Boy, we were hot for that one. Turns out, it's not all it was supposed to be (as some recently surfaced screenshots showing what was intended for next-gen consoles before they had to downgrade the graphics), but it's still a great game. If you can play it...
Now, we all know how, let's call it "unfortunate" the days around the
WatchDogs launch were when it came to online connectivity. UPlay was
down, taking part of Xbox Live with it, and pretty much stopping a lot
of people from enjoying parts or even the whole game.
What you don't know, is the reason.
So... prepare for "Da Truth!" (from a certain point of view ;)
As an unnamed (that means anonymous) source confirmed to me when we met
yesterday at the Playboy Mansion, Ubisoft and UPlay had come under cyber
attack - from Hackers. Right on the day Ubisoft launched a massive game
about hacking. Who would've thought?
The way he put it, "On May 27th, a day which will live in infamy, the
United Studios of Ubisoft were suddenly and deliberately attacked by douche-bags. Little, 20-40 year old virginal douche-bags that launched a DOS
(that's Denial of Service) attack on the Ubisoft and Uplay servers from
about a million basements in their mothers' homes. The kind of Douche-Bags
that think 'hymen' is what they say to their only friends after donning
their headsets!"
He was obviously upset.
"Uhm, aren't you describing pretty much all of your programmers and most of your employees?", I wondered.
He chose to ignore me.
"And why?" he asked. "Just because they can?! Just because they need to
flaunt their superior intellect in the face of the three people in this
company that make enough money to buy ourselves pretty much everything
they only know from internet porn? Do they think that makes a man
happy?! And when did porn ever do anything good?!"
"Well, there was that one time, at band camp-" I began, but speaking to him when he was like that was a losing proposition.
"So, they're smart! So what?! Didn't stop the ice hockey team from
dunking their heads in toilets, now, did it?! So, yes, let them be proud
of their win! Hoo-Fucking-Ray for them! They bloodied our nose, but that
won't happen again. We`re alert now. We're paying attention. And when
they come at us again, we'll sniff 'em out and tear 'em apart like...
like..." and there he faltered, then looked at me for help.
I said "Uhm... like uhm, cameras? With... laser-... uhm -teeth? ... that can... sniff?"
"Exactly", he said. "Just like that! D-bags won't even Know what hit 'em... (we should make a game about that... yeah...)".
"Look, man" I said. "Maybe it was more of a... I don't know, an
acknowledgement. Like, some friendly hazing. I mean, these people are
crazy smart. (and I`m pretty sure that whole virginal thing isn't really
true anymore and you just said that because you're kinda angry).
They're smart. And they know it. But they're kinda secretive, too. You
threw 'em into the spotlight. Which, in itself is quite a compliment for
them. 'Look, Ma! All those years I spent in the basement on my
computer? It's gonna make me a superhero!' But that's the thing, man.
They're not superheroes. They're Anti-Heroes. So, they couldn't just
come out and say 'Well done!'. These guys are creative, unconventional.
(Although, admittedly, being a hacker and then hacking the game servers
for a game about hacking so the people playing the game could, in fact, not
go out and hack other people may not be that ingenious - unless the
utter simplicity Is the genius. You never know. There`s a lot of pretty
funky mold in those basements...) But still. They could've just 'given
you props by busting your chops', man. Or something."
"Who the hell are you, now?!" He was looking at me. "Jay Fucking Z?"
"That- that's all you took from that? Fine. I'm just sayin', man. Don't
take it so hard. It's not like it... ruined your whole life, is it?"
Wrong thing to say.
"What?!" he screamed. "Didn't ruin-? People were unhappy. The Customers
were unhappy. They had paid for a game experience like no other and we
couldn't deliver. They don't care whose fault it was! You know why?
Because it's not Their job, it's Ours! And in their eyes we failed! We
failed! We went out and built and bought new servers, and we made sure
UPlay could handle twice as many people, twice the people that even Have
UPlay accounts, and then we even rented additional servers just for the
launch week to double That! Redundancy in Depth! And all of that turned
to Shit. Not because of the hackers. Because of us. Because when we
were contacted, I refused to take pictures of myself with a shoe on my
head and post them online. (The USU doesn't negotiate with terrorists,
cyber or otherwise.) And it was my pride that led to our fall, to our
epic fail. We failed the customers. I failed the customers. My life is
forfeit. My life is worthless, without meaning. It's dark and drab and
cold and lonely and-" He stopped, stiffened, then looked down towards
his bellybutton, seeming just a tad bit peeved. "Easy with the teeth
down there, you two."
And I said, "Yves", I said. "Priorities..."
DISCLAIMER:
None of this ever happened. Nobody is supposed to feel insulted by any of this. It's supposed to make you laugh.
I don't condone any illegal actions, nor will I admit to a certain
admiration of people that are able to do such illegal actions. I plead
the Fifth.
I don't condone any demeaning actions, either. Bullies blow.
The people and places mentioned in or alluded to in this short work of
utter fiction are not real, and do not refer or allude to real places or
people. No, there is no Playboy Mansion - that`s just a myth, a magical
place fathers tell their sons about to make them do their chores,
because if they work real hard and get real rich, they may one day be
invited there.
Perceived similarities to reality are nothing but your own dirty thoughts.
Also, this story is not even mine. I was just holding it for a friend - whose name I can't seem to remember.
