PS4 Launch Impressions and Review

Does greatness await?

by: Joshua Pruett

The Playstation 4 has finally launched. I went and picked it up at the midnight event my Gamestop was having. With all the hoot-n-holler surrounding some reported serious issues, I was a bit nervous walking back to my car after with my new PS4 in hand. (Which nicely sports a slim box and carrying handle!) Since the launch of Xbox 360, you could say there is a bit of skepticism and mistrust with anyone adopting new consoles, myself included. Disturbingly, a chunk of shipments from Amazon are causing the dreaded "Blue Pulse of Death" or "Red Line of Death". Some customers are reporting other issues too and with such a rush of problems all at once, a longer-than-wanted wait to get a replacement. 

Gladly, I don't have a bricked console and my experience with the system has been surprisingly positive. (I had my doubts, also my sympathies to those who have a brick.) I was able to hop on, sign into PSN, update the firmware, jump on the PSN Store, use my $10 credit and download Flower, Resogun and Contrast. I didn't yet have any disc based games because I was awaiting my shipment of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, Battlefield 4 and Killzone:Shadow Fall arriving Friday evening. (Thanks buy two get one free, Amazon!) As far as launch day though, I wasn't expecting much to fully function. Remarkably, everything I wanted it to do, actually did work just fine. 

Well what about the camera and streaming functions? I logged into and linked my Twitch account, started up Resogun (which is awesome by the way), hit the share button and voila! The simplicity of it is magnificent, though I hope some more options and tools for tweaking will be implemented in the near future. Still, you can change the quality of your stream from low to best and choose to include your video feed if you have a camera amongst other basic options. You can see who's in your room and who's chatting too.

As for the quality, my upload sucks pretty bad, so I noticed some lag when checking my live stream on my channel. Now, this was via the same wi-fi network, but I still think it's because of my slow upload speed. The performance increased and latency decreased when I bumped down my quality to medium, but it didn't look as good obviously. I've seen some streams that look marvelous, granted they had the upload to get them there. On a side note, I would love to see some production features for editing added.

For meat and potatoes streaming, console gamers now have a way to get themselves out there and you don't need a camera or any other hardware / software to do so. Concerning the rest of the UI in general, if I could sum it up in two words: clean and fast. Nothing appears too cumbersome and everything from downloading games to jumping back to the home screen is nearly instantaneous. You could be in the thick of it, mid-game and hit the PS button and this would snap you right back to home in the blink of an eye. Compared to the both buried PS3 and Xbox 360 interfaces, this is very welcoming indeed. I'm definitely impressed.

Speaking of impressed, the element of PS4 I am probably most impressed with is the newly designed Dual-Shock 4 controller. I will say this: after owning multiple generations of consoles, PC pads, joysticks and any other thing you use to control something with, the Dual-Shock 4 is the most comfortable controller I have ever put in my hands and is easily my new favorite. Everything just feels right about it and this is coming from someone who loved the Xbox 360 controller and not cared for the DS3 as much.

WITH ANOTHER GENERATION OF GAMES TO EXPERIENCE FOR YEARS TO COME, I AM GLAD I'M IN LOVE WITH THE CONTROLLER.

With the DS4, the quality is clearly there. Everything from the depressing/pressing of the face buttons to the swooping lip of the triggers, it's fantastic. Since I don't have a PS Vita, I am not able to check out the Remote Play functionality. Yet, that is. I am planning on picking one up, hopefully during a Black Friday sale somewhere. From what I have seen online of its performance, it looks to work quite well. I even saw someone playing Resogun in the streets of their city over an LTE network. 

To Perform, Or Not To Perform

Now as far as games go, I finally got to jump into it a little bit last night. Let's talk graphics real quick. This is probably the main (if not the) reason why people are clamoring for a new console. I jumped into some KZ:SF and BF4 multiplayer matches and I am pleased to say they run at 60 frames per second and they look gorgeous. I did notice a few dips in frames with KZ:SF, but nothing too drastic. I would say BF4 looks somewhere between medium to high settings on a gaming PC.

BF4 finally gets 64 player servers too, however all of my attempts at jumping into them failed and got me kicked out. EA is aware of these issues and are supposedly releasing a patch early next week. Killzone is very much candy to the eyes and shows what the PS4 can do. It has a Crysis franchise look to it, but with a much brighter palette. I haven't had any issues online with it and not having played any Killzone prior, I'm finding it to be quite fun. I am looking forward to diving into its campaign.

