Just finished watching the live announcement for PS4 and it nearly killed me. I've always a massive Sony fan, ever since my Dad bought a PS1 and I played a demo for a game called Crash Bandicoot. Since then I've owned every generation of PlayStation and I fully intend to dive straight into this newest installment.
I wont go into heavy detail right now, but here's what I think about the key aspects:
The new controller
It's.... new.
Not that there's anything wrong with that, I'm just used to the classic design. I remember the first game I played with a dualshock, Ape Escape. Using the analogue sicks was such a huge change from the old four button movement and I loved it. Hopefully adding a touchpad will make things even better.
The A-Team
The lead system architect is Mark Cerny. Now to most people that's not gonna mean an awful lot, so I'll translate. A man who was involved in titles such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Crash Bandicoot, Jak & Daxter and Ratchet & Clank has a lot to do with how this console turns out. Also he walked on to the theme music from Crash Bandicoot, I don't think I could have more faith in him.
Backseat gaming
Now I'm no expert on this, but from what I gather they're adding a feature where one of your friends can start playing your game for you if/when you get stuck. I'm in love with this feature, mainly because one of the things I love is seeming wise about a game. Now I can do it all the time! Meddling ftw!
Developer input
The presentations from developers were... phenomenal. Square Enix, Capcom, Ubisoft, Blizzard, Bungie.... wait what!?!
That's right; Blizzard, the creators of the wildly successful online game World of Warcraft and Bungie, the chaps behind the Halo franchise. Personally I never got into either of these, but I can't deny their successes.
Bungie have announced they're bringing their new title Destiny to the system. From what I've seen it looks very nice. An MMOFPS of this caliber could be not only a COD killer, but may raise the bar for first-person shooters.
And what, you may be asking yourself, is Blizzard bringing to the table? Well, for PS3&4 they're porting over a little game called Diablo III! It was also said the new partnership between Sony and Blizzard will inevitably end in, and I quote, "world domination"
A new world order based around games? I can live with that.
The games
Sweet merciful lord the games! A quick run through as we don't know all that much yet:
Infamous: Second Son
As soon as I heard Sucker Punch were showing something I got so excited and got EXACTLY what I wanted! Hopefully it continues to deliver the first-class gameplay and storytelling we've come to expect.
Killzone: Shadow Fall
Looks beautiful... Gameplay looks fluid... It's Killzone... yep. A very solid prospect.
Watch Dogs
Was seen at E3, and looks like a whole mess of fun. You can commit identity theft in under 30 seconds then hijack a train. What more do you want?
Knack
Naughty Dog making a game with an adorable but powerful main character?!? Yeah the wee guy looks like crash, but I love everything about this game that I've seen so far.
There's also a few others, a lovely looking puzzle game called The Witness and an impressive looking Beyond: Two Souls but there was another project by the nut-jobs who unleashed LittleBig Planet upon the world, Media Molecule, which took my breath away.
3D designing made easy apparently, shown off with a fully choreographed music number performed by digital sculptures made and controlled by PlayStation Move. Finally, a reason to use one...
On a side note, Skyrim DLC is finally being released on PS3! It started with dragonborn last week, hearthfire this week and finally dawnguard next week. Each installment being half price for it's first week!
Now I just need to wait till next week to get the last few trophies.
Wednesday 20 February 2013
Wednesday 30 January 2013
Tuesday 29 January 2013
"And so they were all dead together"
I'm doing an online course on fantasy literature. That's right, I'm actually choosing to learn.
It looks to be a very interesting course, studying classics such as Stoker's Dracula or Carroll's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. Luckily I've read most of these already, but when I was young so I'll have a new perspective now. Hopefully a good enough one to write about, but we'll see.
The first book we're looking at is Grimm's Children's and Household Tales. I'm sure you'll have heard of those, but probably the happier ones. Some of them are much darker than others. For example: Death of a Hen.
