Batman: Arkham Origins is all about context

Ambivalence would be the best thing to describe my feelings going into this game.  I knew that it was being developed by different people than the first two games in the "Arkham" trilogy, and I had also read a number of mixed reviews regarding this game.  After loving Arkham City, I was ready for more Batman brawling, stalking, and gliding.

Over the weekend, I finished up the main campaign and most of the side missions.  When this game came out, there were a number of reviews basically saying this is a lesser game than the previous two.  My opinion is a bit more nuanced.

First, you should understand how I played the game.  I played this game on PC via Steam, and it was played with a Radeon 7970 video card and a 27" 2560 X 1440 monitor.  This was not the experience I imagine most reviewers had who were stuck with Xbox and Playstation versions of the game that sound buggier and worse looking.

But at 1440p with a higher end video card, the game looked very sharp and ran fairly smooth with a couple minor tweaks.  It was certainly better looking than when I played Arkham City on Xbox.  I imagine a reviewer would probably be much more generous had they experienced the game the way I did.

There are problems with the game though, even though I was running it on a higher end rig.  There were a couple times the game crashed on me and I don't think it was my PC.  Also, I found the controls to be slightly worse than the previous games.  Not bad enough where I would be upset, but in enough subtle ways for me to have to note it in this post.  It was small stuff...it didn't feel to me like the counters were as accurate.  My biggest complaint with the controls are ground takedowns, which felt inconsistent to the point where I generally would not use them unless I was sure it would land.  It felt very weird watching Batman string together 30 hit combos and then do a ground takedown aimed at nothing.

Another criticism, if you can even call it that, is the overall lack of originality with the gameplay.  They didn't really do much to expand on the previous entries.  The crime scene scans are interesting but simple.  They also have a couple slightly different gadgets.  But I think if you had played Arkham City right before playing this, you might find that this feels more like an expansion than a new game.  Half the city is Arkham City, and the rest of Gotham is separated by an annoyingly long bridge.  The city itself is not as well designed as it should be for an open world.  Arkham City felt like you could really fly around anywhere easily.  There were times where I would go towards my waypoint marker and I would run into a wall because of these sometimes arbitrary roadblocks.

One of your new items is the Shock Gloves which you acquire later in the campaign.  Once they are charged up, they are devastatingly effective against enemies.  So much so that you can basically abandon typical fighting techniques the series has established.  Even though it makes the game easier, I did enjoy using this overpowered weapon when the crowds of enemies were particularly large.

I also found it strange when Batman could climb or grapple some objects but not others, and it didn't seem to make any sense to me.  In fact, there were rooms where one object was climbable, and another object that was exactly the same wasn't.

The story is great.  Obviously with a series like this they get a little creative with how Batman meets all of these super villains in order to create an origin story, but I still found the story to be creative and interesting.  I've heard some people call several of the villains second tier.  I disagree.  Batman in many forms has always had the classic mega villains like the Joker, but also the more obscure but still interesting villains that to me always added texture to the story.  Arkham Origins, in my opinion, does an excellent job balancing it out.

I can't speak to the console experience, which is no doubt worse in most ways, and I would be inclined to only recommend a purchase if it was discounted...perhaps for $20.  But I recommend the game overall if you are interested in Batman.  Despite my criticisms of the gameplay, I was still drawn to the experience enough to put in about 14 or 15 hours.  If I had played Arkham City less than a month before, it stands to reason that I may not have felt as positive about it.  There's no doubt that I played the "best" version of the game as well.

Since my last post about Dark Souls I've also completed Ghost Trick and The Testament of Sherlock Holmes.  I've also put additional time into Fire Emblem: Awakening and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (the PC port).  I'm sure I'm overlooking other things as well.  Hopefully this week I'll post some more of my thoughts.  Comments are welcome as always.

I have vanquished Dark Souls!

Sorry to anyone reading about the slow level of posting over the last few weeks.  Towards the end of the year I took a vacation, which means that I wasn't writing much but more importantly it means that I got to play a lot of different things that I can write more about into the future.

Which brings me to Dark Souls.  Once I started my vacation on the 20th, I put some consistent time into Dark Souls until a few days before the New Year.  As my vacation ended, Dark Souls got my exclusive gaming attention.

