The Last of Us E3 2013 Q&A June 27, 2013
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Sony and Naughty Dog held a pretty impressive Q&A at the Sony E3 booth with the principle designers and lead actors for this summer’s PS3 killer app The Last of Us. The video of the event has been posted online and if you’re remotely interested about this game, you should give it a watch. They give some behind the scenes information about the making of the game’s story, and the actors talk about the process they had to go through to get such a great performance into the game.
Don’t worry if you haven’t completed the game yet. This Q&A was taped the day before The Last of Us released and had a strict NO SPOILERS policy. Give it a watch.
The Last of Us is out now exclusive to the Playstation 3.
Game Series That Should Come to the iPhone June 26, 2013
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Lets face it, everyone is carrying around a cell phone with them nowadays. They’re more than just phones, they’re a gamer’s dream. They have fantastic hardware on par with current generation mobile devices, a flexible control system, and can offer internet access on the go regardless of being in range of WiFi hotspots. Since smartphones can play games, that would make a device like Apple’s iPhone one of the biggest selling portable gaming platforms currently on the market. With its laundry list of features, amazing software support, and unique design, it’s a juggernaut with a wide installation base. With such a large installation base of active gamers, it’s sad that there are some great game series out there that practically seem perfect for the device and yet have not yet made the leap to the platform. I think its time to rectify that.
In this article, I’m going to be talking about some game series which should come to the iPhone, and what makes them so perfect for the handheld device. For the record, I’m going to only talk about game series that are not avalible on the iPhone. That means that series which already have at least one game on the iPhone will not be brought up. That includes series like Mass Effect, Mirror’s Edge, Dead Space, Batman: Arkham City, and Final Fantasy. If you’re interested in playing any of those games, you can check out the app store and download them right now.
With all that out of the way, lets get started shall we?
Catherine – A young man is forced to climb a never ending tower every night in his dreams, and if he falls he will die. Somehow, this curse has to do with the choices he’s made in life, as he doesn’t know if he’s ready to settle down with his long term girlfriend or move on. To make things worse, a new woman enters his life which seems a perfect match for him, and against his better judgment, they start to have an affair. With these nightmares and a major life decision on the horizon, can he survive long enough to decide who he should spend the rest of his life with?
The game’s story is told by lengthy cutscenes which occasionally present a simple choice for the player. Those choices impact the game’s ending, and the possible survival of secondary characters. During gameplay sections, you must push and pull blocks, trying to build your way to the exit of a never ending tower. If this game’s design doesn’t at first seem like a perfect match for the iPhone’s interface, that’s because it is. I must admit what really sold me was the design of the game’s Rapuzel minigame, which you can play every night at the Stray Sheep. The gameplay seems perfectly suited to the iPhone’s touch and tilt capabilities. Some of the game is handled through Vincent’s cell phone, which would make this kind of meta. You could receive texts in-game and respond to them if you choose. The game could offer the ability to unlock exclusive wallpapers and background images from the game or perhaps even ringtones.
Kingdom Hearts – One night, a young boy witnesses a horrible storm at his island home. His best friend is swept away in the storm and he chases after him, only to find himself in an unfamiliar place. Soon, he meets up with Donald Duck and Goofy who have been charged by King Mickey Mouse himself to protect the many Disney worlds with the help of a Key, the same Key that the boy seems to have a connection to since arriving in this strange place. Together, the three must travel from world to world based on many of the most popular Disney movies to protect them from the darkness that is attacking them, all the while hoping that their friends are waiting for them in the next one.
There was at least one Kingdom Hearts game brought to an earlier cell phone platform in Japan, I think it was redesigned as a game for the Nintendo DS, but as far as I know the mobile game was never brought to the iPhone. With the recent announcement of Kingdom Hearts III and the continued success of the game series on handheld devices, as well as Square’s success on the iOS platform, a Kingdom Hearts smartphone game would be a great addition to the series.
