Rejoice And Own Spelunky, Now Available On PS4

Rejoice and own Spelunky. Impose ownership on it using your money, because this is the only way that you will triumph over it. Spelunky will lull you into thinking that it will offer you a casual play session with an unassuming, endearing hero: His soulless coal eyes, indifferent eyebrows, and mesmerizingly bulbous nose suggest that he wants you to help him find some Mario coins in a cave. But in truth, he is meant to die a million deaths, each traumatic. You will develop fears of pots, of snakes, of yeti, of water, of the dark. Maybe one day you’ll even conquer the first level. When this happens take note, because the rest of your life is an agonizing downhill plummet from this monumental achievement.

So rejoice at Spelunky, because it is now available on PS4 in 1080p.  And remember the days when you thought you were good at video games. Because those days are illusions.

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Attack Of The Knack

I decided to take a step back from Destinythis week; not that it isn't the only thing I've been playing recently. I really had a hankering to play some co-op Knack, so I thought this would be my best opportunity to talk about this PS4 launch title.

When the PS4 launched, I had saved up quite a bit of cash and ended up with 4-5 launch titles; easily the most I've ever had at launch. Surprisingly enough, Knack was actually the game I put the most time into—that's right, not Killzone or Battlefield 4, but Knack. It was a cute little action-platformer from the brain child that brought us the original Crash Bandicoot, so why wouldn't it be fun? And let me tell you, fun it was!

Knack, unfortunately, got horribly unfavorable reviews when it was released—The Metacritic is currently sitting at 54, which considering this isn't school means the game is rather mediocre—and because of this, I feel as though many people over looked it, when in reality it was an entertaining experience. Many of the complaints stemmed from a lack of variety in the combat, something which I wholeheartedly disagree with. In terms of Knacks abilities, yes, he has his basic combo and not too much else...But what do you expect? This isn’t Ninja Gaiden or God of War. This is something in line with Crash Bandicoot. The reason I disagree with other peoples' “lack of variety” comment is because the enemies are what bring the variety. There was a large cast of enemies, and even when they started repeating, they always threw different combinations of enemies at you forcing you to approach each situation differently.

My ranting aside, I also played this game to 100% completion: That is to say I did not just beat the game, but also got a platinum trophy for it. At the time I was streaming games and Knack brought in the views so I kept playing it. On the road to the platinum, I beat Knack about 4 times, give or take (can't really remember) and considering this was a platformer, the game had some length to it. Normally you would expect something like 6-10 hours on a first go, but the fact that it clocked in around 12-15 was rather surprising. Of course around my 3rd and 4th time beating the game, I was able to complete it in about 6-7 hours since I was so familiar with it.

Graphically, the game might not have pushed the PS4 to its limits—no launch title ever does—but the models were crisp and clean. Personally I thought they were fantastic. They were highly stylized and it reminded me of a Pixar movie. What did push the system, and the reason they claimed Knack could not have been made on the PS3, were the visual effects. The main character was essentially one gigantic physics simulation, and when he used special moves, all the little pieces he was made out of went ballistic. It was a wonder to see.

Boosting this game even further is the fact that you can play it with 2 players. Originally I touched upon this briefly with a few friends just to test it out. It was fun and it makes Knack a lot more manageable on the harder difficulties (not that it was overly difficult for me, but some people online complained about the difficulty). If you have someone that doesn't normally play video games, 2-player Knack is definitely something to help them get started.

At the time when I was streaming this, everyone would come into the stream and ask me if Knack was worth a purchase. My reply was and still is: Yes! but not at the price it was at launch. Fortunately when I bought it, I had a coupon for EB games that saved me 20 bucks. So instead of paying $60 for it, I only had to dish out $40—math! At$40 Knack is very much worth it. The game is fun, challenging and has a lengthy campaign with great visuals that you can enjoy with a friend. Personally I think anyone that owns a PS4 should at least try it out. Borrow it from a friend, I don't care. It's worth the time!

