E3 2017: Keys to Victory

In pay per view boxing matches, there is something called "keys to victory" which is a small pre-fight analysis of what each boxer needs to do in order to maximize his chances of winning. Today we are going to once again use that format to do a little analysis and see what each company needs to do in order to get that "winner of E3" title.

Why is winning E3 a big deal? Well, when a company "wins" an E3 event the grand prize is lots of hype and most often than not hype traduces itself into sales and sales very often turn into good games been considered for the platform in the near future. So without any further delay, lets see what each company needs to do in order to win it.

Microsoft

Up until now, Microsoft has had a really tough first half of the year. Looking on the bright side, the Xbox One has been getting good initiatives like the Netflix-like gaming service, but without many games to keep its user base engaged it has remained quite cold in the house of Xbox. In order to win this year's E3 their strategy has to be to push the Scorpio along with a barrage of exclusive games. Seen a revival of Scalebound as a Scorpio exclusive will sting a little (if you own an Xbox One), but would be a valid strategy. Other big games that could be revived are Fable and even KOTOR (Star Wars: Knights of the old republic). Once again the key for them is variety as the Gears-Forza-Halo combo will not be able to carry their new system to where they want it to be. They need to re-shape their fan base into something that welcomes more types of games and this E3 event is a great chance for them to do so.

Strength: Having a new machine to show gives them an edge if they know how to use it.

Weakness: Consumer confidence is quite low considering the poor first half of the year that the Xbox One had.

Sony

Sony is in a complex situation. They had a wonderful first half of 2017 with a parade of great third party games, but with few announcements and rumors in the last 5 months and with Final Fantasy 7 remake and Kingdom Hearts having difficulties it looks as if they have spent most of their bullets and are now facing a drought. With their situation been like it is... Can they win it this year? The answer to that question is yes, but they need to prove that the drought is not coming and that we have something to look forward to in the next 5 months. We all know that new gameplay will be shown of some games that were already announced, but if we don't get some cool surprises along with some solid release dates, we might have a so-so conference at best. The pressure is on them to keep the ball rolling.

Strength: Great first half of 2017 has the consumer as happy as they can be. The overall attitude is positive and many expect Sony to have an ace under their sleeve as they have done for the last 3 years.

Weakness: Expectations are so high that Sony will have a hard time topping themselves and anything less than what's expected could be seen as dim and uneventful. 

Nintendo

Right now, Nintendo is having a great time. Their gamble with the Switch paid off and they are as we speak a very close second to the PS4, month after month since the Switch was released. Now, the problem for them with this years E3 is that most of their surprises have once again (like last year) been either leaked or announced on ahead of time, leaving them with little mystery and intrigue, things that are needed in this type of event in order to have a big impact on the audience. 

Another fact is that even with the success they are having, they still won't give a big conference and once again rely on their Nintendo Direct videos, which are cool, but don't have that extra "umph!" that big time conferences give. So if things are like this then what does Nintendo need to win? The best bet they have is having secret stuff that they can use to blow us away when they are finally mentioned or showing what they have in a brilliant way, so they can lure us into the hype train. How can they do this? Well, details about the Splatoon 2 and Arms tournament can be a good start along with details about their Netflix-like retro game service and maybe one or two new Switch games that haven't been announced.

Strength: Great momentum since the Switch was released, even bigger that the one they had with the Wii in 2006.

Weakness: Unless they have some good secrets to unveil, everything new about the big N is already known.

Wrapping things up:

E3 Fight Forecast

This years E3 will be a good one with solid game play and maybe a few surprises in a really close fight between the main competitors, but try not to expect a "dreams come true" hype fest like the last one, because it is very unlikely. Let's just enjoy what we will get and get excited about the things that will be announced while hoping that the momentum that 2017 brought can last for a long time. 

Game Doctrine E3 Special

Game Doctrine is a little side project I have been working up with a friend and what better way to introduce our little wacky antics than I showing you our E3 special. If you don't understand some aspects of this episode you can look for previous ones so you can see what it is all about, hope you all enjoy it.

Game Doctrine is shaping up to be a channel that mixes up gaming discussion and criticism with a simple storyline and lots of extras that will be added as we go. I know we have a lot to improve, but we are working to make this a better channel and have lots of ideas that we will be implementing in the future. If you liked the video then help us out by liking, subscribing and sharing the video as it will be of great motivation to us.

E3 2015 - Keys to Victory

We are basically 15 days away from this year E3 event and the stakes couldn't be higher. Sony has a big lead in the console war, but the PS4 is running the risk of becoming slow in the sense that their biggest guns are not ready and demand for new games has become very intense. Microsoft has been on the losing side for the last couple of years, only managing to win some months in terms of sales, but the lack of powerful games in the past could lead them to give gamers a lot of good news that have been building up until now. On the other hand, Nintendo has been recovering little by little, relying on their solid fan base. Don't get me wrong, we all know that the Wii U is still struggling (even though it is a very good console with a good game library), but it has at least gathered enough power to survive.

Now let's see what needs to happen for any of the companies to win...

Pros:

• Expectations, having the chance to announce a lot of exclusives.
• The Xbox One fanbase is still strong.

Cons: 

• Out of the Xbox One fanbase, morale is low and people are clearly thinking that Microsoft only cares about certain genres. 
• Many gamers feel left out and have no strong reason that could justify buying the console.

