Console's Showdown: Strengths/Weaknesses & E3 Approaching

Sony's PS4

Currently has

• Strong emphasis on Gaming, slick interface, Indies, Netflix & other apps don't need PS+, 1st Party Exclusives & 3rd Party Support

Current Good Exclusives: Infamous: Second Son, Killzone: Shadowfall, flower, Resogun, Towerfall: Ascension, Don't Starve

​Needs work with

• 1st Party Games
• Robust Features
• Robust Online system

Future Exclusives to Look Forward To: The Order: 1886, Drive Club, The Last of Us Remastered, future Uncharted title in dev

Microsoft's Xbox One

Currently has

• Strong emphasis on entertainment, slick interface, Live & TV services, 1st Party Exclusives & 3rd Party Support

Current Good Exclusives: Forza Motorsport 5, Dead Rising 3, Ryse: Son of Rome, +Titanfall, Killer Instinct, Powerstar Golf, Zoo Tycoon, Xbox Fitness, *Peggle 2, *Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare *Timed Exclusive, +Microsoft Exclusive

Needs work with

• Games
• Price
• Indie support
• Robust Features

Future Exclusives to Look Forward To: Kinect Sports Rivals, Halo 2 Anv., Quantum Break, Sunset Overdrive, Halo 5, Fable Legends, future Gears of War title in dev, rumored Halo 3 & 4 HD ports/Forza Horizon's sequel/Crackdown 3

Nintendo's Wii U

Currently has

• Strong emphasis on Gaming, 1st Party Games

Current Good Exclusives: Super Mario 3D World, The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD, Pikmin 3, New Super Mario Bros. U, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, The Wonderful 101, Nintendo Land

​Needs work with

• Games
• 3rd Party Support
• Robust Features
• Robust Online system

Future Exclusives to Look Forward To: Mario Kart 8, Super Smash Bros Wii U, Bayonetta 2, Hyrule Warriors, X, Zelda HD title in dev

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Current Good Multiplatform Games: Battlefield 4, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, NBA 2K14, Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition, Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare, Call of Duty: Ghosts, FIFA 14, Rayman Legends, NFS: Rivals, Strider, Lego Marvel Super Heroes

Future Multiplatform Games, most spill into PC too, To Look Forward To: Child of Light, Wolfenstein: The New Order, The Elder Scrolls Online, Watch Dogs, Destiny, Evolve, The Evil Within, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor, Alien: Isolation, Dying Light, The Crew, Project Cars, Mad Max, Mirror's Edge, Batman: Arkham Knight, Tom Clancy's The Division, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Looking forward to E3, it's coming up pretty soon. What will we see there, what's going to be announced and what is going to send ripples in the current console showdown? Games, lots of games since last E3 was all about the hardware, this year's E3 is all about the games!

Metal Gear Solid Fame or Metal Gear Solid Shame

Big Boss is angry, contempt, it's kinda hard to tell?

Recently the masses got their hands on the latest Metal Gear Solid game called Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeros. When I say masses, I really mean it, as this game's release is available on PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. The game is a prequel and a starting point for the much bigger Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, coming later sometime in 2015. The events take place right after Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker and the focus this time around is with Big Boss in an action-adventure stealth environment set in a new shiny open world Fox Engine. With the game releasing for either $30 (physical copy) and $20(digitally copy) many have questioned the legitimacy of such a short demo, which is said to have 2 hours of gameplay for the main story, at such a high price.

Each system has its own exclusive bonus or visual flare.

No matter your opinion on the price and value of this title, one can positively say that it doesn't feel like a full fledged video game release. What the masses are getting is a little snip-it of what and how developer Kojima will be utilizing the Fox Engine to bring a whole new era of Metal Gear Solid. In my eyes though I feel like this is the console's first version of "early access" which has been a staple on the PC marketplace for some time now-and an opportunity for a struggling studio to take advantage of their fans. Developers are allowed to charge players an early-access charge in Valve's Steam program and digital giant distribution service. In trade, players get to toy around with the latest game still in progress, as given like VIP passes to experience all of the game. Often or not these games are at such an early process in their development that many key features are still missing or the developers go back to the drawing board wiping their current progress to start a new. Here Kojima has allowed people to toy around and mess around with Metal Gear Solid's new engine and get a piece of the story puzzle along the way, for a price.

