PS4 Will NOT Block Used Games

Shuhei Yoshida
Sony's Worldwide Studios Director

It was just rumor?! We hope so. If we believe the words of Shuhei Yoshida then yes! We dont have any reasons though not to believe him, as the boss of Sony Worldwide Studios was definite: "You will be able to play used games on PS4". We are talking about a wise decision here, because retailers and the gaming community were pushing the situation into that direction. Furthermore, not even the "always online" that had leaked as a rumor is totally accurate. Yoshida admits that the social part of the new console is very crucial and important, and that everybody will benefit from it but whoever desires to stay offline can do so.

Also, Yoshida made a statement on the judgemental comments that followed the PS4 presentation about the actual console not being present. "The console is just a console. The game pad, thanks to the Share Button is much more important". That maybe true but does not mean that uf the were showing the console as well that we were indefferent! So if it was possible for you to show it, you would! 

Source: thegang.gr

Wii U: A "Critical Error" for Nintendo

Michael Pachter, financial analyst at Wedbush Morgan, talked to GamesBeat and said that the Nintendo Wii U console was a mistake that the company will never be able to recover from.

M.Pachter - Financial Analyst

"I reckon that Nintendo miscalculated when it comes to Wii U. It is not so different (in terms of specifications) than the other two consoles, plus that in the gameplay field it is not so unique than its predecessor was. They made a mistake that costs, and this time the handheld consoles department wont be able to help, while having to deal with the upcoming tablets and smartphones. They made a mistake that they wont be able to claw back from."

The GamesBeat article says that the Wii U sales in America are lower by 38% than they were last year at the same period of time (after the console release). Also, it adds that in January, Wii U, sold less than 100.000 pieces at the market. 

In January Nintendo had lower its expectations for the financial year of 2013. From 5.500.000 pieces that was the first expectation of Wii U sales, they were reduced to 4.000.000 pieces. But till now the numbers vaguely exceed the 2.500.000 pieces that have been sold, which means that by the end of March (end of the financial year) the numbers will drop even more.

Source: byteme.gr

Playstation 4 - First Impression (Specifications/DualShock 4 Pics/Summary)

Snapshoot of the Live Playstation - 2013 Meeting

Some minutes ago, Sony has presented Playstation 4 in an official presentation giving us a small taste of what the new console's capabilities will be, leaving other crucial information such as what it will actually look like, its official release date and its price for the upcoming E3 exhibition in June in Las Vegas.

Sony wanted to focus, not only to the gaming experience regarding high processing power and graphics but also on many other relative factors and a huge variety of services that players will experience that will be way more than its predecessor had to offer. In these services are the ability to live broadcast your gameplay or to interact, help, and take control over your friend's game right the moment when it happens. For the creation of PS4, Sony has discussed with many game designers in order to understand their needs and to achieve the maximum desired result. 

In tonight's event, that Sony live streamed and that they watched it over than 3.5 millions of people online, these are some of the new features that were presented and we are going to see on the upcoming console:

- Processor thats based on the x86 architecture

- 8GB GDDR5 RAM

- DualShock 5

- Low power consume

- A second custom chip that is responsible for taking up other tasks such as downloads/video uploads/browsing while you play the game at the same time

- Games are being downloaded in the background

- New graphic environment

- You can watch ur friends live as they play their game and comment, participate in chat while you can also at anytime take control and help your friends.

- You can share your gaming footage instantly and with just one button over the Playstaion Network or on other devices as well such as smartphones, tablets etc...

- There is also the capability of broadcasting live as you play

- The PS3 titles will not be compatible on the PS4 system but Sony is working on some alternative solutions.

DualShock 4

DualShock 4. The new gamepad of PS4 comes to confirm the rumors the had been leaked the last few days. Its partially redesigned and it has:

- a touchpad on the front side

- a "share" button on the back side

- a headphones port

- and a light bar that in combination with a 3D camera it can detect the pad in the three dimensional space and tranfer the movements in the game

Interactive online help

The "Social Gaming" is what makes PS4 to stick out of the crowd of the next-gen consoles. Sony in collaboration with Facebook and Ustream are making a network of gamers in which they can share gaming footage just by pressing the "share" button on the DualShock 4. In other words you can broadcast or upload your game in search for help or comments.

