PlayStation

Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX Preview (video)

by Sohrab Osati | Jun 23, 2013 | 0 comments

Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX is a collection of three Kingdom Hearts games, remastered in HD and exclusive to the PS3. This includes Kingdom Hearts 1 Final Mix, Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories, and Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. With Square Enix barely offering a game worth playing this generation, Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX marks a change of pace and a game worthy of purchasing from the once dominant company.

In edition to improved HD graphics, games will include additional bosses and improved controls for the Disney/Final Fantasy RPG crossover. After the jump, a video preview from out time with the game at E3.

PS4 Pre-Orders at Amazon, GameStop Forecast Big Launch

by Brien Bell | Jun 21, 2013 | 5 comments

To say that PlayStation 4 pre-orders are going well might be selling things short. When Andrew House unveiled the price of the PS4 last week, retailers like GameStop, Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, and more were quick to get the console pre-order pages active. Amazon sold out of the Launch Edition of the PS4 and the Day One Edition of the competing Xbox One in the first 24 hours–though Amazon’s stock of the new Microsoft console has been revised and the Day One edition is once again available for sale. The PS4, meanwhile, continues to hold fast with five of the top 10 items on Amazon’s Video Game Best Sellers being PS4 hardware (including the standalone DualShock 4 controller), while the PlayStation 4 Launch Edition is already the second best-selling video game-related merchandise on Amazon in 2013. Throw in The Last of Us (#2) and a $20 PSN card (#6) and you’ve got a strong Sony presence on the online retail giant’s hottest trends this week.

But Amazon isn’t the only place that has been changing their forecast on PS4 pre-order sales. According to a memo received by GameTrailers.com’s Side Mission blog, GameStop employees have been told that “the flood gates are open” for PS4 pre-orders. The full text of the memo, as acquired by GameTrailers, is as follows:

‘The Last of Us’ Devs, Neil Druckmann & Bruce Strale Interview Reveals Interesting Insight to Game Development

by Sohrab Osati | Jun 20, 2013 | 0 comments

Those who know me in real life will attest to my monstrous collection of movies of once on DVD and now on Blu-ray. For me, it’s not just about being a film buff though I am and instead, more about what it takes to bring these huge ideas to screen. Be it a movie or now a game, millions of dollars and hundreds of hours are spent in order to craft a tale worth telling.

When it comes to the finished product, the game industry, much like the film industry though tends to focus on the same generic questions and debates when it comes to interviews instead of focusing on the people behind the team. Who are these people and what struggles did they have to over come to create the product that they delivered. Sometimes the results are less than stellar and other times, you have a masterpiece on your hand like The Last of Us. Thanks to a great interview by Greg Miller of IGN with Neil Druckmann & Bruce Strale, the lead devs on the game, we are able to get some unique insight on how The Last of Us could have sucked.

PS3 Uncharted 3 GOTY Edition Bundle Updated With a Year of PS+

by Sohrab Osati | Jun 20, 2013 | 3 comments

While PS4 might be the new popular kid on the block, lets not forget that the PS3 is still king when it comes to units sold. In fact, currently the PS3 sits 77.7 million units sold while the PS4 is at zero. Joking aside, Sony knows that despite the arrival of the PS4 later this year, that the PS3 will continue to sell for years to come. In fact for Sony, the PS3 continues to be a big part of their strategy with built in features like Music & Video Unlimited and Blu-ray, a format they helped co-create. In order to keep things exciting, Sony has updated the PS3 Uncharted 3 Game of the Year Edition bundle.

Sony’s Reaction Xbox One $499 Price Tag

by Sohrab Osati | Jun 19, 2013 | 2 comments

The two defining moments of E3 this year were during the PlayStation press conference and neither had anything to do with a specific game though both would impact the gaming community greatly. For those who attend, they’ll easily remember the explosion of applause when Sony would announce their used game policy which was in polar opposite of what Microsoft had announced earlier that day and one that Gears of War developer Cliff Bleszinski strongly agrees with. Ironically, for the most part, Sony’s strategy was to announce that they would keep things as is so the no news was the big news. This of course meant that gamers could lend their games to friends, be able to sell and trade their old titles, and not need an internet connection to play games, even if they were single player.

