A year ago, almost to
the day, 12:05 A.M.
Sitting in my car, in the parking lot of my local mall
staring in awe at the pretty blue box sitting in my passenger seat. I have my
brand new Playstation 4, and I’m one of the first people in the world to own
one. I dart home and hurriedly remove it from its cardboard cocoon, plug it
into my TV and grip the fancy new controller in my hands for the first time.
The excitement is tangible and intense. Then I turn it on.
Alright, let’s download some games. Whoa, this is cool, the
games download about ten times faster than on my Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.
How’s this share button work? Oh, hi Twitter, apparently I’m not the only one
doing that tonight.
Holy cow, Resogun is fun, even if it’s basically a Defender
clone with nifty graphical effects. I’ll go back to this one. My big shooters
have finished installing.
How’s Killzone: Shadow Fall? Well alright, that’s a shooter.
A pretty shooter, but also pretty standard. I’ll play through it, but it’s not
the killer app I was hoping for.
Alright Battlefield 4, show me something amazing. Show me
crumbling skyscrapers and insane draw distances for sniping. My god this
campaign is awful, and apparently the multiplayer doesn’t want me to actually
play. Well, that’s disappointing.
A few weeks later
My nephew is coming, so I should probably download something
he’ll want to play. NBA 2K14 sure is pretty. He’ll like that. That game’s a ton
of fun, playing one-on-one and watching Kevin Durant serve up some humble pie
to Lebron, and that commentary. Holy cow, the commentary is so adaptive and
in-depth. Turns out that’s probably my favorite early PS4 game, too bad the
Celtics suck this year.
Spring
At this point, my Playstation 3 is getting more use than my
Playstation 4, what with the amazing Left Behind DLC for The Last of Us, The
Wolf Among Us, South Park and the trippy DLC for Bioshock: Infinite. But
Infamous: Second Son is finally here and this promises to be the next-gen adventure
I’ve been waiting for; a huge open world, gorgeous visuals, and Troy Baker!
Hmm, so it’s Infamous alright. Plays just like the last two
Infamous games, only this one’s just about the most visually impressive game
I’ve ever played. So there’s that. But the fact remains, this thing’s basically
just more Infamous.
"I have a severe case of Titanfall envy."
Oh man, Child of Light is such a pretty game, and Jeffrey
Yohalem is one of the most underrated games writers working these days. Far Cry
3’s story was just misunderstood, you bafoons! And Child of Light has iambic
pentameter, incredibly addictive RPG combat and a relatable female protagonist.
So far, game of the year, man. Game. Of. The. Year.
I have a severe case of Titanfall envy. Why would EA keep
that game exclusive to Xbox One when the PS4 clearly has the larger install
base? It’s consistently outselling the One at almost a 2:1 clip. I have to
whine about this though, just because that game looks like the first truly
NEXT-GEN experience. Funny how that Xbox 360 version turned out pretty alright,
but Microsoft doesn’t want anyone to know about it.
Transistor is here! Bastion is the first game I ever covered
in a professional manner, and one of my favorites of the last generation.
Supergiant Games make artistic, beautiful games, and I’ve played Transistor a
few times at PAX East, so I know I’m going to love it. Right? Hmm, well… it’s
an admirable game for sure. For some reason, I just can’t get into it. It might
be too strategic and un-accommodating for my tastes. Well, that’s a bummer, the
first big indie exclusive for PS4 is a great game. I just don’t like it, as
hard as that is for me to admit.
Turns out I’m still playing Infamous: Second Son. Fancy
that.
My favorite kind of shooter is the single player shooter
that finds variety in its design, rather than the spontaneous moments that most
multiplayer shooters facilitate and rely on. A great single player shooter that
embraces its linearity and owns it, is the best kind of shooter in my book.
Wolfenstein: A New Order surprised the heck out of me by being the best kind of
the best kind of shooter.