I actually got to a point where I was close to quitting the game.  There are going to be spoilers in the rest of this post, so be warned if you care about that kind of thing.  In Dark Souls, some people consider reading spoilers or guides to be not in the spirit of the game, which I tend to agree with for the most part.  I did use the Internet to look up non-spoiler related issues.  For example, I wanted to know if a weapon looked like when it was fully upgraded before I wasted crafting resources.  I suppose some people might consider that "cheating", however, I put so much time into the game that I felt like it was just a smart way to not waste time grinding for souls/resources that are needed for crafting.

Anyway, I almost quit once I reached Blighttown.  Once I got to a particular bonfire, which again are used to "save" the game and checkpoint your progress, I died repeatedly trying to make my way down some narrow pathways and ladders to the swamp.  My character just wasn't strong enough.  I was getting overwhelmed by enemies that were not difficult on their own even if they needed 4 or 5 hits to kill, but when 3 or 4 of them confront you on a narrow pathway there just wasn't enough space for me to operate and manage the enemies coming at me as opposed to either knocking them out with less hits or managing one at a time.

But as my title says, I beat the game.  In fact, Blighttown is fairly early in the game.  For anybody who is looking to play Dark Souls you have to realize a few things.  The first is that sometimes you need to know when you are outmatched.  If you aren't hurting enemies enough, or feel overwhelmed, or just frustrated you first need to stop playing the game for a while.  Just take an hour to back away.  Also, if you can manage to draw enemies out one at a time that's a huge help. 

What I did in this particular situation, and a few other parts where I felt underpowered, was just back off and explore a different area.  I tried to find more gear, maybe gain a level or two, and most importantly upgrade my armor and weapons to be more potent.  So when I went back to Blighttown, I managed to kill the same enemies in 2 hits and had a bit more flexibility dealing with the problem of getting down to the swamps so I could fight the boss, Quelaag. 

This was extremely important to deal with.  By finishing that area, I managed to ring the bell "down below" and unlocked Sen's Fortress (a tricky area with guillotines) and Anor Londo, which may be the most important area in the game.  Anor Londo has a couple very hard parts.  One part features archers that attempt to knock you off of a very narrow ledge.  I managed to get through that after dying about 5 times, which believe it or not is pretty good considering the difficulty of that particular sequence.  Also, the bosses, Ornstein and Smough, were both difficult but certainly fun.  Probably the best boss music in the game (there is a lot of good music).  You have to fight them both at once, which makes it tricky, but like most bosses patience is key.  Only attack or heal with Estus Flasks when you know you have the time to operate without being attacked in the open.

The reason Anor Londo is so important is that by winning a very large breasted princess named Gwynevere (I hope I spelled that right) gives you the Lordvessel, which essentially opens up the last major act of the game.  It also allows you to warp between certain bonfires.  Warping is extremely helpful both to farm souls/items and also proceeding in the game.  Once I finished Anor Londo I was able to warp back to Firelink Shrine (the beginning of the main game) and...discovered the fire was out and the fire keeper was killed.  Back in Anor Londo I had to use a stone to invade a world inhabited by her murderer, who I killed, allowing me to restore the Firelink bonfire.

From there, I actually did some backtracking.  I went to Darkroot Forest/Basin and killed the wolf Sif (pretty cool looking boss), and the Hydra.  I also went to the Catacombs and eventually managed to kill Pinwheel, which allowed me to kindle my bonfire more for extra Estus Flasks...another extremely useful tool.

The game then moves on to the final four souls you have to collect in order to face Lord Gwyn.  You have to kill four bosses (plus a couple extra on the way) in the form of Gravelord Nito in the Tomb of the Giants (a completely dark area below the catacombs where you have to navigate with very limited visibility), The Bed of Chaos in Lost Izalith, Seath The Scaleless in the Crystal Cave (after navigating through the Duke's Archives where you have a forced death against Seath the first time you fight him), and finally the Four Kings in the Abyss (after navigating through New Londo Ruins).  For me, none of these bosses were too tricky by the time I got to them.  I think I benefited from not knowing where to go, because as a result I found more gear, leveled up more than I probably needed to be, and had a bit more room to operate.

There's also the DLC in Darkroot that I took on.  This appears to be completely optional, but has three more bosses including Knight Artorias, which is one of the most interesting characters I found in the game.