Starbound is a notorious early-access game available on Steam, which has seen many server wipes over its development.

As the game came out there were reports that a speed run had clocked in the game in 10 minutes. Other reports were that if you did everything in the game, side missions and collectibles and all, it would go around to 6 - 8 hours of play. In my eyes, that's not much of a value but diehard fans have jumped on board to what I hope doesn't become an industry trend. Critical reception have also poured out for the game as many are hailing the game since it's behind the Metal Gear Solid franchise pedigree veil, eager to get more from the impending release of MGSV: The Phantom Pain. However take for example how Capcom, yet another Eastern developer and publisher, allowed players to sample a bit of the next installment of the Dead Rising franchise.

Dead Rising 2: Case Zero, a downloadable Xbox Live Arcade game, which ties the story from Dead Rising 1 to Dead Rising 2, allowed players a glimpse of what to expect with the next installment, acquire XP to bring over into Dead Rising 2 and all for a $5 digital entrance fee. At that time some people thought $5 for a demo, something you'll no doubt hear some echo about the MGSV: GZ release, was too much. You can think however you want on the value for MGSV: Ground Zeros, as that can always be debatable, but one things for sure, "early-access" has breached the console environment. Games are expensive, publishers don't want to take high risks and if they can get some cash from gamers eager to play the latest while a future game is in development then they'll no doubt continue this trend. It's just smart business, although due to it being relatively new a business that's taking advantage of gamers at the moment.

Dead Rising 2: Case Zero, let players experience the improvements over Dead Rising 1 in a small bit sized Xbox Live Arcade chunk.

I don't think this is advantageous for gamers out there. Even though many would love to test-drive a new game that's in development, as we're seeing more and more closed and open Betas for titles about to launch, I just don't get that motivation as I'd rather play a finished/polished product. However with a Beta program, you're not paying 30 or 20 dollars to play. The developer of Rust on the PC for example even urged players not to buy into the product he was still working on and stated it wasn't finished, had plenty of bugs that needed to be fixed and wasn't the final experience that he wanted gamers to experience. That didn't stop millions from plopping down their money to join in on the latest talked about the video game, as after all video games are in the entertainment medium sharing such other water cooler topics with movies and TV shows.

If anything I'll laugh if this "glorified demo" is included in the release of MGSV: The Phantom Pain , as the demo of MGS 2 was included originally with the copy of Zone of the Enders for free! It just strikes me funny when critical sources harp on how a game like Titanfall or Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare feel "bare bones" due to no meaty single player questioning the full asking price, $60/$30 respectively, yet when it came to the MGSV GZ game you rarely heard such acquisitions. It's a slippery slope we're heading down here and it's apparent the industry is changing, sometimes you hope the non-advantageous shifts come out being trends and not standards.

Weekend Gaming, ready set GO!

It's Friday and all that means is start the weekend, what game or games are you playing this weekend?! For me I'm going to continue to blaze through the tricky streets and cliff adjacent tracks in Codemaster's GRiD 2. There's so many things that can go wrong while racing; an opponent runs into you, you oversteer right into a cliff face, you mess up that last corner before the finish line, mess up a corner on a perfect lap, etc etc. Good thing there's flashback, a feature that Codemaster's introduced into the racing genre with the first GRiD five years ago. Yeah, it's kind of a staple in the racing genre now as other competing games allow you to undo that horrific crash which has probably lessened many frustrated gamers out there - I know it's helped me out. I might pick up and play some Halo 4 matches as it seems 343 Studios has tweaked the weapons to feel a bit more competitive. It's nice that that community is still staying strong. Yes community, flashbacks, weekend, I'm getting at E3 and you'll soon see why.

Well or you could drive too close to a cliff.

