Tag: PS4

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GAMING Uncategorized

The Gamer in me GL-6 Until Dawn

Until Dawn

If you are a Playstation Plus member, and haven’t played Until Dawn before you need to download it now.  This is one of the few games that I had no reservations about preordering.  I absolutely love choice and consequence style games.  Heavy Rain is still one of my favourite PS3 games.  Until Dawn takes the Heavy Rain system, and improves on it in every way.

Until Dawn puts you in charge of deciding the fate of a number of interesting characters.  In classic 80s slasher movie style.  The characters find themselves in an old house in the woods being pursued by some unknown evil.  It’s your job to get them through a night filled with incredible danger.  Each character is well represented, and their personalities are quickly identifiable.  How each character is connected to one another plays an important role in the development of the story as well.  While playing the game, you will begin to develop favourite characters quickly.  This is one of the more interesting aspects of the game.  As potentially sacrificing one character to insure the safety of another can become an option.  Do you sacrifice a physically strong character you have grown to hate?  Just to save another character you like, but freezes up at the first sign of trouble?  These are questions you will ask yourself during the course of a game.

The graphics for Until Dawn are excellent.  It makes watching the game just as much fun as playing it.  Actually one of my favourite ways to play this game is with three other friends.  Each of us pick two of the eight characters to play.  We have a mini draft and pick characters one by one.  Whichever character is in control of the situation.  That determines which Player gets the remote at that time.  You’ll learn a lot about your friends over the course of a game of Until Dawn if you play it that way.  If there’s ever a Zombie apocalypse.  I know which friends of mine I wouldn’t want to be trapped with.  You might be surprised how many of your friends wouldn’t take the smallest risk to save both of you.  They’d rather sacrifice you to guarantee their own safety.

Once I completed my first play through.  Everyone and their dog was asking me the same question.  Is it scary?  This game is based on classic horror films after all.  Until Dawn does have it’s moments.  It depends on the individual of course, but I’m sure it will catch everyone off guard a few times.  Play it at night with the lights off, and the volume up to get the most out of it.  I’ve seen people watch me play Until Dawn while clutching a blanket.  Just in case they needed to cover their eyes at a particularly suspenseful moment.

Another appealing aspect of the game that I wasn’t expecting, is the mystery surrounding what occurs.  If you are like me you will find yourself trying to figure things out all the way through the game.  I expected a straight up Jason Voorhees slasher style game, but it was so much more than that.  Real attention was given to the development of the story, and motivation of it’s antagonist.

Obviously I absolutely love this game, but like the majority of choice and consequence games it suffers from the same pitfalls.  The most obvious of which is replay value.  Once you’ve completed Until Dawn once.  The appeal of the game is significantly diminished.  The unexpected moments, and sudden scares are gone.  The mystery behind the story, and it’s antagonist is already known.  The only motivation you will have is to finish the game without allowing any character to die.  Alternatively you could also play it to see how quickly you can get them all killed as well.  😈

That being said, replay value isn’t as much of an issue when you can download the game for Free! I paid full pop, and I wasn’t disappointed.  I promise you, if you set aside a day to play Until Dawn with a few friends.  You won’t be disappointed.

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GAMING

The Gamer in me GL-4 Video game releases

The benefits of being patient.

New console video games are released every month.  I used to purchase at least one of those new releases each month.  I’d read every preview, watch every trailer, and gather every snippet of news that was released about every game of interest.  Then when release day came I’d be first in line to pick up my copy.  There are two problems that come with buying new games the second they are released every month.

The first problem is not having enough time to finish some of the longer open world games.  Before you are even halfway done.  A new game is released that you can’t wait to try.  Then the game you were currently playing gets put on the back burner.  By the time you get back to playing it.  You might have already forgotten key elements of the game.  You could be totally lost of where you are in the story, or confused about the game controls.  In some cases it’s easier to just start over.  Then before you know it.  Another game you’ve been anticipating comes out.

And so on…and so on…

The second issue with purchasing too many games at release, I touched on in a previous post.  Quite a few of the games released each year are total crap.   The majority of them are actually.   I’ve learned to be very wary of glowing previews.  You know who gets to preview a game?  Someone who’s written glowing reviews, or previews for games released by that Developer before.  Try writing a review about how you think a particular Game is garbage.  Then send that Developer a request to preview their next game.  Good luck with that buddy.  If I represented that Developer I wouldn’t send you a preview copy either.    You need to be skeptical of early test versions of games being demoed at E3 also.  Half of the time these demos are being presented on state of the art gaming computers.  The image quality, and frame rate could far exceed the capability of your consoles.