The game ends in the Kiln Of The First Flame, where you take on Lord Gwyn after going through a few Black Knights.  It took me a few tries, but I eventually beat Gwyn once I memorized his patterns.  As a mostly melee character, I found him to be tricky.  He is very quick and his attacks impact your stability in a major way, but if you are patient you can get through it. 

While it may not appears to have it on the surface, Dark Souls has some significant story choices that lead to some major ambiguity as to what is good and evil.  As I played the game, I thought I was taking the good path.  Kingseeker Frampt told me at Firelink that I was the successor to Lord Gwyn.  Sounds good, right?  And some of these bosses look pretty evil, right?  And that lady in Anor Londo with the big boobs can't be evil.  Well...I'm not really sure.  You have a choice in the end to sacrifice yourself for the fire and allow the age of the Gods to continue, or you can let the fire go out, let the world go dark, and let the age of Men begin.  So what's right?  Giving Gods who are dying a temporary lifeline?  Or ushering in a new era for Men, but leaves the world in darkness?  I don't really know.  Perhaps these questions will be answered or at least these details may be elaborated in Dark Souls 2.

Now that I'm finished, I have to say that Dark Souls is one of the most personally rewarding experiences I have had in games.  While the PC port is, frankly, broken, once I modded it I found it to be one of the richest explorations in any RPG.  The fighting is tight and really forces you to learn the mechanics.  The bosses are interesting and unique.  The setting and presentation are top notch (aside from glitches...the actual art and lore I find fascinating).  And of course it kept me busy so it's a great value. 

But it's not for everybody.  If you don't like to have to focus, or learn too much, or if the idea of repeating sections after dying is unappealing, you just won't like the game.  I don't think that's a knock on the game.  It does what it sets out to do.

Now I'll be moving on.  I do have Demon Souls on Playstation Plus that I can play on my PS3, but I doubt I will play it.  It's a much older game and with Dark Souls 2 coming out soon I can't see myself investing much mental energy in that.  It's probably wiser to take a break from this kind of thing until the new game comes out.

That's all I have for now.  For my next entry, I plan on discussing The Stanley Parable and how it compares to another interactive story, Gone Home.  Thanks for reading.

Dark Souls: The Journal of Death Part 2

This looks like an appropriate setup for this game

Since my last Dark Souls post, I have made some more progress (and deaths) in the game.

But death isn't a big deal, even though you lose the souls you have found.  During my last post, I mentioned that as I crossed a bridge that had enemies I was prepared to take on, a giant dragon flew in and set me on fire, killing me instantly and losing souls that were acquired.

Fortunately, I was able to make it back to that point and pick up the souls that drop when you die.  If you are careful, death is not the worst thing that can happen because the souls (which is experience and also money) can be recovered if you get back to the point you died and collect them.  Most of the time I can do this, but it's still a good idea to use your souls once you save up a bunch.  First of all, you are going to need the extra levels and upgrades.  But more importantly, you can't take anything for granted in this game.  You could make a minor mistake and be killed even by an enemy that is supposed to not be difficult.

Anyway, what I discovered was a path below the main bridge that accomplished two things.  I avoided the dragon entirely, saving me another death.  Halfway through this lower path, you find a ladder you can knock down that gives you a shortcut back to the last campfire where you can restock your Estus Flasks and save your progress.  I was going to need it, of course, because a rat poisoned me shortly thereafter which would have killed me if I didn't rush back to the campfire.

Once I got past the rats, I arrived at the Undead Parish where some skeletons and a giant Armored Boar were waiting for me.  While the boar is strong, I don't know if it is considered a boss.  At first I thought the right approach would be to avoid the boar entirely, but then I discovered that the boar took significant damage if I got him to charge at me through a lit fire.  Since I had plenty of flasks, I let him charge at me twice and took hits, but the boar died and I was able to move on.  

After that I fought some more basic enemies and found a diverged path.  I could go right over what appeared to be a rickety, makeshift wood bridge, or left where there was something that resembled a church.  I read the messages left for me to give me hints (a key part of the game) and decided to go left which...was not my best decision.  I died fighting a giant knight.

Once I made it back that way I discovered that the path to the bridge led to a campfire and a blacksmith.  I upgraded a ton of stuff and beat some demon that shot lightening at me, and then proceeded further to more enemies in a forest.  I found a bunch of heavy armor by running around these other difficult enemies and went on to fight this moth that killed me.  To this day I don't think I have what I need to beat it, so I ended up retracing my steps.