Now, mom's got my dinner ready, and tonight me and the boys have a big
raid planned in the Rift. Yes, me and the boys. Plural. Of Course we
don't allow girls in our clan. If I learned anything in my 34 years,
it's that girls are like, not real. Or at least, really not like the I like ones on
the internet...
Watch_Dogs is available on PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. A Wii-U version will (maybe) come later.
For all your Playstation or Xbox or PC Gaming needs, especially the European needs, head over to Amazon UK - best deals in Europe (mostly). For TV or Movie Streaming needs, as well. Yes, I do buy there myself. Exclusively. Unless I find a better deal, elsewhere...
So, maybe that Title was a bit... iffy, but it got you reading, so there's that.
(Updated to include the MP modes, I missed. Thanks Tetsou88 from the Ubi-Forums)
Watch_Dogs. What a ride it has been, and the game's not even out yet. From "awesome next-gen launch title" to "delayed, with major graphics downgrade" to "5-27-2014, and no, those graphics are just fine", Watch_Dogs has created quite the online hype - and not exclusively in a good way.
Michigan Avenue Bridge in Watch_Dogs
But that's all water under the Michigan Avenue Bridge, now (that's a Chicago reference with digital proof, by the way), with the game being released in a bit more than two weeks.
And it's shaping up quite nicely, if the following "lore" and gameplay (single player, side activities and 1v1 multiplayer) vid is any indication (the longer gameplay walkthrough starts at 14:30, but it's all worth watching):
Well. That does look nice. So what did we see here?
I mean, apart from the whole "the internet knows your porn-consumption", "everything is connected" conspiracy... well, we can't really call that a theory anymore, can we? It is true, the internet knows, and thus people know. One of the the questions Watch_Dogs poses to the player, is what do you do with that? Knowledge is power, and with great power comes great... fun. I guess.
Nimble little minx
What we see seems very akin to what I'd imagine Assassin's Creed: Modern Online Warfare might look like, albeit with less climbing and more cars. Plus: Jedi Smartphone Tricks. The movement does seem quite similar, even a bit more energetic, yet not as vertical as what the Creeds offered, but hey: did I mention cars? Doing "something" to regional enemy "outposts" to "unlock" the area, also seems familiar. But WD comes with a cover mechanic and a "sneaky-stance", the second of which I am still waiting for in the Creed series, so hello obvious evolution.
I do need some kind of connection...
All in all, Watch_Dogs' Chicago, controlled by ctOS (ctOS is Chicago's Central Operating System, a Computer in control of a city's interconnected electrical systems), looks and feels quite enticing - and exciting: An open, living city (confirmed via tweet: without loading screens), criminals and damsels in distress, a legally misunderstood hero, and, with access to ctOS, lots of possibilities to interact with that world.
There's a very deep and socially aware storyline somewhere, too, I'm sure, but the joy of open world games always lay (for me anyway) in doing exactly the opposite of what the story wanted me to do, and see how it holds up, once the open world is supposed to "stand on its own."
But let's look at some details, especially from the longer gameplay walkthrough:
Is there a waiting period for the military grade stuff?
First off, guns. Quite a good amount, too, including a .50 cal Sniper Rifle. It remains to be seen if WD will actually accommodate long-range enthusiasts in any meaningful way (i.e. 100+ meters), something nobody seems to have asked or commented on, yet (aside from Ubisoft's own game description, touting "long-range sniping" as one way for the player to tackle enemies), but we can hope. Unless the Rifle is just a token offering to check all the "weapons needed in video game" boxes, and I haven't really seen anything confirming that the player could get to the roof of some of these skyscrapers, but at least head shots seem to equal One-Hit-Kills even with handguns, (and you can blow out tires on moving cars, which is very awesome) so, yes. Hope. And not just for the sniping, but combat in general. Unless you prefer the sneaky way. Which is cool, too.
Anyway, there`s lots of different guns, that, hopefully (there is that "h"-word, again), have their own unique characteristics and handling.
Focus on the Head
And judging from the shown combat, with cover-shooting, and the ubiquitous bullet-time slo-mo (something not only restricted to shooting, mind you), it's good to know that gun-play will be a viable option, especially when combined with the hacking and distracting seen in the video while infiltrating the ctOS Control Center.
It looks like a lot of fun, playing with, and then killing the AI - something I have learned to really enjoy in my time playing games, from the over-the-top skill-kill-setups of Bulletstorm, to the fiendishly gruesome and creative options of Dishonored.
Look, up on the Wall. It's Electro!
Manipulating good AI is always a joy, and something WB Creative Director Jonathan Morin said in an early April interview, about how enemy NPCs in WD will not automatically associate something going wrong around them with a hidden perpetrator and start looking (or even worse, know who and where that person is), makes me hope that what happens in the video around 18:15 (IED explodes, takes out guard, and apparently right after the other guards shoot at the player's location) is a glitch or from old code. And according to (not only) the "ctOS Report", the options are indeed many: Traffic Lights, Street Lights, Bridges, Steam Pipes, Fuse Boxes, Road Blockers, Cameras, Stuff that Moves... Trains... and, possibly, More Stuff. Cellphones, maybe.
It's a playground, for sure, and it will be very interesting to see, how diverse that will really "play out". Will players really experiment and enjoy the options, or will you soon fall into a trot of "run, shoot, disable, steam pipe, boom, repeat"?
Choices, choices...
