Category: Video Games

Everything video game related. News, opinions and whatever else comes up.

Posted on

Gamer News

Oculus Rift, Sony's Project Morphues
Sony's Project Morpheus
Sony’s Project Morpheus: Image Courtesy of IGN

Sony has indeed been working on a Virtual Reality headset for the PS4. Titled Project Morpheus, I’m guessing a reference to the Matrix character of the same name, the new hardware was unveiled at this years Game Developers Conference or GDC. Amongst excitement for the announcement of this new hardware there have been several stories related to virtual reality unfolding in recent weeks.

 

First and foremost the acquisition of what logically would be the biggest competitor of Project Morpheus, the Oculus Rift was bought by Facebook for 2 billion dollars. A very impressive feat considering the Oculus Rift began inception as a kickstarter campaign. However pillars within the gaming community haven’t been so enthralled. The fear that this hardware with unknown potential to revolutionize gaming as we know it will now instead be reduced to a tool for collecting consumer information on people under the guise of “social networking” is very real.

The Oculus Rift sold to Facebook for $2 Billion
The Oculus Rift sold to Facebook for $2 Billion

The creator of the popular sandbox game Minecraft, Markus “Notch” Persson immediately cancelled development on a version of Minecraft for the Oculus Rift as soon as the deal with Facebook went through. Notch was quoted on twitter as saying “I just cancelled the deal. Facebook creeps me out.” Many others in the gaming community have expressed similar concerns. Most of the people who have already received development kits for the Oculus Rift are PC developers/enthusiasts who intended the device for gaming experiences.

 

Adam Sessler of Rev3Games made some good points on the future of virtual reality gaming as a whole. He said developing software specifically for hardware like the Oculus Rift will be expensive, especially early on while developers learn how the hardware works. The other thing to consider is at this moment both the Oculus Rift and Sony’s Project Morpheus are not available to public consumers. The starting price point of such hardware is as of now unknown and the relative number of people who can afford, let alone want a virtual reality headset is unknown. With all of that in mind it must be understood that developing full-fledged AAA titles for a virtual reality headset could still be many years down the line if ever.

 

For companies to even consider developing a full-fledged title to utilize virtual reality hardware the install base will have to be pretty high. Otherwise the effort simply isn’t cost effective. Instead Adam Sessler suggested that we should adjust our expectations of what virtual reality as a whole will be. It is more likely we will see applications made by smaller development teams with the goal of emphasizing different experiences, like exploration or  something like skydiving. There is also interest in virtual reality for aid in scientific and medical research as well.

 

Palmer Luckey the creator of the Oculus Rift assures fans that Facebook was the best choice for purchasing the rights to his hardware. Stating that if he had sold to Apple or Microsoft they would have gutted his company and used whatever parts they saw fit to appease their own agendas. Luckey says that Facebook has promised to leave his team intact and allow them the freedom they need to develop the Oculus Rift appropriately for consumers.

 

Be it Facebook’s Oculus Rift or Sony’s Project Morpheus it seems the age of virtual reality is upon us. The applications for gaming and otherwise seem quite promising. YouTube is already full of people who have modified current games to work on virtual reality hardware. To reference Morpheus from the first Matrix movie we will have to see if people take the blue pill and “wake up as if nothing has happened” or “take the red pill and see how far the rabbit hole goes.”

 

-Z3R0TH3RT33N

Follow Sonic Mercury on Twitter @SonicMercury and like our Facebook page Sonic Mercury

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted on

Gamer News

VR Headset for PS4, Sony, PS4, console wars, sonicmercury,com

The Game Developers Conference or GDC begins March 17th in San Francisco. Surely there will be all kinds of fresh video game related news to report on. In the meantime I would like to shine light on a rumor floating around from multiple sources in the cyberspace right now regarding virtual reality. Of course the concept of virtual reality is nothing new having been the inspiration for hardware manufacturers and fictional mediums for many years. However the hype died down after a surge of interest in the late nineties as the tech just couldn’t meet expectations.

 

Over the last few years there has been a resurgence of interest in virtual reality. This resurgence was culminated by the emergence of the VR headset prototype the Oculus Rift. The hardware though flawed and a bit buggy was optimistically reviewed by many gaming enthusiasts and industry vets alike stating that with fine tuning, the Oculus Rift experience could potentially become a viable platform for exciting new applications for gaming and other software.

 

Current rumors suggest that Sony plans to enter the virtual reality arena. Supposedly not only has Sony been developing a virtual reality headset for some time now but multiple sources including Forbes, IGN and Gamespot suggest this new piece of hardware will be unveiled at this year’s GDC. Furthermore the Sony VR headset is said to be designed for use with the PS4 and that some developers have already had dev-kits for the new hardware for over a year now.

 

Recently I was able to have a hands on experience with the Oculus Rift VR headset playing a modified version of Slender. The graphics weren’t the best but the headset combined with a pair of headphones were very effective in conveying an interactive experience. Even in a crowded room it was really easy to become completely engrossed in the game. It actually was almost too easy to become entranced in the game and forget my surroundings. As someone who is always curious about new gaming hardware I found the immersion level of the Oculus Rift fairly impressive.

 

Sony’s rumored VR headset is supposedly superior to the Oculus Rift hardware. With GDC less than a week away hopefully some facts will emerge and we can shed some light on the truth behind these rumors soon. For more on this story and other gaming news subscribe to Sonic Mercury’s mailing list at the bottom of the page.

