Thoughts on Nintendo Switch

For a long while there have been rumblings of the Nintendo NX but very little details were available on the upcoming system UNTIL LAST NIGHT!  Finally we can stop calling it the NX as it now has a real name, the Nintendo Switch.  While there still isn't a huge amount of information on the thing, there's enough for me to write a little bit about my thoughts on what they've done.

It seems to be a sort of home/portable hybrid where you slot a screen into a stand to play it on your TV like a normal system or you can take the screen out and play it like a portable system.  This is a cool feature that a lot of people seem to be creaming their pants over and while I agree that it is pretty awesome, let's not forget that the PSP was doing that back in 2007.  Also the main screen portable body thing just looks like a WiiU controller and the idea of walking around with that fucking thing and whipping it out on the train even makes me cringe a little bit.

Another cool thing we can take from the announcement is the two little slide in controller thingies can be taken out and shared with another player.  In theory this means that a second controller for a second player will be built into the standard system which is an absolute godsend.  Controllers aren't cheap so the idea that I can just buy the system and immediately start playing with another person seems really cool.  Other features include the thing having a Tegra processor and the games coming on cards like the DS which is cool I guess, it means the games will look pretty good and not take up too much space in my house.

The one thing that really piqued my interested are the number of studios that have pledged involvement with the thing

ATLUS, Spike Chunsoft and Grasshopper ALONE are enough to get me interested in the thing.  It's cool to see the amount of 3rd party support for the thing so hopefully the Switch will have a really cool library of games.  Right now the games we know about are a bit meh with things like Skyrim and some Basketball shit alongside obvious stuff like Zelda and Mario.  I am getting the general impression that Nintendo are trying to market this thing for a more core gaming audience rather than trying to make it all family friendly.  Obviously the family friendly stuff is there but I'm getting the feeling they want that core crowd back in a big way.

This is is set to launch in March 2017 so only time will tell if it's any god or not.  I'm not going to get my hopes too high just because I'm a bit jaded but it is looking to be something worth picking up as of right now.  It would be really nice if it was region free....

PS4 First Impressions

So content for the blog has been a little thin on the ground due to the fact that my wife bought me a PS4 for my birthday!  Now that I'm finally up to speed with next gen I thought I'd write a short bit on what I think about the system itself.

First the size of the thing, it's pretty fucking large and that is a little bit of a pain in the ass.  If I lived back in my family home in Sweden or my old house in the UK then this wouldn't be an issue at all but as it happens I live in a small-ish Japanese apartment so finding space to put this damn thing down was actually a little bit of an issue.  That said it is a nice shape that slots nicely into the desk space that I put it so it's not all bad, just be aware of the size if you're strapped for space like I am.

Interface wise it's the same as every other Sony gaming product since PSP, that kind of horizontal scrolling menu.  I'm a big fan of this interface, it's slick and easy to use as opposed to the Xbone which just confuses the fuck out of me every time I use it. It might just be because I'm a stupid retard but it's I find it very easy to get lost in the Xbox One interface but with this everything is basically idiot proof, which is exactly what I need.

I do quite like this whole share button feature because sharing stupid screenshots of stuff with my friends is pretty cool.  One thing I'm really interested in is the whole streaming to twitch thing but at time of writing I have not tried this out yet.  I want to buy a Playstation Camera so that I can talk/do the face cam thing I do when I stream from my PC so I'm not quite sure how good the twitch integration is.  That said, I've watched streams of a few friends who are doing it from their PS4 and it seems pretty solid, so I'm looking forward to giving it a try.

The other feature I quite like is the whole PS+ thing.  It costs about 5000 yen for a year, which is essentially free and every month they provide you with free games for you to download.  Originally I didn't see the big deal because I thought that you lost the games when the selection games but it turns out that as long as PS+ is active and you downloaded them, you can play them forever which is rad.  I thought a service like that would cost an arm and a leg, especially in this day and age when every company seems to want to rip you off with DLC and needless extras/exclusive content but like I said before, 5000 yen is nothing and it covers the whole year.

While neither of the next gen libraries grabbed me at first, PS4 has also started to pick up some steam.  Right now I own copies of Bloodborne: The Old Hunters Edition and Yoru no Nai Kuni (yet unplayed) and there are a bunch of other games like MGS5 and a few RPGs I've seen milling around the store.  There's also P5 and Nier 2 on the horizon so with that in mind I'm pretty fucking happy with my purchase.  Already the anime moe games are starting to creep in on store shelves which may turn some people off but it doesn't really bother me, I can sit through kawaii bullshit if the games good.

So yeah, I like the PS4 and I'm hoping that it carries on being this strong all the way through its lifetime, we'll just have to wait and see.  Now I'm gonna get get destroyed at Bloodborne!

