First Byte: Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

Two weekends ago, Sony held an event in Las Vegas called the PlayStation Experience.  This event was open to the public and press with the keynote conference and demos streamed on Twitch for those unable to be in attendance.  A lot of big news came out of the PlayStation Experience such as the reveal of David Jaffe's new game Drawn to Death, Bastion, Shovel Knight and Super Time Force all making the jump to PlayStation and Street Fighter V being a PS4 console exclusive.  The next God of War game was even unintentionally confirmed by series director Cory Balrog during a panel at the event.  In addition to the news, the PlayStation Experience gave gamers a comprehensive look at the upcoming projects from all the first and third-party studios working on both PS4 and Vita.  It served as a great way for Sony to continue their upward momentum while simultaneously enticing undecided consumers to buy a PS4 during the holiday season.

The biggest thing to come out of the PlayStation Experience was the 15 minute gameplay demo for Uncharted 4: A Thief's End.  Sony revealed the new Uncharted over a year ago at the launch party for the PS4.  Sony followed up that reveal with a brief cinematic teaser at E3 which revealed the game's subtitle and setting.  While these two teasers got many excited for Uncharted 4, I personally needed to see more to get behind the hype for this game especially since so many games have fallen short of their hype in the past year.  After the gameplay trailer from the PlayStation Experience, my doubts over Uncharted 4 are now nonexistent.  Although it was a 15 minute snippet of gameplay, Naughty Dog packed a lot of information about Uncharted's PS4 evolution into this demo.

The demo starts with protagonist Nathan Drake standing on a cliff overlooking the dangerous terrain the island setting has to offer.  This view and the following movement of the camera shows off Uncharted 4's gorgeous graphics and great water effects.  Drake then enters a nearby cave which provides ample opportunities to see that the game's platforming mechanics in action.  In short, the platforming looks to work just as great as they did in previous entries in the series.  More platforming sections follow once Drake exits the cave, but with an added twist.  He finds a spike which can be used on certain rock formations as an anchor point in order to grab out-of-reach ledges and cervices.  The demo showed a few exciting instances where using the spike while jumping is necessary to reach new areas and save Drake from falling to certain death.

As Drake makes his way around the island, he eventually meets up with some hostiles.  While this encounter lasts rest of the demo, it perfectly showcases Uncharted's next-gen evolution.  Since Drake is usually placed against insurmountable odds, stealth has played a huge part in the Uncharted series.  It certainly takes centre stage in Uncharted 4 as Drake can use the large patches of flora and fauna to get the jump on enemies and for hiding when spotted.  In addition to the stealth mechanics, combat has received some retooling especially the hand-to-hand combat.  These hand-to-hand fights look a lot more fluid and dynamic as Drake and his opponents can use the environment as a part of their offence, transition to different positions like belly-to-back and throw grapples such as an arm drag.  These new combat scenarios can even occur when platforming around a firefight.  During a particular moment in the demo, Drake is trying to climb up a cliff only to be cut-off by a boot to the face.  Drake takes the boot in stride, punches the enemy and throws him off the cliff in a similar fashion to ledge takedowns from past Uncharteds.  Instead of falling to his doom, the enemy grabs onto Drake's foot thus leading to more input in order to escape the enemy's grasp.  Moments like these should make Uncharted 4's combat unpredictable and exciting throughout the entire game.

The last thing I want to touch on from the Uncharted 4 demo is the grappling hook.  While it is only used two times throughout the entire demo, it leaves one amazing impression.  The first time we see it is in the heat of battle as an enemy throws a grenade at Drake's feet.  With only a few seconds to react, Drake jumps to the right and throws out his grabbing hook at a nearby branch with the press of the R1 button.  In that brief instant, he sours through the air directly toward the grenade-throwing enemy to deliver a devastating punch to the face.  In my opinion, this sequence is one of the most exhilarating parts of the demo and perfectly shows the combat capabilities of the grappling hook.  Aside from its use in combat, the grappling hook adds new dimensions to Uncharted's exploration and platforming as it gives Drake more versatility in maneuvering around the environment.

All-in-all, this 15 minute demo has completely sold me on Uncharted 4: A Thief's End.  It looks like a spectacular showcase of the PS4's power and solidifies Naughty Dog's position as one of the elite developers in this industry.  Now sitting upon my list of most anticipated games of 2015, I really look forward to playing Uncharted 4 next holiday season.  If you do not agree with my analysis, the gameplay video of Uncharted 4's demo is included below so you can see for yourself.