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Loading Destiny

I sunk my teeth into Destinya bit more this week. Probably put in another 6-7 hours. I was able to beat the "single player" campaign and did some grinding as well, if you can even call what I did grinding. At this point I feel as though I've experienced enough of Destiny to talk about it, although at the same time I've only scratched the surface of the late-game content.

Destiny Awaits

Currently I sit at level 20 which is the soft cap. I say soft cap because you are able to get to a level past 20 but not by any conventional means—you know, with experience. Instead what you have to do is find equipment that has a special attribute on it called light. It is this light that will level you past 20. It's an interesting idea for sure and I don't remember it being used in any other game before. But, it isn't without its faults. Destiny basically forces people to grind for equipment once they hit level 20. I have yet to take part in any real grinding since someone recommended that I focus my efforts in another way. But essentially the way to grind in Destiny is by focusing on kills per minute. Since each enemy has a drop rate for loot and the game ignores an enemy's level, enemies will drop equipment for your level instead—which is awesome by the way—so you can grind anywhere you like, be it against strong or weak enemies.

Now what got recommended to me was to focus on daily and weekly events. Doing these missions is not only more active and entertaining for the player, but I also gain money and I can work towards my bounties, which are these passive missions—like headshot killing 100 enemies, or melee kill 30 enemies without dying—that give you experience and faction points, the latter of which can be used to buy sweet ass equipment for level 20+ characters.

So to get to level 20 I went through the story, which is negligible at best. I can easily say I did not pay much attention to it, and maybe not because it was bad per say, but because it fell into the MMO trope, at least for me. The moment I start playing a game with a friend (or even when I was streaming games) I get too focused on the co-op / talking with people that I hardly ever pay attention to the narrative. The same exact thing happened in Halo. I never played Halo alone and to this day I could not tell you what the story was about other than you gotta go kill aliens before they wipe you out...which spoiler alert: That's more or less the gist of it in Destiny.

The missions are enjoyable at least, and the environments—Earth, the Moon, Venus and Mars—are all unique looking and are host to different enemies and factions. The smaller 2-3 person raids in each zone are like longer missions with big ass bosses at the end. They're pretty cool, but unless you're a higher level, I would suggest going in with 3 people versus 2. The larger 6 man raid is only available to people that are at least level 25, so I have yet to try it, but it's supposed to be fantastic.

A few things do bug me about Destiny though. The load times are atrocious, and I really do mean atrocious. This is like first Mass Effect elevator bad. But whatever, it won't kill me. It's a fairly minor point that won't stop anyone from buying or playing the game, but it does get in the way everywhere.

Another thing is the public events. After completing a couple of missions at each location, you get the ability to do a patrol around the map. On patrol, you can pick up inconsequential side missions that don't take too long to complete, and on occasion a public event will occur. A public event is like a mission everyone can take part in together, and they just appear on the map. They usually consist of destroying a large boss character, or defending a point from a barrage of enemies. If you've played any MMO recently, they are all starting to do this. Guild Wars 2 was one of the first games I played with public events in it and it's quite a bit of fun...you know, when there are actually people in the zone helping! The first public event I took part in, there was a ton of people joining in. It was super cool and I had a lot of fun. Every other time one appears on a map, I'm apparently the only person around to do it. It's possible to finish with a gold rating on your own, but holy shit is it hard! One of the reasons for this might be that there is a cap on how many people are in a patrol instance at any given time, and if memory serves, it's not a very large number (8-12 people I think but don't hold me to that). It's just not enough.

Final Thoughts

All-in-all I'm enjoying my time with Destiny. I love playing online with my friends, and I really want to hit level 25 to try out that large scale raid. Tune in for more next week!

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An HD Coat of Paint‏

Last week, I talked about the new Oddworld remake that just came out. Of course, this is a PS1 remake, so the developer—Just Add Water—waited long enough and really re-made the game: new graphics, animations and voiceovers.

Last generation, we experienced a similar thing, where PS2 games were remastered for the PS3. Upscaled graphics, and more importantly, an HD, 16:9 presentation made the purchase worth it. Games like Kingdom Hearts were actually built almost from the ground-up, and many seemed to have included a couple of games all in one package (Jak & Daxter, God of War, Final Fantasy X/X-2). The value is there for me since going from 4:3 to widescreen looked great, especially with new or upscaled graphics. Seriously, try playing your PS2 games now: they really don’t look that great anymore.

