything about what story they were starting

5. Rockstar will announce their next big release. Will be either Red Dead or Bully sequel.

Please be Red Dead. Please be Red Dead. Please be Red Dead. I will give you what you want. Please!

Trey

1. Nintendo

This is the pivotal year for the house that Miyamoto built as far as the home console market is concerned. I love Zelda and Star Fox as much as the next guy, but those two titles are not going to suddenly move millions of systems. I’m not counting them out yet, but if Wii U sales continue to lag and they continue to lose third-party support, I don’t know what can save them.

2. Multiplayer

Whether you loved Destiny or hated it, the fact remains that it did not permanently alter the gaming landscape as planned. In my opinion, it’s because you can’t plan game-changers like Counter-Strike, Halo, and Modern Warfare. We are due for such a game, though, and I think we will see it this year… it’s probably not Battlefield: Hardline, though. Sorry.

3. “Hardcore” Titles

The Souls series has taken a portion of the gaming world by storm in the past five years and spawned numerous poor copy-cats, along with a few genuinely good titles of the same ilk. Both Bloodborne and Deep Down are slated for release this year, but I think we’ll see a new IP in a different genre than action-fantasy that scratches the hardcore itch and gets the attention of the industry.

4. HD Remakes

Square Enix has already announced a PS4 re-release of their PS3 re-release of Final Fantasy X, which isn’t even a year old as I write this. Capcom is bringing DmC and Devil May Cry 4 to next-Gen, but not until after they bring us a new version of the GameCube version of the original PlayStation game Resident Evil. Considering I will buy all of those from Capcom, this trend is here to stay.

5. Game Journalism

Whether you feel the industry is obsolete, corrupt, out-of-touch, pretentious, or just boring, it all boils down to the same thing: The traditional methods of game reporting and reviewing are dying off, replaced by social media, “let’s play” video, and live-streaming. This year, keep an eye out for ridiculous activity from publishers and existing media outlets as they try to stave off the inevitable.

Erich

1. More HD remakes

I think the trend of HD remakes is far from over I expect a Mass Effect trilogy HD bundle, Dead Space trilogy HD, and Bioshock HD

2. An evening of the sales floor

I think that the Xbone and the PS4 will find an even sales number as the One picks up speed in China

3. Big Announcements

Red Dead Revolution, Fallout 4, Gears, (The Gears of War Sequel) Mass Effect 4, and a new Volition game will be announced this year

4. Delays

Kingdom Hearts, Last Guardian, Fable Legends, and Doom will all be delayed into at least 2016

5. The Wii U continues to lag

No matter what anyone says about Smash Bros. Or a new Zelda, I genuinely believe that this poor little console needs to be put out of its misery. Come on Wii 3 the search for Wii 2.

January 8, 2015
Get Victorian With 15 Minutes Of Gameplay From The Order:1886

Fall 2014 has been a weird gaming period for me. I liked Destiny (while it lasted), lost many hours to Shadow of Mordor then came disappointment. I have not connected with Dragon Age much, Far Cry 4 could not hold a candle to its predecessor and WWE 2K15 has been an utter fart in the wind.

Maybe things can get turned around early next year. Dying Light comes in January and The Order: 1886 in February. If you have wanted to see more actual gameplay instead of cutscenes here is 15 minutes of footage from the zeppelin mission shown at the Playstation Experience. I was expecting Gears of (Victorian) War and I was right. This is what I want.

The Order: 1886 releases on February 20, 2015.

December 17, 2014
Bloodborne Releasing February 6th. Collector’s Edition And New Trailer Shown

Dark Souls publisher FromSoftware’s PS4 exclusive, Bloodborne, will release on February 6, 2015. This was announced at TGS today (or last night, I don’t do time change) as well as the news that a collector’s edition will be available.

As you can see it is a scaled down collector’s edition which is what these things used to be before we had $250 giant titan statues. It will cost $79.99.

If Dark Souls is any indication, I would be prepared to throw your PS4 controller multiple times.

Check out the new trailer below.

September 18, 2014
Scott’s E3 2014 Predictions

Last year’s E3 is but a distant memory. We now have shiny new consoles in front of us and now we are like an addict needing a hit. E3 is here to give us a fix, if only for a brief moment. Here are my predictions of what I think will happen as the unwashed masses descend on Los Angeles to play new games and bitch about how long we have to wait on them.

