Guess it has been a bit..


BF4_Havok

 

Wow, Where did time go???

Greatness Arrived back in November 2013, and I have been steadily running ye ole PlayStation 4 through its paces.  So far so good, with a few system patches under its belt, it has worked like a charm.

And even though the games have been a bit slim (got a few for Christmas, mind you), the overall experience has been of a little bit of a  roller coaster.

Sony was gracious enough to put out a few freebies for signing up with PlayStation Plus, including Resogun (3D Defender on crack!); and Contrast (good puzzle game).. But the main attraction(s) were the triple A titles, including Battlefield 4, Call of Duty: Ghosts, FIFA 14, Need for Speed: Rivals, Assassin’s Creed 4, just to name a few.

Though Battlefield 4 and COD: Ghosts led the pack in “what game people really wanted”; Battlefield 4’s rollout has been a bit of a blight on all systems, with gamers saying that Battlefield 4 was having ALL sorts of problems on the PS4.  Single Player Save games getting constantly getting corrupted, forcing users to start their campaign all over again; Attempting to even play a Multiplayer match online resulted in the game crashing out or not even connecting; Gameplay within Multiplayer was glitchy, allowing some players to cause 4x the normal amount of damage to another player.  The list goes on, and of course EA (publisher for the Battlefield series) began with blaming Sony and the PS4 as being the culprit. EA soon thereafter reversed its statement, and began to issue out Hotfixes / Stability Patches / New Servers for BF4.

I have been a big fan of Battlefield and its iterations all the way from Battlefield: Bad Company 2.  The level of sheer environment destructibility, the vehicles, and crazy things that folks actually do in that game (Yeah go check out Youtube for the fun…); no two rounds of Multiplayer in that game are the same…  yet in this release of Battlefield 4, it is almost the game left the oven half baked.. with the developer (DICE) scrambling to release it before COD: Ghosts came out..

And as I truly understand the notion that competition is a good thing to have, it also can damage your end result.  EA should definitely note this release as a disaster, and promise the public that this will never happen again.  I really can’t blame DICE for this, due to the simple fact that EA (as their publisher) caused this whole ruckus by trying to compete against Activision and COD.

One other time steal-er has been Assassin’s Creed 4, where this time around.. you get to sail the Caribbean as a swashbuckling pirate / assassin, destroying whatever you want, and being a general menace while you sail the seas.  Graphically the game bleeds off your screen, with vibrant colors and vistas that will make you take pause and enjoy the sight.

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I got to admit, i was a little hesitant with AC4, as its predecessor (AC3) lacked the gameplay that I have enjoyed through out the entire Assassin Creed series.  The story, general gameplay and side quests in AC3 were very bland, and didn’t give that intensity or drive that I had previously experienced within AC. Developer Ubisoft must have realized this, and retooled AC4 with better gameplay mechanics, naval combat (which AC3 did have, just not enough of), smarter AI, and another puzzle in the story line (who is this mysterious guy at Abstergo Entertainment??)

Another roll-out that just recently with Watch Dogs.  This one was a highly anticipated game, but “stripped” from the Next Gen Roll-out back in November, due to “polishing” by the developer (whether or not that was the case or not, who knows..) and bumped to a release this past May.

Watch-Dogs-2Watch Dogs follows the “Anti Hero” Aiden Pierce, who’s niece is killed in a “hit style” accident.  Aiden begins his quest to bring his own kind of justice to the Chicago area, hunting down those who hurt his family via hacking the all encompassing ctOS, which runs everything in Chicago.  From ATMs, Cell Phones, Traffic Lights.. Aiden can use them to his advantage to find the people responsible for his nieces’ death.

Watch Dogs has is pro’s and con’s, most notably with the game being considered as a “Grand Theft Auto” clone.  Regardless, I have been enjoying it for quite a while, mixing it up with the Cops, the gangs in the city, and other side missions that involve hacking the network.

Even with the few games that rolled out, Sony did have another bang up job this past E3, showing off even more tech & games that the PlayStation 4 had in store: Showing off their own Virtual Reality headset “Project Morpheus”, giving players first crack at the Alpha build of “Destiny”, and even giving folks a taste of the new Battlefield series “Battlefield: Hardline”.  Sony was even successful in getting Micro$oft to finally drop out the Kinect bundle with the Xbone.