Keys to Victory
In order to win the E3 battle, Microsoft must come up with an attractive offer, not only to their long time fans, but to other gamers too. For example, if all of their announcements are about shooters and sports, the possibilities for them to end up victorious are greatly diminished because neutral gamers (potential buyers at this point) will feel left out and because of this, Microsoft will find themselves in the same place they did last year.

Another thing that they should use to lift themselves over the others would be to take a lost franchise and revive it. The Silent Hill rumor was proven to be false, but it wouldn't surprise me if the higher ups at Microsoft have given Konami a couple calls after seen how gamers reacted on the web making this an opportunity that could make them win this year E3. Other options for them would be to give some love to their own flagship franchises like Gears of War and Alan Wake (which has a small chance of ending up on PS4) in order to use these fan favorites as reinforcements for their new projects (by keeping the platform relevant to their fans while trying to win new ones).

Bottom line
This year it is all about games with Microsoft and they need to have quite a bombing run in order to pull up the Xbox One from the fact that they are lagging behind by more than 10 million units. If they do this right, they can take the E3 event by storm, but if they don't then it will be just another year of them falling behind Sony in the console race.

Sony
Pros: 

• A great market advantage and popularity.
• Gamers still believe in Sony's promise of bringing a new PS2 era.

Cons:

• Their first party lineup for the rest of the year looks weak.
• Most of the previous big announcements are for games in 2016 or have no release date at all.
• Sony is still carrying the burden of past mishaps (the christmas DDOS attacks, Driveclub issues, The Order 1886 failing to meet the expectations of the mainstream crowd).

Keys to Victory

Sony needs to have some big announcements for this E3 event or else they will have a very hard time. For starters they should at least show some game play of Uncharted 4 in order to keep their fan base all hyped off and to prove that the game will be worth the wait. They should also prove that they will have a lot of third party games that the Xbox One doesn't have (mostly from Japanese studios) and that these games can cover up for the fact that the PS4 first party lineup looks kind of empty for 2015.

They also need for their conference to be fun and dynamic because last year it looked as if they could learn a thing or two from Nintendo who has changed their image from dull goobers back to the trolls they used to be in the 90's and this means less of the "boring politician" style and more of a radical feel to it. Another thing that they should also improve in their conference offering is to talk more about games and less about statistics.

Another thing that Sony needs to do is to unleash their speculated franchises unto their fans. Many PS4 users are eager to hear about the new Gravity Rush game as well as the rumored (and apparently fake) Medevil game that took the net by storm because of some picture, so there you have two possible heavyweights. Now last but not least if they really want to give their E3 conference the equivalent of a nuclear bomb, then they should show something about legendary non-existent (at least for now) games like The Last Guardian or maybe revive Crash Bandicoot or Legend of the Dragoon at least. Yeah I know that those last 3 games I mentioned are very unlikely to happen, but hey we can still hope.

Bottom line
For Sony to hold this year E3, they need to keep reassuring gamers that the "PS2 era" that they promised to unleash on the PS4 is still happening. If things are like Andrew House said and 2015 is more of a year of investment and planting seeds for the future, then they need to give us a glimpse of that future or else skepticism will hurt all that they have managed to achieve up to this point.

Pros:

• Fanbase is as solid as ever.
• The Wii U has gone from nothing, to now having the most interesting exclusive game lineup in the console wars.
• Nintendo has recovered from the slump they were into and now they are looking at profits again even though the Wii U console itself it still lagging behind.

Cons:

• Haven't been able to convince enough skeptics to give a chance to the Wii U.
• Legend of Zelda U was delayed and some key games still have no release date.

Keys to Victory

Nintendo is in a very good position for this year E3 even though the fact that they delayed the Legend of Zelda for the Wii U may push you to think otherwise. The first thing that Nintendo needs to do in their E3 Nintendo Direct is to be as straight forward as they can and show the games they have been teasing us about for a long time. We need to see more about games like the Shin Megami Tensei / Fire Emblem crossover, the new Star Fox game for the Wii U, See a little bit more about Mario Maker and of course, finally get release dates for Xenoblade Chronicles X and the new Fatal Frame localization to the west. 

For Nintendo to be able to get a hold of this year E3 (which would be a back to back win, considering that they "won" last year) they need to make their presentation to be both informative and exciting at the same time. So they should once again start with a bit on the wacky side as they did last year and follow through with updates on their games, coupled with some new announcements in order to keep the fan base interested and well seated on the hype train. 

As for the Nintendo World Championships, they need to be as impressive as the one in the 90's or better. We need to see the Nintendo of old still living and breathing in this modern era and I think that the Championships are a good way to show it. If the championship ends up been an over the top event, then it will add up to their whole E3 efforts in a very good way.

Botom line

Nintendo has a real chance here to continue their climb up to the minds of Skeptics that up to this point still believe that Nintendo is only for kids. For Nintendo, this year E3 has to be all about placing themselves in front of the competition and displaying their might for all of us to see, which means showing the games that their platform has and the others don't. If they go around it passively, they will not defend their past year win, so they need to come as strong as possible while giving it that hilarious Nintendo twist that they had accustomed us to in their previous recent offerings. 

So in the end... Who will win?

Like in a sporting event, the game isn't over until its over so predicting a winner is not a wise move. I personally expect Microsoft to come up swinging, Sony keeping a well hidden surprise to us and Nintendo doing their thing without any problems at all. In the end it all comes down to who can shock us or at least give us more enjoyment with their announcements so that #1 spot is still up for grabs.