The other defying moment? The $399 price tag which meant that the PS4 would cost $100 less than the Xbox One. After the jump, Sony’s Scott Rohde, head of Sony Worldwide Studios Software Product Development reaction.

Editorial: Is Cliff Bleszinski’s Used Game Views the Problem or the Fix the Industry Needs?

by Sohrab Osati | Jun 18, 2013 | 1 comment

Gears of War developer Cliff Bleszinski has never been shy about his thought process. Be it his thoughts on what journalists have to say or his views on the used game market, Cliff tends to talk without the usual PR filter. On its own, this is a refreshing and welcomed trait and I hope we see more of from those who are in position of knowledge and can help bring change to our industry. But unfiltered words should also not be taken for the gospel. Taking to his Twitter account, Cliff has been weighing in on the used game discussion which has only escalated in the past week with the PS4 being far more liberal towards selling and lending games while Microsoft has created their next gen system with a lot of restrictions.

In a nutshell, Cliff believes that the used game market is killing off AAA titles. He argues that with production costs rising with each generation and fans demanding more and more, there is little room for loss of profit which he believes used games cause. Instead, gamers need to pay full retail price in order to help support the AAA games that they want.

After the jump, Cliffs actual words and an interesting rebuttal from Jim Sterling of Destructoid.

Dear Readers, What Won You Over at E3?

by Sohrab Osati | Jun 16, 2013 | 2 comments

There is always a lot of talk after a show like E3 of who won and who lost. Like all real things though, the outcome is far more complicated then that. While Nintendo didn’t bother to really show up, Sony and Microsoft were poised to butt heads with more concrete information about the PS4 and Xbox One. Being a long time PlayStation fan, I have to say that there are parts of the Xbox One vision that I get and connect with. Still, a lot of the announcements and news from the Xbox camp the past month has been purely bizarre and anti-consumer in some ways while Sony has been able to better connect to gamers. With an array of exclusive games like Killzone: Shadow Fall, inFamous: Second Son, The Last of Us, Beyond: Two Souls Gran Turismo 6, and Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5, Sony had game after game to show for PlayStation at E3.

This of course doesn’t mean that there weren’t a host of other good content out there. Microsoft has been able to woe in EA/Popcap and get a timed exclusive for Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare while long time favorite series of mine, Command & Conquer is once again to PC with a new entry. All of this translates as a victory for gamers with lots of old favorites making debuts like Call of Duty and Battlefield while new IP’s like Puppeteer, Tearaway, and Titanfall had plenty of spotlight left for themselves.

Guerrilla Games Devs Walk Through ‘Killzone: Shadow Fall’

by Sohrab Osati | Jun 16, 2013 | 0 comments

Guerrilla Games, the PlayStation exclusive developers have proved time and time again that they’re able to master the PlayStation in a way that few developers ever will be able to do. From the release of Killzone for PS2, many pointed towards the game looking like a next gen title and that voice only grew from the controversial PS3 trailer that many pointed towards only being possible if it was done in CG. Well, the team would eventually deliver Killzone 2 and 3, two of the most gorgeous looking games on the PS3 though the games were criticized for their lack of color, due to the environment (Helghan home world) that they took place on.

With such a history, it should come as no surprise that the team was once again present at the initial PS4 announcement, way back in February with another gorgeous game, Killzone: Shadow Fall. This time, the world depicted before our eyes was colorful and alive with pedestrians and flying ships in middle of a metropolis with waterfalls running down the side of buildings. Surely this time around, this was all a pre-rended show. Wrong again and to tackle that head on, the team from Guerrilla Games would take the stage during E3 to play through the shown level and explore in ways not seen before, something that’s only possible in a live game. A fantastic 21 minute video awaits you, after the jump.

Just How Big is the PlayStation 4? Let’s Compare

by Brien Bell | Jun 15, 2013 | 5 comments

The PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One have been revealed in all their glory. The press, the retailers, the investors, the developers, they’ve all had their hands and eyes on the two boxes for the better half of a week. For those of us at home, we’re left wondering one crucial thing: just how are these things going to fit under my television?