 

-Z3R0TH3RT33N

Follow Sonic Mercury on Twitter @SonicMercury and like our Facebook page Sonic Mercury

Posted on

Video Game News

Its not looking good for the XBOX One in Europe right now.  The PS4 is currently outselling Microsoft’s newest console at a rate of about 3:1. Currently sales for the XBOX One are only slightly higher than that of the Wii U in Europe. To give you a little perspective here are some recent sales numbers based on weekly hardware comparison charts from VGChartz.com. The Wii U and the XBOX One are both averaging around 11 to 13 thousand units sold per week. Meanwhile the PS4 is averaging sales around 60 thousand units per week.

 

To add insult to injury the PS3 has been outselling the XBOX One in Europe since early December. Granted recent numbers show the PS3 only outselling the XBOX One by a small margin but anyway you do the math it doesn’t bode well when your brand new next gen console is struggling against the fledgling Wii U and actually being outsold by another console that is going on 8 years old.

 

Finally just to bring the story home sales figures for the month of February indicate PS4 sales in the US outselling the XBOX One 2:1. Which is a fairly significant reveal considering the US is Microsoft’s home market.

 

Just as a side note the most anticipated title for the XBOX One Titanfall is slated to release globally next week and should potentially help sales of the new console. Titanfall was the highlight for XBOX One at last years E3 conference. Developer Respawn opted to forgo a single player mode to concentrate on a rich mutliplayer experience incorporating single player elements such as a plot and NPC’s. [ Non Playable Characters ] Certainly not the first video game to be exclusively online it is interesting to note that both publisher EA and developer Respawn have recently announced that the game will not be made available in the South African region due to a supposedly poor internet infrastructure.

 

Regardless of how big a chunk the South African region makes up for XBOX One sales Microsoft could certainly use all the help it can get to gain some traction against the PS4. The final thing to note about Titanfall is that it will also be available on PC which certainly will cut into potential XBOX One sales as it is far cheaper to buy a computer game than an entire console plus a brand new game. Right now worldwide sales of the PS4 have surpassed 6 million consoles and over 13.7 million games. Microsoft has not released recent sales numbers but it is estimated they have shipped about 3.5 million consoles worldwide.

 

For upcoming news on the console wars and other video game news subscribe to the SonicMercury.com mailing list at the bottom of the page.

 

-Z3R0TH3RT33N

Follow Sonic Mercury on Twitter @SonicMercury and like our Facebook page Sonic Mercury

Posted on

Video Game News

It seems that Nintendo is starting to acknowledge the dramatic state the company is really in. With projected sales figures for the Wii U dropping from 9 million units sold to just 2.8 million on the year. Even the highly touted Nintendo 3DS is having projected sales cut from 18 million down to roughly 13.5 million.

 

President of Nintendo Satoru Iwata was recently quoted in saying that the company would consider mergers and acquisitions as an option. The President is also reportedly taking a 50% pay cut due to the poor sales of the Wii U. Intel and sales models are something that Nintendo is intent on completely overhauling as they also stated that they really had no idea what to expect performance wise from a product until after it has hit the market.

 

Things at the moment are definitely not going well for the video game legend. Could it be that we will soon see an era where Mario and his pals will continue their famed adventures on other consoles? Could Mario and his friends have a similar fate as Sonic who has had a long suffering in a purgatory of mediocre games ever since Sega left the console market to become a 3rd party developer? Whatever happens these recent revelations about Nintendo can not be comforting for long time fans of the legendary video game company. For more on this story and more like it bookmark SonicMercury.com.

 

-Z3R0TH3RT33N

Follow Sonic Mercury on Twitter @SonicMercury and like our Facebook page Sonic Mercury

 

 

Posted on

Video Game Spotlight

It has been over 6 months since the release of the critically acclaimed epic The Last Of Us. Many including myself have heralded it has a masterpiece of modern day gaming and story telling. Numerous nominations and game of the year awards aside and a prequel DLC on the horizon I believe enough time has passed for a proper retrospective. Now that the initial gloss has had time to wear off and the hype time to die down we can take a more grounded look back at The Last of Us and its impact.

 

I have seen many great games come and go, bosses defeated, puzzles solved, princesses rescued and worlds saved. Final Fantasy 7 springs to mind. It was a high water mark for its era of gaming. It was like nothing I had ever seen before or thought was possible in a video game. I still remember the first time I saw those cut scenes. Cloud and his friends stealing futuristic vehicles and driving them straight out the side of a sky scraper landing on a nearby highway fleeing into the night. I remember watching Sephiroth disappear menacingly as he walked into a wall of flames. The disturbing experiments revolving around Jenova and of course the grim fate of Aerith. These are moments in a game I played 17 years ago that still stick with me. It was an epic that pushed the boundaries of what was possible within the realm of video game storytelling. Final Fantasy 7 created a story built on characters that have gone on to become video game legend. To this day I still talk to people who wish that the Final Fantasy series was still about Cloud and his friends and to be fair the only Final Fantasy game I have played all the way through since FF7 was Crisis Core the prequel to FF7 because it involved the characters I cared about from the original game.

