Travel Journal: Video Games Live FL Tour

Photo stolen from the Orlando Weekly

Through a series of circumstances that would take far too long to explain here, last Thursday, while on the road to Spectrum Live) we confirmed that we would be playing a series of shows with none other than Tommy Tallarico and his project: Video Games Live.

Tibbs Greeted me at Moose's house...
I'll swap these with better photos once we get them.

On the drive up to Orlando, our tour van had absolutely no problems. This is a first in our band’s history. I had brakes, I didn’t have to check the fluid levels for leaks, the heat gauge didn’t randomly spike, frogs didn’t appear while I was driving at high speeds, there were no hornet nests in the fuselage when I stopped for gas, the van started on the first try, and only three blinking indicators on the display console (which I’ve been told to ignore and have long since gotten use to) gently glowed while I drove the meet with the band in Orlando.

I arrived at practice at 7:15pm, technically 15 minutes late but I had to pass some really bad traffic after a truck had somehow completely flipped on I-4, a technical feat I’m not sure I could replicate from the middle lane. Moose and I practiced together, because everyone else seemed to be stuck in the traffic until about 9:30pm (did I mention it was REALLY bad?). That was the first and only time as a full band we went through the song we’d be playing with the orchestra, Chrono Trigger/Cross, and the first time we’d played together in about two weeks.

As we practiced, Moose accidently threw one his sticks, which I remarked would inevitably hit one of the orchestra performers, or worse, Tommy in the face should it happen at one of the shows we were about to play. We packed, drove back to Kit’s because we forgot to pack merch, and fell asleep at about 1am.

"I wanna Go Too"

Defying all modern stereotypes and expectations society places on rock bands, we woke up on Friday at 6:45am and were gone less than 15 minutes later. I drove us to a local gas station, because we were literally a mile or few from being truly empty, and a particularly irritating CVS attendant (located next to the gas station) prevented Rook from acquiring batteries until 7:15am.

"The Band"[Photo by Jeff Douglas!]

We got back on the open road, picked up our friend and photographer Jeff Douglas, and returned to the open road, passing a scene right out of a 90’s buddy-cop flick: a series of police cars that pulled over one depressed looking guy who was sitting on the hood of his car while it was searched. Nothing else eventful happened until we reached Miami, within sight of the colossal Adrienne Arsht Center. All of us were pretty dumbfounded looking at the amazing size and architecture because not only was it a pretty building to look at… but we would be performing inside of it… Having been inside the venue in the previous months I mentioned to the band that the stage itself is larger than most BUILDINGS we’ve performed inside of. This was both an amazing and terrifying prospect.

The Arsht Center[Photo by Jeff Douglas!]

We found our way to the security desk at the loading area and checked in. I really had to use the bathroom, so the security guard gave me special permission to do so before receiving my badge. I returned to the quizzical stare of building manager (I forget the proper title but this person controls the building, except for the actual stage itself and “backstage” areas), who wondered how I’d made it inside without meeting her and I explained my need to use the bathroom. The relevance here is that is sparked a 10 minute conversation where we talked about Distant Worlds, the Hyrule Symphony, and the fact that the manager was the first person on her block to beat the original Mario Bros. I was curious if any of the venue staff or musicians on the stage were gamers, or if they even had an appreciation for the video game music taking place within their halls and as I chatted with more and more people throughout the weekend it was clear that they genuinely had an appreciation, even if they didn’t consider themselves gamers. This isn’t meant to be a snooty elitist observation or anything, it’d be perfectly fine if they were just doing their job (and some were), it was just cool that the majority of the people I got to talk with were excited to be a part of VGL and were passionate about the music.

My view from the stage

By 11:30am we had unloaded and were in our green room, which, in a hall filled with signs like names, “Crew”, “Orchestra”, and “Choir”, was simply labeled “the Band,” which we liked. This was due to some confusion where the venue had only just learned specifically who we were on the morning of the show. The band green room boasted a television that showed a live feed of the stage (complete with the house mix), a shower, a vanity, a closet, and lots of open lounging space. I think one of us did an impersonation of the Sound of Music field/hills scene upon entry. As we stood by the main widow of our room, I recognized Tommy Tallarico sporting a set of awesome red shows, and waved at him with Moose. We thought the windows were tinted and didn’t expect him to actually see us. However, he could and motioned for us to unlock the door to let him in. Once inside we made semi-formal introductions and he chatted with the band for a few minutes. Tommy is a really friendly guy and even Kit, who though he’d be utterly intimidated by the rockstar/video game creator, soon felt at ease. Tommy took really good care of us throughout the day (and greater weekend), checking up on us regularly, and making us feel at home within VGL. The only way to describe it is to say that we felt like long time acquaintances or friends of his that he was taking very special care of. He shared stories, like the time he exchanged guitar licks with Steve Vai, the last time he’d played an accordion, and he also introduced us to the VGL conductor, Emmanuel Fratianni, aka the friendly neighborhood writer of the soundtrack to the Amazing Spiderman!

