I know I said I didn’t usually do news, and I don’t want to be one of those gaming sites that regurgitates the same news as every other site, but, hey, it’s Friday(at least it is here in good ‘ole New Zealand) Thursday, I’ve got a three-day weekend starting from tomorrow, so here’s some stuff that’s landed in my inbox over the past 24 hours.
Uncharted Moments
With the Nathan Drake Collection due to drop on PlayStation 4 on October 7 (three days before my birthday), Sony has released a video that is said to contain developer Naughty Dog’s favourite moments from the series.
The 11 minute, 14 second video has some nice moments that should whet the appetites of gamers waiting for the remastered Nathan Drake Collection.
According to Sony, there will be a demo of the Warzone chapter of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves up on the PlayStation Store from September 29.
Sony’s VR headset given a name
Sticking with PlayStation, at its Tokyo Game Show presser earlier this week, Sony announced that PlayStationVR was now the official name for its virtual reality headset.
The VR headset will have a 5.7-inch OLED panel pumping the pixels out at a resolution of 1920 x 1080 (960 x 1080 per eye) but no release date has been mentioned.
Keen to go VR with Sony? Let me know in the comments section.
Here’s part two of my playthrough of Media Molecule’s PS4-exclusive Tearaway Unfolded. Sadly, again, there’s no audio commentary as I’m still having trouble recording external audio.
I’ll get it sorted. I promise. In the meantime, enjoy the video.
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is the game of the moment, it seems, getting rave reviews from critics and fans of the series alike, but here’s a confession: In the two hours or so I’ve played it of it, I can’t get into it, and I’m actually starting to regret buying it. I kind of wish I’d bought Avalanche’s Mad Max instead.
Maybe it’s because I don’t have a strong history of playing the MGS series that is taking over here. The only MGS game I’ve played was MGSIV, and I didn’t like that much either. The Phantom Pain just isn’t capturing my attention. I don’t think about it every waking moment. In fact, I’ve played Tearaway Unfolded, a PS4-exclusive, than MGSV: The Phantom Pain.
I don’t know why the game’s not impacting on me. Maybe I was swept away with the hype surrounding the game, convincing me to buy it and be Big Boss. Maybe I was captivated game play I’d seen that made it look really, really great and I just had to have it. I don’t know what it is but at the moment, I almost have to force myself to play it, to justify the money that I paid for it.
I’ve heard that the first two to three hours will be make or break as to whether you’ll like it – is that right? – so maybe I have to grit my teeth and persevere until I get access to Mother Base and the ability to fulton things. I guess in a game that can give you 40+ hours of game play it’s going to have a slow start, right?
The first hour was totally confusing (Hideo Kojima has a wild imagination, that’s for sure), and to be honest, half the time I had no idea what was going on (I’ve just come across some zombie-like soldiers called the Skulls – this is also confusing the hell out of me). When I’d finished the prologue I was still none the wiser as to what had just happened.
So, have I made the right decision with MGSV and should I stick with it? Will it get better? Or do I cut my losses, try and sell it and pick up something like Mad Max? I’ve also got Tearaway Unfolded, Forza 6 and Until Dawn to play.
I’d appreciate your thoughts in the comments section.
*I’m going to continue playing MGSV and see whether I get hooked. I’ll keep you posted!
Take a look at the graphic. It shows the changing face of the New Zealand interactive entertainment landscape. As a longtime video game player and champion of the medium, I’m liking what I’m seeing.
DNZ16 is the fourth report from the Australian IGEA and Bond University’s Professor Jeffery Brand and Stewart Todhunter on the influence of interactive entertainment in New Zealand, and it shows, among other things, that the face of the New Zealand video game player is changing.
Here is the foreword to the report and I think it sums everything up nicely.
We are witnessing breathtaking changes in the realm of digital interactive entertainment. It is hard to imagine that 15 years ago, we were debating the worth, even potential harms, of simple video games.
