We know that BioShock Infinite
But while I wait for my bank account to refill and before I can play most of those, I might do a little vintage gaming. I’m slowly powering my way through Super Mario 64 – this is the first time I’ll be trying to 100% the game since I was a kid. I also have Super Mario All-Stars on the Wii, and my saved-game of Super Mario World is begging for a little attention! Demons to Diamonds
I know, I know, I’m a Microsoft fanboy. Let’s get it out of the way, because you’re not going to like what i have to say about Sony’s PS4 announcement. Everything described in the press event are things either the PS3 or the Xbox 360 could potentially already do. Now, it’s true that some of those features might work better with the additional memory and processing power of the PlaySTation 4, but streaming a few games from a Gaikai service? Streaming games from the console to the handheld device? Okay… just release a new XMB, not a new console. The ability to share your video from your console? Thanks, I played Halo 3. I’m always excited for a new Killzone game, but the graphics didn’t knock my socks off (for the record, I’m not expecting much for first gen games on the Xbox 365, either). The scale of the world in the Killzone Shadow Fall world was quite impressive, but, again, not jaw dropping.
Capcom’s Deep Down was probably the best looking title, at least as far as gameplay was concerned, but I would expect nothing less from such a veteran of the industry. Of course, we saw Activision and Bungie give another glimpse of Destiny. They showed a few other good looking games, and brought up someone else to talk about emotion. He thinks that more polygons will lead to more believable characters. Evidently, somebody skipped Heavenly Sword, which already featured amazing character graphics made believable with motion capture and fantastic voice acting. But I still didn’t care for the characters as much as the developers hoped, I’m sure. It took a long time for me to care about a character.
No, I’m not all that excited for the PS4. But what I am excited for? Is hacking one. During last night’s announcement, Sony unveiled that the console is going to feature an x86 CPU. In my book, that means it won’t take long before two things happen: 1st: people figure out how to extract the system image and boot it on dis-similar hardware… for instance, even faster and stronger desktop computers. And second – once you have the first part accomplished, you could potentially virtualize the operating system. Imagine booting up your Mac or PC, then just loading up VMWare Player, and booting your Virtual PS4 on your computer. Now, I agree, if the Playstation 4 is going to have 8GB of GDDR5 memory, then your virtual machine would suffer because your desktop computer won’t have that level of memory – even if you have more than 8GB, your system RAM isn’t likely going to be quite as fast. But desktops are only going to get more powerful. And even though Sony had to cut the “10 year lifespan” of the PlayStation 3 short, the PS4 will be around for a while, and all that while, your average home computer will only increase in their specifications, meaning eventually there will be a PC that should be able to “hold the PS4 inside of it” – so to speak.
Speaking of the specs of the system: we still don’t know what the system looks like. It’s obvious they’re saving the final designs to be unveiled at E3. The last slide of the presentation, captured above, indicates that the console will be available “holiday 2013.” I’m excited for the potential of the hardware of the Playstation 4, and we all know it’s early so the games are going to look better and better as developers work with the console. Mostly, I’m excited for hackers to get their hands on these and do what they do best!
Bungie has posted a ViDoc for their upcoming game Destiny. The ViDoc is titled Pathways Out of Darkness, and can be seen below:
Amazon has already posted the preorder page so you can get preorder Destiny for Xbox 360
Alright, I have a confession to make. I am terrible at Tower Defense games. It’s true. Just… horrible. I don’t know if I can’t concentrate, I don’t know if I get overwhelmed, all I know is I die. I play the easy ones, but they still come back with extremely low scores and poor ranks. I might’ve passed the level, but I did it the same way a four year old might’ve. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. But something is here to help me. It’s Defense Grid. And here’s how I got started…
I already know what you’re thinking: “Defense Grid? 2008 called, they want their game back.” But there’s been a new development! I was recently given the opportunity to give a little coverage to the newest DLC expansion for the game, Containment. Of course I can, I thought! So I dove right in. And was annihilated instantly. Never mind. So I back tracked, I played the first few levels of Defense Grid: Awakening and it was great! It coached me along, and helped me start making my way along in the more complex expansion pack. Now, if you don’t already have the main game, then you obviously don’t need Containment – but if you’re going to be buying it, get the Containment Bundle for less than $20. If you’ve already got everything in Defense Grid up until this point (and it’s a game with a great core following, so there’s no doubt some of you do), then you just need the latest Containment DLC pack for $4.99.
But Containment is more than just a story line expansion for a game you’ve played in the past. It’s more than just 8 new maps, 32 new challenge modes, and 2 new characters (including Alan Tudyk, whom you may remember from Firefly or A Knight’s Tale!). Containment is a crowning achievement in crowd funding. It came via Kickstarter, with support even coming from large companies like Razer and AMD.
The story resumes where Defense Grid: The Awakening left off – in a very literal way. You are expected to be familiar with the various “towers” and know how they work, and you should be able to dive right in. If not, go back and start with The Awakening and let it teach you the way it taught me.
And, if you’re going to say but you haven’t said anything about the GAMEPLAY then stay with me. As I said, I’m terrible at Tower-D. I’ve given this game some time, and I plan to continue playing it later, but I’ve by no means had a chance to experience everything it has to offer. But I can tell you that the levels are beautifully designed, and well thought out. No matter how you position your towers, there’s almost always something you forgot. There are alternate routes, multiple levels of depth to pay attention to (first floor, second floor), and sometimes the enemies need to come full circle, other times they’re just fighting their way towards an exit. The level designs are creative, and some even feel mildly inspired by great nods Sci-Fi films and games of the past. Don’t forget to check out community-designed levels, as well, for a literally limitless supply of fun.
Defense Grid: Containment knows its audience – they funded it. And they won’t be disappointed with it. The folks over at Hidden Path Entertainment are pretty comfortable stating that this is the latest chapter in Defense Grid’s story, not the last. So go on and get Defense Grid: Containment Bundle now, so you’re ready for whatever comes next!
