Community Chronicle: 20/04/14

I hope everyone’s egg hunting went well this morning. They might be slow movers, but those eggs know their stuff when it comes to hiding away in hard to find places and their diminutive size makes them tricky to find, especially if they’ve been well camouflaged.

Then again, maybe you’ve been taking part in a more modern version of the traditional egg hunting, cracking open oversized chocolate ovoids and mutilating chocolate rabbits…

Each to their own, I guess!

More good news for Sony, this week, as they sailed past the 7 million mark in PlayStation 4 console sales, claiming the top spot on America’s monthly NPD charts in the process. It also saw them widening the gap to the Xbox One which couldn’t overhaul the PS4 even with the strength of a game such as Titanfall – which took the top spot in software. However, though not sell-through, they have now shipped 5 million units.

The PS4 holding onto the top spot surprised many and caused JR. to say, “Didn’t expect this. Even Titanfall (the greatest game of our time), a Titanfall bundle, 25 Titanfall articles a day on IGN and a huge price cut couldn’t topple the PS4.”

It pushed BullyBurton to call for more drastic measures, too. “It is time for dark and dirty tactics,” he said. “A price cut to the point where an impulse purchase is most likely and a focus on games that can only be played on XB1 where 720p doesn’t matter as it is the only way to play a must have title.”

Unfortunately, it’s not all good news for PlayStation owners, so Xbox fans can get in on a little schadenfreude too. The PlayStation Network is set to undergo maintenance on Easter Monday, a fact which was like stroking Tuffcub’s fur the wrong way.

As Chris quite simply put it, “Usually maintenance doesn’t bother me, I understand they have to make concessions for it globally, but this is beyond stupid. It seems the UK always gets the worst time slot and this time they plan it for a bank holiday?”

Carson321 added that “it should not be that difficult for a global company to manage their maintenance schedules such that it takes place over night in the different areas at least,” and there are further arguments that this process should be invisible to the public, especially given that it is now a paid service on PS4.

Apparently, if you log in during the 24 hours leading up to the maintenance, you should be able to connect and play, but does this affect you at all? Do you think it’s a major issue that Sony need to deal with?

Finally, we turn to the latest appearance of microtransactions, this time with Ubisoft revealing that The Crew will feature dual currencies for everything. I presume it’s going to be similar to Scottish money…

Kovacs made a rare appearance to give his two pennies, saying, “I’m busy. I’m also a gamer, though, and, in my opinion, paying for an advantage in a game, well, you might as well stop playing games and find a more copacetic hobby that suits your busy schedule.”

Peter_UK is even more adamant, as he voiced his opinion:

A terribly subdued week on the achievements front. Lots of games are being played, but few are being completed.

One major draw this week has been Trials Fusion on PS4, and R1MJAW quickly worked his way through all of the regular stages, with just the extreme stages and a bunch of side objectives to go. He also found time to buddy up with Forrest to get the Fuel platinum.

There’s also plenty of people playing with inFamous Second Son still, especially now that the photo mode has been added. Scythepd took the platinum trophy this week.

A pair of platinums also went to Youles, who finally managed to complete Lego Marvel Super Heroes on PS4, after a gruelling 35 hours of game time. If that wasn’t bad enough, he also earnt the platinum for Lego Lord of the Rings on PS Vita, which he deemed to be a bad game.

That it, so rather than finishing off with some trophy or other, I leave you with our scores from playing FIFA Pro Clubs on Friday. The group of us jokingly called it the Good Friday Massacre ahead of time, but didn’t know quite how accurate a description that would turn out to be:

We’re nearly done, but you can head over to page two for the return of the Fastest Platinum boards. To finish off this page, we have the usual submission form for photos and accomplishments.

If people want to keep sending photos in, I’ll be happy to post them, but gaming places is no longer 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].