Gamer's Outpost Press (Archived)

by ‘pastapadre’

Having spent considerable time now with both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions of Madden NFL 15 there are some slight differences of note between the two. Last November at the launch of the two systems I discovered a slight preference with the XB1 for Madden NFL 25 despite settling on playing PS4 for the long-term.

That hasn’t changed with Madden NFL 15 in either regard. The games are practically identical but the Xbox One version gets the nod in a couple areas that wouldn’t really be identified without trying to make judgments between the game on one system vs the other.

Once again player control feels a little tighter on the Xbox One. I don’t believe this to be game-related but rather due to variations in the controller sticks and buttons/bumpers/triggers. I have the same opinion when playing the NHL 15 demo.

It’s mostly felt in Madden when running the ball as movement tends to be a little more precise. This stood out a lot last year initially but after playing the rest of the time on the PS4 the effects of that faded away as adjustments were made to how the players moved. Only if you were to bounce back and forth between the systems would this become distinctive.

There’s also the vibration in the triggers on XB1 that helps with timing the snap and QBs can draw you offside with it. I do like the way that feels and miss it when I’m playing over on PS4.

The simulation process when having to utilize the hard drive is faster on Xbox. In comparing the simulation time in offline Connected Franchise mode with stock hard drives on both systems it was apparent that the XB1 was moving faster than PS4 so I timed a few stretches. There is no disparity in online franchises.

Offline Sim Preseason: Xbox One (1:04), PS4 (1:34)
Offline Sim to Next Season: Xbox One (7:06), PS4 (10:01)

Graphically the game appears somewhat more dynamic on the Xbox One. Both are believed to be running at 1080p and 60fps but the colors on the XB1 are more vibrant than PS4. That much was the case last year as well but alone doesn’t mean that it is “better”. Some have also seen framerate drops on the PS4 that aren’t there on XB1 though I have not noticed any of that in my time playing yet.

There does seem to be what may be a bug on the PS4 side related to the setting sun (click the images below to view them full size). The shots were taken with the same settings, capture equipment, and circumstances (time of day, direction, field position, camera view). The setting sun just doesn’t seem to shine on the PS4 the way it always shows up on XB1. Interestingly the sun does always appear in PS4 cut scenes and replays, and on a few occasions I’ve noticed it pop in during gameplay, so I wonder if it’s something that might later get fixed in a patch. Keep in mind that there aren’t many outdoor stadiums that face east-west and this is only seen when using the zoomed out camera angle.

Obviously this isn’t something anyone should base a purchase decision on. But for those who are wondering about whether there are any differences in how the two versions look there are things to be found but to most I suspect they would prove inconsequential. On extreme close-ups I would give the edge just barely to the PS4 but pulled back maybe to the XB1. No one is going to notice anything unless the two are side-by-side so, really, don’t stress about any of it.

For those deciding between one or the other there isn’t anything significant enough to make one the obvious choice. Ultimately it will again come down to personal preferences such as the controller and where friends are located if online play is a factor.

http://www.gamersoutpost.net/

by Zack Zwiezen

Digital gaming is the future. I am a big fan of digital. I love it. On the PC its not a future as much as the current reality. Steam, GoG, Origin and more sites and services offer PC gamers tons of games for varying prices. All of them available digitally. Buy the game you want and download it. That’s it. No driving to the store or waiting for the UPS guy to arrive. Just click, buy, download and play. Its amazing.

Console games are finally starting to catch up to PCs when it comes to digital gaming. Especially the newer consoles. The Xbox One and PS4 offer nearly every game digitally. Sony even allows PlayStation users to preload there games a few days in advance.

But recently I was reminded of one of the reasons why the digital future is not something everyone wants. Why some are even afraid of or upset by gaming moving towards a non-physical market.

The Playstation Network, Xbox Live, BattleNet, League of Legends and more were attacked by a group of hackers. Some of these games and services were unavailable or unstable for most of Aug 24th.

And as this was happening, I found myself facing a situation that made me feel uncomfortable. I tried to play some of my PS4 digital games. Some worked, others didn’t. Because I couldn’t connect to PSN some of my games wouldn’t launch. I tried my Xbox 360 and found myself unable to log in. Some of my digital games didn’t work on my Xbox either.

Suddenly I was hit with a feeling. A large amount of the money I had put into these two machines was, for all intensive purposes, gone. That long list of games was nothing more than a bunch of icons that I could flick through.

I’m Still A Fan Of Downloading Games

I haven’t changed my mind about the digital future. I love the ease of use and low prices that digital gaming offers. Not to mention the cool, smaller and bizarre games that digital allows to exist. Games like Papers, Please or BroForce.

But there is a problem here. Not being able to play the games you bought is a huge issue and might scare people off of buying digital in the future.