 

Seventeen Years from now will The Last Of Us be as fondly remembered? Will the game share similar relevancy among the gaming community? That is a tough question to answer. If FF7 is the example of how a video game can transcend peoples preconceptions and expectations of what a video game experience can be than TLOU is the evolution of that example. Combining engaging gameplay mechanics with fascinating characters, a well realized highly detailed world and a story of substance you can not help but become immersed in the world of TLOU and become invested in Ellie and Joel’s journey. I don’t want to get too off topic but I think part of why TLOU won so many game of the year awards over Bioshock: Infinite is because the characters actions within the setting matched the tone of the story better. Bioshock’s world is beautifully rendered but it is also highly stylized and I think contrasted with the extreme violence of the protagonist in Bioshock the overall experience suffers for it. That is not saying that the story of Bioshock: Infinite is any less profound or the core gameplay any worse than TLOU but I wonder what the game would have been like had they gone for a slightly less stylized presentation.

 

A major part of what makes TLOU so unique is its humanity. You are constantly reminded of life. Although human life is scarce it is obvious that yours is but one journey among countless others. Every person you meet, every location you traverse and even your own characters interactions tell unique stories of the individuals who exist and have existed in this world. Every enemy you meet may have been a friend had the circumstance of survival not been so immediate. Even the infected who exist as horrible deformations in various stages of decay were once regular human beings. They are horrific reflections of ourselves. Reality is grim.

 

Ultimately this is where TLOU really shines. In the depth of the characters. It is their triumphs in human spirit, their ability to overcome constant barrages of negativity and looming hopelessness. How the characters still find ways to have moments of true levity. They remain brave and vigilant. In a world where existing means endlessly enduring harsh savagery from man and monster, Ellie and Joel desperately struggle to retain and define their own humanity while constantly being asked to compromise that definition.

 

The tale of Ellie and Joel has struck a chord within the gaming community. It is interesting to listen to others talk about their experiences with TLOU as many people speak with an air of reverence for the title. I personally play online occasionally with someone who was so taken by the game and specifically the character of Ellie that they actually created an entirely new PSN account to reflect their appreciation of the game and that character. I know he is not the only one to do this for TLOU and he is definitely not the first person to make a new profile for a game but when you discuss the game with fans like him you would swear that Ellie and Joel were real.

 

We will have to wait and see if TLOU reaches the level of video game mythos that games like Final Fantasy 7 have reached. For those of us who were touched by this epic that really shouldn’t matter, like a good book the story of Ellie and Joel will always be one of endearment. A tale to be kept pridefully on the wall among other greats. It may or may not live on with the kind of high recognition other games have received over the years but it will live on with high regard to all those who connected with Ellie and Joel forever. The fact is a game like TLOU is proof positive that video games truly are a medium unlike any other. As in all media video games have the ability to touch peoples lives in profound ways.

 

Though its only been a little over 6 months since the release of TLOU the roots of a legacy have been planted in fans around the world. Their word of mouth will help the roots spread to new fans. With an all new prequel DLC rumored for a U.S. release on Feb. 14th its safe to say that TLOU isn’t fading from the public eye anytime soon. Given the completeness of the overall story arc it will be interesting to see if a sequel does come to fruition and what it would be all about.

 

( Just off the top of my head real quick, I mean since your here anyway. Can you imagine how cool an MMO spinoff could be? Creating your own characters and weapons, making alliances with other real players all while scouring for resources and exploring more of the chaotic universe presented in The Last Of Us. It could even be possible for characters from the original game to make cameos occasionally. All well I can dream can’t I? )

 

See you in 17 years.

 

-Z3R0TH3RT33N

Follow Sonic Mercury on Twitter @SonicMercury and like our Facebook page Sonic Mercury

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted on

Horror Spotlight

Alien: Isolation is a video game being developed by The Creative Assembly and being Published by Sega. The game is based on the franchise of the same title and if any of you reading this are at all familiar with the last Alien franchise based video game to be released you are probably cringing at the very thought of playing another game within this universe. Let it be known that I am one of those who did get burned by the Gearbox debacle. As such I am definitely hesitant of a new game based in the Alien universe. One major reason so far to exhale is that Gearbox doesn’t seem to have any thing to do with this game.

 

There are already some gameplay demos out for Alien: Isolation and I will make sure to include something so you can check it out for yourself. Right off the bat what is very striking about this game in comparison to Aliens: Colonial Marines are the visuals. From what I have seen the graphics really do seem next gen and the lighting really looks good. The next thing of major contrast to A:CM is that you are definitely not a soldier in this game or any kind of formidable combatant for that matter. You play as Amanda, Ripley’s daughter 14 years after the events of Alien and the game is strongly influenced by Ridley Scott’s 1979 horror classic and not James Cameron’s action heavy 1986 sequel.

 

From what I have seen Alien: Isolation is the polar opposite of A:CM. Instead of fighting droves of mindless enemies there is supposedly only one Alien. Armed with the classic handheld radar from the movies you slowly creep around a seemingly abandined ship gathering tools to help your escape all the while being stalked. In an interview I heard on IGN about this game they said that the people at The Creative Assembly have put a major emphasis on staying true to H. R. Geiger’s original design of the Alien and even pointed out details of the monster in still shots from the game that include the humanoid skull that is supposed to be visible beneath the creatures frontal lobe.

 

My impressions from the actual game play are that this game has the potential to be pretty scary. Even in just the first few seconds of the demo the atmosphere is effective in conveying a sense of tension. Navigating in the first perspective the sense of being alone is amplified by an uneasy quiet and the knowledge that their is at least one other very hostile presence on board with you. Your obvious first response is to never let go of your handheld radar but doing so partly obscures your vision and distracts you from possible danger because you are looking down at the radar instead of monitoring your surroundings.

