Sony Press Conference Impressions | E3 2014 | Quick Thoughts

The PlayStation conference is over, and, to be honest it was a disappointment...

Earlier in the day Microsoft come out with game after game, exclusive after exclusive. Some really fantastic looking games for the Xbox One. I sat down to Sony's conference to find out why I bought a PS4, I love the games their fantastic studios make, but apart from Little Big Planet 3 and Uncharted 4 (2015) there is nothing that can't be played on Xbox One. 

After today I honestly wish I owned an Xbox One instead of a PS4... 

And the time they spent on stupid statistics and TV was just painful.

Maybe we'll see some PS4 exclusives at Gamescom or TGS...?

Sony Press Conference Predictions | E3 2014

Microsoft had a really strong showing at their E3 press conference and now in a few hours it will be Sony's turn to prove why you need to play your games on PlayStation. They have been riding their huge wave of momentum since last years conference, the question is can they keep it going? Let's hope!

Here are 4 of my Sony E3 2014 predictions!






1) Okay, this is more of a wish than a prediction. I am a huuuge fan of Gravity Rush on the PS Vita and I want a sequel on PS4. Even though I know it's more suited to be shown at Tokyo Games Show, I want to see it now.

2) PlayStation has always had amazing first party games, but today we won't get more than 2 newly announced PS4 exclusives that will release in 2014. (Please be wrong).

3) Whoever is replacing Jack Tretton as the host will apologies for not being as cool. They then will attempt to do a "mad as" back flip.  

4) Vita will be mentioned, but only in regards to indie games.

Drewby is really keen to see what he'll be playing on his PS4 later this year. Not long now!

Microsoft Press Conference Impressions | E3 2014 | Quick Thoughts

When Microsoft said they were going to talk about games, games and more games for 90 minutes they really meant it. So many exclusive games only available on Xbox One. Forza Horizon 2, Sunset Overdrive, Dead Rising 3 DLC, Dance Central, Fantasia, Fable Legends, Project Spark, Ori and the Blind Forest, Halo 5, Halo Collection, Inside, Scalebound and Crackdown 3 are all games only coming to Xbox One! Let alone the amount of 3rd party games with exclusive content!

I would love to play a lot of these games, but there are 2 that I really want to play. The first being "The Rise of Tomb Raider", a sequel to the 2013 reboot. It was only a short trailer with no gameplay, but I was ecstatic when Lara removed the her hood. She's hardened up from the events from the previous game and she's back to kick arse!

The second is a game called "Scalebound". This is an exclusive Xbox One game made by the crazy Japanese developer Platinum Games. From the short trailer we see a kick arse protagonist fighting against huge dragons. This is defiantly something I need in my game library! 

As someone who doesn't own an Xbox One, I really do feel like I will be missing out on a lot of great games. Hopefully Sony will have a strong showing too, but they're going to really bring their A game to compete with Xbox's showing.

Good stuff, Microsoft.

1 down, 2 to go! Let's hope PlayStation and Nintendo can bring the goods!

Ridiculous Microsoft Conference Predictions | E3 2014

Microsoft's E3 press conference is only a few hours away. Last year they had a great showing of exclusive AAA games, but PlayStation one upped them by announcing that their console was $100US cheaper. While I could just wait to find out what the company has in store for Xbox One, it's always fun to have a guess at what will be shown. 

Here's 4 totally inaccurate and ridiculous predictions for Microsoft's 2014 E3 conference!

1) Earlier this year Phil Spencer was promoted to head of Xbox and this will be his first E3 in this position. He'll be wanting to win the crowd over, and what better way to do that than to crack a joke. What he'll say is totally unknown, but it'll most likely have something to do with Don Mattrick.

2) Halo 5: Guardians was announced a couple of weeks ago but no gameplay was shown. With Halo being their biggest franchise they'll want to show it off in a big way, and what better way to do that than an epic on stage fire fight. Once a quick explanation of a new online mode is finished a team of 20 spartans will run on to the stage and shoot a cardboard cut out of Don Mattrick until it's nothing more than a pile of dust. The crowd will burst into applause. 

3) A representative from Rare will apologies for making lame Kinect games. As a token of apology, they will invite Grant Kirkhope to come to the stage to give him a one-two jab in the Rare representative's family jewels. It will be followed up by an announcement for Kinect Sports 4. 

4) With the removal of Kinect from Xbox One their new slogan will be "It's a PS4 in 720p". 

It might seem that I was taking a jab at Microsoft, but I think they're going to have a great show! We'll see in a couple of hours!

Mega Man 2/Dr. Wily's Castle | Soundcloud Discoveries #4

As a Nintendo fan who missed the NES and SNES era I've been meaning to dip my toes into older classics that I have missed. Capcom's Blue Bomber has always been high upon that list, but it wasn't until all the hype surrounding Smash Bros that I decided to give the Mega Man series a shot. With that I handed over some digital cash for a copy of Mega Man 2 on Nintendo's e'Shop and jumped in to defeat the Robot Masters. Gameplay is hard as nails like I expected, but what I didn't expect to like so much was the music. Even though its limited through being an 8-bit game on old hardware it still gets the heart racing! One track from the game I absolutely love is the Mega Man 2 Title Theme/Dr. Wily's Castle Stage, and by the amount of remixes of the song on Soundcloud I'm not alone on my opinion.