Companies like Valve want us to spend money buying games digitally. They want us to buy many games, as often as we can. But if they want us to buy these games they need to do more to make sure we, the customers, can actually play these games. They need to do more to protect their servers, to protect our personal information and to make sure they always have a back up plan. Someway that I can access and play the games I paid for.

Its not just angry hackers that companies like Sony and EA need to worry about. They also have to make sure their own servers, hardware and services are ready for launch.

Companies Need To Be More Reliable & Prepared

When MLB The Show 14 launched earlier this year it angered many PS4 owners who had preordered the game digitally. For “unforeseen technical reasons” the game was delayed on PS4. Only the digital version though. It would take 14 hours before PS4 users could download the game they preordered weeks or days before. Sony was happy to take their money, but failed to provide a reliable digital release.

This event might have pushed people away from digital gaming even. Some on Twitter complained, stating they would never use digital gaming again. Some even explained how frustrating it was that their friends already had the game. Those friends who went to the store and bought it, had the game.

I witnessed this frustration first hand as my brother was visiting at the time and was furious. He told me he was done buying games digitally. Done giving them money and not getting what he wanted in return.

And I couldn’t blame him. If the digital future is to continue and find success companies need to earn people’s trust. Companies need to make sure their servers and networks are safe and ready to handle the massive strain of launch day. Remember the GTA Online fiasco? The SimCity meltdown? Or when Valve offered Left 4 Dead 2 for free. For one day. Steam collapsed and some couldn’t log in for some time that day. None of this is acceptable. Things need to change. I hope they do.

The Future Of Digital Games

I’ve seen some change. Some companies have realized that the ability to play should trump any neat feature you have. EA has made it possible to play SimCity offline and Ubisoft has been cutting back on always on DRM recently for PC releases. This is a good thing, and I would like more game developers and publishers to focus on making their game playable whenever and always. That is what I want. I want to be able to play the game, even if I can’t share coal with a nearby city, I still want to play the game I bought.I think most people feel that way too.

As I was waiting for the PSN to come back on, I grabbed a disc based game. Diablo 3 on Xbox 360. I put into my console and was able to play. No internet or Xbox Live needed. (The irony that Diablo 3 was my offline game that day is pretty great too.) This is the big issue for digital gaming. It doesn’t have to be better than disc based gaming. BUT it does have to be as reliable as disc based gaming. Otherwise for many they will simply wonder: What’s the point?

For digital gaming to succeed it needs to be, no matter what, always on. Always online. Always accessible. Always dependable. And hopefully we can get there in the future.

http://www.gamersoutpost.net/

by Jason Messer

As Ricky Bobby would say…”If ya’ ain’t first, you’re last!”

People have accused me of being a shameless Sony fanboy. The vitriol I’ve exposed for Microsoft and the Xbox brand (specifically regarding their recent next-gen endeavors) has been well documented on the site for the last year now. As a result, I’ve been labeled a shill for Sony. It’s clear my apparent lack of journalistic integrity or an objective opinion is the reason behind me being THIS down on our little green and black friend (obviously because I have a hidden agenda against it). Alas, my motivations I’ve worked so diligently to keep secret have finally been lay bare for all the world to see. My true colors have been revealed, as it turns out I truly do bleed pure PlayStation blue. All hail to the Sony motherland!

News flash…that’s all bullshit.

If you couldn’t tell, I had the sarcasm meter dialed up to about 10 there for a reason. I’m trying to illustrate how utterly ridiculous it sounds when zealots of either side attempt to strength their argument by cutting the legs out from under the opposing side’s position (based on conjecture and not facts). I can literally scream that I’m a lover of Xbox from the mountain tops until I’m three shades of purple, yet some simply don’t care to hear it. The fact of the matter is, anything folks like me say which might be disparaging towards one company or another (be it Microsoft, Sony or our little after-thought that his Nintendo) is going to get someone’s feathers ruffled in a way that usually requires copious amounts of keyboard banging to relieve their stress and anxiety. Personally, I think real introspection is a key way to grow in the positive. Only after those long, hard looks in the mirror do we truly see ourselves for what we are (and in some cases what we aren’t). I don’t know about you, but as an Xbox fan, I’m TIRED of feeling second rate. But that’s exactly what we are. As it stands today (and apparently for the foreseeable future) we live to be #2. Very much Pepsi to Sony’s Coke (or vice versa depending on your preference).

And it’s not like this has exactly been a respectable neck and neck race either.

I’d be willing to give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt when it comes to their year one roll-out, if Sony were having the same troubles. Problem is, they’re not. PlayStation 4 has consistently kicked their ass for almost a year. In fact, if you were to look at the last nine months as a boxing match, there isn’t a single freakin’ round the judges would have awarded to Microsoft by decision. Not one. How is that possible! The Xbox 360 was the most dominant (not to mention revolutionary) piece of gaming hardware to come out of the last-gen, yet now the One’s killer instinct has seemingly vanished along with the other 359 characters in its name. Oh you say you don’t agree? Can you already feel your fanboy ire beginning to rise irrationality? Well you might want to take a step back and breathe before you go full Hulk, because this decree doesn’t come just from me alone. The head of Xbox himself Phil Spencer recently echoed these sentiments in an interview earlier this month. “I own a PS4, and it’s not like I want it to get dusty or not have games. But I do want to sell a lot of Xbox Ones, and for many people that’s a direct competition with the PS4. As the Xbox team, we are the underdog.” Spencer states.

