Ben-DutkaReady for Black Friday? Or are you already getting a head-start thanks to Amazon ?
Has Sony doubled back on their "b/c doesn't matter much" idea?
Whenever fans voiced their annoyance at a PlayStation console not supporting backwards compatibility – for instance, the PS3 losing its synthesizer chip and then all PS2 emulation – the company's response was typically the same (and I'm paraphrasing here): "As a generation rolls on, backwards compatibility becomes less and less important for most gamers."
I've always said that was both true and false. It's true for the obvious reason that as old games get even older and technology continues to advance, we start to look upon those classics as severely outdated. And hence, we're less interested. On the other hand, the explanation is also partly false because some of those classics boast gameplay that we simply don't have anymore. It's not merely about nostalgia. It's about turn-based RPGs, linear adventures (that are rapidly dying nowadays), true action/platformers like Ratchet & Clank and Jak and Daxter , etc. Heck, we don't really even have pure stealth these days, as what we were forced into with the likes of Metal Gear Solid , Syphon Filter and the early Hitman games has been replaced by "freedom."
So, maybe Sony has listened . It seems we're getting at least some form of PS2 backwards compatibility for the PS4, even though we don't have any concrete details just yet. I'd like to learn more about it before I get excited but as I have my PS3 and PS2 hooked up all the time, anyway, I don't really care that much. My guess is that others care a lot and they're going to want to see proper emulation, and the ability to play the best PS2 games in existence.
Pay attention, more great games are coming…
I know we're still in the midst of the holiday rush but I wanted to turn your attention to several titles we talked about this past week:
First, the ones that are just around the corner. There's the PS4 version of Beyond: Two Souls , which is now slated for November 24 (and Heavy Rain hits PS4 on March 1, 2016). We've got Rainbow Six Siege (participating in the open beta ?) and Just Cause 3 (this is one heckuva CG trailer ), both of which are coming out on December 1. And next year, you can look forward to Gravity Rush Remastered (which was just pushed up a week ) and the anticipated new puzzler from Jonathan Blow, The Witness . Lastly, even though they're not confirmed for any territory beside Japan, strategy/RPG fans are hoping against hope that we'll see Valkyria: Azure Revolution and the Valkyria Chronicles Remaster .
See? The onslaught really never ends, especially if you've got a forward-thinking mindset. Oh, and I'm sure Bloodborne fans will be all over The Old Hunters expansion this week, right? Don't forget to check those update notes .
Personal gaming update
I've had my fill of Star Wars: Battlefront , which is a flawed but fun game that's clearly designed for a mass audience. There just isn't much to this production, and I couldn't shake that "light" feeling throughout my play time. I'm guessing die-hard "Star Wars" fans are loving it, though, and that's fine; you're the intended demographic, anyway. And this is one of the most impressive-looking games based on the legendary sci-fi IP, too. By the way, to explain the graphics score, I factor map design into that category and frankly, the maps in Battlefront are nothing special.
Anyway, I can finally go back to Assassin's Creed Syndicate until I have to tackle Rainbow Six Siege and Just Cause 3 next week. After that, there's a bit of a break…what will you be playing for the rest of 2015?
Sony often has something different to say based on who you ask. Soon after Sony stated there wasn't any Vita games in development they followed up and said they do and will continue too.
Not too interested in backwards compatibility. Between my PS4, Vita, and PS3 I'm happy. Not that I wouldn't mind more value being added into the PS4 over time, I'm just more interested in what's coming rather than what came before.
PGU: I've been loving FO4. More than I expected really. I've put in around 9 hours thus far and I've seen and done some great stuff.
I also have Battlefront rented. Dang. Graphics have no business looking this good at 60FPS. DICE has some great tech on their hands and they've made this game look and feel so authentic visually. It's easily one of this gen's best looking games.
I was put off by the dumbing down of gameplay aspects, like not being able to fly myself around the AT-AT's to take them down. And I did want a more sim-like handling option of the space craft. The FPS play feels spot on though. Very slick and responsive. Though, I find myself trying not to think too critically about that stuff and instead just take in the rich and authentic feeling Star Wars atmosphere that's on show here. It's a stunner and I'm thinking of picking it up down the road as I find myself enjoying the overall experience like I hoped.