Today attention is on the potential of this amazing medium to reinvigorate education, workplace training, consumer engagement and social and political conversation. Interactive entertainment is celebrated for its economic importance. There have been many voices in the call to treat games as a serious medium for the knowledge age.
The three IGEA-Bond University reports preceding this one have contributed to the chorus of voices. These national New Zealand studies of computer game audiences have broken down stereotypes that prevented understanding in the wider community that computer games were not only a popular medium, but a productive medium.
You can download a full copy of the DNZ16 report here and I suggest you read through it as it makes for a really interesting insight, but because I’m a nice guy here are the key findings in an easy to digest graphical format. You’re welcome.
According to DNZ16, 70% of those that took part believed that video games can improve thinking, 47% believed video games could help fight dementia and 28% of respondents who were aged over 50 played video games to keep their mind active. Food for thought, right?
It comes as no surprise that the average of a video game player is 34 [I’m much, much older than that. Interestingly, in my demographic: the, ahem, 45 to 54 age bracket, 54% play games], 48% of video game players are women and 13 years is the average years respondents have been playing video games.
DNZ16 found that 88 minutes was the average play time for people [I struggle to get in an hour a day sometimes due to work and other commitments] and 98% of homes with children have some form of video games in them.
The full report itself has much more information for you to digest but I’d be really interested to know why you play video games [interactive entertainment], no matter whether it’s console, PC or mobile, what you think of the findings and where you fit into the interactive entertainment demographic.
OK, I thought I’d do another Let’s Play video, this time for Media Molecule’s PS4-exclusive Tearaway Unfolded, a sort-of remake for the game Tearaway which appeared on the PSVita [a handheld console that seems, regrettably, overlooked by Sony much of the time].
The PSVita game was just delightful and used the strengths of the handheld beautifully. I’m intrigued to see how Unfolded makes the most of the PS4’s abilities. There’s no commentary on this one as I’m having trouble with recording audio so this just has in-game audio.
Enjoy. If you want to see more, Like it and let me know in the comments.
Fly6 integrated rear bicycle tail light with built-in HD camera
I guess you could think of Cycliq’s Fly6 integrated tail light and HD camera as eyes at the back of your head as you ride your bike. Or an insurance policy that you’ll hopefully never need.
Funded through a Kickstarter campaign by Australian cyclists and tinkerers Andrew Hagan and Kingsley Fiegert, the Fly6 is one of those gadgets that you hope you’ll never need to rely on but are rest assured that it’s there just in case something goes wrong.
In fact, Fiegert came up with the original idea of the Fly6 after he was hit in the arse by a slingshot projectile while he was out riding his bike. Ouch!!
I was lucky enough to win my Fly6 through a Tour de France competition that Cycliq was running during the three-weeks of the cycle event. I’m not usually a winner when it comes to competitions so I was chuffed that I’d won this.
Eyes open: The Fly6 is bulkier than a standard rear flashing bike light but that’s because it has an HD camera inside [and a rechargeable lithium-ion battery]
Compared to most rear bicycle tail lights, the Fly6 is bulky, but that’s because this one incorporates an HD camera into the mix [it’s the large round lens underneath the Fly6 logo]. Outputting at up to 30 lumens, the tail light is bright enough to be seen by motorists [it has two flashing modes and one solid mode thanks to the three lights] and the camera records video at 720p [1380 x 720 resolution]. Cycliq says the internal 2600mAh lithium-ion rechargeable battery will give up to six hours recording and lighting time, depending on use.
Filming you: The large lens is the HD camera. The flashing strobe unit, which illuminates to indicate that the camera is recording, is visible underneath.
The gadget comes with an 8Gb microSD class 10 memory card already installed so everything you need is in the box to get started. The unit is charged via a supplied microUSB cable and will emit a variety of beeps when you turn it on to indicate the battery charge status. Cycliq says if the battery drops under 5% capacity while you’re using it, three long beeps will sound, the audio and video capture function will switch off but the light will continue to work for about 1 1/2 hours.