Pokémon – A young boy comes of age and decides he wants to, *ahem* be the best like no one ever was. To do that, he explores the entire land he lives in, traveling from town to town, capturing and training Pokémon. With the Pokémon he’s trained in hand, he challenges each town’s best Pokémon Masters, in order to earn the right to battle the Elite Four and become the Grand Pokémon Master.
I didn’t bring this up during the most requested Pokémon games article and I apologize. A Pokémon iPhone game would be fantastic! There are so many users who want to try out this popular series but can’t due to the expense of buying a new Nintendo handheld. Pokémon has always been a handheld game so being released to a mobile device would be a great fit. It would be amazing to play a Pokémon game on a device which would always have internet access on the go due to the cellular network. Pokémon is quickly starting to take over the iPhone app store with the Pokémon TV show app and interactive Pokédex, but we haven’t seen an actual Pokémon game come to the platform yet, and that is quite a shame.
Alan Wake – One night, a writer suffering from a major case of writer’s block is powerless to stop his wife’s abduction while they were on vacation in the Pacific Northwest. After she’s been taken, he blacks out and loses over a week of time. While trying to find her, he finds pages of a book he can’t remember writing and most amazing of all is the stuff he wrote is coming true.
We already know that Remedy has chosen to make a new IP for their first Triple A retail title since Alan Wake. It’s called Quantum Break and it will be released for the Xbox One. This has upset several Remedy fans who were hoping that Remedy would work on Alan Wake 2, since the first game ended on a cliffhanger, and neither the DLC missions or the Xbox Live Arcade game Alan Wake’s American Nightmare seemed to resolve much about Alan’s predicament.
Even though we now know what secret project Remedy was working on for the Xbox One, Remedy has not announced what the secret iOS game they are working on is. Remedy REALLY is doing well with their iOS games and has already promised that another unannounced iOS exclusive game is in development. They did well bringing their Death Rally franchise back, why not bring back Alan Wake?
Dragon’s Lair 30th Anniversary Interview June 25, 2013
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This month marks the 30th anniversary of the game Dragon’s Lair. A pioneering development in the arcade space, Dragon’s Lair used an interactive laserdisc to display content, and the player would have to use the controls to steer the scene to its proper resolution. The game used traditional hand-drawn animation directed by famed animator Don Bluth, who has made his mark in animation with films like The Secret of NiMH and my personal favorite of his movies Titan A.E.
30 years later, the guys at Traditional Animation has posted up an interview with game director Don Bluth, In it, they discuss the history of the project, the Dragon’s Lair games and why its taken so long for Hollywood to make a Dragon’s Lair movie!
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain E3 2013 Director’s Cut Trailer June 25, 2013
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Konami released an amazing trailer for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain at the Microsoft E3 Press Briefing, but shortly after the event ended, they revealed that wasn’t all they planned to show. A 9-minute Director’s Cut of the E3 2013 trailer has been released on Konami’s YouTube Channel. The new footage shows some pretty graphic content including scenes of battlefield surgery and even torture, and it could be possible that it was cut from the E3 broadcast because of content. Regardless, Kojima’s team seems to once again be drawing inspiration from current events (even though this does look to be a period game) and these are very important subjects that should continue to be discussed.
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is coming to multiple platforms including Xbox One.
Apple TV Unboxing June 25, 2013
Posted by Maniac in Site Videos.1 comment so far
It’s Tuesday, time for our Tuesday unboxing! Since Apple has changed their proprietary charging port with the release of the iPhone 5 and recent generation iPads, all of Maniac’s stock iPhone adapters and charge cables were no longer going to work if he chose to upgrade. Instead of buying adapters, Maniac took a leap forward and decided to stream all his content instead of using direct cables, and bought an Apple TV.
The Apple TV retails for $99 US and enables you to stream content from iTunes and various Apple devices directly to your HDTV or Home Theater system. What is included in the box, and is it worth the upgrade? Lets find out!
Oh and if you have an Apple TV and would like to see how to hook it up to your equipment, here’s a handy video for you!