A nice article on Kotaku made me think: are we going to see the same trend on PS4? The Last of Us got a remastered edition. The PS4 edition was thoroughly improved with updates such as higher resolution and better framerates. But in the end, is it worth it? Maybe so, for someone who has not yet played the game. I myself wouldn’t mind returning to the game as it was easily my favorite game of 2013. With that in mind, the game was barely made 1 year ago. Moreover, I don’t think jumping from 720p to 1080p is much greater than the move from 480p to 720p. Maybe it would be if I had a 50”+ television, but the original PS3 game looked great on my 40” 1080p screen.

Anyway, I digress. My real point is: will The Last of Us open the floodgates for remastered last-gen games? I feel like it will, and I’m very indifferent about it. On one hand, some games may play much better given the better hardware; but on the other hand, I bet some developers will put a half-assed effort into re-releasing games that are barely 1 year old.

GTA V

Naughty Dog has clearly put a lot of effort into remastering The Last of Us for the new architecture, but in the end, consumers don’t really care and just assume it was easy to just port a game. Regardless, I feel that successful franchises should make use of the beefier hardware and port older games to acclimatize themselves to the new consoles’ architectures. It’d be a great learning tool and a better chance at making their following games better and faster.

I guess we’ll just have to wait and see if The Last of Us: Remastered and GTA V are big successes just like they were last year.

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My Most Anticipated PS4 Games This Fall

The upcoming holiday season seemed to have a ton of high profile games to be released. I was super hyped for The Order 1886 because of its exclusivity and phenomenal graphics. I had similar interest in Batman: Arkham Knight and The Witcher 3, but all 3 games have since been delayed until 2015. 

You might be asking yourself what even remains? Well fortunately there is still a plethora of games on my radar! These are my top 5 most anticipated games for the 2014 holiday season:

5. Assassin's Creed Unity

Some of you may be surprised that this game has made my list, mainly due to the fact that I never really sunk much time into any of the other games in the series...at least that is until AC Black Flag came out. Hailed as one of the best AC games, it's hard not to like Black Flag—especially for me since I have an unconditional love for pirates.

Unity is set during the French Revolution, and along with having its usual single-player affair, it will also include co-op for up to 4 players. Not every mission will be accessible through multiplayer, but a good amount of them should be. The combat system is also supposed to have been reworked a bit, taking a larger influence from fencing (which is cool because I used to fence). But who are they kidding: how much does Ubisoft ever really change the combat in AC games?

4. Far Cry 4

God damn it Ubisoft, you and your massive open-world games. I never played Far Cry 3, but damn if Blood Dragon (along with the second Far Cry) weren't amazing. The main reason for me being intrigued by Far Cry 4 is its change in setting. Ubisoft have opted for the Himalayas this time around instead of their usual jungle-themed maps. Because of the newly acquired verticality in the map they have added a grappling hook to the player's repertoire along with re-introducing the squirrel suit; I think this is really going to mess with the gameplay.

On top of this, Ubisoft even announced at E3 this year that Far Cry 4 (at least on the PS4) will incorporate an online 2-player co-op in which one of the users doesn't even need to own the game. I almost feel like this is impossible haha; it certainly is unprecedented—Mario Kart on the 3DS was able to achieve this locally only, not online.

3. Lords of the Fallen

A game many of you might not even know about, Lords of the Fallen creeped in during E3 and is getting shown off a bit more at the San Diego Comic-con, which is taking place as I write this. It's a hard-as-balls action-RPG that sort of looks like a cross between Demon's souls and this obscure PS3 game called Viking: Battle for Asgard. If you look at a video the combat appears to be bit sluggish, but not in a bad way, these are some burley dudes.