Here are 4 covers/remixes of the track that have been thumping in my ears for the last couple of days.







If you enjoyed any of the music be sure to send some love to the creators!

iDrewby thinks Mega Man tunes should be played in clubs and pubs. Sure beats Justin Bieber.

NFC Nintendo figures

Late last week during their financial results briefings, Nintendo's president, Satoru Iwata announced that the company will be releasing a line of near field communication figurines (like Skylanders and Disney Infinity) that will interact with games on the Wii U and 3DS towards the end of 2014. Apparently the figurines will be able to write game data "across many titles", so unlike Activision's Skylanders, Nintendo's figurines could potentially all have a tone of applications. 

I think this is a great idea for pushing Nintendo characters to a different audience that would otherwise not pay attention to their games, especially young children. Having these toys on store shelves will give Nintendo a greater presence to the general public and to parents who don't buy videos games for their kids. The Wii U is in an extremely bad position right now and if Nintendo doesn't give people a reason to buy one the company will soon be in a bad place. Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros (my most anticipated games this year) are coming soon, but if they can't give a significant push to Wii U sales not much will, unless the company experiments and comes up with something new. This is a good step towards that, but at the moment that is all we know until E3.

I hope this works out for Nintendo, like Disney they have a tone of franchises and characters that people have a strong connection with. Everyone knows who Super Mario is, he maybe even more recognisable than Mickey Mouse. Now that's saying something. 

The question I have with these figurines is what influence will they have within Nintendo's games? Will they add small features like being able to take a save file to a friends house, contain a download code for a game or add content only available via the figurines? As someone who isn't a kid, I really don't want buy toys to place around my room (even if they are cool Nintendo characters). If I'm forced to buy them to unlock content in Smash Bros I'll be pissed, as will be many other people. I just feel if Nintendo want us to care about these figurines they need to implement them in games we care about, and that worries me. Hopefully they'll come come up with a smart and fair way for them to enhance our gaming experience. Only a month to go until E3!

What do you think of Nintendo's NFC figurines?

Hoenn, I'm coming home

Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire are two games that are very close to my heart. Not only were they my first step into the world of Pokemon, they were also the reason gaming is such a large part of my life today. Choosing Mudkip as my starter, catching the legendary Kyoge, defeating the Elite Four, traking down Latais and working with my friends to complete the Pokedex are memories from my childhood that I will treasure forever. It is these games that pulled me into gaming and introduced me to other Nintendo franchises and eventually to the PlayStation and Xbox. Though 10 years has passed the Pokemon games still take up a large portion of my play time. When I bought my copy of Pokemon X last year I put 17 hours into it on the first day. That's a crazy, especially for me! I'm the type of person who takes a week to finish a 10 hour game, I typically like to gradually chip away with smaller play sessions. Not Pokemon though, you know when you're enjoying a game when you put it down at 4 AM not because you're tired, but because "you just should". 

My ticket into the world of video games

Ever since Heart Gold and Soul Silver (remakes of Gold & Silver on the GB) were released I thought about how awesome a Ruby and Sapphire remake would be. All those familiar locations recreated to look better to match up with the modern day. Though when Black 2 and White 2 for the DS come out it changed my thought pattern. These games were sequels rather than the same game with a new coat of paint the series had come to expect. What if the Ruby and Sapphire "remakes" used this approach? Revisit the Hoenn region and meet familiar characters while experiencing a whole new story. Though to be honest any excuse to revisit these games would get me excited.

The other day I bought a brand new iPad Air and my favourite thing to do on it is play Pokemon Emerald. I was so excited when I found out you can run a GBA emulator without jail breaking your device. But that was nothing compared to how I felt when I checked my Facebook this morning and seen my wall spammed with "Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire". Oh my Jesus balls, it's finally happening! I've been waiting for these games for years it was really surprising for them to announce them randomly like this. If Nintendo hinted the games it would have been too obvious and wouldn't have had the same impact, so kudos to them for doing it this way. 

I'm aboard the hype train! " Doot doot"!

According to the short teaser trailer a "epic new adventure is coming" and we're going to "explore a dramatic new world". To me this indicates that these will be sequels rather than simple remakes of the original titles, which I'm thrilled about. With all the new additions brought into the Pokemon series over the last decade I think it would be difficult to keep the new titles true to the originals. Let alone all the work it would take to recreate everything in 3D, in someways a whole new presentation with the same story would be wasted potential. We're still not sure what the games look like, but it's safe to assume they will be presented in a similar fashion to X and Y. A good reason to get excited for E3!

After 10 years I'm finally heading home. I'll see you in November, Hoenn.

Expect to see plenty of Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire on Life's a Game in the upcoming months.