Sony's E3 Press Conference Recap and Review

Alright everyone, as Day 1 of E3 comes to a close I've reviewed and recapped every single conference that has been held today, including Microsoft, EA, and Ubisoft's! However, we still have one of the biggest conferences of E3 left, Sony's! It is unknown what is in store for us in this conference, so find out what Sony revealed in the recap and review of the conference below!

Sony started off the conference with a mashup of everything Playstation, it's past, present, and its future, followed by Jack Trenton coming out on stage and announcing what's next for the Vita, including the Telltale Game's Walking Dead Series' 1st season coming to the Vita along with an all new episode, 400 Days.

After a brief speech about the future of the Vita (noticeably missing was the highly rumored Vita price cut) the conference turned back towards the PS3 and its upcoming first party title The Last of Us with an all new trailer. The show kept up the quick pace by showing 2 teaser trailers for the upcoming games The Puppeteer and Rain.

Immediately after that Beyond Two Souls got a new trailer showing Jodie Holmes training in a military base (amidst other things) but as quickly as that began it was over with a new trailer for Gran Turismo 6 (why they're rushing through all these trailer when they have two hours at their disposal I have no idea), which features rich, realistic landscapes and an immersive, customizable experience. 

The PS3 trailers kept on coming with a new Batman: Arkham Origins trailer, and while this does feature pre-rendered cgi footage, it does also give us some live gameplay and hints at how the new Batman installment will play, and from what we've been shown it will only expand and build on the solid Arkham series' formula. The trailer was also coupled with new, extra downloadable content coming only to Playstation including new stages and skins.

From there, Sony moved on to (arguably) the most important part of the conference, the actual reveal of the PS4 hardware. Featuring a sleek design, the PS4 has found a totally new, beautiful look, especially when compared to the boring, 1980 VCR reminiscent Xbox One. 

From there the conference moved on to the non gaming side of the PS4, and delivered news about upgrades to its streaming service Music Unlimited and new programs in development by Sony Pictures that are coming exclusively to Playstation systems. It also announced that Redbox Instant and Flixster will be coming to Playstation systems, along with select Pay per View events, however, Sony did reiterate that at its heart, PS4 is a gaming console (unlike the Xbox One, BURN!!), and that its main goal is to bring new gaming experiences to households everywhere. 

After that we received a new, all gameplay trailer from a new IP from Sony Santa Monica titled The Order, followed by new Killzone: Shadow Fall, Driveclub, Infamous: Second Son, and Knack (all of which were initially revealed at the PS4 event) gameplay. The gameplay shown from these titles all featured rich, immersive experiences that take advantage of the power of the next generation consoles.

From there Sony praised itself on its relations with indie developers, and how these developers continue to reshape gaming as a whole, followed by the reveal of the indie game Transistor, which looks like well, definitely an indie game, with a lot of potential. However, it is unknown what exactly this game holds. From there Sony revealed new details of what the PS4's future holds in regard to indie games, and from what was revealed it seems as if the Playstation will continue to be the premier platform for indie games. The developers realized this too, as every indie game shown will be found exclusively on the PS4.

After Square Enix was introduced through a video message they revealed Final Fantasy's (a cult favorite of Final Fantasy XV, along with Kingdom Hearts 3.

After those quick trailers, Assassin's Creed IV received its first live gameplay demo (which featured an incredible amount of technical difficulties including the game just stopping at multiple times), which really just offered the same experience as AC3 with a pirate theme to it. This only furthers the feeling among gamers that Assassin's Creed could just be turning into the extremely un-innovative series that is Call of Duty. 

After an incredible 5 minutes of new Watch_Dogs gameplay, Sony announced that an hour of extra gameplay and a new skin for the main character of Watchdogs would be coming exclusively to Playstation.

And then, Sony won the conference. Announced to a massive amount of cheering from the audience, Sony announced that the PS4 will support used games without any restrictions. After the unrelenting cheering of the audience died down, Sony also announced that the PS4 does not require any type of online authentication, once again blasting Microsoft's entire plan for the One. And then once again to a large amount of applause, Sony announced that PS Plus will continue to expand its services, and that any existing Plus accounts will carry over to the PS4, and that immediately at launch PS Plus subscribers will gain free access to Driveclub (PS Plus addition) whether or not this version will have any differences from the retail version is unknown.

The ball kept rolling from there with the first gameplay from Destiny, the new Bungee Studios title that the PS4 is relying heavily on (even if it isn't a PS4 exclusive). The gameplay featured beautiful and immersive landscapes and, a ton of weapons, abilities, and features at your disposal!

Sony then announced that Gaikai will be providing the Vita, PS3, and PS4 will be providing gamers with great PS3 titles in early 2014, and whether or not already owned titles will have to be rebought is unknown. And then once and for all Sony destroyed Microsoft with an incredible launch price point of $399!

So while it was unclear whether or not Sony was going to be able to triumph Microsoft in the beginning of their conference, at the end they destroyed Microsoft piece by piece, by having the winning angle regarding used games, always online policies, and its price point.