It's the weekend yet all I can think about is next week. It's funny, it seems the days before E3 always go slower while E3 rushes by in one quicker than normal week. On Monday we're going to see keynote events from Microsoft which will show off their Xbox One intended games, Sony which will show the games - oh man I can't wait to see some Destiny gameplay - and more importantly their system, and the next day Nintendo will have their Nintendo Direct - the first year Nintendo will not actually have a press event - which people will be able to download on Nintendo products. You wonder if after all three go ahead and show their stuff - don't forget EA & Ubisoft will show as well - if anyone company would be willing to use a flashback to undo what they just did. I'm predicting this will be Microsoft as they've just revealed some astounding limitations that their Xbox One will have in regards to its consumer (the paying one too).

Of course the second to best thing about E3 is the gaming community that follows after it. The discussions while it's taking place, the viral videos many will link, and of course the aftermath where everyone talks about who won E3. We have a competitive nature towards everything, it's not just racing. Someone has to win it, someone has to be the one to cross the finish line before everyone else. It's always fun to see who's going to bring the goods at these things. I'm hoping we'll see some real innovation here, this year it's all about the consoles entering the market. Not only will there be the Xbox One, Sony PS4 but also the Ouya, possibility of a Steambox reveal and we just learned Mad Catz wants in on the console market with the project M.O.J.O.. That's a bit severe in my mind, this happened last time when the Sega Saturn tried to join the mix with the N64 and PS1 and it didn't go well for an overcrowded market.

E3 is fast approaching!

If you ask anyone who plays games, probably a majority of them will say yeah they get excited when E3, or the Electronic Entertainment Expo, rolls around every year. To the hardcore gamers this is like the Superbowl of the video game industry. To many of the mass audience that plays games but doesn't wade through gaming forums E3 is a week of gaming news and trailers that help define what's coming. Well E3 is less than a week away and many sites already have "This is what I want to see at E3" so I'll just cover it in general.

This year's E3 should be a good one specifically due to the big two Sony and Microsoft going to show off their very new next-gen consoles to a global audience. Everyone is watching, even people that don't focus heavily on games, let's be honest these consoles are two computers that let you do about anything on them. Surf the internet, - check - watch streaming TV and movies, - check - keep in contact with your friends -check. Microsoft caught a lot of flak targeting their first - as they claim their big press event & console reveal is segmented into two parts - segment on all of what the general public is probably interested in. Now at E3 we're supposed to get the second segment, the games!

Oh man and they've promised a lot with 15 titles upcoming for the Xbox One with 8 of which are new IPs. There will be many many games shown off at E3 this year but many are interested to see what one two punch Microsoft comes out with swinging. Why should people be bothered to upgrade their gaming console if they're quite content with what they have right now. The main thing it looks like that will influence this decision is the ever connected gaming world where players will experience persistent worlds. Many people on the PC front are already putting up their arms in shrugging fashion noting they can do that already on their computers. True, but I think it's now going to become a global invasion to every player on this planet. As the years go by and we all get more connected we're going to find ourselves immersed in a social gaming environment which I feel will only strengthen this beloved hobby of many.

Something New, Yet Familiar.

Something new, it's what keeps things going, it's what keeps things fresh and it often at times goes hands in hand with a concept that's been around for a while. For this instance it's the norm that becomes the standard, the mediocre, the uninspired that always has the chance to suffocate great originality  I recently finally watched the remake movie X-Men: First Class. Being an avid fan of the previous X-Men movies I was actually fairly excited about a remake of such a classic story that originated from flipped panels of intricate artwork. I was also sort of put off that they were already making yet another X-Men movie. With the days of the next Wolverine or The Hulk movies, it can be quite tiring - and usually people loose interest in the content matter. Assassin's Creed comes to mind (slow the heck down Ubisoft, you're killing your own creation).

Having recently experienced completing the game Bioshock Infinite two days after its release - I was immersed and driven to explore the game's world and story - and having watched the X-Men remake I came to a conclusion, story-telling needs brave and creative ideas to keep an audience entertained. However more on that later though as it seems the remake model is the successful method of the future with as can be seen in the movie and gaming industry.

