Mark Cerny and The Road to PS4

I'm always fascinated about looking at video games from a historical perspective and the kind of decisions that have lead to what we play today.  Mark Cerny is a hugely important person in the gaming world when it comes to the success of the Playstation brand.  This sort of all-inclusive history as told by him gives us some fascinating insight to a console's creation process (as well as admitting some failings of such work as well).  While this kind of presentation isn't for everyone, if you have a vested interest into various topics such as the growth of game development teams or the choice to use the Cell processer in the PS3, you might like this.

Last day to fund "Armikrog"

Doug TenNapel, of Earthworm Jim and Neverhood fame, has partnered with Pencil Test studios, and for the last month, have been shopping around a classic-style adventure game done in claymation on Kickstarter.  Today is the last day to help fund this project, and thr group is (as this time of writing) 93% towards their Kickstarter goal.  Armikrog’s art style is something seldom seen in any medium in this day and age, and it’s always cool to see artists take on this unique and very time-consuming art style.  Their video pitch is worth a watch just to see some of the animation, so take a gander.

Scares Return?

  

Many fans of traditional horror games have recently seemed to have made their voices heard. Many fans of survival horror classics would brand games like Resident evil 6 or Silent hill Downpour to be too focused on the action and not have enough emphasis on the scares. Probably the biggest offender in this mix is the addition of cooperative modes into horror settings. Things just aren't as scary when your frat bro on the couch talks about, "Dude! Did you just see that? I just blew that thing's head off!" It takes someone out of the experience and gives them a distraction from the tension. However, new ips that have made waves in recent years such as Amnesia the Dark Descent or Slenderman have shown the gaming market that survival horror games can still make a profit while delivering the nightmares that masochists crave. At E3 we got to see even more scares heading our way with Outlast and The Evil Within. In true survival horror fashion they focused on the fact that you, the player, are alone with no backup and only an asylum full of crazies for company. Personally I love survival horror and action games but I'm glad to see that survival horror is making a comeback. I believe that with the right goals in mind, developers have the chance to show how popular traditional survival horror games can become.

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Microsoft backsteps on DRM & Always Online

Coming as a shock to some, and expected to others,  Microsoft is switching their stance on some major policies and decisions regarding their new console due out this November.  Microsoft's president of interactive entertainment Don Mattrick shared this on Xbox's news site:

---

Last week at E3, the excitement, creativity and future of our industry was on display for a global audience.

For us, the future comes in the form of Xbox One, a system designed to be the best place to play games this year and for many years to come. As is our heritage with Xbox, we designed a system that could take full advantage of advances in technology in order to deliver a breakthrough in game play and entertainment. We imagined a new set of benefits such as easier roaming, family sharing, and new ways to try and buy games. We believe in the benefits of a connected, digital future. 

Since unveiling our plans for Xbox One, my team and I have heard directly from many of you, read your comments and listened to your feedback. I would like to take the opportunity today to thank you for your assistance in helping us to reshape the future of Xbox One. 

You told us how much you loved the flexibility you have today with games delivered on disc. The ability to lend, share, and resell these games at your discretion is of incredible importance to you. Also important to you is the freedom to play offline, for any length of time, anywhere in the world.

So, today I am announcing the following changes to Xbox One and how you can play, share, lend, and resell your games exactly as you do today on Xbox 360. Here is what that means:

• An internet connection will not be required to play offline Xbox One games– After a one-time system set-up with a new Xbox One, you can play any disc based game without ever connecting online again. There is no 24 hour connection requirement and you can take your Xbox One anywhere you want and play your games, just like on Xbox 360.
  

• Trade-in, lend, resell, gift, and rent disc based games just like you do today – There will be no limitations to using and sharing games, it will work just as it does today on Xbox 360.
  

In addition to buying a disc from a retailer, you can also download games from Xbox Live on day of release. If you choose to download your games, you will be able to play them offline just like you do today. Xbox One games will be playable on any Xbox One console -- there will be no regional restrictions.

These changes will impact some of the scenarios we previously announced for Xbox One. The sharing of games will work as it does today, you will simply share the disc. Downloaded titles cannot be shared or resold. Also, similar to today, playing disc based games will require that the disc be in the tray.