The Game Awards 2014 Impressions

No fancy intro.  No intricate back story about the failures of the Video Game Awards.  I am getting straight to the point because I cannot think any other way to say it.  Although the Game Awards were a great improvement over the VGAs, I still found them disappointing and boring.  I understand a lot of good people put a ton of time and effort into making this show a celebration of games, but the show as a whole did more to make me question the point of it outside of the game reveals.  I spent three hours of my life starring at a computer screen to see about an hour of watchable content and I personally find that unacceptable.

Before diving right into all the flaws with the Game Awards, I will admit there were some good to great moments in this show.  There were a good amount of reveals with Metal Gear Online, Adr1ft, Human Element and the new Legend of Zelda being the standouts in my opinion.  Speaking of the new Zelda, that gameplay footage, albeit being short in length, made me feel all giddy inside.  Just the sheer size of Hyrule made my jaw drop.  While I found them unneeded, most of the musical performances were done well especially the collaboration between Imagine Dragons and Koji Kondo.  Geoff Keighley's friend Greg from Scotland stole the show with his performance of classic game tunes from Mario, Sonic, Street Fighter and Tetris using lasers to produce the music.  After a performance that spectacular, Greg definitely deserves a job in the video game industry.  It is up to the developer and publishers now, give the guy a chance.

One of my main complaints with the VGAs was their complete lack of respect and effort put into the awards aspect of the awards show.  The Game Awards fixed some of that by putting together credible award categories, having most of the awards selected by of panel of industry veterans and highlighting more awards on the show than ever before.  While I do have some complaints about the handling of awards outside of the main stage (more on this in a bit), the Game Awards did a job leaps and bounds better than any of the VGAs.  Also the awards look much better than the stupid monkey statues they use to give out.

For everything good about the Game Awards, there were two or three things wrong with the show.  For a three hour show, it had no sense of pacing.  Some segments like Conan O'Brien's videos on the nominees for Game of the Year and Lindsay Stirling's performance of Dragon Age: Inquistion's theme song felt rushed, while others such as Keighley's asides with others in the crowd went on for far too long.  Speaking of Keighley's asides, these moments made two key problems with the show evident: the lack of rehearsals and poor representation of awards not shown on the main stage

It is understandable that a level of improvisation makes the show feel organic, but every conversation, speech and introduction came off as awkward and highly unprofessional.  The fact that you forget a member of the Hearthstone team was in the audience to accept their award for Mobile/Handheld Game of the Year, overheard a musical performance tuning their instruments on the main speakers or had a Sony representative call out the existence of a teleprompter is just unacceptable.  These unfortunate instances make the video game industry as a whole look like a laughing stock to casual viewers and people from other mediums.  These mistakes would have been ironed out with a few rehearsals before the show.

Building off of the lack of rehearsals, the awards given out off of the main stage were handled poorly.  Nobody is going to take these awards seriously if Keighley and company are just going to hand them out with little to no context.  Time may be a constraint, but have a pre-show or cut unnecessary segments in order to make these awards feel credible rather than awkwardly pulling people out of the audience to hand them their awards.  These parts just reinforced how unprofessional the show was.

Apart from the Game Awards itself, my brother and I found it next to impossible to view the show on our Xbox 360 and PS3.  We tried everything from looking on the dashboards to searching on the Youtube and IGN apps to no avail.  When we went to search for instructions on how to watch on our game consoles, all we found were press releases boasting the show was available on all platforms without any instructions on where exactly to watch it.  It is one thing to boast about the show's availability, but to not provide a means of helping people gain access to it added more frustration to this entire ordeal.

While the Game Awards is a disappointing and boring show, it is a small step in the right direction.  Sadly, this step has created a plethora of new problems that Keighley and company will have to overcome before the show can gain widespread credibility.  After this year's show, I believe efforts should be made on creating an awards show that competes with the DICE Awards and the BAFTA Game Awards rather than the Grammys and Oscars.  Despite the Game Awards having a few moments that are worth watching, I cannot recommend spending three hours viewing the Game Awards in its entirety.

Hump Day Music: Flossophy Impressions

When I updated Silver Bit six times a week back in 2012, Hump Day Music was one of Silver Bit's staples much like Bit by Bit.  Every Wednesday, I would share a piece of video game music or music loosely related to video games to help readers get through the middle of the week.  As things got busier, Hump Day Music sadly became a thing of the past.  I could never update Silver Bit enough to keep Hump Day Music as a recurring article.  After picking up Brentalfloss' newest CD Flossophy a few weeks back and listening it on repeat ever since, I am glad to bring back Hump Day Music for a special review of this CD.