Installation
Good to go: The Fly6 fitted to my road bike’s seat post.
Fitting the Fly6 to my road bike was incredibly simple: I slid the camera/light unit onto the right sized seat post mount [the box comes with two] then secured it to the seat post using two of the supplied rubber straps. It took maybe a couple of minutes to get it fitted. The box also comes with some spacers to ensure a more snug fit on your bike’s seat post, an SD card adapter and a microUSB cable to attach the unit to your computer to upload captured video, which can then be viewed using program VLC Media Player.
Testing
I’ve probably had the Fly6 for about three weeks and have used it extensively when I’ve gone for bike rides, generally during the day so I can’t say how bright it is during darkness hours. The video below shows how bright it is.
It’s a funny but as a bike rider, you never really think about what is happening behind you when you’re riding your bike, unless you look behind to see whether it’s safe to make a turn or whether there’s room for you to avoid a parked car. If the Fly6 has done one thing, it’s made me more aware of what’s actually happening behind me and shown me just how close vehicles sometimes get to cyclists.
I like to think I’m a considerate cyclist: I stay to the inside of the white line as much as practicable and where applicable [sometimes, of course, you have to move across the line for parked cars, road works, potholes in the road] but I’m still amazed at how close some motorists get to me as they drive past.
Watching captured video when I get home is generally uneventful – and that’s how I’d like it to stay. That’s why I said at the beginning that the Fly6 is like an insurance policy that you never want to use: It’s there, covering your back, just in case you need it, but for most of the time [hopefully] the footage it captures is uneventful [apart from seeing the odd motorist behind me talking on a mobile phone, which is illegal in this country].
Verdict
While a rear facing HD camera isn’t a necessity for a cyclist, the Fly6 is a nice thing to have in this age where motorists seem to be a more and more aggressive to cyclists, especially lycra-clad cyclists.
The capture quality is good enough to pick out number plates if you need to, and the device records in 10 minute blocks, so if you go for, say, an hour bike ride, you’ll have six recorded segments. I tended to watch through the footage, see whether anything was worth keeping, then delete it from the camera.
As I said in the beginning, the Fly6 is a set of eyes watching your back as you cycle and is essentially an insurance policy just in case an incident happens, and you need evidence to back you up – and that’s reassuring. It could be seen by some as pricey for a light, though: With postage, the Fly6 will set you back $214, but for serious cyclists who don’t bat an eyelid at $1000 wheels & bikes that cost thousands of dollars, it’s a small price for peace of mind.
*Cycliq is also in the prototype stages of a front-facing camera/light called the Fly12 which will have a 400 lumens front-facing light, a 1080p camera, Wifi capabilities and a smartphone. I’m following its progress with interest.
New Zealand is at the bottom of the world so we don’t get the opportunity very often for the public to get their hands on upcoming games at special gaming events.
Well, this month XboxNZ is hoping to change that with XONZ, a chance for Xbox fans to play upcoming Xbox One games at a dedicated event on September 26. That’s a Saturday.
Kiwi gamers will be able to play the latest versions of triple A titles such as Halo 5: Guardians, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege, Forza Motorsport 6 and Lego Dimensions among many others.
Fans will also get the chance to talk with developers from 343 Industries (Halo), Microsoft (Forza) and Crystal Dynamics (Tomb Raider), who are flying in especially for XONZ. The local Bethesda team will also be on hand to catch up with fans on Fallout 4.
Content from next year’s highly anticipated Remedy title Quantum Break and Ubisoft’s Tom Clancy’s The Division will be showcased to the crowds, as will a hand-picked selection of Xbox@ID indie titles including Cuphead, Plague Inc. and Wasteland 2: The Director’s Cut.