PS Vita also plays a vital role in the future of PS4 having the capability to play the games of playstaion 4 by the streaming network of Gaikai, the company that Sony bought last June.

Alongside these new console's specifications we watched representatives of the largest video game companies such as Square Enix, Ubisoft, Activision, Blizzard, Quantic Dreams and Capcom, representing demos and footage of the game that the PS4 is going to host. Those games were Final Fantasy, WatchDogs, Halo, Diablo III (so the rumors were true), Knack, Second Son and Driveclub.

Summarising, with the arrival of PS4 we are going to experience the gaming as we never did before. The gaming experience will reach a totally new level that till today we could only imagine and watch in sci-fi movies, it will bring the gamers even closer with the network sharing community, and it will give them all those things that the companies wanted for so many years but the past's technolgy did not let them. 

Source: Playstation Meeting - 2013

WSJ: PS4 Will Stream PS3 Games

As "The Wall Street Journal" published that Sony Corporation will use streaming technology for its next generation console regarding games and it is going to be announced on 20 February (tomorrow). 

Last June Sony purchased Gaikai - a company that streams video games online in real time from remote servers, sending compressed video frames. Now The Wall Street Journal says what many were expecting that Sony will use that technology and that will reveal it on 20 Feb. Although Sony is not neccessarily going to use directly Gaikai, just the streaming tech which will bring the Playstation 3 games to the new console.

Previous generation of Playstation (PSX, PS1, PS2, PS3) have offered backward compatibility. That means that a PS1 disc could be read by a PS2 system and a PS2 disc could be read by a PS3 system. But the playstation to come is expected to use AMD x86 chips, which will not be compatible with the system architecture of the previous consoles/discs. So streaming online the games of previous consoles should cover that technology chasm between past and future systems allowing some compatibility. Techically the already owned by the users original games of PS1, PS2, PS3 will be totally worthless when it comes to PS4.

Rumors want Sony not to stream PS4 games because Gaikai and OnLive have been delivered a maximum of 720p resolution, something that it could be really "heavy" for internet connection". 

Well, the only way to verify those rumors is just to wait until 20 Feb. a date that surely many of us are waiting a day that will definitely change the future gaming. In a bad or in a good way?

We will find out soon...

Source: theverge.com

The Future of Playstation - 20 February

With an official announcement on Twitter, Sony sets an appointment on 20 Feb. (1 day left!!) saying that they will reveal the future of Playstation

For that specific purpose Sony has published a special webpage which includes the teaser video that follows and also the event's starting time (in Greece we will be able to watch it on 21/2 at 01:00 after midnight)

Rumors want Sony to proceed unveiling its new console Playstation 4, something that we were expecting it to happen within 2013 but not that early.

STAY TUNED!!!

Source: Insomnia. gr - "The Future of Playstation"

Diablo III: Coming On Consoles?

According to Rob Pardo's statement, member of Blizzard team, the company has managed to make a version of Diablo III that is still being tested for console systems, although without being officially announced yet. He also stated that the whole team is working really hard testing every possible parameter of the Diablo's III console adaptation to find out if it is really possible for it to be an official project.

"The whole team is blazingly working on Diablo and analyzing many new add-ons. To a point, many of these new features will be published in the next year. We know that the company is working on an expansion of the game but we do not have a timeline yet", stated Jay Wilson, executive member of the production team. A console adaptation of the game though is not a surprise for most of the gaming community. After quite a few postponements the game was finally released having sold 3.5 millions copies so far! 

Source: Insomnia.gr - Diablo On Consoles?

Movies Inspired by the Gaming World (Pt.4)

Welcome back to Kupo!1UP guys. This is the forth part of the article so ur going to experience once more my justifiable nastiness  crashing down the moral of all those ambitious directors messing with games!

ATTENTION: IT MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!!

