It feels like it’s been quite a slow news week, but skimming back through for hotly discussed topics, there’s actually been a fair bit going on. H1Z1 appeared, more news of The Last Guardian was teased, Borderlands is set to get a “Pre-Sequel” and yesterday even had the announcement of Civilization: Beyond Earth.
Of course, I’ve had to pick and choose what to include in this week’s Chronicle, with a distinct focus on what’s putting people off spending their money.
Of the more hotly debated news posts, a few tweets about DriveClub and microtransactions were bound to get a few comments. Thankfully it was explained that DriveClub won’t be seeing any of the “consumable” microtransactions that we see elsewhere.
That’s not exactly the news that people have been looking for, though it’s still good to hear.
Freezebug popped up to say, “They really need to stop fannying around with little publicity spurts like this and talk the talk with solid release schedules. Next gen is basically racerless apart from NFS Rivals, which is a much more attractive investment for last gen.
This game should be representing next gen racers now and the longer the delay the closer GT7 will get to take the reigns. Next gen for me so far has been in the ‘it’ll keep’ category, especially without a solid racer, so it’ll have to whistle for a while yet!”
R1MJAW added that it’s “Not just GT7 but Project Cars too, assuming they can deliver on time to their Novemeber release schedule. I know that’s 7 months away but at this rate I highly doubt we’ll get Driveclub much sooner.”
It’s actually quite a good point that a lack of racing games will have put off quite a dedicated slice of the market from buying into the PlayStation 4, and from DriveClub’s point of view, it could easily slip into the same release window as a glut of other racers.
One game we do know is coming soon is The Last of Us Remastered, officially revealed for a release this summer, bringing Naughty Dog’s latest to the PS4 with a bunch of graphical improvements in tow. However, while there’s a lot of people waving virtual wads of money while screaming at Sony to take it from them already, there are others who are much less restrained. Hornet1990, for example:
Not that I didn’t love playing through it on PS3, but I’m not going to pay full price to play it again just looking a bit nicer, especially when the PS3 version looks nice enough anyway!
Maybe if there is an upgrade option (for the DLC) or when it gets dirt cheap, but otherwise I think I’ll pass.
With it set to retail at full price, but with the DLC alongside, is the lack of an upgrade path something that you find off-putting too?
In the run up to the latest generation, a lot of people opined and whined that there was a lack of backwards compatibility, to the extent they wouldn’t buy immediately. With Sony set to offer older games by streaming and PlayStation Now and Microsoft investigating the feasibility of adding backward compatibility to the Xbox One, this particular complaint might eventually be a thing of the past. In the here and now, though, bunimomike was able to share some interesting anecdotes:
My friend took her newly bought PS4 back to Game last week when she realised it wasn’t backward compatible. Sure, she should have checked into that before purchase but either way… there wasn’t going to be a PS4 in her house any time soon. Equally, I’m reading about more and more folk waiting until Sony sort out MP3 and DLNA before moving on up to the new kid in town.
Interestingly, my casual gaming friends (those that haven’t leapt onto the PS4 bandwagon) are the ones who don’t have technology dotted around their house. This means they’re making up the majority of my friends who use their PS3 to stream to so they can watch their content. It also means that they’re very confused why the newer, more expensive PS4 doesn’t have these basic features.
It’s fascinating to see how the various twists and turns in the tech industry play out once the news and products filter out to those who don’t follow it too closely. It’s also yet another clear indicator that both Sony and Microsoft need to move quickly to bring those features and functionality which have made their last generation of consoles such multimedia powerhouses to their new machines, before they can truly enter the mass market.
Another fairly quiet week on the achievements front, but TSBonyman, with tongue firmly lodged in cheek, managed to make some good progress:
An amazing week for me. First up, I battled against almost insurmountable odds to acquire all the trophies for Aabs Animals. Once I completed that 315 second exercise, I went back to Tomb Raider and acquired not only a grand total of zero additional trophies for my second playthrough, but I also finished on a lower overall completion percentage than my first playthrough.
Woo! Can’t wait to see the leaderboard this week!
Well we can’t all be like DividSmythe, who grabbed the platinum for Lego Lord of the Rings and is rushing through Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time for an easy double platinum across both PS3 and Vita to make it six in four weeks.
R1MJAW‘s also keeping up the pace, as he approaches the platinum trophies with Fuel on PS3 and Moto GP 13 on Vita, the latter of which was earnt by parryman.
Crazy_Del didn’t quite resort to Aabs Animals, but did crash through the Megamind trophy list in a few hours, while hornet1990 took the inFamous Second Son platinum before buying an altogether more tangible SteelSeries Wireless H headset.
From one steel to another, and Steelhead, much to his wife’s chagrin, sat down and played the whole second half of Gravity Rush in one go! I still need to finish that game…
Finally, a quick shout out for Avenger, who is looking for some co-op partners to lift his spirits as he plays Dungeon Hunter on PS Vita. Just hop into the forums and say hello if that tickles your fancy.
A inferior race has been away from his computer these last few days, so we don’t have a leaderboard just yet. However, come back later today and we’ll have this post updated. For now, we finish with the usual submission form for photos and accomplishments.
Update: As promised, you can now head over to page 2 to view the latest 2014 leaderboards.
Following from recent contribution, if people want to keep sending photos in, I’ll be happy to post them, but gaming places isn’t a regular feature. If you fancy it, just use the submission form below, get in touch with me on Twitter at @teflon, or just send me an email out of the blue to [email protected].
TSBonyman
Cheers for the mention teffers!
Truth is, i’ve not really played much last few weeks due to a touch of gaming-fatigue but i’m back on form again now so all going well i’ll have something worthwhile to report next time ;)
Avenger
eh, had no idea the 2014 leaderboard was coming back round again. Hopefully I’ll gain so more trophies over the next few weeks. Although if everything stacks over the year, then there should be a massive boost when I sync the trophies after summer.
Thanks for the mention with Dungeon Hunter. Co-op help would be much appreciated.
a inferior race
It just compares total trophy score with trophy score at start of the year.
DividSmythe
Also cheers for the mention. I haven’t done 6 on for 4 wells as of of yet, it also looks unlikely this week as I’ve got a few days holiday with the kids. So I’m building sandcastles for a few days at the seaside.