20 years of Gaming

Romance of the video games
I was awestruck when I first saw shops showing gameplay of Tekken, 3D graphics...full-motion video story telling, a leap from the days of my playing bit-graphics of Contra and Mario on NES-clone. PC games was still king especially in my favourite genre, real-time strategy, with the likes of Dune and Warcraft.

But videogames offered a simplicty and laid-back couch gaming. So, I made the jump and invested in my PSX (the original Playstation) in 1997. I continued my path with Sony and bought my Metal Gear Solid 2 PS2 on one Easter weekend while I was in UK and I was one of the selected few that participated in the PS2 network beta program, and SOCOM II was my first foray into online multiplayer shooter. I was very happy when I got my launch version PS3 in 2007, even though the launch price was relatively high initially. It was also the darkest history, as this generation saw two PS3s (one original phat and one slim) broke down with hardware failures.

PS4 was a different journey, Sony wised up to their PS3 mistakes and I bought my PS4 late 2013 during Malaysia's launch window in support of this new approach.

2016, marks the 20th year of my gaming days on Sony, so I take this time to look at how things have changed over the years.

Things got complicated
Video games used to be straight forward, pop-in the disc, sit back and start playing. Nowadays, it is slowly becoming quite a bit of a chore at times.

First, different versions of the game...with various bonus contents associated with pre-orders. Some may not be sold separately until a later date. Once you made your choice, the first thing probably have to do when you pop-in the disc to play is the Day One patches...often a large patch to address some of the issues found after the gold master was sent for manufacturing. This means, with no internet, you are pretty much stuck with a sub-optimal version of the game. Another sore point is Downloadable Content(DLCs) and Season Passes....the issue I have with these is that publishers/developers seldom spell out clearly the kind of content / experience in terms of length or variety of the DLCs that you are getting with each pack or season pass. This is not acceptable. Season passes should be be sold until you have your first DLC/expansion pack released. Why are consumers pre-buying content?

Finally, a year on, a game may have been patched multiple times (which is a good thing in a way), for example, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, bugfixed and optimized...offer a vastly improved experience for the player. Some might argue, you get a better game, as in the case of Destiny : The Taken King, priced the same as Destiny a year ago...with the cumulative content and improvements, making it a far better experience and giving better value. Some games even offer Game of the Year Editions ...eg. Dragon Age Inquisition, with all the add-on DLCs released together in a nice package without the premium price of season pass.

Things getting worse
With the advent of a networked console, console gaming has improved and evolved. No longer limited to problems associated with the past, eg. a random game breaking bug that can never be patched. Bugs can be fixed post-launch. New content can be added to further enrich the gamer's experience. Day one patches, or constant updates of fixes, fixes that broke things that needed a re-fix, is only a minor passing inconvenience.

Unfortunately, things also degenerated to new lows, to the less savory side of gaming, publisher gouging on consumer's naivety. Game story/content carved out for exclusive pre-order bonuses, season passes and micro-transactions. This tri-vecta of evil will be a major factor of why I believe some day, I will look back and say, those were the days when I used to play some video games.

The beginning of the end
Once I was an avid watcher of anime, then it got repetitive. Themes begin to repeat, my interest slowly wane. Football is another past time that I never dreamed of not watching regularly but it happened too, when I find myself not watching it regularly to justify the subscription spending.

My holiday 2015 game spending seems to be a difficult one even though it seems to a season with loads of games. Fallout 4 and Black Ops 3 are the two games that I am looking to get this seasonThe others, well, let's take a look at them.

Rainbow Six : Siege - multiplayer only game - with no single player story
Assassins Creed Syndicate - franchise fatigue
Need for Speed Reboot - not a big fan of driving games
Just Cause 3 - new franchise but not sure if campaign is worth playing or it is just a game for laughs
Star Wars Battlefront - fantastic audio visual but lacks of campaign, and EA's evil tri-vecta killed any enthusiasm for the game.

Fallout 4 - I feel I should wait till Oct/Nov 2016, and play Fallout 4: Game of the Year Edition since Bethesda will release add-on content and patches regularly for the next twelve months.

This leaves Call of Duty : Black Ops 3. I have been burned before. Last year's instalment was hailed as the best in recent years, it was not to my tastes. The campaign was not great, multiplayer felt repetitively tiresome.

Maybe Gravity Rush Remastered, maybe Divinity Original Sin Enhanced Edition for PS4. Fall/Christmas used to be a season when you can't decide which games to buy...it should be a time when you cannot decide one a game to buy.

Like I say, some day, I might look by to 2015, as the beginning of the end of my video gaming phase.

Games of Holiday Season 2015

My shortlist of games for the rest of the year


Optimistic
Fallout 4 (Nov) - most likely will wait for Game of the Year Edition in Oct 2016
Gravity Rush Remastered (Dec)
No Man's Sky (???)