The West Fall From Grace With Japanese Imports

At some point in the past, we at the west were having a blast with Japanese imports. Most games had their version for the west be it with subs, dubs or even the all powerful multi-language feature that has become basically extinct in these days and the only games that were kept in Japan where the ones that were extremely strange in nature and had no market over here. It was an era where censors and marketing people were a little looser they are now. At the time, the market was more open in terms of risk taking and companies were all into been the most "bad-ass" rather than the extra profits and austerity that they show at our present time. At that point in gaming history we used to be showered with cool Japanese games that complemented our own locally made games.

So...What Happened?
Well, if you grew up with the previous scenario you may have noticed that we have become kind of secluded in terms of imported video games. Yeah, we have a local video game market that is quite strong, but that doesn't mean that we are not going to support games from the other side of the world. On this day and age, any Japanese publisher thinks about it like 1,000.000.000 times before making a simple localization that on the past would had been a no brainer. Just to give you an example, approximately 10 years ago, we got 3 Fatal Frame games, while today as of October 2014, people at Koei Tecmo said that they think that the new Fatal Frame game (Wii U) will be a Japan only release. All of this while survival horror is making a big comeback into the west market which makes this all to be painfully ironic.

If we talk about Japanese franchises that vanished from the west, Yakuza is a big one.

The problem with all this situation is that we are been starved of a lot of awesome games and nice things because of some really dumb misconceptions like:

1) Japanese games wont sell well in the west.
Answer to that: Nonsense! Just because one game of the series flopped in the past (for a plethora of other reasons) it doesn't mean that all of them will do so too. Most of the time some imports fail in the west because of bad marketing and the lack of advertising efforts. That notion that the west generally see Japanese games as weird is a dumb generalization that must stop. The really weird aspect of this misconception is that some Japanese games have a great chance of success because they resemble games that are popular on our side of the planet, but many publishers still refuse to localize them.

2) Japanese cultural references will not fit with the west.
Answer to that: Are you kidding me? I think that Japanese marketers need to take a look on how popular anime has become in the west, especially within North American and Latin American Audiences. Many series are huge in the west and many aspects of the Japanese/Korean cultures are revered on this side of the world, not only as video games, but television series, music and movies. You don't need to "predict" how are we going to react. If the game is fun or at least interesting then we will be able to handle it.

3) Their business models don't fit with the west.
Answer to that: This one looks as if it is enough reason to keep a game out of our turf, but if you see it from a deeper point of view you will notice that the whole gaming market presents different types of opportunities that are not limited to one type of consumer. There are several business practices available including platform exclusivity, extra deals favorable to the players or even the creation of extra content and/or game elements. It is understandable that their business model may differ with the popular ones on our side, but they can re-shape their current ones into something that can help them profit from releasing the game overseas instead of succumbing to their lack of faith in the occidental gamer.

So you want to play PS VITA games on your TV set? Nope, only in Japan.

O.k, but who's to blame then?
If we are going to point fingers the first ones to blame would be Japanese publishers themselves. In the last 10 years, many Japanese gaming companies began to radically change their games instead of evolving them into modern versions of their winning formula. This gave the false impression that we were just not interested in Japanese games anymore while the truth was that those erratic experiments they made were the ones that pushed the fans off some franchises that used to be quite popular. All of this just because they wanted their games to have an American feeling which is a complete betrayal of their original style and the wrong thing to do, as imitation meets failure more often that you may think.

Other ones that are to blame are the marketing people for these Japanese companies that have the mistaken notion that the west hate their games and the third and final piece of the blame game belongs to us, the western gamers. Why? because when one of the few Japanese imports actually reaches our shores, we cheer and all but still ignore it or just wait too much time to get it. Its like we like the game, but don't want to put our money where our mouths are and then we complain when they don't want to release games over here anymore.

This is one of the currently missing imports that saddens me the most.

Wrapping it up
We can once again be what we used to be for Japanese developers, but in order for that to happen we have to show our love for the games, rather than just speak about it and moan when the games fail to be released. It sounds harsh, but it is the truth because many of us old school gamers and Japanese game fans have become too complacent and haven't realized that we are not in the 90's anymore and that in the world we live in today, if there is no solid demand for a product, it wont happen. So we need to sober up from all the good times reminiscing and keep up with what is happening today if we want some good imports to come our way.

How Can Twisted Metal Be Made Relevant Again

There are some games that unfortunately fall under the radar now and then and Twisted Metal is one of them. In case you didn't know, Twisted Metal is a franchise that started on the first PlayStation console and it was all about participating in a deathmatch tournament created by a strange being called Calypso. You chose a character to play with and if you won you could see that character's dream come true (or so Calypso said). Today, I am going to share some personal ideas about how can such a dark and twisted game come back to life on this generation. It would be a reboot that mixes both old and new ideas so here it goes.

The Story
I am really not a fan of super "realism" in games, but in the case of Twisted Metal it could make for an interesting approach. This time the story would have to be a little more believable in order for the game to look different. The setting would still be our world, but instead of a fictional post-apocalyptic version, let's have a very close contemporary one. On this story line, an all new Calypso, seen the sad state of affairs that the world is in, opens the Twisted Metal tournament as a mean for people to get their desires or fulfill their dreams in a world that isn't fair anymore. People all around the world sign themselves in through a special and bizarre social network and build their own cars as they get ready for the carnage that awaits them. At first it would seem like Calypso is in complete control, but halfway through the game Minion (a boss in the previous games) comes back from hell and makes him to be the final contestant (or final boss).  