Lords of the Fallen is being developed by this German Studio Deck13 interactive. And though they have developed a number of games, I have never heard of any of them. This looks like it might be their biggest endeavor yet, and it does look quite good, so let's hope they can pull it off so we see more from them in the future. The only reason I placed this game higher than both Ubisoft titles is because it's new and interesting. I just hope it lives up to what my opinion of it already is.

2. Guilty Gear Xrd

I have talked about Guilty Gear Xrd many times before so it is no surprise that it is on my list. It's been many years since we received a Guilty Gear game—sure we got BlazBlue, but it just isn't the same—and I for one am glad they are returning to it. My only hope is that it doesn't get delayed till next year. As it stands right now, the game is expected to launch this year on PS3 and PS4 but has yet to receive a concrete release date. Cross your fingers folks!

1. Destiny

What do you get when you mix Borderlands with Halo? You get Destiny. Prior to this moment, I really hadn't put much stock into Destiny. I don't know why. I was never a big Halo fan. The series was fun, don't get me wrong. I just felt like the story was the same rehashed thing over and over again, and unlike the AC series who at least changed the setting up every time, Halo just always appeared the same.

This past week saw the Beta for Destiny open up to all who had the time to play. I didn't get a chance to try it out, but I know Brandon tried the Alpha a little while ago and really enjoyed himself. Because of the Beta there has been so much media coverage for Destiny and all of it looks quite amazing. I can hardly wait the 40 some odd days it will take to release. Not to mention one of my favorite genres is sci-fi and the fact that this game is rooted in our own solar system really helps ground the lore into something I can get behind.

Final Thoughts

So that's my list, adjusted for the delays. I'm sure I made a grave error by omitting your favourite game, so what did I miss? What is your most anticipated game for the holiday season? 

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The Calm Before The Storm

I'm in a sort of a lull at the moment, which was bound to happen sooner or later. Being an early adopter of the PS4, there eventually just isn't any games to play, Brandon even talked about it a couple of weeks ago...on the bright side at least I've actually beaten the games I bought, which is a little unprecedented for me.

If you want to compare launch window games (the window being the first 6 months within a console’s release) of the PS4 with the PS3, well the considerable edge goes right to the PS4. I can't even remember what I played on the PS3 outside of Virtua Fighter 5, Resistance: Fall of Man and Motorstorm...oh and Gundam: Cross Fire (haha, gotta get one of those Gundam games in there). Meanwhile on the PS4 I've already beaten games like: Knack, Thief, Assassin's Creed IV, inFamous and Tomb Raider. On top of those games, there were indie titles like Outlast, Resogun—which reminds me, I played a ton of Super Stardust on the PS3—and Don't Starve. That isn't all though. Games I didn't beat yet include the likes of Killzone and Battlefield 4.

Suffice to say the launch of the PS4 was pretty satisfying for me. The only problem now is that it's May and nothing gets released around now. I was looking at the upcoming releases for the next month or so and its slim pickings.

MayWe Have Games?

Here are a few of the more notable games releasing in the coming weeks:

A new Wolfenstein game is releasing on the 20th of May, and it does actually look pretty fun, but then I noticed it has no multiplayer...who in their right mind releases an arcade first person shooter(FPS) with no multiplayer? I don't care so much when 3rd person shooters come out with no multiplayer (they tend to be more story-driven then FPS's anyway), but Tomb Raider still had multiplayer, even if it was a load of crap. Some may argue that removing the multiplayer and focusing on the single player is the way to go, and in some cases yes, but I just can't see it in an FPS. Maybe developers have hard wired it out of me, but unless this game is like 15-20 hours, I can't really justify paying $60-70 for it when I don't have the added luxury of a multiplayer mode to extend my stay—even if it was crap, I could still sink 5-10 hours into it. I'll probably pick it up cheap next year sometime.

Also releasing on the 20th, Transistor is probably the most note worthy game coming out in this dismal time period. Developed by Supergiant Games, who are of Bastion fame, Transistor is easily the most buzz-worthy indie title to be coming to the PS4 since the console’s release, at least in my opinion. Simply put, Transistor is an action-RPG, with 2D graphics that look fantastic. And if the soundtrack follows what was heard in the launch trailer, it's going to be a hit. At the moment, Supergiant Games has a proven track record (I'm sure they can continue it).