Meeting Tommy Tallarico[Photo by Jeff Douglas!]

We took to the stage for our sound check, did that, and were told to return a few hours later for a rehearsal. It was really incredibly to look off at the rows and rows of empty seats from the stage and think that people might actually be sitting in them when we performed. While the rest of the band went back to the green room to prepare/relax, I sat in the dead center of the audience to watch the orchestra/choir rehearse. It was an unforgettable experience… I was blown away as 60+ people masterfully played their instruments to an empty room, save for myself and the sound/lighting crew. I’m not sure if it was the performance, the songs (which have personal significance to me), or a mix of both but I found myself tearing up at many parts throughout the performance, and admittedly I actually moved to tears during Metal Gear and Sonic. It sounds cheesy, but I really was. There are very few times in my life I’ll get to experience such a thing and I was moved.

A Picture of the Promo Picture being taken

At one point between songs Tommy pointed at me from the stage and asked if I’d seen the stage manager. I said no and was asked if I could play Guitar Hero… Being fairly awful at Guitar Hero I was a bit nervous when I said yes, and was told to come onto the stage and play while the orchestra played to my performance… I was also told that they were almost out of time and needed me to complete the level on my first try. No pressure, right? As I took picked up the controller I could hear whispers amongst the smiling orchestra members saying things like “that’s the accordion player, right?” as I fumbled for a good 20 seconds trying to find the start button. All in all, I got through a song in Guitar Hero while the Video Games Live orchestra played along with me, another experience I’ll never forget.

Yep...[Photo by Jeff Douglas!]

I sat in the audience for almost the entire set after that, though I had to leave to make sure all merch and show preparations were made. The stage/tour manager and crew with VGL are also pretty cool folks, and it was during this portion of each day that we got to chat with them.

Tommy has some really cool guitars[Photo by Jeff Douglas!]

A comical aside, when I went to use the restroom in the green room I sat down to notice the choir singing the Halo theme creeping in through speakers in the ceiling… It was a really cool feature, though sort of comical given the circumstances in which I discovered it. Awhile later we did a full band practice of Chrono Cross with the orchestra, and were amused to see that Moose was placed behind a Plexiglas wall, keeping the orchestra safe from any flying drum sticks. There was a moment during the practice where Moose sped up and received an EPIC glare from the conductor, who had everyone stop and start again. The rest of the band tried to stifle a laugh when Konami gave the genuine remark: “The man who wrote the soundtrack to the Amazing Spiderman just glared at us… What an honor!”

During dinner I decided to sit in the cafeteria, because I’m a messy eater, and met the harp player, the French horn player, and Craig Turley of the Craig Turley Orchestra, the VGL orchestra for two of the FL tour dates. You see, it’s not always the same orchestra every time you see VGL or Distant Worlds… They don’t necessarily tour with an orchestra, the production performs with a local orchestra. Mr. Turney, who I’d met by asking if he was in the orchestra, was kind enough to explain the finer points about how orchestras work. We also chatted about the sorts of shows they’ve recently played and he introduced me to Louis, the lead violinist I’d talked about at Distant Worlds. Louis was also really fun to talk with as well. It was about this time I also learned that the VGL choir was a local highschool choir. They sounded like seasoned professionals and this came as a surprise to me and the rest of the band.

After what felt like a really long (but enjoyable) time, the band and I found ourselves on the side of the stage, watching the start of the show. The winner of the pre-show costume contest was an impressive female Solid Snake. As we congratulated her, she asked for some help in opening a small plastic container. I volunteered and it wasn’t until I’d opened it, spilling its contents slightly all over my fingers that I realized (to my complete horror) that it was crazy glue… My hands, specifically my fingers, were covered in crazy glue mere minutes before we were supposed to perform… I couldn’t feel my fingertips, which are really important to pushing 1 of the 120 buttons on my accordion and I spent the next 5 minutes scraping the glue off my fingers using a brick wall, my teeth, and my nails. That was the extent of my panic, though. Once I could feel my fingers again my only concerns about the show were in making sure I was having a good time… Okay, that’s a bit of a lie. I’ll admit that I was fairly nervous about this show, probably the largest performance of my life, and making sure I sounded alright.