 Worth a look
Call of Duty : Black Ops 3 (Nov)
Divinity Original Sin (Oct) - too RPG for my gaming tastes
Just Cause 3 (Dec) - not so interested....
SOMA (Sep)

Hitman (Dec) - delayed to Mar 2016

Shaky ground - maybe too MP focus or franchise fatigue
Assassins' Creed Syndicate (Oct)  feels like generic AC sequels
Star Wars Battlefront (Nov) - worth a look if local couch co-op is great
Rainbow Six Siege (Dec) --- as of Sep 30th, confirmed no single player campaign

2016
Yakuza Kiwami
Mirror's Edge - will play Mirror's Edge (The Original) on PS3 to get an idea
Deus Ex Humankind Divided
Hitman
The Division - will need to confirm single player campaign or will it be like Destiny :P
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
Horizon Zero Dawn
Fallout 4 GOTY Edition
The Last Guardian
Gravity Rush 2
Persona 5

TGS 2015

This year's Sony pre-TGS press conference was one of the their best in recent memory. PS4 is outselling PS2 and PS3 in their initial years in Asia (although the Japan numbers are not stellar).


High Points
Gravity Rush Remastered and Gravity Rush 2 coming to PS4
Yakuza Kiwami Remake coming to PS4
Yakuza 6
Nioh coming to PS4
13 Sentinels Aegis Rim, a mecha game by Vanillaware coming to PS4/PSV
PS4 Price Drop
New DualShock4 colours

Low Points
Assassins Creed Unity: Jack The Ripper DLC announcement
No Tekken

Now, let's wait to hear more news at Paris Games Week next month.


ps: Persona 5, delayed to 2016. So many games in 2016. :D

Destiny: The Final Awakening

I have written about Destiny year 1 in my post-launch report last year. I was a little frustrated then, with the grinding and unfair reward/loot system. Over the next few months after that, Bungie started 'listening' to their fans, made slight alteration and promises that the expansions will rectify many of the shortcomings. Well, Dark Below and House of Wolves came and went, it made changes yes, but it didn't really rectify stuffs, it added new things, changed some of the existing systems and made some of the pre-DLC gear worse. I can no longer play Destiny.

Incidentally, the recent Gjallahorn sale by Xur, made me return to Destiny after a long hiatus.Next came the pre-Taken King patch, it made me excited again. The old game suddenly seem new again. Many of the year one frustrations have been taken away. Missions and quests are better designed. Bounties are better managed. I levelled up all my three characters to 34, to wait for 2.0's release. Signs of better things to come.

On Sep 15th, I took a break from my daily MGS V missions to look into Destiny 2.0. I went to the tower, picked up a few bounties and then started my Old Earth Patrol. After a few missions, my gun levelled up. My character still stuck at 34. No XP gain.
Then I found out why...Destiny 2.0 is not for Year One peasants. You can still play some of the missions, but most of the game is no longer made for you. In fact, I find myself struggling to survive the patrol areas.

Jason Schreier of Kotaku wrote an article Destiny: The Taken King leaves Players who didn't upgrade behind  Another fan wrote a detailed post on reddit  about the things taken away from him in 2.0.

I guess I finally learnt my lesson, time to fully retire from Destiny, with even more parts taken away from me, it is time for the King to leave the building.

Juz Played: MGS V: The Phantom Pain

After several days of patiently waiting for my discounted pre-order to arrive, I finally manage to play this game on Saturday, 5th Sep. I got the game for MYR189 (when most outlets selling it for MYR239 or MYR249).

As far as early indications go, I am happy to say, this game offers the best gameplay this series have ever seen. The controls, the generally open-ended nature of some of the missions, and the punctuated story moments of the game are all well-done. 

My only negatives so far are: Snake are sometimes underused, glaringly silent at parts of the story-dialogues delivered either through cassettes or radio conversations, whereas Quiet's design is a bit over the top. Fan service or not, her over-exaggerated design kinds of diminished her backstory.

For me, this game is on my 2015 must-play list of games, alongside Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Looking for to finishing this in time for Fallout 4.

Replay: Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes

 

Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, serves as a prelude to the upcoming release, The Phantom Pain, which is most likely, Hideo Kojima's final Metal Gear game with Konami was released in 2014 to much controversy. The main point of discussion was its length and its associated price point.

Anyway, in preparation for MGS V: The Phantom Pain's imminent Sep 1st launch, I replayed the missions in Ground Zeroes multiple times, to better my score and to save more prisoners of war from Camp Omega, the CIA black site in Costa Rica.

I hope by the time of Phantom Pain's release, I would have learned the game's controls lmuscle memory, like second nature.

Juz Finished: Journey (PS4)

I played Journey before on PS3. I think it is a wonderfully crafted game. Simple but insightful and majestic as it explores many themes as you venture on a path that takes you from the initial point as you ascend to your destination.

Much have been debated whether 'Journey' is a game or just an interactive experience or art. Let's not have this debate as I dare say 'Journey' is all of the above and possibly even more.

I had repeated playthroughs on PS3 and when it became available on PS4, I gave it another go. The spruced up hardware made the game look and feel even better. My playthrough on PS4 is helped further by its social, share and connected-ness. I will not say more as the game is to be experienced first-hand. If you have not played Journey, now is the time to make the pilgrimage.

Juz Finished: Dead Nation Apocalypse Edition (PS4)

Dead Nation is a cult favourite on PS3 game developed by Housemarque when it released on PS3 in 2010. The Apocalyspe Edition is a reworked version by Climax Studios for release on PS4.  It is a top-down twin-sticks zombies shoot em up (shmup).

I got the PS3 version as one of the free games offered by Sony after the PSN hack. The PS4 and PS Vita version were issued free because of Sony Cross-Buy policy.

Overall, it is a fun, old-school action game, and even better when played with another player as local co-op on PS4.  

