Blips: Little Shooter, Large Scale

Source: Resogun is shiny, but it is not new
Author: Dan Solberg
Site: Kill Screen

My PS4 launch coverage comes to a close with my review of the side-scrolling space shooter Resogun. There's a lot to like about the game, which takes plenty of cues from old arcade games and previous revivals of said arcade games. As someone who simply enjoys space shooters, Resogun is a well made one of those, but one that ultimately feels like it's drawing much of its praise from the void it's filling in the PS4 launch line-up. Would anyone care about Resogun if it were released 6 months from now? I'm sure it would find a niche audience, but there's nothing like essentially being a pack-in title for a new console to attract some eyeballs.

That said, most arcade revival successes are cases of right place, right time (in addition to being solid games, of course). Geometry Wars is the shining example here, not only debuting with the Xbox 360, but also essentially introducing players to a new downloadable "arcade" platform, which proved to be a huge hit. That said, Resogun doesn't quite match the perfect pitch that Geometry Wars achieved. And while Geometry Wars was certainly cool looking, it didn't come off as a game that was really pushing the new hardware. Resogun can feel like it's trying a bit too hard here, with it's explosions of infinite voxels, as if it's trying to prove that the game could only exist on a machine as capable as the PS4. Kudos to Resogun's developers for excelling under the weight of all of that pressure, but ultimately that game is punching above its weight class.

Blips: Your All-In-One Entertainment Hub Again

Source: The PlayStation 4: A Review in Four Parts
Author: Dan Solberg
Site: Kill Screen

I wanted to sneak this plug in before the Xbox One launch. I was lucky enough to get to review the PS4 for Kill Screen, which I had no idea would be the case when I volunteered to go to a PlayStation event last week. At the review event, I sat through some hardware and UI demos before making my way to a dozen or so game rooms. I played The Witness, Octodad, Tiny Brains, Child of Light, Need for Speed Rivals, Infamous: Second Son, and Hohokum, among others. It was great to talk to developers and meet some folks in person that I'd only spoken to through other channels. It was a wonderful opportunity for me because I was there "reviewing" the PS4 from a more aesthetic angle, as if it was an art object. At the end of the event, I picked up a PS4 on behalf of Kill Screen and was able to spend a few more days with it before returning the unit to the office.

Soon, it became clear that I could actually write a real review of the machine, and that was the approach that made the most sense. However, I'd read some other hardware and OS reviews, and most of them are total slogs to read. Even despite Polygon's pretty layout, the text reads cold, as if written by committee. I wanted to write a hardware review that wasn't about covering every aspect of the machine, but got to the essence of what it does and how it fits into my own lifestyle. That I ended up dividing my PS4 review into 4 parts was total coincidence, but worked out pretty nicely. Anyway, I like the PS4; it's a better console than the PS3, but there's nothing I'm dying to play on it yet. Someday I'll probably want one for myself though.

Blips: Little Launch

Source: Inside Tiny Brains, the tiniest PS4 game so far
Author: Dan Solberg
Site: Kill Screen

OK, let's kick off a new week with a bit of self-promotion, shall we? As part of the PS4 hoopla, I got a hold of the devs over at Spearhead Games who're working on the launch game Tiny Brains. I wrote a mini-profile (no pun intended) of the indie studio as a small team with a big opportunity. Tiny Brains was a Day 1 launch game when I first started talking to them, but got pushed back into the "launch window" soon after my interview. The game itself seems like a blast; I got to play it for a bit at the PS4 review event in NYC last week. It's a four-player local or online multiplayer game where you take on the roles of four lab animals with superpowers, running through bizarre testing chambers. It's an action puzzle game where everyone needs to work together to succeed. Check out the full piece to read more about what it's like to be an indie studio developing a next-gen console launch game.

Blips: It's PS4 Week

Hey, I know I just got back from a break little more than a week ago, but I'm going to have to apologize for an absence this week once again. With PS4 out this week, I've been attending events and diving headfirst into the console to see what it has to offer. Look for a piece forthcoming on Kill Screen that will act as a kind of "review" of the system, but it will be a bit more focused on the aesthetics of the console's UI options, controller and first-party games. I'm also playing a third-party game for review, so, busy, yes. To tide you over on the reading material side of things, here are a few links to articles worth checking out. Check y'all later (probably next week).