Moments before the glue incident...

As Tommy introduced the next song and got off the stage, he looked at us jokingly from backstage and said aloud “at least I think that’s the song they’re playing…”. His ability to be at ease had a similar effect on us and after what seemed like an eternity (it was an awesome show, we were still just a bit nervous) we were called onto the stage to play our Zelda set, essentially the songs I’d been playing since I first started playing the accordion. By the second song in our medley I was pretty comfortable with the crowd. No, I didn’t ignore them, or imagine that they simply weren’t there. That doesn’t really have a place in an “interactive” show. I didn’t imagine them naked or as stuffed animals like my childhood television shows would have me do (I lack a visual imagination). I just focused on having a good time and everything else seemed to fall into place. It was pretty magical and over faster than I could have imagined.

[Photo by Jeff Douglas!]

Emmanuel and Tommy gave us high fives as we departed the stage and shortly after the thrill wore off, the band did our traditional post-performance self-critiques of things that no one besides us would notice. We watched the rest of the set from the wings while I silently pondered why we didn’t do things like this more often. At one point, during the intermission, the fire alarm was set off and I spent awhile with members of the orchestra, pondering calmly if we would grab our gear and run if we saw fire, or if we’d just wait it out. The woman with the Cello made from 400 year old wood didn’t take any risks, and awhile later it turned out to be a false alarm. The second half of the show continued, we played another piece, the show ended, and during a Chrono Trigger/Cross Encore my band got to join the orchestra for one of the coolest performances I’ve been a part of. It was pretty awesome getting to actually perform WITH the orchestra and the bandmates could barely contain our laughter when Moose accidentally pulled out his headset on the first hit of the song. All in all we did alright and made it to the end of the song in good time.

Tommy is a RockStar
[Thanks the Orlando Weekly]

After that, Tommy, the band, and I led and the audience in a sing-along version of Still Alive. In addition to being a mind-numbingly awesome experience in and of itself, this moment had a very special significance to me. Some years ago, while my band of the same name was splitting up, our bass player at the time (not Rook) told me that Random Encounter was talentless, hopeless, that we would never amount to anything, that I personally would never amount to anything after the band broke up, and that I would never perform Still Alive in front of people again. As I looked out into a sea of cell phones (the modern lighter at rock shows), 3DS’s, and PSP’s I felt pretty good about myself.

Thanks Orlando Weekly

Immediately after the “Surpassed All Expectations” Achievement was unlocked (inside my head) we cleared our gear off the stage, took part in our first Meet and Greet, met some really cool people, and departed for a rumored after party. All in all that day, I’d met 5 accordionists under the age of 70 (a personal record): Emmanuel the conductor, one of the string players in the orchestra, and 3 people from the audience that we got to talk to at the Meet and Greet. On our walk to the after party a homeless-looking guy with a distinct swagger tried talking to Konami, who ignored him and walked by. Moose, being slower than the rest of us due to the 35 pounds of metal in his legs, wasn’t able to run by him as fast. The guy said something like “There’s a bunch of dangerous mo’ fo’s in this part of town” and flashed a knife at Moose, who completely ignored him and kept walking. I imagine that the would-be mugger simply thought he’d imagined mugging us, because we didn’t acknowledge him, and decided to leave us well enough alone. Moose tells a different story though, about how the guy was probably just trying to sell us his knife in misquote from the original Zelda’s line: “It’s dangerous to go alone.”

Awhile later we drove to the home of two of our super-fans, who happen to be married to each other, and enjoyed their great hospitality (and home cooked breakfast!!!) in the city of Davie, FL… Which we discovered the next morning seems to be stuck in the 80’s because while we drove by Davie Dr. in Davie, FL we witnessed no less than 5 separate people all sporting clothing and haircuts clearly indicative of an 80’s adventure film.

We arrived at the next venue, the Kravis Center in West Palm beach, by 1pm the following day, did our sound check, and started to understand the routine of VGL a bit more. Better yet, we seemed to be acclimating to it. Moose played Rock Band this time (getting a 99% success rate, only missing the last note), and we chatted with elements of the Santaluces Choir after the rehearsal. They were sort of quiet and reclusive at first, but after we offered them all free CD’s (because they are some seriously talented kids we are honored to have performed with) all thoughts of us as being an unapproachable and reclusive band were obliterated. Those kids are definitely going places in life.