Juz Finished: Witcher III: Wild Hunt (240 hours played)

The sign of a great game is one that makes you want to have more after the credits roll. For some games, it is only the gameplay. In Witcher 3's case, it is the strong storyline that makes you yearn to know more about what happens next, how they get on...will Ciri stay on doing what she has chosen or will Geralt be content with his new way of life?

This game managed to reel us in and made us care about the characters. In fact, I find  Witcher 3 did a better job compared to Dragon Age Inquisition. I will need to have a long hard look to understand why. 

In my opinion, this game is one of the best PS4 game to date, standing proudly with The Last of Us Remastered, a must-play, as essential purchases for a PS4 owner. 

There will be DLC expansion to Witcher 3, I can't wait. But for now, the countdown starts for Sep 1, MGS V: The Phantom Pain.

E3 2015

The Giants Battle
A lot was said by many journalists about this E3 is like a fan fiction and I tend to agree. Many industry analysts also pointed out that while Sony's press conference was thrilling, Sony does not have any exclusives for this holiday 2015. I dunno about you, Holiday 2015 is looking really packed, and probably turned out to be a good idea for Sony make space for mega-releases such as, MGS V, Fallout 4 and Star Wars Battlefront.

This year's E3 will go down in history that dropped the most bombs and generated the most buzz.
There was so many announcements that it becomes hard to keep up. Here, I will list down some of the highlights:

Bethesda : Fallout 4, Dishonored 2, Doom

Microsoft: recore, Beyond Eyes, Rise of the Tomb Raider

EA       : Mirror's Edge, Unravel, STAR WARS Battlefront

Ubisoft  : For Honor, The Division, Rainbow Six: Siege, Ghost Recon Wild Lands

Sony     : The Last Guardian, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Firewatch, No Man's Sky, Final Fantasy VII - Remake, Shenmue 3, Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

SquareEx : Just Cause 3, Hitman, Deus Ex : Humankind Divided

Microsoft and Sony
Just like last year, Nintendo skipped the pre-E3 conferences and opted for the much more 'intimate' E3 experience with their Nintendo Direct E3 conference. While they made some newsworthy announcements over the course of E3, I have decided not to do any write up on them. Nintendo will always have their fans. I am just not one of them. Anyway it wasn't one of their best showings as even their fans crucified their E3 2015 Nintendo Direct.

So here are some of my reflections of Microsoft and Sony at E3 2015.

Kudos to Microsoft, for coming out with the great double-punch at this year's E3, great exclusive line-up and backwards compatibility. The great line-up includes the fan favourites like HALO 5 Guardians, Forza 6 and further down the line Gears of War 4, while ponying the cash to make Rise of The Tomb Raider a holiday 2015 exclusive. Backwards compatibility while comes with strings attached, is such a great headline to either stem the 360-to-PS4 migration or to entice Xbox-leavers to purchase that second console. Slowly but surely, under Phil Spencer's stewardship, Xbox has managed to turned things around. Positivity starts to grow with gamers-first policies like automatic playable for 360 games fo that you owned on your Xbox One (no purchase/subscription required). ID@Xbox, continues to build an interesting lineup (eg. CupHead, Beyond Eyes).

Sony on the other hand continues to test their fans with a lean first party lineup, but thankfully, worked to ensure their leadership means that PS4 will be the best home for 3rd party games. Sony locked down DLC-first for Call of Duty Black Ops 3, Star Wars Battlefront, Disney 3.0 and exclusive content for Destiny expansions. That said, 2015 still remains a solid first party offering for non-PS3 owners as they get their hands on remastered offerings of :God of War 3, Uncharted 1-3 Collection, Heavy Rain and Beyond Two Souls. For long term Sony fans, for most of 2015 and maybe first half of 2016, they will need to look at 3rd party publishers for big AAA games and smaller studios for interesting indie gems. The future looks bright though, as Sony took to the E3 2015 stage to announce a new IP from Guerrilla Games, Horizon: Zero Dawn and the revival of The Last Guardian.

Last but not the least, is one of the unique things about E3, those weird uncomfortable moments of E3. For me, this year's moment goes to Square Enix conference...with one of the stage presenters with a weird mask. There you go, E3 2015 is a wrap.

I played: The Witcher 3

Well, I ditched the plan to hold out on Witcher 3 and played it last weekend. The best of all, I got this game as a gift for completing a garden quest. Thank you!

The Witcher 3 was originally planned for early 2015 early but was later delayed. The game is a one of the highly anticipated titles in 2015 and the hype has been building since its debut. The developers CD projekt RED shown great confidence with its early release of review copies to major gaming news outlet. Their confidence was vindicated with many great reviews it has received. For me, it is every bit like the game journalists made it out to be...a very top notch experience so far.

Although I am abit new to the Witcher series (based off a series by a Polish novelist), the story is easy enough to follow. The gameplay is satisfying...be able to launch a heavy blow after a perfectly timed dodge feels awesome. The world is huge and got plenty to do...sometimes the quests are not as straightforward as they may seem. In one of them, I was helping someone to retrieve a box from a group of monsters surrounding a broken cart with a dead men. Turns out, the person that I am helping was actually the raider that killed the men but couldn't loot them before the monsters started appearing. It is this level of attention given by the developers to little side quests like these, that bodes well for the game as a whole.