Last edited by Temjin001 on 11/21/2015 9:53:38 PM
https://youtu.be/xSQCbHLheME
I also updated the game engine I'm working on. I posted a link of some progress. I decided to go with a racing game of sorts. No physics is actually place yet other than basic controls.
I was pleased to finally get the rear cam to track the car properly. Whodathunk certain things that seem simple can take hours to figure out.
Last edited by Temjin001 on 11/21/2015 9:55:16 PM
That link goes to something called How to build a sleeper?
-Oh yeah, I'm the type of guy that likes to roam around
I'm never in one place, I roam from town to town
And when I find myself a-fallin' for some girl
I hop right into that car of mine and drive around the world
Yeah, 'cause I'm a wanderer
Yeah, a wanderer
I roam around, around, around
Tried the link on two alternate browsers and it works for me. Though I do notice there's a "How to build a sleeper video" that appears next in the random video rotation. strange.
Oh I see, it took me the 22 seconds to get to the tab so I missed it. Very cool work, so what's the next move?
Thanks. I've been working on getting the camera to not stay fixed to the rear of the car in Gran Turismo style fashion. I like how in a 3rd person mode of any other car game where the camera doesn't update its X-coordinate position while the car is turning, at least until it meets an angle threshold. This allows you to see the side of the car for a bit while its begins a turn. I'm pretty sure I just need to take the negative forward vector from the camera and take the rotated car's negative forward vector, produce an angle between the two vectors and compare that against the angle threshold. Seems simple but i'll probably screw up a thousand times in the process of trying to implement it.
There's like a million different directions I can go with the engine from here. It's almost overwhelming. I think I want to get normal maps implemented and some type of shadow calculations. Without shadows the car looks like it's floating.
Last edited by Temjin001 on 11/22/2015 2:02:53 AM
maybe there's some way to attach the camera to bumper and give it a swinging freedom?
Temjin001, can you help me with a recommendation on a book that could give a basic understanding of writing script for a game controller. I bought a Cronusmax Plus usb dongle that allows you to remap any controller for use on any console.
I'm remapping my Logitech driving force GT racing wheel for PS4 since Sony won't do it. I've borrowed script that was written for a different wheel and so far it works except for the brakes. I've had to remap the basic control inputs but when it comes to the script writing for braking I'm a little lost.
I'll eventually solve this problem by researching it, but if you could recommend anything, it may speed things up for me.
Oops. Sorry for the long delay Tes.
And sorry but I don't know anything about that device. I glanced at the website though and saw they had some decent documentation under the help section.
Last edited by Temjin001 on 11/23/2015 10:23:36 PM
I do want the B/C emulation because I still have games I haven't completed largely because PS2 looks like garbage on HD TVs, it actually gets WORSE when you get the higher def cables. An emulator could run those games better than PS2 did. Just wish there was a way to get my PS2 Persona 4 save onto my PS3 or PS4.
And who wants to play with a wired old controller?
None of the upcoming games interest me, I've had my fill of the great Heavy Rain and the good Beyond.
Fallout 4 has been very challenging and I can't explain the feeling of being back in the wastes except to say that now I have action packed dreams while I sleep, obviously driven by my travels.
Then I took my dog for a walk and saw someone giving away the bathroom sink and a wooden medicine cabinet with racks. What's a wanderer to do but salvage? I needed the space for my gewgaws and now it's on my wall along with my 50's style tin signs and such. I'm one happy Wastelander 🙂
Sony sent me $15, pretty nice of them. They said something about that $100 spendage time period but I don't think I spent that much.
Alien Isolation PS4 finally got to the reasonable price of $17 on Amazon so I ordered that sucker since Aliens popped up on TV with all these extra scenes I never saw before. They never should have cut those out.
I don't really care about PS2 b/c. Mainly because I have no interest buying those games over again as PS2 titles.
