Go Fetch!

Infamous First Light, is Sucker Punch's backstory add-on content for Infamous 2nd Son, one of my favorite games on PS4 so far...in terms of fun game traversal, mechanics and technical graphical prowess. So, a 4-6 hours worth of add-on content that explores one of the more interesting characters from 2nd Son is definitely something that I would check out.

I am happy to report after my first run through the story, it did not disappoint. First Light started off with Abigail Walker's (aka 'Fetch') recounting the events two years prior to the timelime of Infamous 2nd Son. The flashbacks are intermixed with arena battle sessions in the Curdun Cay Prison for the Conduits. These arena sessions serves as the tutorial to introduce or 're-introduce' to us Fetch's powers as she gets interrogated by Augustine, the prime antagonist seen in Infamous 2nd Son.

The main campaign lasts for about 5 hours to complete, with various side-missions to explore the smaller scaled version of Seattle. As a stand-alone DLC, this game does not require Infamous 2nd Son to run and since I bought it from PS Asia Store during the promotion, I got it for MYR36 with an entitlement to buy the digital version of Infamous 2nd Son at MYR83. Which is a steal....imagine, both games for only MYR119. However, since I have already played Second Son, I will skip that for the time being.

All in all, Infamous First Light is a pretty neat experience, packaged in a stellar digital offering. The physical copy is coming soon at MYR69 (with good resale value) and no doubt will be a favourite among fans of the Infamous franchise.

Remastered!

US NPD is a Consumer Market Research Group that publishes monthly data of total sales of gaming hardware and software in the US for July 2014, shows that PS4 is the #1 console and The Last of Us Remastered is the #1 selling console game software.

Initially, when Sony announced The Last of US Remastered is coming to PS4, it rubbed some journalist or gamers the wrong way. I didn't know the extent of the negativity until I read some of the comments online. 

One such article is from Crave Online Why The Last of Us Remastered Shouldn't Really Exist

The author raised some valid points but unfortunately maybe from either a biased or uninformed position. 

He argued that on the other hand, Microsoft's Halo Masterchief Collection(MCC) was worthwhile because it showed there was work done there, as it involved some major retooling work. 

The Last of Us on PS3 uses many of the tech and engine work that naughtydog custom-built over the years while working on the Uncharted series. Many of these tools either have to be adapted or rebuilt for the PS4 version. Sure, while I agree that MCC offers great value (4 games for the price of 1, games spanning 2 console generation), saying that its just a graphical bump is the understatement of the year. To the gamer yes, because that is all you can see on screen, which the developer will strongly disagree.

His article is just a representative of some of the opinions and here are some of their typical comments/arguments:

- Cash grab! Game is barely a year old!

- Naughty Dog should work on something else!

- These kinds of 'remastered' version should not exist at all!

- I just bought this game on PS3, no way I buying this again!

I have addressed some of these points in my previous post

Anyway, the gamers have voted with their wallets. The Last of Us is a great way for previous gen console owners to join the new-gen consoles (which might be the last, who knows). Shiny new hardware with an award-winning game to boot.

Inclusive: Sony @ gamescom 2014

Sony's conference started off with several game trailers, Infamous: First Light, The Order 1886 and Bloodborne gameplay trailer. Jim Ryan then started the conference and stated that this year Sony will do gamescom a bit differently. Some of the major highlights of the presser was:

• Sony announced worldwide sale of 10 million PS4 to consumer
• Firmware 2.0 will provide SharePlay and Youtube app support 
• Playstation Now will come to Europe, UK beta early 2015
• Playstation TV will launch in Europe, November 2014
• Hideo Kojima on stage to showed off some hilarious cardboard box techniques for MGS V
• Until Dawn action-based survival horror relaunched for PS4
• Mike Bithell spoke about his new game, Volume
• P.T. from 7780s was announced (turned out to be a cool new way for a game reveal)
• Gameplay Trailer Debuts for: Bloodborne, Destiny Multiplayer, RIME, The Order 1886(Tesla)
• New IP announcements by
• Ninja Theory: Hellblade 
• Housemarque: Alienation
• Q-Games: Tomorrow Children
• Media Molecule:Tearaway Unfolded
• Wild Sheep: formed by Michel Ancel, developer from Ubisoft: WiLD

Sony's presser had a lot of content to cover and this year pacing was excellent. Games bam, trailer, bam. No long waffling about numbers or products no one really cared. In fact, this year's conference was even shorter than Microsoft's. One thing I noticed this time round, Sony didn't bother too much about giving long introductions, except for Hideo Kojima, some of the folks just come up on stage after a trailer, Far Cry 4. If this is the new way of Sony conference, please keep doing it.