It’s gut-check time for the Xbox, and more importantly, the gamers who support it. I think we’ve been allowing the cheerleaders to guide us down the primrose path for far too long. We’ve become complacent as the runner-up in the gaming world, instead of keeping that driving hunger in our bellies. Frankly, those on our team insistent on banging the drum of awesomeness are doing nothing but blinding us to the truth (and should have no place in our locker room). The recent price drop over the summer is surely going to move the revenue needle a bit during the upcoming holiday season (as we’ve already seen some upward momentum in that regard) but I’m not sure it’s enough. A rumor leaked this week suggesting the updated Xbox One numbers are hovering around the five million mark sold. However, this blurb was mysteriously walked back by Microsoft and later pulled down (leaving us wondering if this is truly the case). It’s possible this was reactionary to Sony recently touting they’ve already hit double that figure, once again highlighting the glaring divide that remains between the two systems.

I want the Xbox to succeed, but how much longer do we need to wait? The more Microsoft drags their feet, the less likely it seems they’ll ever pull their struggling tech out of its initial nose dive. I ask you, where is their PlayStation Now, PlayStation TV or Morpheus counterparts? Where is any innovation for that matter? Why does NOTHING interesting seem primed and ready on the Xbox front, unlike what we’ve seen from them in the past? Where’s the sun peaking over the horizon?

I’m desperately trying to keep the faith, but so far 2015 looks like more of the same. If not careful, it could result in just another nail driven deeper into the coffin.

http://www.gamersoutpost.net

by Chris Morris

Microsoft made waves recently by announcing that Rise of the Tomb Raider would be an exclusive for the Xbox One. It turned out to be another example of terrible corporate communication – the game is actually a timed exclusive and will indeed come to other platforms evetually – but it raises a good question: which systems are better for which games?

Sometimes games come out early on one system. Other times, the downloadable content is superior on a specific console. We’re going to see plenty of this in the next 6-12 months (or years).

Here’s a quick look at which consoles have the advantage for a selection of big upcoming games:

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
Advantage: Xbox One

Activision and Microsoft have a long-standing agreement that brings Call of Duty DLC to the Xbox first. The partnership has worked well for both companies, given the sustained popularity of the franchise. If you’re a fan of the series, this decision is pretty much a no-brainer: you’ll want it on the Xbox One.

Destiny
Advantage: PS4

Bungie can rightfully be credited for helping launch Microsoft’s gaming division, thanks to Halo. As it prepares to launch its latest franchise, though, it’s aligning with Sony. The PlayStation 4 is the easy choice for Destiny players, as the system will receive exclusive weapons, ships, gear, and multiplayer maps.

Dragon Age: Inquisition
Advantage: Xbox One

When Microsoft unveiled the Xbox One last year, it casually mentioned a “key” partnership with Electronic Arts. So far, that’s resulted in a full-on exclusive with Titanfall and some timed exclusivity for Battlefield 4 DLC. In June, EA added Dragon Age: Inquisition, due Nov. 18, to the pot, with all DLC hitting Xbox One before it lands on the PS4.

Far Cry 4
Advantage: PS4

Following in Bungie’s footsteps, Ubisoft is betting big on the PS4 with one of its most valuable properties this fall. Far Cry 4 won’t offer any DLC timing advantages, but if you want to play with friends who don’t own the game, the PS4 is the only way to do it. The feature lets you invite up to 10 PSN friends to play Far Cry 4 in co-op mode. The only catch? Those friends can only play with you for two hours each.

Batman: Arkham Knight
Advantage: PS4

The Dark Knight plays favorites, and this time around, he prefers Sony. While the content bonuses for this 2015 release aren’t as big as some other games, they’re not easily dismissed. PS4 owners will receive the “Scarecrow Nightmare Pack,” a gameplay mode with additional missions centered around Dr. Jonathan Crane, whose alter ego is one of the Caped Crusader’s trickiest enemies.

Tom Clancy’s The Division
Advantage: Xbox One

While this Tom Clancy-inspired third-person action game won’t be out until next year, it’s already aligning itself with Microsoft. Ubisoft has announced that Xbox One owners of the game will receive exclusive content “before and after” the game’s launch. So far, neither company has expanded on what that might mean, though an early beta and timed DLC exclusives seem the most likely candidates.