Ian Bogost on "Hyperemployment"
A deep dive into Tale of Tales' Luxuria Superbia
Art, authorship, and The Unfinished Swan
Crashtxt and the inclusive art practice of Twitter glitching

Blips: Mark Cerny Madness

Source: Mark Cerny: The Man Who Drew Up Sony's Next Game Plan
Author: Simon Parkin
Site: MIT Technology Review

Unless something dramatic happens between now and the end of the year, I won't be getting a an Xbox One of Playstation 4 at launch. That said, I look forward to owning a PS4 at some point down the road, likely when it becomes a little cheaper and has a library of interesting games readily available. Why I'm interested in PS4 over the new Xbox has a lot to do with the man who designed Sony's next console, Mark Cerny. Not only does Cerny have a 30+ year career in the industry, he also made one of my all-time favorite games, Marble Madness. Now, the PS4 doesn't come with a trackball (though I mainly played MM on the NES anyway), but it is being presented by a man who knows what he's talking about and has demonstrated a passion and vision for what he wants his console to do.

Simon Parkin recently wrote a nice profile on Cerny for the MIT Technology Review, wherein he talks about Cerny's teenage career and the differences between working for Atari in the mid-80s and Sega Japan in the late 80s and early 90s. Mark Cerny was also a driving force behind Crash Bandicoot the original Playstation icon, and Parkin notes certain stylistic similarities between that game and Cerny's PS4 title Knack. Cerny has a fascinating child prodigy career arc that has sustained him in the industry for decades. It's that kind of staying power that inspires confidence, and it's the playfulness and innovation in a game like Marble Madness that shows Cerny as a creative force. I don't know how the next console war is going to shake out, and in many ways I don't care all that much, but Mark Cerny's involvement with the PS4 assures that there's a beating heart in there somewhere.

Blips: No Need

Source: It's a Little Bit Sad
Author: Jordan Mammo
Site: Unwinnable

In his recent post for Unwinnable, Jordan Mammo wonders why we're on the verge of a new console generation when this year's E3 failed to provide any justification. I found myself thinking the same in the wake of both Microsoft and Sony's big press conference unveilings. Both companies trotted out the typical talking points about how their latest luxury devices would beget innovation, more dynamic gameplay, and, inexplicably, better storytelling. While Sony at least showed a range of games that seemed interesting, neither made a convincing argument for new hardware.

A comment on Mammo's post notes that E3 is always a bunch of ceo-speak and that the games shown at press conferences aren't necessarily evocative of the best games the console will offer. Beyond that, launch games have a reputation for underwhelming, focusing instead on proof of concepts for new ideas or simply updating existing models with a new coat of paint. This is all true, but it's also the job of companies at events like this to prove that their product is worth buying at launch. With the turbulent, unpredictable console market on the verge of a massive saturation point, that "the good games will come," doesn't feel like as much of a guarantee. I'd buy a PS4 before I got an Xbox One, but I really just hope that Sony's corral of indie games are also playable on PS3 since they don't seem to require the more advanced hardware.

Still, I would love to be surprised. I would love to be excited by a console launch, to feel like I'd be missing out to not have one. That's not the case right now, but hey, both companies still have a few months to convince me otherwise.

Assessment: E3 Day Zero

I'm not in LA for E3 2013, I'm just sitting here on the east coast absorbing all of the press conferences and demos and interviews that so many other talented journalists are out there supplying. That said, E3 Day Zero is the suite of stage shows before the show floor opens, and I don't think I'm missing all that much by simply livestreaming them on my laptop instead of sitting in a crowded auditorium. Both Sony and Microsoft came out swinging, and it made for a very lively day on the Internet. If you missed anything, you can scrub through video of the entire day over on Polygon.

So, what were my takeaways? Well, the day began with a solid block of games from Microsoft, announcing plenty of exclusive games (not just exclusive add-ons and bonuses) for Xbox One. We're getting a new Killer Instinct, which had a live demo featuring some uncomfortable humor, and plenty of franchise updates you'd expect from a new Xbox. The games that got my attention were exlcusives from indie devs Capybara (Below) and Swery65 (D4). Though they were only shown in brief, they had me pining for more details, mainly due to the pedigree behind them. Yet another exclusive was the debut game from ex-Infinity Ward folks, Respawn, called Titanfall, which is a multiplayer shooter that also has mechsuits and some nifty traversal abilities. While a game like Titanfall might not be my go-to thing, it actually looked pretty neat, at least outside of the context of racist and homophobic slurs that will no doubt spew from the game's players once it's in the hands of our lovely populace.

Oh, Microsoft also sneaked out a $500 price point for Xbox One. This is, to put it simply, more money than I'm willing to pay for such a device. Add to that, Microsoft did not further clarify some of their family sharing, and used game resale policies that have been confusing players and journalists alike since they were cryptically rolled out. I closed the Microsoft stream still feeling pretty disenchanted with console gaming. In fact, my first thought was that I hoped the game Below would find its way to PCs eventually so I wouldn't feel like I'd have to spend $500 just to play it.