Finally I realized that there was a path upwards in the church with the giant knight I talked about before.  The knight went down, and eventually I made my way up to the top of the church where I fought two gargoyles that I suppose were the bosses of the area.  Here's a picture.



This was a difficult fight since you had to shield yourself from fire from one gargoyle while the other gargoyle would aggressively attack you.  After 3 or 4 attempts I managed to be conservative enough to win.  The path unlocked, I climbed to the top of the tower, rang the ball and I guess "completed" that area.

It probably helped that I found a way to upgrade my Estus Flask to give me stronger healing.

At this point I continued to fight random enemies as I tried to figure out the next place to go.  I really had no idea.  Eventually I decided this weekend to go back to Firelink Shrine and retrace my steps from the beginning.  Around the part where the giant dragon lit me on fire I noticed there was a closed door which I now had a key to unlock and proceeded downward.

On a side note, I really like how the game puts in shortcuts back to the beginning.  The level design is really great because it is this huge world with clever little ways to quickly traverse once you discover them.

As I went further down, I eventually made it to a sewer with lots of poison/curse type enemies.  While these enemies were not difficult, I needed to be careful to avoid the status effects since they punish you badly.  I was cursed once and had to go all the way back to where I fought the gargoyles to find the item to heal my curse (at great expense of souls).  Eventually, I made it back down and stopped playing the game after losing one battle to this dragon.  It's a gaping dragon, apparently.  I don't know what that means, but it made a gape in me.



I wasn't damaging this guy that much, but I'm still confident I can take him down.  It may require some better weapons or a few levels, but I believe it's manageable.

That's where Dark Souls stands as of now.  More to come!

Dark Souls: The Journal of Death Part 1

This is burned into my retinas.

On Friday night I decided to take the plunge and give Dark Souls another shot and...it kept crashing.  Also, I had to mess with Games For Windows Live.  Clearly the game is fucking with me.  It wants me to understand frustration even while it tries to load.

After a complete uninstall, download, and reinstallation, I got the game running around midnight and got back into it.  Just picked up my save right where I left off, which was basically where the tutorial ended and I felt stuck.  Here's a picture.



This isn't really a spoiler, but there are several pathways it appears you can go on from this camp.  I tried two, which were the paths that I thought I had to take and just kept dying.  So my next strategy was to try to just kill a few enemies and go back and level, but I couldn't even manage to kill a guy and get back to camp to save my souls (experience awarded when killing an enemy that you lose if you die before saving).  I was starting to remember why I stopped playing.

And then...I found a different path.  All of a sudden the enemies were more manageable and I was actually making progress.  The game started to feel like it was making sense and I FOUND ANOTHER CAMPFIRE.  I was able to level up!  I finally managed to "get" it.  It seems like my big problem wasn't necessarily my skill in combat, but the path I set out on in the first place.

As I climbed this giant castle or ruin or whatever the fuck it was, I walked up to this bridge and this giant dragon just jumps on all of a sudden scaring the crap out of me.  Then it flew away.  Eventually I made it up to another bridge like area and fought some kind of minotaur called a Taurus Demon.



At my low level, it was pretty hard and I died the first time.  But after grinding a little bit I managed to make it through with one Estus Flask left at the end of battle.

Perhaps I should take a moment to explain the Estus Flask.  This appears to be the only healing item in the game but I don't know for sure.  As you can tell from the picture, the Estus Flask shows up in your active inventory just like your shield and sword.  If you press X on the Xbox 360 controller (I'm playing on PC with that controller) you use it.  But when you use it, your character stops for a moment leaving him totally exposed.  It's risky to use mid battle, but I had to so in order to heal I had to dash away from the action, use it, and quickly put up my guard.  You start off with 10 Estus Flasks that you can recharge at your camp.  I'm not totally sure why, but the first camp I found I had to kindle the fire before it would charge me back up to 10 flasks instead of 5.  To kindle the fire, first you have to use your humanity, which is the number in the upper left corner.  I believe this number goes up eventually after defeating a certain amount of enemies or just finding humanity after a battle.  Then you need one more humanity to kindle the fire.  Took me a little time. But whatever.  Just another part of the challenge.