We appreciate your passion, support and willingness to challenge the assumptions of digital licensing and connectivity. While we believe that the majority of people will play games online and access the cloud for both games and entertainment, we will give consumers the choice of both physical and digital content. We have listened and we have heard loud and clear from your feedback that you want the best of both worlds.

Thank you again for your candid feedback. Our team remains committed to listening, taking feedback and delivering a great product for you later this year.

---

Widely regarded as the most caustic features of the console, the loss of a 24 hour check-in window and the ability to trade-in and share disc based games is a huge boon to consumers.  This does come with some caveats though: discs will once again be required to be in the tray in order to play disc based games again.  This also cuts out some of the functionality of always having access to those games based just on gamer profiles.  Also, this functionality is going to require a day 1 patch before it can be used offline.  On another plus side however, the loss of an always online connection is said to also remove region locking for the console, which I'm sure CDProjekt Red appreciates.

There are a lot of facets to this announcement worth considering.  First off, this speaks volumes of exactly what kind of beating Sony served to Microsoft last week at E3.  Most sites have been comparing it to some kind of boxing or MMA match with Sony delivering a TKO.  Indeed, everybody involved at the blog was amazed at what a direct attack Sony sent out to their main competitor.  In some ways, it takes a lot of guts for a company to go back on what before they believed to be major selling points of their new box.  In another,  it's extremely reactionary and makes you wonder who's bright idea it was in the first place.

In the end, this is straight benefit to the consumer.  Old-school capitalism.  Making the Xbone more competitive to the PS4 means we should be seeing better deals vying for the public eye this holiday season.  The PS4 still holds a lot of cards with it's $100 cheaper price point and it's seemingly total devotion to indie developers.  Still, the gulf isn't nearly as wide as last week.

All of this while 4.45 firmware for the PS3 seems to be bricking consoles.  Good week for Microsoft it seems.

It is your Destiny

Bungie finally showed game play for their open world action title Destiny during Sony's E3 press conference yesterday. The video above is the entire game play demo for the conference. Overall I enjoyed what they showed. There was definitely a heavy Borderlands vibe coming from the game play and teamwork playing off the different classes. Unlike Borderlands however, at least during that point in the game or for demo purposes, it appears that the player will only be able to use 2 weapons along with having infinite ammo in reserve. Again this could possibly be a build specifically for the conference. Another interesting thing to note was that loot drops would come in the form of an all in one package. This could be used for allowing players to sort loot among themselves in a more organized fashion or that each player receives their own unique loot drop based on level and class. Guns will also appear to be a bit more unique in this universe as they can all individually be leveled up. We saw that  the Thunderlord has it's own set of skills, the final one being the ability to, "burn through enemies with thunderous rounds that will penetrate and detonate." Finally we also got to see a public event in action as a couple of squads take down a boss called the "Devil walker." I thought this was a great demonstration to show how alive this world can be and what you and your friends could do to fight back against the alien forces was awesome. It has yet to be shown how often or where events like this will take place in Destiny but the game has me excited none the less.

Destiny is set to release on the 360, Xbone, PS4, PS3 and PC sometime next year.

...seriously?

I can't tell if I should hang my head in shame or if this is the best announcement from E3 yet.

...

Oh, there was Megaman too, y'know, cause he's cool.  Not quite Wii Fit Trainer cool, but still cool.

Can't wait for some good Smash Remixes of Megaman tunes

Final Fantasy XV and Kingdom Hearts III in development

During the Sony E3 Keynote this year there was a brief segment where Square-Enix were allowed to strut their stuff. In this, it was finally confirmed that Final Fantasy Versus-XIII  had been re-branded as Final Fantasy XV and Kingdom Hearts 3 has finally popped out it's head.

That's all we basically know. The Final Fantasy XV footage looked to be pseudo in-game rendering with some CGI spliced in between. There was some magic sword wielding and gun shots galore but the game we have virtually only been able to see through pre-rendered scenes finally seems to be coming along quite nicely. 

I have recently had some sort of crisis in how Square-Enix has been handling the Final Fantasy IP. As games have been coming out they have felt less and less "Final Fantasy" and more Sci-Fi Fantasy with high end cut scenes and esoteric story lines that struggle to sprinkle in series icons and fanservice.