Star Wars is good. I really enjoy it. However I dislike the Walker Assault mode. It's merely death match on a large scale with a little side objective. Supremacy is much of the same. However the other modes although smaller in scale are brilliant. They introduced some fun modes with the heroes. While I don't agree with the score, I think it's a low to mid 8 based on what it does, I do agree with the sentiments. The score on graphics doesn't really bother me, other than now it's merely being justified rather than the review backing it up. Either way the map design is perfectly fine for a competitive mp game and it feels like Star Wars. That's a good thing.
With that said I enjoy Black Ops 3 much more. The reality is I'm recommending Black Ops 3 to people who are asking and the reason is simple. Black Ops 3 is deeper and yeah, this is crazy to say, offers a lot more. The inclusion of Co-op was a saving grace. It's a large part of why I'm recommending it to others. A campaign is important regardless of size and while nothing to write home about, Black Ops provided the goods in that regard.
PGU: Star Wars and Black ops 3. Hoping to get Fallout 4 for Christmas. Would buy it sooner but unfortunately my PSPLUS membership expires thus time every year.
How is zombie mode compared to previous entries?
In one word, improved. You can tell they out a lot of attention into trying to make the rounds vary with the upgrades.
It's is much more difficult though. I want an easier mode haha, but I also love the challenge. I mean that's what it's about.
Yeah because you can't ever win, it's to see how far you get, still it's nice not to be too overwhelmed.
I just can't get over Battlefront's graphics and performance. I just played a level on the Endor moon at night (in the Ewok's village). The tall trees with spiraling wooden planks, great atmospheric blue'ish fog, flickering fire torchlights, moonlight glistening off of the thick detailed forest foliage that reacts and animates realistically, tons of crap going on all around with superb character animation and it feels like a rock solid 60FPS. I'm distracted in play because I'm nearly salivating. It's like being on the Star Wars sets themselves while I play. They just nailed the lighting from the movies.
EDIT: and the sound they nailed too.
Last edited by Temjin001 on 11/22/2015 1:08:59 AM
World- it gets overwhelming far earlier in the round count. Thsts where the difficulty lies.
Temjin- That's my favorite map. Yeah the game looks astonishing and runs like butter. I agree 100%.
Meeh on ps2 emulation it will cost you 9.99 in the store and you have to buy all of your old games again. Now i would be more excited for ps2 if you can pop-in your old game disc and it reads it and you get the game for free or automatically transfers your previously brought Ps2 games from Ps3 over to the Ps4. Now that would be a perfect world.
Cant wait for Beyond Two Souls some how i missed that game on the Ps3 now i can play it on the Ps4. And Heavy Rain well be a day one buy for sure. Just one thing though can any confirm the physical version of both titles ? Im reading that its digital only for the states for both games.
I was excited for rainbow six siege but after finding out last night that siege only has online co-op no single player campaign mode im never gonna buy it like StarWars Battlefront and Need For Speed. That will leave me with more time for Just Cause 3 anyways so im happy about that.
PGU: Still playing and enjoying Rise of the Tomb Raider on Xbox1 and Fallout 4 on Ps4. Though yesterday i decided to fire up Limbo from my backlog of my digital games and im really enjoying it so far. I really do need to play my digital games i have about 87 that i havent touched.
Last edited by TrueAssassin86x on 11/22/2015 7:26:27 AM
<<<< the PS3 losing its synthesizer chip and then all PS2 emulation – the company's response was typically the same (and I'm paraphrasing here): "As a generation rolls on, backwards compatibility becomes less and less important for most gamers.">>>>
Then those same quoting blockheads at Sony need to tell me why I'm still playing, and enjoying, Burgertime on my intellevision & Icebreaker on my Panasonic 3DO, just to name a few of them.
How was beyond two souls? Never tried it and then it got lost in the shuffle and somehow I just kind of lost interest. This may make me buy it now.
Highly cinematic and tells a non-sequential sci fi story. It was not the opus that Heavy Rain was due to simplified controls causing problems but as the story of a unique girl with a range of events and a (before the bad years) M. Night Shyamalan twist at the end it excels in worth and desire to finish and get the ending you choose. I say play it if you like interactive drama. It will touch your feels many more times than you'll roll your eyes at the bad choices Quantic made 🙂
I though it was highly inferior to Heavy Rain in every category but still enjoyable.It would have been better if you start from being small to being grown up but instead you go all over the place in time.