Getting back to the Taurus Demon, I had to use most of my flasks to beat him.  If I was a more skilled player I think he could probably be beaten without that level of consumption, but keep in mind that for me and anybody else at this point in the game mastering the mechanics to the level you need to really crush these enemies is unrealistic.

Once you beat him you get the "VICTORY ACHIEVED" message, and unlike all of the other monsters in the game, this one does not respawn when you visit a camp.  After I won I proceeded along the path until I reached this bridge with a few enemies on it.  In my head I thought it would be no problem to take out these enemies, so I run in with my shield up and...that fucking dragon from before swoops in and lights the entire bridge on fire, killing me instantly.  At the time I didn't know if the boss I just faced would respawn, but fortunately he didn't and I figured out a way to move past the dragon without a fight.

That's pretty much where I stopped.  There are a few other things to note about this game.  The first is that you really have to be mindful about who you take on and when.  If you are carrying a lot of souls, you should really try to save and level up first before taking on something unknown.  You can recover souls that you have lost as a human after dying, but it's not always easy.  Reading the hints that are left for you on the ground (an online feature) can be helpful, but at times is cryptic.

My world was also "invaded" at some point and someone just showed up and killed me pretty easily.  I'm pretty sure that was another online thing.  From what I could tell, I was just dramatically underleveled to face this enemy, so I'm not sure if there was anything I could have done about it.  This is just another reason why it's wise to save often.  Fortunately this one didn't cost me too much.

I hope to continue playing tonight and make more progress.  For this game, I hope to continue making a journal since it is such a different experience.  Clearly, the satisfaction that anybody will get out of this game will be based strictly upon whether you can tolerate failure and challenge.  If taking your time with a game is not something that you enjoy, you should avoid Dark Souls.  But I found that as I made tiny bits of progress I enjoyed the game more and wanted to continue to take on the challenge.

More to come...

Dark Souls...should I do it?

I tried Dark Souls once when I got it for Steam a few months ago.  After patching it up to deal with the lousy port for PC, I quickly made it to the first area after doing the tutorial, died dozens of times, and just gave up.

But maybe I was doing it wrong.  When I'm trying a game for the first time, I usually take the try anything and everything approach.  Don't know what a weapon does?  Equip it.  Don't know what a stat does?  Oh well, buff it and see what happens.

This game isn't forgiving enough for that.  I need to get back to tactics that are more sensible for a game this difficult.  I need to grind it out a bit and make sure I'm going in the right direction instead of any direction.  If I collect a bunch of stuff, I should just go back and save before I lose it all.  There's no way I can't get through this game, right?

Let's switch gears and talk about NBA 2K14 and Lebron: Path to Greatness.  I probably follow the NBA more than other pro sports with the exception of tennis, so this series really is a personal favorite.  Unlike Madden, it actually does things that are interesting for people who are into the league and its history.


Lebron: Path to Greatness gives you two paths for Lebron James' future.  One is setting up a dynasty with the Miami Heat as you go for 7 championships.  The other has Lebron leaving Miami after this season (and getting his threepeat...spoiler alert I guess) and moving on to some other teams and playing with some surprising players.  There are definitely some funny moments as crazy events happen in this fictional future, and if you appreciate the sport you will get a chuckle out of it.

It's not for everybody, but if you are into the NBA I highly recommend it.  I did have some technical issues getting it running on my PC, but eventually I worked it out.  2K Sports has terrible support.

I finished the main game of Pokemon Y and I'm not sure how much further I will take it.  On one hand, I can see it being totally plausible and fun to get all of the Pokemon and truly mastering the game.  On the other hand, there are plenty of other things for me to play on 3DS, including picking Fire Emblem back up.

That's all for now.  More entries coming soon.  I'm IMTheWalrus610 on Steam, Twitch, PSN, and Xbox Live if you would like to reach out on those or Google+.

I had so much fun with one console launch I had to do it again. My thoughts on the Xbox One

There it is.  Pretty much exactly how it would look in your living room.

