Category: Virtual Reality

State of the Gaming Union

December 31, 2017 / admin

Hello all and welcome to the end of 2017! As we look forward to a new year, I wanted to put my thoughts to e-paper about the current status of the Big 3 in gaming. The year has been a pretty resounding success for gamers in general, with a slew of fantastic titles released this year as well as new hardware from each of the companies in some form or another, but hasn’t been without its challenges. Each company could do a few things better and the new year is an excellent time for them to begin.

Nintendo has had a fantastic year all-around. The Switch has become a commercial success, topping the PS2 for the fastest selling console in Japan for first-year sales. Worldwide, it has been topping sales charts month after month and many retailers reported it as a top seller, even though the hardware wasn’t on sale. Seeing as this is the hybrid’s first holiday season, that isn’t wholly unexpected, but it’s nice to see Nintendo bounce back from the relatively unsuccessful Wii U (even though I really liked the Wii U….). On top of the success of the Switch, Nintendo has been winning plenty of awards with its newest entry in the Legend of Zelda series, as well as the latest offering in the Super Mario franchise. Rounding out their accomplishments for 2017, Nintendo seems to be doing a better job of stocking the SNES Classic Edition consoles compared to the debacle that was the NES Classic Edition release. Righting that wrong, Nintendo has stated that it will have a re-release of the NES Classic Edition this coming summer for those who missed out initially. All-in-all, Nintendo has done well for themselves in 2017.

For 2018 and beyond, Nintendo needs to keep pushing the Switch. They’ve had a solid flow of first-party titles to release and are garnering decent third-party support more so than in past years and on past consoles. The indie scene has led a good bit of the success here and Nintendo needs to keep the momentum going. Giving smaller developers exposure on the eShop and bringing fan favorites to the hybrid gives them new life as the option to take these titles on the go with you is all too enticing. Getting more of the third-party AAA titles would be great, but doesn’t seem wholly necessary since Nintendo is still mostly relegated to a second console option after you decide on Xbox or PlayStation. Until they’re willing to compete on the grounds of power as well as innovation, I don’t see that changing much for the Big N. VR or a potential “expansion pak” are other areas of opportunity for the Switch, but being still relatively close to the console’s launch, I don’t see these as being near-term initiatives. Lastly, appropriately gauging customer interest is a must. They seem to be on track given the steady stock of SNES Classic Editions that have been hitting store shelves, but certain other things, like store-exclusive Amiibo and collector’s editions, have still been hot commodities. I have yet to see a box of the Super Mario cereal in stores and I even went out on the morning it was supposed to be released to look!

Sony has been relatively quiet this year, riding the success the PS4 has seen since launch, as well as the boost received by the PS4 Pro and PlayStation VR. Having released a slightly updated VR headset for the holiday season will give them an extra boost in the near term, but they’ll need more to remain on top. Console exclusives remains Sony’s strong suit. They’ve invested significantly in having experiences and titles come to their platform and it shows. Horizon Zero Dawn has been a perfect example of this. For a new IP, it has received much acclaim and won several “Best of” awards as well. Let’s not forget entries in the Uncharted, Persona, Nier, Yakuza, and Gran Turismo franchises, as well as a smattering of remakes and remasters, rounding out an already excellent console library. Looking at the release calendar for next year, there’s plenty more where that came from, too! The remake of Shadow of the Colossus, Last of Us 2, Monster Hunter World, Ni no Kuni 2, Spider-Man, God of War, and many more have me excited for the coming year! It also has me wondering how I’m going to find time to play them all…

For 2018 and beyond, Sony needs to decide how it’s going to approach console iterations and life spans. Now that they don’t have the most powerful console anymore, are they going to push for a PS5 or take a similar approach to Microsoft and release more powerful versions of the PS4, allowing gamers to use their existing library as well as offering new graphical updates that come with additional power? They need to continue to push VR. They’ve done well in bringing VR to the mainstream with a relatively cost-effective solution for the average person to gain entry to an otherwise expensive endeavor. The refresh of the headset this holiday season wasn’t enough. Simplifying the cables for better management and allowing HDR pass-through are steps in the right direction but the unit needs better resolution, better tracking for its motion controllers, and more power to accommodate all of this. They’ve proven the concept works and people are willing to buy in, now they need to expand what is possible.