ACIV:BF looks great but doesn't run at 60fps. At least the multiplayer doesn't. I haven't yet gotten a look at the campaign. Resogun, Contrast and Flower all look great in their own charming way and run at 60fps as well. That aside, I am curious to see how developers utilize the console's feature set. I am a little leery of the components being powerful enough to thrust us into a later cycle. From a cost stand point I understand, but concerning the future of performance, the jury is still out.

Time will tell and with consoles, time usually means increased optimization and graphical fidelity. I still think they should mandate 60fps. I guess it's in the developers hands and it's being done now, so let's hope more jump on that bandwagon. It's not the end-all-be-all for me, but it is nice to see silky smooth engines running on all cylinders. The graphical boost is clear from the PS3, however it's still too early to see the full potential of the system. You aren't getting a top-of-the-line, high end gaming rig of a PC here, but the added power is graciously welcomed and clearly evident in the launch lineup.

Greatness Takes Time

We all know these new consoles already have their limitations. That's not always a bad thing, though. If there's anything about PS4 and Xbox One, we know what's in them and we know they aren't changing. This is actually one of the draws of consoles to me. Everyone (owning said consoles) runs the games on the same systems with the same results. I think it also enables developers to think outside the box and help them to focus more on what they have rather than what they don't. It becomes more of a "Let's squeeze everything we can out of this" mentality. This is clearly evident in the life cycle of the console. Games like Halo 4, GTAV and The Last of Us are testament and proof that even outdated hardware can still offer jaw-dropping visuals and a few other surprises.

BY FAR AND LARGE WHAT MAKES GAMING GREAT: THE GAMES. 

As for the greatness, I think it's going to take some time, but not as long as the previous generation. While the next-gen lineup is pretty lackluster, it's what's on the horizon that counts for me. I am excited to see what new IP's are mustered up. Most of my favorite games of all time have been exclusives: Super Mario Bros., Goldeneye, Mario Kart 64, Legend of Zelda, Halo, The Last of Us, Uncharted, God of War, just to name a few. I have to say that I became extremely overjoyed with the teaser of the new Uncharted. This is what matters to me more than frames per second: it's the exclusives. With all of these new games and possibilities coming soon to fruition, it's a great time to be a gamer. 

Here's To Gaming

I wish we could all agree on that! Good God, there has been so much hate between all of these platforms. Between the childish brother wars of the Nintendo, Sony and Xbox fanboys moronically duking out which is better and the holier-than-thou elite master race of PC, why can't we all just enjoy games? I don't for the life of me understand the people who waste their time just wanting to watch something fail while getting off on crushing the joy of others. Good riddance to that. You could be playing games instead! Gaming is a luxury. It's something that a lot of people don't get to ever experience due to their circumstances. So, how about we be thankful for having the privilege of gaming to begin with? I think every platform has something to bring to the table. If you're disregarding that because of some staunch bias, have you ever stopped to think you could be missing something? God forbid we ever learn to cough up our pride. 

GAMING IS EVOLVING. IT'S HARD TO THINK WHERE WE WILL BE IN TEN MORE YEARS EVEN, BUT THAT'S WHAT'S TRULY EXCITING.

Anyway, that rant behind us, I am supremely excited for ALL platforms. It just keeps getting better. Think about the possibilities of the future.  With the addition of Steam Machines in development, the Oculus Rift movement, new announcements of new IP, Nvidia releasing their Maxwell cards next year and the arrival of Xbox One, I am excited to see everything unfold. There are plenty of games across plenty of platforms to enjoy and the best part is: you can enjoy them all. Well, unless you have gobs of money, you can at least respect them all.

BOTTOM LINE
PS4 has some good things going for it. While nothing is perfect, when comparing it to its predecessor, it's safe to say that it can deliver and surpass in almost every way. The game lineup is its current hindrance from that greatness, but what's there is a decent start and with a little hope, time will assist in achieving that. I am also very interested in seeing what role Gaikai plays in the PS4's life. We will have to wait and see, but I'm looking forward to it!

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Hey there! Since I couldn't change my PSN name to one more fitting for Crunchpop, I'll be using: bountyXbandit. Be sure to check out my stream! Here's a list of all the games I am currently playing and will be streaming, so stop by from time to time and say hello!

- Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

- Battlefield 4

- Contrast

- Flower

- Killzone: Shadow Fall

- Resogun

Cheers!

Photo credit: Sony

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft Beta Impressions

Home is where the Hearthstone is.
By: Joshua Pruett

World of Warcraft. I've always had a soft spot for World of Warcraft, or WoW, as all have come to call it. WoW was the first MMORPG that really sucked me into it's fantastically vibrant world. It even spawned my interest in Warcraft lore and eventually, the trading card game. Like with any deck collecting game, you need a few ingredients to fully enjoy it: time, money and people. Because life also demands some of these ingredients (oh, God), I slowly furthered myself from what was a very delightful and brutal game of cards. History became legend, legend became myth and for two and a half....wait, wrong lore.