Summer
Well alright, so this Watch_Dogs game has a lot of hype
surrounding it. An open world game, pretty graphics, a neat Dark Souls–inspired invasion multiplayer feature; it looks fun. The more I see of it
though, the less interested I become. Those characters, man. Aiden Pearce takes
himself way too seriously, and the other characters are the most offensive nerd
stereotypes since The Big Bang Theory. I’m gonna pass on this one, but maybe
the sequel will work out - a common theme for this generation, it would seem.
Swizzle, my buddy at Bungie got me into the Destiny
pre-alpha test! This game is gorgeous and plays just like Halo, but with a
connected world and loot drops. What could go wrong?
E3 2014. Alright, the next-gen/ current-gen/ new-gen/
whatever-ya-call-it-gen is starting to take shape. No Man’s Sky looks like the
most revolutionary, out-of-this world game on the future outlook. It’s not that
other games don’t look fantastic; The Witcher 3, Evolve, Bloodborne, Quantum
Break, Uncharted 4, etc. all look brilliant, but those are all known quantities
of sorts. No Man’s Sky has the potential to be a Minecraft-sized indie hit and
the sky is (quite literally) the limit with Hello Games’ project.
Boy, Respawn and EA sure are doing a great job supporting
Titanfall with free updates. It’s just too bad nobody seems to care anymore.
Finally it’s here! The absolute masterpiece game of the
year, possibly the greatest game of all time. The Last of Us Remastered. The
best version of the best game. Ever. Period. Aside from maybe Journey, A Link
to the Past and Shadow of the Colossus, Super Mario World, Half-Life 2…. But
still, this game blows any of these other PS4 games out of the water. Even you,
Wolfenstein. Yes, it’s a year old, so it doesn’t count, but that photo mode
sure is fun.
#GamerGate is a thing. Why is this a thing? A woman has sex
with a man that she maybe shouldn’t have. Oh really? Because I’ve had sex with plenty of women I probably shouldn’t have had sex with. My sex life, no matter
my profession, is none of your business, as Zoe Quinn’s is none of mine. If you
want to change game journalism, then become a game journalist. It’s easy enough
to start a blog and have your voice be heard. Death threats and sexist
statements won’t change anything, except the public perception of gamers.
That time of year.
You know the one.
Destiny is finally out! I love this game; the gunplay is
perfect, the loot is addictive, the world is beautiful and playing with my
friends is a blast. I hate this game; the enemies are bullet sponges, the loot
drops are stingy as heck, and my friends have stopped playing, while I’m going
on 50 hours and my Guardian is struggling to get over that level 24 hump. Crap,
I think I love this game.
"If you want to change gaming journalism, then become a game journalist."
My brother wants to know what system he should buy for my 8
year old nephew. I can’t, in good conscience, recommend the Wii U, though Mario
Kart 8, Smash Bros and that new Zelda look phenomenal. That new Zelda… drool.
But my nephew doesn’t play Zelda. He plays sports games and Minecraft. None of
which are in the Wii U repertoire. Xbox 360 it is, then. It’s odd to think the
Wii U’s biggest competition could be a last-gen console.
Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor surprised just about
everyone, but man is it difficult to care about what I’m doing here. This Orc
wants me to kill that Orc, I want this Orc to kill that Uruk, that Uruk has a
vendetta against me… randomly GOLLUM!? I’d love to play more of this game, but…
Destiny.
Drive Club is a very pretty game. I am psyched to play it on
PS Plus for free. Oh wait what? The servers aren’t working properly? The PS
Plus version is being delayed indefinitely? The game isn’t actually all that
great anyway? Well, darnit Sony.
I’m sure Sony is wishing The Order 1886 was coming out on
time eh?
This holiday season sure does reek of last generation. A
collection of Halo games from last generation, another Assassin’s Creed,
another Call of Duty, another Far Cry, another Dragon Age, another Little Big
Planet, another Sunset Overdrive… hold up, nope, that game’s new! Tony Hawk
mixed with Infamous, with a side of that level from DmC in the soda factory?
Sign me up!
Merry Christmas?
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