Games we will see for sure from Sony at E3 2017
With E3 literally just around the corner, Playstation fans are eager to hear from Sony during their conference on Monday night (6 pm PT), and we finally have word on some of the titles that will be officially shown, and what we can still only speculate on. In an interview with Glixel, Sony Europe boss Jim Ryan and Sony Interactive Entertainment America president Shawn Layden confirmed that the conference will cover five highly anticipated exclusives: God of War, from SCE Santa Monica Studio Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, from Naughty Dog Spider-Man, from Insomniac Gran Turismo Sport, from Polyphany Digital and Days Gone, by Sony’s Bend Studio Ryan also stated that Sony will be pushing their partnerships with Call of Duty, Destiny 2, Red Dead, and Star Wars with EA. When Layden was asked about news on any new titles from developers Sucker Punch (InFamous, Sly Cooper) or FromSoftware (Bloodborne), he laughed and shrugged off the question. This leaves an opening for possibilities, but I guess we will have to wait until Monday to find out for sure. One question that Layden did answer, one that I’m sure is on every PS4 owners’ mind, is how game genius Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding is coming along. His response was that Sony is “partnering with him and financing development on Death Stranding. His team has taken the Decima engine that Guerrilla built for Horizon Zero Dawn and they’re using that as the base for Death Stranding. Both teams are working from a joint code base now and building on it. It’s kind of like a holy grail in game development.” While this sounds promising, we do not know for sure if Sony or even Kojima himself will provide a new trailer or more information on the mysterious Playstation 4 exclusive. With less than a week to go, we should have more confirmed titles from Sony to announce before the conference on Monday, June 12, but at least what we know of for sure are games we are all aching for.
FIFA 18 Cover Star is Cristiano Ronaldo, Special Pre-Order Editions Announced
Electronic Arts announced that the cover star for FIFA 18 will be none other than Cristiano Ronaldo. The star underwent extensive motion capture and recordings in order to ensure optimal in-game performance. “The world’s best player has helped fuel the biggest leap forward on the pitch that we’ve ever delivered,” said Aaron McHardy, Senior Producer for EA SPORTS FIFA. “We are extremely excited to partner with Cristiano – working with him we learned a lot about his unique play style and what makes him so special. His passion, energy and global fanbase make him the perfect ambassador for FIFA 18.” “It is a real pleasure to be on the cover of FIFA 18,” said Cristiano Ronaldo. “It’s a great feeling and I am grateful to have been chosen.” Anyone who pre-orders the Ronaldo Edtion of the game will get to play three days early beginning on September 26th, and receive a number of items including 20 jumbo premium gold packs (1 per week for 20 consecutive weeks), eight special edition FIFA Ultimate Team kits designed by artists on the FIFA 18 soundtrack and a Cristiano Ronaldo loan player for five FUT matches. Of course, EA Access members will get to play five days more before that for a max of 10 hours, the standard on the EA Access program.
The Hype and Cynicism of E3
E3 is coming up fast, and with it comes the annual parade of pomp and circumstance, which has grown steadily since the dearth of the late 2000s. This year, there will not only be press conferences from Xbox, Nintendo, EA, and Sony, but also Bethesda, PC Gamer, and Ubisoft. E3 is a time of game trailers, new game reveals, release dates, demos, giveaways, excitement, and hype, hype, hype. For many gamers, it’s the most wonderful time of the year. But along with all the energy and enthusiasm comes along the inevitable curmudgeon point of view. E3 just isn’t E3 unless there’s a vocal group condemning developers, insulting enthusiasts, and arrogantly and cynically decrying anyone who dares to show the slightest sign of optimism toward the coming year of gaming. That point of view is not without its merits. Generally speaking, most games shown at E3 have a hard time living up to their own hype. Frame rates fall, graphics suffer, elements are cut, release dates get pushed back, and some games never even see the light of day at all. “E3 is nothing more than a marketing circus. There’s no substance. There’s no point in getting excited for a game.” they’ll say. “If you get excited, you set yourself up for disappointment. If you stay cynical, if a game is bad, then you were right, and if it’s good, then you’re pleasantly surprised.” I’m surprised to see just how many people adopt this perspective when it comes to E3. I guess there’s an alluring appeal to being cynically and smugly correct about a game’s failures. And it’s true that there is no such thing as a perfect game. It doesn’t matter how good the story is, how advanced the graphics are, how new and innovative the gameplay elements are, or the quality of any of the thousands of other facets present in every game. There are always going to be problems, bugs, glitches, imbalances, plot holes, length issues; any of which, to paraphrase Dilbert creator Scott Adams, can be pointed to and claimed to be exactly what you were afraid of. However, the problem I see in that point of view is in how it affects how those games are eventually received. I recently read John Steinbeck’s classic American novel East of Eden, and a passage struck me. An Irish immigrant, Sam, was talking with American-born Chinese Lee, trying to understand why he talked to most people in a simplistic English dialect referred to as pidgin: “’Lee,’ (Sam) said at last, ‘I mean no disrespect, but I’ve never been able to figure why you people still talk pidgin when an illiterate baboon from the black bogs of Ireland, with a head full of Gaelic and a tongue like a potato, learns to talk a poor grade of English in ten years.’ “Lee grinned. ‘Me talkee Chinese talk,’ he said. “‘Well, I guess you have your reasons. And it’s not my affair. I hope you’ll forgive me if I don’t believe it, Lee.’ “Lee looked at him and the brown eyes under their rounded upper lids seemed to open and deepen until they weren’t foreign any more, but man’s eyes, warm with understanding. Lee chuckled. ‘It’s more than a convenience,’ he said. ‘It’s even more than self-protection. Mostly we have to use it to be understood at all.’ “Samuel showed no sign of having observed any change. ‘I can understand the first two,’ he said thoughtfully, ‘but the third escapes me.’ “Lee said, ‘I know it’s hard to believe, but it has happened so often to me and to my friends that we take it for granted. If I should go up to a lady or a gentleman, for instance, and speak as I am doing now, I wouldn’t be understood.’ “‘Why not?’ “‘Pidgin they expect, and pidgin they’ll listen to. But English from me they don’t listen to, and so they don’t understand it.’ “‘Can that be possible? How do I understand you?’ “‘That’s why I’m talking to you. You are one of the rare people who can separate your observation from your preconception. You see what is, where most people see what they expect.‘” (emphasis added) I am surprised when I see people who seem to love video games on one hand yet constantly talk about how bad games are going to be after they’re shown at E3 on the other. And while I’ll never compel anyone to slap a smile on their face and only talk about how this game or that is going to be the best game ever made after a 90-second E3 trailer, I do feel bad for those who distort their enjoyment of a final product just to claim some form of superiority over others about being right about its flaws. No matter whether you love getting sucked in to the marketing hype of E3 or if you’d rather stand on the sidelines shaking your head at the naïve sheep around buying into lies, an acute awareness to the way games truly are when they are a final released product is indispensable, or it is inevitable that your opinion of it will be tainted by your preconceptions. As a games journalist, I do my best to keep myself as objective as possible, to give each game its due and judge it based on its own merits, not on the brief glimpse the marketing department decides to allow the public to see at E3. However, as you follow my twitter feed next week while I live tweet all things E3, don’t be surprised to see me going a little nuts about BioWare’s new IP, or if Valve announces literally anything. I write about video games because I enjoy video games, and I will come back down to Earth the week after. Otherwise, remember that although no game is going to be perfect, or likely look as good as it does at E3, it’s ok to get excited about the future of your hobby.
Apple bringing VR to macOS High Sierra!
During Apple’s WWDC conference, Apple confirmed that Valve will be bringing Steam VR to macOS. On top of it, Unreal Engine and Unity will support VR on Mac. HTC Vive wok also support Mac. (Source)
Nintendo has announced a Pokemon Direct for the 6th of June
Nintendo has just announced a Pokemon Direct on Twitter for the 6th of June. What will be shown, we don’t know just yet but odds are it’ll be Pokemon Stars that has been rumored for awhile, now plus who knows what else. The Direct starts at 7AM PT and 3PM BST. Rectify Gaming will have all of the latest Pokemon news tomorrow as soon as it is announced. Source: Pokemon
Sony: The PlayStation Vita is still a viable platform in Japan
Shawn Layden, president of Sony Interactive Entertainment America has said that the PSVita is still a viable platform in the Japanese and Asian markets. This is what he had to say. “We still have developers in Japan who are building for that platform. But it just didn’t get over the hump in Europe and America. It’s hard to know exactly why, but it didn’t garner a large enough audience here for us to continue to build for it.” While the PSVita never really took off in the West, it still has some amazing games, however Sony not using micro SD cards and instead using their own, hurt the platform a lot. Shawn Layden has said that he still brings his PSVita with him. ” It travels with me all the time, and I play Hot Shots Golf consistently”. What do you think of the PlayStation Vita? do you think Sony should give the handheld market another go? let us know! Source: PushSquare
PlayStation 4 Pro is selling ahead of Sony's expectations
Sony’s mid-generation upgrade the PlayStation 4 Pro, is selling ahead of Sony’s expectations accounting to global sales chief Jim Ryan. Shawn Layden president of Sony Interactive Entertainment America had this to say. “ For every five PS4s sold, Sony’s shifting one Pro”. Jim Ryan also said that the system is in “desperately short supply, so that’s one-in-five under severe constraint” . So overall even with supply issues, Sony is happy with how the PS4 Pro is selling. Source: PushSquare
Shawn Layden: Horizon Zero Dawn has sold 3.4 million units worldwide
