Playstation 4 Review

Hi guys,
 Just before I start this post I would just like to say that this is my 99th post on this blog. Within the next week you can expect my 100th post. The 100th post is going to be huge, it will change the whole format of my blog and I am really excited to bring it to you all. I have been working behind the scenes on this project for a few months now so it will be very nice to finally see it released. If you follow me on Twitter then you will have seen some tweets in-directly about it. That is the only hint you will get!  Right after that intro I have an equally awesome post for you, my full review of the Playstation 4. Now this will be the first console I have reviewed so I hope I cover all of the relevant points.
   
 DESIGN: Let's start with the design of the console, this console is a really stunner, if there was a bar where all of the games consoles hung out, when the PS4 enters the room she(I have given my PS4 a girls name, as should you!) would turn many heads. Moving on from that slightly weird analogy, seriously though she does look gorgeous, if you are a hermit at haven't seen what the PS4 looks like here she is:

CONTROLLER: That is the other major change with the PS4 the Dualshock 4, I can't stress enough how bigger difference you can feel just by holding the controller. When I first picked up the controller back in September at Eurogamer, I wasn't particularly infatuated with it and that gave me cause for concern. However as soon as I picked it up with my own PS4 I just fell in love with it, I think the first thing that will hit you is the size of it. This is considerably bigger than the Dualshock 3, and I personally think it is better because of it! It will take you a while to get used to it, but when you do it is simply a joy to use.
     As you may know the start and select buttons from the Dualshock 3 have been replaced with the options and share buttons, and touch pad. As it sounds the share does nothing but takes screen shots/videos. The options and touch pad are the new start and select, with the touch pad usually taking the place of select and the options button taking the place of start. In the future I would like to see more games take more advantage of the touch pad. I can see it being a feature that will maily be used in first party games. I know for a fact that there are sections of inFamous Second Sons that will feature the touch pad, I can't wait to see what Naughty Dog can do with it! All in all I think it is one of if not the biggest improvement between Dualshock 3 and 4!

GRAPHICAL CAPABILITY: The difference between the PS3 and 4 graphically is staggering, if you look at a game like Battlefield 4(single player) and then you look at something like Uncharted 3, the difference is huge. Now I know you want a difference that big, but this is just the beginning of the consoles life span, the graphics/size of games is only grow the longer the console is out there!  Lip syncing has also been greatly improved between the generations, I know it is some what down to the game engine/developer but the console itself gives them the opportunity to do so much more than they could before.Most of the games you will play with be 1080p and 60fps, if you don't know what that means, it is going to look gorgeous and run very very smoothly!
 
     THE BAD THINGS WITH THE CONSOLE: Yes it is a shame that a few things are done wrong with this console, but non of them are huge and shouldn't get in the way of your day-to-day gaming experience. The first thing is actually the share button, when you take a screen shot(by pressing the share button once depending on what you have set it to in the settings) it will take a screen shot. When ever you want to upload that screen shot, you press and hold the share button and it gives you the option to either tweet the shot, or post it on Facebook. I would have really liked to see an option where by you can email it to yourself or others. This wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the fact that you can only access your photos through the PS4, not through the Playstation website or something like that, I feel it was a big missed opportunity with the PS4.
     
     My second problem with the PS4 is the downloads system, when ever something is automatically downloaded or you start something downloading, you have no ability what so ever to pause that download. This may not be a huge problem for many people but for me with a 1.8mb/s Internet speed any kind of download in the background means that I then can't play any multiplayer games. This is a huge pain especially as games for the PS4(Warframe for example is 50GB) are so big.
   
     This brings me onto my third problem with the PS4, the memory. Now I know that in time there will be much bigger options available for the PS4, but to only have one 500GB(the size that was available on the PS3 at the end of it's life cycle) option at launch I feel was a wasted opportunity. I have already filled half of my hard drive with 4 disk games and 3 digital games. I have no films and no media other than the screen shots that I have taken.

     My fourth and final problem is the on/off button. For some reason I can't make my PS4 turn of just my pressing the off button(or pressing and holding), which puts it into standby mode, but I want to turn my PS4 totally off. So instead of actually using the power button I have to go through the menus of the PS4(which sounds worse than it is)to turn my PS4 off. This isn't a huge thing but it is a bit annoying.
   
Anyway that brings me to the end of my review for the PS4 as a whole, if there are any points you think I have missed you can either leave your ideas in the comments or Tweet me or hit me up on Facebook.
     All in all I absolutely love the PS4, and the bad things I have mentioned have little to no impact on your day-to-day gaming, they just would have been nice to see.
     I feel as though it wouldn't be right to give a whole console a score, so I will leave you with this. No matter what your console preferences you should definitely pick up a next(now current?) gen console. They are a master piece in gaming design and I am very very excited to see what this next year will bring us. If you are a gamer, you had better strap yourself in because what is to come, will be know for years to come, as the best time to be a gamer.
As always thank you for reading,
Ed
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My thoughts of the week

