The poll is now closed. Thanks to all of you for voting! After a very close race, Resogun (6 votes) won over The Last of Us (5 votes), which really coincides with what I wanted to do. What I didn’t anticipate is getting another Platinum trophy in between, which I managed to unlock in MotorStorm RC.
Since Resogun is a PS4 title, I would like to invite all of you to watch me stream the game and encourage me to get better and also give me some helpful tips. Just go over to my Twitch page. The show starts at 7pm CET / 1pm EST.
With all those PS+ and other games floating around and limited time, I decided to ask you to help me decide which game I should focus on next. I propose a rather wide selection of different genres and older and new games to choose from but if you have some other ideas, please let me know. However, I won’t be buying any new games so if you want to add another option, make it a PS+ game.
I’m away again next week and will only have my Vita with me so when I get back I will tackle the game that wins the voting.
We’re literally hours away from the official launch of PlayStation 4 in North America. Some of the luckier players have already been able to put their hands on their own console and those excellent DualShock 4 controllers. Although it is possible that many of the day-1 crowd, the ‘hardcore gamers’, also own the PlayStation Vita and are familiar with all the great stuff it brings, some of the more casual players may not even know that a de-facto companion console to the PS4 exists.
In this post I would like to give five reasons why I think buying a PS Vita is worth it. There’s obviously more but we have to start somewhere, don’t we? How do you feel about the console. Do you have one? Will you get one with the new PS4? Let me know in the comments below the post!
1. PlayStation 4 connectivity / Remote Play
OK, so the delivery guy has just left the new console at your doorstep and you can’t wait to put that Killzone: Shadow Fall Blu-Ray in the system and boot it up. Not so fast. The wife wants to watch the new episode of whatever it is that wives are watching now. Do you see the problem here? PlayStation Vita comes to the rescue with the Remote Play functionality. Sony tried this idea previously with the PSP and PS3 and also the Vita and the PS3, with very poor results. Only few titles supported this feature and the quality of gameplay was less than acceptable in most cases. All this changes now. In just a few simple steps, explained in one of Sony’s pre-launch videos, you are able to continue playing on the handheld device, sitting next to the lady who is happy that you’re spending quality time together. The minute the show ends you can go back to playing the game on the big screen and feast your eyes on the next gen (should we start calling it current gen already?) graphics. The Vita can also be used as an additional controller, even providing some extra gameplay options, Wii-U style. Although currently the connectivity range is realistically limited to your local area network, with the increase in the quality of general Internet availability, it might be possible, in the future, to take your PS4 games on the road, and that’s something else.
We’re just 24 days removed from the launch of the PS4 (yes, I’m sticking with my European bias, you lucky Americans…) and Sony flooded us today with four new YouTube propaganda videos praising the greatness that awaits us with the new system. Let’s have a quick look at them and see if they add to the excitement about the next-gen revolution. Don’t hesitate to add your own opinions in the comments below the post. Are you cancelling your pre-orders? Are you getting two more units? How many DUALSHOCK 4 controller will you get day one? My answers are no, no and two, respectively. Now, onto the videos!
A New Age for Games on PS4 System
The video starts with a blurb from TechRadar which can be interpreted in many ways. “This is a new age for Sony and its games”. Well, obviously a new console is coming so we might as well call it a ‘new age’. The literal meaning is not too exciting, as you see, but that’s obviously not what Sony means by that statement. You might have noticed that I’m not a fan of marketing-speak and I don’t (want to) believe that lines such as this one really influence people’s consumer habits. I know they have to do it in an advertisement video but I would rather they didn’t. Anyway, let’s move on to a more exciting part of the clip where we’re shown a reel of all the games we’re patiently waiting for and are excited for on PS4. FIFA14 is also there. All the usual suspects are present including NFL Madden 25, inFamous: Second Son, Battlefield 4, Killzone: Shadow Fall, WatchDogs. To emphasize that PlayStation 4 is THE console to buy, Sony then proceeds to boast all the timed exclusives they got. Still nothing new.
In the ‘Discover future hits on PS4’ we come across a couple of titles that I haven’t heard of until today. The first one is Warframe, which is a free-to-play cooperative third-person shooter (useful abbreviation: FTPCTPS) that apparently has been available on PC since March and is going to debut on consoles with the PS4. It’s Metacritic score is not too exciting at 67 but the users seem to like it with an 8.0 average. I’m not too pumped up about this one since I don’t play online too much but a game with so many genre descriptions could be interesting and develop a small but devoted group of followers.
In just about half an hour the Beyond: Two Souls premiere event will take place in Paris. The new game from Quantic Dream is, arguably, the biggest PS3 title to be released before PS4 comes out in less than two months, alongside Grand Theft Auto 5, which premiered two weeks ago. The Rockstar blockbuster has gotten excellent reviews, with the Metacritic score of 97. Earning more than $1 billion in less than 72 hours it’s also the fastest selling entertainment product in history. Still, I haven’t bought it yet and I seriously doubt I will play it on PS3. It might sound outrageous but I have my reasons to hold out on it and make B:TS my priority, so let me explain.
There are many blog and news sites out there that give you all the latest scoops on one of the most popular entertainment platforms in the world. However, it’s not always the raw news that are interesting to gamers. What matters a lot is a sense of community with other players, the ability to exchange gaming stories that we experience through games. I do not have access to industry insiders, I will not be able to play games before they come out, I will not even be able to play most of the hot new games.
What I will share with you, however, are experiences that will feel familiar to most gamers out there. Endless hours trying to complete all the quests in that RPG (when, not if, another Fallout game comes out), struggling to get that final star in an arcade-style game, missing a critical jump in that platformer. We’ve all been that, we’ve done that. With the help of PlayStation’s trophies I want to relate what I’m going through in the many games I play on both the Sony’s Big Daddies PS3 and PS4 as well as the Little Sister PS Vita.
Come back every week for a fresh supply of the bronze, silver, gold and the rare platinum trophies. Behind every one is a story that I want to share.
PlayStation palo 