The question everybody asks me is which of the systems is better...is it the less expensive but supposedly more powerful PS4 or the more expensive and complex Xbox One.  Here's the answer.  Neither is better than the other, and nobody is going to care about the price difference or hardware specifications once they have the games and applications ready for them.  Nobody talked about the processor in the Xbox 360 when they were playing Gears of War for the first time.  Nobody cared about the clunky online platform in the PS3 when they were enjoying Uncharted.  The bottom line is that people are going to get the system that best fits their style of entertainment.  Everybody wants to make a console war.  I guess people find it entertaining (or perhaps mentally fulfilling) to take a position as if these consoles are like politicians or a religion.  The fact is that these are consumer purchases.  If one of these platforms totally dominated, we would all be worse off for it.  Sony would not be focusing on indie support now if it weren't for the success of Xbox Live Arcade, and Microsoft would not have ramped up Xbox Live Gold to include free stuff if it weren't for Playstation Plus.  And Nintendo is still in the wings delivering something completely different which is probably why the Kinect came along in the first place...it's likely a response to the Wii Remote and that kind of fewer button, non-controller interaction.

But hey, it's not very interesting for me to not take a public position on it, so here are my thoughts on the system, both positive and negative.

Let's start with the hardware itself.  Much like the Playstation 4, the design is sleek and definitely much more elegant than its predecessor.  When I removed my Xbox 360 from the entertainment center, it just looked old to me.  Perhaps I'm just spoiled.

The controller feels very nice to me with the analog sticks.  I've heard gripes about the positions of the triggers and bumpers, but so far it has not been an issue for me.  If I had to choose one, I would probably go with the Playstation 4 controller, but both are good.

The differences really start with the Kinect and how it delivers a totally different and unique experience from the Playstation 4 in terms of how it works with the rest of the devices around your TV.  There is an HDMI input for your cable box, and as a result you can do more interesting things with the Kinect.  For example, if I say "Xbox Watch ESPN" it just changes the channel to 570 (ESPN on FIOS) and it's done.  Sounds good, right?  Well...ask it to change to NFL Red Zone or NBA TV.  Those don't work so well.  It turned me to Lifetime, TNT, NBC...just not the channels I wanted.  That can be frustrating.  But when I say "Xbox Turn On" when I get home the whole thing turns on and tunes to whatever channel I was on last while I'm doing other things like feed the cats or put down my work stuff.  Overall it's a positive experience, but I found that I did have to go back to the remote control quite often.  The Xbox also features something called One Guide.  This is like a TV guide, but I think it's not so great.  If you channel surf, it's just way to slow.  I kept having to say "page down", which is obnoxious to others in the room and annoying to do.  When I use the remote, I just press down a bunch and it moves faster.  I don't know how it would work, but like a "surf" command would be nice for the system to just scroll through the channels at a reasonable speed.  Perhaps it exists and I just don't know about it.

The Kinect also can do other things like Skype calls or party chats, which I think work pretty well.  When I did a Skype call with a friend, the camera was smart enough to zoom in on him as he walked around his living room.  That was impressive.  What wasn't impressive is how it thinks my cats are people, so it won't do the same zooming quite as well in my living room.  Also, I can't get the hand gestures to work the way they are supposed to.  It feels slow and again it may have to do with the fact that my cats are in the room or that the room isn't oriented in a way the Kinect likes.  It's clearly a more sophisticated camera and microphone system than the PS4, but I don't know how necessary it is.  The PS4 actually seems to do a better job recognizing my face and not seeing my cats as people even though the camera is less powerful.  That is a software issue, so Microsoft should be able to fix it I imagine.

From standby, the system turns on very quickly.  But from a completely powered off state, it is extremely slow to boot up.  Much slower than the PS4.  Not a big deal, but worth mentioning.

The dashboard itself is awful.  It has that Metro UI that I never liked on the 360 or in Windows 8.  I think it's very colorful and artistic but has no logic behind it.  That said, if you are using voice commands to open applications and games (which works nearly perfectly) the dashboard is totally irrelevant.

The Xbox also allows some limited multitasking with the use of "Snap".  For example, on Sunday night I had the Broncos/Patriots game snapped to the side of the screen as I played Forza Motorsport 5.  This is a gimmick in my opinion.  I couldn't pay attention to the game on the tiny part of the screen while racing.  It's totally impractical.  Also, the video in the snapped portion of the screen seemed much less smooth.  I seriously doubt I will continue to utilize this feature.