The Environment
The battlegrounds on the game would be real life cities that will more or less resemble a mini sand box game. Each contestant is placed on one place of the map and they would have to look for resources in order to for them to be able to battle the others. This means that some "realistic" things will happen like running low on gas, getting a flat tire or even a malfunctioning engine. If any of these things happen to you, you would have to go to certain places in order to fix them before your opponent blows you up or else the performance of your vehicle is affected and that will make you an easy target.

While all this happens and as the battle heats up, the government begins to try to stop the battle by force. They will release waves of extra foes, ranging from cops, to the army and even special weapons of their own that will make the battle a little more interesting and challenging. To top things off, if your car is destroyed you would have the chance to jump out of it and make a final stand with a weapon of your own. The battles can also feature elemental hazards like deep water, fires or even natural disasters coming at random. All of these details make for a very active and action packed battle where the winner is the one who can use everything around him/her and an advantage.

Customization
We can have a cast of original characters to choose from in case we just want to pick the game and play, but there should be an emphasis on customization. This time the player should be able to make their own cars and characters. Starting with the car, customization begins to look like a really fun feature, so let's look at an example. Let's say you build a battle vehicle that has the chassis of a military hummer which will be the main body of your vehicle including stats like armor, weight, etc. Then you choose the kind of tires you want (could be dirt oriented, slick, monster truck like, etc). After that you choose one basic weapon (like machine gun, rail gun,etc) and set it where ever you want on the vehicle, a special weapon (missiles, laser, etc) and an ultimate weapon (nuclear bomb, satellite laser, etc). These weapons can either be ranged or melee and the variety would depend on the type of chassis you chose.

After that you get to choose perks/weaknesses based on a point system. Perks would be little extra goodies like special armor, keeping your speed underwater and cool stuff like that. Weaknesses on the other hand would be like small sacrifices you make in order to have more perks. Let's say that you choose that your vehicle runs low on gasoline quickly, but that gives you some extra points to get the "Ram damage" perk. A system like this would make building a battle vehicle to feel like making a character build on an rpg game, but a lot simpler.

Your Own Character
Customization of your vehicle is interesting, but it shouldn't stop there. You should also have to be able to make your own character. First you can choose a stock picture for it, or just put one of your own. Then, you would have to choose character traits. Character traits would be certain characteristics that will give your character a personality and will serve as information that the game would take to generate a story line and ending for you. These traits would be classified into 5 categories that would be:

• Type of person: Who would you be.
• Personality: How would you behave.
• Setbacks: Bad stuff about you.
• Virtues: Good stuff about you.
• Desires: Things you want in life.

You would have the opportunity to choose 2 types of person, 1 personality, 3 set backs, 3 virtues and 3 desires and each of these categories would have tons of options to choose from. Let's say you chose to be a retired soldier who is also a cab driver and your personality is gloomy. 

For setbacks: You are an orphan, you are addicted to betting in casinos and were involved in a scientific experiment accident. 

For virtues: you are physically strong, immune to most diseases and have a good reputation.

For desires: You want for a dead friend to still be alive, you want to be rich and you want to have a family.

When you finish making your character the game generates a story line for you. You were a cab driver that decided to enlist in the army for some time. When you came back after a big conflict in the middle east you came back with PTSD because of the death of your best friend on one of your missions. You decide to enter the tournament in order to get the riches necessary to get back on with your life the way you want to, so you can re-build everything you lost.

As for the ending, you would enter the tournament with those desires in mind and after winning, Calypso would trick you. He makes you rich and lets you fix your life and live comfortably with your new family, but one day your dead friend comes back from the dead as a zombie and eats you.

Wrapping it up

As you can see, this is a concept that could make this franchise interesting to gamers again. The whole customization feature lets the players to live their own version of the Twisted Metal tournament and could also serve as the character used on an online mode. Mix this up with cleverly designed stages, mechanics that feel a little more realistic and the chance to develop your character for both offline and online modes and I think that you have a new version of Twisted Metal that can be very appealing to both the old and new schools in gaming.

A Videogame Generation Without Consoles, A Curious but Unlikely Scenario.

Videogame generations have always been characterized by the existence of game consoles. The PC has always been there as a gaming platform, but what really brought the games closer to the common household were and still are stand alone gaming machines. Nowadays, some analysts have predicted that consoles will cease to exist very soon, some of them stating that the current home console generation will most likely be the last. Arguments supporting their point of view include the advent of mobile gaming and increasing production costs in a fragile economy. Most gamers just take those analysis as doom and gloom nonsense, but let's make a small analysis of our own and see what would it take for a console-less generation to happen and see how feasible or unfeasible it really is.

There are lots of gaming companies, but the focus is on the big 3 of the console market.

A Matter of Competition.

First of all, for a console-less generation to sucessfully happen companies will need to beef up competition to very intense levels because they would no longer have any hardware to support them. One way to do this is to increase the rate of platform exclusive games up to a point in which we receive no less than 5-8 exclusives per year. If this is not done, then we will have different first party cloud based game services featuring the same games. Another option they have is to get creative and give their cloud platform an edge by giving the players some out of the ordinary incentives to play their games. One example of this would be to feature special points with each unlocked achievement or trophy and let the player use those points to buy more games. Another good idea would be to have monthly competitions with real prizes, encouraging games to play on their platform, polish their skills and compete, be it directly (fighting games, first person shooters) or indirectly (game records, score, speed runs, etc). 