We begin with a rooster and a hen having a spot of dinner. All happy... until the hen begins to choke. So the rooster runs off to find water, which he finds in a brook. However, the brook demands something in return. It wants some silk. Now, why a brook would possibly want/need silk for is beyond me, but no-one ever claimed these stories made perfect sense. At least, not in a literal way. So, the rooster runs off to find silk, which he finds in the possession of a bride, who requests that the rooster fetch her garland. Luckily this is where the chain of fetching ends (Those of us who remember classic Legend of Zelda may think he got off easy, but just wait). Garland gets silk, silk gets water, water is taken to... a dead hen. Unsurprisingly the hen didn't have enough air to last through all that madness. Rather upset now, the rooster decides to cart the hen away to bury her and an array of woodland critters emerge to help. The only trouble is that they need to cross a river. So they devise a cunning plan to make a bridge out of a piece of straw. Predictably this fails, and a handful of the helpful critters die. After, they use a helpful stone a a new bridge, but everyone slips and drowns. All but the rooster and the cart with the hen. By now you're probably thinking "Damn, this rooster's had a pretty crappy day. On top of losing his wife and feeling responsible for her death, he's pretty much caused the death of every friendly creature in the vicinity. There's got to be some sort of turnaround now"
Nope.
It quite simply ends that once the rooster finishes burying the hen, he sits down and dies of grief. The end.
No happy ending, no moral. Everyone just dies despite most of them trying to do the right thing and help the poor rooster. Rather..... well, grim I guess.
On an infinitely happier note, there will be a new Smash Bros. game!
Nintendo have said that it will be revealed at E3 with something better than screenshots!
“Wii U and 3DS versions — I would like to show you both. Other games have had visuals shown, but you still have to wait for Smash Bros. But we’ll be able to release something better.”
Very, very excited!
It looks to be a very interesting course, studying classics such as Stoker's Dracula or Carroll's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. Luckily I've read most of these already, but when I was young so I'll have a new perspective now. Hopefully a good enough one to write about, but we'll see.
The first book we're looking at is Grimm's Children's and Household Tales. I'm sure you'll have heard of those, but probably the happier ones. Some of them are much darker than others. For example: Death of a Hen.
We begin with a rooster and a hen having a spot of dinner. All happy... until the hen begins to choke. So the rooster runs off to find water, which he finds in a brook. However, the brook demands something in return. It wants some silk. Now, why a brook would possibly want/need silk for is beyond me, but no-one ever claimed these stories made perfect sense. At least, not in a literal way. So, the rooster runs off to find silk, which he finds in the possession of a bride, who requests that the rooster fetch her garland. Luckily this is where the chain of fetching ends (Those of us who remember classic Legend of Zelda may think he got off easy, but just wait). Garland gets silk, silk gets water, water is taken to... a dead hen. Unsurprisingly the hen didn't have enough air to last through all that madness. Rather upset now, the rooster decides to cart the hen away to bury her and an array of woodland critters emerge to help. The only trouble is that they need to cross a river. So they devise a cunning plan to make a bridge out of a piece of straw. Predictably this fails, and a handful of the helpful critters die. After, they use a helpful stone a a new bridge, but everyone slips and drowns. All but the rooster and the cart with the hen. By now you're probably thinking "Damn, this rooster's had a pretty crappy day. On top of losing his wife and feeling responsible for her death, he's pretty much caused the death of every friendly creature in the vicinity. There's got to be some sort of turnaround now"
Nope.
It quite simply ends that once the rooster finishes burying the hen, he sits down and dies of grief. The end.
No happy ending, no moral. Everyone just dies despite most of them trying to do the right thing and help the poor rooster. Rather..... well, grim I guess.
On an infinitely happier note, there will be a new Smash Bros. game!
Nintendo have said that it will be revealed at E3 with something better than screenshots!
“Wii U and 3DS versions — I would like to show you both. Other games have had visuals shown, but you still have to wait for Smash Bros. But we’ll be able to release something better.”
Very, very excited!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)