15/9/2022 0 Comments A Nintendo Direct and A State Of Play on The Same Day? - Here Are My Highlights!So the 13th of September was certainly an exciting day for gaming, we had the Nintendo Direct at the start of the day and at the end of the day, we had a State of Play from Sony. There were lots of things announced from both events but as usual, I’m just going to go through my personal highlights from both events, starting with the first event of the day which was the Nintendo Direct. The Nintendo Direct1. Fire Emblem Engauge – I’m an extreme Fire Emblem Fan, I’ve played through the majority of the games and I’ve always enjoyed the story, the characters and of course the battle system. This is an all-new story with a new cast of characters but it also has some characters from past games. The game seems to be centred around machinic where you summon older characters from the series like Marth to aid you in battle, which honestly sounds quite similar to what’s in the FE mobile game Heroes, or like how gambits worked in Three Houses, I just hope that it fits into the FE combat smoothly. The game also looks like it will have a semi-open world to explore like the Monastery in Three Houses, which I’m glad is returning. The only problem I have with the game so far is the name, it doesn’t sound as cool as some of the other names in the series. People have also pointed out online that the game looks very colourful, but I honestly think that the GBA games were full of colour so I think it might be the series pulling from its roots a little. I’m really excited about this one! 2. Octopath Traveller II – I was very surprised to see a sequel to Octopath Traveller announced because I thought that Octopath would just be a one-time thing. I don’t know too much about this series because I only ever played the demo of the first game, but I have to say I enjoyed what I played of it and would defiantly like to pick up both of these games in the future. The thing that I love the most about these games is the HD-2D art style, I think that it looks gorgeous, it was the game that popularised that art style for games after all. 3. THEATRHYTHM FINAL BAR LINE – Rhythm games have always been a genre for me that I’ve liked but never really put the time into, however, this game combines Final Fantasy Music with a Rhythm game which honestly sounds like something I could happily sink hours into. I don’t know much about this series either but it might be a game that I pick up in the future. 4. New Nintendo 64 Games on Nintendo Switch Online – I’m just going to list the New Nintendo 64 games announced here as one category because they were under one heading in the Direct as well. So the Games that are coming are Pilotwings 64, Mario Party, Mario Party 2, Mario Party 3, Pokémon Stadium, Pokémon Stadium 2, 1080º Snowboarding, Excitebike 64 and then the BIG ONE, 007 Golden Eye! I never got the chance to play any Nintendo 64 games growing up due to the fact that I only had my dad’s old PS1 and I never owned an N64, the closest I got to the console was playing it at a friend's house. The N64 is a console I’d love to add to the collection, but it's great that I can use the Nintendo Switch Online Service to play some of the most iconic games from the console before I buy them. I’m seriously looking forward to playing Goldeneye for the first time as well as playing the Mario Party Games online if I can get enough people. 5. Mario Kart 8 Booster Course Pack – Two New tracks were shown at the Direct and one of them is one of my favourite tracks from the Mario Kart Series and that track is Peach Gardens from Mario Kart DS. The other track that was announced was Merry Mountains from Mario Kart Tour. I didn’t play a lot of Tour when it was released, so I’m not familiar with any of the tracks from it, especially not the ones that are being put into the Booster Course Pack. I think that must have been the case with most people because Nintendo seems to be porting lots of them to the booster pack, maybe so that the money spent developing them isn’t wasted due to the low player count of Tour. 6. Master Detective Archives: RAINCODE – This one looked very very cool! I liked the world that this game was set in and how the setting was dark but also had some pops of neon colouring. The game is co-developed by the same team that made Danganronpa, which is a series I’ve always had an interest in trying but I have no idea where to start with it, however, this game seems to be a whole new IP and idea, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a detective game set in such a quirky and fantasy setting before. I’m very interested in learning more about this game so I’m hoping we’ll see more gameplay soon. 7. Crisis Core - Final Fantasy VII - Reunion – I haven’t played any Final Fantasy spin-off games and I will admit, I’ve only ever played a teeny tiny part of FF7 so