Watch Dogs is actually releasing on the 27th of May, which easily has the biggest budget this month, but I feel as though the hype train has left the station with this one. I can't really put my finger on it, but last year this game had tons of momentum. Then it got delayed as a launch title and poof, haven't really heard much. I'll still pick it up, but I'm not really sure what to expect.

Last up, Square-Enix is publishing this really weird/interesting action-adventure mystery game on June 3rd. It's called Murdered: Soul Suspect. In it, you control Detective Ronan O'Connor who gets brutally killed right off the bat. Ronan then returns as a ghost and now you must help him try to solve his own murder so he may continue his journey to the afterlife. To be honest, I'm going off a gut feeling here. I've looked at a trailer or two, not sure what the gameplay is like either, but it sounds interesting and is different to say the least. I'll probably pick it up barring it gets horrendous reviews—it very well could considering the people behind Dark Void are developing it.

In E3 We Trust

The only real saving grace about this time period is that E3 is just around the corner! In a mere three weeks time, we will be like kids in a candy store...or at least the fat kids salivating on the windows outside.

I can't wait to see what the press conferences bring this year. Sony and Microsoft always go toe to toe and it's pretty entertaining to see how the internet reacts to it all. If either of them can get Rockstar to divulge something on stage, everyone will go nuts. Nintendo doesn't really join in on E3 anymore; at least not over the last few years. Instead what they opt to do is host their own little event where they pretty much do the same thing...apparently E3 was too expensive and loud for them. Whatever, as long as we get to hear about some new games, who cares how they do it! They just better actually bring something to the table *cough* Pokemon RPG on the Wii U, or at least something interesting for that damn console. I hate having to feign interest in it all the time, just give me something to care about!

I won't really make any predictions per say, but what I really want is to hear about the new Kingdom Hearts game, and Final Fantasy XV from Square-Enix. I've always been a huge fan of Square's games, and both of these games are being made by the same development team, which I love, so I have high hopes!

Outside of that, there are still an excess of games I want to get some news on: Star Wars Battlefront 3, Tom Clancy's The Divison, that Sci Fi Call of Duty game, Destiny, Halo 5 and Sony even has that new virtual reality head set to show off. The build up to E3 is usually unbearably long and I don't see it being any shorter this year.

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Just Playing Some PS7

Having bought a PS4 a month ago has given me some buyer’s remorse, not because of the console itself, but the lack of games so far. I saw it coming, yet I still bit the bullet and bought the console early. So far, I’ve only played 5 games, which have been more or less great (inFamous, Tomb Raider, Thief, Resogun and Mercenary Kings), but I still see myself going back to some great last gen games. Don’t get me wrong, I can’t wait for the games to start rolling out on the next gen consoles, but as of right now, there are simply better, new games rolling out on the older consoles.

Why not both?

For instance, Dark Souls 2 was just released recently, and people seem to be enjoying it immensely.  A friend of mine is so vocally ecstatic over this game that it makes me think I should give the Souls series a second chance. I have, unfortunately, given up after playing Demon’s Souls for about 10 hours, primarily because of its difficulty level, but the challenge was fun. Moreover, the satisfaction of defeating enemies in this series was its selling point, but long story short: I just wish there was a PS4 port. I don’t think there’ll be anything of the sort. Now, before you retort,

Child of Light was recently released on every platform under the sun. It flew under my radar (did anyone else hear of this game before its release?) and is receiving universal acclaim. The game is about 12 hours from what I hear, which seems to be great value, and I’m certainly yearning to play another RPG. My last RPG was Ni No Kuni and as such, I welcome this game with open arms (she’s definitely a looker too…the game that is).

Sure, there’s a few great downloadable titles on PS4 – Resogun is fun and all, but it feels less intense in comparison to Super Stardust HD. Mercenary Kings was charming when I played couch co-op with Adam, but I don’t see myself playing much more if I’m alone at home. Octodad: Dadliest Catch is a quirky title for PC/Mac/Linux and PS4, in which you are an octopus pretending to be a man. You also have a human family, and nobody seems to suspect you aren’t a human. It’s funny but this game really isn’t that long, and for me, the novelty would probably wear off quickly.

