Posts Tagged ‘sony’
The Last of Us Part 2 Spoilercast
The Last of Us Part II is one of those games you just have to talk about. Naturally, Fred is ready to talk for nearly 4 hours about all aspects of the game along with special guest Jacob from Chosen Totem. They don’t go through the campaign step by step, but rather discuss the four major elements that appear in the game: tech, gameplay, plot, and discourse. If it hasn’t been made clear, this podcast contains spoilers.
Songs (in order of appearance)
- Ellie’s Song (Through the Valley)
- It Can’t Last (Home)
- The Cycle of Violence
- They’re Still Out There
- Wayfaring Stranger
Lets Talk About PS5
Fred is joined by Andy of 42 Level One to discuss what yesterday’s presentation actually meant in the lead up to the launch of Playstation 5. While opinions on personal taste in the games shown will be abundant, we wanted to talk about the business decisions Sony is making and what it means to the average consumer. Sadly, communication from Sony is poor on this front and it’s due to some of these decisions, as we discuss. If you are scratching your head after this presentation, you want to listen to this episode.
NGP: Next Gen Portable
This week Fred and Jam perform a eulogy for the recently retired Playstation Vita. At almost three hours it’s all covered from the development, release, games, evolution, and eventually retirement of Sony’s surprisingly strong portable that everyone incorrectly claimed “had no games.”
2018 in Review Day 2: Sony
The GH101 crew and guests assemble to discuss Sony in 2018.
God of War is a Modern Masterpiece, and it Broke Me
God of War came out in April to unanimous praise, and for good reason. Whether you are a veteran of the series or coming into it the first time, this installment skates the line of accessibility to keep everyone happy. Not only does this title cater to a much wider audience, but it’s a visual stunner with razor sharp graphics and particle effects abound to really sell you on this magical world. Although some complained of frame rate issues, I felt that the game held up smoothly in most cases and hiccups never reared their ugly heads during an important battle. Those who have invested in the premium PS4 Pro system are also handsomely rewarded with a great HDR implementation that further enhanced the gorgeous visuals with bright colors along with realistic lighting that shades the darkest pits and blinds in the brightest lights. The Pro also allows you to run in either performance mode, which tries to maintain 1080p at 60 frames per second, or a resolution mode that accepts the 30 fps frame rate and gets as close to native 4K as it can while allowing Guerilla’s custom checkerboarding from Horizon Zero Dawn to get the rest of the way. Regardless of which mode you pick, the more important factor is that you get to pick at all. Finally this title is a massive open world that allows you to explore as much or as little as you like while also providing a 20+ hour campaign story that takes the franchise in a new direction and adds much needed character development to our favorite Spartan Kratos. Yep, God of War has it all and should be heralded as a culmination of some of the best parts of contemporary gaming all wrapped into one single Playstation exclusive. Unfortunately, it also managed to break me down and ruin the experience.
It’s Not A Bad Game In Any Sense
Don’t get me wrong, if you own a Playstation 4 and have even a passing interest in this title, you should definitely give it a try. While I found Kat Bailey’s points in her piece to be justified, I think she had the most critical view on the game to date despite much of her recent article being praise. Most people that I talk to delved a bit into the optional content here and there but focused on the main campaign, leaving much of the content I gripe about in this piece to never be played. There are those of us, the completionists, that can suffer a different fate with God of War: bitter contempt. This game’s attempts to extend the experience or challenge me felt misguided and exemplifies my issue with modern games. I put over 100 hours into Fallout 3 and I have completed plenty of “Nintendo hard” games, but none of those titles made me a feel a fraction of the disgust that I felt here. It bothered me so much that it even ruined my appreciation for the ending. Fear not, I will not spoil even one moment of this game’s campaign, but I can warn that I will discuss some of the extra content you can embark on and thus can be considered a spoiler. In the end it’s made me weary of my experience with God of War and even moreso with the types of games that Sony is currently churning out. With that I have to concede that I don’t think these games should be changed and I think they will continue to sell like crazy as we’ve seen with God of War and Horizon, so my concerns are only for my personal game playing choices. Enough dancing around it, let’s get right into the areas I had problems with.
PrE3: Sony’s Legacy
Fred flies solo to discuss Time’s recent interview with Sony’s Jim Ryan, what his statements truly meant about Sony, and what he hopes to see from the company at this year’s E3. In an interesting hybrid with both a modern and retro show, there’s plenty of discussion about Sony’s legacy, both in games and in business, and how many sites may have been more harsh on Ryan’s comments than necessary.
Podcast: The History of CD-ROM Consoles, Part 2
This week Fred sits down with Ali of 42 Level One to discuss the more popular 32-bit generation of CD-ROM consoles. What started as a disaster with the 3DO Interactive Player gave way to the big releases of the Sega Saturn and the Sony Playstation. While the Saturn may seem dead in the water for the West, it was a strong presence in the East. Finally everything wraps up with the beloved console that lacked sales: the Sega Dreamcast.