I have a lot to catch up on before I can play this, however, I’ve heard really good things about Crisis Core and I’m honestly really glad that this remaster is coming to Switch because it’ll be great to have it handheld like the original PSP version. I thought that the combat for this looked fun and the music was very cool, I only had one gripe with this game and that is I thought that the voice-over sounded a little off in parts, still super excited to try this out, after I get finally get through my ever-growing Backlog of RPGs. 8. Tales of Symphonia Remastered – This is another RPG that I’ve always wanted to try out and get into because it’s another one that I’ve heard really good things about, however, to buy the original game on the GameCube would cost me an arm and a leg, so I’ve never been able to get into this series, however with this getting a remaster I should now be able to start the series and maybe get into some of the other games. They didn’t show too much gameplay of this but what they did show looked very good. 9. The Legend of Zelda – Tears of the Kingdom – The first ever Zelda game that I played was Breath of the Wild, I played and finished it last year and even though I was late to the party I really enjoyed the game. I wouldn’t say I’m the most hyped for a new Zelda game but I am a little disappointed that we haven’t seen more gameplay of this, however, the game isn’t being released until May so I’d say Nintendo is going to do a Zelda direct or a Tree House nearer to the release date so fully show off the key features of the game. What we have of the game so far looks like an improvement over Breath of The Wild which is defiantly a good thing, I’m also glad that we have a title as well but I am surprised that it didn’t have a Breath of The Wild Prefix since it is a sequel, but because I’m quite new to the Zelda series I’m not sure whether it’s common for the games to do that or not. Overall I thought the Direct was very good, a lot of people online seemed to complain that there were a lot of farm RPGs, which I will admit there were A LOT of farming RPGs but I feel like there were enough announcements from the event to balance everything out. I felt like a lot of the smaller games could have just been shown in a short flash reel but I also appreciate how every game had its time to shine here. The Sony State Of PlayIt is hard not to get hyped for a State of Play with the Music that they use before the events! This was a shorter event so there were fewer announcements here, but even though it was shorter the event was packed with some awesome announcements, so let’s get into my highlights. 1. Tekken 8 – Tekken on the PlayStation 1 was a game that I played so much as a kid (I even played it again recently on stream, I still suck) but I’ve never gotten the chance to play any of the new ones. I recently got back into fighting games when I played Mortal Kombat 11 and I’d love to try out more of them. This trailer was a great opener for the event and I’d honestly love to get into the newer Tekken games so this might be one that I end up picking up in the future. I’m defiantly a very casual fighting game player because I can never remember the combos and tend to just block and hit, so let's hope that Tekken 8 is beginner friendly for a filthy casual like me. 2. Like a Dragon: Ishin – This game might be one of the most interesting games that Sony showed off at this event. The Yakuza series to an outsider like me is so confusing, I’d argue it’s just as confusing as Kingdom Hearts at this point. This Yakuza game is a big deal to people though and for good reason, it’s a samurai spin-off that was only ever released in Japan because at the time the Yakuza series wasn’t selling well in the west (This Article Explains everything in more detail - https://www.eurogamer.net/heres-why-like-a-dragon-ishin-is-a-big-deal). Yakuza is a series I would love to get into and a Samurai spin-off set in Feudal Japan is 100% something I’m interested in, so it might be my gateway into the series. The Combat looked really fun and the story looked very wacky too which is honestly one of the key reasons I want to get into the games. 3. Steller Blade – This is a game that I’ve been following since I saw it at another State of Play last summer, but it was announced before that back in 2019. It was originally named Project Eve but the name has since been changed to Steller Blade which I honestly think is a fantastic title for a video game. We got to see more gameplay and characters for this one, as well as a release date which is exactly what I wanted to see from this game, it looks like a hack-and-slash sci-fi RPG and it looks like it'll be a ton of fun to learn about the world and see how the story of the game is, I’m not sure if the story is trying to be serious or just light-hearted fun. Some people are comparing this game to Bayoneta but I think that gameplay-wise they look quite different and I feel like this game is going to be its own thing. 