Bioshock Podcast June 23, 2013
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It has been a long time coming, but the latest episode of the gamexcess.net podcast has been released, and just like promised, the subject is Bioshock! For over an hour we discuss the history of the series, my personal experiences with the game, and what the future may hold. Enjoy!
GameStop Confirms Xbox One DRM Policy Reversed June 19, 2013
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I have to admit, I was heavily concerned for the Xbox One after the Playstation 4’s E3 showing. People have been worried for weeks now about the policies that Microsoft had officially chosen to implement with the Xbox One including a required online check every 24-hours, the inability for users to play used games without having to pay extra money, the inability for users to sell their games more than once (and they can only sell their games to people who have been on their friends list for a minimum of 30 days) or for users to share retail games with their friends. While Microsoft chose not to talk about any of this during their E3 Media Briefing, and instead chose to highlight a spectacular amount of exclusive titles for the platform, Microsoft had outlined these plans to retailers and the media prior to the event, and gamers everywhere have been in a fury ever since.
After Sony explicitly announced during their E3 press event that the Playstation 4 would have none of these features that harmed legitimate owners, many users, including many die-hard Microsoft enthusiasts, announced they had no intention of purchasing the Xbox One. It was quite a shame because Microsoft announced many great games were coming to the platform like Quantum Break, Titanfall, Halo, and Dead Rising 3. Since E3, faith in Microsoft has plummeted online to levels I never could have imagined, and many have deemed the Xbox One would be dead on arrival when competing with the Playstation 4.
Thankfully, it looks like this is no longer the case. Tonight, I received an e-mail from GameStop I never expected. Microsoft has announced they have reversed their policies on the Xbox One prior to E3. The Xbox One will not have the policies that I outlined above. Instead, the Xbox One will require a one-time activation the first time it is launched, and there will not be a 24-hour connection requirement. After the one time online console activation, you will be able to take the Xbox One anywhere you want to play its games, including other countries who do not sell the Xbox One. You will also not be required to have an online connection to play single-player Xbox One games.
While it is unclear if there is any change in policy to the Xbox One’s installation requirements, such as the requirement for each game to be installed into the Xbox One prior to playing, this was not an issue I had with the Xbox One. There are plenty of platforms that require their games to be installed prior to playing them, including the Playstation 3 or PC, and I was not concerned the Xbox One would have this requirement. If the Xbox One will require that games be installed, it will likely be a technical requirement, and you will need to have your game in the Xbox One’s disc drive to play.
GameStop has also confirmed that there will be no limitations to using or sharing retail games on the Xbox One, and emphasized that game trading and sharing will work exactly like they do with Xbox 360 games. This means you will be able to trade or sell retail discs you purchased, or share them with your friends regardless of if they were on your Xbox Live friends list.
This is without a doubt the best news to come from Microsoft in quite a long time. I don’t know if this complete change in policy was due to the tremendous negative feedback from gamers online following E3, pressure from competition like Sony or Nintendo who were clearly not implementing similar policies, or just plain common sense, but the Xbox One’s launch is now looking a lot brighter.
The Xbox One is launching November 2013 for a price of $499 US.
Nintendo 3DS Firmware Update Released, Adds Game Save Backup June 19, 2013
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Nintendo has released a new firmware update for the Nintendo 3DS and 3DS XL yesterday. The update adds the ability to create a backup for any saves you may have created on any digital games you purchased from the Nintendo eShop and downloaded to your 3DS’s SD card. This allows you to recover any game saves you may have made on digitally purchased games, even after you have deleted the game from your 3DS.
Once updated, the 3DS menu will offer a new option to select when you highlight a downloaded game. Click the new arrow button on the lower left of the touch screen to bring up the backup menu, and from there you can perform a backup of the game’s save files. By performing a backup, you will not lose any of your saves if you delete the game from your 3DS’s SD card. You can read all the details on Nintendo’s Official Website.
This backup feature is only for games that have been downloaded through the Nintendo eShop. Currently the backup does not support retail games or downloaded DSi games.
You can download the 3DS system update to your Nintendo 3DS or 3DS XL right now. If you would like to know how to perform a manual update to your 3DS or 3DS XL, please watch this helpful video.
