Gamer's Outpost Press (archived)

by Usman Pirzada

I am a solid supporter of the DIY ideology in PC builds and consider pre-built systems like these slightly less then a rip-off. However, I just couldn’t stop myself from publishing this particular Alienware reveal. The Area 51 introduces very impressive aesthetics and an absolutely insane amount of GPU – CPU horsepower for a fully 4K Ready gaming experience. Ofcourse, you can make a similar build for considerably less the price, but if you have got money to burn and want the best your gold can buy than this is for you.

Alienware Area 51 Boasts Eight Haswell-E Cores with Triple GPUs for a full 4K Experience

Usually I wouldn’t suggest anything past an over clocked Intel i5 to PC builders who strictly want to game, but I actually don’t dispute Alienware’s decision to go with Haswell-E processors even though they are not really meant for gaming. Normally a simple over clocked i5 is enough, and by normally I mean single GPU rigs. Once Multi GPU configurations enter the scene, things start to go pretty south. To those of you who don’t already know this, a GPU is entirely dependent on the CPU for ‘orders’ which is why a single i5 suffices for a single GPU configuration. However, triple the GPU literally means triple the ‘orders’ for the CPU to dish out, which is why unless you have a very powerful CPU, your multi GPU configuration can get bottlenecked. In this case, the Area 51, which is of course completely configurable to the customer’s needs can support a maximum of 3 GPUs, in which case you would most certainly need as much CPU power as you can get. This is one of the primary reasons low level APIs like DX12 and Mantle are so important to reduce costs.

Anyway, here are the maximum specs of the Alienware Area 51 (2014). I think one of the major reasons why I am posting this is because the I am absolutely loving the style of this thing. The chasis called the “Triad Chasis” is a simplistic triangle design that features an interesting airflow schematic. The Area 51 will feature liquid cooling and you can either opt for a 6 core or an 8 core CPU. This will ofcourse be the Haswell-E series, which consists of the i7-5820K, i7-5930K and i7-5960X. This is coupled with an X99 chipset and DDR4 Ram (upto 32GB) for increased bandwidth and lower power consumption. Now I am not really sure how much all of this will cost but I am pretty sure it won’t be easy on the wallet, at all. Not even remotely. Actually your wallet will probably stop existing. Alienware is set for the full reveal in a few days.

http://www.gamersoutpost.net

by Marty Sliva

The Order: 1886 demo I played at PAX Prime was one of the stranger slices of a game I’ve played in quite some time. It managed to reel me in from the get-go and keep my attention until the very end, despite some deep gameplay flaws. Let’s start with the positives.

I don’t need to tell you that The Order is a gorgeous video game. The characters, setting, and lighting effects are all top-notch. The world is an interesting and unique setting that straddles a nice line between Victorian horror and alternate history. The idea of a game combining werewolves and Nikola Tesla is fantastic — I love the looking at a historical setting and playing with the idea of what it would be like with a dash of technology here and a bit of magic there. The few major events I was privy to inside of the world were equally intriguing. The voice work and banter between my team was great, and it was genuinely one of the few times where a game transitioned from a cinematic into gameplay, and I just sat there not moving because I didn’t spot the hard-cut from one to the other.

But sadly, as much as I really admired these aspects of The Order, the actual act of playing the game resonated far less with me. This certainly isn’t the first time we’ve had reservations about The Order’s gameplay. Once I did actually realize that I was in control of my character, I was thrust into a cover-based gunfight against a mob of enemies scattered across the levels of a nearby building. The sticky-cover system definitely feels like Gears of War, which is not a knock in my book. Epic really nailed that aspect, so there’s no reason to fix what isn’t broke. But while Gears had a great suite of weapons with some fantastic visual feedback when you made contact with an enemy, The Order’s arsenal felt like some really gorgeous prop guns.

My main weapon in the demo was the Thermite Rifle, a machine gun that also fired off explosive-flares. I loved the small detail of how the flare would corkscrew through the air on its way to my target, but igniting the explosive never gave me the desired effect. Blasts right on top of enemies didn’t seem to faze them, and certain explosions would cause structural damage while others seemed to just be bursts of light. So I instead decided to focus on picking them off with my rifle. The problem here was that the bullets spread out in such a wide area so quickly, that I could burst-fire an entire clip at an enemy across a street and have every single bullet miss its target.

Trying to pick off the seemingly-endless droves of enemies became a Sisyphean task until I switched over to my tiny pistol sidearm, which didn’t feel all-that great to use, but at least did a better job at dispatching the enemies. As I made my way through the town to my eventual destination, I couldn’t help but compare my progression to an early-’70s Disneyland attraction. Enemies would pop in and out of cover, but exhibited the lack-of awareness and sense of self-preservation of an animatronic. The feedback I received from a direct hit didn’t feel empowering, but rather like when your laser-sight would get close enough to a node in a shooting gallery.