 

You must consider the consequences of your movements. While it may be tempting to just make a B line for a possible escape route, your heavy footsteps will alert the Xenomorph to your location so it is imperative to plan your actions wisely. Instead moving slowly and choosing your path meticulously will likely award a more prosperous journey, although it will be no less daunting.

 

When researching this title the people from Outside Xbox mentioned that given that Colonial Marines was so negatively received publisher Sega likely would have scrapped Alien: Isolation if wasn’t for A:CM being pushed back from its initial release so many times. By the time A:CM finally came out A:I was too far in production for Sega to consider scrapping it so maybe something good can still come out of that disaster.

 

Alien: Isolation is slated for a Q4 2014 release on PS3, PS4, XBOX 360 and XBOX One. While what has been shown so far is promising it will be interesting to see how the game ultimately executes on that promise. For obvious reasons its hard to whole heartedly believe in this game but I am hoping that this will finally be the Alien game that we can legitimately be excited for. In the mean time here is a link from the CommunityGame YouTube channel which not only shows a trailer using actual game play but also contains a brief behind the scenes segment with the developers so you can form your own opinions.

 

-Z3R0TH3RT33N

Follow Sonic Mercury on Twitter @SonicMercury and like our Facebook page Sonic Mercury

 

Posted on

Gamer News

Rumors have been swirling since TheLastOfUsMovie.com and TheLastOfUSMovie.net domain names were recently registered by Sony’s online brand protection agency MarkMonitor. The registration of these two domain names suggest the possibility of The Last of Us being turned into a movie. Some sources have welcomed the idea of a The Last of Us movie, asking their respective followers to discuss the possibilities of the story and to debate which actors would play which in-game characters.

 

I can’t stress enough what a terrible idea it is to make The Last of Us into a movie. It doesn’t matter if the most premiere actors sign on to the film and it ends up being a truly great movie. Being a videogame is a large part of what makes The Last of Us such a unique and enduring experience. It is a narrative that is progressed and defined by the interactions of the player. Completion of the game is earned by people rewarded for their efforts to participate in Joel and Ellie’s journey.

 

My journey through The Last of Us is one I along with many others are proud of. The Last of Us represents a high water mark transcending the parameters of a standard gaming experience to something truly special, regarded very dearly by many. I don’t think I have ever seen a title that has struck such a chord with so many people. The Last of Us is regarded by many in the gaming community with the highest of reverence and to attempt a film adaptation is blasphemy. I can understand wanting to share The Last of Us with a larger audience but taking away the interactive experience of the game for a passive film adaptation is a mistake.

 

I am sure that it is possible to make a film adaptation of The Last of Us with great actors and a great story but the active participation into Joel and Ellie’s journey is what makes The Last of Us so great and so special to so many. It is an experience that one can only truly realize in the form of a videogame. In any other medium its just not the same. You lose part of the essence of what makes The Last of Us.

 

I am including a link to my review of The Last of Us here to hopefully give you a better idea of why I am so adamant against a movie adaptation. For more on this story and other videogame news book mark SonicMercury.com. For now their is no evidence of an actual film in development but the recent registration of the two movie related domain names is more than enough reason to be concerned about a future film.

 

-Z3R0TH3RT33N

Follow Sonic Mercury on Twitter @SonicMercury and like our Facebook page Sonic Mercury

Posted on

Next-Gen News

I had a quick paragraph prepared about how both PS4 and XBOX One have sold over 1 million consoles in their first 24 hours of availability. Their is also this strange thing where both Sony and Microsoft congratulated each other on their respective console launches via twitter. I was then just going to make a comment about how it looks like both consoles are off to a good start and it looks like another great era of gaming has begun. That was pretty much all I was going to write, however there is just one small detail Microsoft neglected to mention. Yes they did sell over 1 million consoles in the first 24 hours of the XBOX One’s launch marking the biggest release ever for a Microsoft console but what Microsoft didn’t mention was that their console launched simultaneously in 13 different countries including the U.S. and Canada while the PS4 has only launched in the U.S. and Canada thus far. While both Sony and Microsoft had record sales for day 1 console launches Sony still has the rest of the world in which to launch the PS4. It will be interesting to see how the consoles fair at the end of the holiday season of this year but if I were a betting man I would say it looks like Sony might have a strong lead in console sales at the end of this year anyway. For more on all things Playstation and XBOX bookmark SonicMercury.com.

 

-Z3R0TH3RT33N

Follow Sonic Mercury on Twitter @SonicMercury and like our Facebook page Sonic Mercury

 

 

Posted on

Horror Spotlight

SOMA is a survival horror title being developed and published by Frictional Games and is slated for a 2015 release on PC, MAC and PS4. Frictional Games most famous game up until now is Amnesia: The Dark Descent. SOMA has been secretly in development since 2010. The first official gameplay trailer was released early this passed October and since then a few live-action trailers have surfaced as well. SOMA and The Evil Within are both going to be games within the survival horror genre and while The Evil Within looks to be a promising new horror title that I am excited to play, it is the game mechanics that I am ultimately drawn to. SOMA on the other hand looks to be potentially a catalytic explosion in the horror world. The gameplay trailer alone is enough to give you goosebumps of depraved joy at how unabashedly demented it is and their is a certain uneasy undertone to the live action trailers that give a hint of SOMA possibly being something truly horrifying.