The game is not free of its shares of issues, it is a large open-world game after all. However, the developers have been working very hard to swat any bugs and delivering patches on a regular basis.

Still there are some downsides I can think of, especially with the user interface and inventory management. Often times, I find it difficult to decide what to buy whenever I am at a merchant store. It would have been nice if as I buy, I can see how many of an item I already own in my inventory.

Another small gripe, is that the game requires me to be at a fast travel point, in order to fast travel, unlike Far Cry or Watch Dogs. Nonetheless, The Witcher 3 is so far the best AAA game this year..I look forward to the remaining 100 hours that I will be playing. Look for my full review once I have completed my first playthrough.

Juz Finished: Dragon Age Inquisition

I made a blog post last year about Dragon Age Inqusition. It was one of my anticipated game for holiday 2014. This week, I finally finished the game (my first playthrough as a male human mage)

What is it:
Action role-playing video game developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts, a sequel to Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age II, making it the third major game in the Dragon Age franchise

Why I'm hyped:
Bioware; Mass Effect in a fantasy-like setting
Large worlds to explore;before Witcher 3 comes out ;)

Why I might be worried:
Buggy game because of EA game rush
Life-less characters with poor animations
Copy-paste boring fetch quests

So how was the game?
What I liked:
On the whole the game met my lofty expectations, the dialogues, the RPG-elements with a rich weapon and armour crafting system. This game is certainly stamped with Bioware's signature rich story-telling set in a large open-world fantasy world for you to explore.

The story is well developed and as to progress you do get a sense of each character, some more fun than others to have around. The amount in-game dialogue is amazing. After 100 game play hours I do get know each character more and develop

What I disliked:
Buggy:
My worry that the game might be buggy was true, and there were several instances where the quest became stuck or when the characters start walking funny about in the game world. Fortunately I did not experience any game breaking bug that warranted a reload from a previous game save.

Stiff:
The character animation is serviceable, especially during general dialogue, but they were well animated during story cutscenes. Some of the quests were definitely 'fetch-quests' though maybe some might argue it was designed to immerse us into the world,

Others:
Anyway, I reckon the game might be more fun I was able to tame a wyvern and fly around in one. Riding around is better than walking but after experiencing the freedom of movement in Far Cry 4...walking or horse riding feels a bit of a letdown.

Another thing that bothered me a little is the battle system. Personally, as a newcomer to RPG, I find the tactical system quite confusing. My AI companions also requires a lot of micromanagement.

Overall:
I enjoyed my time with the game...I might have second replay with another character. For now...I am ready to move on to other games...come September....Metal Gear Solid 5 ? Just Cause 3? I will keep Witcher 3 for later.

Dare to Dream

E3, is just around the corner. As the current-gen (PS4/Xone) starts hitting its full stride, I sit and dream about the possibilities of rebooting some of my favourite games/franchises of my video-gaming past, since the original Playstation, Playstation 2 and Xbox.

Here are some of the games that I would like to be re-imagined for the new generation.

Metal Gear Solid : 20th Anniversary Edition
3rd person stealth action game using MGS 5:TPP design/engine due for release to celebrate the game's historical landmark

Ridge Racer
A fun arcade-style racer with career-mode and customization options

Tenchu
The original assassins game, re-booted with open-world design similar to MGS:GZ. Weapon looting, crafting and customizations

Onimusha
Fast-paced 3rd person action adventure with RPG-elements rebooted by the masters, Platinum Games

Jade Empire
Either a sequel or reboot of Jade Empire, a collaborative work between Bioware and EA Shanghai

Anyway...back to current timeline...E3 is less than a month away...what do I hope to hear from E3 apart from the above?

Confirmed Release Window

• RiME
• No Man's Sky
• The Witness
• WiLD

New Game in Development

• Crash Bandicoot 2.5D Rayman-like adventures PS4 
• New IP from Ubisoft using UbiArt framework 
• Hearthstone PS4 / PSVita
• Ori and The Blind Forest PS4
• This War of Mine PS4 / PS Vita
• New IP from Guerilla Games
• New IP from Media Molecule
• The Last Guardian :P

E3 2015...I am ready....

Juz Bought: The Wolf Among Us

Sony US store had a flash sale last weekend...several games of PS4, PS3 and PSVita can be had for under US$5 each. Top of the value list for me were:
PS4: The Wolf Among Us
PS3: Ni No Kuni, Mass Effect Trilogy
PSVita: Freedom Wars

So I gotten myself The Wolf Among Us on PS4 at US$4.75 (about MYR16)

From the makers of the 2012 Game of the Year: The Walking Dead, comes a gritty, violent and mature thriller based on the award-winning Fables comic books (DC Comics/Vertigo). As Bigby Wolf - THE big bad wolf - you will discover that a brutal, bloody murder is just a taste of things to come in a game series where your every decision can have enormous consequences.

An evolution of Telltale's ground-breaking choice and consequence game mechanics will ensure the player learns that even as Bigby Wolf, Sheriff of Fabletown, life in the big bad city is bloody, terrifying and dangerous.

So look forward to my review of this well-received game by Tell Tale.

E3 is coming - Time to Mark Your Calendars

E3 is less than a month away. Time for some exciting game announcements for 2015/2016 and beyond. Best of all these days, you don't have to travel. You can sit in the comfort of your home and watch the juggernauts make their big reveals.

