Overview forgames

PlayStation Experience 2016

My thighs are still sore from all the walking I did on Saturday, but it's totally worth it because I was able to attend this year's PlayStation Experience held in Anaheim.

Since I'm never going to be able to go to E3 because I have no business being there, and I can't afford to go to PAX when you add in plane tickets, hotel, meals, and any other traveling expenses, PSX is the closest way for me to get that firsthand experience minus all of the professionalism and money.  And that's okay, even better in fact because I'm with a bunch of like-minded individuals that are just fans and want to have a good time.

PlayStation Experience, if you don't know, is an annual even Sony holds every year in December to give thanks to PlayStation fans by giving them an opportunity to play upcoming games, meet people from the industry, and to view panels where they talk about big games currently in development.  If anything, you can think of PSX like an E3 without Microsoft and Nintendo, and catered to fans rather than the press.

2016 is the third year for PSX, with the first one in 2014 in Las Vegas and last year's in San Francisco.  This year was in Anaheim which is just a 25 mile drive from me, so I had no excuses not to attend!  So I got my tickets as soon as I heard it was in Anaheim.  And since I've never been to a gaming expo before, this was going to be something new and exciting because I didn't know what to expect.

The entire event was both on Saturday and Sunday, but we only went on Saturday, but that was the day I wanted to go to because of the keynote that would happen that morning, so the day began by waking up at 5am to make sure we had enough time to get in line because access to the keynote was based on first-come, first-served.  But before we could get into the keynote line, we had to wait in the line to get our badges.  But when we get our badges, we also got a tote bag stuffed with a bunch of goodies, including a bottle of hand sanitizer being the most important thing as we would be touching controllers all day.

For starters, the tote bag you receive looks like the bag for the PlayStation store logo as it's a light colored blue bag with the controller symbols on it with orange handles.  In it you get some window stickers, sunglasses, a cloth poster, hand sanitizer, a water bottle, magnet sticker, a discount code for a game, and a PSX 2016 t-shirt.  Not bad, considering I wasn't planning on receiving any swag from just being an attendant.

Even with the trouble we had while in line getting our badges because of a shortage of Saturday only desks (there were more two day desks so we had to wait longer), we were able to get into the keynote line in time to be part of the audience.  Watching these conferences at home on a PC is nothing compared to being there live in person.  Seeing reveal trailers and hearing the crowd go wild for a new game was something else.

Glad to see Marvel wasn't as uptight as I thought they were going to be with their properties, allowing Capcom to make a new Marvel vs Capcom game with Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite.  Then seeing love for a lot of classics where they're getting remakes with favorites like Crash Bandicoot, Wipeout, and PaRappa the Rapper.  I might get all three of these when they come out.  When the keynote ended, the side of the auditorium opened up, allowing the audience to flood into the main hall to get some hands on experience with the products they just showed off!

Patience is a virtue II

Holy macaroni!  It finally came in!

Nearly five years in the making, I just received the final boxed product of the first Kickstarter project I ever backed: the Double Fine Adventure game.  When I originally placed my hard-earned dollars towards this project back in spring of 2012, I had no clue it would have taken this long to get everything that I wanted from the tier I pledged at.  Since backing the project I moved twice, went through two general elections, and saw two other Double Fine related productions with Amnesia Fortnight 2012 and 2014.  Yikes!

To be fair though, they did finish the game a while back and made it available to backers, but I didn't want to play it until I got it from the box; which by the way is in the awesome old school big box PC game packaging, which fits nicely with my old school PC game collection.

So, out of the five Kickstarter projects I backed, this is number two that is now 100% complete.  After the Scroll magazine and Double Fine Adventure, I'm now waiting for the Retronauts DVD, Shenmue 3, and the indie game Home Free.

But no pressure though.  I'll wait for quality output rather than a rushed crap job.  I'm patient.  I waited just about five years for this project.

THANKS DOUBLE FINE FOR THE RAD GAME! :-D

Gloating

Who has two thumbs and is going to PlayStation Experience 2016?  This guy!

Home is where the hatred is

Ha!  Did you think I was finished with the games journal?  Well, actually I was, but then I decided to append one more article before closing it for a while.

Silent Hill 4: The Room

For me, Silent Hill 4 is better than some people make it out to be.  They are right in that it deviates a bit from the customary traits the series is known for, but that doesn't necessarily make it a bad thing, does it?  Checkout my write-up for it and decide if my defense makes sense or if I'm just a SH4 apologist.  In either case, Happy Halloween!  WoooOOOooooooOOO!

A failed attempt to takeoff

Steam sales be damned!  Normally I wait for a Steam sale to roll by to buy games, but I made an exception for one I could not wait to get my hand on.  I’m talking about Obduction!

From developer Cyan, the people who brought you the Myst series, comes back with a completely new game not seen since Myst V: End of Ages back in 2005.  On top of that, this is the first game the Miller brothers (the original creators of Myst) made a game together since Riven, which was released back in 1997.  Making this a reunion nearly 20 year in the making!

They started Obduction as a Kickstarter back in 2013.  I wanted to help with the original pledge, but at that time I was really tight on cash, so I wasn’t able to assist, so instead I decided I would just buy the game when it would be released.  Well, the time has come and I plunked down the 30 smackeroos for it and got the game.  Unfortunately for me, my computer is old and crappy.  Even on the lowest settings the game was running terribly.  Low framerate, choppy animation, high levels of graphic artifacts, and a constant crashing of my PC made it all for a terrible experience.

By the way, I’m not blaming the game.  It’s just that my PC doesn’t have the oomph to run a game like that.  So with a broken heart I requested Steam for a refund.  Which I got and was surprised what a hassle free experience it was.  Valve really knows how to give great customer service!

But what I saw, I loved.  I got about 30 minutes into the game when it started crashing on me, but within that small time, they did an awesome job at setting up the story and the world you’ll be running around in. I’m hooked and now want to play it, but I don’t have the means to play it.  My hope is they port it to the PS4 as that is the easiest solution for me.  The alternative is to buy a new computer which I can’t do for a while because I have some other big purchases I am saving up for.  Plus when you add in the holidays are right around the corner and you have a situation where you have no solution to go with for a long while.

Well, I guess this gives me time to finish up some other games I’ve been meaning to get to, so I’ll just have to play the waiting game a bit longer before I can travel back to Cyan’s latest adventure.

Take this job and shove it

Work Time Fun

Ending this season of entries for the game journal, we finish things off by checking out one of the higher regarded games in my PSP library which I take no apologies in saying.  I love this game so much, but it sure doesn’t love me -- or anyone for that matter -- who plays it.