Microsoft’s year was also relatively quiet. For a while, they had been ramping up to the release of the Xbox One X, the world’s most powerful home console, but weren’t really focusing on software. After spending time playing second fiddle to Sony and the PS4, Microsoft had enough of hearing how the Xbox One was underpowered comparatively and the Xbox One X rectified this. It is the only current home console that does true 4K gaming and the only one to offer 4K blu-ray playback (besides the One S), solidifying Xbox as THE current console for all your UHD content. On the software side of things, Halo Wars 2 was released early this year. Between offering the original Halo Wars as a pack-in for the collector’s edition and the option for the Xbox Play Anywhere program to play on a Windows 10 PC, this was a pretty enticing deal for Halo, RTS, and gaming fans in general. Forza 7 was the other big title Microsoft released this year. Having its own cult following, the Forza franchise has been successful with each iteration for sure, but having the racing sim make the jump into 4K on the One X is glorious. Weather effects, the detailed car interiors, the plethora of cars (and non-car options), as well as the revamped progression structure make this entry stand out from its predecessors. Microsoft did release a remaster of Phantom Dust in lieu of the new entry, which still appears to be MIA currently. Outside of these titles, a decent number of indie games made their home on Xbox and most notable of these were Cuphead and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (or PUBG). Both titles have been receiving acclaim in their own rights and are only garnering larger followings with the added exposure they’re finding on Xbox. The added backwards compatibility title list that is ever-growing and the improvements being made to older games retroactively through the power of the One X are additional wins that Microsoft has scored with fans in the past year.

For 2018 and beyond, Microsoft needs to focus on exclusives. Just having the most powerful console isn’t enough if there are no games people want to play on the platform. Crackdown 3, Sea of Thieves, and Ori and the Will of the Wisps are the only exclusive titles I could think of coming out in 2018. Inevitably, we will see a new Halo (and it will be stunning in 4K and 60fps, but is likely still a year or two away) and probably another Gears of War title, but those two franchises can only carry Xbox so far. Also worth noting is that Microsoft signed a partnership with Oculus Rift that has yet to bear any fruits on their console. With Sony seeing the success of the PlayStation VR, now would be the time for Microsoft to unveil their plans for VR with the power of the One X. Having killed off Kinect production and games not taking advantage of the sensor, it doesn’t seem like the Kinect will factor in to the future plans for the console. Lastly, announce a new Battletoads game. You have the rights for the franchise, Phil Spencer has worn the shirt to a few events, you added the guys to the Killer Instinct roster, stop teasing and gives us a new Battletoads experience. Let’s introduce Rash, Zitz, and Pimple to a new generation of gamers.

Did I miss anything on any of these platforms that you have particularly strong feelings about? Be sure to let me know and we can discuss. All-in-all, 2017 has been a fantastic year for games and here’s to hoping 2018 is even better! As always, thank you for reading and if you haven’t yet, follow me on Twitch and watch me play some of the games I talk about here. See you all in the new year!

E3 Is Upon Us!

June 10, 2017 / admin

Today starts one of the biggest weeks in gaming news for the entire year! Nerd Christmas in June! The big show! More exclamation marks!!!

Sorry… It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything new. I’ve got some other content in various stages of completion, I just need to get my butt into gear and get it done. I’ve been a bit removed from the latest gaming news, so if I missed any announcements that contradict what I’ve written here, I apologize in advance. That being said, I felt I would be remiss if I didn’t make a post about E3, so here it is!

The Events

For the past few years now, the main keynotes have been from Microsoft, Bethesda, EA, Ubisoft, and Sony (with Nintendo presenting in their own way, directly 😉 to consumers). Below are kind of what I expect to hear about and what I’m excited about.

EA

In an unusual turn of events, the conference is beginning on a Saturday (today, June 10th) instead of the usual Sunday evening kick-off which has been led by Bethesda in recent years. EA has taken up the mantle and is set to go live here very shortly.