The full press conference schedule below. Time to mark your calendars and remember to stock up on coffee. Probably catching those in bold LIVE.

JUNE 14TH

• Bethesda – 7 p.m. PST/ 10 p.m. EST (Monday 15/6 1000 MYT)

JUNE 15TH

• Microsoft – 9:30 a.m. PST/ 12:30 p.m. EST (Tues 16/6 0030 MYT)
• EA – 1 p.m. PST/ 4 p.m. EST (Tues 16/6 0400 MYT)
• Ubisoft – 3 p.m. PST/ 6 p.m. EST (Tues 16/6 0600 MYT)
• Sony – 6 p.m. PST/ 9 p.m. EST (Tues 16/6 0900 MYT)

JUNE 16TH

• Nintendo (Live-stream) – 9 a.m. PST/ 12 p.m. EST 
• Square Enix – 10 a.m. PST/ 1 p.m. EST
• PC Gaming Show – 5 p.m. PST/ 8 p.m. EST

Playstation Plus: May 2015

Playstation Plus May 2015 (North America)

My Top Picks for the month are:

Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition (PS4™)

Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition is a Metroidvania-style action-platformer set in a magical world inspired by traditional Mexican culture and folklore. Get ready for..

Hohokum™ (PS4™/PS3™/PS Vita)

Take on the role of a curious flying kite-like being and travel to colorful, curious worlds waiting to be discovered. Interact with characters and environments to uncover secrets or simply roam at your own pace and be amused at the surprises that unfold. While there are goals and activities, at its heart, Hohokum™ is a playground - a place to wander about and get lost in.

Murasaki Baby™ (PS Vita)

When a scared little girl awakes lost and alone in a strange land full of terrifying nightmares, she desperately needs you to help find her mummy.

Use your wits to guide the girl through paths full of dangers and teach her the difference between right and wrong in a bid to keep her smiling… and alive.

Ether One  (PS4™)

A first person adventure puzzle game, released on Windows platform in 2014, developed by a 6-person team at White Paper Games...solve puzzles as you explore the fragility of the human mind.

Juz Finished: The Swapper

The Swapper is a side-scrolling puzzle platformer set in a science fiction world in outer space. It is side project developed by two university students from Helsinki, funded by indie pub fund. First released on Windows platform in 2013, later released to PS4/PS3/PSV by Curve Digital who handled the port.

Roughly six hours of interesting puzzle gameplay, with the difficulty ramping up quickly in the later stages. I totally enjoyed this title, something that I might not have picked up if not for PS Plus.

The Swapper, deserves all the positive reviews it gets, and I rate it as one of the must plays in the puzzle platformer genre.

Commentary: Will Consoles Hardware Iterate Frequently akin to Smartphones

Several games publications and analyst postulates that in order for consoles to remain relevant, it needs to refresh its hardware every one or two years. This is to ensure that the hardware maintains a reasonable gap with the mobile chipsets used in smartphone hardware.

This comes hot of the heels of NVIDIA's release of Tegra X1 super mobile processor, with 256-core Maxwell architecture GPU, 8 ARM CPU cores, delivering 60-frames per second 4K resolution video. With these numbers, the mobile processor market is set to overtake console performance when the prices fall to market adoption levels with feasible price-competitive smartphones. When that happens, people will buy a smartphone, wireless-sync a Bluetooth gamepad with their and play their favourite game, output the display-link to a TV and sound system . They will disconnect and play it on the go whenever they want to leave the house.

Therefore, will console manufacturers refresh their hardware ever so often? Yes and no. We most likely will a hardware iterations but it will be unlikely to be a frequent as you will see like the smartphone market. First of all, the major selling point for consoles are its consistency and stable platform. For end-users it means no regular hardware investment required, and for developers it means a single, predictable target platform to develop for.

Past console generations have shown that consoles will see a hardware refresh several times in its lifecycle. PS3 started with the phat and power - hungry version (with a slapped on PS2 engine under its hood for backwards compatibility). Then comes the slim version, less USB ports, no Linux or PS2 compatibility, no media-card slots and finally the super slim version.  This console cycle will be similar too. So what can we hope to see?

Beefing Up PS4 Computing Power
PS4 uses custom APU from AMD that uses the 28nm manufacturing process. With the ever advancement and manufacturing and improving yields, 20nm will see price/performance and power consumption.

The question I have here is whether Sony will make a ground-breaking move by upsizing the number of computational units on the GPU, thus increasing the headroom for developers to graphical fidelity and other processes such as enemy AI. This will essentially mean we have a PS4 Advanced Edition, where the games will detect and run according to the enhanced specs.

Other Hardware Improvements
USB 3.1 --- to increase throughput for higher performance
Bluetooth 4.1 --- to increase bandwidth to support more devices
Wireless 802.11ac --- to improve signal coverage, stability and throughput
Anti-wobble design --- chassis improvement to ensure no more wobble

So as far as hardware goes, that is all I can think of. Software, well, plenty of firmware improvements! I will leave that for another future post. :)

Juz Finished: Battlefield 3 (PS3)

From time to time, I revisit some of my PS3 backlog, thanks to the monthly PS+ offerings. This time round, I just finished the single-player campaign. Yes, I actually play the campaign story of these multiplayer shooters.