4. Rise of The Ronin – This is another Samurai game set in 1860s Japan, during the start of the Bakumatsu period specifically. I do feel as though the rise in popularity of games set in historic Japan is due to how popular Ghost of Tsushima was, I learned so much about Japanese history and culture from Ghost of Tsushima so I honestly don’t mind more games being set in similar periods of Japan’s history. Everything I saw from Rise of The Ronin looked beautiful but I think what really sold me on the game was the combat, it looks like you’ll be able to play with more weapons than just samurai swords, it looks like there will be guns from that period too. I think that this might be my favourite game from the event and the more I read and see about it the more I want to play it. 5. God Of War Ragnarök – This one honestly came out of left field and surprised me a little bit, I’ve never played any God of War games (Honestly at this point take a shot every time I mention games I haven’t played…) and it wasn’t a series that I was really interested in getting into until I saw this trailer, it was THAT GOOD! The game looked stunning, the combat looked fun and the story looked like a wild ride, I honestly couldn’t fault that trailer and I have no doubt that Sony Santa Monica will deliver on everything that was shown here. I’m pretty excited to eventually get to this game once I catch up on the series. Even though this State of Play was short I think that the event was well-paced and there was something here for almost any type of gamer, whether you wanted to see more VR, Third Party or First party games. I don’t think we’ll ever see a Nintendo Direct and a State of play side by side again outside of an E3 setting. There was also so much more announced in both of these events than what I covered so if you’re interested defiantly check out the full events. I’m very happy with what was announced and I’m excited to get my hands on some of these games in the future! What were your favourite announcements from the events this week?
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It’s been a weird summer without Having E3 and with it looking like E3 might not be coming back, we might have to get used to these large-scale events hosted by Geoff Keighley. His latest event was Gamescom which is a gaming event that has been held in Cologne in Germany annually since 2009. There was a mixture of new games and updates (and some other things) that were shown here so let’s get into my personal highlights from the event. My Top Announcements1. DaulSense Edge - The first announcement isn’t a game but it defiantly piqued my interest. I’ve never really been into the “Elite” controller market and I usually just stay with the controllers that come with my consoles for the majority of their lifespan, I never liked the idea of buying anything third-party either. However what grabbed me about this controller is that it’s a Pro DaulSense that is directly from Sony, so no messing about with third parties. I also like the fact you can replace the analogue sticks, which is great because joystick drift seems to be becoming more and more common. 2. Sonic Frontiers – There it is! The game I’ve been so divided on for months, part of me wanted this to be good but the other part of me saw the gameplay from IGN and was understandably concerned, however, this trailer that was shown at Gamescom has put my mind at ease, It looks so much better than what was shown previously and the story seems like it’s going to be fun and engaging to play through. I’m not a massive Sonic fan but I’ve been slowly getting into the series more by going back and playing some of the older games after enjoying Sonic Mania and I’m really hoping that Frontiers makes Sonic fans happy. 3. Goat Simulator 3 – Sometimes I just love playing games that don’t take themselves seriously and one of those games is Goat Simulator. I Loved the first one and I played it for hours when I first got my PS4, it was one of 3 games I had on the system and I always had a fun time with it and I imagine I’ll have a great time with the new one as well, especially since it looks even crazier. If you don’t know what Goat Simulator is, it’s essentially a game where you play as a goat with ragdoll physics. The title is a little confusing for newcomers too as it’s titled 3 instead of 2 but that’s just Goat Simulator’s humour for you, it’s just silly, so if you like a video game that’s a bit more serious this is not for you. This game had already been announced previously, but we did get a look a some new gameplay here. 4. Atlas Fallen – I don’t know too much about this game because it was only shown as a CGI Trailer and this is a brand new IP, but what I saw of this got me pretty excited. It’s a