If I’m being honest, EA games have never really wowed me and always seem to have a generic quality to them. I know that’s a harsh assessment, but that’s how I see things, and their presentations are generally no different. We will see the new iterations of their sports titles and they’ll tell us how different and improved they are since last year’s version. Most likely, they’ll have one of the cover athlete’s present to talk about how excited they were to work with EA to bring the next latest and greatest entry of the sports game to fans. This year, that may be Tom Brady, as he was chosen as the cover athlete for Madden 2018. FIFA will receive its time in the spotlight as well.

Outside of their sports games, EA will definitely be showing of the new Star Wars Battlefront game. Set to release this November and with the beta recently announced, they will definitely have some new gameplay footage and hopefully show off some new modes/content in the meantime. I didn’t play much of the last release outside of my time with the beta, but I know it was heavily bemoaned as an unfinished game due to the lack of content out of the box and strong leaning on DLC/season pass. EA should definitely be cognizant of this fact and make sure there is enough content in the base game to warrant gamers’ money. I’m already intrigued just knowing that they actually put a story mode back into the game (#SinglePlayer4Lyfe) and learning more about Inferno Squad’s place in the Star Wars expanded universe.

Now, the above are the sure bets I would make for EA to show off. As for other titles, I’m not so sure. I don’t believe the Mirror’s Edge sequel was successful enough for EA for them to put more money into a new chapter so soon. Battlefield 1 hasn’t even been out for a year yet, so we may see and expansion to that rather than a true follow-up. Maybe they have a few new IPs up their sleeves. I guess we’ll know sooner rather than later.

The EA press conference goes live today (June 10th) at 3pm EST.

Microsoft

I’m tempted to just put “Project Scorpio” here and then move on, but they will need to have more than that. A more powerful version of their current console isn’t a showstopper. Microsoft has already doubled down on keeping the platform as the Xbox One for now and allowing the games to be played on any version of the console, simply scaled to the power of the hardware, so they need to have games to back this up. Price point could be a huge swing in their favor as far as the console wars go. Touting that this is the most powerful video game console ever released isn’t enough if the price point is astronomical. I’m guessing it’s going to launch in the $599 range, unless they’ve found some excellent discounts on parts. It seems Microsoft is positioning this for a select subset of gamers who feel the need to be on the bleeding edge of technology (for console gaming specifically, before PC Master Racers come in and say something).

As for games, it’s already been announced that Halo 6 will not be at the show and honestly, most of the people I know that loved Halo have abandoned the series after the mediocre attempts following the original trilogy. I think its presence will be missed, especially if they had some particularly epic in-game footage on the Scorpio.

Sea of Thieves is a likely candidate for screen time at the Microsoft conference. After piquing interest last year, the game has largely fallen off the radar. The premise seems very cool, we just need more details around how everything works and when we can expect to play it ourselves!

I’m not honestly sure what else to expect from Microsoft. They could bring out the Phantom Dust sequel, especially considering the recent re-release of the original title as a free download on both Windows 10 and Xbox One. A new Forza or Gears could show up but it’s not really been long since we had releases in those franchises, so these aren’t necessarily guarantees. Scalebound may also see some kind of resurrection, considering Microsoft renewed the trademark for the game last month.

My big wish for Microsoft would be a new Battletoads game. They’ve been teasing it for a while, with Phil Spencer rocking a Battletoads shirt at a few press conferences. If done right, this is a franchise that has plenty of notoriety both from nostalgia and from time spent as a go-to trolling tactic for video game stores. Soon, they may be able to answer that yes, they do in fact have Battletoads.

The Microsoft press conference goes live on June 11th at 5pm EST.

Bethesda

Bethesda usually kicks things off for the conference on Sunday evening but that does not appear to be the case this year. Going live quite late for the East coast, Bethesda will technically be the first conference Monday morning.

I’m honestly not sure what to expect from Bethesda this year. ESO just released the Morrowind expansion, so I don’t know that we’ll see any content updates for their MMO endeavor at this conference. Fallout 4 content is winding down and other than the VR support for the title, I’m not sure that this will receive a lot of show time. Doom is similar in that they may speak about the VR for the title, but I don’t know that much else will be said on that front. I think the two certainties will be the Elder Scrolls card game and the new mobile app they’ve been hiring for that has seen some news circulating the web. With Arkane Studios having recently released Prey, we may see something new in the works from that team but it may be too soon for anything concrete.