View from the stage of the Kravis Center

The second performance night was similar to the first, though the entire band seemed to be in agreement that there was significantly less stage fright this time around. It was no more terrifying than a smaller performance in front of our friends and our only fears revolved around falling out of time with the rest of the orchestra, which didn’t happen either night. We played, we watched, we cleared off the stage, we meet and greeted, we drove to Orlando, and passed out at Moose’s home.

Rook looking awesome
[Thanks Orlando Weekly]

Our homecoming show, the Hard Rock Live in Orlando, was a bit different. The composer to the God of War series was present and involved in the show, rocking two conducting sticks (similarly to how Kratos wields two swords), we were performing with a new orchestra/choir, and many of our fans were at this show. It was pretty awesome getting to share the full VGL experience with our extended band-family and friends and it was also pretty awesome to meet the hundreds of people who’ never heard of us before who were from our hometown.

The whole experience with Video Games Live was pretty magical. It arguably changed my life, shifted my focus, and I hope that those who read this will understand the sincerity in these words. Awhile ago I’d lost sight of what was important to me and nearly gave up. Now and for the rest of my life I’ll have the memories of this weekend to remind and inspire me when I’m in such a lull. To each and every person who made this possible, to each and every person who came out to show your support, and to each and every person who showed up to have fun: Thank you for an unforgettable experience.

-Careless (RE)

Game Review: Far Cry 3: The Co-Op Campaign

I often subscribe to the "if you don't have anything nice to say..." mentality but when I sat down this Thanksgiving weekend with my friend Keegan to play coop video games for the few days of free time we both had this year (while recovering from the flu) we had no reason to suspect that we were in for anything but good times. We blew through the coop mode of the new Splinter Cell, we rocked Terrorist Hunts in a personal favorite, Rainbow 6: Vegas, and then we excitedly set up the Co Op Campaign for one of our mutually favorite games of all time, Far Cry 3. For those of you who've never played it, Far Cry 3 is an intense immersive journey of survival. It features one of the best video game villains of all time, a strong story that even Zero Punctuation gave praise to, one of the best free-roam stealth systems I've played, realistic mechanics for wildfires, terrifying and detailed wildlife, stealth-kills, and is a top-notch first person survival-shooter. Lured in by the promise of a "completely new story" and with the high expectations given to us by the main game and subsequent release of Blood Dragon we didn't expect that the co op mode could be anything but a great time.

About as deep as the plot gets

Plot: The introduction video that plays when you start the co op mode is very much in the vein of Far Cry 3, showcasing the main characters being sold out by their former employer, a ship captain known as The Captain. In short, the Captain took their money, sold the main characters to pirates, and left them high and dry. This much is learned from the video. What the Captain didn't expect the main characters to do was survive the pirate attack, get armed, team up, and cut a bloody path of carnage that would make Rambo blush. I found the introduction video to be exciting, enjoyable, and an indication of good times to come. Keegan and I seemed equally pumped and it came as a large surprise to us to find out that the video would be the most plot-intensive part of the entire game. 

Each of the six co-op missions has a plot, sort of, but the plot really doesn't seem that well thought out, executed, or relevant to the main story of "getting revenge." It sort of just felt like a bunch of pirates incidentally got between the main characters and their prey, the Captain, so the main characters decided to murder them all for laughs and go through places they didn't really need to go through to accomplish their common goal. Each of the six missions, including the last one, didn't really feel like a quest for revenge and felt more like an attempt at finding less than creative ways to murder pirates on an island. Even the last mission where you actually get a go at the Captain (who is entirely absent throughout the other missions) didn't feel fulfilling in the least, and though I won't spoil the ending for you, I'll say that I felt cheated of any true resolution. The "interesting" characters that you get to play as never get developed further than skin deep and you shouldn't expect any insight into their lives or back stories beyond what you can find on the Far Cry 3 Wiki.

As for the four main characters you play as [left to right]: 

Callum: the Scottish thug. I honestly couldn't understand anything he said except the curse words and found him useful only as comic relief. He lacked any sort of real likability and I had no idea what his personal goals were or why he was even working with the other characters. It seems like he would honestly just ditch them at first opportunity and I was surprised that he was playable after the first mission.

Leonard: the crooked cop. I found this sexist thug to be devoid of any value or interest whatsoever. He's greedy, selfish, and while he delivers one of the best lines in the game in the final act I felt no progression or motivation for him beyond "I can't wait to kill this guy and be rich," which was boring.

Mikhail: the Russian hitman. Mikhail was the most interesting character in the Co Op because he had things the other characters all seemed to lack... Relatability and a conscience. Mikhail is ex-mob with a wife and daughter who just wants to start a new life. Sadly beyond the introduction you really don't hear anything more about his life.

