The Last of Us Remastered / PS 4 Bundle

the-last-of-us-remastered-ps4-console-bundle-610x439If you never had the opportunity to play one of the best “Zombie Horror” flick style games, OR you are trying to find that one game to make you pick up a PlayStation 4, you are in luck.

Sony is releasing a PlayStation 4 / “The Last of Us – Re-mastered” bundle on July 30th.

This game is from one of the very few developers that actually do justice to the PlayStation line.   The Last of Us on the PlayStation 3 was staggering, with excellent visuals, a solid story line, and a “twist” ending that left some fans going “Whoa…”.

So, if you haven’t tried it out, or even “Wikipedia’ed” the ending (DONT!), either pick up a copy this July, or buy the bundle.  You wont be disappointed.

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Guess it has been a bit..


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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.

Hands On with the new Dual Shock 4

imageLast week Sony released a lot of their peripherals for the PlayStation 4, including the new Dual Shock 4 Controller.

I gotta admit, I was kinda surprised to get a phone call saying that my preordered controller was in, even though the official release date for the PlayStation 4 isn’t until November 15th.

Never one to turn away new electronics (yup, just like a kid at a candy store), I ventured my way down to my local GameStop to pick up said controller.

After returning home, I popped open the very sparse packaging, only to discover the controller inside, and a user guide (and no USB charging cable included..). Turns out the charging cable is being released with the actual PlayStation 4 (Sony, I forgive you this once..), so for the moment, I was kinda stumped on how to charge the darned thing.

After pondering the issue, I immediately decided to grab one of my phone Micro USB cords, and plugged in the controller to my PlayStation 3.   Much to my delight, the system did indeed recognize the controller, although not wirelessly, as I had hoped.  Nor did some of the functions from the new controller work, like the touchpad, or the PlayStation HOME button.

Rather than grumbling about the whole situation, I gave the controller a spin online with Battlefield 3.  Even though I had to sit like 3 feet away from the TV (those phone cords are real short!), I discovered that the new controller was a total upgrade from the previous Dual Shocks that Sony had put out.  The triggers have been redesigned and slimmed down, and feel more responsive; the analog sticks are now concave (so my damn monkey thumbs wont slip off when playing something as intense like Assassin’s Creed); and the touch pad (even though it doesn’t work yet) didn’t seem as obtrusive as I thought it might be.  Sony also built in a small speaker, and a port for a wired headset for chatting online.  Even the weight of the controller didn’t feel like it was too much or too light..

Bonus points for Sony, just by making the charge port a Micro USB connection (unlike SOME other folks).  This also gave me the ability to plug it in and use it as a generic controller on a PC.

Overall though, the Dual Shock 4 just feels like a solid piece of electronic gold.  Sony has totally responded to the user feedback, and from what I can say, they have delivered with a excellent piece of hardware.

And yes, my wife says I am crazy. 🙂

 

 

Only a few more days to go…

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The kick off for the Next Gen consoles starts next Friday (November 15th), with Sony’s release of the PlayStation 4. GameStop, along with a few other retailers, have already released a few upcoming games, as well as the DualShock4 Controller, new Charging station, and the new PlayStation Camera.

Micro$oft then follows up with their release of the Xbox One on November 22nd.

The media, on the other hand, has been playing non-stop Xbone commercials during NFL games, and promoting Xbone giveaways via Doritos and Mountain Dew; While the PS4 has been showing up in Taco Bell commercials.

Too much hype?  I guess time will tell as the systems get ready for release.

What will really be interesting?  Black Friday 

Well, it was good while it lasted…

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Well played Micro$oft. Last week publisher EA and Micro$oft announced that TitanFall will be a lifetime exclusive to the Xbone, unbeknownst to developer Respawn Entertainment.

It’s a shame too, cause according to some gaming sites that I keep tabs on stated that TitanFall could possibly get ported over to the Playstation in the near future.

Once again, it clearly shows what can happen if a publisher has a ton of cash thrown at it.