Playstation Home, Three Years Later June 17, 2013
Posted by Maniac in Reviews.1 comment so far
When I was notified by the Playstation 3’s News Bar that they were offering some unique content for BEYOND: Two Souls in Playstation Home, I decided that now was the time to brush off the cobwebs from that particular section of my Playstation 3’s Hard Drive and log back into Playstation Home for the first time in over three years.
Playstation Home has a very interesting history. First announced shortly around the time of the PS3’s launch, Playstation Home is a free Massively Multiplayer world akin to Second Life. You can access Home and explore all of the event spaces being offered, visit movie theaters to watch exclusive content with others, purchase clothes or items for your avatar, and create and decorate your own personal space. To join in, all you need is a Playstation 3 and Playstation Network account. I was actually one of the original beta testers for the service, so I know just how much the service has changed since its early days, and I was curious to see just how the service looked all these years later, and if all my content was still there.
Upon launching Home, I noticed immediately I had to patch it. I was concerned that years later I was looking for a patch with a download size in the gigs but actually I don’t think I had to download more than 50MB in new content off the bat. Once I was patched the program booted up for the first time. It notified me that since I was using an older version of the program at launch, it had to take all the saved content from my Playstation 3’s HD and move them to the cloud so it could keep a more accurate record of my unlocked content across multiple consoles. Since I have PS3s in multiple rooms (because lets face it, it’s still the best Blu-Ray Player currently on the market) I immediately quit the program in fear that the Playstation Home content it was going to save to the cloud was not actually the content I had accumulated three years ago, and I went to my original PS3 and began the patching process on that one instead.
The first issue struck me immediately, and that was that I needed to create a new Home avatar. I had taken great pains to create a virtual duplicate of myself way back in the day, and I was worried that if my Home avatar was no longer on file that most of the rest of my purchased content or unlockable items was gone as well.
Once I had created my new avatar it immediately loaded Sony’s Virtual E3 2013 booth, which coincided with their special Home promotion for E3. While I hadn’t been an attendee at E3 this year, it had reminded me a lot of their booth back in 2011, and looked like it could have been a pretty decent virtual replica. You could check out different booths on you own, view screenshots from each of the featured games, take your picture with the statues, or complete quests for exclusive items and downloads. Let me tell you, you could not have picked a more perfect place to start a fresh player on their first visit to Home, or a long-time player who was visiting again after many years.
After exploring the booth for a few minutes, I noticed a quest board near the big screen was calling to me. When I accessed the board it had a long list of quests for me to do while at the event, with each one involving a different featured booth in the space. Each quest, if completed, promised to give me access to unique Home items like clothing for my avatar, as well as download codes in the Playstation Store for things like exclusive dynamic PS3 themes. To help me on my quest, I unlocked a special interactive Playstation Vita for my avatar, which I could screw around with all I wanted while in the E3 space. In the early beta test for Playstation Home, you had access to a fully interactive Playstation Portable. It was the perfect tool in Home, as you could customize it to your liking, and use it to decorate your virtual space, kind of like how I remembered the main character doing in one of my favorite books I read when I was a kid. Well, the PSP function may be gone now, but seeing an interactive Vita reminded me of those good times.
Within no time I completed the first quest and unlocked the first new content for my avatar in years. I decided to open up my trophy case and take a closer look at what I had unlocked and was shocked to discover that while my avatar hadn’t been carried over from the previous version of Home, all of my avatar’s unlocked and purchased content had indeed survived. I dug a little deeper to see if my Home spaces were still intact, and they were, which was fantastic. I changed the default shirt for my avatar to something from my old collection, put some behind the head headphones on him because that was the style for headphones back in the day, and continued with my E3 quest.
Completing all the quests at this year’s virtual E3 space was no quick task. I must’ve devoted at least three hours in one night to making sure I visited each and every booth, watched all the provided videos, and unlocked all the quests. I have to say, I haven’t had this much fun exploring and unlocking new content in a game in quite a while. Late into the night, I had completed all of the individual quests at the E3 booth, and decided to complete the final quest the following day.