For the time being, the Xbox has the superior exclusive games.  Forza 5 is probably the best overall console launch experience for both systems in the sense that it is a complete game, looks incredible, and is just a lot of fun.  If you are a fan of the show Top Gear, it is a must buy for the tie ins to the TV show.  I also purchased Dead Rising 3 which is not available on other platforms but I have yet to open it.  All of the buzz surrounding that game is positive though so I'm sure I will enjoy it.  I hear the graphics are a bit lacking.  Killer Instinct I bought digitally and it's a strong sequel to the previous games.  It feels the same with a fresh coat of paint.  I purchased the ultimate edition, but for $20 you can get the game with all of the characters (2 are coming as DLC later).  If you like fighting games at all I strongly recommend it.  It's not perfect, but $20?  You really can't go wrong.  Does this make the system the one to buy on launch?  Maybe...it depends on what your tastes are.  But I don't think the PS4 will be lacking in exclusives and I would actually imagine that the exclusives I care about like Uncharted, Ratchet and Clank, and The Last of Us (in addition to anything Japanese in origin) will be coming to the PS4.

For the time being, I prefer the Xbox One.  I just think that today I will get more value out of it.  But I like both systems.  I think they are well designed, the games look good, the controllers are awesome, and they have some ambitiousness behind the fundamental design.  Unlike the old days of the NES, these systems will continue to evolve with firmware updates that will enhance them even more.

I'm sure I failed to mention a few things about both systems...for example, I don't think I mentioned the PS Vita remote play on the Playstation 4 which works exceptionally well.  But I think if you are going to buy one or both of these systems, you have to make the purchase based on what is known about them for now and what matters to you.  I suspect that if you are into some of the bigger titles such as sports games or first person shooters, the Xbox will likely be the right choice.  If you prefer games that have a more specific niche audience, the PS4 is probably going to be a better decision.  You can't really go wrong though.

So which system is going to get my attention this holiday season?  The answer is...The Nintendo Wii U and 3DS.  I have been a very harsh critic of Nintendo for their weak online functionality, underpowered hardware, eccentric design, and lack of 3rd party support.  All of that stuff gets thrown out the window when you load up The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (expect a post just on this game) and you realize that you are having more fun with a game that runs at lower resolution on a weird looking system.  Nintendo has some significant problems as a company including getting people to buy their poorly marketed Wii U as well as having 3rd party publishers bring exclusives to the platform, but Rayman Legends, Super Mario 3D World, A Link Between Worlds, Wind Waker HD, Fire Emblem Awakening, Pokemon X/Y, etc. are some of the best games that came out in 2013.  I'll be doing a top 10 games of the year and honorable mention blog post soon as I complete a few more games, but expect to see Nintendo well represented.

This gets back to my fundamental point about new consoles.  People get into flame wars over hardware specs, backwards compatibility, online play, and other factors that don't have much to do with what games are actually on the system.  If the next Gears of War game comes out for Xbox and everybody loves it, nobody is going to give a shit about the fact that Microsoft initially wanted to get rid of used games or that the system is technically less powerful than the PS4.  DDR3 or DDR5 memory means nothing when you are enjoying the experience.  The Last of Us could very well be the game of the year, and it has a lower resolution and an inconsistent framerate on a platform that is 6 years old.

If you see one of these new consoles in a store and you really want to play Forza or Resogun, just get the system that has it.  I'm sure it will all work out in the end.  You will find plenty to enjoy on all of these platforms.

Comments and feedback are welcomed.  Feel free to share this or my other posts with friends.  You can reach out to me on Steam, Xbox Live, PSN at IMTheWalrus610, or connect with me on Google+ through this blog.

Playstation 4 Launch!

I was one of the fortunate people to procure a Playstation 4 for launch due to a preorder I got from Amazon almost immediately upon the announcement of the system.  Perhaps it wasn't the wisest decision to commit myself to spending that kind of money (as well as the preorder of an Xbox One...coming this Friday) without doing much research.

But why not?  Let's be honest...was I not getting these systems at some point anyway?  Did I really think I would go 5-7 years with just a PC, a Wii U, and one or neither of the 2013 launch consoles?

So this whole thing was inevitable.  Fortunately, I am pleased with my purchase so far despite the fact that it wasn't a necessary purchase.

Obviously, this is a much more powerful machine than the PS3.  I played The Last of Us over the summer, and while it looked very good artistically and technically within the hardware limitations of the PS3, comparing the graphics between a game like that and Bioshock Infinite which I run on my PC or Killzone Shadow Fall on PS4 is a pretty striking difference.  The jump in resolution, draw distance, framerate, etc. is noticeable for anybody who has been actively playing video games.  They also did some nice operating system changes.  Things feel a bit quicker and more elegant.  Games and Applications launch quickly with reasonable loading.  The online functions seems faster.  And with the Playstation Camera I now have it setup so that the system recognizes that I am playing it when it turns on based purely on my face.