The one thing in common with these games: they’re all relatively short indie titles.   This is fine and all, but I’m really waiting for the meatier, longer, bigger showings.

The Last of Us Remastered is due to come out later this year, but I’m not willing to shell out another $70 on a game I've already played. Hopefully they offer some sort of discount for people who already own the PS3 version.

From Software (developers of the Souls series) is rumored to be working on a new title for the next gen consoles.  Whatever the game is, it’s probably going to be better than a PS4 port of Dark Souls 2. I’ll probably end up buying both anyway.

Call of Duty yada yada yada. Advanced Warfare blah blah blah. Kevin Spacey. To be honest, I haven’t played a CoD game since Black Ops, so I might give this one a shot when it arrives on PS4. However, I highly doubt it will be any better than the PS3/Xbox 360 versions.

Same thing applies to Watch Dogs. But seriously, if I wanted to watch dogs, I’ll just go to the dog park. And why does the cover art have a masked man with a gun? What kind of dog watcher is he?

Is it worth buying a PS4 right now? Probably not. The console is a great update from the PS3, but the lack of PS4 offerings has forced me to turn my PS3 on more than my PS4.  It’s only normal since it’s just the beginning of the product’s life cycle, and I guess I’m one of the early adopters.

Maybe it’s just that the PS3 is a familiar face, in which I was used to turning it on and pushing its buttons. She’s been with me since 2008, so it’s hard to let her go. PS4 is new to me. She’s faster, sleeker, and I guess this all makes me nervous. Sure, she has the same buttons as the PS3, but I don’t know what order to push them in. I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it soon.

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The Second Coming - inFamous: Second Son Review

Since Adam was nice enough to lend me his copy of inFamous: Second Son, I figured I’d do a small review and give my thoughts on it. I’ll try to leave any spoilers out, and FYI, I played on normal difficulty.

So to begin, you play as Delsin Rowe, a native/Amerindian man of the Akomish tribe. Delsin goes about doing petty crimes, while his brother Reggie (a police officer) pesters him continuously about it. Long story short, a truck crashes near the Akomish reservation, and some criminals escape. You end up saving one of them and accidentally grab his power – smoke. You also end up meeting the antagonist, Augustine, who has the power of concrete. She is head of the D.U.P. (Department of Unified Protection) which is tasked to rid the streets of Seattle from “Bio-Terrorists” – aka people with powers, such as Delsin. 

Augistine has the bitch-face down pat

Smoking Hot Positives

The storyline is presented effectively and allows the game to flow nicely. It’s nothing overly complicated and is rather satisfying in its simplicity. The characters you meet feel fleshed out and allow for a smooth progression of the story. I find that many games have iffy moments in storytelling, but not so in Second Son. A second playthrough of the evil or good side (whichever you didn’t pick first) is probably warranted because the story is different. Characters’ feelings for you change – I’ve only just begun to play as “evil” and I can already tell there’s a difference.

Graphically-speaking, this game is top notch. Being an open world game could have its problems, but the problems I see in this genre are minimized. Pop-in of cars or people happened maybe once or twice through my first playthrough. Frame rates stay very steady; I believe reports show it hitting 40-45 frames per second and dipping to about 25-30 during busy scenes. All of this allows for smooth, seamless gameplay. Personally, I only experienced very minor slowdown at most 5 times throughout the game. Boss battles ran perfectly, so gameplay was not really affected.

Intense action aside, taking a step back to explore has its merits. 1080p games sure do look good, infamous being a prime example. I loved stopping to look at the skyline or the great rain effects.

Gameplay doesn’t stray too far from the rest of the series. You choose which powers to learn as you collect more blast shards, just like the last two inFamous games. You get multiple powers, so this allows you to vary your play style, unlike in the previous titles of this series. Besides story-based missions, you can foray into enemy territory and rid zones of the enemy.