Hi guys,
Firsly I recently surpassed 5,000 views on my blog, and I would like to thank each and every one of you who has come onto my blog and read even the smallest of articles. I hope to continue producing articles that interest you are provoke thoughts of your own! Anyway enough of the soppy rubbish the show must go on!
    To mark the special occasion of passing 5K views, I thought is was high time to start a new series of articles! So I welcome you to my thoughts of the week, in these posts, I will be talking about many different ideas or thoughts I have had about gaming that don't really deserve their own post! Let's get on with it:
 Current and Next gen multiplayers: Due to that fact that this year particularly a lot of people will be upgrading to a next gen console, and many people will be staying with their current consoles. That will mean that multiplayer lobbys will be considerably lower in population than last year. Last year there were 3 platforms that most game could be on: the PS3, the PC and the Xbox 360, however this year there are 5 platforms to play a game on: PS3, PC, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One. Does it concern you that current gen multiplayers may be considerably under populated in comparison to last year?
 User Created content in more games: I know it is a stupid thought, but just imagine if every game you bought has the ability to create your own content!  Now the main problem from the developers point of view, is money, the commodity that is rumoured to keep the world going! As it stands dev's make a lot of money from DLC and micro-transactions(which are technically DLC but anyway!) so if they were to introduce UCG into every game, they would have to sell the game for considerably more money in the first place. You would be looking at around £100 just for the game! I can dream though.
Developer's working on the same project: A project that would see at least 2 major developing company's join arms and create one super awesome game, this is more realistic that my above thought, but still unlikely. Just because a game has been made by two company's doesn't mean the game will sell more copies than if it had been made my just one company. So each company would more than likely make a loss due to the same size team being used, but only half the profits coming it. Just think of it though a game that saw both Activision and DICE teaming up to create one mega shooting game!
     Once you have finished drooling over my last thought I have the unfortunate news of telling you that this post in now over! I do hope you have enjoyed if you have, you can click here to tweet about it!
You can also Like my new Facebook page here! Or follow me on Twitter here!
Thanks for reading
Ed

Assassins Creed 4: Black Flag Release Date for Next Gen

Hi guys,

 I come to you will some sad news, that is if you live in America and are getting a PS4 at launch. The hit title from Ubisoft Assassins Creed 4: Black Flag will be releasing world wide on November 22nd, so if you wanted to get Black Flag at launch with your copy of your PS4 you can't. Because the game won't be releasing until a week after the PS4 is released in the USA! I find it quite odd that Ubisoft aren't making their game available to next gen consoles at the time the PS4 is released in America, I wouldn't have thought that week would be much use to anyone! Anyway there is also a new trailer for Black Flag, called Pirate Heist which you can feast your eyes on below!

I would like to stress that the current gen versions of this game will still be launching on November 1st, so you can still play it then.
Thanks for reading
Ed

Run up to E3 2013: Part 2

Hi guys
 I as I promised in the last E3 post I will be talking about an Xbox game. I was going to talk about more than just one game, but after the abysmal Xbox One announcement I though that I would only talk about one. Anyway the three games I will be talking about are Halo 5, Battlefield 4, and Batman Origins.
   

Halo
First up is Halo 5, this is a series which I have never personally played but I have obviously heard of it, this game will probably see you reprising your role as Master Cheif, I say probably because we have heard very little about this game other than its announcement at the Xbone reveal. I'm sure we will hear more about this game at Microsofts E3 conference.

Battlefield 4
As you can see the next game I will be talking about is Battlefield 4, if you follow me on twitter you will know just how much I have played, if you want to see my stats for BF3 you can on Battlelog. I really can't wait for more details on this game, as I'm sure you remember there was a 17 minute game play released a few months ago. Which was taken from the single player side of the game I was very impressed by the looks of the game but was slightly concerned about their focus on Single player, well that should be dispelled at E3. DICE have confirmed that there will be a live demo for the multiplayer of BF4. I am very excited for the release of this game later this year.

Batman Arkam Origins

This is a game which will precede all of the current Arkam games, this game is set on a Christmas eve on an unknown year in Batman's early life. We have had only one trailer for this game which was a CGI trailer, so you can't think of that as the final graphics, but I think it looks like a totally epic game and can't wait to see some actual game play at E3 this year. If you haven't seen the trailer then you can below: 

As you can see in this game our main enemy will be Black Mask, a villain which we have never seen before in a Batman game, I think it is safe to say that this game is looking really good already.

     So that brings us to the end of this road to E3, if there are any game you would like to hear me talk about leave it down in the comments below.