Tisha: the ex-soldier. On the surface, Tisha seems like she's going to be relatable like Mikhail, a soldier with a tough upbringing who left the Marines for doing the right thing in a bad situation. However, where Mikhail quietly kills his prey and seems to get no real enjoyment out of the things he has to do to get off the island Tisha seems to relish in the violence and goes from noble Marine martyr to bloodthirsty thug. I felt like this was one of the biggest areas where the creative team really dropped the ball.

Without spoiling the "story" there is also a 5th character, one you don't play as who acts as your guide to the island. I found this character to be one dimensional, stupid, slow, greedy, and entirely unhelpful. There were a few times (like when he ran me over with a truck on accident or when he decided the best course of action would be to drive straight through the enemy encampment at 5 miles per hour) that I questioned if he was really on our side and why he wasn't cut from the game entirely.

The most exciting moment in the entire game...
Is in the first mission.

"Freedom/Gameplay": For a franchise known for allowing a player to accomplish a given task a dozen different ways and allowing players to explore acres of open-world environment the coop mode can only be described as a FF XIII style hallway from which you cannot possibly avoid conflict with every enemy on the map. Keegan and I are both traditionally stealth shooters, running through the tall grass with silenced scoped rifles, pistols, and a knife and killing only as many enemies as are required to accomplish a given task, if any at all. Given the fact that you're not allowed to walk more than a few paces off the main road for cover (you lose if you get caught "leaving the map" kind of like playing Marco Polo in a narrow swimming pool), the fact that you're not allowed to leave an area until you kill every person in that area (literally), this tactic is entirely nonviable. They also reduced the effectiveness of close combat attacks, which you can normally chain in FC3 and do a number of fairly awesome things with.

You start each level by selecting one of four basic layouts: Silent, Assault, Close-Assault, and Sniper, and beyond the ability to pick up the weapons of dead enemies (mostly AKs or weapons from other layouts), you're entirely unable to evolve or adapt your loadout. This is particularly bothersome when you encounter the armored bad guys who can take 3 sniper rifle shots to the head, 4 frag grenades, an unlimited supply of normal gunfire to anywhere but the head, and are all but immune to rocket launchers (which earn the "most useless" award for FC3 Coop) and are immune to futile close combat attacks. None of the guns except for the sniper rifle come with a scope either, and only two classes can use grenades. 

There are basically 4 enemy types: Gunners, molitov throwers, snipers, and men armed with machetes. They recycle the same few models throughout, throw dozens of each at you for each of the 6 levels with an occasional dog or armored heavy gunner/flamethrower, and that describes every enemy in the co op... All of them... No joke... While the mechanics of the game were mostly fluid, matching FC3, the removal of character evolution, stealth, scopes, and multiple ways to accomplish a task were infuriating. The worst moment for us was when we were told to "sneak through a base", we snuck through the base without being spotted, and then were told we needed to kill everyone in the base to proceed through the secret tunnel because Callum just felt like killing everyone. This is the sort of BS the game throws at you.

The joke here is that there are no animals in the Co Op,
so this scene isn't a part of the game...

Feel: The FC3 Coop is clunky and extremely awkward. By mission 4, the only reason we were still playing was so we could see if there was any sort of triumph felt in finally killing the Captain, whom the main characters talked about but whom we never saw. The missions felt like they weren't all that well thought through as the general idea for each mission was "sneak" into this area by killing everyone on the way there, push a button that operates something noisy, and defend the spot for a few minutes while the noisy thing happens. Of course there was the occasional mission of "pick up this object that suddenly causes enemies to spawn all around you and bring it across the map by walking down the middle of the road." Between the drudge of shoot-em-up missions were moments of relief akin to mini-games where you and your friends compete to see who can shoot more people with a sniper rifle, who can drive a jet ski better, or who can drive a jeep better. They felt awkward but were preferable over playing through another shoot-em-up mission that would have filled the space.

The FC3 Coop was incredibly glitchy. 

Even though we only played through it once, here's an example of what we had to endure to complete it:

The enemy spawning was abysmal and I'd often watch enemies appear feet in front of me, just in time to murder me with a 1 hit kill machete to the face.

After each checkpoint, our guns wouldn't reload.

The guns often glitched and vanished from thin air, making it look like we were only holding a barrel.

The textures and lighting as we went indoors and outdoors would often clash, get confused, and reverse on us, giving us a dark cave suddenly lit with brighter than day lighting.

The truck we had to escort often would drive too slow, too fast (at one point running me over), or just stopped altogether, forcing us to restart the mission.