Rise of the Tomb Raider
Advantage: Xbox One

Microsoft indeed turned a lot of heads — and ruffled a lot of feathers — at Gamescom with the announcement that Lara Croft’s latest adventures would be exclusive to Xbox One. Days later, it became a bit clearer: Microsoft’s advantage was a time-based one. That said, if you want to play the game when it comes out during the 2015 holiday season, Xbox One will almost certainly be your only option.

http://www.gamersoutpost.net

by Erik Kain

Sony’s rather boring new-gen video game console, the PlayStation 4, has sold through over 10 million units to consumers.

This makes it the leader in the new-gen console race, which may come as a surprise to readers. After all, the competition has much more exciting and innovative video game consoles than the PS4.

Even Sony is surprised by how fast their boring new console is selling.

Microsoft’s Xbox One (originally) launched with the exciting and innovative Kinect sensor, all for just $499. (Now Microsoft offers a much less interesting Xbox One without the Kinect for $399, the same price as Sony’s rather boring PS4.)

The Kinect allows users to navigate the Xbox One UI with voice commands that you may or may not remember. This is a super useful feature for parents whose children refuse to stop watching Netflix or won’t turn off a video game when asked repeatedly. A simple “Xbox Off” from across the room takes care of that problem.

Trust me, you won’t forget that voice command. (Though your kids may learn “Xbox On” pretty quickly.)

Games like Ryse: Son of Rome let you order troops around via voice commands, and there was this one fighting game that everyone hated that allowed you to sort of fumble around the room using gestures—instead of button combos—to pull off moves. Nobody remembers what that game was called.

Meanwhile, Nintendo launched its own exciting, innovative product known—unfortunately—as the Wii U (instead of the much better-named Super Wii.) Consumers to this day believe the fancy touchscreen gamepad that forms the cornerstone of the Wii U is simply an add-on peripheral for the better known and more successful Wii—last-gen’s best-selling home console.

The Wii U gamepad allows for all sorts of interesting gameplay innovations, including second-screen gaming, asymmetric gameplay, and watching Netflix on the smaller screen so dad can watch football. It’s also extremely useful for kids, many of whom no longer have the capacity to use buttons properly thanks to the rapid rise of touchscreens in modern society.

Last but not least, the expensive gamepad ensured that the Wii U was underpowered compared to the competition, making it very effective at scaring off third party developers.

(While this article is largely tongue-in-cheek—bet you didn’t notice!—the gamepad actually is pretty neat at times, with the handful of games that make use of it such as The Wonderful 101 and some of Nintendo’s party games.)

Which brings us to Sony’s rather dull, rather plain, rather unexceptional PS4 which comes with no touchscreen gamepad—you’d need a PS Vita for that—and no Kinect—though you could buy the PS Move and do a lot of what the Kinect can do—and has really only one thing going for it:

Horse power.

And a reasonable price-tag.

Okay, so the PS4 has just two things going for it: Horse power and a reasonable price-tag.

And the upcoming Project Morpheus virtual reality headset peripheral. But that’s not here yet, so we can’t really talk about it.

(I’d add really neat-looking upcoming exclusive video games to the list also, but that doesn’t really set the PS4 apart from the Xbox One or Wii U, both of which have their own neat-looking exclusives coming up also. Sure, none of them look quite as amazing as Bloodborne, but that’s neither here nor there.)

In any case, the PS4 is in many, many ways just a more powerful PS3. Really, it’s just a more powerful, internet-connected PS2. Not a lot has changed, or not a lot that’s visible to consumers anyways, beyond upgrading the graphics capabilities and tinkering around with the controller.

All of which can serve as a reminder for what gamers—or video game consumers—really want out of a console: boringness.

Let me rephrase that. Gamers want a machine that isn’t center stage and doesn’t try too hard to innovate with inputs, but instead serves as a solid system to play the actually exciting stuff on: Video games.

Sony not only priced the PS4 correctly—$100 less than the less powerful Xbox One and $100 more than the even less powerful Wii U—they also branded it well as a “games-first” system. When you sit down to play the PS4 you are sitting down to play the most powerful, least innovative of the three consoles, and it shows in the games which consistently boast higher frame rates and/or resolution than Xbox One.

Instead of having the plate outshine the meal, Sony simply ensured that the plate wouldn’t interfere with the meal.

As much as I admire both Microsoft and Nintendo for their willingness to … think outside the box (as it were) Sony’s move was the most intuitive. The core gaming community that Sony is catering to with the PS4 doesn’t care much about motion controls, and they play games on their phones already and don’t need a touchscreen gamepad for their couch-gaming.

Sometimes boring is the most business-savvy road to travel. Sometimes it’s a word that shouldn’t carry such negative connotation. If games are the most important thing to gamers, making things like the Kinect or the Wii U gamepad mandatory is a big mistake.

The PS4′s continued trouncing of both these systems is proof enough of that.

http://www.gamersoutpost.net

by Ben Kuchera

Games displayed at 1080p, while running at a smooth 60 frames-per-second, has become part of the marketing for many new games.