Final Fantasy XV seems to be teetering on this as well with it's mind-boggling combination of Modern Existence, Advanced Technology and High Fantasy. But if you didn't notice what that huge serpent thing was it was none other than Leviathan, a classic Summoned Creature from the series. I was glad to see such an impressive rendering of the series' legacy but felt conflicted as what seemed to be in-game footage looked like a hi-res version of Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus. 

It's too soon to actually form an opinion but I hope that Square-Enix gets its stuff together and not make another relative dud like Final Fantasy XIII. 

Finally there is Kingdom Hearts III, for the last 5 or so years there have been hopes that this game would in some form debut its existence at E3 but we were constantly fed spin off titles on non-console systems. The tidbit we were showed from a pre-rendered Kingdom Hearts III should be enough to satiate the hordes of fans that have been near demanding this game be made. Now we can rest knowing that the game is finally "in production" and knowing Square-Enix, it may be years before we even see more.

A Closer Look: Metal Gear Solid V - The Phantom Pain

Probably one of my favorite trailer's I've had the pleasure of viewing so far out of E3 was the one that started off Microsoft's Press conference, MGS5 (or MGSV, however we're going to shorten this).  If your big into the Metal Gear lore, then there's a ton of info here to sate your appetite.  Let's break it down:

0:14 - "It's not just them..." - presumably we're talking about either XOF or Cipher, or both or whatever name our enemies are going by this time.  Judging by this bit of dialogue, it's looking like Big Boss and co. are being framed for some international incident, perhaps having something to do with their own private Metal Gear.

Also, we've got our first audio clip of Ocelot, who's sounding a bit Troy Baker-ish to me today.  Later in the trailer, we'll hear more of the classic Zimmermen inflections that really sell the Ocelot presentation.

Other stuff: building the army again and saving Miller, starting to sound like Peace Walker all over again.  Also, we're in Afghanistan.  How is that for an info dump in just under a minute?

0:52 - Looking closely, we can see Snake still has a metal shard of... something... still embedded in his skull.  Still trying to figure this one out, might have to do something with the car wreck from an earlier trailer.

Binocular callback to MGS 1 and 3, used early in the game to explain the rules of the soldiers on the field.

1:06 - Revolver Ocelot's speech patterned perfectly

1:30 - Horse Stealth, don't mind me, just a random white stallion roaming the canyon

1:42 - Realtime Weather has a lot of interesting implications when it comes to stealth and combat.  Nothing like that clutch sandstorm limiting the sightlines allowing you in undetected.  Bonus points if Konami makes some post game items that let you manipulate the environment at will.

1:53 - I'm still not entirely sold on lots of different vehicles in a stealth game, but am willing to accept this as a conceit of getting around a supposed "open world."  Stealth Jeep gameplay ahoy!

2:00 - ...or better yet, Stealth Tank gameplay.

2:12 - It's here I wish we could see more UI elements.  Will we be able to mark and memorize targets that we've scouted out?  Keeping track of how many soldiers are roaming the battlefield could be quite the handful.

2:28 - Stealth Truck Gameplay!  Also, this is where "Sins of the Father" starts to kick in.  Donna Burke always does fantastic work when it comes to the MGS soundtracks and I can't wait for this single to get released.  Practically have this trailer on repeat for the song.

2:42 - Another semi-gimmicky feature at first glance that could have some cool implications if done correctly.

3:08 - Jumping across buildings - probably the most dynamic action given to players in the whole Metal Gear saga.  Don't know if this is context sensitive yet, but we can see the player do a similar dive out of the light later at 3:20

3:25 - Pretty awesome move, wonder if any of the CQC options will utilize the Zadornov hand

3:31 - Here's some of our first dialog of Snake as done by Sutherland.  I'll be the first to say that I'm going to miss Hayter's signature brusque delivery, but I'm willing to give this a shot.  It's strange to me though that Miller is still voiced by Robin Atkin Downes, same as in Peace Walker. Still, he does a great job of sounding like he got the stuffing beaten out of him, more on that later.  Great "kept you waiting" callback.

3:53 - This looks like some of our ally and rogues gallery as is typical to the MGS series.  Some old and new faces, so lets run them down:

-Kazuhira Miller - A Visonary robbed of his Future - The ally from Peacewalker that turned out to have closer ties to cipher than we would have liked.  Japanese born and former mercenary,  Kaz has always been full of random trivia and sad backstory.  Most players will also remember his quasi-appearance in MGS1.