These are just two ideas that could make an interesting first party cloud gaming market and while it sounds like tons of fun for us as consumers, it is a nightmare for gaming companies if we see it from a financial point of view. In reality, exclusive game development is getting slower while multi-platforms are thriving and getting faster. On the other hand giving real and direct incentives to the players is something that is almost non-existent as companies are looking to spend less and earn more in a market that is not custom tailored for us players anymore. 

A pro-player environment is something they have been running from for a long time.

Features We Love, But Nightmares They Fear. 

Let's imagine for a while that consoles have already vanished and that every first party company has its own cloud gaming service. Would they implement pro-player features that would make their networks a lot friendlier or will they go the dictator's path and keep player convenience out of the loop? If everything is cloud based we as players will need things like an offline mode, game sharing, game trading and lending between users, remote play, etc. Some of these features are to be implemented in consoles (with offline play currently existing on Steam) but if we were talking about a completely cloud based environment then companies would get nervous about what freedoms they give us. Will they go ahead and implement compulsory DRM even though everybody hates it? Will they fear people tricking the system so much that they will force countless limitations on us? Even if they go the opposite way and give us a gaming paradise, will the publishers be o.k with this?

If these feared features are something that has been very controversial on consoles, imagine how would it be if everything were to be cloud based. The probabilities of a giant backlash/fiasco are enormous, especially if you take into account what happened to Microsoft at the beginning of the current generation. Remember this?  

Console-less Markets And Their Customer Friendly Ways

This one is all about game prices. Console-less markets like Steam, Origin, Humble Bundle thrive of the idea of low prices or even give whatever you want type of systems. On some occasions we see new games getting price cuts that would seem barbaric for the console market investors. Steam is a great example of this as on Valve's little gold mine, sometimes we can find gaming deals on big name games that are quite recent, especially on seasonal sales. This is because on a console-less market, the price of games is a little more tied to demand than on the traditional game selling environment. 

Many publishers would cringe on the idea of everybody getting their game for cheap so it is either this or (once again) give the players a strong incentive to buy your game at full price (something that doesn't involve X set of armor, a "special" vehicle or an extra weapon). They need to make people really want the game quick or else they will wait for a price drop and that would hurt their profits more than the Red Wedding (spoiler alert!) episode did to Game of Thrones viewers. 

Wrapping it up:

A console-less generation of games can happen and that is a truth that can't be denied, but just because something can be done it doesn't mean that it is a good idea for everybody. From the point of view of us the consumers, it can be quite nice and convenient, but from a business stand point it is a quite difficult task to do. Gamers are getting smarter in deciding how will they spend their money, so one little mistake can spell disaster and first party companies/publishers know this very well. So, to wrap things up let's say that a console-less gaming generation is NOT feasible unless we (the players) are the ones who dominate the market. If the men in business suits are good with that, then we could be having this as soon as the next generation comes, but if not, then we are not ready for this and will have to wait at least another 20 years to get it. 

After Playing or Seen PT... What Can be Expected of Silent Hills?

If you have been keeping up with the newest blog entries, you know that 3 days after the Survival Horror Awakens, but Still No Silent Hill article, Sony and Kojima had this brilliant idea of using a viral technique to tell us that there is going to be a new Silent Hill game which is now called Silent Hills. That piece of news has generated a lot of hype between both the long time fans and curious gamers who haven't seen much about this horror franchise, which is very cool thing considering the lack of love that the series had been suffering since Silent Hill: Homecoming.

Now knowing that PT was a sort of a viral teaser for the new Silent Hill game, we got to see first hand how powerful the fox engine is. The setting of the PT game is on a small segment of a house and it looks astonishingly real also supported by a really good assortment of sound effects that were successful in giving the creeps to everybody who experienced it. Overall, the teaser was excellent, but all the questions are now directed at the final product. How will Silent Hills be?

Any fan of the franchise itches at the thought of exploring the entire city.

Will it be an exclusive?

The possibilities of this title becoming a PS4 definitive exclusive are very slim, even though it was first showcased on PS4. The reasons why a definite exclusivity deal seems unlikely is that the franchise is trying to get back on its feet again and in order to do so it needs to be available to as many gamers as possible. On the other hand we have stuff like the game's profile on IGN where it shows that Sony is one of the publishers along with Konami. So if this publisher thing is true, it means that some sort of exclusivity is on the way even if it is only for a limited time. Sony recently said that they were not interested in "buying" exclusives, but if they are indeed one of the publishers we may be seen something like the thing Nintendo did with Bayonetta 2. Now been things as they are right now, the safest bet on this aspect of the game is to think of it as a timed exclusive.

The power of the fox engine at work.

Graphics vs Content

A great deal of speculation has been going off regarding how this game will be, but nobody has a clear idea. There have been a lot of fan theories that try to predict how the story of the game will go, but have you ever asked yourself how will the game be displayed to you? The Fox engine did a hell of a job, grafically showcasing the interiors of a section of the house, but will it hold up to an entire town? Will this force developers to divide the game in chunks in order to maintain the visual quality? To have at least some kind of answer to these questions be aware that the final product will most likely be different than the teaser. If we take it from a business perspective we can tell that if they feature Norman Reedus in the game, it wouldn't be for him to stay hidden under a first person point of view for 90% of the game as that would be kind of a dumb thing to do if they want him to be part of the marketing efforts for the game.