“XONZ will give 300 of Xbox’s biggest Kiwi fans a rare chance to see and play our greatest line-up of games ahead of their launches in the run-up to Christmas,” said Steve Blackburn, Xbox New Zealand Lead. “Having developers fly in to New Zealand to meet local Xbox fans is an opportunity not to be missed. Not many New Zealanders get to travel to international gaming expos like E3, Gamescom or PAX, so we’re delighted to be able to bring a slice of that to them.”
Attendees will also be able to get hands on with the highly anticipated Xbox Elite Controller ahead of its New Zealand release in November, as well as check out the latest Xbox Hardware including the Xbox One Forza Motorsport 6 Limited Edition and Xbox One Halo 5 Guardians Limited Edition.
You will have to register, though, to secure a place at the XONZ so head over to the Xbox NZ Facebook page (facebook.com/XboxNZ), check out the XONZ Event and be one of the first 300 fans to register your Gamertag to secure your place at this year’s event. Note, gamers must be at least 16 years old to attend XONZ.
The details:
What: XONZ
When: Saturday 26 September
Time: 10am-3pm
Where: The Studio, 340 Karangahape Rd, Auckland
Age Rating: Participants must be at least 16 years old to attend X0NZ
What’s on show: Halo 5: Guardians (Warzone), Rise of the Tomb Raider, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege, Forza Motorsport 6, Lego Dimensions, Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, FIFA 2016, Cuphead, Plague Inc., Wasteland 2: The Director’s Cut
343 industries’ next Halo game, Halo 5, comes out on Microsoft’s Xbox One in October so in an attempt to whet the appetites of Halo lovers out there, Microsoft has released the game’s opening cinematic. It looks impressive.
The cinematic sees Fireteam Osiris dropping onto a planet to take on the Covenant and Prometheans (an enemy that appeared in Halo 4) after being ordered by UNSC command to recover a high value asset (could that be Master Chief?).
And yes, that is actor Nathan Fillion’s face in the cinematic: He’s reprising his role of Edward Buck, who last appeared in Halo ODST, which just happens to be one of my favourite games of the Halo series.
I’ve played pretty much all of the Hitman games (including Hitman Go the mobile game: It’s really, really good), the series featuring bald Agent 47 who has a barcode tattooed on the back of his head.
The last Hitman game, Absolution, was pretty good, and there’s a new game coming in the next year called Hitman (just Hitman, it seems), which features a younger looking Agent 47 than the one that appeared in Absolution. I’m not sure whether it’s set in his early days or developer IO Interactive just felt he needed a facelift but the game is said to bring us an Agent 47 when he was at the prime of his assassinating career.
Anyway, SquareEnix (the publisher) has released a new game play trailer from the game’s Showstopper mission, set to the backdrop of a Paris fashion show. It’s alpha footage and looks good to me and is said to give players to assassinate key targets a variety of ways (although I’m always amused with things like a character strolling around with a huge ass sniper rifle hanging across his back. Doesn’t anyone notice that sort of thing?)
The Gears of War series is one of improbables: Improbably large men with biceps and calves thicker than one of my thighs, improbably insane weapons (the chainsaw bayonet, anyone?) and improbably overwhelming odds but from the moment I played the original GOW way, way back in the mid-2000s on my Xbox 360, I was hooked.
Yes, it was a game oozing with bromance between muscle-bound soldiers Marcus Fenix, Baird, Dom Santiago and Augustus “Cole Train” Cole as they took on ugly, ground-dwelling foes known as the Locust on the planet Sera, but it was loud and proud and embraced that bromancing and machismo wholeheartedly. Also, you can chainsaw enemies in half.
Gears of War came out at a time when most action games were first-person shooters but Epic Games eschewed that for third-person and it worked incredibly well. You could almost feel the thud as Marcus and his pals slammed into cover. Frankly, GOW wouldn’t have worked as a FPS.