The folks over at PSMania.net may have your answer. While Microsoft has not revealed the exact dimensions of the Xbox One, the clever folks at this PlayStation fansite have cobbled together a pretty good estimation based on, of all things, the size of the system’s USB ports. Since USB port sizes are standard, it gave them a good basis from which to determine the rest of the system’s size. Take all these measurements with a grain of salt, but here’s a look at the launch and slim models of the PS3 and Xbox 360, and the revealed models of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4:

How Does PlayStation Thank Their Developers at E3?

by Brien Bell | Jun 14, 2013 | 4 comments

PlayStation loves developers. They even made shirts up to prove it. But how do you show your big partners just how much you appreciate them? Why, custom PlayStation 3s, of course!

Adam Boyes, Vice President of Developer Relations for PlayStation and one of the men responsible for this awesome video, took to Twitter on the last day of E3 to show off some of the wonderful custom PS3 units being given to some of the biggest developers out there. Created by graphic design artist Javier Riquelme, these awesome mods are one-of-a-kind, so don’t head to your local GameStop expecting to pick up one of these beautiful consoles.

PlayStation Marketing Kicks Off; Greatness Awaits

by Sohrab Osati | Jun 14, 2013 | 0 comments

One of the themes from the PlayStation E3 press conference this year was “greatness awaits.” The new tagline for the gaming division of Sony could be seen outside of the LA Convention Center as a beacon for PlayStation fans. To followup with the theme, Sony has released a new minute and a half trailer that’s all about greatness. Better yet, the ad itself is not PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, or PlayStation Vita centric. Instead, the ad is all about gaming and gamers. After the jump, greatness awaits you.

PlayStation Plus “Up To Developers” for Free-to-Play PS4 Multiplayer Games

by Brien Bell | Jun 13, 2013 | 2 comments

PlayStation Plus is a great service, and one easily recommended to both the casual and lifelong PlayStation fans. Launched just two years ago, the subscription-based online service allows cloud storage of game saves, automatic update downloads, access to exclusive betas, and free access to games through the Instant Game Collection — which just this week added Uncharted 3, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, and LittleBigPlanet Karting to its roster. On Monday at Sony’s E3 media event, president of Sony Computer Entertainment America Jack Tretton revealed that the service would also now be required for online multiplayer gameplay on the PlayStation 4, a feature that is currently–and presumably still will be–free to PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita owners.

The question regarding PlayStation Plus requirements for online games was quickly raised by fans and the press, especially in light of a number of recent announcements of free-to-play games coming to the PS4. On Sony Online Entertainment’s Twitch.tv livestream yesterday, the developers behind DC Universe Online revealed that their game would not require PlayStation Plus in order to play. Sony Online’s other free-to-play MMO Planetside 2 is also playable without a PS Plus subscription, according to a statement received by Polygon. Polygon’s story was updated late yesterday with a quote from President of Sony Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida, who said that “[a]s far as free-to-play games are concerned, it’s a publisher’s decision whether they put it inside or outside of the PlayStation Plus requirements.”

PS4 to PS Vita Remote Play ‘Just Works’

by Sohrab Osati | Jun 13, 2013 | 8 comments

During the initial PlayStation 4 announcement in February, Sony indicated that the PlayStation Vita would be a crucial companion device to the PS4. This will be achieved by the PS4’s Remote Play capabilities which streams the given game onto the Vita. Since then, Sony has further clarified that Remote Play will be required for every PS4 game, barring those that require additional accessories like the PS4 Eye or Move controller. So will such a requirement leave developers burdened? Apparently not, as the feature “just works.”

‘The Last Guardian’ is Alive, But Why?

by Sohrab Osati | Jun 13, 2013 | 4 comments

I probably don’t need to tell you about The Last Guardian. Originally revealed in 2009 by designer and director Fumito Ueda, who is responsible for the acclaimed titles Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, the game has since been delayed numerous times and has even seen Ueda leave Sony though he remains on the project as a consultant. So what’s the latest on the project? According to Sony, in short, ‘its alive,’ but if true, why?

Extensive High Resolution PS4 Image Gallery

by Sohrab Osati | Jun 12, 2013 | 9 comments

If you’ve been wanting to obsess over every edge of the PS4 then wait no more. After the jump, we’ve put together an extensive high resolution PS4 image gallery that includes the console, controller, camera, and headset from various angles. Whether you’re interested in design or didn’t have a chance to attend E3 to see the console in person, our gallery will surely leave you satisfied.