 

The world of SOMA is sort of like if the legendary artist H.R Giger of Alien fame was crossed with influences of Hellraiser and placed in a cold futuristic setting where it appears robot technology is common. The goal of the game according to Thomas Grip Creative Director of Frictional Games in his own words according to his blog entry on Playstation.com states that. “SOMA is meant to chill you to your core, and confront you with questions about your very existence.” The stark setting of the game paired with the commitment to exploring futuristic sci-fi theories and philosophies definitely has my attention as an experience that could possibly stand out as more than just a good horror game and be something truly special that none of us will soon forget. 

 

My impressions of everything I have read and seen so far of SOMA reminds me of a post-apocalyptic short story published in 1967 that was later turned into a 1995 computer game called “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream.” The story is fairly disturbing about a self-aware supercomputer that engineers mass genocides around the world until their are only 5 survivors left in the whole world. The survivors live in a vast underground complex but the supercomputer holds great hatred towards humankind and thus makes the 5 remaining humans borderline immortal so it can torture them for all eternity. Although there is little evidence that the two narratives will be in anyway similar I just get the feeling that very bad things are going to happen to the protagonist in SOMA. Furthermore the Creative Director went on to say that the player will not take control of a space marine fighting his way out but rather a regular person finding their way through.

 

Three years in development and only a little over a month out of secrecy it seems unfair that we will have to wait until 2015 to get our hands on SOMA. Here is a link to Creative Director Thomas Grip’s blog on Playstation.com so you can read what the game is about in his own words as well as check out the official gameplay trailer which is included on his blog page. Please note as with most horror related media the trailer on Thomas Grip’s page does include some scenes of gore and violence. I have also include links to 2 of the live-action trailers for SOMA posted on Frictional Games official YouTube page here entitled “Vivarium” and “Mockingbird.” Bookmark SonicMercury.com for updates on SOMA and all things horror related.

 

-Z3R0TH3RT33N

Follow Sonic Mercury on Twitter @SonicMercury and like our Facebook page Sonic Mercury

 

Posted on

Horror Spotlight

Survival Horror

The Evil Within is an upcoming new horror videogame that will appear on both current-gen and next-gen consoles in 2014. The game is being developed by Tango Gameworks and published by Bethesda Softworks. The game centers around antagonist Detective Sebastian Castellanos. Sebastian wakes up in a gruesome world where violence and death are all around him after he and his partners investigated the scene of a mysterious mass murder. Now its up to Detective Sebastian Castellanos to traverse this decrepit world and discover the mystery as to why all this horrible stuff has been occurring.

 

At first glance it sounds like a typical horror game. Here’s why its not. The director of The Evil Within is Shinji Mikami a name we should all know as he is the creator of Resident Evil and creative lead for every subsequent Resident Evil title for many years. Resident Evil 4 was the last game in the series that he created. The Evil Within is Shinji Mikami’s return to the survival horror genre. Mr. Mikami has been quoted as saying about his new game that this will be a “true” survival horror game in response to his disappointment with current games of the genre he says this game will be, “one in which the player confronts and overcomes fear.”

 

The original Resident Evil series is a masterpiece. The first RE set the bar as to what survival horror could be on home consoles, the second RE far exceeded that bar introducing Claire Redfield and fan favorite Leon S. Kennedy into the horror of a familiar suburban setting in a chaos storm of monsters and zombies, the 3rd RE polished and refined elements of the first two games with smoother menus and action animations as well as detailed ammunition creation options. The 3rd RE also introduced the walking fear-bomb Nemesis who could go through doors and walk up stairs something previously impossible by RE foes instantly cranking up the tension of this entry. Finally RE 4 redefined the genre all together. Everything in the series had been overhauled for RE 4 new combat system, revamped menus and more cinematic presentation. Everything in RE 4 felt bigger and grander. From the story rife with plot twists and strange characters/creatures to the mysterious girl that Leon must rescue, RE 4 was a stout message to the Resident Evil fans and survival horror fans in general that nothing would be the same.

 

The graphical leap combined with the directorial decision to make the camera a 3rd person over the shoulder view that follows the player instead of set camera angles proved a very immersive experience. The visuals were gorgeous for a console game at the time. While I truly did enjoy Resident Evil 4 and had hours and hours of gameplay in the various survival modes alone some of the changes in the game were implications to me as to where this franchise was heading and for me I knew that Resident Evil 4 might be the last that I purchase. As I stated it’s not that RE 4 was a bad game in anyway. I felt Nintendo’s influence on the franchise was obvious however. The further I got into the game the more it reminded me of Zelda. The way items were highlighted in colorful columns and the change sound the game made every time you picked one up. The constant search for treasures paired with the more fantastical creatures versus horrible monsters created by viruses and the constant smashing of boxes and or pottery. Blood seemed minimal. The weird guy you bought items from who always greeted you with the same gruff voice, “Hello stranger.” The fantasy influence combined with the treasure hunting elements were just enough of a departure from the original 3 games for me to long for the old days of running through Raccoon City battling T-Virus zombies and not “Las Plagas” drones sent forth by the ghost of Napoleon’s inner child.