The Vita

So a while ago I was given a Playstation Vita and I think it's about time to give my thoughts on the system.

So I'll start with how the thing looks, and I think it looks pretty damn good.  It's that same sleek black that we had with the PSP, but that shit works, it looks nice.  I'll admit that the analogue sticks look and feel a little bit cheap, at least to me, but they do the job so I'm not moaning all that much.  It sits well in your hands and everything just feels right.

The menus when you turn it on are easy to navigate too.  If you've used any kind of smart phone ever you'll be able to find your way around this thing, it's pretty user friendly.  It also has this cool paper peeling effect when you want to close an application, and I know it sounds like a stupid thing to enjoy but goddamn I really like it.

Now the big thing, the games.  Right now I own 3 games, and one of them is a HD remake of 2 PS2 games (Metal Gear).  The library right now is a little lack luster with nothing REALLY standing out except for something like Gravity Daze which I've heard is really good.  Then again the console is still young and I'd bet a good amount of money that once the console gets a little older there will be some proper belters available.

The tl;dr version of this whole post is pretty good, looking forward to the future.

That PS4 Announcement I didn't Watch

With me living in Japan and time differences being what they are, I didn't see this conference thing which was Sony giving a little talk on the upcoming PS4.  That said I've done some reading and poking around and here is what I've discovered.

1. It's going to be really quite pretty

Well it better fucking had be.  It'd be a bit of a shock if the PS4 came out and it looked WORSE than a PS3 somehow, this isn't news.

2. It has integration with Facebook and UStream

OK, the UStream thing is kind of cool.  Apparently the controller has a "share" button, where you can upload shit to Ustream for all your friends to watch, which is a potentially cool feature.  Facebook however, needs to fuck off.  Granted that I fucking hate facebook and use it as no more than a glorified chat service to keep in touch with buddies in different countries, but I don't need to broadcast every fucking game I'm playing to my news feed.  Fucking stupid, Facebook and video games should NOT mix.

3.  The controller has some kind of funky sensor thing in it and a touch pad.

I don't see the big deal here, it's a fucking controller.  As long as I push buttons and the game does things I want it to, then I'm happy.  The light bar and the touch pad are all great and stuff but I don't know how these are going to be used yet, so whatever.  At least this one has a mic jack so you don't have to use those fucking blue tooth headsets.

4.  You can use your Vita as a screen.

As someone who owns a Vita, I'm quite happy that I can now take a shit and continue whatever game I will be playing on my PS4 if and when I get one.

5.  You can resume play right away after turning "off" the system

This isn't news either, PSP has been able to do this for yonks, who cares?

6. Something to do with Gaikai cloud gaming

I didn't give a fuck about OnLive and I sure as hell don't give a fuck about this thing.  Maybe it'll be cool but I'm just not interested when I still have a PS1, PS2 and PS3 with plenty of games sitting around.  A feature I don't need, but I'm sure some people will be happy to have.

Obviously I have not mentioned the games but Diablo 3 being announced was quite possibly one of the most disappointing things I heard.  But still, the features I'm aware of so far sound good enough.  I wouldn't say that I'm particularly hyped for the next Playstation, but things are shaping up to be pretty good at least.  Hopefully more will be revealed at E3.

Also I'm aware I probably missed some things, but I'm gonna keep reading around for more info.

Can't give a shit about the WiiU

Read the title again just in case you saw it and got angry.  It's not "don't" give a shit about the WiiU, it's "can't" give a shit.  I've been trying really hard to get myself hyped up for this new bit of hardware from Nintendo, but I just don't give a fuck and I can't bring myself to give a fuck.

Initially, I was really interested in this thing, mainly for it's controller with a screen in it.  When I first saw it announced and got a glimpse of that thing my mind started thinking about all the cool concepts that could come out of a bit of gear like that. 

But I'm not really one for following hype so the WiiU dropped off my radar for a while, then I eventually got round to looking at a list of launch titles for it and good lord was I disappointed.  Everything that's coming out for this damn thing already exists on another system, is garbage aimed at non-gamers, or is just not very interesting.

ZombieU was the game I paid the most attention too, but it still doesn't seem all that interesting to me.  The controller screen stuff is cool, but you don't NEED the controller screen to have those features, it feels like a gimmick and nothing more.  That's the problem with the WiiU I think, for me at least, it feels like a gimmick.

That said, I thought the exact same thing about the DS and the exact same thing about the Wii, and after it gained some steam we got some really impressive games out of those systems.  So, either hurry up and come up with a really cool game concept with that controller screen thing OR release a Trauma Centre, because that'll do it really.