It’s a magical bullet point on a list of features that proves that your game is next-generation, and there are groups of players online who sneer at anything that can’t quite hit that goal.

Diablo 3 on the Xbox One, for instance, couldn’t quite get there. The original response was to drop the resolution down to 900p and keep the frame rate. A smooth game, many would argue, is worth sacrificing a few lines of resolution. The problem is that this solution created a PR problem for Microsoft, a company that is scared of consumers seeing the Xbox One as a less-powerful console compared to the PlayStation 4.

“That’s what we demoed and were showing around E3 time. And Microsoft was just like, ‘This is unacceptable. You need to figure out a way to get a better resolution.’ So we worked with them directly, they gave us a code update to let us get to full 1080p,” Blizzard’s John Hight told Eurogamer.

The results were positive, and shows the power of a platform holder invested in helping a developer deliver the best possible game.

The framerate isn’t locked at 60fps

“The good news is that Blizzard has indeed achieved a full 1080p resolution on Xbox One, and has done so with no impact to visual quality. This is aside from what we suspect may be some light tweakery to the shadow maps, an occasional, subtle change that takes effect on the updated PlayStation 4 build too,” Eurogamer reported. “From an image quality perspective, though, first impressions suggest the two console versions are now absolutely identical — a point we hope to elaborate on once we dissect a greater breadth of areas for the full comparison.”

Here’s the problem: The frame rate isn’t locked at 60fps, and in moments with a lot of monsters or effects onscreen, frames are dropped. The report goes to great lengths to point out that both issues, the lowered resolution from the first pass and the dropped frames that you see after installing the day one patch, are subtle and won’t necessarily impact the game’s play in a major way, but we don’t have a choice in which one we prefer.

“[The dropped frames are] not game-breaking, and many players may not even notice — but it’s clear that a 44 per cent boost to resolution doesn’t come for free: in the same scenarios, the 900p version proved smoother,” Eurogamer stated.

The marketing demands 1080p resolution, so that’s what the market itself gets. I would prefer to have a smoother frame rate over the increase in resolution, but I don’t get to make that call. The talking point of that resolution and that target frame rate are going to decide how we play our games, for better or worse.

I think it’s worse. Or better yet, I think the player should be given a choice.

This isn’t a new argument

I’ve written about the many options given to PC players when it comes to visuals, and some of them are beginning to sneak over to the console side of things.

You can lock the frame rate of Killzone: Shadow Fall at 30 fps if you’d like, although the controversy over whether or not that game runs at 60 fps while displaying a 1080p resolution has led to a lawsuit. Because to some people, it’s that important, apparently. The PS4 release of The Last of Us also allows you to lock the frame rate; Sony seems to be comfortable giving at least a small bit of control to the player.

But let’s swing back to the Diablo example, because it’s recent and shows what we’re dealing with here. There are two types of gamers out there: Those who care about these numbers, and those that don’t. The ones that don’t care just want a game that looks good and play smoothly. The actual pixel count or frame rate targets don’t matter, or they matter less.

So the solution, to up the resolution and deal with the hit to frame rate from time to time, is imperfect. It’s marketing, and the gamer that cares will read reports that discuss exactly what happened. The benefit of hitting these arbitrary targets is lost, and we still don’t have a say in which way we’d like to play the game.

The other type of gamer cares about these numbers dearly

So why not give us a choice? I’d much rather be able to choose to increase the resolution or lose frames if I can’t have it both ways, and Microsoft pressuring companies to provide these bullshit numbers takes that choice away from us. The fact these stats are used in marketing isn’t a bad thing, what’s annoying is when hitting those targets is justification for decisions that could impact the play itself.

Sony successfully set the terms for this fight when it stressed how many games are running at the desired resolution and frame rate, and it’s a battle the more-powerful PS4 is well-equipped to fight. Microsoft is playing a dangerous game fighting back in this area, and the differences in graphical fidelity between future games may not be as subtle as what we see in the latest version of Diablo.

We’re going to see more of this as the consoles fight each other, and the only way to really escape it is to play on the PC where you can pour money into new components and not have to choose between resolution and performance. But then many gamers prefer the direct control of the characters you get from using a console-style controller. There’s no option to play this version of Diablo on the PC, so players have a choice to make.

In the case of Diablo 3? I’m playing it on the PS4.

http://www.gamersoutpost.net/

by Dave Smith

Amid all the exciting announcements coming out of last week’s Gamescom trade show in Cologne, Germany, Sony announced a handful of new features coming in its 2.0 firmware for PlayStation 4.

And while firmware is rarely anything to get excited about, this particular update is different — because it will effectively help Sony put distance between itself and Microsoft’s Xbox One.

Sony’s PlayStation 4 has outsold the console competition for seven straight months now, with PS4 sales roughly double that of Xbox One sales worldwide, according to Metro. But with this new update, the PS4 is about to become a much more powerful and user-friendly gaming platform.