In a perfect world, Bethesda would have an unveiling of the next Elder Scrolls game. I sank over 200 hours into Skyrim and never even touched the final expansion, so the opportunity to get lost in another realm of Tamriel is a tantalizing prospect.

Speaking of Skyrim, we may see some details around the Switch port of the title. It was shown during the various announcements for the console and then vanished almost entirely. Also, this title needs to be dropped from the $60 price point. While I think it’s worth every dollar and then some, the game is nearly six years old at this point. Regardless that it has never appeared on a Nintendo console, that would still be a tough pill to swallow for a lot of consumers.

The Bethesda press conference goes live on June 11th at midnight EST.

Ubisoft

Ubisoft always has a few tricks up their sleeves. Aisha Tyler and her lady boners will almost certainly be present and appreciated for her comedic excitement in presenting. You can also bet they will announce the new version of Just Dance, because apparently there are a lot of dancing fools out there buying up these titles each year.

As far as established franchises go, I think the Rabbids have been relatively quiet for a while, so it’s about time for them to make another appearance. The collaboration with Nintendo for a Mario x Rabbids game may fit this bill and outside of what appears to be box art, we haven’t seen or heard much about the title. Watch Dogs and the Ghost Recon franchise have recently seen releases, so I don’t anticipate any announcements in those areas, but For Honor seems to have been relatively successful for Ubisoft and we may see some expansion content here.

Assassin’s Creed is the other announcement that can pretty much be guaranteed at this point. The number of leaks and images surrounding a new entry all indicate we can expect to see this one when Ubisoft takes the stage.

The Ubisoft press conference goes live on June 12th at 4pm EST.

Sony

PlayStation. So many things to show. So many things we’d like to see.

The new God of War. The trailer last year looked amazing and we’ve needed a new Kratos adventure for a while now. It seems highly likely that Sony would want to bring this back for another showing, based on the reaction it got last year. Maybe they’ll show more about the setting of the game, an in-depth look at the parenting system that seems to be in place, or maybe just Kratos and his son whooping all kinds of mythological ass. All are viable and entertaining prospects.

The new Spider-Man from Insomniac is another likely contender for some of the limelight. The brief showing last year to illustrate the power of the PS4 Pro and HDR left us (or me, at least) wanting more. Spider-Man 2 is still probably the licensed game that I’ve spent the most time playing and if anyone can do it justice, I think Insomniac can. The free-roaming in Infamous seems right in line with what I’d expect from a Spider-Man experience. Couple that with the capabilities of the PS4 and I’m excited at the potential this title has!

Final Fantasy VII Remake and Kingdom Hearts 3 are potential participants in Sony’s conference. After announcing that the titles are still a few years away from completion (and bringing development of FFVII in-house), they may forego the show to alleviate the massive letdown of knowing we’re no closer to playing these games than we were at this time last year. Or maybe they’ll continue to tease and tantalize, who knows?

PlayStation VR will undoubtedly have a segment allotted. When the VR system launched late last year, it was nearly impossible to find for months. Being the cheapest point of entry into the VR ecosystem did wonders for it, as well. While adoption and titles have been scant, Sony has the opportunity to rectify this by showing that they will continue to support the headset with new and innovative titles to keep the momentum going.

I assume there will be some mention of Call of Duty WWII, since Sony has timed exclusive rights to the DLC for the series for now. This does not excite me.

An interesting turn of events would be the announcement of a new Patapon or Loco Roco. Both franchises saw their first entries remastered for the PS4 recently, so new titles for one or both could be possible. Less likely would be a new PS4 model that would rival or surpass Scorpio’s power to continue taking the wind from Microsoft’s sails (or sales, whatever). This seems highly doubtful as the PS4 Pro is already selling well and is currently sitting at a price point that I doubt the Scorpio will match, regardless of how powerful it is.

The Sony press conference goes live on June 12th at 9pm EST

Nintendo

In classic Nintendo fashion, they are not holding a traditional press conference, but rather hosting a Nintendo Direct (this year called the Nintendo Spotlight, I believe). Super Mario Odyssey has been said to be heavily featured for the presentation and I wonder if it will be akin to how Zelda was the focus of their show last year. After a disappointing Pokemon Direct this week, maybe they will have saved more Pokemon news (namely, for the Switch) for the E3 presentation.

