Tag Archives: gameplay

The Playstation Experience Keynote as seen by a Newcomer

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I am a newcomer to the Playstation world.  Not to mean that I’ve never played a Playstation game, but rather that I’m new to the idea of having a vested interest in the console.  Given that I will be a co-owner of a PS4 system with my fiance this Christmas, news and upcoming releases for the console are now more important than ever (and my life no longer revolves solely on Halo games)!

By a stroke of luck (otherwise known as my friend Ricky), I was told about the Playstation Experience Keynote right before it started and thankfully was able to catch the entire opening event.

Having watched the complete keynote in the comfort of my pajamas, let me tell you my thoughts.

Now, when it comes these video game conventions/conferences, most people want to hear what’s new, see some gameplay of upcoming games, and of course get their hands on games that are not yet out.  Along those lines, the keynote delivered on all of those aspects.

They told us about games with PS4 console exclusive debuts:

  • Killing Floor 2
  • Darkest Dungeon
  • The Forest
  • Street Fighter V
  • Ultra Street Fighter IV

Many PC and older generation Playstation games will be ported to Playstation systems:

  • Bastion
  • Final Fantasy VII
  • Many others!  Check Playstation’s Twitter feed for a comprehensive list.

We saw gameplay from highly anticipated games:

  • Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End
  • Bloodborne
  • The Order: 1886

And in terms of the games available to play (for those in Vegas), there are quite a few of them.

Despite all of the content that Playstation showcased for us, I only took away a couple things:

1. In-Game Engine Graphics Used for Cutscenes
For the big AAA game titles where gameplay was shown (i.e. Uncharted, The Order), the presenters put a lot of the focus on their in-game engines and how with this next-gen technology, everything you see is seamlessly part of the game’s engine.  Meaning, there are no pre-rendered cutscenes that look better than the gameplay but rather, your gameplay looks just as good as those beautiful cutscenes.  I have to admit, after watching the gameplay for Uncharted 4, I just imagined playing it on a huge TV screen with surround sound.  It would be glorious.

uncharted 3

Gotta’ love in-game graphics!

As a side note, I found the enemy AI in Uncharted to be seemingly smart, which is a nice change from enemies that will stare at walls (maybe they have cool wallpaper paterns?).  Judge it for yourself by jumping to 7:45 in the below video.

2. The Playstation Vita is Alive and Well
When it comes to mobile gaming, I’m definitely in the casual category.  Bejeweled, puzzle games, etc.  When out and about, I generally stick to games that I can quickly jump in and out of.  However, it’s good for the hardcore mobile gamers that Playstation is still putting a lot of emphasis on the Vita.  Between ports of fairly recent games (i.e. Shovel Knights) to bringing back older games (i.e. Suikoden), the Vita seems like it is being well looked after by Sony.

3. I’m Not Particularly Excited About Any Games
I’ll be honest that this one stumps me a little because am I looking forward to playing Uncharted 4 (even though I’ve never played any of the earlier renditions)?  Yes!  Am I looking forward to playing Tear Away so as to fully utilize the PS4 controller?  Yes!

Perhaps it’s just me getting older and not getting really excited about things like I used to.  For those of you 21 and older, do any of you still have that giddiness Christmas morning?  Let me just say that I envy you if you do.

Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that nothing I saw got me in that “I can’t wait for it” mentality, but maybe it’s just because I don’t get that way anymore.  So I may only have myself (or I guess my brain?) to blame for this takeaway.

What were your thoughts of the Playstation Experience Keynote?  Did you love it, hate it?  Let us know your thoughts in the comments section!

Oh!

And don’t forget to pick up these games for free this weekend if you have access to the Playstation Store.  Happy 20th Anniversary Playstation and thanks Electronic Arts!

 

 

 

 

How Did Evolve’s Big Alpha Run on PC & Xbox One?

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Westin:

Jumping into Evolve with a 2560 x 1440 resolution and a graphics preset of high, I loved what I saw.  The crisp shadows, the glistening textures, and the contours of my weapon (and yes I’m talking about my laser cutter gun in-game).

Let me make clear that I have no shame in saying that I am a graphics whore.  Sorry, it’s the way God made me.  Luckily though, for all you non-graphics whores out there, you’ll be happy to know that my spirit was soon crushed by my terribly low frame rates.  It was somewhere in the low 10s and was utterly unplayable.  This is to no fault of the game, but rather my 2 year old laptop graphics card, which was high-end at one point.

After much tweaking, I found my optimal settings to be a resolution of 1366 x 768 on low settings.  Ugh, I know right?  Well believe it or not, I thought that Evolve still looked pretty damn good even after dumbing things down as much as I did.  Long story short, if you’re going to play this on PC with High settings, make sure you have a pretty good card cause you’ll need it!

In terms of pop-ins and other graphical glitches, Big Alpha functioned just fine on my rig.  I don’t recall a single problem on the graphical end, which I think is quite impressive!

Now, my cons are for the most part just nit-picky.  Overall, my connection was stable within most of the matches I played.  However, there was a scenario when my monster was fully evolved at Stage 3 and I was just about to destroy the Power Relay to win the match, when all of sudden my monster was unable to move.

Frozen in time like a giant, boulder holding monster statue.  Then all of sudden the screen went black and I see a message saying “Connection to the host has timed out”…  and I was so close to winning!  Why host, why?!  But thankfully, that was the one and only time that ever happened.  Watch the video below to see this whole thing happen in real time.

 

The only other thing I can think of was when I was the monster I tried climbing up a fixture that was definitely climbable, but for some reason I couldn’t and as I was trying to climb this stupid thing I was getting shot by all of the hunters.  So in other words, I had to go around the fixture getting shot the entire time.  Lame…

Other than that though my experience with Big Alpha was almost flawless.  A beautiful, well-made game that worked well on PC (at least on my rig).  Oh, if you didn’t read our first impressions of Evolve’s Big Alpha, click here to check it out!

Ethan:

Let’s start this off by saying this is easily one of the best looking games on the Xbox One.  There was little to no texture pop in, the environments are well detailed and the lighting is fantastic. Surprisingly the game runs at a solid 30 fps through my play time. No signs of slow down at all.

The slow down came when looking for a multiplayer match. It took forever to find games and when they would finally load in the team would only be half filled. It’s unfortunate, but if there was something to go wrong it would be the matchmaking. Hopefully it will be fixed by the time the game is released.

For a better picture of the Xbox One Evolve Alpha experience, check out the video above.