So after that dominating conference, day one of E3 is officially over! Make sure to stick with me tomorrow as I'll be recapping the large amount of titles Nintendo is expected to unveil tomorrow.

                                                                                                -Colby

Ubisoft's E3 Press Conference Recap and Review

Hey everyone! Thanks for sticking with me throughout E3 today! Ubisoft's press conference is just about ready to commence! If you missed the recaps earlier today, you can read all about Microsoft and EA's conferences by clicking on their names. For the second year in a row Aisha Tyler is hosting Ubi's conference, a job she exceeds at. Anyways, read the recap of the entire conference after the jump!

Ubisoft started their show off with a bang by bringing out Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains to play a song and introduce the first game reveal, Rocksmith 2014. He did this by first playing his guitar alone, and then using a band from Rocksmith to aid him in another song. This was able to start the show off in a lively and fun way, and also introduce Rocksmith, which is able to teach anyone how to play guitar in a quick and fun way.

Aisha Tyler added a whole nother level to the show by actually presenting games in an upbeat way (unlike everyone else today) and adding comedy to the show, even with the unbearably half a sleep audience she had to deal with  throughout the show.

After starting things off with a bang with Jerry Cantrell Ubisoft immediately began to fizzle with their trailer of Splintercell: Blacklist. While this did look like a well made, immersive game it seemed more or less the same as most first person shooters, and after already seeing 40,000 other FPSs today, no one wants to see another, especially if it really doesn't offer any innovation whatsoever to the usual FPS formula.

After unveiling Blacklist, they revealed the new Rayman Legends. While there really isn't much new to this game, it seems like a fun all ages platformer that's cartoony graphics look beautiful on its new console home of the PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii U.

Ubisoft then revealed another overly cartoony game, The Mighty Quest For Epic Loot, basically a castle building game where you defend your castle as you steal from other players' castles for the younger ages, at this point look likes Ubi is really trying to appeal to a younger audience.

After revealing this game they unveiled another teaser for South Park: The Stick of Truth (right after 2 kids games, Ubisoft logic.) and while it didn't stack up to the many other teaser trailers out there, it's nice to know that the developers didn't forget that this game does in fact exist.

After that Ubisoft jumped to a new topic again by unveiling the first next gen title of the show,  The Crew. The Crew showed off how powerful the next gen consoles are by making incredibly realistic cityscape and desert environments that were so real looking that the trailer could have passed for a movie trailer! The Crew is one of the first of its kind, an mmorpg racing game centered around making well... A Crew with your friends as you race around and take over the world with your Crew! With the ability to play single player, co-op, or competitive this game allows players to drive, and even work together from all around the in-game world that covers the entire United States. This is one of the few games today that has been able to truly show just how much power the next generation consoles have.

After revealing an already leaked Watchdogs trailer (which makes it no less awesome) they totally switched gears and revealed the incredibly predictable 2014 Just Dance, which besides a new 6 player mode really only offers a new playlist.

After just dance, the next topic was the Raving Rabbids TV show (which looks adorable) that you can play. Why they chose to brand this as a TV show I have no idea, as this is really just an overly cinematic video game, but, no matter what you want to call it, it's time for Assassin's Creed.

Although I've always thought that AC4 could have just been DLC for AC3 (Connor goes pirating, because that would be so hard to make) there's no doubt that Ubisoft puts a lot of time, money, and effort into their games, and this is no exception. Although the trailer was all pre-rendered cgi footage, (because you know, you only need at least 8,000 of those at every press conference) so far this title seems like it will really just be a repackaging of Assassin's Creed 3 with a new story (Call of Duty-esque much?). Also from what we've seen this looks as if this title really has no plans on pushing the boundaries, but rather sticking to what we've seen this whole generation (thanks Ubisoft that's refreshing).

The next announcement (the stand out of the conference) Tom Clancy's The Division, blurred the lines between single and multiplayer gaming. The gameplay featured stunning (I can't enunciate that enough) graphics and an entire team of 3-4 people playing together (that group being part of a much larger group over an entire in game open world), with people being able to drop out and rejoin as they please. With a beautiful UI and an array of abilities to choose from, we've finally found a shooter unveiled at this EA that had some variety to it.

Overall, there weren't many surprises in this conference. However, the conference unveiled a ton of new titles for every type and age of gamer. So overall I'd say this was an enjoyable conference that held something for everyone. Check back here in a few hours for the Sony conference!

                                                                                           -Colby

Injustice: Gods Among Us Review

Hey everyone! Today I'm going to be reviewing Injustice: Gods Among Us! Let's jump right in to the review.

Injustice is a brawler based around the DC Comics universe. The gameplay is very similar to Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter, but rather than having multiple rounds each character has two health bars. My main gripe with the gameplay is that besides the very unique wager (where both players wager a certain amount of their super bar [the super bar is what you build up to unleash your most powerful attack] in secret, and whoever wagered the most wins) the fights are extremely repetitive, and even when I play just one match I start to get bored. Along with that, all the characters have a very limited moveset. Another problem I have is that there are no items. While items aren't present in every fighting game, this game would have been able to add a ton of unique items which would have added a lot of variety to the fights, variety that is definitely needed. However there are some good points to the gameplay. Stage interaction is one of those good points. Every stage has different hazards to avoid, which always adds variety to the match. Also, characters always interact with the environment, which can completely change the mood of the match. Speaking of mood, mood is my main problem with the graphics. While the graphics are certainly nothing to sneeze at, everything is very dull, and nothing really pops, which is just another element that makes this game very boring.