Enemies we'd kill would often continue talking or shooting guns during the closing cinemas to each mission, so we couldn't hear the scarce dialogue of the main characters.

A key zip-line ceased to be for my character, forcing me to fall 30 feet to my death on jagged rocks from which I could not be rescued. We had to use the zipline on the right after restarting from the checkpoint, which was about 10 minutes of gameplay back.

Art: This is actually the area I have much praise for the FC3 coop. While it's a glitch hallway style shooter it had some really solid visual character design. The main team felt unique visually, and while they lacked depth they looked cool and had good voice acting. For the most part the visuals in game matched the quality of FC 3, which is great, though for some reason the water seemed to be visually lacking during one of the mini games (perhaps just another glitch?). The music was unmemorable for the most part which I feel is a negative in a game that linear, and the audio design failed in that the world didn't feel truly like it was a part of the outdoors. There was also no visual or audio cue when you killed someone unless it was a Kill-Assist, which made progression frustrating... Correction, there is an audio cue, but it's often muffled by, and seems like it's part of the games soundtrack.

Closing Thoughts: They took out stealth, exploration, wildlife, wildfire, wind, close combat, the bow, arrows, scopes, and the plot. Shy of the name and tropical setting it didn't really feel very much like a Far Cry game at all. It was unenjoyable to play, unfilling to complete, and more glitchy than I thought to expect from such a large franchise. While it started off a great concept with an intriguing introduction video I can't recommend this game to anyone except truly hardcore fans of coop shooters devoid of plot or completionist fanatics of the Far Cry franchise.

Disclaimer: I understand that it's a huge undertaking to make a video game. I understand that I don't have any of the talents required to make a video game like Far Cry 3. I understand that rough timelines, budget cuts, and general corporate griminess can lead to a great idea turning into something less than stellar. I mean no disrespect towards the makers of this game with my review, nor do I hold any of them responsible for the problems I have with it as it very well could have been the product of corporate resource mismanagement, clashing ideas at the highest level (even a stellar team can't make conflicting ideas from their bosses into something good), or some other unknowable constrictions placed on the creative team.

Gaming Review: Playstation 4

Note: Feel free to skip below to the picture of the PS4 if you don’t want a story.

Winter 1997

It feels like ages ago when the Playstation first came out in 1994. I’d looked at magazines article about it, played one at a friend’s house, begged my parents for one (with Final Fantasy VII), and somehow, in 1997 I was fortunate enough to get one for Hanukah… FF VII the following night of Hanukah… and a memory card the night after that (still Hanukah)… You can see that my parents have a good sense of humor. When I first turned on the Sony Playstation I was impressed at the graphics, the flashy visuals on my demo disc, the audio CD-playing capabilities (the first instance of a gaming console that did something that wasn’t directly video game related), the quality and diversity of the music on the games I subsequently played, and the added depth and storytelling capabilities this new machine could produce. I experienced fear through Resident Evil, sadness and frustration through Final Fantasy VII, and I loved every moment of it. Though the controller was strange, and the whole external memory card thing was a new and frustrating concept in the N64 era, I was willing to look past this for games like Tekken 3, Parappa The Rapper, Metal Gear Solid, and Resident Evil 3.

Driving to school in my tank during the PS2 Era.
It was a different time...

By the time announcements were being made for a Playstation 2 I was well aware of just how significant of an upgrade it would be. Playstation 2 games looked significantly better than anything the Nintendo 64 was capable of, the upgrade to dual shock controllers meant the FPS was now a viable genre on the console (as opposed to N64 and PC only), and I’d already had my sights on Red Faction, the first game that advertised a “completely destructible environment.” There were even talks of the PS2 being able to one day play games online somehow but almost no one seemed that interested in that feature at the time. As I was still young and gaming hadn’t really become a mainstream thing, my parents somehow acquired one and completely surprised me on Hanukah with a PS2 and Red Faction (in one night because the PS2 didn’t come with a demo disc), followed by a memory card (the following night), and for a second time Sony raised the bar on what we could expect from video games. This was a clear improvement over the Playstation and is widely viewed as one of the most successful consoles ever made. Even well into the early life of the PS3 massive hits like God of War II were still being released on the PS2 and I’ll fondly remember it for its broad diversity of inexpensive games.