Undoubtedly, the developers put a lot of thought into their vision of Chicago, but to really make people enjoy and employ the variety of options, each must be effective in their own way - and not just one way. I imagine foot chases might get pretty stale, if all you really do is wait for your prey to run past a conveniently placed fuse box. Hacking, as other gameplay aspects, like Combat, will feature upgrades and a skill tree, although not that much is known about it. There will be an upgrade to completely plunge virtual Chicago into a black-out, though. Which sounds like fun, if a bit drastic.
Let me put that necklace on...
On to the systemically generated "side-missions" of a "potential crime" - something that just happens, something that is not even a mission per-se, something you can actually choose to engage in or just walk by, should your conscience allow it. Fans of the TV show "Person of Interest" will be familiar with the concept of a computer program using electronic surveillance to predict crimes. In WD's Chicago, ctOS, the City's Master Control Program, does just that, and with the player's access to ctOS, he can choose to follow potential victims, then intervene once these potentials turn into a "Crime in Progress".
I remember that term from Batman: Arkham Origins, specifically from trying to get these annoying challenges done and waiting at certain locations for the always similar "random crime" to occur. WD seems to go for a different approach, something seemingly less predictable in form and outcome, yet it's still unclear how varied those events will be (the two shown in the video look depressingly similar, not in the least for once more portraying the stereotype of the victimized female), or how exactly player actions will have an impact: Can you hack someone's bank account (on a side note: Morin confirmed via twitter, that you can hack multiple bank accounts and only have to go to an ATM once to collect your loot) and send them on a desperate crime spree, then swoop in to save the day? Wouldn't that be something?
Just like you saw on the telly!
Public actions will influence how the city and its inhabitants will regard you and react to you, from helping you out (possibly via a shop discount) to calling the police on you, but how much personal influence can you really exert on the individual?
But if what is claimed in the vid turns out to be true, and the criminals once you're in pursuit actually do act unpredictably, these events should at least be an enjoyable distraction - for the first 50 times or so. There's always a potential pit-fall with these kinds of semi-random "Help Me! Help Me!" events, especially for those closet heroes among us.
Crime stopped. Literally.
Because how can you walk away once you get a number- I mean, the name of a potential victim? And when does NOT walking away, over and over and over, become tedious? Will you be able to simply traverse the city, without having to rescue kittens at every corner?
We'll have to wait and see, but I am (once more) hopeful, that with WD's generally more gray moral approach, they won't constantly pressure the hero types into saving their fellow citizen from durance vile.
Finally, then, to the Multiplayer, only one of (EDIT:) six modes was portrayed in the first vid, so let's take a look at another video, previewing three of the different MP modes (Ubisoft confirmed again that Multiplayer is completely optional and can be turned off completely):
Now, that does not look half bad. And it's apparently seamlessly integrated into the game, with the matchmaking for the 4v4 working in the background while you play, the match starting when everyone is ready. And yes, just to say it again, there are NO MAP RESTRICTIONS for the MP modes. The whole city is open. This is confirmed. Twitter. Tell your friends.
Let's look at the modes seen here:
Who are you? Who, Who? Who, Who?
Online Hacking Contracts (1v1), is more of a deadly hide and seek, something that the Profiler in your smartphone does not make very easy for the hacker. In both videos, the hacker does not get very far into his hack before being detected and forced to flee, but apparently "Mission Success" is a pretty pliable term here, and rewards are awarded even for partial hacks - as long as you get away alive.
We don't get fooled, again!
Speaking of which, Hacker Spared" does sound so much better than "I let the Bastard got away!" But... did he? As seen in the first vid, if someone tried to hack you, you hack 'em right back! Yes. Retaliation, a founding principle of every modern society - and PvP video games.
Teenage Wasteland!
Funnily enough, if you let the hacker escape alive, you, as the hacked, are rewarded a Mission Success. But if you as the hacker kill the intended hacked, you fail. At least that's what the red writing indicates to me. I guess that makes sense, but it's still weird.
As I was alerted to by my (one) avid reader(s), there is another, less dangerous variant of the Online Contracts, that simply involves tailing the main character unnoticed. It gives less Notoriety (i.e. XP), but the hacked will not be alerted that he is hacked, and it's thus less likely to end in potential bloodshed. Not that it will be easy to inconspicuously tail another player should he choose to race recklessly through the city, mind you.
Competitive Decryption Combat (4v4, only available on Next Gen Consoles and PC), looks like even more fun, and quite diverse fun, at that.
Get the file...
With two teams of... hackers (apparently, you will always look like the main character in your game, but look like someone else in other people's games - but you CAN make it so you'll always look like the same someone else), well, two teams of hackers fighting for a file, that you have to first hold, then decrypt.
...get away...
It's an interesting mix of Capture the Flag, Hold the Flag and Don't let the Baddies get close to the Flag. The file is acquired by downloading it to your smartphone, and can be stolen by downloading it from the enemy's smartphone once you get in range - and stay in range (and alive) for long enough to steal it. If the file carrier dies, the file is free to be grabbed anyone, and from there it's a matter of keeping the file and decrypting it, i.e. keeping the enemy away from it.
...win?
There are obviously different ways to do that, but with all of WD's Chicago as your map, you can take the whole match on the road, try to flee your pursuers and keep the file out of their hands during decryption. Decryption as seems to be a lengthy process, even if proximity to your team members will speed up the process. If the enemy gets close enough to try and steal it, the decryption halts until you get out of their range.