Same scene, different console: Embry Square in Gears of War Ultimate Edition looks much more battle-worn and decayed than the Xbox 360 version [top]
Developer The Coalition (which is made up of many of the staff who worked on the original Gears of War) has given Gears of War more than just a touch up with a palette knife: This is a game that has received a major graphical overhaul, including completely redone cinematics, and while the remake of such an influential last-generation game may have lost some of the impactful lighting that the original had, GOW is a stunning looking game that properly realises the vision that Epic games had back in 2006.
The original game had an almost blurry look to it [compare the screenshots of the Xbox One vs the Xbox 360 images] and never has Marcus Fenix and the rest of Delta squad looked so human and so emotional [Baird, especially, looks much, much better].
More realistic: Delta Squad looks more human in the Xbox One version than in the Xbox 360 one [below]
This new-look Gears of War is the exact same game as it was almost 10 years ago: a cover-based shooter where walls and knee-high barricades are your friend, although there is the addition of some content that only appeared on the PC version.
It’s the same story line, the same characters, the same game code, the same kill the right number of Locust so you can progress, the same thrill you get when you nail an active reload. It just looks much, much nicer thanks to the gruntier (I’m sure I just made that word up) Xbox One – and I don’t have a problem with that. This is a game that isn’t afraid to embrace its strengths.
There are some game play tweaks, which are nice additions: It now has drop-in, drop-out co-op play so a player can join in mid-mission when you need some help taking on the Locust hordes and you can now change weapons while you roadie run, which is helpful.
Look at those eyes: Marcus Fenix looks much more human in Gears of War Ultimate Edition.
That said, you also get the same quirks that the original had. Gears of War was made at a time in video game development when quick saving wasn’t common so GOW Ultimate Edition has the same uneven checkpoint system the original had meaning if you die before you trigger the next one, you’ll be chewing through those same Locust again.
The “You take one path, we’ll take the other” game mechanic also feels a little old, and yes, squad AI is still whacked at times where squad mates will get in your way as your fire your weapon or take a while to catch up when you race ahead. I had to replay the first encounter with a Beserker several times (almost to the point of giving up) because Dom wouldn’t get out of its way, killing him, or the Beserker itself didn’t respond to the noise I was making. That was frustrating to say the least.
As far as re-masters go, Gears of War Ultimate Edition is a mighty fine one that holds up tremendously well despite being nine years old, and it’s testimony to how good a console shooter the original was. It was also a game that tried to mix up the shooter formula of the time – and it worked. I still remember the first time I encountered the terrifying Beserker or came face-to-face with Theron guards in the original. Playing GOW Ultimate Edition bought back those memories for me.
Look, for fans of the original here’s the chance to play the game again on your fancy new Xbox One console. For gamers new to the series, it’s a chance to finally play a game that would go onto to establish itself as a foundation franchise for Microsoft.
*Thanks to Xbox NZ for a downloadable copy of Gears of War Ultimate Edition. Multiplayer servers aren’t online for the public yet so I didn’t test the multiplayer which, to be fair, is probably just as well: I sucked at MP when the original Gears of War came out, I doubt I’ve got much better since then.
Sticking with PlayStation, at its Tokyo Game Show presser earlier this week, Sony announced that PlayStationVR was now the official name for its virtual reality headset.
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is the game of the moment, it seems, getting rave reviews from critics and fans of the series alike, but here’s a confession: In the two hours or so I’ve played it of it, I can’t get into it, and I’m actually starting to regret buying it. I kind of wish I’d bought Avalanche’s Mad Max instead.
![Eyes open: The Fly6 is bulker than a standard rear flashing bike light but that's because it has an HD camera inside [and a rechargeable lithium ion battery]](https://gamejunkienz.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/fly6side.jpg?w=584&h=330)
New Zealand is at the bottom of the world so we don’t get the opportunity very often for the public to get their hands on upcoming games at special gaming events.
![More realistic: Delta Squad looks more human in the Xbox One version than in the Xbox 360 one [top]](https://gamejunkienz.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/delta-xboxone-jpg.jpg?w=584&h=329)