-Quiet - A Sniper deprived of her Words - Getting very strong hints of Sniper Wolf here, but as with many of the next people, friend or foe?

-Eli - A Youth who Curses his Fate - Anybody else getting a Joffrey vibe from Game of Thrones?  Wouldn't be surprised if he was involved somehow with some of the child soldiers we'll being seeing in a bit...

-Skull Face - A Ghost without a Past -As best we can tell, this is our main antagonist for the game, yet we're still short on a lot of details.  He seems to lead the XOF (thats Fox backwards) and looks to be the person who imprisoned Chico (earlier trailer).  I'm about dead even on if this guy is brand new or a returning Metal Gear character.

-Emmerich - A Technocrat who Stands his Ground - This is our tech expert from Peace Walker and Father of Otacon. Prior to 5, Huey here was stuck in a wheel chair, now he seems to have a set of robo legs.  While he's typically an idealest, much like his son, he is looking somewhat megalomaniacal here

-Ocelot - A Rival living a Lie - Whoo boy, here's our common link among all the Solid series and by far the most complex  story.  Son of a super soldier whose allegiances seem ever shifting,  Ocelot may be an ally today only to be a rival tomorrow.  While not always clear, he always has an endgoal.  Seems to idolize Big Boss, so it'll be interesting to see his interactions with our supposedly fallen legend.

-Code Talker - A Wise Man denied his Homeland - I got nothing on this guy.  Shhhhh

-Those who "Don't Exist" - Seemingly nightmarish ghosts from the series history, fans have lots of interesting speculation on these threatening visages.  A gasmask laden child evokes imagery of Psycho Mantis.  A towering figure in a familier red suit seems to call back to Colonel Volgin.  Real enemies or PTSD trauma?  We'll have to wait and see...

4:40 - We've been told by Kojima that this game will be dealing with darker themes than any past MGS game, like race and revenge.  Here we have another touchy subject:  Child Soldiers.  Kojima is going to have to take great care with this subject in order to give it the reverence it deserves.  It's one thing to have a main character recall his past as one,  it's another thing entirely to possibly present it as a gameplay element.

4:49 - Some escort mission, I'd rather just carry you

4:58 - ...or drive you

5:05 - This scene is rather confusing.  At first glance, it looks like Big Boss might actually be killing Chico.  More probable is that he's applying pressure to some kind of wound (thats what I'm hoping anyway)

5:10 - Snake looking back at a shadowed figure.  I think this is Kaz, though the getup is not unlike some promotional material of Snake in Peace Walker.  We could be looking at some more clone action going on, wouldn't be too far a stretch for the series.

5:12 - Outer Heaven on fire.  And I put so many man hours to staffing my tech department too...

5:23 - Kaz has the sound of revenge in his voice, not so idealistic this time.

5:29 - Children and the Diamond trade, this is some heavy stuff

5:39 - Punished Snake - A Fallen Legend - It's interesting to note that we now almost have more appearances of Big Boss than Solid Snake in the MGS series.  Exactly what Big Boss is being punished for is still unclear.  Here's hoping will finally see that transition from legend to villain.

5:45 - Finally, we see the extend of Kaz's wounds.  Missing an arm and a leg, Kaz will most probably no longer be a soldier but more now an advisor.  It's interesting to note that this conflicts with promotional footage that we've seen of Master for later games (kind of).  Still, he seems like he's calling the shots, and a messed up hand isn't stopping Big Boss, so perhaps there's hope for him yet.

6:01 - "Cipher sent us to hell..." Kaz wants that revenge, and Snake just sounds exhausted, great way to end the trailer.


Great visuals with a great song really help to sell this trailer.  What do you guys think?  Leave a comment and let me know!

And...Boom goes the dynamite!

That's right folks, it's as easy as that! Sony has unveiled that there will be NO always online DRM with the Playstation 4. They also announced that used games will not be blocked and can be traded in whenever the purchaser wants. The console was also shown and priced at $399, which is cheaper than the xbone I might add by $100. 

I don't know about you but this pretty much is hook, line and sinker for me. At this point I fully support the Playstation 4 and look forward to being a Sony consumer. Also, this is my face when all this wonderful news was announced. 

