The Parable of a Downed Ideal

A brief history of the motion-sensor based gaming platform. In 1999, the Eyetoy camera was thought up by Sony. In 2003, the Eyetoy was released. In 2005, Nintendo announced the Wii. In 2006, Nintendo released the Wii. In 2009, Sony announced their original idea of the Playstation Move. Somewhere in between the Wii and Playstation Move’s announcement, Project Natal had been slowly growing to its announcement in 2009. In 2010, the Project Natal was let loose upon the market with aggressive marketing (The Playstation Move was also forceful during this time). In 2013, Project Natal was forced upon those who bought Xbox Ones. In 2014, Xbox Ones were available without the attached ideology.   What is Project Natal? Kinect.   Kinect was Microsoft’s $500 million dollar rush into the motion-sense platform of gaming. The idea had been there since Playstation had released the Eyetoy, but Project Natal had always just sat in the back of the minds of those who though of it, as the main focus was creating and developing new Windows systems and the next greatest gaming console (at least the 360 won that battle). Sony was content on their release until Nintendo revealed the Wii, a system based solely off of sensing player’s movements. They too, had wanted a second version of an Eyetoy, but it wasn’t their priority either–in fact, they really weren’t intending on developing much VR tech at the time, and were building up deals with game developers to ensure strong exclusives like InFamous, God of War, Heavy Rain, and Uncharted. But both companies mouth’s dropped as the Wii sales skyrocketed, and their respective CEO’s irises turned into dollar signs. Both companies regurgitated ideas, Sony wanting to innovate upon the Wii’s design, but with a more accurate and reliable camera, but also to have all the buttons so that one wouldn’t need a controller. Microsoft made Project Natal.     The following is a parable spoken through wise a wise tongue: Bob was a nice guy. Everyone liked him, there weren’t alot of naysayers about him. From time to time, he’d get into a tussle and his friends would help him out, but Bob was generally accepted. He was actually one of the big 3 in his highschool even though he really didn’t put that much effort into it. But Bob was getting old, he didn’t have any new stories, most of them were a few months old. And trying to impress the school like his friend Jong did, he wanted to pimp his ride. The other popular person in the school, Belle, wanted to impress her friends too, so she supervised them as they made her ride look cool. In the end, Jong’s ride was well received, but when he tried again, no one was as excited. Bob worked a really long time on his ride, and was proud of it. Personally, it didn’t live up to his expectations, and it didn’t really to the general populus at his school too. Belle’s ride ended up being chided frequently and Belle shrugged it off, pretending not to care. But still, even though Belle and Bob were late in the game, they both showcased their ride everywhere, and couldn’t stop talking about it. Everywhere you went for the next year, Belle always made sure you used her ride, and Bob always made sure you used his.  But because Belle was snobby, she ended up selling her car and getting a different one, not bothering to make it pretty. But Bob kept on showing it off, and forcing people to drive with him when they went places. Eventually, people got sick of it and kind of shrugged Bob off. So Bob decided to change his car a bit so it wasn’t just for rides, and stopped forcing it on his friends because he realized that they didn’t like it as much as he did. Maybe he was just proud?   Jong, in this case, is Nintendo, and he has a suped-up Nissan GTR. Very pretty, very sleek, but when he tried doing it again with an Impreza, he got very different results from his social group as compared to the first time. Congratulations Nintendo on the Wii U. Belle is Playstation. Now, I don’t want to say Playstation didn’t care or hired individuals to make the Move, but I feel as though Playstation was more snobby in their marketing for it, so I gave them a snobby personality. The whole “It changes everything,” was rather offensive, especially because it really didn’t change anything. They even partnered with Coca Cola for advertising! They wanted the world to look at their creation and bow down to it, and forget about all other platforms.  This differed greatly from Nintendo’s family gig they had going on. Like seriously, it is called the Wii, and you make a Mii. Very sellable to 80% of the population (family-oriented). But Playstation has moved on to develop Project Morpheus, something I’m not too familiar with, but still something worth keeping an eye (ha, pun) on. It is set to be released early 2016. Bob is Microsoft. I would say Bill, but that’d be too easy to say. Bob worked hard on this idea, spending a large sum of his cash, and it wasn’t as well received as he wanted it to be.  Because of this failure, he decided he wasn’t going to let it be a failure, so he, like Belle, forced his friends to try it. At first, Microsoft’s Kinect seemed tasty, but it got dry and bland after a bit. We played along to see if anything caught our eye, paying better attention to it over Move because it was just a camera–no motion detecting handhelds. Kinect Star Wars looked promising, so we all got hyped for that, but it ended up pulling a Star Wars prequel mistake–Not living up to what we wanted *eyes Destiny*. But Microsoft wanted to take Kinect further–they didn’t want it to just be something for gaming,

Assassin’s Creed Syndicate: Will it be Worth Our 70$?