The story mode is a big plus for this game. Unlike some fighting games, this game's story is very thought out and makes sense, and isn't just a bunch of random battles thrown together. My only problem with story mode is that rather than switching up who you play as throughout the story (or letting you pick your character), it has you play as one certain character for about ten battles each, which gets very redundant.

And while I've already listed a ton of complaints about this game, I have one that tops them all. There is only one game mode. There is only one vs. one matches. No tag teams, no 1 vs. 3, no nothing. This is my main reason why I suggest you shouldn't go get this game, and if you really want to get it, at least wait for a price cut.

Well, this is my review, tell me what you guys think of the game in the comments, and I'll see you soon!

                                                -Colby

Console Wars, Which is right for you?

So recently in my computers class, I had to make a website, and I made mine about video game consoles, and which was the best.  So I figured I'd post that here, minus all the fancy formatting. Enjoy!

Xbox 360

The Xbox 360 is only Microsoft’s second entry into the gaming industry, yet it is not to be taken lightly.  This console came out a year before its main rival, the PS3, in 2005, and was far ahead of its time.  Although it has about the same capabilities as the PS3, there is one major difference between the two.  While PSN (Playstation Network) allows you to play online capable games for free and has paid subscriptions that offer you many benefits such as free games (PS Plus), Xbox Live (The Xbox Network) requires that you pay for online play, but at the same time offers more stable servers than PSN, thus making disconnecting from a game far less likely.  So are the few benefits of paying a fee to pay online worth it?  In my opinion, no. But that is for the consumer to decide.

Wii U

The Wii U is Nintendo’s current home console, and was the 1^sthome console released in the 8^th generation of consoles. Nintendo captured consumer gold with the Wii, targeting the casual gamer.  With this, they were able to amass a huge amount of sales, with over 90 million units sold, and still counting. However, with the Wii U, Nintendo is not finding the same success.  While the Wii U is far ahead of the Wii (In technical capabilities), sales have not been on par.  Nintendo has been constantly lowering their expected sales for the end of March, seeing how the console is suffering.  The console’s weekly sales have dipped to as low as 57,000, and some weeks the Wii has been close to outselling the newer console!  With less and less consumer interest being shown in the console, it is unknown if Nintendo will be able to recover from the spiraling downward sales.

PS3

The PS3 is Sony’s representative for the 7^th generation of consoles.  Being released in 2006, this console was leaps and bounds ahead predecessor, the PS2.  The consumer market realized this.  Within 24 hours the console had sold 81,639 units, In Japan alone.  Even being released a whole year after its main competitor, the Xbox 360, this console has proved itself to be the best console on the market, as it has matched the 360 in sales, and is on its way to passing it.  With free online capabilities, a large amount of console exclusives, and having a sleuth of apps like Netflix, why shouldn’t this be considered the best console of this generation?

PS4

Not much is known about this extremely new console.  With the PS4 only being announced February 20^th, the console itself hasn’t even been seen.  However, we do know some info.  Info such as at least 4 new exclusive titles currently being developed, that every one of Sony’s studios is working on a PS4 title, that this is an extremely powerful system (matching the strength of a supercomputer) with 8 gigabytes of ram, and that the all new, redesigned controller (as seen above) has a new share button (allowing you to livestream your gameplay) 2 touchpads, and a PS Move sensor on its top.  From what we’ve seen so far, this is likely going to be the most powerful 8^thgeneration console.

So Which is right for you?

We know that each of these consoles are finely made, and that none of these consoles offer a bad experience.  However, each console offers a different experience, some you could say, that are better than others.  So, which is right for you?  Nintendo may not be as focused on the casual gamer as it was the last time around, but they still haven’t totally moved away from that.  Nintendo’s consoles are never going to have those 1^st and 3^rd person shooters you’re going to be looking for on their consoles, however they have a wide range of exclusive titles such as Mario & Zelda that any gamer will enjoy.  However, if you’re a hardcore gamer, you will most likely want to rule the Wii U out.  The PS3 and Xbox 360 are extremely similar, and each offers a great experience to the hardcore gamer, and to a lesser extent, the casual gamer as well.  So then, it mainly comes down to online gaming.  Would you rather join PSN, which allows you to play online for free, with the option to join their subscription service PS Plus, which offers you a large library of games for free (a subscription that costs less than Xbox Live’s required fee), or join Xbox Live, that has more stable servers, and will almost always make sure you won’t disconnect from your game.  The choice is yours.

                                                                                                                          -Colby

Dead Space 3 Video Review

Hey guys! Normally we review things in writing, but I just so happened to have a video review of Dead Space 3 made before we made this blog, so here it is! Enjoy!

                                                                                                                                             -Colby