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft Beta. I am thrilled to be a part of it. Now, let's see if it can virtually rekindle my affection for thin card stock with numbers written on them.

A Simplified Complexity

If you're a veteran to WoW TCG, you'll notice some definitive differences with Hearthstone. While I won't go into every detail here, the first thing I noticed was the resource system. In WoW TCG, you had quests that fueled your ability to play cards per turn. The cool thing about it was, you could complete the quests and then turn them over to utilize them as resources. Hearthstone removes the quest cards all together for a straightforward mana system. Per turn you accumulate mana, which you can then use to spend on playing cards. Though I loved the dual functionality of the quest cards, a lot of their functions are found on other cards throughout your deck, so their omission is negligible. Quests do make an appearance in another way and I'll get into that a little later.

The deck-building component of the game is very well done and easy to navigate. You can search for specific card attributes, mana costs, neutral allies and hero class spells to assist in putting together a killer deck.  One thing that I am a little bummed about at the moment is not being able to pick your hero. In WoW TCG, your entire deck is based off of your hero and his/her class. The same goes here, but there aren't multiple Warlocks, Warriors, Mages, etc. Right now, there are one of each class with a locked hero power which you can't change. Hopefully they add more heroes in the future that offer alternate hero powers or at least give you the option to switch out their powers for others.

It is beta, so I am sure we will see more and more cards become available. This brings me to the next thing on my mind: obtaining new cards. We are playing a deck-building game mind you, and that means: money. I do like that you can earn gold to open new decks. You do this by successfully winning against real players and fulfilling quests. See, I told you quests would come back. Quests are now implemented not as cards, but as little daily tasks you can pursue for gold. Win two games with a Warlock and you get a sack of forty gold, etc. With expert packs costing 100 gold, pursuing these quests will get you some shiny new cards for your decks fairly quick. And we all love opening new decks.

Expert decks hold five cards with at least one of those being a rare or better. After opening multiple decks, I got pretty lucky. The best deck I opened handed me two rares and a legendary. Me like. When you open a deck, they are revealed face down. You mouse over, click and reveal. I love that they present it like this! It captures the giddy joy of opening real packs. If you are impatient or just don't have any interest in grinding it out, you can just skip the wait and buy the packs upright with real moolah. At $2.99 for two packs (10 cards), looks like I'll be grinding out my collection. There are some quantity deals available, but buying the larger quantity packs will save you most. Basic cards can be earned by leveling up each class. You'll unlock different cards at staggered levels. These basics aren't the best, but they are crucial to filling your deck and making it one that can win.

Balance has always been something that irks me with this type of game. Though a lot of the game does depend on your skill and strategy, it seems that an equal amount can depend on what cards you do and don't have. This is one of the reasons I get turned off to these games. Let's not forget another factor: random odds. Sometimes, the odds just aren't in your favor and you can't do a damn thing about it. But what's a game without a slew of luck thrown into it? You gotta have luck. Speaking of favor, the AI seems to get it handed to them every round, which is why I prefer playing humans. There's an unpredictability that AI just can't match, not to mention the possibility of mistakes humans can make. (Including myself.) Luckily, Hearthstone does a good job of letting you suss out your deck through some good ole' trial and error via practice mode.

Having just the right amount of low, mid and high cost cards will give you a better chance at overcoming the many obstacles between you and victory. (Tip: Mouse over the name of your custom deck and you'll find a nice little bar graph that gives you how many cards you have per mana cost type.) While you're building a deck, you also have an option to craft cards. This is available through the crafting mode where you disenchant unwanted cards for Arcane Dust. The rarity will help determine the cost. In turn, you can use that dust to make new cards, all at a cost of course.

Ah, the sweet taste of victory. Unfortunately, I don't have it every meal, but when I do, I savor it. And though I don't always win, the game is still supremely fun. I love not having to keep track of damage counters and the clean-up is a cinch. I do miss the human interaction. You can't replace someone playing right in front of you. There is a social experience the online world just can't mimic and as of now, you can't chat with random players that aren't your friends. The emotes you can use are a welcomed touch, I would just like to see a chat or voice chat implemented.

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft Beta has been a blast. Even in beta, it's nice to see it have that Blizzard polish. Though I am very sad to see the physical game go, I am glad to see it translate this well virtually. Let's see what else Blizzard has in store. So far, so good.

If you'd like to challenge my adept skills (yeah right), add my battletag: TheRebelX#1460!