So this points to the game been in a third person perspective with some first person parts that will play like PT and will serve to give the player some insights about the story of the game. Hopefully the beautiful graphic style presented in PT will not be affected.

My experience of the game was so unique, I didn't even saw this guy.

The "s" in Hills

It is a fact that people that played the PT game are still looking for a definite and logical way to finish it. Up until now there are still a lot of discussions about how to beat the teaser and it seems like everybody is having a different experience. This, coupled with the "s" in "Hills", give the impression that the "everybody has his own experience" thing will also be true on the final product. Maybe this time we wont be taking a personality test before the game starts, but have other things that will lead us to all sorts of variations that will make each experience to be unique. This can be done by changing the game through the player's decisions and/or making it a free roaming experience by featuring multiple paths and mixing those paths with various choices for puzzle solving and character interactions that serve as forks in the road (explicit and implicit) up to a point that they may even change the main objective of the game somehow. All this of course will lead to the classic multiple ending feature that many Silent Hill games have had in the past.

This Silent Hill 2 scene is still an ongoing topic within fans.

Philosophy and Psychology

Almost all of the Silent Hill games have deep psychological and philosophical roots. There is a lot of stuff to analyze and fans have been making theories ever since the first game was released and this is especially true with the second game in the series which seems to be the richest on this sort of thing. Now with Silent Hills we may have a lot of new material to twist our minds into. Evidence of this comes in the discussions that have started on the net, with fans already making all sorts of theories based on the PT game. Some fans have tried to predict the setting and time in which the game will be set on, the appearance of classic antagonists like Pyramid Head and they have also been talking about their ideas about how the story will be. The curious thing about it is that the fan theory mill is getting bigger and bigger and we don't even have the game yet. If you want to read some of these theories check out this Reddit thread and see for yourself.

Been grabbed by surprise and finding this thing face to face, its no wonder there were so many screaming videos.

Wrapping it up

Silent Hills doesn't look like a reboot to the series, but some sort of side story focused on bringing an unique experience to everybody. The powers of the cursed town called Silent Hill can move to pretty much everywhere as evidenced on Silent Hill 4, so we can have an terrifying and macabre experience in any place near it as long as the main character has some sort of relation to its messed up history. It all looks good up to this point and expectations are high, so let's just wait and see what Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro have in store for us.

5 JRPG Franchises We May Never See on Consoles Again

Although it is a niche market, role playing videogames (rpg) have always captivated the minds of many gamers around the world. Be it, because of their epic stories, likable characters, secrets to unlock or a deep sense of strategy, this genre is one that may never die. Still, not everything is peachy as Japanese rpg games are still having problems getting into the home console market. This side of the genre has not experienced any type of console boom since the beginning of the previous generation when Microsoft got a lot of j-rpg exclusives for the Xbox 360. Nowadays big scale console j-rpg games can be counted with one hand mostly because most of the fan favorite franchises that rpg gamers would love to see in the current generation have been abandoned, changed completely or downsized to a handheld or casual mobile game. These are 5 of those sagas that we may never see again unless some kind of miracle happens.

Note: This list focuses on the games that are very unlikely to make it to a home console. I know that some handheld titles are superb, but the focus here will be big scale console experiences like Nino Kuni, Tales of Xillia or the Persona series. 

Some will say that turn based battles are slow, but I think that the ATB system makes them fun.

1) Final Fantasy Games (Turn based - Classic Style)

Final Fantasy can basically be called the banner flag of the entire genre. The problem is that the franchise has changed in such a drastic way that many fans won't even recognize it as the saga they knew and loved. Evidence of this change came with the creation of Final Fantasy XIII. That was a time when the creators themselves admitted that they had been influenced by games like Call of Duty a, thing that is still daunting to many players out there. Another thing been that infamous moment in 2008 when the president of Square Enix gave a warning to all employees about the company focusing on mainstream experiences or "facing the consequences". All of this became a wave of change that basically washed off an entire saga away. Up to this day even though Square Enix has pledged to go back to their roots, it is very unlikely to see a full scale turn based FF game ever again on consoles as we did on previous generations.

The Koudelka/Shadow Hearts franchise sort of gave a new face to the genre at the time.

2) Shadow Hearts

Shadow Hearts is an j-rpg series that started with Koudelka which was an horror styled rpg (PS1) then, the game got its name changed to Shadow Hearts and spawned 3 games (keeping the dark undertones that identified it) and making it a series. This is another one of those j-rpg franchises that died off with the PS2 and basically disappeared. Reasons why don't see it nowadays are that its main publisher Midway, went bankrupt and was bought by Warner Bros. Also to put a little more salt in the wound, Shadow Hearts developer, a company called Sacnoth (later known as Nautilus) doesn't exist anymore as it was dissolved by its owner Azure (a pachinko machine company).

Grandia 2 was one of the games that helped the Dreamcast have the initial success it did.

3) Grandia

Grandia was one of those j-rpg games with great visuals, an intuitive and fun battle system and stylish game play. The first Grandia game was made in order to compete to the rpg giant Final Fantasy VII (appearing on both the Sega Saturn and the PS1) and later on, it became one of the most cherished franchises on the genre. The first two Grandia games are considered classics, but many fans believe that from that point on the series went into a downward spiral that killed the franchise popularity as gamers felt that Game Arts was stepping away from the original formula that made the game so popular. Another heavy blow was that the series original creator died in 2011 so the basic essence of the game may had died with him. Up until now there have been no announcements or even comments regarding the revival of this great series. It is important to mention that even though the first 2 Grandia games were the ones that people see as classics, the third one was not bad and it was just a casualty of the decrease in popularity that the series was suffering.