Perspective of a Retro Gamer: The Last Guardian
Perspective of a Retro Gamer was formerly known as “cross talk” when I was actively involved in the B-Team Podcast. Since I’m on a hiatus, this is the same context in that it’s a largely old school gamer playing a modern game. Think of it as a review that’s more about my perspective as opposed to that now “traditional” definition of a product review fused with a content review. As such, no scores are part of this series.
The Last Guardian has become synonymous with retro gaming, most likely because the design is as aged as the development itself: over 10 years old. So while many contemporary players are walking into the title wondering if it will appeal to them, it seems like the retro crowd such as myself are expected to take to it naturally. Couple that with the assumption that if you like previous games by Team Ico, especially the studio’s initial title Ico, you should enjoy this as well because it is similar in gameplay and design. I’m here to say that after a wonderful initial three hours and a painstaking three more that followed, this is simply not the case. I like old games, I like old game design, and I really like Ico, but I think I’m done with The Last Guardian. Not only that, I find the claim that this title shares much in common with old game design or Ico to be as inaccurate as those that compared Prototype to inFamous back in 2009. For me this is heartbreaking because the game leads you down a path with such wonder, grace, and promise that when it all gets taken away it seems cruel.
Your journey begins as a young boy protagonist – nothing new for Team Ico games there – awakening in a room. The first thing you will notice is the hulking body of your soon-to-be companion, Trico, fast asleep in the room with you. This introduction was abrupt and unexpected, which was magical, as was the reality that you are stuck in a room with a creature you don’t understand yet. There’s no prompt to do something outside of a bit of narrated exposition seemingly told to the player by a future self as well as a handful of prompts on what buttons do without a hint as to your goal. Shortly after Trico wakes up, doesn’t do a great job of telling you what’s expected, and you have to figure it all out. Your journey begins, you go exploring, it’s all basically self explanatory. It’s also stunning to look at. I will admit that the textures are stretched in areas, the shading on the game is an obvious attempt to make it look better than it should, and a vast majority of the whole art direction screams Playstation 2 game. That said Trico is crafted to near perfection. The way the fur or feathers all move as Trico walks or part away like blades of grass as you maneuver its body make the whole thing seem so real. Its eyes, those Trico eyes, are a glance so lifelike that any dog or cat owner can appreciate. Perhaps most convincing was that its movements were so familiar even though no creature like Trico has ever existed. I loved this opening.
The Big PS4 Pro Analysis Post
Despite being a retro enthusiast, I’m also a massive tech fan as my side project has suggested. As such I recently picked up a Playstation 4 Pro and ran it thoroughly through its paces. I tested most things I could think of: different games, different hard drives, different TVs (yes, 1080p and 4K HDR), and I kept my launch PS4 to compare with everything. With that in mind, I think we should open with getting the simple decision out of the way for those that apply, because a majority of this post is about changes and upgrades for existing owners – which Sony is hesitant to admit is the true target for the Pro. If you do not own a Playstation 4 and want to purchase one this holiday season, the decision is really up to you. A slim is a rock solid purchase for anyone who doesn’t own a 4K TV (and possibly even for those that do) and it’s completely serviceable. I was pleased with my vanilla PS4. If you want to upgrade to Pro you simply need to consider how much that $100 is of value to you for potential future proofing (although Sony has vehemently sworn to not allow Pro exclusive games), the prospect of better performance with VR, support for 4K and HDR, and games can run/look better if support is added. Games press likes to pretend this is a no-brainer, but frankly $100 is almost two games (possibly 3 around the holiday season) and if you don’t plan on upgrading to 4K or VR, there’s little reason to pick the Pro if saving money or getting more games is your priority. I’d also like to interject that articles comparing the Xbox One S and Playstation 4 Pro are completely without value. I have both and they should not be compared. The Xbox One S upscales to 4K (but at no visual difference to games), adds HDR (and I have yet to see anything too impressive), and supports 4K Blu Ray, so in truth it’s an Xbox One that adds 4K Blu Ray support and HDR. The Pro is a hardware boost that makes games either run faster or look better (or both), improves resolution beyond 1080p before upscaling to 4K (more on that later), and adds a much more substantial HDR in games that have supported it. Astoundingly, however, the PS4 Pro does not support 4K Blu Ray movie playback. For that reason it’s not apples to apples, that comes next year with Scorpio. It’s also a weird time for PC gaming because not only is HDR almost devoid of this conversation on PC (4K PC monitors don’t currently support HDR), but I feel important factors for myself like surround sound and even quality of the port are a consistent issue on PC whereas this is much less the case on current consoles. With all that in mind, here’s my analysis of the Playstation 4 Pro.
E3 2016: All Games Playstation Press Conference Impressions
Sony came out of the gates swinging with a barrage of new games, sequels, trailers, and plenty of hints at what VR will be like with Playstation this October. While it was a dazzling display, the obvious fact that it was very impersonable struck a cord with some of our commentators. The All Games team assembles again to give its mixed take on the future of Playstation.
Gaming History 101 