Thanks for reading 

Ed

Asssassins Creed IV and Watch_Dogs on Xbox One

Hi guys
 I have some very exciting news for you today, as I'm sure you are aware yesterday the Xbox One was announced, it got mixed reviews but personally I think it looks like it is focusing to much on entertainment rather than gaming, I'm sure we will see more at E3, but that is not the reason of this post. No the reason of this post in a press release from Ubisoft which states that both Watch_Dogs and AC IV will be coming to Xbox One. That information was kind of inevitable but the interesting news is that at least 6 Ubisoft titles will be being launched with in the first year of the Xbox One being released! Those 6 games do include Watch_Dogs and AC IV, but that is still very impressive on Ubisofts part.
     There were also 2 new screen shots for the games, the Watch_Dogs one isn't very new but it is a pretty cool thing to look at, so here you go:

Watch_Dogs

Assassins Creed IV Black Flag

As you can see this is a "hacked" conversation between someone at Microsoft and another unknown part talking about Watch_Dogs being released for Xbox One. I will be very interested if anyone actually finds this message in game. I suspect not but that would be a nice touch.






This shot sees our main character Edward swinging round a corner onto a waiting roof top, there are also many explosions occurring around him. From what I can see I would suggest this shot is taken from Havana one of 3 main locations in AC IV, along with 50 other sub locations.




The release then goes on to give a little information about both games, nothing we didn't know just a summery.
     If you haven't seen the Xbox One reveal you can here:

I hope this is some new information to you, what did you think of the Xbox One reveal? Leave it down blow.
Thanks for reading
Ed

Xbox Infinity Announcement

Hi guys
Just a quick post to tell you what I'm sure you already know; that the next Xbox is going to be announced tommorow(Tuesday 21st May 2013) at 6 PM BST, there is also going to be new trailer for Call of Duty Ghosts, Activision have confirmed that there will be no demo though so don't get your hopes up. If you want to watch the stream you can Xbox.com or on Xbox Live.
Just here to keep you up to date.
Ed

PS4 conference Breakdown Part 8:Summery

Hi guys
As you may have seen from the title, I have come to the end of my PS4 summery. There were more games announced but I have covered the ones that I am very excited for. As of me posting this there is no official announcement of the release date for the console, all we know is that it will launch in Fall 2013(Autumn/early winter for UK guys), but that is all we know for now. There have been rumours that the PS4 will get another exclusive event when more details will be shown in May, but that is just rumour for now. We also have no word yet on the price of the console, my opinion is that it will be sold for around £300-£350. I am certain in my assumption that we will be getting many more details at E3 2013 which is being held in LA in early June. That's all for now I would like to thank you all for the immense support of my PS4 breakdown, I hope you have enjoyed reading them as much as I have enjoyed making them. If there is a specific game you would like to see announced for the PS4 leave it in the comments bellow.
Thanks for reading
Ed

PS4 Conference Breakdown Part 7: Destiny

Hi guys

We already new about this game before the PS4 conference but we didn't know that it would be coming to the PS4 as well as PS3 and Xbox 360. If you haven't already seen the trailer from the conference here it is:

Let me give you some more info on this game if you don't already know it, it will be an FPS MMO, it will be set in the future and it is being made by the creators of Halo, Bungie. If you your PS3 from your Xbox 360 you will know that Halo and Bungie are-or were- and Xbox exclusive company, even the fact that they turned up to the PS4 press conference is pretty impressive. I also know that this game will feature competitive multiplayer aswell as the traditional MMO gameplay. We don't yet know if the competetive is simply a PvP area or something more complex like TDM and the like. One interesting part of this game is the fact that the music is being written and composed by three people one of whom is Sir Paul Mccartney This game has the potential to be amazing, and I am eagerly awaiting its release later this year on PS3 and PS4. Bungie have side-stepped all questions about if PS3 players will be able to interact with PS4 players.
Thats all for now, thanks for reading.
Ed

PS4 Conference Breakdown Part 6: Killzone Shadow Fall

Hi guys
I'm sure you have seen by now that Killzone Shadow Fall will be storming it's way into your living room through you PS4. Shadow Fall seems to becoming the flagship game for PS4, possibly because of the amazing demo they gave at the conference. It was one of the first games to be demoed after the announcement of the PS4 so naturally it had to be good, and by god it was good. If you haven't seen it here it is; for your amazement I give you Killzone Shadow Fall:

This was one of the few games which we saw actual gameplay footage, no trailers were seen for this game, it was just pure gameplay. As you can see above pretty stunning gameplay, it shows of what the PS4 can do. As you will know if you have played Killzone 3 the games are stunning in the looks department, and Shadow Fall looks to be raising the bar 10 fold. Personally I have never played any of the Killzone games but the story looks to be a very good one. We don't know if this game will be a launch title or if they were just showing of some nice explosions, I'm sure the closer we get the more solid details we will get. My humble opinion is that this game will feature heavily at E3 2013, so look out for my coverage of that.
Thats all for now thanks for reading.
Ed

PS4 Conference Breakdown Part 5:Watch Dogs

Hello and welcome

Right this series is slowly but surely breaking down the amazing PS4 conference, up this post is Watch Dogs, if you haven't seen the gameplay footage shown from the event here is a reminder.

As you can see this looks to be an amazing game, the principle of a game centered around hacking is a brilliant one, it is a game theme that has never been explored before. I'm sure this game will be amazing and I am interested in how the free roaming hackery will unfold. This is a game that I am very much looking forward to, and although we don't have a release date yet I think it will be late this year.

As always thanks for reading

Ed