This was one of those with tightly packed towns where you had to play with the camera at all times.

4) Breath of Fire

Breath of Fire was Capcom's contender to the crown back in the j-rpg days, having its own best titles through the 16 to 32 bit eras. It had good anime styled graphics, an excellent story and well developed characters that made us feel like they had a very deep sense of purpose, all in an environment that had a kind of Celtic mystical mood. The series took a dive in Breath of Fire V: Dragon Quarter (which was praised in Japan, but shunned in America because it went too far from the original formula) and after that, gamers never heard of a new classic Breath of Fire game again. Capcom announced that they would be releasing Breath of Fire 6 in 2014, but the game looks nothing like the original and many fans fear that it will just be a casual mobile game with the Breath of Fire name on it. Right now, as half of Capcom is at sale, there is a slight possibility that an rpg-focused studio could get the rights to the game and make it right again, but it is still a very long shot.

A game that looked beautiful back in the days where pre-rendered backgrounds were still the rage.

5) Legend of the Dragoon

Legend of the Dragoon was one of the most acclaimed j-rpg games on the PS One. It had very advanced visuals for its time (exploiting the pre-rendered background trend), a long and interesting storyline and quality aspects that rivaled those of the Final Fantasy games of the time. The game was supposed to turn into a series and get a sequel, but for undisclosed reasons, Sony broke up the group and just cancelled the project in order to relocate resources. Now at our present day and after almost 15 years since it was first released, Sony hasn't shown any interest in reviving the franchise other than a PSN re-hash of the original game. Even Shuhei Yoshida has expressed that the game is one of his best memories in the time he has been working at Sony as he was part of the original team, but not even Yoshida seems to be able to bring this great j-rpg back from the grave.

My hat is of to Namco, because they have never given up on their Tales saga.

Wrapping it up:

Even though this list looks very pessimistic, I have to tell you people that this list was much larger. This article began with 10 j-rpg games that we may never see on consoles, but was later on reduced to 5 because half of them got at least mentioned or referenced meaning they could still come back, like Wild Arms for example. The j-rpg side of the genre is slowly gaining its strength back and it may be just a matter of time before we see it blooming again. Let's just make sure that we put our money where our mouths are and support the games when they come out.

Will Sony really bring a new PS2 era?

Right now, the PS4 is the industry leader everywhere in the world except for Japan, where the Wii U is still beating Sony's machine. At first, one of the initial promises that Sony had with the PS4 was that they were going to bring a new PS2-like era in gaming and that was one of the things that attracted many gamers to their side right at the beginning of this generation. Because of this, expectations have always been high with the platform and almost every PS4 owner is eagerly waiting for Sony to drop or at least mention their intention to drop some of the big bombs of that "new PS2 era" or at least something that resembles it. Up until now there are no signs of that happening in the near future and it is almost certain that many of the first adopters are starting to wonder if this is ever going to happen.


The first "PS2 era" aspect that hasn't happened with the PS4 is the inclusion of a definitive JRPG on the console. If we remember back at the PS2 days, one of the games that even came with the console's demo disc was Final Fantasy X and that was a very big deal at the time. Nowadays with the PS4 we have some rpg games on the way for the near future like Natural Doctrine and Hyper Dimension Neptunia VII, but both of them are basically dedicated for a niche within the JRPG niche, which are tactic rpgs and fan service rpgs. Up until this moment there are no indications of a role playing release of giant proportions like a Nino Kuni sequel or even the revival of slumbering franchises like Wild Arms, Suikoden, Shadow Hearts or any of those that had very good offerings for the PS2.


Another aspect that is not there yet is the appearance of a PS2 era heavy hitter. Jack and Daxter is still out of the picture since the last days of the PS2 lifespan, Dark Cloud are two words that wont even appear on a Ouija board, The Last Guardian is starting to become like the Sony's Shenmue (a game that pulls a sad sigh out of developers every time it is mentioned), Tekken ended up stranded on the Wii U, Twisted Metal has been missing in action for years and action adventure games like Maximo, Medievil and Ape Escape are not even close. To be fair, they don't necessarily have to make direct sequels or reboots. They can come with new things that cater to those experiences, it should not be that hard considering all they have to gain from it.


Last but not least, if we have something to acknowledge about the PS2 is that it was the powerhouse of horror. Not only did it snatched Resident Evil from Nintendo's hands and had the best Silent Hill games around, but also had Siren (which had a pretty good chapter based game on the PS3), Fatal Frame which seems to be the horror franchise nobody (except for Nintendo) wants any more, The Suffering, Haunting Grounds, Clock Tower,  Rule of Rose, Trapt, Manhunt, Run Like Hell and others. Right now the only horror titles roaming the PS4 are Outlast, The Evil Within and The Order 1886 which is the only horror exclusive.

Wrapping it up

Instead of all those things that would had made for a promise in the process of been fulfilled, we are getting sort of a "PS3 Plus" deal here with all those types of games heading to the older console instead of the PS4, which is a mistake if they really want to widen the gap between them and the competition. With the Wii U and Xbox One beginning to solidify their game libraries, Sony should keep firing shots at them by giving the players a definite reason to hang on to their platform and the best bet they have right now is to rally the troops with their long time fans by giving them something to really hype for, other than The Order 1886, Bloodborne and No Mans Sky. Still, is it needed to say to all those gamers out there to NOT become pessimistic as the promised new PS2 era can still happen, let's just hope that Sony realizes that they have more to gain than the risk involved in that kind of strategy.