Concrete-Crushing Negatives:

So I get it: you’re supposed to use your powers to defend, attack, and climb buildings, but I just felt that regular climbing (without powers) was half-assed.  I’ve come to appreciate Assassin’s Creed’s climbing mechanics, and as such, it’s a gold standard when it comes to climbing. Hell, how about Uncharted? The climbing mechanics were just fine; and correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t Sucker Punch and Naughty Dog buddies? They should have sought after some helpful tips from Naughty Dog.

Each area (called district in the game) has something called a District Showdown: a final fight in the area, you could say. The fights brought nothing original, just a horde of troops you’ve seen before. I feel like this was a missed opportunity, as it would’ve been nice to see some original mini-bosses show up.

On a minor note, sometimes I just wish there was a cover system. Again, I know I’m supposed to use my powers to evade attacks, but sometimes there just seems to be well-placed obstacles—obstacles I could have used to my advantage. There’s no way to cover, and no real cover animation when you stand behind a tall enough obstacle.

Final Thoughts
The pros vastly outweigh the cons for Second Son. The game is really fun, has some replay value, and is generally a step in the right direction for the series. In reality, my problems with the game are forgettable and minor.

Moreover, it’s the first game any PS4 owner should check out. It’s not really “next-gen” in some senses, but it sure looks gorgeous.

Random Thoughts

Sucker Punch has some good sense of humor. My favorite line from an NPC: “I have a Delsin tattoo on my ass”.

I liked the cover song of “Heart-Shaped Box” at the end credits of the game.

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The Platinum Card

I consider myself to be a bit of an on again/off again trophy hunter, a comment which I'll shed some light on before continuing. You see, when the PS3 and 360 came out, everyone was going nuts for achievement points. When Sony finally released trophies (which took nearly 2 years after launching the PS3) I was all over that shit. Of course after a year or 2 it became more of a hassle then an enjoyment and I started playing games to just play them again instead of trying to pad my stats.

Cue the Ps4 release and I find myself elusively hunting for those trophies again. My rationale though, is that I'm streaming nearly everything I play now and with the speed at which I complete a game’s story, trophy hunting is the next best thing to extend that game’s lifespan.

Now that you're safely out of my head, let’s get back on track. Recently I got the platinum trophy (100% completion) in inFamous: Second Son. Moreover, I wanted to look at this accomplishment from a trophy hunter’s prospective.

First things first though, this game was amazing! I loved it. The powers were cool, the story tug at the heart strings when it needed to, the pacing was great, and I found the entire experience to be quite a deal more focused than other open-world action titles. I did however feel that the older games in the series did have more content in the world than Second Son. The side missions felt more like side distractions: usually side “missions” have a sort of overarching narrative while these did not. Every mission you did as Delsin (the main protagonist) was story-relevant and progress the plot forward meaningfully. This isn't a bad thing by any stretch of the imagination; like I said, the game was focused, which I feel too many AAA games now a day's are jam packed with filler.

Trophy wise, the game was a joke. I almost feel bad getting the Platinum because it was so very easy, to the point where I almost feel dirty for getting it. I guess I'm kind of weird or stupid; or better yet, maybe I’m just difficult. I feel that it's challenging for developers to come up with achievements/trophies which effectively extend the lifespan of a video game. Developers either mail it in and make them un-challenging or they make them so impossibly hard and/or time consuming that you must spend like 100+ hours on a 10 hour game just to get them. Some games have the perfect balance. For instance I feel Resogun (ps4 downloadable game) has this, although I have yet to platinum it yet.

Second Son, sitting in the former camp, was very straight forward. The player pretty much has to beat the game twice, once playing as a Hero and in the next play through, you behave all villainous-like (with one session being played on normal ideally, and the second on hard mode). There were a few trophies thrown in there after the fact that required some extra gusto, such as killing one enemy with 3 different powers or staying afloat in the air for more than 45 seconds (which I thought would be harder than it actually was).

Moral dilemma... Those graphics though!