It's still unclear how the respawn system works, or if a partly decrypted file, once lost, then recovered, will have to be decrypted from scratch, but the enormous round time (28 minutes for a 4v4 match) seems to be designed to allow for lengthy back and forth exchanges.
And then, there's the ctOS Mobile Companion App, allowing people on their mobile devices to challenge players in the game to a checkpoint race-course through the city. Sounds simple enough, but where`s the "versus" aspect?
Reach out, touch me
Well, should the player accept the challenge, for the duration of the race, the person on the Mobile App gains control of ctOS, i.e. all those hacks you could use while driving to stop pursuers will now be used against you, from road blockers to steam pipes to traffic lights. Additionally, the person that holds control over Chicago in the palm of their hands (not my words), can set the police on your trail, and keep track of you with a helicopter and its spotlight.
Impending BOOM!
From the short gameplay shown, it seems that the ctOS Mobile App functions akin to a very simple Real-Time-Strategy game, with limited resources (police cars, hacks etc.), so a bit of tactical thinking and quick reactions will definitely be a plus.
The player in the game tries to reach the end of the course before time runs out or he is stopped, while the mobile player (obviously) tries to prevent that - and can actually gloat over his victory (or lament his loss) through an instant message system from mobile app to game. A feature that most definitely won't be abused by the chronically immature. In any way. Ever.
Goddammit you ****-ing ****-tard on ****!
But the app is free, is not region restricted (you can challenge people around the world, but with the inevitable lag that will incur, you might not want to), and you don`t even have to own the game. Which makes this, after Splinter Cell: Blacklist Spiderbot, another potentially very enjoyable mobile game Ubisoft releases for free to everyone. Which I kinda like.
Playing any of these modes will net you experience you can then use to upgrade your character, underlining the seamless nature of WD even more (although it's not known if playing on the Mobile App will translate to XP for your game character, or be used to upgrade your mobile app playing abilities).
As I said, I was told by my rabid fan base, that I had missed two MP game modes - but I actually missed three. The first, Tailing, I already mentioned. The second and third are still somewhat shrouded in mystery, but here's what I could find out: Free Roam (only available on Next-Gen and PC) allows up to 8 players to team up and just roam the city to have some fun.
UPDATE: Creative Director J.Morin went on twitter again to give some new info on Free Roam:
"Free roam is a bonus way for players to go in the entire city without
any activity and define together what to do. You can flag who is
friend/enemy with others and then its up to players to define the rest.
It is not a controlled experience."
Might that mean, players could possibly create their own Multiplayer Modes, albeit in (for now, at least) private lobbies? And what about a DLC "Free Roam Mission Editor", where you could use existing "missions" or objectives from the Single Player, from ctOs Control Centers to Side Mission Objectives, and play those out in PvP versions? I don't know, but it would be pretty cool...
And there will be a Race-Mode, letting you participate in car-races against other players on predetermined tracks, UPDATE: which has been confirmed to be on all platforms, current-gen consoles included.
Well, that was quite a lot to see, a lot to know, and a LOT to do. We may only have been given a small (and somewhat repetitive) glimpse of Watch_Dogs here, but it does seem to come with a quite staggering amount of content - and that`s without even mentioning the main story missions, something that Ubisoft usually does quite good, but just free-roaming Chicago, online or not, might be gratifying enough on its own.
I mean, aside from the usual mini-games like poker and whatnot, there's also this whole other game-inside-the-game, the
Digital Trips. Using some kind of Cyber Drug, the player enters an
altered state of mind, an altered state of Chicago. Three different
trips are known, Spider Tank, Madness and Conspiracy.
No Words :)
Spider Tank has you killing and destroying stuff in a tank that... well, looks like a spider, a mechanical Spider of Death, with Gatling-Guns and Rocket Pods. Destruction earns points, and points earn Spider Tank Upgrades.
Madness is a Game Mode reminiscent of Grand Theft Auto, but with Demons, as you are supposed to take an armored car into the streets - and into as many "demons" as you can. Again, upgrades are available through playing the mode.
Come with me if you want to live
Conspiracy, then, appears to be a cyber-zombie hunt in the streets of Chicago. Imagine you're Kyle Reese, it's 2014 and hundreds of T-800s have infested Chicago, but only you can see them. You're Rowdy Roddy Piper, They Live as cyborgs and not aliens, and your special glasses are just an eye-patch. Not that I don't have had enough of zombies, but the trailer from the season pass is definitely intriguing.
Which is leading, quite nicely, to the already announced Season Pass and its contents. Only two Digital Trips (that we know of), will be part of the vanilla game, with Conspiracy being DLC, and part of the Season Pass Bundle. It's a mixed blessing, those season passes, especially if, like this one, part of its contents are cosmetic in nature. Like, costumes and stuff. There's also a single player campaign with a different playable character included, as well as some more missions for the regular character, plus a Chicago Cosa Nostra Pack including a vintage Tommy Gun, but chances are, the savings of the Season Pass compared to the regular purchases will have Season Passers end up getting the costumes for free. Yay. But take a look for yourself, here`s the preview:
And before I go, a few more little tidbits of info (mostly from twitter and on via youtube):
The seamless online play will be available on all consoles, but only 1v1 Hacking and Tailing (and Racing (UPDATE: confirmed on all platforms), and probably Mobile App vs. Player) will be present on the Current Gen Consoles - no Free Roam or Decryption for Xbox 360 and PS3.