Battlefield 3's stronger suit is actually in its multiplayer but with each iteration, DICE keeps improving the single player story missions. Essentially, most missions are basically boiled down to go here shoot some stuffs, or survive the waves of enemy attacks, sprinkled with a basic narrative or in some cases, plain excuses for Michael Bay-level spectacle.

Nevertheless, I find Battlefield 3's narrative surprisingly better than my recent shooter campaign, Call of Duty : Advanced Warfare. It has several interesting characters and the underlying drama is told through a series of flashbacks during an investigation. DICE did a good job here, especially when more than 90 percent of the shooter audience may not even play the single player campaign.

I hope to see more well-written single-player campaigns from the big studios in future.
My copy of Battlefield 3 is courtesy of my US Playstation Plus subscription.

Juz Finished: Transistor

Transistor, developed by SuperGiant Games is a sci-fi themed turned-based strategy RPG.
I loved the art-style and the music when I first saw its debut at Sony's 2013 E3 Press Conference. The game's art is worked on primarily by Jen Zee, a beautiful style and visual palette. The soundtrack was written and produced by Darren Korb. Both Jen and Darren also worked on SuperGiant Games' previous hit, Bastion back in 2011. Both pieces of work earned the game multiple nominations and awards.

Transistor has been well received by game critics; receiving an 8/10 from GameSpot, 8.5/10 from Destructoid, 9/10 from IGN, and an 8.5/10 from Polygon. It also has an 83 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 47 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews"

Although I was drawn to the game's visual style, its story didn't. It often vague and many times told through information screens or terminals spread out throughout the gameworld. It is here, where I find that reading is not what I want to do when I am in a couch playing a videogame on my TV. If I wanted to read, It's gameplay is interesting and certainly worth a second playthrough mainly because, on my first playthrough, I was just getting the hang of things, learning how things work. The battle system is quite deep because of the different setup combinations that is available to you. Unfortunately the game does not quite do enough to teach you how to play the game, you will need to experiment and discover it for yourself. For some, discovery is the enjoyment in itself.

Even if you don't enjoy a turn-based tactical RPGs, you ought to give Transistor a look. Being part of Playstation Plus gave me a chance to play this for FREE. An experience that led me to discover a bit more about my gameplaying habits too. In short, I still prefer to see a story, and not read them. :P

Games of 2015 - updated

ORIGINAL POST:
2015 games to look forward
Below are some of the games of 2015 that I am looking forward to with keen interest. Not all of them must plays, but definitely worth a look. Here are the 20 games on PS4 in 2015 (not in order).

UPDATE: Here is the list, updated and reordered by status (released, scheduled, tba, post-2015)

Evolve Released and Skipped...multiplayer only
Dying Light  Released and Skipped...maybe purchase used to play in future
The Order 1886 Released and Played
Bloodborne Released and Skipped...maybe purchase used to play in future
Battlefield: Hardline Released and Skipped...No good

Witcher 3: Wild Hunt --- May 19, 2015
Batman: Arkham Knight --- June 23, 2015
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain --- Sep 1, 2015
Just Cause 3 --- Sep 1, 2015

RIME
No Man's Sky
Galak-Z
Bastion
Hyper Light Drifter
Rainbow Six Siege
The Witness
Broken Age: The Complete Adventure
The Banner Saga 2
Starwars Battlefront
Mad Max

Uncharted 4: The Thief's End --- moved to Spring 2016
The Division --- likely 2016

E3 2015 falls on June 16-18 this year, so we can expect more updates by then.

Playstation Plus: April 2015

Playstation Plus April 2015 (North America)

PS4 - Tower of Guns, Never Alone

PS3 - Dishonored, Aaru's Awakening

PSV- Killzone Mercenary, Monster Bag

These goodies will be available once the store update on Tuesday, April 7th.

My picks for April 2015 

Never Alone - PS4

Dishonored

Killzone Mercenary

Juz Played: Mark of The Ninja (steam)

Mark of the Ninja is a side-scrolling action stealth video game 

Developed by: Klei Entertainment 

Published by: Microsoft Studios. 

Announced: February 28, 2012 and

Xbox 360 (XBLA): September 7, 2012

Ever since the days of Metal Gear Solid, Tenchu and Splinter Cell, I have always had a soft spot and keen interest in a good stealth action game. Mark Of The Ninja was always on my radar when it first surfaced in 2012. Unfortunately, on the console front, it was a Xbox exclusive and by that time, my Xbox360 was already unreliable and often red-rings.

After my return to the PC game scene recently, I saw this game on Steam and added it to my wishlist. And yesterday, I saw it on sale, MYR8.75 for the full game (normal price MYR38.00) and DLC. I jumped at it. 

The gameplay is fantastic, stealth action feels fluid and satisfying. So far the game levels feel large, open and beautiful. The water colour art-style has a hand-painted feel, with an American cartoony influence. The game would have been perfect it if had an anime-style but nonetheless, this is one game that I like very much. The only drawback about playing it on the laptop though is using mouse/keyboard. Look for my 'Juz Finished' piece later in the year.

Juz Finished: Stick It To The Man

Stick It To The Man

I just finished this game. Developed by Zoink Games, a Swedish developer, whose previous games were developed for Wii and IOS. This game is their first game developed for multiplatform consoles and PCs.