Now, yes it was easy, however the developers did one thing...one thing…that annoyed me to no end. They made it so you couldn't skip the cutscenes! In this day and age, who can't skip cutscenes? On the first play through it didn't matter, but when I have to play the game a second time, it would at least be beneficial to skip over previously watched cutscenes.

We shall see how long I can keep this going. So far on my Ps4 I have platinumed (in chronological order): Knack, Lego Marvel, Strider, Thief and now Second Son. Additionally, I'm on my way towards Dead Nation and Resogun. Looking back at my list, the last PS3 game I Plat'ed was Just Cause 2, which was in 2010...That very well might be the reason I stopped in the first place. My advice to you: never attempt to get all the achievements/trophies in a sand box game, it's not worth it.

Completely unrelated, I'm going to leave you with this: I started playing Mercenary Kings, which is free in April if you have Ps+, right after finishing Second Son. The only reason I bring it up is because the music is awesome and I desperately wished to share it with you!

So awesome... foreshadowing anyone? 

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Mindless Fun

It's practically April now and living here in Montreal guess what we get? A nice layer of snow! Now I love winter and snow; going out to parks and playing ice hockey whenever you want is awesome, so is skiing and drunk tobogganing... but once it hits April, I think everyone has just about had their fill and this trend needs to end.

On the topic, one trend I'm quickly not becoming a fan of is the lack of booklets accompanying my games. Currently none of the Ps4 games I own come with a physical manual... or so I thought. I picked up Dynasty Warriors 8 Extreme Legends and to my pleasant surprise, there it was! I barely skimmed it of course but it's Dynasty Warriors; of all the games to get a manual it's probably the only one that doesn't need it.

My Booklet!

Way back when, it wasn't really customary to have any sort of heavy tutorials in games (especially if we're talking Ps1/N64 days). If you were playing an RPG, it was almost mandatory to read the literature. I was going over my old Ps1 games last week, trying to organize the chaos, and I was astonished by the amount of games that were one disc but still needed the double jewel case just because the manuals were crazy thick. Skip ahead a few generations and booklets are becoming extinct. Now the way things are going, I can understand, but in my mind this is more about tradition: you buy a game, you get a book!

Now I don't know when this happened to the series, but they started taking some pretty huge liberties when it comes to crazy stuff they add. I've mostly played story mode and the way stages are set up, you have a choice between 3-5 different characters (there are like 80 in total, it is nuts). One level there was this big burly dude with a beard called Huang Gai, who looked cool so I took him. Each character has 2 weapons they bring into battle: a primary weapon, which is character-specific, and secondary weapon, which can be chosen by the player. Looking at this guy’s little weapon icon, I swear it looked like a canoe but all I could think was "it can't be can it?!". Low and behold, this guy goes into battle beating people up with a boat. HE EVEN STARTS SURFING IT! It was crazy and I couldn't stop laughing... He is currently my favorite character.

Land Surfing!

Moving on, there isn't a whole lot else I can say about Dynasty Warriors 8 (if you've played one than you've pretty much played them all). If you are unaware of the series, it is pretty much a beat 'em up, button mashing bonanza and if mindless fun doesn't bother you, it's one of the best ones out there (competition in the genre is slim though). Aside from the Dynasty Warrior Gundam series, I haven't touched a DW game since maybe the 4th one on Ps2 about 10 years ago.

Story wise, all of the DW series revolves around an ancient Chinese novel called Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which is part true and part legend. Unless you know anything about that sort of thing, it is pretty hard to follow I'm not going to lie. Fortunately if you care at all, the game comes with an incredibly extensive encyclopedia which has all kinds of information about the provinces, characters, weapons, wars, etc.

Of course this type of game isn't for everyone. Aside from different looking environments, they might as well be interchangeable. There is a huge amount of content in here, multiple story campaigns, a challenge mode, even something called ambition mode which see's you build an empire to compete against other empires. All that sounds amazing but much like the environments, everything is pretty much interchangeable.  Characters do all act differently though, and with the massive amount of weapons in the game, you'll always have something new to see. And hey, if you've never seen someone beat people up with a boat, now is your chance!

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