The big reason? “Share Play,” which was promised when Sony announced the PS4 at E3, is a feature that allows you to play with any of your PlayStation Network friends over the internet — even if you don’t own the game. (It’s free to register a PSN account.)

This particular feature uses just a single copy of your game that is run locally on one system, and then you or others can invite your friends to play that game with you by streaming it to their consoles. So if you own a racing game that your friends don’t have, you can still play your game with them online (think an HBO Go password, but more social).

But there’s more:

“For example, if there is part of a game that you can’t quite finish, you can invite a friend to take over your controls,” Sony says on its blog. “Like handing over the controller to a friend on your couch, your screen will be shared as your friend gets through the part of the game that has been giving you trouble.”

Share Play sounds extremely promising as a potential game changer for this generation of consoles. Still, Sony says it will limit “Share Play” sessions to one hour each, and lag may unfortunately affect how enjoyable this user feature is. We’ll have to see how well the functionality works in practice.

Why would Sony allow people to play games without paying for them? It’s a way to get people hooked on the system, which should boost hardware and software sales overall.

Other useful additions are inside that 2.0 firmware, including — finally — YouTube support. Before this update, PS4 users could only record and share their gameplay clips to Facebook or an external hard drive. But for all of those gamers looking to make money off their video-gaming achievements or follies, Sony is baking YouTube right into the PS4’s OS to make recording and sharing drop-dead simple.

The Xbox One has one particular advantage over the PlayStation 4, which is its ability to instantly return to where you left off in your game when you wake the console from sleep mode. Sony has actually promised this capability for the PS4, but it is not here yet — still, Sony says it “will have more to announce in the coming months” with regards to this fall’s big 2.0 firmware rollout, so there is still hope for this game suspension feature reaching the PS4.

Though both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One have plenty of first- and third-party games coming to their respective systems this fall, this year’s console wars might come down to how well these consoles can play with other platforms and ecosystems. A game-sharing online multiplayer mode and added support for YouTube will certainly help Sony’s next-gen console, which is getting ready to celebrate its one-year anniversary in just a few short months.

http://www.gamersoutpost.net/

by Daniel Sims  

Editor’s Note from Jason Wilson: Since rumors suggested Sony might bring PS1 and PS2 emulation to the PS4, some suggested even running old discs might be possible. It might sound impossible to many, but it really isn’t.

Eurogamer’s January report about the possibility of Sony using software emulation to get original PlayStation and PlayStation 2 games playable on the PlayStation 4, instead of streaming through the PlayStation Now service, has had some people giddy all year.

Some of these folk have been talking online about how Sony could make old PS1 and PS2 discs work on the PS4 — and while it might be easy to write this off as fanboys, it’s could happen. And depending on how the technology works, disc compatibility might not even be that difficult for Sony to implement. You could even argue against possible business concerns.

As Eurogamer states, this would basically be the same way compatibility with PS2 and PS1 games works on PS3 models that don’t use the Emotion Engine (i.e., everything built after the 20GB and 60GB Japanese and North American models that debuted in 2006). Sony has a PS1 emulator that runs most of these games well on the PS3, the PSP, and even the Vita, without those games needing any alternations. Sony also has a PS2 emulator running for the PS3, but it can only accurately run a relative handful of PS2 games — the games in the PS2 classics section of the PlayStation Store. Eurogamer’s sources indicate Sony intends to bring that emulation to the PS4.

This is interesting for people hoping to run old discs because that emulation is exactly how the PS3 runs PS1 discs (even the Slim model). Heck, even save files are compatible between PS3, PSP, Vita, and old PS1 memory cards. If Sony has already nailed PS1 emulation so well, why not carry that capability over to the much more powerful PS4? Sony Worldwide Studios head Shuhei Yoshida even admitted last year that emulation would be ideal: “The easiest thing technically would be to make PS1 games work on PS4 through emulation.”

The situation with PS2 games is a bit more clouded. PS3 hackers have actually managed to get newer models of the system to run PS2 discs through its own-board emulator, but it doesn’t run most games accurately at all. Even PC emulators like PCSX2 can run PS2 discs. Theoretically, the PS4 should be much more capable of emulating a wide variety of PS2 games, hopefully even most of them. If Sony reached a point where PS2 emulation on PS4 worked as well as their PS1 emulation does now, they could technically enable people to run PS2 discs. At the very least this would let Sony toss many more PS2 classics on the PlayStation Store for PS4.

As for the running of old games at HD resolutions, if it happens, it would probably only be for a select few games. This is one of the main allures of PCSX2, but it only works well with a small number of PS2 games for which the emulator is constantly tweaked (such as Final Fantasy XII). Still, the results are often nearly as good as an HD remaster with a fraction of the effort. Theoretically, this could also work with physical copies of old games.