Cue the Playstation 3, which I had been hearing about even before rumors were being whispered in my social circle. It, combined with its competitor: the Xbox 360, would truly be the next generation of gaming, complete with cutting edge graphics, internal memory, online gaming that worked, social elements like “Trophies”, a wireless controller that didn’t eat AA batteries in under a day, and the ability to cure cancer (through the Folding@Home application everyone was encouraged to download)! As a poor college student I really wasn’t able to afford the PS3 until well after the preorder units were sold out, so I did what I thought few others would do and camped in line outside my local Best Buy for 3 days to pick one up.

Happy Folks with new PS3's
(Dan on the far right)

The experience of the line could be described as a cold Florida winter, complete with hot Florida afternoons, sunburn, mosquitoes, and plenty of rain. Even though I was 23^rd in line (The first person in line waited 7 days!) I was able to keep my spirits up because I was there with my friend Daniel, and a few other people I knew from college. We somehow got electric power, finished our finals papers (it was finals week), occasionally played Playstation 2 games on one person’s generator, read books, camped in literal tents, ate food out of cans, and shared stories around the light of a mosquito repelling wick. The memories from that week will always stay with me, especially combined with the news that I’d passed my calculus final which I’d taken just before leaving school to wait in line. Though most of the people in that line sold their PS3’s for a quick buck, Dan and I lovingly kept our PS3s. Since the initial release I’m told that PS3’s are no longer backwards compatible, but mine still is, a treasure and testament to my trial. A few weeks later I was also able to pick up another PS3 for my brother-in-law, Frank (one of my friends subsequently got hired by Best Buy and told me when the shipments were), as it was apparently impossible to get a PS3 in the state of New York.

It’s hard for me to realize just how long ago the PS3 release was because in many ways that winter in 2006 was the beginning of my adult life, so as people started mentioning rumors of a Next Generation of gaming consoles I’ll admit that I was entirely uninterested. The graphics from the Playstation 3 already impressed me, and I was content with the controller’s decent layout, the integration of blue-ray, internet services, and the free online network (PSN).

To clarify why I'm a bit Sony biased: In addition to not having to shell out $15/month for a PSN+ subscription just for Netflix I often prefer(ed?) to play games on the PS3 over the Xbox 360 because somewhere between Rainbow 6: Vegas, R6V2, Uncharted, God of War, Skyrim, Assassin’s Creed 2, Dead Space, Demon’s Souls, Battlefield 3, and countless PS1/PS2 games I can still play on my PS3, an Xbox controller just feels foreign to me. I should mention that I also own an Xbox 360, play it with some regularity, and I'm not someone who only likes Sony, Nintendo, or Microsoft products. They all have unique aspects I appreciate.

An actual slide from the Sony Playstation 4 E3 Presentation

As someone who’s been playing and loving Playstation games for over a decade I decided to give Sony a chance to explain why they wanted to phase out a system I thought was already pretty good in favor of one that wouldn’t be backwards compatible (even for new PS3 games!), and finally watched the various reports from E3. Despite being one of the most painfully one-sided “debates” (the Xbox One presentation vs the Playstation 4 presentation) in gaming history I tried to remove myself from the extraneous information (SONY SUCKS! XBOX SUCKS! Etc.) and focus on what the new generation of consoles meant. 

The new generation?

With a virtually identical lineup of games (I’m not a fan of zombie games), a $100 price tag difference, the lack of video camera (I’m not a big fan of having a video camera that’s attached to the internet in my bedroom), and a controller that I prefer, I decided that I was going to go with the Playstation 4.

The Playstation 4 promised:

•  Better Graphics.
• A larger storage space on the Hard Drive (from 60gb to “500”gb [actually closer to 410gb])
• More processing power [speed]. (roughly 2.5 times more)
• More Memory [another component of speed]… Than my computer.*
• An improved online network (PSN+).
• Easier online interactivity with friends through screen streaming/sharing integration.
• New games that my PC can’t run (Dragon Age: Inquisition, Thief, Watch Dogs, etc)

*I should clarify here that I’m not a huge PC gamer and that beyond Starcraft 2 at low-spec my computer has serious issues running most games.

Victory!

I didn’t see that huge of an improvement in the graphics from the PS3 to PS4 (or 360 to Xbox One for that matter) in the videos, didn’t have much money, and felt like I could live with what I had (Pokemon on the 3DS!!) until either Dragon Age or Thief came out, so I didn’t plan to get a Playstation 4. However, a week before the release of the PS4 I got an urgent message from my sister asking if I could use my awesome contacts to pick up a PS4 for Frank (the same Frank). I told her my friend had been fired from Best Buy years ago but that I’d stand in line for her on the release day to pick one up. The day before I stood in line, my sister (who has a track record of being awesome) told me to pick one up for myself too as a Happy Hanu-Christma-Ka-birthday-thank-you present. So, at about 5pm on release day my girlfriend and I went to Walmart and asked where the line was. We were surprised to find that we were the first ones in line! It seems that preorders were managed much better for this generation of games, that they made more of them to go around, and that people who really wanted one didn’t have to quit their jobs to pick one up. A mere 7 hours of waiting (indoors!) later we walked away with two Playstation 4’s! Because we are responsible adults we refrained from trying to play one of them until after work on Friday. 