Well done Sony.  Looking forward to see what is going to come out next.

Battlefield 4 Beta : First Impressions

BF4_Levolution_Siege_of_Shanghai_web_0EA and DICE released the Battlefield 4 Beta demo back on October 1, and since I haven’t had much else to do (see the local paper if you aren’t up on the latest federal news..) I, along with several other hundred Battlefield 3 Premium members, decided to test it out.

Now mind you, DICE from the get go stated that the Beta is just that: a Beta product, and that a lot of the issues that are being experienced in the demo have already been addressed.  Though, if DICE and EA are listening, here is a laundry list of things that could be fixed:

Bring back the original controls from Battlefield 3. Its bad enough that I had to learn a whole new control scheme jumping over from Battlefield Bad Company 2 to Battlefield 3.  Please make every effort to allow the PLAYERS to control their own button mappings!!

–  Fix the shotgun reloading:  I can’t figure out how I start out with 6 in the shot gun, along with 48 extra shells, try and reload, and my count goes down to just 6 remaining in the shotgun.  Where’d the other 48 shells go??

–  Balance the weapons:  For some reason the concept behind an Assault Rifle and Light Machine Gun are a bit lost.. with the former winning out every time over the latter.  (especially since I just plunked 46 bullets into someone and they shot me twice and I died..)

–  Helicopters are flying tanks??:  Ok for some reason the “scout class” helicopters can take tremendous punishment from heavy caliber rounds, yet they can easily buzz by a armored vehicle (or tank) with their miniguns and rip them to pieces.  Sure hope this isn’t by design.. or the Chinese really do manufacture crap!

–  Fix the building in “Siege of Shanghai”:  It would be nice if the damned building in the middle of the map wasn’t destroyed in like the first 5 minutes of the game.  Maybe a “possession” timer so that once that has expired, the building can be demolished.. (though it is still very cool to see blow up and fall.. turn your speakers up!!)

Of course, I gotta take all of this with a grain of salt:  EA and DICE are using the Beta to test out their Multiplayer servers, the matchmaking service, and generally balancing things out before the current gen versions of BF4 go on sale late October.   Overall game play is just like the previous Battlefield games.  Sniping, Suppressive fire, Tanks blowing Sh*t up..  I just sure hope they get a ton of feedback and pay attention to making some adjustments!

Battlefield 4

Get Ready for November 15th!!

ps4hardware2610_jpgThat’s right folks.  Sony has finally rolled out the release date for the PlayStation 4.  Coming out for the November launch date are several hot games, including Battlefield 4, Watch Dogs, Assassin’s Creed 4, Killzone: ShadowFall to name a few, AND with prices staying in the $59.99 range.  Here’s the complete list:

  • NBA 2K14 (2K)
  • Call of Duty: Ghosts (Activision)
  • Skylanders Swap Force (Activision)
  • Need for Speed: Rivals (Electronic Arts)
  • Battlefield 4 (Electronic Arts)
  • Madden 25 (Electronic Arts)
  • FIFA 14 (Electronic Arts)
  • NBA Live 14 (Electronic Arts)
  • Killzone: Shadow Fall (Sony)
  • Driveclub (Sony)
  • Knack (Sony)
  • Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag (Ubisoft)
  • Watch Dogs (Ubisoft)
  • Just Dance 2014 (Ubisoft)
  • Lego Marvel Superheroes (Warner Bros. Interactive)

Of course, some of the developers are holding off on releasing specific dates.  Lets just put it this way:  They would be crazy to release after November.

DICE releases the Battlefield 4 kits

DICE recently posted its next issue of “The Road to Battlefield 4” up on its Battlefield Blog, along with the next classes out for each 3 countries in the game.
Each country will have a Support (Light Machine Gunner & Ammunitions), Engineer (Demolitions), Recon (Sniper) and Assault (Medic & Heavy Rifle) class.

The Chinese:

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The Russians:

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And the US:

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DICE also went into a bit of detail concerning the different paths of field upgrades (Offensive vs. Defensive), along with the retooling of the “Suppressive Fire” aspect of the game.  Check it out.  Battlefield 4 Blog