Community Chronicle: 21/06/15

It’s absolutely no surprise that E3 was the source of almost all of the news on TSA over the last week, as one of the biggest events on the gaming calendar came around for another year.

Our team of writers on TSA also put in a huge amount of effort to get news up onto the site as and when it was happening, and I’d like to say they did a damn fine job in managing to keep up with the relentless pace!

Be sure to check out Tuffcub’s news round up post, to see anything that you missed.

Let’s start with perhaps the biggest surprise announcement from E3, where Microsoft were able to announce that the Xbox One will be receiving potentially universal backward compatibility to Xbox 360 games – pending publisher approval for their release and excluding exceptional cases with incompatible peripherals and the like.

Avenger glowingly said, “I’ve constantly ranted about the lack of backwards compatibility and the silly remasters that get churned out asking for more money. What a move from MS and I will actually buy a few more 360 games knowing I can keep them and play them when I can upgrade. Definitely a plus when I get an Xbox One.”

However, a lot of people were sceptical of the announcement, falling more in line with the opinion that nobody really makes use of such features. Root Ginger, for example, said, “Sony had backward compatibility on the PS2. You’ll find that it’s not as good as playing the game on the original console – there are normally bugs and glitches compared to the native console. Almost no one is interested in it either, particularly this far down the road.”

Even with certain limitations, it’s still a marquee feature which encourages people to get onboard with the Xbox One. As beeje13 said, “Massive feature, I hope you can buy 360 games digitally on the X1 store to play that way, as I never had a 360.”

Meanwhile on the Sony stage, they were able to indulge in a serious case of wish fulfilment, with The Last Guardian and Shenmue 3 announced, as well as the much requested Final Fantasy VII remake.

“Fantastic stuff from Sony, highlight of E3 for me personally!” said Takyu. “Part of a very strong showing all round for the conference.”

Youles was also rather stoked for this, as he wrote, “I’m so excited for this, having playing HUNDREDS of hours on the original when I was about 15 it will be great to see it so different, so many years on (17 to be exact). I’m interested to see whether the voices they give the characters are similar to what I’ve imagined them to be.”

While Lieutenant Fatman admitted that he “Got a bit emotional watching this,” as it is “one of my all time favourites.”

However, amidst all of the positive news and announcements out of the show, there were also a few disappointments, including Shuhei Yoshida saying with a sense of quite some finality that no first party studios are working on PS Vita games.

“This kind of stuff was one of the major things that put me off Sony,” said Avenger, “and Yoshida’s arguments are weak. PSP was overshadowed by PS3, yet it did well and reinvigorated by Sony in 2009. Furthermore, Vita flatout is not an indie machine nor was it sold as one. Passing off indie games as the main reason for playing on Vita is a bit of an insult to people hoping for more.”

Jag was more forgiving of Sony’s stance, as he pointed out, “This won’t go down well with a lot of people but you can’t say that Sony didn’t give it a go. Gravity Rush, Freedom Wars, Soul Sacrifice, Uncharted and Killzone were all brilliant first party games but not enough people jumped on board the Vita train. It’s all down to economics, the numbers must mean it doesn’t make sense to build massive exclusives for it anymore.”

However, what happened with the Vita has coloured some feeling towards other Sony projects. Dar-Kaus wrote, “I love my Vita and PS4 and I was an early adopter for both platforms, but I have to admit that Sony’s lack of support for Vita & Move have left me feeling that there is nothing to be gained anymore from being an early adaptor for new Sony hardware, and so I for one will be sat firmly on the fence for the first few years after Morpheus has arrived, as I think the hype that surrounds VR at the moment will need to be converted into a well supported platform and a genuine benefit to gamers before I invest further.”

We’ll kick things off with DividSmythe this week, who has been quite a busy bee. In amongst a few other games, he managed to reach 1000 Gamerscore on Rayman Legends on Xbox One, before getting his 50th platinum trophy on PlayStation with Super Exploding Zoo – a record, no less.

Lyts1985 also grabbed a record platinum completion with Ether One, which I believe is no mean feat, while blast71 finally managed to take the Call of Duty: Ghosts platinum, and is just a few trophies away from 100% on its trophy list.

Youles, meanwhile, has polished off the GTA V platinum on PS3, as well as managing to complete his first run through of the Bozak Horde DLC in Dying Light. R1MJAW finished a career on Beach Buggy Racing, though might not bother with the platinum, while Steelhead rounds things out this week by finishing an enjoyable play through of The Unfinished Swan.

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.