For the uneducated, Brentalfloss is a musician who became popular amongst gamers for his "With Lyrics" videos which add lyrics to video game music from games like Mario, Mega Man and Castlevania.  Flossophy is Brentfloss' third studio album following What If This CD... Had Lyrics? and Bits of Me.  Flossophy contains twenty tracks including album versions of songs previously released on Youtube, iTunes and Bandcamp like The Team Fortress 2 Song and Cave Story with Lyrics and brand new, never before released songs such as Earthbound with Lyrics and Metroid: Fight for Love.  The album has a great variety of tracks that range from comedic songs to serious songs and fast blood-pumping songs to slow soothing songs.  The album's variety makes each track feel special and fill a different void.  There are no songs that sound the same or produce the same feeling within the listener.  First and foremost, Flossophy is made for those who love video games and video game music.  With that audience in mind, there are a lot of great jokes and parodies found throughout the album.  From giving light to the downfalls of modern console releases to making fun of how awkward the messages transferred through StreetPass are to portraying the Link from A Link to the Past as a self-centered obnoxious hero, there are plenty of jokes and parodies to keep any gamer smiling throughout.  Aside from the variety, jokes and parodies, one's enjoyment of Flossophy will come from the songs themselves.  The selection on this album are some of Brentalfloss' best.  While every track on Flossophy is at least worth a listen, there are seventeen this writer believes are well worth listening to more than once.  Among those seventeen, the tracks that stand out above the rest are Super Mario Land with Lyrics, Ken's Theme with Lyrics, Cave Story with Lyrics, Zidane to Vivi, Ballad of the Mages and Metroid: Fight for Love.  Like with most albums, there are a few tracks that add little to one's enjoyment of Flossophy.  In particular, those tracks are Game Launch Rock!, The Game Over Tinies and The Bioshock Song.  Each track tries to be drastically unique, but the attempts do not resonate like the other tracks on the album.

Although it may be for a niche audience, Flossophy is a great album and serves as a excellent homage to the video games that inspired it.  No matter if you pick the album up digitally for ten dollars or physically for thirteen plus shipping and handling, Flossophy is well worth the asking price.  If you are interested, you can pick the album up digitally on iTunes, Bandcamp, Amazon and Google Play and physically from Level Up Studios website. Hump Day Music would not be complete if I did not leave a song for everybody to enjoy.  In particular, one of the songs featured on Flossophy--Ballad of the Mages.

Launch Station: Persona 4 Arena

The Persona series is a spin-off of the Shin Megami Tensei, a big franchise of RPGs which focuses on summoning demons.  Persona focuses on the many different groups of teenagers to summon a special side of their psyche known as a Persona to fight demons.  From a series that has established itself in the RPG genre, it is surprising to see Atlus create a fighting game based off the fourth and currently final entry in the Persona series.  Employing Arc System Works, the team behind both Guilty Gear and BlazBlue fighting game series, Atlus might have the right team to transition Persona from RPG to fighting game successfully.

Persona 4 Arena takes place two months after the end of Persona 4.  A mysterious fighting tournament has started in TV World, a realm that in the Persona universe runs parallel to our world, and characters from both Persona 3 and 4 are trapped fighting in it.  By playing through the story mode for each character, you will solve who is running this mysterious fighting tournament and how can these characters escape.  Unlike the latest entries in Street Fighter and Marvel vs. Capcom that have embraced 3D models, Persona 4 Arena sticks with gorgeous high definition 2D sprites with incredible amount of hand-drawn animation and stages.  While in a fight, characters are able to fight on their own with their fists or call upon their Persona to assist them.  Combining your own physical attacks with assists from your Persona can prolong combos and be the difference between winning or losing.  Like in many other fighting games, players are able to execute special attacks and defend from opponent's attacks for prolonged periods of time.  To inhibit players from spamming these moves and techniques, special moves and guarding are limited by the Persona 4 Arena's Burst Gauge.  Persona 4 Arena also includes both offline and online multi-player for players to challenge friends and absolute strangers to one-on-one fights.