The Xbox 360 version will come on two disks, one being a mandatory 7.5 GB installation disk.
You cannot choose the weather in Watch_Dogs, but you can determine time of day by sleeping as long as you want.
Poker and other "Social Mini Games" are actually not. Social. No online for the mini-games. Bad Call, that one.
The Focus Ability in Multiplayer sessions will not slow-down time (Duh!), but still give you helping hints.
Cops will arrest you if you don't resist and are not "Wanted: Dead or Alive".
Open World Games has made an "informed guesstimate" of Watch_Dogs' map size compared to GTA 5`s map size, and WD comes up with about half of the whole of GTA 5, but most, if not all of it, city, as opposed to GTA 5's rolling hills and stuff. The way to this comparison included a digital mock-up of a part (20%) of the printed map of WD's Chicago included (I think) in some editions of the game, resizing it to fit with GTA 5's map, and then putting it five times on top of that.
Here's the result:
"It might not look big, but it will FEEL big", he said...
Watch_Dogs will release on PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One on May 27th 2014. A Wii-U version will (maybe) come later.
For all your Playstation or Xbox or PC Gaming needs, especially the European needs, head over to Amazon UK - best deals in Europe (mostly). For TV or Movie Streaming needs, as well. Yes, I do buy there myself. Exclusively. Unless I find a better deal, elsewhere...
My PC had died. It just... stopped working at very odd times, and it got increasingly bad, to the point where I compulsively quick-saved after every single sentence I wrote. The damn thing just shut down, no signal coming, no power to the peripherals, but the blue glowy power light on the tower never went out. It was very weird. And annoying.
At the end of my personal, yet considerable, wits, I employed the help of a PC-Doctor. Who kept the thing for a week, then told me he has no idea why it happens. Then went on to tell me I just might have to do a full re-install of Windows 7, including a full wipe of the Hard Drives. Just to be sure.
I will spare you the details of losing pretty much all of my por-... all of my stuff, but there's only so much a 500 GB external hard drive will hold, so choices had to be made, sacrifices to be... sacrificed. Yeah. That's what I meant to write. Anyway, fresh from the install, two hours in, the same thing happened. And I was miffed. Call in to the Doc, who then tells me, that it now can only be on of two things: The CPU or the Motherboard. For the non-nerds, the CPU is the the Central Processing Unit, the thingy that does pretty all of the computer work. It sits, nestled in a motherly embrace, on the Motherboard, which is like the land and infrastructure on which you build that house they call a "Computer". He also mentioned, in a "on a side note" kinda way, that those were the two things he did not check when he did his check, ergo, there the fault must be.
Unfortunately for me, that meant buying new stuff, namely, a new CPU and/or Motherboard, which considering the age of my CPU pretty much took the "or" from the equation, faulty processor or not. The kind of motherboards that would support it, went out of production years ago. Very fleeting business, that is.
I did some research online - by which I mean, I checked on amazon for do-it-yourself build your own PC kits - but... well, I know what most of the stuff means, but I also know that I don't need most of the newer stuff. I don't want to play games on that thing, I just need a working "typewriter" with good web-functionality - most everything else, that's what my PlayStation is 4 (Ha! Get it?), and, recently, once more my trusty Xbox 360 (Dark Souls II, people!). Plus, I wanted someone, whom I could call upon in my hours of need, someone, who would not live in India, but kinda closer to home. Close enough to come buy and fix stuff.
So again I called my trusty PC-Doc, and told him what I wanted: Take my old one, use what you still can use, and put in new, and more importantly cheap, stuff until it works. And so they did. One day later, it came to my door, I paid for it, plugged it in, and was just in the middle of setting things up... and the same damn thing happened again.
In the end, what might have happened was this: A power surge damaged my old PC, either both the power supply and the Motherboard, or the hinky power supply eventually hinkied-up the MB, who can tell? When the first new MotherBoard was installed with a new CPU, the hinky power supply damaged that board, too, which in turn fired the CPU. Thinking it was just an odd coincide, they put in another CPU, test-drove it, and it fizzled again. Only THEN did they consider a faulty Motherboard, and the possible reasons said MB might have begotten these faults.
The final tally amounted to three CPUs (two fried), two Motherboards (one hinky) and one new power-supply. None of which I had to pay, since I never had gotten a working product, but it took quite some time. Plus a new graphics card - for which I DID have to pay - because the on-board GFX did not support audio output via DVI-HDMI, and since my TV is my monitor, that was pretty much not acceptable.
Over one full month of computerlessness. My Smartphone did get a healthy workout in that time, believe you me.
And, believe it or not, that was only the smallest of four pretty devastating things to happen to me in the last six weeks. Yeah. The smallest, the most insignificant. But you don't care, so I won't bore you.
Next up: Watch_Dogs :)
For all your PS4 or Xbox One needs, especially the European needs, head over to Amazon UK - best deals in Europe (mostly). For TV or Movie Streaming needs, as well. Yes, they did help me through this. Yes, I do buy there myself. Exclusively. Unless I find a better deal, elsewhere...
Another busy two weeks in video-game world, some of which I already hinted at, and will now wrap up next to some not-so-new news:
Warframe on PS4 got an update. I mentioned that, somewhere. Now, with Warframe, Updates are always a bit of a celebration, since the already intolerable community, as behooves a game community, always wants everything, right now, and then a lot more of that. And Warframe has that little problem of its PC version getting more frequent updates, and those a lot sooner. Nobody cares why, but they bitch like there's no tomorrow.