Riding on the momentum the Switch has built up since its release, Nintendo will almost certainly focus on what’s to come for their new console through the end of this year and into early next year. Nintendo needs to clarify how their online service is going to work, what’s included for the price, and what is up with the friends list app configurations for voice chat and such. Early images have people worried about splitters, headsets, and the distance from their console (NES Classic controller all over again!), so Nintendo needs to get in front of this, let people know how it all works, and why we should give it a chance. Additionally, the Virtual Console needs some love and attention. With as powerful as the Nintendo nostalgia is, the possibility of having 30+ years of Nintendo titles on the Switch is a fantastic opportunity.

The 3DS will have a segment devoted to it, as it still holds significant market share in the mobile space, but Nintendo seems to be cannibalizing a bit of that thanks to the portability of the Switch, not to mention the 3DS itself is just over 6 years old now. An odd move would be to announce a successor to the 3DS this year, which I don’t believe will happen seeing as they announced the New 2DS XL for release next month.

I would like to see some news about the SNES Classic Edition which was rumored to have leaked earlier this year. Arguably more popular than the NES, if a Super Nintendo version was released that addressed many of the issues people had with the NES Classic (supply, cord length, no expansion opportunities for titles, etc.), Nintendo could stand to regain a lot of good will that was lost over how the NES Classic Edition was handled (all the while, making money hand over fist). It’s a win-win for the Big N and hopefully they can do it right this time.

The Nintendo press conference goes live on June 13th at 11:30am EST.

I’ll be keeping an eye on the E3 announcements as they roll out and writing up my thoughts on each presentation as time allows. In the meantime, everyone enjoy your weekend and look forward to the gaming goodness we have headed our way in the coming week! If I missed anything you’re looking forward to or you’d just like to drop your ideas out there, feel free to leave them in the comments and I’ll try to respond to them. Thanks, as always, for reading and please share this around if you like what you’ve read.

Exciting Things In Early 2017

December 31, 2016 / admin

2017 Rollover, from innovationexcellence.com
(Image from Innovation Excellence (Thanks Google))

Hello and sorry for the delay in writing new content. Between weddings and the holidays (read: adulting and social obligations), I haven’t had much time to put a new post to the page, but I’m here to rectify that now! 2016 had some high peaks and low troughs but now’s the time to look forward to the new year and that means A LOT of new games. Seeing as there are too many to list for the entire year, I’m just going to briefly mention a few things I’m excited for, in no particular order, that should be arriving in the first quarter of the year or so (in the world of adulthood, time is measured in quarters of years, just go with it).

The Nintendo Switch

I’ve written about this a few times before, but I’m very excited about the Nintendo Switch. I’m curious to see what more they have to unveil (besides a price point and official release date) during the January 12th presentation. Will we see more attachments? New features of the base hardware we’ve not been shown? New titles being confirmed? Hopefully, it’s all of the above. Since the last write up I did about the Switch, rumors have come out that the unit will run at a 40% power reduction while not nestled in the cradle. This makes sense and many devices do this currently. You trade off some of the raw power of the device for extended battery life, it’s nothing new and nothing to worry about, in my opinion. Nintendo will make sure its games are still playable at the reduced power levels. Whether that means they’ll be downscaled to require less “umph” (

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Continuing on the Nintendo train, Breath of the Wild continues to look fantastic. The Legend of Zelda is one of my favorite game series, if not my absolute favorite. This entry appears to take the original, more open style of the game and put a modern spin on it and there’s still so much we don’t know! We’ve barely glimpsed villages and NPCs. They’ve teased some kind of airship and wingsuited/flying villain. Armors and weapons that have yet to be seen, Epona hasn’t been shown in a while, other neat tricks the game’s engine can perform (like setting grass on fire with a Fire Rod, fanning it with a Deku Leaf, and riding the updraft from the flames with the same leaf, which is kind of ridiculous), and more! I’m ready to jump, climb, fight, and lose myself in this new iteration of Hyrule. New (and nasty) rumors are saying that the game is going to be delayed again so the system can launch with the new Mario title (also excited about) and Nintendo can avoid competing with itself over which title is a must-have (por que no los dos?). Hopefully, during the Switch press conference on the 12th, we’ll get more concrete details about the game. Until then, I’m hoping and praying it’s still a launch title.