Horizon Zero Dawn which was released at the end of February in the US/Canada and March in Europe, has passed 3.4 million units sold worldwide Sony has announced. Shawn Layden, president of Sony Interactive Entertainment America had this to say. “ We thought people would go for the digital store because they didn’t want to get off the sofa, get in the car, and go drive and get it. We underestimated that. People will get the digital copy because they don’t want to get off the sofa and put a disc in the machine”. Sony also announced that 915,000 copies sold were digital. This is what Shawn Layden had to say about the amount of digital sales for Horizon Zero Dawn. “This kind of shift changes everything. It changes the publishing model, it allows smaller players to put out games, it affects DLC and it has a huge impact.” Overall it’s great to see Horizon Zero Dawn sell so well, we gave it a 9.5 out of 10 in our review which you can read here . Source: PlayStationLifeStyle
Sony CEO Kaz Hirai talks about the PlayStation 5 in an Interview
Sony CEO Kaz Hirai has talked about the possibility of the PlayStation 5 in an interview with Nikkei. Here is what he had to say. “Our game subsidiary is discussing which direction to take- how to use a big platform like the PlayStation going forward. Generally speaking, I don’t think it is a good idea to drop consoles entirely, since we seek to offer the platform worldwide.” There have been predictions that we will see the PS5 as early as 2018 or as late as 2020 so it’s hard to say when Sony will release a new console. It is safe to say that Sony is starting to heat up discussions about the next PlayStation now though. Do you think it’ll be another Pro upgrade, or a new start? let us know! Sony is also rumored to be making a PS4 Slim in gold, which you can read more about here Source: PlayStationUniverse
Review – Skylar & Plux: Adventure on Clover Island
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Skylar and Plux: Adventure on Clover Island is a 3D platformer developed by Grip Digital for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, while Right Nice Games developed the PC version. The game was released on May 19 on all three platforms. With the relatively recent releases of Ratchet & Clank, ReCore and Yooka-Laylee, 3D platformers have been on a roll. One game, however, that many may not know about is Skylar & Plux. Can it match the polish of those previous games? Read on to find out. Gameplay Skylar & Plux is what we’d get if there was an updated Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy. You even get a spin attack like Jak has, but there are also new gameplay elements that Skylar has to help her stand apart. Skylar wields a jetpack that can be used to reach higher places and platforms that are further out, or do a rolling jump. You can then get the ability to slow down time, probably the biggest surprise for me, which adds a whole new level of depth to the game. Platforms that were previously spinning too fast to jump on can now be traversed more easily. Puzzles like this are peppered throughout and add a welcome layer of challenge to the platforming aspects of the game. Story The story in Skylar & Plux: Adventure on Clover Island is nothing groundbreaking. You have to save Clover Island by going around four areas (tropical beaches, volcanic caverns, snowy mountaintops and merciless desert) to recover three fuses after the game’s villain, CRT (yes, like a CRT TV), has taken them, which causes Clover Island’s life force to begin dying off. You must also rescue the native creatures of the islands, called Lo’s, who CRT has locked away throughout the world. While this is a tale you have probably heard before, it’s the characters that help make this world wonderful, most specifically CRT and Plux. CRT is probably one of the best characters I have seen in awhile, even though he is evil and wants to destroy the world, he is also extremely funny. Skylar doesn’t talk, instead Plux, much like Daxter, does all of the talking. Plux also isn’t used as frequently in comedic relief like Daxter was, he has more of a grounded personality, but still throws in the occasional quip, which was nice to see. The story is short, however, as I was able to beat the game in about 3 hours or so, which I was disappointed with. Graphics Skylar & Plux doesn’t have a massive budget like Ratchet & Clank, Sonic The Hedgehog, Super Mario and so forth. However, that doesn’t mean that the game looks bad – it actually looks pretty good, assisted by a distinct art style. It isn’t cel shaded, but something similar. Given a higher budget, I’d love to see a future game be able to have a higher-quality look. There are some textures that do appear low-quality though, even with the bright and colorful look. Conclusion Skylar & Plux is an okay 3D platformer. It doesn’t do anything groundbreaking, and has some issues with frame drops as well as not having an deep story. The game costs €15/$15 at the time of this review (you can buy it for 33% off on the PlayStation Store/Xbox Store and Steam on Windows). If you’re a fan of 3D platformers from the early 2000’s then you may enjoy Skylar & Plux. If not, or if you have never played them before, then it’s harder to recommend as I would say to try other games first, such as Ratchet & Clank as you will have a much better time. Additional Notes A few things I want to note: The game aims to run at 30FPS on consoles. I did get slow down when a lot of enemies started attacking, but apart from that, FPS was okay with frames only dropping a little bit. Music was good, lively and upbeat. And while not a massive issue, there were a lot of long load times. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][review_summary positives=”Bright and colourful graphics CRT was great” negatives=”Long loading screens Story is disappointing as well as short Some textures are lower quality then others”]Skylar & Plux is an okay 3D platformer that doesn’t do anything groundbreaking, If you’re a fan of 3D platformers, from the early 2000’s then you may enjoy Skylar & Plux. It does, however, have annoyingly long loading screens and a disappointing story. [/review_summary][/vc_column][/vc_row]