Remote Play on the Vita worked flawlessly and setup very quickly.  In less than 5 minutes after bringing my Vita downstairs to set it up I was playing Resogun and mirroring screens between my Vita and TV.

Unlike some of the reports, I have experienced no hardware issues whatsoever.  That could change, and it probably will based on the amount of time I will put into playing the system.  I lost a PS3 and two Xbox 360s probably in part to design flaws but also because of the amount of operating time they had.  I suppose I consider that a part of the cost of owning these products.

The launch titles are limited.  Killzone is the big first party exclusive, and while the first half of the single player campaign was fun, I found myself frustrated towards the second half as the game went away from the big open first person shooting areas and into weak puzzles and stealth areas.  It just didn't feel fun to me.  I'm told that the multiplayer is better, but Halo 4 had a strong campaign and multiplayer.  So the bar has been set, and in my opinion Killzone does not reach it.  It does look and control well though.  I'm eBaying my copy, but I could see people playing this game online for a while.  But if you are like me and look for the single player experience first, and the multiplayer second, I can't recommend spending $60 on it.  Fortunately, I got it on Amazon in a buy 2 get 1 free deal, so hopefully once I sell it I will get my money back (and maybe a little more).

I also have Assassin's Creed 4, which is not exclusive to PS4.  I'm pretty optimistic about how that will turn out.  Everything suggests it's better than Assassin's Creed 3, which is one of the weaker games of the series, but I still found plenty to enjoy.

Need For Speed: Rivals is on its way.  For some reason Amazon didn't have it available immediately.  I'll get it soon enough.  It's another game I have faith in based on the series and what I read in the gaming media.

My favorite game in the system's launch window is Resogun.  It's a very simple concept that should be familiar to anybody who has played the classic arcade game, Defender.



If you subscribe to Playstation Plus, this game is free.  You should probably buy it anyway though even if you don't (why don't you?  $50 a year for the free stuff is worth it).  The game is an arcade style twin stick shooter that anybody can pick up and understand, but only the truly skilled will learn to master.  I suppose I'm biased though...I think simple and tight but fun experiences are great.  It's one of the things I appreciated most about the last generation of consoles.  Games like Geometry Wars, Super Stardust HD (same creators of Resogun), Super Meat Boy, and Everyday Shooter really became more mainstream as digital delivery of "indie" games became normal.  These types of games add serious depth to the overall pool of games available.

Another free title I got through Playstation Plus was Contrast.



This is a puzzle game where you have to switch between a normal 3D platforming experience and going into the shadows to solve puzzles.  In the picture above you can see that the character is climbing onto the shadow of the umbrella so that presumably she can jump onto the balcony.  It's a neat concept, but unfortunately the whole game feels thin.  I've only spent a little time with it, but the puzzles were very simple and the graphics aren't that impressive.  They could have done a lot more.  But again, it's free.  So I suppose I can't complain.  It's worth booting up.

Soon I will try to stream Assassin's Creed 4 via Twitch.tv if I can figure it out, and from what I can tell the process should be simple.  If you would like to follow me on Twitch.tv, my username is IMTheWalrus610.  I imagine that won't have to change for the PS4, but crazier things have happened.  So far I haven't done that much streaming on the PC, but maybe I'll get back into it.  Like most things with electronics, I like to tinker with features even if I don't end up using them extensively.

The big question is whether you should go out and buy a Playstation 4 today.  That really depends on the type of person you are.  I can't honestly say that there is an extremely compelling reason to go out and buy this system based purely on the launch titles.  But that being said, if you want to play next gen versions of things like Madden, Battlefield 4, Call of Duty, etc. and you don't have a high end gaming PC, the Playstation 4 is worth getting.  Also, if you are really into playing video games in general it's not like this machine will gather dust.  Yes, Killzone and Assassin's Creed are not going to be the two best games of the year, but like with the previous Playstation iterations there will be plenty of quality titles to go around over the course of time.  Buying a Playstation 4 on launch seems like a better investment than buying a Wii U at launch, although I bought that shortly after launch which was a mistake.