Just recently I ordered the Collector's Edition of Tomb Raider (2013), the remake that finds Lara Croft finding herself, so to speak. I am eager to jump into the world crafted by the original creators of such an iconic franchise. A lot of new concepts and ideas were brought into the fray for this game including even giving Tomb Raider a multiplayer arena.  This adapts the franchise with the rest of the already connected global audience that play games against or with people online. There's also tons to do within the game with an open world like design set in place to again adapt to the growing popularity of choice. Are you with us or against us, Paragon/Renegade, etc.

Going back to Bioshock Infinite though I had found myself all caught up with the world that I had fallen in love with - metaphorically of course I would never want to live in such places - as previously experienced from the original Bioshock. When people played the first Bioshock it was a vastly new experience, from the world, the characters and even the combat that players carried out in a Utopia city underwater. We learned and discovered about a society that became made with power, so many variations of power might I add. In Bioshock Infinite the story really ramps up and the combat and new imaginative setting really captures own's imagination and sense of play.

After completing Bioshock Infinite and taking a step back from being immersed and living in a world where Nationalism was deemed a norm and revolution was right around the corner, I sat back and really breathed in the fresh new concept the people of Irrational Games had so handily crafted. As to not spoil anything I will just mention that the ending was totally not predicted nor was the city in the floating sky or the affection I would feel for an AI character, Elizabeth. I've played many video games before but never have I felt such a philosophical feeling as I did finishing Bioshock Infinite - Mass Effect 3 was close in this regards only to the state of constantly contemplating the game after weeks of completion.

With X-Men, Bishock and Tomb Raider we see innovation through risk, through daring story-telling and that I believe is what will keep each respected industry going. With next-gen systems coming around the corner one can only be so optimistic that more studios will want to generate more quality work through new ideas and innovation instead of blatant cash ins or sequels that run a series into the ground. It's ok to have a cash in here or there, as I know it's hard to stay afloat as a creative studio these days, but injecting some creativity and moxy into this industry will keep it from stagnating or worse loosing fans in a drawn out war of attrition.

The Used Games War

News broke that a next gen system unofficially termed the Xbox 720 - not pictured above - will not allow people with used games to access them. An activation code will be used initially when the consumer puts it into the system and thus eliminating the ability of a second hand exchange since the game's activation code will have already been used. Of course in order to verify this code your system will have to be connected online.

Many however are wondering if this will be a similar concept to DRM techniques seen on the PC market. With this part of the market piracy is rampant due to almost all PCs sold having a burning disc drive device. To contradict this piracy strict DRM has been put in place where the common denominator is you have to be connected online in order to play said game. Often times being thrown back to the main menu when a connection to the authorization server has been lost and initially, when this concept was first used -as it appears to be learned via the mass complaining of gamers that ironically conveyed this outrage through an online connection-, loosing all your progress since your last save.

Rumors about Sony doing something similar with their next gen system unofficially termed the PS4 -again not pictured above - have also arose due to Sony patents found online that talk about a system the tags games for this similar process. See the gist of things here is the system will read the game's tag, similar to the activation codes that Microsoft will implement with their 720, allegedly, but instead not require an online connection as the authorization process is done via the hardware as opposed to an online server. However similarly this will cut the used games market out as a game that's already been tagged with a specific system will not work on another. That's the whole point of this DRM technique.

I modded my original Xbox way back in the day because it didn't allow me to watch movies without going out and buying a remote for movie playback, while this feature was do-able right out of the box as per modders discoveries. If I feel like a company is putting restrictions on the product I purchased then I feel you as a consumer have a right to complain. These companies want to dictate what you can and can not do with their product and will often ban you from live if you're found to be a "cheater". Now obviously this doesn't go so far that you have to get authorities involved because of illegal actions being carried out. Still the ability to play used games, and thus either try out a game you're not sure about -or to save money picking up a used copy, on a console is paramount to many many consumers out there that enjoy the video game industry. Online passes and DLC have been put in place to deter consumers from pawning off their unused games for a little cash or bonuses towards the latest and greatest.

Oh I also highly bet that, just like the online pass, that you'll be able to buy another code with the gracious action of handing over your credit card. I really hope that does not happen, publishers are already getting their cake and eating it too, as the saying goes.