5 reasons why the AAA game obsession is harming the gaming scene

AAA video games are games with a high budget and big production values. They are nice, cause a lot of hype and give the gaming community something to talk about, but they are not the only games in existence. After reading the opinion that the big guy at Sony, Shuhei Yoshida had about the obsession with AAA games, you can pretty much see that game publishers and developers are getting kind of frustrated with the AAA game rush that is happening in the industry these days. Many gamers just want big games to happen overnight and while gaming companies are not entirely innocent about this, trying to rush the gaming industry is causing more harm than good and here are 5 reasons why.

The game is good, but some of its potential was hidden in order to meet the deadlines.

1) The sacrifice of quality over speed.

This one is all about the various game developing processes that are affected by rushed developing cycles. First of all, the creative process gets shortened to an extent that many good ideas that gamers could had enjoyed are lost in the process because there is not enough time to include them. Then the game design process is forced to become "too safe" for its own good, so the main base of the game you will pay 40-60+ dollars for is stripped off any "unnecessary" (unnecessary meaning cool stuff) design practices which almost leave the game with a basic canvas that ends up lacking. Finally the technical process becomes a race to the finish line, increasing the possibility of the game having bugs or technical issues that people will most likely complain about later. When all this happens, at least 25% of what could had made a game great is lost.

Did you knew that up until know they have been using the same engine over and over again?

2) The dreaded "one year" development cycles.

Even when many people seem to hate when a good franchise gets the "one year - one game" treatment, we have to accept that this is a by-product of wanting big games too fast. Publishers are not just there because of the games, they are mostly because of the money and if their marketing specialists see that demand has risen to a point where they can no longer support it by normal means, they will recommend to speed things up, thus the "one year" development cycle. This causes a lot of things like recycling of resources, decrease in innovation and it basically grind creativeness to a halt up to a point where the only thing that changes are the characters and setting, sort of like one of those cheap novels you find in some department stores for a few bucks.

Are we ever gonna get a sequel of this on America?

3) AAA Franchises with a slow development process die off.

When was the last time we saw a revolutionary cutting edge game, with more than 25 hours of game play, featuring new things and nice visuals? We have seen a few exceptions to the rule, but on the broader aspect of things, any franchise that needs to have a slow development development process is marked for death or at least ridiculously delayed. Take for instance many of the games that have vanished. Most of them have some things in common like dynamic game design, detailed game worlds and storylines that go a little deeper than your average "good guy vs bad guy" cliche.

All these things take time, which means that they can't rush them and much less "dissect" them (see point #1) because then the fans will not support it. So what they do is that they ignore those games, but use their names as promotion because they know that fans will love to hear that their favorite franchise is still alive. This is the reason why we haven't seen games like Half Life 3, Beyond Good and Evil or The Last Guardian for a long while. Their development process is slow, so companies never focus on them because they feel like they need to keep an always hungry AAA game crowd happy at all times. Sort of like wanting to offer a professional chef-style dish, but having to settle out with cheap plain burgers because people are asking for food and they want it fast.

This is how the market looks like sometimes and it is our own fault.

4) It causes gaming "droughts".

One of the things that the AAA game obsession has done is kill smaller studios because they are not been supported anymore. Back in the past, smaller studios on the mainstream market (non-indie) were the ones that gave us something to play while the big budget games were developed. It was like going to the game store and seen all these obscure games that had weird release dates and were not advertised that much, later on discovering that they were great under-appreciated gaming experiences. This does not happen anymore because most of those studios have either closed, been absorbed by a bigger company or went "indie" only. For some reason, many gamers decide to wait until the big games are released and pass on anything else.

This created a sort of black hole in the market where all these small studios got sucked in and now we suffer gaming droughts because of it. Let's face it, there are too few small gaming studios in the big market and the ones that are still there are not releasing games like they used to because they have no incentive to make great productions anymore because too many people are just sitting on their consoles waiting for the next new AAA game and not giving anything else a chance.

With Igarashi out of Konami we will not see something like this anymore.

5) It saps motivation out of the game companies.

This is a chain reaction that happens when the publishers lay the smack down on their developing teams based on the market (now frivolous) demands. This takes a toll in not only the programmers, but the game designers, writers, musicians and all of the creative team as they struggle to meet the deadlines while leaving precious ideas dead on the table because they don't have enough time/resources to do it. This is in the case that the project becomes a reality and doesn't get canned like it has happened to many games out there. In the end, the motivation to create becomes scarce and many of the most famous developers just give up and become figure heads or just leave the company (which is good for them, but means that the franchise they worked on for so long is either dead or will never be the same).

The best thing to do is to relax, play and have fun.

Wrapping it up

The gaming industry is going too fast for its own good and this must stop if we really want gaming to be become better instead of a re-hash fest. We must re-learn that good games take time and give a chance to all those "not so famous" games out there, be them in the indie scene or in the mainstream market. We need to stop waiting exclusively for the big games and just play and have fun with what we have. There used to be a time when gaming was based entirely on playing and not on trends or the next big thing so it would be healthy for the gaming scene if we return to that line of thinking, especially if we want our favorite franchises to survive and game developers to keep their creative freedom. This can be achieved and it is all up to you.