brand new Fantasy Action RPG where you seem to be able to use sand as a weapon. I’m hoping that this has a really good story and single-player and that we’ll see more gameplay in future gaming events, but the trailer looked very cool. 5. Where Winds Meet – This is another brand new IP. It's an open-world RPG that is set in Medieval China, some of the gameplay and combat looked very similar to Ghost of Tsushima which was a game that I absolutely fell in love with when I played and platinumed last year, however I’d say the combat here looks more fast paced than in Ghost. I think it’ll be really interesting to explore the world in this game and learn more about the History of Medieval Era China through the story. From this trailer, the story seems like it’ll be quite focused on some Chinese Myths and Legends which sounds awesome. This will defiantly be a game that I’m going to be keeping a close eye on. 6. Dorfromantik – This was surprisingly the only Switch Console Exclusive game to be revealed at the event. Dorfromantik is a German-developed puzzle game, that just looks super fun, cosy and most of all very cute, it combines two things I enjoy, unique puzzle games and cute art styles. The aim of the game is to solve puzzles in order to build up little worlds. I just hope that this gets a physical release because I’d love to have it in the collection and it would be a shame if it was a digital-only title. This game might not be for everyone but it’s definitely one that I could see myself playing when I want to have a chill night. 7. Dead Island 2 – It was finally re-announced properly after being leaked and teased for what feels like years and It honestly looks super fun! A lot of people for some reason thought this was GTA 6, but I knew pretty much straight away that it was Dead Island because I’ve been keeping an eye on the game for a while. If you don’t know the history of this game basically it was first announced back in 2014 but due to difficult development, it changed studios so many times, before it got to Dambuster Studios who developed this new version. I don’t have too much experience with the series but I played the original on the Xbox 360 when I was a teenager and I did enjoy it and had a good time with it because I’ve always been a fan of Zombie apocalypse games, especially mass hordes like in games like Dead Rising and the original Dead Island. The trailer looked fun and I’m excited to get to know the various characters. So that’s all of the announcements from the event that I’m personally looking forward to but there was so much more that was announced. Overall I thought that this event was okay, there was an impressive range of new IP and genres which was really cool to see, however a lot of the announcements seemed to be multiplayer-focused or First Person Shooters set in space which isn’t my sort of thing, but I’d also argue that there was something in this event for every type of gamer. I also want to give a special mention to the weird Pokémon Gaming Car with the cringy interview and the fact that Kojima just showed up to announce his podcast, both of those moments genuinely made me laugh out loud. So What Where your Favourite Announcements From Gamescom? I guess that Sony kicked off the non-existent E3 this year with a BANG! This event was originally a stand-alone affair by Sony and then Geoff Knightly slapped his "Summer Game Fest" Sticker on it a few days before the event, so I guess that this event marked the start of that as well. The Showcase was around half an hour in length and was focusing on games from Third Parties and games that are being worked on for the PSVR 2. I thought overall this was probably one of Sony's best State Of Play events they've ever done, it was well-paced and showed a good range of different games, honestly, there wasn't a game that I saw here that I wouldn't like to try. I think that opening the event by announcing Resident Evil 4 Remastered and closing it with a more detailed look at Final Fantasy 16 was such a great move. With that, all said let's get into my personal top 5 games from the event! My Top 5!1. Resident Evil 4 Remake Resident Evil 4 is the only game in the Resident Evil series I've completed and I have to say I loved it! I've played some of Resident Evil 1 on the PS4 and a little bit of the exclusive demo of Village for PS5 and that is my experience with the series summed up. The reason I haven't played much of the series is that I'm not typically good with horror so it takes me quite a long time to get through games in that genre. Resident Evil 4 to me is just one of those games that if you love video games you have to try out, it's camp and cheesy yet it can be hard in places but still satisfying and even though it is a horror game at its core I was able to play it without getting too scared, it's the perfect horror game for people like me. I'm