Your best strategy to insure that the majority of games you purchase don’t totally suck.  Is to wait at least one week after it’s been released.  Then read the reviews posted by actual players.  Are there any server issues?  You’ll find out in the reviews.  Is the game plagued by glitches?  You’ll find out in the reviews.  Does it suffer from frame rate problems?  You’ll find out in the reviews.  Does the game just fail to deliver what you expected?  You’ll find out… Well you know where this is going.

Now some of you are worried about missing out on all that release day swag.  Those special character skins, bonus equipment, or extra downloadable content.  Truth be told, most of those release day bonuses are still available one week later.  If it isn’t.  Are you really going to be devastated about missing out on a character skin that everyone is using?  I know I’m not.  I get bored of having the same outfit, equipment, or vehicle that everyone else has right quick.  Don’t you?

Trust me if you remain patient, and only buy the highest rated reviewed games.  You will enjoy your game system that much more.  You’ll also have the necessary time to fully explore those fantastically realized open worlds.

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GAMING

The Gamer in me GL-2 Console Video games

Is it just me, or has the quality of video games gotten worse as the capability of consoles has gotten better?

I’ve owned a lot of systems over the years, and would qualify as an early adopter of my favourites.  I waited in line on release day for Playstation 2, Playstation 3,  XBOX 360, and Playstation 4.  The anticipation of what’s capable with a more powerful system along with the release title hype that goes with it gets me amped.  More often than not though I’m left sorely disappointed.  PS4 was one of my greatest letdowns.  For a year leading up to it’s release I absorbed as much information as I could like a sponge.  I was especially interested in the launch title The Division by Ubisoft.  I figured that game alone would make waiting in line to purchase it on opening day worthwhile.  The PS4 release date was November 15, 2013.  The Division got pushed back due to development issues, and was eventually released on March 7, 2016.  The harsh part was that the delay wasn’t advertised, and then to make matters worse it kept getting pushed back for years.  Was it even a good game when it finally did launch?  In my opinion it was.  It’s one of my favourite games on the PS4 to play cooperatively online.  Actually the two games I planned on purchasing on PS4 release day we’re both pushed back.  I settled for a couple others that are so forgettable they aren’t worthy of a mention.  Month after month I’d buy new games.  Just hoping that there would be something that begins to rival my favourite PS3, and XBOX 360 games.  There wasn’t.  At least not until September 30, 2014 when Warner Bros Interactive released Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor.  Till this day it remains as one of my favourite games.

I’ve seen it on the PS3, and the difference is significant.  I’ve never actually completed the game.  If you hadn’t noticed by now, I have a lot of hobbies.  I’ve started and restarted Shadow of Mordor 3 times.  Only to be interrupted by something else before I complete it.  I will finish it though.  Especially now that the sequel has been announced.

My point of all this is, whether I will wait in line for the next generation of consoles when they ultimately release.  To be honest, I seriously doubt it.  No matter how much hype, incentives, or new technology goes into them.  The reality is that next generation consoles require on average a year of software development before you actually begin to realize their potential.  Even then you need to be careful about which titles you choose to invest in because even the larger developers release a fair amount of crap. Game developers will sometimes tease  5 or 6 new titles to be released in the following year.  Be very wary of that.  No matter how amazing their teaser trailer might look.  Chances are extremely slim that they will be able to release 5 Marquee titles.  Realistically they would be lucky to release 2 great games.

I used to play absolutely everything that showed even the slightest promise.  At one point I operated my own store that held PS3, and XBOX 360 tournaments.  Those days are no longer.  The prices have gone up, while the average length of games have gone down.  Most Developers used to release only one or two games a year.  Now it’s unusual for a major Game Developer to release less than one per season.  Increased competition from Application based cellphone games has meant that maintaining a reasonably active online presence for some games is difficult.

Has this soured my love for video games?  Maybe just a little.  Not enough to keep me from being excited about finally beating Shadow of Mordor.  I remember when laserdisc games first appeared in Video Game Arcades.  Dragon’s Lair was so unlike anything before it.  I was one of those guys that people would stop whatever they were doing to watch me play it.  I was one of the first guys at my local Arcade that memorized the moves required to beat it.  So many of today’s games borrow from that original fairytale style of game.  Some day there will be another Game Developer that takes games another giant leap forward.  I’ll definitely be ready to play it.

I just won’t be first in line.