Why You Should Keep Your Ps3 Console

 Even in the wake of a great and well deserved (after 8 years) launch of next generation consoles you will not find me at Gamestop trading in my Playstation 3 any time soon. Sure, its wonderful having the new shiny consoles to play on and experiment with, however, there are a few things in which these next generation gaming machines cannot offer us (me) at this time. What can that possibly be you ask? The answer to that question is rather simple....... All my games in which I have acquired over the many long years of the generation past. Not just games really but really good games. Games that are hard to come by and still expensive like all my top tier Playstation one classics like Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, resident evil and Harvest Moon just to name a few. Then there are the Ps2 classics like Persona and countless others. Thousands of hours invested into some of the best games ever created some of which to this day remain unfinished. Countless newer games of all different kinds of genres still begging to be played or some elusive trophy earned.
 Bottom line is .... even though I shall enjoy next gen as much as the next person , I will keep intact my vast collection of digital and/or hard copies of timeless masterpieces (and some crap of course) all massed together on one working console. No matter how many next gen pixels pound upon my retina's or advanced AI destroyes my avatar ....... I will always find myself crawling back to those great games that I and many others love. The moral of the story then is the one important question ...... Is it really true next gen hardware if its not backward compatible? I mean come on Sony and Microsoft its 2014 make your consoles to fit the needs of us gamers instead of your pockets.

This Is Why Oculus Rift Is Being Sued By ZeniMax

 Why Is Oculus Rift And Founder Palmer Luckey Being Sued By ZeniMax Media?

 Virtual reality headset manufacturer Oculus is being sued by publisher, ZeniMax Media. I will set out to explain why this has come about and shall do it with relative ease as the answer is rather simple. Oculus Rift founder Palmer Luckey successfully crowd-funded his Oculus VR on Kickstarter in 2012. After years of research and development by Palmer Lucky and his crew the Oculus started to really look like a great idea with rave reviews by all video game developers (and testers for that matter) and especially those who funded the project like you and me..... the everyday John Doe's looking for a better gaming experience. Then in March 2014 Oculus was purchased by none other than Facebook for over 2 Billion dollars. Facebook's purchase of Oculus for this huge sum of money is when all the problems started. At this point ZeniMax who Palmer Luckey had worked for in the past seen their golden opportunity to profit off of others hard work.
  Considering that Palmer Luckey and his crew had been OPENLY developing Oculus for years without a peep from ZeniMax (besides maybe towards the obviously profitable end) during this time. Only when the true value of the Oculus system became known to the general public is when ZeniMax decided to pounce. This is only one example(albeit a great one) of other companies trying their very best to dip their hands into someone else's cookie jar.
  Virtual reality has in fact been around for a long time and first seen by general public at large with the release (not a very good release I may add) of Nintendo's "Virtual Boy" which like Oculus featured a headset which engulfs the eyes of the gamer. So technically ..... one could say that both ZeniMax and Palmer Luckey owe Nintendo for their work towards virtual reality. The simple fact of the matter is that Oculus Rift sold to Facebook for over 2 Billion big ones and everyone wants a piece of the pie. Just more proof that no matter how much you work or what you try to accomplish there will always be those waiting in dark corners to jump at the first opportunity to reach their slimy hands in your pockets.

Watch Dogs Is A GTA5 Clone

  Watch Dogs was supposed to be released around the same time as the mega hit Grand Theft Auto 5 (GTA5 went on to sell over 33 million copies world wide since) , however, the long anticipated game was delayed from an original November 19, 2013 (U.S) release date to May 27, 2014 date. So, why was Watch Dogs delayed by Ubisoft for such a long period of time? I know the answer to this question and I will now set about to let you in on the secret also.
  When GTA5 was released I remember Ubisoft talking about how great the game was. I mean, these people at Ubisoft really were blown away by the quality of the huge world and the details therein. There was also talk about how GTA5 was putting pressure on Ubisoft to live up to current expectations when it comes to triple A video game production especially open world games such as Watch Dogs. What happened was that Ubisoft watched GTA5 turn into a mega hit breaking all the records right in front of their eyes and they knew at that time that Watch Dogs would be overlooked during the GTA5 hype which took the world by storm. After all 33 million copies sold at $60 a pop is no small feat in the least.
 So basically, after seeing what RockStar games had done with GTA5 Ubisoft became, shall we say, a little worried that their game Watch Dogs would seem like childs play compared to GTA5 and would never be able to compete alongside RockStar for the open world city theme. In face of all of this, Ubisoft decided at some round table with all the big heads that it was in the companies best interest to delay the release of Watch Dogs and use that time to refine and add to the game as much as possible as to try to live up to the quality and verily the success of GTA5. It would not surprise me a bit if Ubisoft had to redo most of the game and add very large amounts of material to make it on par (or as close as possible) with GTA5.
 So the question now remains ....... Was all of this good for Watch Dogs as a game? Yes, of course it was. We can thank the people at Rockstar Games for putting the pressure on other developers to push the limits of gaming. Its good to know that there are those developers who are so good at what they do that they motivate others to push themselves even harder and in the end.... deliver the gamers something they deserve for their hard earned money.