The demo closed with a moment where my party barricaded themselves in decrepit building. I was told to wander around and search for any clues in the environment that might help lead us to safety. The first quiet moment of the demo, I was immediately shocked by how close the third-person camera remained behind my character. The space we were in was relatively small, but the lack of distance between me and my avatar led to a claustrophobic and disorientating effect, and not in a good way like what Bloodborne accomplished. I finally had a moment to soak in The Order’s world, and all I wanted was for it to be over.

Given how gorgeous The Order: 1886 is, I want to be able to explore its world. Given how well-defined its environment is, I want to enjoy parsing through every nook and cranny. Given how much I admire its character design and writing, I want to spend time unraveling its mysteries. I’m bummed out that the actual act of playing The Order seems to urge me away from what I want. Reading about the more horror-centric slice of the game that Colin got to play at E3 leaves me with a bit of hope that the demo I saw might not be representative of everything we’ll be playing in February. Here’s to hoping.

http://www.gamersoutpost.net/

by Jeremy Peeples

Nintendo’s announcement of the New 3DS surprised everyone, but it really shouldn’t have been too shocking. With the exception of the GameCube, Nintendo has frequently altered their hardware during its life cycle. The original DS was supplanted by the DS Lite, and both were rendered obsolete with the release of the DSi and the DSi XL that added a camera and debuted DSiWare games that couldn’t be played on either a DS or DS Lite. In the case of the original Wii, Nintendo left it alone for the most part until the tail end of its life. They released a version of the Wii bundled with New Super Mario Bros. Wii, and took out the GameCube functionality and made the system a far worse overall value. Still, this was a better value than the Wii Mini, which slimmed down the form factor, but gave you composite video-output and eliminated all web features, including the eShop and its vast library of games, and online play.

Now, Nintendo finds itself in the familiar position of doing its best to make a new version of the hardware seem like a must-buy to people who already own a version of the original system. The DSi was a hard sell because it wasn’t a huge power upgrade, but offered up a whole new storefront to use and a camera. The DSi XL came out afterwards and finally addressed an issue people had with the DS for years – the small screen size. Nintendo is helping to alleviate frustration caused by staggering the DSi and DSi XL releases (and after that, the 3DS and 3DS XL) by releasing both the New 3DS and New 3DS LL at the same time. This means that people won’t be buying one system and wind up blindsided when another variant of it hits the market — a good move in the long run.

With Nintendo announcing new Wii U bundles, one also has to wonder if they’re going to phase out the Wii U in its current form in favor of one with a bit more horsepower. The system has come under fire since its launch nearly two years ago for being incredibly underpowered – with only a few third party games like Need For Speed: Most Wanted U and Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag really taking advantage of the increased power compared to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. However, Nintendo has already released two versions of the system before – with the white 8GB basic model being phased out in order to simplify things. Why offer up two different variations of the same hardware when neither version is selling well? Nintendo realized this issue and focused on the 32GB model. They also including a variety of top-notch games to give people a reason to buy the system, which they’re continuing with this year’s holiday bundle SKUs. The difference between all of the hardware revisions done before and the Wii U is that those systems, whether they were consoles or portables, were exceptionally popular. The NES got the first major revision, and that came out with the SNES in full force and was a budget-minded version of the hardware that stripped things down to an RF connection, but was otherwise far more reliable a system than the original front-loading model, and it came with a more comfortable SNES-style pad to boot. The SNES got a Super Famicon-style revamp when the N64 was released, while the N64 got absolutely no revisions made to the hardware beyond new colors. The same story was told for the GameCube, while the Wii’s revisions were stealthy with the full-sized model, and made more apparent during the more limited release of the Wii Mini.

With the Wii U just gaining traction and still having a ways to go, I doubt we’ll see any kind of upgrade in hardware for it. Nintendo didn’t do anything like that for the Wii, and it was far more out of date graphically than the Wii U is presently. The Wii U is also aided by having first-party games that regularly stun people thanks to a high level of image quality, and Nintendo is at least showing that you can indeed make impressive-looking games on it — most third parties just aren’t doing that. Their present approach of focusing on their own content and bundling top-notch, but older games is working, and including a digital copy of a game with a fairly early Mario Kart 8 purchase was brilliant. It not only showed that the company could embrace digital gaming, but giving people a fantastic deal, and an incentive to buy a game on day one (or fairly close to it). While Nintendo has taken some risks at alienating console owners before by removing some features, it’s clear that they literally can’t afford to do that with the Wii U and aren’t likely to do any major hardware changes beyond adding more on-board storage at most. They’ve already have enough issues establishing the Wii U brand name without adding to the system’s troubles with another similarly-named version of it. People already thought the Wii U was just a Wii accessory, likely due to the uDraw accessory that gained its most fame on the Wii. Nintendo didn’t help matters by making TV ads that didn’t really show off anything but the Gamepad — a mistake they’ve never repeated. Due to the Wii U’s trouble history, it’s doubtful we’ll see a 3DS-to-New 3DS style of upgrade for the company’s current console. They can afford a mistake in the portable space, but not on consoles.

http://www.gamersoutpost.net/

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/