The game is about an alien that escaped from a shady organization headed by the Man. After its escape it got into the head of Ray, our main character, giving him a weird hand extended from his brain and the ability to read the thoughts of others. From then on, the chase ensues, the Man and his group of henchmen, going after Ray and his new found abilities. Along the way, Ray has to solve various platforming puzzles and solve each levels unique problems by reading thoughts.

I enjoyed the game more than I thought I will. It has its funny moments (sometimes reminded me the good ol days of LucasArts adventure games like Days of the Tentacles), and the puzzles are just hard enough to provide a challenge that you will feel smart and great after overcoming it.

Overall, it is an enjoyable jump-and-click adventure game. 

Stick It To The Man was the free PS4 titles from Playstation Plus in May 2014.

Juz Finished: Valiant Hearts

Valiant Hearts is an adventure game, developed by Ubisoft Montepellier. It uses the Ubi Art Framework (used in games like Rayman and Child of Light). It tells a emotional story based on letters written during World War I. It revolves around several characters, what they go through, how the war affected them and their loved ones. 

The gameplay is puzzled-based adventure story-telling at its best. The developers also punctuated the game with many collectibles and historical facts about the war, giving the game educational value as well. 

By the time the credit rolls, you would have experienced how an aging farmer got conscripted, faced the horrors of war, how a young man yearns to return to his family, how a man strives to fight the war that destroyed his happiness and how a young nurse searched for her father and helping many survive along her way.

I am grateful that Ubisoft greenlit games like Valiant Hearts. 

Valiant Hearts was included in March 2015 PS+ free games of the month.

The New Indie Engines

2015 is a special year for indie development.

Gamemaker started the movement a few years back, offering the indie development community or hobbyist a platform to ease themselves into game development. Although limited to mainly 2D games, it birthed a generation indie developers and budding bedroom hobbyists, making games, even some that earned commercial success.

Unity continued a trend by offering a 3D game development engine for FREE, with the ability to go to mobile platforms, consoles and high-end PCs.

The recent Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2015 in San Francisco, saw three landmark announcements by Unity, EPIC(Unreal Engine) and Valve (Source Engine). All three companies released their full free versions of their development platform to the general public (albeit with some caveats).

I just started diving into Game Development using Game Maker Studio, seems easy to pick up but I know I will hit its limitations very soon. Game Maker Language has plenty of tools, but I want to be able to learn a more powerful development platform.

Now I have choices, Unity vs Unreal vs Source....

Juz Finished: In The Order of 1886 - Review

The Order 1886 was introduced to the world during Sony's 2013 E3 presentation as the platform exclusive on PS4. The game showcased PS4 graphical prowess with an interesting alternate reality Victorian-era London.

The game was met with mixed reviews from the gaming press, with a large percentage of them low to middling grades. In my opinion, the game suffered more than it deserved from the critical reviews perspective. One of the reasons perhaps is how the game was introduced to the world as a third person cover based shooter.

Here's what I think ready-at-dawn succeeded and where I felt the developers should have given more time to improve on the game.




YES
The Order 1886 has trumped in the graphical fidelity department, from the lush Victorian-era environment, the dinghy London slums and unique settings in Tesla's lab, the hospital, all have been crafted to the highest quality and detail.

The mood, the story, character models, music and the voice acting all blended to create a 'filmic' gaming experience that is truly amazing.

In fact, it is so top notch that it makes you want the game to be better in the department where it matters for a majority number of gamers.


NO
I believe ready-at-dawn may have: "Hey, here's a cool alternate reality story that we can tell. Let's infused some gameplay elements in there and make it a game on PS4, yay!". That, may well explain why the game is what it is.
 Stealth Instafail
There were several sections requiring stealth but detection means instant fail. These could be redesigned to support recovery action such as a throw-knife kill or melee knowdown. In a game where quick-timed events are used liberally, this would be a good fit. Additionally, during the garden stealth section, Sir Lucan could be of better use as a lookout for guard patrols.

Instead, that section was a lot of frustrating trial-and-error gameplay due to the constrained anamorphic view.

Instead of punishing failed stealth, reward when stealth takedown is successfully executed.


No Non-Lethal Methods
No non-lethal take downs for stealth...for many sections Galahad just seems to be a mass murderer, killing every guards along the way

NPC banter
Non-playable characters could have been used more to shed more background story to further enrich the story

Lock picking
Seems out of character for Galahad (suited for Lafayette or Isi)


Lack of Gameplay Rewards
The game should encourage repeat playthroughs (eg. Tesla incendiary lock breaker, alternate costumes for infiltration, throwing knifes)

Other nitpicks by other game critics
There are several general areas that was mentioned by the gaming press. While their points maybe valid, their points are really indicative of general expectations of what are must-haves for every game this generation. Otherwise, your game will be regarded as not moving with the times.

Short game, lacks replay value - there are many debates about how long a game should be and a popular measure is the compared it to the movies. Let's say, a two-hour movie experience costs about RM20, so a RM200 game should offer around 20-hour experience. So if a single playthrough is 10 hours long, a game should at least have either a worthwhile second-playthrough, or a multiplayer experience. In the case of The Order, it is indeed a slightly short because it did not offer any compelling reasons for replay unless you are trophy chaser.

Corridor shooter, no open-world activities - this does not bother me at all, in fact my fear is that every game will want to use the similar template to check all the marketing boxes that may undermine the developer's vision of the game. Not every game needs open-world design. However, a little bit of open-ended gameplay will benefit The Order 1886's sequel.