just hoping the Capcom keeps this game as faithful to the original game as they can because I don't think it'll work as a super scary survival game. My first experience with Resident Evil 4 was also on the Wii so I would like to see them maybe incorporate some sort of gyro controls in the VR version of the game, I think that would be really cool. 2. Final Fantasy XVI This was probably my most Hyped Announcement from the event. I recently got into the Final Fantasy series after playing Final Fantasy XV and then playing Final Fantasy X on my Vita and from that I've sort of become invested in the series and I want to eventually try and play through all of the games. THAT Trailer was awesome, the music was fantastic, the combat looked very fluid and fun and it gave us so much new information about the story and the world that this game will be taking part in. I think the idea of having the summons be part of the different characters is such an interesting idea and I can't wait to see how that plays out. Every time I watch the trailer I get Goosebumps and I think it's the most hyped I've been for a game in a while. 3. Stray So Stray is essentially the game where you play as a little ginger cat in a post-apocalyptic cyberpunk world and I've been interested in hearing more about it since it was announced at another PlayStation Event. I honestly can't compare this game to anything because I don't think I've ever seen a game like this before, it's very unique. It doesn't look like it'll be a game that will be very long but I think it'll be a memorable experience for those who play it. I really hope that a physical release for this game is planned for the near future as well because it could just end up being a digital-only game which would suck. The cat in the bucket was one of the cutest things I've ever seen to be honest. 4. Eternights This game to me just looked very interesting, the music sounded awesome, the art style and colours looked good and the gameplay and combat looked like it'll be fun and satisfying as well. I do also enjoy dating mechanics in video games like Fire Emblem and I think it's a cool idea to merge a dating sim and an action RPG, I think it'll work really well. The Developer of this game was also heavily inspired by the Persona series so if you're a fan of those games this might be for you as well. This is another game where I'm just hoping that it'll get a physical release. 5. Horizon Call of The Mountain I've never played a game in VR at all but the more I see of PSVR the more interested I get in trying VR gaming. I played the original Horizon Zero Dawn last year and I just completely fell in love with the world and Alloy as a character. Call of The Mountain for me was interesting because you don't play as Alloy, instead, you're playing as a different protagonist entirely but you do get to meet and interact with characters and machines from the games, including Alloy. I think having a different protagonist for this game is a good idea because that means it won't affect the main story of the game. I think exploring and taking part in the world of Horizon sounds incredible and the game looked like so much fun so I might have to try and get a PSVR 2. I haven't got a chance to get my hands on Forbidden West Yet but I think it’s awesome that it got a new major patch as well. So that was my personal favourite games from the event, there were so many amazing games showcased that I didn't mention like Rollerdome and Season: A Letter to the Future which had unique art styles and Street Fighter 6 and the Callisto project both looked like awesome games as well, as I said at the start of this post there wasn't a game from this event that I wouldn't like to try out at some point. So what where your favourite games from the State of Play?
21/5/2022 0 Comments I hacked my PS3, Here's Why!I found myself in a bit of an awkward situation with my PS3, I basically bought a cheap super slim console off eBay and for some reason it ended up being an American System which isn't much of an issue as 99% of PS3 games are region free, however, something I didn’t realise is that region locking is still on the console for PS1 games. All of my PS1 games are PAL so they didn't work on the system at all, which was not ideal especially as I wanted to use the PS3 to Stream some PS1 games from my collection and I wasn't going to start collecting NTSC PS1 games either because that would cost me so much in import fees and tax, so I decided that hacking my system to remove the region lock was the best option. Before I get into how I did it I want to add a little disclaimer, This is NOT a Tutorial, I'm just going to be briefly going through what I did and what my experience of hacking the system was like in this blog post, Here is the tutorial I followed if you want to hack your PS3: |
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