The following is my report:

Photo by Mon Dean

The first thing that impressed me was the size of the Playstation 4 and its sleek design. Half glossy/reflective-black, half flat-black, and half the size of the original Playstation 3 it’s aesthetically pleasing and something you’ll WANT to showcase. Though people have already made fun of it for a supposed “wobbling issue”, unless you live directly next to a train station or on a boat the average person won’t notice that it wobbles slightly when intentionally wobbled. When I plugged it in, a colored light crossing the top of the PS4 caught my attention and the guide book informed us that the color of light is used to indicate different things, like if it’s overheating. The Playstation 4 controller is also a significant improvement over the Playstation 3 controller, offering improved triggers, better grip, a touch pad, a “share” button (that allows you to easily share your screen with friends or the internet), and a few features that require a PS4 video camera attachment to use. It's hard to quantify in words just how much better this controller is so I found a picture:

The new controller

Though there was a “Day 1” patch that took all of 5 minutes to download/install and a bunch of terms and conditions to agree to, I was ready to play in under ten minutes from plugging it in. However, an issue with the PSN not working prevented me from logging into my old PSN account. In this age it’s to be expected that a launch console might not have working internet capabilities on the day of its release (like Diablo 3 or the Sims), so I was impressed that it was up and fully operational by Saturday morning. Luckily you don’t need the PSN to play games, and gaming happens to be the reason I wanted a PS4 in the first place. Regarding the basic interface, they’ve condensed a lot of the menus that used to be scatted across my PS3 “desktop,” like putting all of the video viewing services (Huloo, Netflix, etc) into one tab. It’s fairly convenient and while subtle these are the sorts of things that made me feel good about the PS4.

Once I was able to log in I took a few minutes to also look at the PSN+ (the PS4 comes with a 1 month free subscription to the Playstation Network +), and felt like it was almost identical to the way it was when subscribed on a Playstation 3. This was the only technical “shortcoming” I’ve experienced thus far in the things that were promised though I’ll admit I’m not much of an online gamer so this has little effect on my opinion of the system. However, despite the PSN+ requiring a monthly fee, Netflix and other video-services do not require you to subscribe to the PSN+ fee to be used. This was a surprise and a clear advantage over the Xbox 360 and Xbox One, which both require you to pay for a Gold Subscription each month (~$15) in addition to your monthly Netflix/stream service fee.

IN GAME GRAPHICS!

The only game I own for the Playstation 4 is Assassin’sCreed: Black Flag so I have a limited perspective to share. For starters, the notorious Assassin’s Creed Series loading times were dramatically reduced. I can’t begin to express how happy this made me. When the first loading screen for the vast open world appeared and went away in under 15 seconds I understood that even without vastly superior graphics the PS4 is a vast improvement over the last generation. Once the world loaded, most of the important visuals of the game, the water, the scenery, and the weather looked fantastic! Thought the character models often resembled good PS3-level graphics (which isn’t a bad thing at all) I noticed subtle improvements to detail like actually having stray pieces of hay fall off the main character after brushing through a hay pile, or splinters of wood flying off a boat after it gets battered with chain-shot. I also noticed that the backgrounds were actual locations you could visit, as opposed to two dimensional painted pieces of scenery!

Who knows what new adventures await?

It’s just the start of the new generation so don’t know if the Playstation 4 will show as vast an improvement in graphics as the jump from the launch PS3 games to the latest releases, but I’ll attest that I’m already happy with how it looks, the huge reduction in load times, the capability for a higher particle/model count, and the improved controller. While there are probably people who will knit pick at this generation of consoles for one small thing or another there is no doubt in my mind that the Playstation 4 is the best console I’ve played. Though it doesn’t boast an enormous array of titles, the ones available are massive blockbusters that will easily take as much time to complete as Super Mario World, Sonic the Hedgehog, Mario 64, Luigi’s Mansion, or a Halo game (the major launch titles from previous generations). I’ve already started having a good time and I think that the vast majority of people who get one will feel the same way.

For a more detailed review on the PS4 check out this page.
To read about how they made the PS4 check out this article.