Playstation Vita : The Good And The Bad

 The Good :

1. The Vita is one of the most powerful gaming handhelds ever created and launched to rave reviews. IGN scored the system 8.5/10, Cnet.com gave the system a 4/5, The Gadget Show gave it a 4/5 and in 2012, the PS Vita won T3's "Gaming Gadget Of The Year" award beating Nintendo 3DS and more. There is no doubt that the Vita system is a worthy handheld gaming device.

2. A beautiful 5-inch(16.9) OLED multi touch capacitive touchscreen that can produce 17 million colors. The OLED screen is one of the very best features of the system and is simply breathtaking to look at while playing a quality game or just watching youtube video's.

3. Even though AAA titles are few there are troves of quality indie games that alone make the Vita worthwhile as a handheld gaming device.

2. Most of the best PSP (Playstation Portable) games from Sony's last generation handheld can be downloaded to the Vita making it even more versatile.

3. Solid design which gives the Vita owner confidence that their hardware is sturdy and safe from being easily broken. There have been very few reports of hardware problems with the Vita which require a replacement unit.

4. Playstation 1 support (PS1 Classics) which put some of the best historical games ever made right in the palm of your hand and on the go. Nothing is better at killing time than playing FF7 while waiting in a doctors office. These older games look amazing on the OLED screen and can be adjusted any way you see fit like utilizing dual analog sticks if you so wish.

THE BAD :

1. The Playstation Vita is very costly and comes with many hidden additional costs. At launch I paid $250.00 for the Vita alone(WiFi) not counting the $40 and sometimes even $50( yes, Black Ops I'm looking at you) games and a quality case($30) you will surly need for your shiny new piece of hardware.

2. Lack of third party games (non Indie) and failure to bring some of the best native Japanese Vita games to the West.

4. High cost of the best PS1 games and verily the PSP games.

5. Most of the features of the Vita like rear touch pad and tilt control are hardly ever put to use in the games for the Vita which makes the price seem even more unnecessary considering these things are why it is so expensive to begin with.

6. Finally and worst of them all are the "proprietary" memory cards which are ridiculously expensive and the 64GB card almost impossible to find and if you do will set you back $100.

                              

COD Advanced Warfare / A Deeper Look

 After the worst selling and verily badly rated Call Of Duty in history COD Ghosts the next chapter in COD has been revealed as MW4 Advanced Warfare by Sledgehammer games. The Call Of Duty franchise has been slowly in decline for years now and with COD Ghosts getting an average of a 6 on a scale of 10 in most ratings they are in desperate need of something new to reinvigorate the series. Can MW4 Advanced Warfare bring Call Of Duty back from the verge of a slow death? Or is it yet another gimmick in a desperate attempt to reach a new audience and sell more units? Either way, after watching the video's on youtube it seems that they are making the same mistakes as times past. They are yet again ignoring their old fans and franchise hardcore in search of something ..... well, not very Call Of Duty like. In the video's you will see mech like soldiers in futuristic uniforms jumping 40 feet in the air and climbing walls. After watching this , one must ask themselves..... Is this a COD game or new Spiderman. In my opinion .... Call Of Duty keeps pushing farther into a future of war in which almost nobody seems very interested. You can watch the reveal of MW4 Advanced Warfare in the video below.

Playstation4 Sells 7 Million Units While Microsoft Remains Silent.

 Sony has announced that the new Playstation4 console has sold over 7 million units. Keep in mind these figures do not include "shipped" units, only those which have already been sold. Meanwhile, Microsoft has remained silent and has failed to release even a peep of sales figures which points to the fact that they are hiding the numbers. Even with the release of the highly anticipated next-gen title Titanfall, XboxOne sales seem to be in a slump.
 Microsoft has already been warned by their heavy and influential investors that the company has been making mistakes, too many in fact, that these same investors and/or stockholders feel rather uncomfortable, or better yet, damn worried about their investments in Microsoft considering Windows8 was a complete flop and the Microsoft gaming division has yet to turn a profit. These same investors and stockholders are holding very serious negotiations to have the Microsoft gaming division sold off so that Microsoft can focus more on what they were supposed to do to begin with..... make solid working software. Even this software business in now in danger with the advent of tablets and super sized smartphones which are rather rapidly making laptops and tabletops P.C's obsolete.
 Even though Sony themselves have enough problems of their own it now seems that they are the clear winner of the next generation gaming console wars which puts them in a rather pleasant situation with their smiling investors. Which way will all this go? Please leave your comments below and let us know your take on these developments.

                                                               Written By J30-06K