Persona 5

The Persona series has become super stylized in recent years. I was sold on the series watching the intro to Persona 3 and reading all the stellar reviews of the game at the time. Part dungeon-crawler, part high school social sim, all JRPG. Memento mori, Evokers, and the dark theme all drew me in. The series has presented a lot of interesting ideas about coming to terms with one’s true self, death, pop culture consumption, and many others. Persona 5 has been long-gestating and constantly delayed (partially due to Atlus being purchased by Sega and the voice actors’ strike) but looks fantastic from all the information released. It even has a pretty excellent prequel anime episode that helps set up the story we’ll be jumping into in this iteration. The series has spawned anime, manga, and gaming off-shoots, some of which even tie together the entries of the series which are usually stand alone. Most recently, the game was delayed from its projected release date of Valentine’s Day to April 4th (not technically the first quarter of 2017 but I did say, “or so” 😛 ).

Horizon: Zero Dawn

Guerrilla Games has continuously impressed with their newest title for the PS4. The story is intriguing: robotic creatures have overtaken the earth and humans have been mostly relegated to small tribes, their cities having been reclaimed by nature. Think Native Americans with high tech weaponry hunting robotic animals instead of flesh-and-blood ones. The gameplay looks smooth and varied (though they’re probably playing on the PS4 Pro, as seems to be the case recently when titles are being demoed), and has kind of a Monster Hunter vibe to it. The facial expressions/speech options looked a little stiff and weaker than the rest of what has been presented but that doesn’t take away much from the rest of the showcase. I’ve tried to avoid watching too much of the game, so as to avoid any potential spoilers or seeing too much in the trailers (a common issue these days), so that’s all I really know about it. We’ll find out early next year if it ends up being worth our time.

Virtual Reality

This one is a bit more broad than just any one specific title or platform but having played a bit of VR here at the advent, it’s got a lot of promise. The Vive seems to be leading the pack at the moment, with solid motion controls, room scale for a bit of maneuverability, and other features packed in the headset. It’s great to bring out at parties and give people a taste of the immersion VR offers. 2017 will hopefully see hardware become a bit more affordable, software become a bit more prevalent, and a killer app that manages to sell a full-fledged video game in a VR package rather than a tech demo or an “experience.” Many hurdles still need to be addressed, such as in-game motion that doesn’t cause nausea but also isn’t point-and-click teleportation. Space/movement requirements in the real world and properly marking off boundaries without pulling users out of the game world by throwing up a boundary marker in-game. The hardware itself needs to be addressed as well. Every major headset available currently (Oculus, Vive, and PlayStation VR) tethers you to whatever hardware is powering it. Cutting the cord causes quite the concern for the headsets, both from a power standpoint, as well as a tracking one, but until people aren’t worried about strangling themselves with a cable or pulling down their whole entertainment center by yanking a cord during frantic gameplay, the medium is going to be limited in what it can accomplish. As for early 2017, PlayStation VR is getting Resident Evil 7. If the Beginning Hour demo is any indication, we’re in for a terrifying experience. I’m sure we’ll see plenty of internet videos of people playing the game and being scared out of their minds. Additionally, Star Wars Battlefront recently received a DLC in the form of an X-Wing Mission Pack for the PlayStation VR. If you haven’t ever entertained the idea of flying an X-Wing in full immersion, you probably didn’t see the Star Wars movies during your formative years and I apologize for whoever dropped the ball on that one. Regardless of platform, I hope VR sees some growth in the coming year because it has plenty of potential and just needs the right people to harness it.

I’m going to call it quits with these few things. Gaming has plenty more to be excited about in 2017 though (Mass Effect: Andromeda, for example)! Feel free to leave a comment or drop me an e-mail about what you’re excited for in the new year of gaming and whatever your plans may be this evening, be smart and be safe.

See you in the new year!