Assassin’s Creed series video games have become an annual release. They have been for a while, but now it seems that negativity has been associated with it. Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag, and Assassin’s Creed Unity both failed as ‘great’ AC games as far as popular opinion goes, with Black Flag not feeling Assassin-like at all, with all the ship gallivanting and all; and Unity failing its high-potential cooperative mode. Along with this somewhat dreaded yearly release schedule, we see fans becoming sick and tired of doing the same thing over and over again: Trail target after some cut scene. Get an area to where they stop without being detected by them. (Now for the variability) Eavesdrop on the group or kill all enemies in area. If Eavesdrop, stay in range for X amount of time then end up killing everyone anyways and ending up having to hide. If to kill all enemies, end up running away. So with all this negativity surrounding the series, hopeful fans still grasp their hearts and hope that Syndicate will bring back what fans love–originality. But before we get too far, I want to disclose that I am unbiased towards the franchise. I don’t mind the somewhat narrow gameplay because it’s a novelty to me–it’s a staple in the face of first-person shooters saying, “Ha! We don’t need your silly gun-clogged screens to make a AAA title people soak up every year!” And I like that. But I haven’t been playing the recent games for the single player as much. Yes, I play and beat the single player, achieving 100% Synchronization, but the heart of the games for me lies in the multiplayer, which I will get to later in Syndicate. I loved seeing my gamertag reach the top of the ladders again and again over the Xbox’s (Both systems) and PC’s servers. In fact, the multiplayer gameplay itself was amazing. The whole concept. The intensity. It’s something Call of Duty, Halo, and other games fail to do for me. And I play them competitively, so that’s saying something. So without further bantering by me, I’m going to get right to the chase and tell you what Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate is offering players and why it is a good or bad thing. 1. Story. In the gameplay walkthough video posted by Assassin’s Creed which was first showcased in Europe, we are notified that the map itself is 30% bigger than any other Assassin’s Creed game, which doesn’t mean any, it means the last, so, Unity. I know, I know, I know what you’re saying. “But Tyler, bigger map doesn’t mean better story!” And this is where I bring up my next point. Bear with me people. Yes, the other games had a story, and yes, most were good, some just shat on all the lore previous games had built up to in the meta narrative *stares at Assassin’s Creed 3*. But Syndicate is going to be great, and I’ll tell you why. First, Ubisoft has announced two playable protagonists–not one in-animus and one ‘real life’ person, but two in-animus. Although gameplay (as far as I know) has only been released for the one character, Jacob Frye, I assume that the other player is his twin sister (Whose name escapes me as I jot this down). which explains how Ubisoft managed to get away with the double-protagonists–technically Desmond’s memories would only be from one, as they (hopefully) don’t bear child with each other, but it brings in the play that if two identical twins have children with two other identical twins, that those kids would be genetic siblings. Who knows, maybe our two heroes have kids with other twins. Let’s not get into that detail. But thinking about it, the fact that in-gameplay, Jacob only had the one hidden blade on his left arm, and his twin had the other, explains that there was only one pair of blades and they both split it.  So, to help the in-game story, we have alot of in-game lore about our protagonists alone. The story itself is…well…a normal story but gives the player incentive to play not just for gameplay, but to kick templar butt. The templars basically own London and that’s a bad thing. Their intentions? Bad. Bad templars *scolds like one would scold a dog*. So naturally the twins want to liberate London, and unlike other games, it’s against all odds. Sure, the templars always seem to outdo and outnumber the assassins, but now the Templars have oodles of minions under gangs, under gang leaders, under templars. So naturally fighting for people’s favour and kicking templar gangs out is going to be difficult and time-consuming, especially given the extra 30% of map we’re told we have. But how can I guarantee you that the story will be good? It pains me to tell you why, but I really don’t have another choice. They cut out multiplayer. When I heard this it broke my heart. I loved the multiplayer and although joining sessions was a pain in the rear, it almost always paid off. But no more multiplayer means the developers don’t waste time on the more public-selling side–it shows us now they aren’t in it for the money, they don’t want to milk the franchise–they are in it for us, the fans. They listened to us. We said, “Don’t make it shite!” and they said, “Sure thing, we’ll get right on that!” with a straight smile. Ubisoft is good that way, just like Microsoft (excluding Kinect, that’s my next post, by the way). So they took a whole portion of what has become the staple of the gaming industry in order to make this Assassin’s Creed live to the people’s standards, and you better damn well be happy. 2. New Gameplay Elements. When I first saw the grappling hook/hookshot/rope line, whatever you want to call it, I frowned. Literally. I thought it took the suspense away of fleeing pursuers or the enjoyment of finally climbing that damn tall

Xbox One preview members get changes to 8 backwards compatible games

A message to Xbox One preview members sent out today provided some changes that need to be done for some of its backwards compatible games. In preparation for the launch of Rare Replay, there are 8 games that will need to be uninstalled and reinstalled in order to keep playing. You will need to access the preview dashboard and follow the directions to see the message. Don’t worry, we posted them for you below. Viva Pinata and Viva Pinata Trouble in Paradise, both Perfect Dark and Perfrct Dark Zero titles, Banjo Kazooie and Tooie with Jet  pack refueled and Kameo.  