Why do all this instead of streaming a game? Eurogamer’s report suggests letting users simply download PS1 and PS2 games could put much less stress on their servers than streaming them repeatedly. A PS1 game is usually less than a gigabyte in size, and most PS2 games are only a few gigs. Using PS Now for those games really only makes sense for less powerful devices like the PlayStation TV or Sony Bravia TVs, which can stream games.

And of course, there’s the question of why Sony would let people buy and run old discs instead of buying the games again. Well, for the most, part the market for used PS1 and PS2 games is a tiny one today — that’s not much of a threat to the market for new games. GameStop has already begun to phase out used PS2 games, and they definitely aren’t common anymore outside eBay, Amazon, and the odd retro game store. Even where these places do exist, Sony has already shown the capability to price its digital classics competitively. Final Fantasy VII became one of the top-selling games on PSN despite the PS3 being able to run the original PS1 disc, most likely because those discs can cost as much as $70 these days as opposed to the $10 for the PSN version. For PS2 Classics, Sony has focused specifically on rare games that are expensive at retail, releasing digital versions for a quarter of the price or less. And how many PS4 owners still have a PS1 and PS2 games lying around? Not many, I imagine. It doesn’t make sense to lock out that minority of players who might actually buy a PS4 if they find out they can run their PS2 discs on it.

And even Sony probably knows it can never release every PS2 game ever made that’s worth playing on PSN. There are simply too many, and that’s not even taking licensing restrictions into account. For many of those games the original physical copies will probably remain the only legally available versions for the foreseeable future.

Sony had basically nothing to fear from people being able to run PS1 discs on the PS3, and has little to fear from people running PS1 and PS2 discs on the PS4. At the same time, I think Sony can only really gain from making the PS4 compatible with possibly the most valuable library of any game console ever. The only reason I could see for Sony not allowing PS2 discs (assuming any of Eurogamer’s report is true) is if its PS2 emulation is still too imperfect.

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by L.W. Barker

The SEGA of my childhood was a great company and the single competitor to the “Big N” aka Nintendo. This is my personal history of SEGA in the years before Sony and when Nintendo ruled the World!

1986

I worked for the summer at Woolworth’s department store in Brooklyn, New York City (NYC) with one goal in mind—to acquire enough cash to buy the SEGA Master System. I worked that store for a few weeks, stocking merchandise and cutting up boxes on the sales floor and down in the basement level. It was hard work for a teenager, but I did it and quit after a few paychecks—walking out of Macy’s that year with my SEGA Master System in hand.

Many games came afterward —as gifts from my parents and through trades which I did at various pawn shops around town. Thus games such as ‘Alex Kidd,’ and ‘Double Dragon’ gave me hours of enjoyment.

1988

I wasn’t doing too well in High school in 1988, so my parents shipped me off to an Adventist boarding school (I’m not Adventist by the way), located in the mountains of Pennsylvania. Blue Mountain Academy (BMA) brought its own unique tales and adventures that I will save for another time, but I was known to many at this school as “SEGA Master” because I was seemly a video game ace, especially with games from SEGA.

1989

I returned to NYC in 1989 after only a year at BMA, and just in time for the release of the SEGA Genesis. I made a lot of trips to Macy’s Electronics Department just to see this new 16-Bit console in action—and the game,“Altered Beast” was its highlight.

I had to have this new system, so I quickly got a job at Alexander’s Department Store which was located in the concourse level of 1 World Trade Center. I worked on the sales floor while my little brother Andrew was learning the ropes of a first job as a stocker in the store’s basement level. I remember at lunch how we would compete on the ‘Burning Fight’ arcade game in the Cafeteria area of the store—fun times. I got my SEGA Genesis at the end of that year.

1991

After two years of direct competition with my little brother, Shaun, who was at that time a fanboy of Nintendo, and my friend Sharrod aka ‘Tick’ who was kicked out the house by yours truly for insulting my Genesis and being a pesty Nintendo “fanboy”, I indulged even deeper into gaming.

1991 was also the year that I returned a survey card to SEGA of America that asked candidates to name their new mascot. I looked at the picture of the blue hedgehog with sneakers and wrote down “Sonic” . Now whether my card was the one that gave Sonic the Hedgehog his name, or if it was one of literally thousands cards with that name written is debatable—but I will always be thankful to SEGA for allowing me to provide them with my input.

1992

In December 1992, I left NYC for Lackland Air Force Base, Texas for Basic Military Training. I packed everything I owned to include my Sega Genesis and its games. However, this bag of personal items which linked me back to the real world confiscated on arrival, so I had to do without my games for 6 weeks while I trained to become an Airman in the United States Air Force.

1993

I completed basic training in February 1993. Graduation night was unique—-a few of my peers decided to break curfew and venture over to the female dorms to celebrate with them. Well, they were quickly caught by a our Training Instructor (T.I.), and he brought friends—I was horrified when one of the T.I.s picked up my bag full of games, opened it and held my SEGA Genesis over his head making throwing motions as he yelled at not only the culprits, but at all of us to include me, who was asleep only a few minutes before. Thankfully he placed the console back in my bag and put it back in place—but the culprits—their punishment was another 2 weeks of basic training.