 

Needless to say I was more than a bit wary of the next installment of Resident Evil and my suspicions were confirmed as soon as I saw the trailers for Resident Evil 5. I thought the setting looked boring with lots of muted colors and the focus was obviously action based. Super fast infected people. I really wasn’t that turned off by the two player element that was introduced as I thought it could definitely work if implemented correctly. I played some of it and it just didn’t feel anything like the Resident Evil that I had grown to love. I guess with the success of the highly action based Resident Evil movies starring Mila Jovovich as a superhuman zombie slayer, which by the way undermines the entire genre of survival horror I mean how are you supposed to be scared when Supergirl fights a bunch of monsters that is an entirely different movie than what Resident Evil should be about but I digress, I guess the game developers thought this an appropriate direction for their game.

 

Then their was Resident Evil 6. Featuring 4 separate but intertwining campaigns. After all the hype it got and the promise that it would at least include Leon in one of the campaigns I decided to give it a shot. Originally 3 of the 4 campaigns were co-op until players made it clear to Capcom that it made no sense to have your game be primarily co-op only to offer the final campaign as a strictly single player experience. The 4th campaign was made co-op and available from the start of the game instead of an unlockable campaign made available after completion of the 3 other co-op campaigns. Each of the 4 campaigns had their own specific characters with their own story pertaining to the same global event. I really enjoyed most of Leon’s campaign quick time events aside. It had zombies in a dark creepy atmosphere genuinely conjuring fearful moments at times. The co-op actually worked great here, even with a friend the tension was still high. It felt like a proper evolution of Resident Evil. The rest of RE 6’s campaigns have their moments but they feel superfluous, like other ideas for Resident Evil games sliced and diced from their games and spliced together to create a grotesque Frankenstein of one game. At the end of the day RE 6 is more like 4 separate games under one title.

 

Now Capcom is in financial turmoil and the likelihood of a new Resident Evil from the company is uncertain. Just how bad a state Capcom is really in is debatable but information is surfacing that Capcom barely has enough cash to develop one more feature game. In other words if Capcom pays to develop one more game they could go bankrupt. Something to support this belief that Capcom is on dire straits is that when game producer Yoshinori Ono the producer of Street Fighter IV was asked by a fan on twitter if SF IV would be coming to the next gen Ono responded that Capcom lacked the resources to port the game to next-gen consoles although he expressed that it would be “sweet” to bring SF IV to the next-gen. Porting Street Fighter IV to next-gen consoles doesn’t require nearly the team and resources creating an entire game would. If Capcom can’t even port a fighting game to the PS4 and XBOX One how can any of us expect them to create a whole new Resident Evil?

 

With the most recent entries of Resident Evil 5 and 6 being disappointments for long time fans of the series because of their departure from the initial survival horror genre that Resident Evil helped to define The Evil Within might be just the gloriously gruesome return to the survival horror roots we all grew to love. Shinji Mikami has state that this will be the last game that he ever directs. Let us all hope that Mr. Mikami goes out on a high note helping to create a new chapter of survival horror, one that we can all look upon with fond memories and pass on a new legacy of horror to future generations. I have included a gameplay trailer for The Evil Within here courtesy of Bethesda Softworks YouTube page. Fair warning their is some extreme violence and gore. Bookmark SonicMercury.com for more on other upcoming horror titles in all media.

 

-Z3R0TH3RT33N

Follow Sonic Mercury on Twitter @SonicMercury and like our Facebook page Sonic Mercury

 

 

Posted on

Playstation 4 News

The Playstation 4 has arrived, and in high demand. Sony had reported record pre-orders for the new console and the official U.S. release of the PS4 looks to be record breaking as well.  More than 1 million Playstation 4’s were sold within the first 24 hrs of its release last Friday November 15th. The PS4 will be the only next-gen console on the market until the November 22nd release of the XBOX One. It will be interesting to see what kind of sales momentum the PS4 will maintain after the release of its main competitor. In the meantime the PS4 still has the rest of this week to enjoy its moment in attempting to shatter record breaking sales in the United States. It is important to note the console has yet to release in any other region as of this posting.

 

-Z3R0TH3RT33N

Follow Sonic Mercury on Twitter @SonicMercury and like our Facebook page Sonic Mercury

 

 

Posted on

Nintendo News

Nintendo has announced the Wii mini, a miniature version of the Wii will be available to the U.S. this holiday season and should retail at about $99. The Wii mini is a bare minimum of the console offering no online functionality it does however come with a copy of Mario Kart Wii in the bundle at no extra charge. The Wii mini is part of Nintendo’s plans to promote “low cost gaming.” Most likely the Wii mini arriving in the U.S. has a lot to do with the less than stellar performance of the Wii’s “next gen” successor the Wii U. No doubt that Nintendo is promoting the Wii mini, which was already made available in Canada in last year, to help absorb some of the losses Nintendo is taking on the Wii U. When I last reported sales of the Wii U the tally was about 3.6 million units worldwide. That number is measured from the November launch of the Wii U to June 30th with only about 550 thousand units sold between December 31st 2012 to June 30th 2013. In contrast the Nintendo Wii had sold about 9.3 million units in the same amount of time with the Wii selling just over 6 million units worldwide in the same amount of time.

 

The Wii U sales numbers have finally been reported for the time between June 30th and September 30th of this year. In this time Nintendo has sold roughly 300 thousand Wii U’s. This brings the grand total of Wii U’s sold to just over 3.9 million units worldwide as opposed to the 13.17 million units the Wii sold in the same amount of time. I have heard from various sources as well as read on multiple sites that Nintendo has projected sales of over 9 million units sold for the Wii U and will not waver from this projection. The reality is that quarter 3 or Q3 for the Wii U is in the books and in the last 9 months Nintendo has only sold about 850 thousand units. Analysts are predicting sales at about 550,000 units for the Wii U this holiday season. The bottom line is Wii U sales coming in at less than half of projection for its launch year can not be good news for Nintendo and its future in the home console market.