Personally, I have never played any of the Persona games so I am not too familiar with the series to get excited for a Persona fighting game.  For fans of Persona or fighting game fans in general, Persona 4 Arena looks like a solid fighting game that will satisfy your Persona and/or fighting needs.  I will say it is pretty cool yet risky decision for Atlus to take Persona from its' RPG roots and make it a fighting game.  One decision that I personally would like to see succeed.

Hump Day Music: Mortal Kombat!!!

I have been in a fighting game mood as of late, all thanks to my purchase of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 last Friday.  While I am playing it quite a bit, there has not been a piece of music that has jumped out me like Ken's theme from Street Fighter, Take You For a Ride from Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and the theme I am going to highlight.  Easily the most iconic fighting game theme of all-time.  It literally will have you screaming the name of the game at the top of your lungs.  It is time for MORTAL KOMBAT!!!

Midway's classic fighting game from the early 1990s easily ranked high in the eyes of many children of time due to it's gratuitous amounts of blood and violence.  I remember when I was younger being in awe of the insane 16-bit violence, but I never saw it anything more than a great fighting game.  I never had the urge to try any of the humanly impossible Fatalities on anybody outside of the game like many politicians and video game activists would have you believe.  While the violence did make Mortal Kombat remembered in the annals of video game history, it is the game's theme that has stuck with me all these years.  This impactful theme grabs you from the very beginning and never lets go.  The electronic beat that underlines the entire piece will get you pumped up in no time.  From "Test Your Might" to running down the names of the entire roster, the very basic and repetitive lyrics will have you singing or it would be better to say yelling along.  Every time I hear the chorus, it makes me want to yell Mortal Kombat as loud as I can.  Let us see if you will test your might and listen to the Mortal Kombat theme.

Launch Station: Street Fighter X Tekken

Here we are.  The biggest week for video games in the first quarter of 2012.  GDC is talking place in San Francisco and a huge amount of games are releasing this Tuesday.  Tomorrow will see hardcore gamers, fighting fans, RPG fans, baseball fans and gamers of all kinds flocking to their nearest EB Games, Best Buy, Future Shop or possibly Wal-Mart to pick up at least one of the games that will release tomorrow.  Personally I will be at my local EB Games when it opens at 9:30 to pick up my Mass Effect 3 Collecter's Edition.  While Mass Effect 3 is a big game, it is not what I will be previewing in today's Launch Station.  That honour goes to the biggest fighting game since Marvel vs. Capcom 3 released last year, Street Fighter X Tekken.

In the past Capcom has joined forces with the likes of Marvel, SNK and Tatsunoko to create some great fighting games.  Now Capcom has joined forces with Namco to bring together the fighters of Capcom's iconic 2D fighter, Street Fighter and Namco's iconic 3D fighter, Tekken for two games, Street Fighter X Tekken (a 2D fighter developed by Capcom) and Tekken X Street Fighter (a 3D fighter developed by Namco).  Street Fighter X Tekken releases tomorrow for consoles while nothing for Tekken X Street FIghter has been showed off yet.  Street Fighter X Tekken uses the Street Fighter IV engine meaning that all the characters and environments share the same beautiful cel-shaped aesthetic that Street Fighter IV has. Each match in Street Fighter X Tekken is a two-on-two tag match.  The first player to have one of their fighter's health be reduced to zero loses the round and the first player to win the best two out of three rounds is declared the winner.  With each match being a tag affair, you can tag between fighters on the fly, which can lead to some incredible combos and special moves.  There are two new mechanics in Street Fighter X Tekken that can change the tide of battle for some.  The first new mechanic is the Gem System, which allows players to equip up to three gems that boost different stats.  There are six types of gems that you can equip; attack, defense, speed, vitality, assist and Cross Gauge (the name for Street Fighter X Tekken's super meter).  The second new mechanic is Pandora Mode, which can only be used when one fighter on the player's team has less than 25% health remaining.  You can sacrifice that character to activate Pandora Mode, which gives the remaining fighter increased strength and infinite Cross Gauge with one catch.  That catch being that you have to defeat your opponents before Pandora Mode runs out or you die.

I have never been that great at fighting games, but I have always loved them.  While Street Fighter X Tekken has pimped my interest, I am not going to run out and buy it.  Also I am going to wait a few months or so to see if Capcom plans on releasing an updated version of the game with all the DLC characters like they did with Super Street Fighter IV and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3.  If you are a fighting fan that has waited years for the chance to see Ryu fight Kazuya Mishima or Chun-Li fight Nina Williams, Street Fighter X Tekken is definitely that game for you.