Silent Hill Revelations 3D

Hmmm... This movie is a bit controversial for me.. Lets see, SHR3D is about Heather Mason (Adelaide Clemens) and her father Harry Mason (Sean Bean). Heather is having nightmares calling her to Silent Hill but her father doenst want her to go there at any case. After Harry dissappears, Heather initiates an investigation in Silent Hill, having the help of her mysterious classmate Vincent (Kit Harington). This is in a few words what this sequel is about. I said earlier that this movie is somewhat controversial and this is happening for the reason that it has many pros but many cons as well. The script writer tried to relate the first movie with this one making it a sequel. The most actors are the same as in the first film. And the story has many plot similarities with the game (Silent Hill 3) as well. All those add to the pros of the movie but someone that has seen the previous one can tell that Silent Hill Revelations 3D is a bit poorly directed. Well it has some really cheesy dialogues between Vincent and Heather like the ones u only find in cheap daily TV series. It also has way too many people here and there like in the school, or in the mall and the events take place mostly in the real world something thats not "Silent Hill-ish" at all! Silent Hill is about a disturbed distorted sick fucked up other dimension haunted town and if u ask me the director should focus on that. One more thing that kept me thinking is the visual effect. For some reason the "manequine-spider" monster for example didnt convince me at all. And i think i dont have to mention the plot holes. It gave me the impression that it just kept on jumping from scene to scene like there was no connection between them. I dont know, the only thing i can tell with certainty is that it could be a loooooot better.

Max Payne

In 2001 we all got acquainted with the name Max Payne. Catchy and simple (as a name) yet dramatic and twisted (as a plot), Max Payne kept us in front of our consoles literaly for hours. It had that successful recipe. It was a fast-paced action game with a dark, "noir" if u like plot, and a comic driven narration. Several years later in 2008 it got adapted in the big screen with Mark Wahlberg as Max Payne, Mila Kunis as Mona Sax, Ludacris as Jim Bravura and Beau Bridges as BB Hensley the security chied at the pharmaceutical company where Max Payne's wife worked. The movie wants Max Payne's wife and child murdered and Max Payne in the search of the killer that got away. He finds out the Aesir (the pharmaceutical company) is involved and Max Payne wants, what else?! Revenge. Well, this is another movie adaptation attempt with a well-known cast (not all of them are decent actors though) but that's all! An attempt. While I was watching it I was so anticipating to get those feelings that the game had given me, that pain and frustration in Payne's voice, that surreal narration between the scenes and also some mad driven shooting scenes in Max Payne's slow motion style. But there were none of all these things. It was just a shallow modern detective film that managed to drown even the Wahlberg's acting (in my opinion Bruce Willys would be more suitable to the role). As a result Mark Wahlberg got himself nominated for a razzie award (also for  his role in "The Happening") (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0467197/awards?ref_=tt_awd) and i think i don't even have to say anything about Ludachris and Kunis right?! FOR GOD'S SHAKE!! The direction was decent though, not the massacre we experience watching Uwe Boll's crap, but still that thing alone can't save the film from a certain disaster. In the end I get that shitty feeling that every "game-to-movie" attempt gives me that I wasted one and a half hours of my life watching some shallow nonsense.

Broken Sword 2.5 - The Return Of The Templars Review (PC)

 

 

A few days ago i was very pleasantly surprised to discover one more masterpiece by MindFactory team, a tribute game to Revolution Software. This is no other than Broken Sword 2.5 - The Return Of The Templars. And there are several reasons that justify my so called surprise. Well First of all Broken Sword 2.5 is an unofficial, full-length sequel to the series completely designed by fans for fans!!! Yes you heard right! A Smoking Mirror sequel with traditionally hand made graphics and  really applausable designed characters and plot that if u ask me is way better that any other official release after the second installment!

PLOT: 9/10

George Stobbart being in America receives a message that his girlfriend, Nicole Collard, has died. Having lost his father as well in the near past he takes the first plane to Paris only to find out that Nico is alive and sound but quite abrupt and unwilling to accept the unexpected visit of George. Later on George finds out by the not so much friend of his, Andre Lobineau, that Nico is the main suspect of the murder of the mayor of Paris. Now George is being called to find out the real facts behind the rumors with ways that only in a Broken Sword game one can find!! Not wanting to make anymore spoilers the rest is up to you to discover!