Notably absent was any major announcements related to PS VITA, although Sony later commented that many games are still incoming for the platform, for example Minecraft Vita should ready anytime soon.

Microsoft may won gamescom 2014 on showmanship (Tomb Raider exclusive) but I prefer the Sony way. They seems to understand what the gaming audience want. We like to see companies bring games to their platform, not deny other platforms their games. Be inclusive instead of exclusive.

We prefer to see and hear about interesting games. We love to see developers like Michel Ancel or Mike Bithell on stage to talk about their new games rather than ex-Man Utd goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel, talking about this years' FIFA.

Exclusive: Microsoft @ Gamescom 2014

This is my 'exclusive' Microsoft gamescom 2014 presser quick recap.

Phil Spencer took to stage and opened the conference day. Microsoft fired the first salvo, Rise of The Tomb Raider, coming holiday 2015 exclusive on Xbox. We also go a closer look at gameplay for Ori and The Blind Forest, beautiful platformer, dreamy art style, with a Rayman-feel. Several new IPs got introduced along side with staple Call of Duty, HALO, FORZA Horizons 2, Fable Legends and Sunset Overdrive. Microsoft also announced several hardware bundles: 1TB Call of Duty Advanced Warfare, Sunset Overdrive white XboxOne  and FIFA 15 bundles. FIFA 15 also continued its exclusive FIFA Legends DLC on XBOX.

During the presser, we also got to see gameplay footage of Quantum Break from Remedy Entertainment. In short, the game is a 3rd person cover-based shooter with timecontrol mechanic. It also oozes a Max Payne vibe which is not surprising given Max Payne was Remedy's IP before it was sold off to Take2.
Here's the gameplay demo

Packed in somewhere in the middle of the presser is the ID@xbox section, which Escapist, Space Engineers, SMITE, SuperHot and Goat Simulator, were among the highlights. From the list of indie titles, Massive Chalice(Doublefine), Inside(Playdead) and Cuphead(SMHR) were some of the titles that piqued my interest. I hope they will come to PS4 eventually. Anyway, here's the ID@xbox games montage.

Overall, a strong showing from Microsoft, great variety of software from the 'indies' and 3rd party partners. HALO: The Masterchief Collection is a great way to play all of HALO story campaign and multiplayer on a single console and likely to be a great holiday gift for the XBOX gamer that will potentially move the XBOX360 player to upgrade to XBOX ONE.

The biggest news however that came out of the conference is Rise of Tomb Raider, coming Holiday 2015, exclusive on XBOX, which drew gasps from the live audience and thousands watching the livestream. This was later clarified as not an IP purchase and has a specific duration, further details were withheld.

Sony is next...

Countdown to Gamescom 2014 - Call of Duty

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Multiplayer Reveal

- Power Changes Everything -

Another year, another Call of Duty. Shooter-fatigue is a real thing. How many military shooters can we play year in year out? Well fortunately for the developers, it seems not, as every year it sells by the bucket loads. Every year they make little adjustments here and there and just about managed to keep it fresh. 

This year however, is a brand new take on the franchise, by SledgeHammer Games. This is SG's first time at the helm, as the new addition to the regular CoD-factories, Infinity Ward and Treyarch. They did so by combining some of the elements from both studios with a little secret sauce of their own.

Key to this new game is the Exo Suit, adding a new dimension to the already fast-paced signature action of Call of Duty. The Exo Suit adds new capability for attack, defense and traversal, making the multiplayer game more frantic and action-packed. These mechanical suits adds a new level of verticality to Call of Duty, seen from games like Halo and the upcoming Destiny.