Okay. Update 12. Updates on Warframe usually bring content. New Frames, new Weapons, new game modes, and maybe a new event. This one had it all, but that's not really the point. My point. You can read all about what it brought on the official release notes of the update here. The subtle changes are the stars here. And those stars are shiny. When Warframe debuted on the PS4, it was fun. Complicated, buggy and pretty weird, yes, but fun. It wasn't pretty, though.
Now, it is. Digital Extremes have added a lot of polish in this latest update, textures, effects, even new animations. Along with a revamped HUD (I still have to get used to), something akin a game manual that is actually in the game, hugely improved resource management and mod-"crafting" system, it's an overall improvement in User Convenience that is quite astonishing, really. And very welcome. Sure, there are still some frame-rate dips, but less so than you might expect with dialed up graphics. That did introduce an almost constant but mostly negligible screen tearing issue, though.
But even with those issues, it's a tremendous update to push Warframe out of its obvious Beta state on PS4 and into a game that could very well tide you over until Destiny arrives.
Look and See (but make sure to click the HD button on the bottom right):
Next up, Watch_Dogs. As in, yes, it's coming. There is a Date! Do you remember Watch_Dogs? That game where Smartphones take over the world? Well, Chicago, but still. A man and his Phone fighting injustice. With a lot of hacking, some guns, a baton, cars and streetlights. It was supposed to release even before the next-gen launch, but delayed, until some days ago, indefinitely. Now, the wait is... not over, exactly, but the end is in sight: May 27th 2014. In that respect, as a little reminder, here`s the recent story trailer to freshen up your Watch_Dogs frenzy:
Now, you noticed, didn't you? The graphics? Kinda... meh. And not really as "Wow" as last year`s E3 gameplay demos. As it happens, you're not the only one. The internet, especially neogaf, went completely bonkers - that`s a British medical term for shit-fuck-crazy, by the way. "Downgraded graphics" was the phrase of the day.
Maybe in response, maybe in expectation, there was a Live Stream Interview Q&A with the devs on Twitch two days later, on March 7th. Which, unsurprisingly, was instantly audio- and chat-hacked. The first 30 seconds of sound were looped, combined with the audio of a, presumably Canadian since French, Volkswagen commercial, and hundreds of "people" asked in the chat what Ubisoft's problems with Transvestite Girls is.
The chat-free and clean-audio version you can watch here in full (be warned, though, there's no gameplay beyond what can be seen in trailer above; but you will notice how they start over), but to sum it up, this is what happened during the delay (or not):
The graphics have not changed or suffered. The story trailer was simply to show the story, not the graphics. However that makes sense.
The systemic environment got an overhaul to really get working as flawless as possible. Watch_Dogs boasts a complete systemic environment, where everything you do effects the world around you, and those effects ripple through the complete game world.
Hacking on the move and targeting got an overhaul, to make it easier and more intuitive to interact with your environment even in high-pressure situations.
There was no additional content added during the delay - except maybe a few costumes and little animations. The main objective for Ubisoft Montreal was to make the experience they promised.
Some more interesting points:
The Multiplayer, where people can enter your game to hack-steal some data from you, is not about killing each other. It's about observation, hacking, hide-and-seek and escape.
You can play completely offline if the "I think someone's watching me" Multiplayer is too much for you.
The windy city has weather that people, objects and the player character will react to naturally and coherently.
That Canadian chief designer sure is a kidder.
You cannot make friends with crowd NPCs - or do some sexting (that`s hot-and-heavy texting, you know). You can use hacked personal info to distract enemies with inappropriate messages, though.
It will release on May 27th, for all major platforms. That's not the Wii-U.
And, lastly, with the impending release of the highly anticipated inFamous: Second Son, IGN had a 3 hour live-stream with gameplay from the game. And there's really no need for words with three hours of the game present. Well, okay.
The Dude runs weird. And the guy playing is not that good. But overall, it looks amazing. The in-game Seattle looks huge, and the claim is, as always in inFamous games, that everything you see you can reach, climb and jump down from.
But enough words, for now. Here's where the video does the talking (and the people talking on the video).
For all your PS4 or Xbox One needs, especially the European needs, head over to Amazon UK - best deals in Europe (mostly). For TV or Movie Streaming needs, as well. Yes, I do buy there myself. Exclusively. Unless I find a better deal, elsewhere...
As my last post hinted at, there's a new Zombie Game out for PS4: Dead Nation: Apocalypse Edition, a revamped version of the PS3 game from 2010, including that game's DLC. Which makes it the Apocalypse Edition. Obviously.
1942 - in 1985
Finnish Developer Housemarque might be best known among the PS4 crowd for PS4 Launch-Title Resogun, an apparently very addictive game I completely failed to understand. I played Resogun once, kept throwing the to-be-rescued humans to their death, and moved on to something else. Maybe it's because I am old enough to have actually played Space Invaders and 1942 at the Italian Arcades I spent most of my time in during our family holidays, but I don't see the novelty.
This was the beginning...
It's possible Resogun might grow on me, but it's just as possible I had already outgrown it.
Anyway, Dead Nation is a completely different animal - because: Zombies! God, I am tired of Zombies. I had had my fill shortly before all the hype began back in... 2002 or something. I will even come right out and say I don't like the Walking Dead TV series. Sure, when there's zombies it's fun, but all that soap-opera drama? No way, Jose!