After I rested, I decided to go back into Home and after finishing the final quest, see just how much the service had changed. I immediately noticed that none of my original Home downloads were still in the PS3s HD, or if they were, they were no longer compatible. That meant any new area that I explored had to be redownloaded. While this may have been because some of the content had been changed so radically, my home spaces hadn’t changed at all, which left me puzzled as to why I had to redownload the content. With the final quest item unlocked in the virtual E3 booth, I set out on a journey to visit as many of the different virtual spaces the system offered to unlock more new content for my avatar, and to have a great time doing it.
The updated interface made exploring Home a breeze. Push the Start button on your controller, and it pulls up a menu where you can access pretty much anything Home offered. I noticed immediately that some of the spaces I loved from back in the day were no longer in place, like the inFAMOUS space, and others had been changed completely like the Uncharted space. Say what you will but I missed Sully’s Bar. However, there were a ton of new spaces I had never seen before that I could access now. In fact, far more spaces were up than I could ever have imagined seeing. I have to admit that there were so many I just couldn’t visit them all. That was hardly something I could say back during the initial beta release.
Some great spaces that come to mind include the Konami Lounge, which looked a lot like an upscale penthouse. You could explore the space for Konami points, although I have no idea what I could do with them. There were signs up all over the place for some of Konami’s games from a few years ago, which kind of made me think that Konami hadn’t updated the space’s appearance in quite a while. However, there were still a lot of virtual people hanging out in it, especially on the interactive DDR dance floor.
Another great space I remembered was the Cantina Bar, which sadly didn’t offer anything so far as unlockable content, but was a pretty decent replica of the Cantina in the original Star Wars, complete with droid scanner and the classic tunes. The video screen didn’t work anymore, and I think the fact that Lucasarts has been shut down might have something to do with that.
Finally, the last space I want to talk about was the x7 club, which is Sony’s virtual all-exclusive environment. Since I was an early beta tester I assumed I may have been able to get in, but sadly, access to the club is restricted to Playstation Plus members or users who have downloaded specific virtual items including a diamond/gold suit or a penthouse home space. After the Playstation hack from a few years ago, I will never put my credit card back into the Sony Network, so I wasn’t going to buy anything I needed to get myself in, but it sure looked fun if you were willing to spend the money. x7 promises that people who get in can unlock special free content and have access to stuff that other users can’t, which reminded me of Sony’s Gamer Advisory Panel back in the day.
I’ve also checked out a wide range of other spaces including the new Hub, Theater, Bowling Alley, and other content-specific spaces. Home is host to tons of virtual games, video, and unlockables. Its more content than I ever could have imagined. After exploring Home on my original PS3, I decided to see if my content had finally been moved across to my other PS3, and sure enough it had. Sony had the right mind to move Home data to the cloud, but it was a move I wish they had made day one. While my original avatar appearance was lost, my new avatar has inherited all of the content I achieved from back in the day making him somewhat akin to a little brother.
Can’t wait to see what new things Sony has in store for Playstation Home. I just know I’ll be visiting their virtual E3 booth next year!
The Dark Sorcerer Complete E3 2013 Video June 16, 2013
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Quantic Dream may currently be working on BEYOND: Two Souls for the PS3, but at E3 this year they showed us a little demo with what they were able to do on the Playstation 4. Quantic Dream has done this in the past of course, starting with their phenomenal real-time PS3 demo for Heavy Rain at E3 2006 which earned a lot of early buzz for the PS3 hardware, and most recently at GDC last year when they showed off the KARA demo. That demo received such high acclaim that people wanted them to make an entire game out of it!
Now Quantic Dream is at it again and has released The Dark Sorcerer demo running in real-time on the Playstation 4. Quantic Dream promises this is only a technical demo and not representative of any currently in progress game. They’re still hard at work finishing up BEYOND: Two Souls. Only the first three minutes of the demo were played at the Sony E3 Press Conference but now the complete video has been released for all to see. Enjoy.
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