The Pick-10 system from Treyarch's Black Ops 2, is back in CoD:AW as Pick-13, giving you further customization on your character classes. Another new feature to look for to in CoD:AW will be its Custom Scorestreaks, allowing you to custom-fit your scorestreak with additional munitions.

CoD: AW will be released world-wide on Nov 4, 2014, and those that pre-ordered will get the Day Zero Edition on Nov 3, bundled with 2 custom gun and 2XP enabled 24 hours before the rest of the world get their grubby hands on this season's biggest shooter.

Gamescom 2014 Conference Schedule - MY Time

Covering events from a different timezone is always tricky, here's my cheat sheet for gamescom 2014. Time/date are GMT+8

Day                  Time             Event
Aug 12(Tue)    0100             Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Multiplayer Reveal
                       2000             Microsoft gamescom 2014 Conference

Aug 13(Wed)   0100            Sony gamescom 2014 Conference

Aug 14(Thu)     0200            Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
                        1600            EA gamescom 2014 Conference

Exclusives Done Right

Skip it if you are someone who is rich and don't have a care in the world.
Read on if you are someone frugal who would feel something eating you inside if you see something that you own sitting there not being used regularly.

In my humble opinion, Platform Exclusives is the necessary evil for platform holders like Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony. Exclusives help sell their hardware and ultimately offer them the platform differentiation. So, I am very happy that the big 3, have several in-house game development studios (generally called first party studios) to develop exclusive games for each of their platforms. The first party studios have early and in-depth access to their own hardware and more often than not develop games that utilizes each platforms unique features. I fully understands and supports this.

Then, we have the 3rd party development studios, fronted by big publishers like Activision, EA, Ubisoft, Bethesda, Take2 and the like. Finally, the indie development studios. Surely if you are a third-party studio, you would want your games to be on more platforms as long as it is economically viable, making platform exclusives some sort of misnomer.

So why 3rd party studio exclusives?
Things started off simply with the more benign platform exclusives such as characters in a fighting game, then grew all the way to platform exclusive games. If I were to point fingers, it will be to Microsoft who started this initially with Activision's Call of Duty(COD) during the Xbox360's glory days. It meant that Playstation owners will get COD map packs a month later the Microsoft console owners. This has now ascended to the gamer-divisive exclusive such as Titanfall, Sunset Overdrive and Bayonetta 2. Platform holders fill the coffers of these companies to secure these exclusives. I bloody hates this. Why?

Any form of exclusivity means that the larger general console gaming public (ie one that owns a single console) will never get to experience the magic of some of these titles, which is such a shame. I will never get to play Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Galaxy, Mariokart 8, Professor Layton, Shovel Knights, Bastion, Gears of War 3, Splintercell Conviction orTitanfall, because they are either on Nintendo or Microsoft platforms.

So, how can Platform Exclusives be done the right way? Here's what I think:

• 1st Party Platform exclusive for game: YES but
• This should be done but I think with hardware sales struggling Nintendo should look into porting a set of hit franchises from previous generation (N64 or Wii) to XboxOne/PS4. This will help the non-Nintendo gamers develop some love for Nintendo games and perhaps buy Nintendo WiiU or future hardware as the secondary console. 

• 3rd Party Platform exclusive for game: NO because
• This limits the market potential for the game. Developers can consider timed exclusive to reduce risk if the game is a new IP

• Indie Platform exclusive for game: Definitely NO because
• Any form of exclusive alignment with a platform holder kind of goes against the tenets of an indie developer 

That being said, here are some of the recent exclusivity terms that we are seeing and what I think of them:

• Time-limited exclusive - means that the game and/or its downloadable content will be exclusive to a single platform. It will arrive to other platforms later (1 month, etc)
• My opinion: Ok, patience is a virtue

• Platform exclusive content - means that a game content either character or game mission will be exclusive to a single platform. 
• My opinion: Totally against this. Unless the character is totally useless or the game mission is totally uninspiring, developers should never have different experiences for a specific market subset

• Early Access or Beta Access - means a specific platform get to beta test or play a portion of the game early than other platforms
• My opinion: Ok, no problem with this (quite similar to timed exclusive in a way)

No doubt, some of these exclusives in the previous generation (Xbox360, PS3, Wii) could be due Xbox360's supreme market position, PS3's insanely difficult architecture and Wii's lower horsepower. 