Dead Nation, however is fun. It's one of those "isometric camera" games, which is not quite top-down, but more of an "elevated, yet slightly drunk, observer that occasionally hangs his head and nods off" camera. And while everything that happens on screen is a bit smallish, it looks and works quite well.
You move with one stick, you aim with the other. You shoot, throw grenades and flares and stuff, open boxes and trunks of cars for money to buy stuff - including that throwable stuff, but mostly weapons and upgrades. Oh, and you kill a lot of zombies. With guns, grenades, beating their brains in or using the environment. Shoot a car, it will explode. Shoot a car with a car alarm, and it will first attracts zombies, then explode. And since the main goal - besides killing zombies and surviving - is to get as many points as possible for life-changing bragging rights, you'll soon start to try and set-up combos, whether lining zombies up for a "charged, and thus capable of multiple head-shots" Rifle shot, or luring a pack of zombies into a car-alarm bomb. Of course, there's a risk to that, as every time you take damage, it will lower your Combo-Counter.
And so quickly do you have the recipe for an addictive experience. Add in Leaderboards, A Friend-Challenge Menu, Two-Player Online and Offline Co-Op, several game modes and difficulties, a good variety of weapons and armor pieces, sterling graphics and lots of zombie-killing-fun (that`s a lot off add-ins), and you already have an entertaining, albeit somewhat repetitive, way to kill some time, alone or with a buddy.
But, hark. There's more.
Watching other people play videogames has, apparently, become a legitimate pastime some time ago - when I wasn`t looking. And I don't mean joining a buddy on the couch to give completely obvious and excruciatingly annoying commentary to his gameplay, hoping against hope that you will annoy him enough to let you play. No, for the pathological online, there's whole gaming streaming services, like Twitch.tv. It's a novel concept for me, and I don't claim to understand - or see the appeal. But lots of people do. Enough for a gaming streaming service to exist, at least.
Streaming games is a concept that both next-gen consoles readily embraced. And the PS Companion App even updated to feature a browser for PS4 games being streamed right at any moment.
But Dead Nation: AE pushes that concept a bit further. If you stream your gameplay live on Twitch, playing the "Broadcast +" game mode, your viewers, via twitch chat, can actively alter your game. There are over 30 different "votable" effects on your gameplay, and viewers get a choice of two at a time, one positive, one negative.
Of course, with all the jerks you inevitably encounter on the world-wide-web, getting something positive is rather... rare, I would say. Then again, the viewers that voted for horrible things to happen to you will make a named appearance as a zombie in the game soon thereafter, and if there ever was a perfect opportunity for a flamethrower Zom-B-Q... Oh, didn't I mention that? Yes. There`s a flamethrower :)
Now, if all that still didn't get you hot and bothered, that's cool. But since it's free with PS+, and as PS4 owners pretty much all have PS+ to play online, well, what would be the harm in downloading and trying it? Look, I even made a video of the first mission, just for you:
For all your PS4 or Xbox One needs, especially the European needs, head over to Amazon UK - best deals in Europe (mostly). For TV or Movie Streaming needs, as well. Yes, I do buy there myself. Exclusively. Unless I find a better deal, elsewhere...
It's been an interesting, and very enjoyable, two weeks on PS4. The long hoped-for Thief Remake made it's debut (on PC, PS4 and Xbox One), then F2P title Warframe drastically improved its look with new PS4 Update 12.0, and just a few days ago, addictive, top-down Zombie-Shoot-Fest Dead Nation: Apocalypse Edition made its way into everyone's PS Plus Instant Game Library - for free. Plus, other stuff.
And yes, the order of the Headline is intentionally chronologically incorrect - it's for dramatic purposes. And attention. Definitely attention. In fact, the whole headline is incorrect, as I will only be looking at Thief this time around.
So, let's start with Thief. Which, due to its extremely ambiguous title (Thief), was apparently expected to be an action title. At least, that's what it seems like, reading some of these reviews. "The combat is clunky, and facing more than one opponent becomes quite difficult," or some such could be read all over the net. And while this is, at least partly, quite accurate, there is a distinction between a Thief and an Assassin. Starting with the name. Obviously. One is supposed to be sneaky. The other, efficiently lethal, with "sneaky" being mostly optional.
And just to get it out of the way, yes, Thief looks and feels a lot like Dishonored. Prettier, and maybe a bit more shallow, but there are differences. Efficient Lethality being one of them.
The settings of Thief and Dishonored are quite similar: 18th Century Steam Punk World, a sinister Ruler, a plague in the streets, and a dark, brooding protagonist. In the case of Thief, that man is Garret, Master Thief with memory issues, inadvertently becoming the linchpin in an ever revolving, and very sinister, conspiracy. There's stealth and sneaking, ranged combat and Melees, story missions and side missions, and lots of places you never need to go to finish the game, but would be amiss to not visit at least once.
What's different is, Garret is not a killer. "Steel and Thieves don't mix well", he says. "Are you going to use those shadows?", he asks. Despite the misleading, action-heavy title (Thief), the game tries very early on to impart to you a certain attitude, which can be summed up by: "If you have to hit, hit quietly." Yes, that does sum it up, you nay-sayers. It's one of those "reading between the lines" things.