 

-Z3R0TH3RT33N

Follow Sonic Mercury on Twitter @SonicMercury and like our Facebook page Sonic Mercury

 

 

Posted on

Horror Spotlight: Update!

It turns out that their is even more to see this year at Halloween Horror nights. A few more attractions have been added since my last article about this year’s Halloween Horror Nights. One attraction will appeal to horror and videogame fans alike. It turns out that the Orlando location will be getting an attraction based on Resident Evil 2 & 3! The attraction is called Escape from Raccoon City. You will actually get to see the R.P.D. and meet up with Claire Redfield and Leon S. Kennedy. There will even be a 12 foot nemesis walking around firing off a Gatling gun. There will be zombies, lickers and hunters for you to run from as you make your way through famous locations inside Raccoon City from Resident Evil 2 & 3. As a huge fan of these two entries in the Resident Evil series it sounds like an exciting sprint down memory lane. Just the idea of actually getting to run from monsters in Raccoon City, getting to see the R.P.D. and meeting up with Leon and Claire makes me grin from ear to ear. The Evil Dead attraction sounds like a great time but a chance to go to Raccoon City and experience Resident Evil 2 & 3 firsthand is a Resident Evil fan’s dream come true. The other attraction of note is a maze based on An American Werewolf in London where you can traverse the English moors looking for werewolves and explore the circus from the movie, but Resident Evil 2 & 3! You get to go to Raccoon City!

 

-Z3R0TH3RT33N

Follow Sonic Mercury on Twitter @SonicMercury and like our Facebook page Sonic Mercury

 

 

Posted on

Resurrecting Nintendo

I just had this idea on how Nintendo can resuscitate the Wii U. First off number one don’t do a Nintendo direct for this. Do an actual press conference, someplace very public like Sony did in NYC to unveil the PS4. Nintendo should hype this idea up a lot. Launch a worldwide ad campaign all alluding to a mysterious new thing. Give the ad campaign a tone more accessible to an older audience. The final ads should read something like this, “This fall Nintendo brings the power back! Will you be ready?” then they show a release date. People across the globe freak out, speculating are they bringing back Nintendo Power magazine?!” Nintendo lets everyone simmer for a while.

 

After maybe six weeks or more of intolerable silence Nintendo holds “THE” press conference. Lots of build up, dark lit rooms, fuzzy images, news press EVERYWHERE. Then we get an extended video with high energy, maybe even with celebrity cameos all asking, “are you ready for Nintendo to bring the powerback?!” of course they all say yes! Then lights fade to black in the convention center. They start playing the theme from Terminator 2, duh duh duh duh……duh duh, duh duh duh duh…..duh duh! Everyone freaks out, partly just because everyone loves Terminator 2. A spotlight comes on the catwalk there is someone walking down it with a suitcase handcuffed to him. The music builds mixed with  the intro for “Blind” by KoRn. At the end of the catwalk there is a table and a second person pulls out a key for the suitcase and unlocks it. Their back is turned to the audience and cameras as they reach inside. At that moment the song breaks and the lyric “Are you ready?!!!” blasts across the PA system broadcasting into millions of homes around the world and the person turns around and reaches up with their hand held high. On their hand is the Powerglove! Words across the video read “for the return of the POWERGLOVE!!” But not just any Powerglove this is the Powerglove 2.0 completely redesigned and overhauled for the Wii U. Laser lights shine and the music changes to complement an energetic montage video of people having fun playing Nintendo games with the Powerglove 2.0.

 

Powerglove 2.0 has the screen like the Wii U tablet controller built directly on to it with touchscreen funtionality. All the expected features for motion gaming would come built in including actual 1:1 hand gestures just like the original Powerglove promised 25 years ago. Seeing how Nintendo banks so heavily on motion gaming this seems like a no brainer. Think of the possibilities available now with this kind of hardware. You can literally make a first person Iron Man game where you actually use your hand to shoot his blaster. How cool would it be to get messages and videos from in game characters on the screen on your arm. Better yet how great would it be to play online games and actually interact with your friends by talking to them on the forearm of your Powerglove? Combined with use of the regular Wii controller the applications are limitless. How cool would it be to actually summon a fireball with your hand in a game or dialing in codes and lock combinations you have found in the game using the touchscreen on the Powerglove 2.0?

 

For the horror fans imagine a game like Outlast about a reporter who hears strange sounds from a nearby abandoned insane asylum and decides to investigate only to discover, as many would have guessed, was a very bad idea. OK so now picture playing a game like this with some of your friends. All of you are sneaking around inside this asylum in different areas. Each of you can find objects and information to help each other escape. The catch is you have to physically tell them what you know. You have to send a message to your friend from your Powerglove monitor alerting them that you have important information to help them progress through the asylum. Maybe even make the glove vibrate whenever you get a message so as to add to the stealth element. Either way the alert lets you know that both of you need to get to a “safe” area so that you can relay the information. This could add so much to a horror experience. Think about guiding your character to an empty closet while your friend is hiding in a locker and the two of you are whispering details back and forth on the Powergloves monitor because speaking too loudly can alert enemies to your location. Maybe as you progress you can upgrade your abilities and do stuff like take in-game pictures and videos and send recorded messages to each other in the game using the Powerglove’s forearm monitor. You could even base the whole game around the Powerglove like in the game its some kind of tool given to you by your captors. They find the hunt more satisfying if their prey has a “fighting” chance. ( Powerglove aside this is a game I would like to play )