In anticipation for Sony's conference in the evening, I fully expected the other shoe to drop. I thought Microsoft's new DRM policies would be picked up more-or-less verbatim, and worried that Microsoft throwing money to developers would thin the PS4's launch line-up to something more paltry than it otherwise would be. As for the price, I thought Sony would match that too. I hoped all of these expectations would be wrong, but it didn't seem likely. However, much to my surprise, Sony debunked all of them.

Removing my barrier to interest first by stating upfront that their PS4 used games and always-online policies would remain pretty much unchanged, Sony then followed up with a $400 PS4 price point, an entire $100 lower than Xbox One. To be clear, $400 is still more than I might be willing to pay for a video game console, but at least it's in the range where I'd consider it, given the right circumstances. What I mean by that is, Sony's software line-up needs to offer fresh, interesting types of gameplay, while also presenting technical leaps that justify the need for new hardware. Sony's well-courted array of indie game developers definitely fulfills the former, but The Witness aside, those games could easily run on PS3 or even my moderate-low powered laptop.

What convinced me that PS4 offered something special was, and I can't believe this was the case, Final Fantasy XV. For one, the game was a surprise reveal that got me pumped in a very primal, reactive way. Designer Tetsuya Nomura introduced a new clip for the long delayed Final Fantasy Versus XIII, which looked recognizably like the characters and action-RPG trappings from what had been shown of the game over the years. The footage looked fantastic, and definitely felt like it needed the power of a next-gen console to represent everything it had to offer. The cinematics were over the top, and the gameplay segments seemed like a fresh avenue for a franchise with staunch turn-based roots. Then, at the ending title screen, the words "Versus XIII" exploded and turned into XV; a small gesture that carries a lot of meaning. The whole presentation had an energy and an excitement that harkened back to PS1 and PS2 Final Fantasy announcements, which were all Sony exclusives. The Final Fantasy XV presentation got me excited for the PS4 because it's a game that seems to really justify its need for a new machine and also renews my interest in a franchise that needs a firm kick in the pants, and it looks like XV could do just that.

Unfortunately, I remain skeptical of the commercial viability of either of these consoles in the current economic climate, but if I must upgrade at some point, Sony has presented a philosophy for PS4 that resonates with what I'd hope to see in a new machine whereas Microsoft has come across as tone deaf, at least as far as my interests are concerned. A lot could change between now and November, and anyone declaring a winner of the "console war" is definitely calling the game too early, but hey, I'm super excited to see more footage of all of the games on display over the rest of E3. The fact that there is a bunch to be excited about is very encouraging and I hope all parties involved can keep it up and move the industry in a healthy direction.

Blips: Hardware Fetish

Source: Sony's not showing its new Playstation 4 just yet, but here's a taste (video)
Author: Ben Gilbert
Site: Engadget

In a preemptive response to Microsoft's imminent Xbox unveiling, Sony has released a teaser video for the actual Playstation 4 box, notably absent from their own reveal event in February. The video shows extreme close-ups of console and controller details and a blurry black square, hiding the final device's true form. While it's all pretty silly in the context of a hype video (guess what, the PS4 will be a black box!) the detail shots, taken on their own are pretty interesting.

Now, since I can't really tell what's going on in these pictures, I can't evaluate the functionality of design components or anything like that, but still, there are some intriguing photographic images here. In fact, they remind me of abstract urban architecture photography. You're not really looking at the building or structure as a whole in these pictures, only the photographic composition. As such, you don't really get any information about what the PS4 looks like or does from the teaser, but maybe there is something the photographer is trying to say with these images besides "watch this space for further corporate announcements."

From the collage above, I'm most drawn to the center left and bottom right images. The bottom right picture is not quite divided in half by what could be a seam, ridge, or corner. Perhaps if it was to go directly through the middle, the line might appear to be crossing out the out-of-focus box transposed in the middle, a bad marketing move I'd guess. The center left image is a bit more complex, but retains the clean, monochrome gradients of the bottom right. If there is a PS4 in the middle of this composition it's engulfed by the cavernous void on display. It's difficult to tell where positive space ends and negative begins.Where does this dark alley, outlined by an illuminated doorframe lead?

While these are fun questions to consider at the moment, it may be hard to come back to these images after Sony shows off the units to press, who will in turn whip out their smartphones and all-too-easily obliterate the mystery. I'm just trying to have a bit of fun with the hype machine before the gadget connoisseurs dominate the discussion with hands-on purchasing advice and profitability projections (sigh). It all happens so fast.