"If you have to" implies it's not strictly necessary, but an option. "Quietly" intimates that big and raucous bar-brawl melees might not be in your own best interest. Because you're a Thief. It's like a common theme throughout the game (that game being named Thief). And thieving is what it does best. No, not that kind. Fine, it might "borrow" from Dishonored, but Dishonored in turn "borrowed" a lot from the original Thief games, which makes it a bit confounding to ascertain exactly who the egg and who the chicken is, here.
The Stealth mechanics are solid, the movement fluid, the thievery often exhilarating. The enemy AI is mostly competent, but, sadly, still pretty confined in their ways. What combat there is, is a bit repetitive, but it works well enough for something that is clearly meant to be avoided.
"Repetitive" is a thing with Thief, though, but in a slightly weird way. Weird, in that part of the things you do over and over again are great and a lot of fun, while it is the movement through the city from one objective to another, that can definitely become a bit tedious after the 10th time. And the fact, that apparently every small path between crates or something else you can squeeze through has one support beam you have to move out of the way by tapping a button, is quite annoying, at least to me.
And yet, that beam is preferable to the unfortunate prevalence of loading screens when moving between areas of the City. It's not as bad as Dishonored, but it's close. The loaded areas are bigger in Thief, and feel a lot more... well, alive, for the most part, but with this generation of consoles being the "next-generation" after all, it's not something you'd expect from a game of only 21 GB.
Especially looking at the not so much jaw-dropping visuals. Thief really shines when it's dark and gloomy (Ha!), with ominous and coherent lighting, but up close things get clunky. Then there's the lack of really interactive objects. While some bottles can be picked up, and some more glass wares destroyed by arrows (sadly, excluding windows of any kind), the majority are indestructible and/or immovable filler material.
Some things you think you should be able to climb you simply can't, and the wonderful rope arrow needs a very special kind of crossbeam to work.
And then there are the bugs. Nothing world changing or game-breaking (yet), but they are a bit annoying at times, mostly because they do rip you out of the immersion that is so essential to enjoying the game.
Thief is not the prettiest or the biggest or the most unrestricted "mini-sandbox" game, ever. But what it is, is a very immersive, and very gratifying, First-Person Stealth experience. It lives from exploration and experimentation, with an addictive sense of discovery - and the Thieving is simply exciting. Finding a hidden trigger in a bookshelf or behind the frame of a painting, in the few more seconds that the guards are distracted by the now dark and damp fireplace you just shot a water arrow into, is quite a blast, really.
Not to mention the superpowers. Yes, there are powers, like a sort of "Important-Stuff Vision", additional eyeball zoom, quicker lock-picking and slo-mo targeting, but I never played with any of that.
Which brings us, neatly, but by total accident, really, to the wonder of custom difficulty. There are a lot of options, from the above mentioned eschewing of your Focus-Powers to Alerts or Damage causing instant Game Over to no checkpoint saves to no aiming reticule to... oh, well, you get the point. If you want the challenge, try experimenting, but be warned: Those options can only be set and changed when starting a new game, and finding out after 15 hours that you cannot work without knowing where exactly your bow is aimed, is a bit of a drag.
The way I play it? Master Difficulty, No Focus Powers, Damage results in Game Over, Only Specialty Arrows. And, as a further tip for the immersively interested, I turned off the interaction prompts in the graphics menu. It makes looking for and finding hidden switches a lot more gratifying, if there's no huge "Over Here" button prompt once you get close to anything. Not using the Mini-Map (you can switch that on and off with a simple D-Pad Down press), is another thing to add to the feeling of genuine exploration. Just don't expect to find everything on every mission, though. Even feeling like you had a complete and proper look around will most likely net you only half the special collectibles hidden in safes and chests around the game world. But don't be disappointed - be encouraged to know, that there is still so much more to discover.
Discovery is the word, really. I'm about 30 hours into the game, and I have just about finished a bit
less than half the story missions. I did a lot of stealing and exploration though, about 10 small and three bigger side missions, and playing with my constraints, necessarily adds definitive (but forced) replay value - since I'm also going for a "no man or animal touched" and "no alarms or detections" playthrough. And once that is done, there's the Challenge mode (I never played), which will probably get some DLC maps, to chase high-scores by chain-stealing or finding hidden stuff, real quick like. As I said, 30 hours, about half the game. But then again, my first Dishonored playthrough took over 55 hours, so if that`s your kind of thing, you will know what I mean.
Dishonored was an amazing game. Thief is not quite up there when it comes to deep and varied gameplay, but is undoubtedly the superior stealth experience. The higher the challenge, and the smaller the help you accept from the game, the more wonderful the experience.
Don't expect a First Person Assassin's Creed. Don't expect Dishonored 2. Don't expect medieval Splinter Cell or Hitman: Absolution. Your job is to steal - and that's best kept in the shadows.
Know your role, and Thief won't pick your pocket. And while the console versions are not really a "steal", it's still well worth to rob your piggy-bank.
So, I was forcing it a bit, there. I got excited.
But, here's some gameplay, for those still interested:
And, as you can see: First, it's dark. Maybe too dark, and I don't know why, really. Second, turning off the Interaction Prompts and Loot Glint in the Options/Graphics menu turns "walking quickly around, looking for prompts" into "searching slowly and thoroughly for whatever you can find or interact with". It's a completely different experience, and, if I may say so, a better experience.
For all your PS4 or Xbox One needs, especially the European needs, head over to Amazon UK - best deals in Europe (mostly). For TV or Movie Streaming needs, as well. Yes, I do buy there myself. Exclusively. Unless I find a better deal, elsewhere...