I was flown to Biloxi, Mississippi the next morning to Keesler AFB to start my career-field education. I had to be in uniform for the first few weeks in Tech School, however, SEGA and its new CD peripheral for the Genesis overruled that. I sneaked off base one night—dressed in my civies—taking the bus to the local mall to buy the SEGA CD and its first game, ‘Sonic Adventure’ which gave the Genesis spectacular speech and video—a clear technological advancement for that period of time.

1995

SEGA released its Saturn which I never bought. And even though it was a financial flop for SEGA, I regret not having gotten it to this day. Perhaps, one day I will.

1999

I bought what is still considered to be SEGA’s best system, the Dreamcast in 1999. And with it game the short-lived SEGANET feature which allowed for games to be played online via the console’s 56K modem. I also acquired a ton of games for the Dreamcast—‘Blue Stinger’, ‘Crazy Taxi’, ‘Ecco the Dolphin’, ‘Resident Evil 2’, and ‘Shenmue’ just to name a few. I was recently given ‘WWF Royale Rumble’ a few years ago and its now in my collection.

Today

I’m now a military retiree having served 20+ years in the USAF. I’m also the founder and CEO of Gamer’s Outpost.net . However with these accomplishments, I’ve often wondered if SEGA will ever return to the console market. The public image of SEGA shows that they are doing well as a software developer, but I would personally like for them to one day return to doing hardware—just one more console to satisfy this fanboy of SEGA!

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by L.W. Barker

Two games that have disappointed me in the past—Aliens: Colonial Marines; and Watch Dogs. One game may disappoint me in the future—Tom Clancy’s The Division. Recent insider rumblings have confirmed comments directly from the developers of the game which to put it bluntly:

“We have already downgraded a few things.”

Okay, let’s get a handle on this by going back to the games that disappointed me.

Aliens: Colonial Marines

A:CM blew everyone out of the water at E3 2012. The graphics, sound and gameplay gave us all a rush that lasted for months up to the game’s official release in February 2013. It was also Gearbox software’s # 1 selling game in its first week at retail, then the truth came out—A:CM had been downgraded to substandard levels, and Gearbox Software had basically lied to our Community.

I let them have it with a petition page that acquired 500+ likes and up to 75K fans from all over the World who shared in my anger towards Gearbox and every other developer/publisher who dared follow in their footsteps.

Gearbox Software eventually succumbed to our pressure and pushed out a patch that corrected the game’s graphics to slightly below what was shown at E3.

Watch_Dogs

E3 2013 was the debut event for next gen gaming and Watch Dogs was its highlight. I was captivated by the game’s graphics and its promise of true next gen gaming with a “complete badass” protagonist, Aiden Pearce. I wanted to be him and I wanted this next gen game right then and there. And I wasn’t the only one—many in our Industry as well as throughout the gaming community held high regards for this potential leader of next gen games.

Well, all that ended this month—Watch_Dogs had been downgraded to well below PC standards to what looks to be only a fraction above what can be found on PS3 and Xbox 360. And Ubisoft’s response after hidden graphical settings were discovered in the PC version was:

“We test and optimize our games for each platform on which they’re released, striving for the best possible quality.”

I’m sorry Ubisoft, but you had an extra 8 months to test and properly optimize Watch Dogs to ensure that it was released with the same graphics quality that was shown to the World at E3 2013. The fact is even though the game is a financial success, like Gearbox Software, you lied to our Industry and stole our hard earned cash—that is unforgivable in my book.

Tom Clancy’s The Division

So now we return to The Division and its potential downgrade from what was shown to us at E3 2014. Our insider, who is also a developer working directly on the game had this to say:

“Truth to be told, while our lead platform is PC, we just cannot have such a big gap. As you know, when the first Watch Dogs review was published by that one site, Ubisoft called it a “false review” and I’m sure everyone can see how bad that sounded when they saw that the game did look marginally better than something that was a last generation GTA IV. But no, they will not admit that they practice this or that they actively downgrade a game. It is much easier for them to say that they remove things for stability which is often a lie which you can tell by the post issues which are expected in any production we do.”

So we can confirm that the demo of the Division that was shown to us at E3 2014 will be downgraded as every other game that have disappointed me in the past.

However, I wrote this article with the hope that Ubisoft Massive, Ubisoft Reflections and Ubisoft Red Storm will read and understand that publishers and develops must stop lying to our Industry. This bait and switch routine is sick and only serves to undermine our hard earned trust that once lost, is next to impossible to reacquire.

They should not hold back graphics power on our games as some sort of sadistic reservation ploy for PS5, the next Xbox, or Nintendo’s mystery machine—we want that power now—this is why we bought our PS4, Xbox One and Wii U—let us experience next gen’s true potential!

Source: WhatifGaming.com

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