 

To be fair though videogame development is not cheap let alone hardware development and to expect such an elaborate game based on a piece of hardware you would have to have an install base considerably better than that of which the Wii U itself currently has. Research and development for a piece of hardware like the Powerglove 2.0 I just described would not be cheap for Nintendo. That being said though the reappearance of the Powerglove would be huge in the gaming community not just for Nintendo fans. There is a huge demographic of people who grew up when Nintendo ruled the world. Many of us still remember the “Nintendon’t what SEGA does!” days and no matter what console you played on everyone knew Nintendo and what the Powerglove was. Even though I am pretty sure only three games ever came out specifically for the Powerglove and the hardware was notoriously a functional disaster many people look back on the device with nostalgic fondness. Even though it didn’t work very well the glove still looked cool. The technology exists today to actually make the Powerglove everything it was supposed to be, and then some.

 

Ultimately the biggest consideration for a piece of hardware as elaborate as the Powerglove 2.0 is how to make such a piece of hardware affordable to consumers and have the hardware still be profitable. How much are you willing to spend for something like this? $100? $150? $200? If the controller was made well, functioned like I described, was sold at a reasonable price and was supported properly I think Nintendo could gain some serious ground against the upcoming PS4 and XBOX One. The nostalgia element alone would have lots of older gamers going and buying it. I would consider buying one just to have it and I don’t even have a Wii or a Wii U. If you could use the Powerglove 2.0 as a standalone game player for Wii, Wii U and Nintendo DS games and the glove is priced respectively to the console and DS markets it would considerably increase the value of owning the Powerglove 2.0. You could even play augmented reality games like laser tag with your friends. The applications already exist and the Powerglove 2.0 would be an ideal vessel for many of them.

 

In all likelihood under the current conditions of Nintendo and its newest console I would have to say the appearance of a new and improved Powerglove is not happening anytime soon. If done properly the Powerglove 2.0 could potentially be a huge hit for Nintendo. The cost of research and development for the Powerglove 2.0 definitely makes it a financial risk for Nintendo but if done right I think it could be one of the greatest gaming devices this generation. Overall something crazy like the resurgence of a new and improved Powerglove and targeting a slightly older audience are elements that could give Nintendo the spark it needs to excite console gamers again. In this era of the Oculus Rift where we are on the verge of having actual virtual reality in our homes something like the Powerglove 2.0 has the potential to give Nintendo a much needed relevance boost in the current console market.

 

-Z3R0TH3RT33N

Follow Sonic Mercury on Twitter @SonicMercury and like our Facebook page Sonic Mercury

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted on

Rumors and GTA V News!!

I was going to write about this rumor that the PS4 is 50% more powerful than the XBOX One. Many credible sources like IGN have even weighed in on this rumor all stating that the anonymous developers who are reporting this considerable discrepancy in performance seems legitimate. The problem though is that even if this rumor is completely true about the difference in performance between the XBOX One and the Playstation 4 no one making these claims has worked with the official consoles yet. All this info is coming from people using dev kits designed before the finalized versions of the consoles were put into production. Another point made by The Red Dragon over at N4G games is that many non-anonymous developers have stated that the graphics drivers for the PS4 and XBOX One have yet to be optimized. This has been frustrating for developers as it makes it hard for them to optimize graphics if the drivers are not tuned to their peak performance. It does not matter how powerful a graphics card is if the drivers are not properly set. Another point to consider is even if one console does have considerably more power, whatever that power may be graphics/processing, it is not in multi-platform developers best interests to invest money into making a game look or perform better on one console over the other, its just not cost effective.

 

The question is will one version of a multi-platform game be downgraded to match the look and performance of the game on the weaker console. The answer is no because the developers will instead look for a happy medium between the two consoles where they know that the game will perform more or less identically to each other. The games will be optimized by developers within those constraints to make sure that the game plays properly by utilizing the different hardware of the PS4 and XBOX One but the goal of developers will never be to max out hardware performance. This revelation kind of sucks but to be honest we probably should have already guessed this is how it works. We will have to look to exclusive titles if we want to get an idea of what the true performance extent is for the Playstation 4 and the XBOX One. At the end of the day though its always the console with the best games not the best specs that has the most success.

 

OK I put in my two cents on that topic now on to what’s really on your mind. Grand Theft Auto 5 comes out tomorrow. Yes the highly anticipated blockbuster series latest installment releases tomorrow! September 17th. If you want to get preorder perks today is your last day, otherwise wait til tomorrow I am sure every retailer has packed inventory to the max for this title. Rockstar developers have made an announcement today though for XBOX 360 users, they said that for optimum performance on the XBOX 360 only install the first disc for GTA V. There is an option to also install the play disc on your 360 but don’t do it as Rockstar has stated GTA V will perform best if you only install the disc designated for installation on you XBOX. Alright I hope that is clear for you. Tomorrow is GTA V day and I just want everyone to have a good time because being a gamer isn’t so much about the console but the great games we play on them. Here is a link to the review for GTA V on IGN so you can see what they think about the game before you pick it up.

 

-Z3R0TH3RT33N

Follow Sonic Mercury on Twitter @SonicMercury and like our Facebook page Sonic Mercury