This Weeks Xbox Deals with Gold

Here are this week’s games and add-on deals on the Xbox Games Store. Discounts are valid now through 27 July 2015. They are massive deals for Xbox 360 and Xbox One. They include Forza, The Elder Scrolls Online and more! CONTENT TITLE CONTENT TYPE DISCOUNT Forza Horizon 2 and Forza Motorsport 5 Bundle* Xbox One Game 35% Forza Motorsport 5 Car Pass* Add-On 50% Infinity Runner* Xbox One Game 50% TEMBO THE BADASS ELEPHANT* Xbox One Game 10% The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited Premium Edition Xbox One Game 33% The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited Imperial Edition Xbox One Game 33% The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited Xbox One Game 33% The Evil Within Season Pass Add-On 33% Wolfenstein: The Old Blood Xbox One Game 25% DARK SOULS II: Scholar of the First Sin Xbox One Game 33-40% Dragon Ball Xenoverse Xbox One Game 25-33% Dragon Ball Xenoverse + Season Pass Xbox 360 Deals with Gold!   CONTENT TITLE CONTENT TYPE DISCOUNT Max Payne 3* Games On Demand 75% L.A. Noire* Games On Demand 75% Red Dead Redemption* Games On Demand 75% Midnight Club: LA* Games On Demand 75% Bully Scholarship Ed.* Games On Demand 75% Forza Horizon* Games On Demand 50% Forza Horizon Season Pass* Add-On 75% Evil Within Season Pass Add-On 33% Doom II Arcade 50% Doom Arcade 50% Quake Arena Arcade Arcade 50% Dishonored: The Knife of Dunwall Add-On 50% Dishonored: The Brigmore Witches Add-On 50% Fallout 3: Operation Anchorage Add-On 50% Fallout 3: Broken Steel Add-On 50% Fallout: New Vegas – Gun Runners Arsenal Add-On 50% COD: Black Ops – First Strike Add-On 25% COD: Black Ops – Escalation Add-On 25% COD: Black Ops – Annihilation Add-On 25% COD: Black Ops – Rezurrection Add-On 25% COD: Black Ops II Season Pass Add-On 33% Ace Combat – Assault Horizon Games On Demand 67-75% Armored Core – Verdict Day Games On Demand 60-66% Beautiful Katamari Games On Demand 67-75% Dark Souls Games On Demand 67-75% Dark Souls II Games On Demand 40-50% Digimon All-Star Rumble Games On Demand 45-55% Dragon Ball Xenoverse (DBX) Games On Demand 25-33% Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z Games On Demand 45-55% Dragon Ball Z Budokai HD Collection Games On Demand 60-67% Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Tenkaichi Games On Demand 60-67% Enslaved Games On Demand 67-75% Eternal Sonata Games On Demand 60-66% Galaga Legions DX Games On Demand 60-66% MotoGP 14 Games On Demand 60-66% MXGP Games On Demand 60-66% Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja STORM Revolution Games On Demand 40-50% PAC-MAN Championship Edition DX+ Games On Demand 60-66% PAC-MAN and the Ghostly Adventures Games On Demand 67-75% PAC-MAN and the Ghostly Adventures 2 Games On Demand 40-50% PAC-MAN Museum Games On Demand 67-75% Ridge Racer Unbounded Games On Demand 75-80% Soulcalibur II HD Online Arcade 67-75% Soulcalibur V Games on Demand 67-75% Star Trek Games On Demand 67-75% Tales of Vesperia Games On Demand 67-75% Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Games On Demand 67-75% Xevious

Project Cars Audi Ruapuna Park Track Expansion Available Now On Demand!

  Comprising of five unique layouts, Ruapuna Park International Raceway is New Zealand’s premier motor racing facility, located 13 kilometers west of Christchurch, New Zealand. Hosting some of New Zealand’s most exciting racing events, including the prestigious Lady Wigram Trophy and an annual round of the New Zealand V8s series, the track’s main 3.3 kilometer layout runs in an anti-clockwise direction and its challenging layout incorporates many fast sweeping corners that reward smooth and precise drivers. With the Audi R18 e-tron Quattro, six-time American Le Mans Series winner Audi R8 LMP900, and 1989 Audi 90 IMSA GTO rounding out this expansion, all players will additionally be able to get behind the wheel of the coveted and limited run Audi A1 Quattro with delivery of their second Free Car. The second pack of Community Liveries includes an amazing community-created livery for the Ford Escort Mk 1 as well as six real-life DTM liveries for the Mercedes 190E 2.5-16 Evolution2.