1. Unlike last year, Microsoft will win the press conference war.

Let’s not sugar-coat it, Microsoft got their ass handed to them last year. It was a beatdown of epic proportions. One that is still being seen today with the PS4 outselling the Xbox One by a good margin. Microsoft had an unpopular message (always online, Kinect must be plugged in, limits on lending games) and then to make matters worse they didn’t have their ducks in a row on the company’s message. One talking head would say one thing about always online then another would say something conflicting to that. It was as bad as bad could get. Then Sony shows up, announces the PS4 will play used games, not require an online connection AND be $100 cheaper. You could just see Sony with their arms wide open saying “we will take you in wounded gamer”.

This year will be different.

With no console announcements this year, Microsoft and Sony will have to focus on the games and just looking at games we know are in the pipeline, Microsoft has a lot more to offer than Sony. Microsoft will be showing off games like Halo 5, the unnamed Halo collection (Halo: The Master Chief Collection most say), Sunset Overdrive, Project Spark, Quantum Break, Fable Legends as well as rumored games Ryse: Son of Rome 2, Forza Horizon 2 and a possible early look at the next Gears of War.

That’s a damn lot of games.

Sony, on the other hand, has Drive Club, The Order: 1886 (which was just delayed to 2015) and…give me a sec.

Yes, Uncharted may be shown, but with all the problems at Naughty Dog over the past few months that is not a guarantee. What else could set our panties on fire? God of War? After the sales of God of War: Ascension is that really something that will help Sony? Guerrilla is working on a new IP that could cause some excitement.

See where I am going here? I am stretching to find Sony’s big moments. I hope they prove me wrong.

2. Super Smash Bros. Wii U will get a release date.

Expect a lot of gameplay shown and a heavy emphasis on the fighter since it will be Nintendo’s main selling point for the Wii U this fall.

3. We will see gameplay from both Assassin’s Creed: Unity and Assassin’s Creed: Comet.

And they will look nowhere near as fun as Assassin’s Creed IV.

4. A new Battlefield will be shown.

I cheated with this one. Battlefield: Hardline was already leaked. The part of this I am predicting is that it will be looked down on because of Battlefield 4’s complete lack of being able to work. Ever. The fact that Visceral, not DICE, is handling developing duties will not make gamers forget.

5. Sony will show off more of Project: Morpheus

Let’s hope it is more innovation than the next Move.

6. Zelda Wii U is shown in some way.

Whether it is pre-rendered video or gameplay, we will see a new Zelda. Don’t expect a release till late 2015 or 2016 though.

7. Same for Gears of War.

The new Gears of War will at most get a teaser trailer, but like Link, it won’t see release till 2016.

8. Microsoft will make Games with Gold mean something.

Playstation Plus is worth so much more than the $50 you pay. My PS3 and PS4 are loaded with so many games that I will never be able to finish them. Microsoft introduced Games with Gold last year and while they get a participation ribbon for trying, it has offered up paltry efforts compared to Plus.

This year should change things now that free games will be coming to the Xbox One. Rumors are that Ryse: Son of Rome (which I liked) will be one of the free offerings. With Microsoft making an effort to bring newer games to the 360, Games with Gold should take a step in the right direction.

That’s all I got so far. Give us some of your predictions for this year’s E3. I will be back after the show to see how my list did. I am going to say I get 5 out of 8.

Games!

May 29, 2014
Sony Shows Off “Project Morpheus” VR Headset

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.

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.

March 19, 2014
Eight Minutes Of Infamous: Second Son Gameplay

Don’t worry PS4 owners. While Xbox One is enjoying the release of Titanfall this week you are only a week away from Infamous: Second Son. While it is nothing like Titanfall, it is good to have an exclusive title to enjoy.

Check out this video just released that shows eight minutes of gameplay from the third game in the series. If you have played the first two games it will look very familiar and very pretty as new hero Delsin makes his way around Seattle.

Infamous: Second Son releases on March 21st.

March 13, 2014
MLB 14 Releasing In May For PS4. Screenshots Make Your Eyes Bleed

Sony San Diego has announced that MLB 14 will release on April 1st on PS3 and Vita and see a PS4 release a month later in May. The real kicker here is the new screenshots that were shown from the PS4 version which should be met with proper use of profanity to show just how impressive the first next-gen baseball title looks.

The studio is promising over 50 new features and improvements including “quick counts” which will speed up game completion time by 50%.

Sony San Diego is promising even more looks at the game in the coming weeks but until then stare at these beautiful shots with your eye holes, starting with a comparison of Boston Red Sox first baseman Mike Napoli between the PS3 and PS4. The PS3 has always looked beautiful visually, but when put next to the next-gen version, the gap is clear.

February 13, 2014