GAMEPLAY: 8.5/10

Now thats what i love about a really really memorable point n click adventure game. Its gameplay. If you ask me it has to be simple, short and sweet if u want but without neglecting anything! I still remember how i was surprised when i played  Broken Sword - The Shadow Of The Templars for the first time. And that was because i was more addicted to that gameplay than any other adventure game I had played. 

You move George by left-clicking the mouse wherever u like. If the cursor turns to 2 joined cogwheels then u have an item with possible interaction if you left click it. You can also combine it with items from ur inventory. By right-clicking George just describes what he sees and maybe gives some useful tips about the item. If the cursor turns to a moving hand that points downwards then its most likely that item can be picked up! When the cursor turns to a "follow me" hand, then you can move further on the 2D environment screen left or right. The mouth cursor over a person, indicates that George can start a dialogue with that particular person. 

There are 2 black tapes on the upper and the lower side of the screen. The upper one has save and load options and options such as language, volume etc. and the lower tape of the screen is the inventory. When George starts a dialogue on that lower tape the player can find the potential topics of the conversation. As in any other Broken Sword George can die (game over) and that means that there are times that the player must act quickly to prevent hazardous situations (i love those BS moments!!!). 

The gameplay aspect of BS 2.5 gets even more intriguing because the developers had the wisedom to include familiar faces and places in that unofficial installment, which certainly brings back lots of memories! My only "complaint" is that the puzzles and riddles of the game are quite easy and if you want a bit dumb (i could spoil but you should play and find out for yourself). The actions that the player must do to proceed in the game are as such: he has to speak with all the people about anything and for whatever George carries with him, he has to check stuff from his invetory by right-clicking on them (sometimes a woman's bag can hide very interesting things!), combine them with items on the environment, cheat, bribe or threaten! As i said before a very addictive yet simple gameplay quite suitable to a game like this!

ATMOSPHERE/MUSIC: 9/10

To be honest when i first learnt about it i was excited but quite wary at the same time! Because we are talking about one of the most famous adventure games here and this attempt was by "amateurs" (that succeeded where professionals fail many times...). And the graphics part to make 2D for an hand-drawn adventure game  is  not so difficult but when it comes to music..??? As I have said in the past many times the "sound" (music, voices, sound effects) of a game is half the game at least for me! It is what draws you in the digital world and makes you distinguish masterpieces from non-sense football games for example! Who hadnt had goosebumps by that chimy sounds when George tricked the watchman's dog to fall in the water in BS 2? Or even by the soundtrack at the intro of BS?

So in that sequel the music part fulfills its purpose in the best possible way! The same happens with the characters voices. The designers did such an excellent work, that they even did patches (voices and subtitles) in several languages except German. And guess what!? They are very similar to the original ones!! Well... what more is there to ask?! 

GRAPHICS: 9/10

The graphics of that BS sequel are traditionally (Broken Swordish) hand-made, 2D, cartoon style. The locations consist of original backgrounds that  pre-existed in BS 1 & 2 and totally new ones. The only "problem" is that with a bit of observation (if you hadnt played the previous installments that is) you could tell which are the original scenes taken from the previous games and which are the new.. not that i thought about it too much when i played it but i just found it note-worthy! In general terms i liked the new scenes and really admired the work of the designers!

OVERALL: 8.87/10

In a few words, Broken Sword 2.5 - The Return Of The Templars, is the most fascinating unofficial indepedent adventure release that has ever fallen into my hands! A script related to the general plot, good old-fashioned graphics, and atmospheric music can promise you some hours that many of us would like to experience but a few have got the guts to risk making it true! Just ENJOY!!

P.S. Since the download sources are limited and the game is distributed totally free here is the link to the site that u can download the actual game and the patches for the English audio and subtitles! 

Download

http://www.brokensword25.com/