I am hopeful that this current generation, with XboxONE and PS4 market parity (arguable though, if you look at worldwide sales at the moment), their similar PC-based architecture, and multiplatform development tools such as Unity(PC, Android, Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft), platform exclusives will rear its ugly head less and less. Money should be spent on developing your own games, not blocking other platform's access to a 3rd party or indie developer (Microsoft, I am looking at you)

gamescom 2014 is coming

Gamescom-Cologne 2014 is coming up next week. 

It is the equivalent of E3 for the European market, and for the past few years it has been growing and may soon be even be bigger than E3. One of the key contributing factor is its timing, smack in the middle after E3 and the holiday season. So it gives many studios the opportunity to show teasers at E3, then show gameplay at gamescom (with their product closer to release).

Gamescom 2014 will be from Aug 13-17 (with the first day, press-only).

My gaming sites are already prepped their coverage team and casted their predictions for this year. I will be following the coverage closely and hopefully be pleasantly surprised.

To Double-dip or Not Double-dip

The Last of Us, naughtydogs' stellar and award-winning swansong to the PS3, is finally here, new and improved in the recently The Last of Us Remastered. Improved lighting tech, textures and graphics, smooth 60fps gameplay, and great storytelling. Pretty much everything great about TLoU on PS3, made faster and better-looking.

There were many naysayers about doing this graphical remaster given the fact that the PS3 version was just released a year ago. I am not of that opinion though. Here is why I think TLoU PS4 Remastered is the right thing at the right time, written by a PS3 owner who has played the PS3 version barely a few months ago.

TLoU Remastered on PS4:

• gave naughtydoggies a great opportunity to do exploratory work on the PS4 hardware adapting some of their latest in-house tech and developing new ones on PS4 platform
• new PS4 owners (that haven't owned PS3 or played TLoU) a great experience with the definitive version
• great new TLoU PS4 bundle with an award-winning game
• help Sony filled in the summer gap, the typically slow period in terms of game releases

Unfortunately for PS3 owners who owns and played the game recently, Sony did not offer up any trade-up or rebate for them to double-dip (ie. repurchasing a game they already played albeit on an older platform). 

For that, I will have to wait a bit longer for my purchase, to dive back into the world of Joel and Ellie, and try out the unique experience offered in the Factions, TLoU's take on multiplayer, in the cordyceps-filled post-apocalyptic world.  Possibly when TLoU Remastered joins the PS4 Hits or if I managed to snag a used copy for cheap. Luckily though, I am looking at fantastic games line-up on the horizon.

Indie Hate

One of the evolution of the gaming scene over the last decade has been the extinction of mid-sized publishers and game studios and the rise of indie development studios. The liberalization of the console development scene also gave rise to interesting new titles from some of these indie studios. From the true one-man indie developer to the publisher-funded studios like thatgamecompany, the indie movement has given us some unique experiences ranging from the retro-inspired Super Meatboy to the artistically impressive, Journey.

Unfortunately, because of this, triple-A or AA budget games are getting few and far between, especially early in a console lifecycle. This had many gamers or late adopters complaining that the lack of games for this current generation of consoles.

So let me set the records straight. There is no shortage of games. There may be less of US$60 games (RM200) released monthly, but certainly no lack of games. Here are some of the 'indie-games' or digital downloads that you might have overlooked because of such pigeon-boxed thinking.

Don't Starve, Dead Nation Apocalypse, FEZ, Towerfall Ascension, Transistor, Child of Light, Valiant Hearts, Rouge Legacy, Road Not Taken. (all less than US$20 each, higher game-time per dollar value)

I must say, not all of those games are to my taste. I enjoy a bit of platform jumping in my games, but an entirely platforming Metroid-vania game is not something I play a lot. That is down to my poor sense of timing and slow reactions. Lack of games no, in fact, lots of variety. 

So, before you jump in to join the indie-hate bandwagon next time, have a think whether is it because of your gaming tastes or is it just a narrow opinion that is stopping you from enjoying a different slice of gaming?

Till next time. Open your Minds and Happy Gaming!