Lacks Character or Weapons Customization - this is not a real concern here as not every game needs this. I didn't miss that at all.

Quick-Time-Event Fest - QTEs have been the bane of many games and I can see why The Order 1886 is such an easy target for its over reliance on QTE. In order to improve on its sequel(s), ready-at-dawn must realize that a better balance must be made between actual gameplay vs QTEs.

OVERALL




Overall, The Order 1886 is a worthwhile experience on the PS4. I find the story more interesting and compelling, compared to Killzone Shadowfall. The presentation and production value is top-notch only to be let down by a lack of satisfying gameplay elements.



As critical as I am of the game in many areas, you may think that I hate this game. On the contrary, I find the game largely enjoyable, and I would definitely recommend anyone with a PS4 that likes a single player game to experience the game. I hope this new IP will become a successful franchise in the future.

Transistor vs Rayman Legends

Games of the Month: February 2015

Transistor, is one of this month's PS Plus free PS4 game. Developed by SuperGiant Games, it was first announced during Sony's E3 conference in 2013, the game's striking art style and beautiful music captured my attention. It is RM65 on PS Malaysia store, and I got it as a free download. PS Plus membership has its privileges. :)

About two weeks later in February, Sony America did a flash sale in conjunction with Valentine's Day...many games were on sale...one that caught my eye since PS4 launch was Rayman Legends. It is a vibrant 2D platform and filled with colourful characters. It is developed by Ubisoft, directed by Michel Ancel, and released Sep 2013 on lastgen, Feb 2014 on current gen consoles. Priced at US$10 (about RM36) at the US store during the sale, compared to the normal digital price of RM125 on Malaysia store. RM36 is even cheaper than any used copy I can find locally (unless we look again in 2020)

Two games with beautiful art style and music. Transistor, isometric turn-based strategy adventure and Rayman Legends 2.5D platformer. Which one do I like more?

I prefer Rayman Legends...simple gameplay but hard to master, especially later levels with boss fights whereas Transistor relies on some extra thinking and planning, set up with the right combination of skills to overpower the enemies.

Both games are memorable experiences that are worth more than their asking prices.

Side note: 
Other games that I was looking at during the flash sales were:
 - Lara Croft and The Temple of Osiris, PS4 ($8.00) ---maybe this will come to PS Plus later
 - Little Big Planet 3, PS4 ($24.00) --- played LBP and LBP2, skipping this one for now

Some of the Super Games of 2014 (that I didn't play or won't be playing)

2014 may not be the best in terms of big game launches (SimCity, AC Unity, even Halo MCC),  there has been several great games releases that I missed. Some of that sadly, I won't be playing, for many reasons.

Shovel Knight (3DS, WiiU, OSX, Linux, Windows)
At the top of many games of the year lists, Shovel Knight is one indie darling that I will most likely give a miss. Well, the main reason for that is: I am just not a platform gamer. In fact, back in the day, I did not finish Super Mario too. (I will try this if it comes out free for PS Plus)

Bravely Default (3DS)
Square Enix's return to the classically styled turn-based RPG of old will not make my playlist - reasons: I don't own a 3DS and I don't think I really like RPGs. I was okay with Child of Light possibly because it featured a more streamlined RPG gameplay, more accessible. These classic RPGs are abit too hardcore for me.

Bayonetta 2 (WiiU)
Super bombastic action game from Platinum Games but won't me on my playlist unless a port comes to PS4 sometime in the future (well, no way that'll happen cos it was funded by Nintendo!)

Dark Souls II (Multiplatform)
This RPG hack-and-slash is a slow and difficult game. The worst combination for me. I might give Bloodborne (a more action-paced spiritual successor on PS4) a go at some point if I hear that the story is interesting, otherwise, these kind of games are just not for me.

Super Mario Kart 8 (WiiU)
Essentially this is a family couch-action racer. Great for having a few people over and have a few competitive rounds of fun-filled racing. Another two things that doesn't go too well with me, WiiU exclusive and having a few people over. :P

Titanfall (PC, Xbox)
This game is like Unreal Tournament with mecha. The mecha titans gave a bit of asymmetric gameplay a nice twist. Unfortunately this game has not much of a single player story campaign and it is a Microsoft platform exclusive. EA did came out recently to say the franchise is going multiplatform (so here is hoping that the next instalment will have a better story)

Alien Isolation (Multiplatform)
A polarizing game, some love it, some disliked it (especially the non-alien parts).  I thought I will love it, turned out, I didn't love it that much to ignore the inconsistencies in the gameplay and DLC cashgrab plans.

South Park: The Stick of Truth (Multiplatform)
Touted for its great comedy writing and great RPG elements, I will not be playing this because I was never the biggest South Park fan and not an avid RPG gamer either.

Shadow of Mordor (Multiplatform)
This game is recognized for its nemesis system's gameplay innovation that drives emergent gameplay and storytelling. Essentially an Assassins Creed styled-game (although it may be too reductive to say that) within the Tolkien's storybook world. Unfortunately, I am burned out on Assassins Creed and not very interested in JRR's world.

Wolfenstein: The New Order (Multiplatform)

This is an interesting one. Developed by MachineGames, one of Bethesda studios, this game boasts a great story of an alternate world where Hitler won the war. From all the reviews so far, I say that this one I am intrigued enough to play someday when I can find a copy on the 2nd hand market.