Microsoft Presentation Afterthoughts

"It's all about the games."
                  -Phil Spencer

I'm hard-pressed to remember another E3 press conference that was so densely packed with games.  Microsoft's conference was back-to-back game announcements, exclusives and indies all over.  Better yet, these were focused for core gamers, no sports games, no dancing games, just one racing game.  Starting out strong with Metal Gear Solid 5, Microsoft jumped to current 360 owners, rewarding gold members with free games up to the release on the One.  Next came lots of great shows of the One's processing prowess with Ryse and Forza.  Better yet was the revival of Rare's classic arcade fighter, Killer Instinct.  Plenty of new stuff was shown as well like Sunset Overdrive, Project Spark, and a better look at Quantum Break.  Classic franchises also got some screentime, like Dead Rising 3 and Witcher 3.  Finally, hell of a send-of with Respawn's Titanfall with a stellar gameplay showing.

Was it all good news though? Not quite, a few bits of info kept the Xbox One from being redeemed.  First off, $499 on launch in November, higher than I and a lot of gamers feel willing to pay.

Second was the redesign on the 360.  4 gig models for $199 (useless), a 250 gig model for $299, and a 4 gig with Kinect for $299 (once again, useless).  Essentially

Finally, no clarification at all from the terrible press drop last friday.

In the end, Microsoft has sort of clamored back onto the saddle, but it still seems like Sony could knock this out the park, we'll see tonight.

Madness? This is Spartan Assault!

Recently Microsoft has announced that Halo would be making its way to windows 8 via windows tablet. The name of the new game is called Halo: Spartan Assault. Halo:SA is a top down, twin stick shooter set between Halo 3 and 4 and is currently being developed by 343 industries and Vanguard games. It is hard to tell how much of the game is being developed by either company but my guess is that it is mainly in the hands of Vanguard games while 343 is providing oversight and story direction. The game's story follows Sarah Palmer who had a small part to play in Halo 4's story but did however have a large part in Halo 4's spartan ops mode. Over the course of 25 missions in the games campaign the player will reenact famous battles fought by the U.N.S.C. via the war games room on the star ship Infinity. The game will be available in July for around $7 on Microsoft tablets, phones and the PC.

Such as the new trend calls for in gaming, this title will feature micro-transaction unlockables to encourage players to spend extra cash. While I am not necessarily against the idea of micro-transactions, I can't say that I enjoy the idea of micro-transactions being the only way to access locked content. It seems like a cheap way for Microsoft to dig into your pocket after you have already purchased a $7 game. I do however like the idea of something new coming from Halo. I wasn't that impressed by Halo 4 so a new type of game could give the series a boost. A twin stick shooter wasn't my first choice but what bothers me is that, for the time being, this game will not be available for the Xbox 360 arcade. People have criticized Microsoft saying that this is just a ploy to try and get people to buy a Microsoft tablet or to push Windows 8 to the forefront. Tell us what you think!

Pre-3

We've started to get a lot of early trailers this week as we look forward to the Electronic Entertainment Expo, so we've gathered some of the best here along with our opinions:

I'm pretty sure Zombies + Parkour is a subgenre of zombie games that we haven't touched yet (heck, parkour games in general are hard enough to find as it is).  I'm always down for any trailer that uses Woodkid for music, but as is Techland's track record, no actual gameplay footage.  I'm hoping this is closer to the actual game than the Dead Island trailer was, but we'll just have to wait and see.

A rather big update for Metal Gear with Keifer Sutherland taking the reigns of Snake over David Hayter (who doesn't seem to be taking this all too well).  Sometimes different can be good, but I wouldn't be surprised if this was another long con by Kojima.  Hopefully we'll get some more details soon

The new Castlevania series seems to have the best music around for trailers.  The timeline for how this game works is a bit of a mess, so I'm interested to see how they sort it out.

This one comes with a bit of a pushback of the release date to early next year (big surprise).  The lastest feature for Lightning's return thats being show off is a sort of class and visual swap system, not unlike the Dressphere system from X-2.  Cool to see some returning characters from the series, don't think Snow will ever catch a break.

Mobile platforms are becoming increasingly appealing to developers it seems, so now we've got a new Deus Ex game for the iPad, much in the same vein as Human Revolution.  Looks pretty slick, but I feel like it's going to be a nightmare to control

More to come soon, so stay tuned!