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.