The Crossroads of Reality

Feeling like I’m siting on a helicopter after surviving a zombie apocalypse…or a failed dinosaur park experience.


Low key convinced any of the endings involving
Resident Evil games with peeps tiredly escaping in
helicopters were inspired by Jurassic Park.
Inspiration, uh…finds a way

Another week done and dusted, and one that has left me feeling tired…but the good kind of tired. Didn’t discuss a wide variety of topics on ATE this week, as I was mostly replaying and elaborating on my own thoughts related to the Resident Evil 3 remake, which had a delightfully surprising amount of philosophy that spawned from the games deconstruction, which is pretty much as good as it gets in my world. I kind of wanted doing even more run-throughs of the RE3 remake, as there were still a few final trophies for me to get, involving some of the harder difficulties, but I had already played through the title several times in as many days, and having already spent a week writing on the subject material, it felt as if I should put the matter to bed.


Not unlike some other recent adventures I have recently had

I’d posit the notion that this splendiferous slide into some savory surival horror insantiy has lit a fire under me, and will kickstart a campaign of interest to commence a death-march through any number of other Resident Evil titles much like I have in the old days, but I genuinely don’t know if that is the vibe currently bubbling under the surface. As mentioned, though I am the good kind of exhausted, I do think I must spend some time with my thoughts and ponder the way forward, whatever it may be. If I do end up leaving the topic of Resident Evil alone, now would likely be the last best time to mention bloodydisgusting got some of the actors together who starred in the live action opening of the original Resident Evil game, and needless to say it’s pretty awesome, so go give it a look.


Starring: ALBERT WESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSKER

I love how that mother fucker is just wearing sunglasses in a forest at night on a police murder investigation and everyone around him is like “yup, checks out.”. No wonder the S.T.A.R.S member all got took. Nice investigative deduction skills, dipshits, wonder if something is off about this guy?

T’would be there ruin, as fate would so rule.


Wesker even wears his sunglasses in his work photo, he’s a fucking
scientist my dudes.

Putting aside the perfectly over the top absurdism of 90’s villians, I do find that I suffer some bizarre version of what feels like the not-as serious equivalent of a postpartum depression of sorts when finishing a game, especially when it becomes more herculean of a project involving writing and trophy hunting. Even after I’ve reached my conclusive work on the topic at hand, this mood tends to set in where I reflect with melancholic repose on what has passed, the feelings and thoughts I may take away, and the fleeting nature of impermanence, in all of it’s bastardly abstract formats. I’m reminded of Schopenhauer’s thoughts on people who read, and how some may be too voracious in their habits, in not taking the time to digest, comprehend, and self-reflect on what they’ve just consumed, but mindlessly filling the void without any meaning or understanding attached to the experiences. I would tend to concur that people don’t give themselves enough time to appreciate and sit in their own thoughts on any given matter before moving on, so I think what I’m feeling is for the best, however somber in nature it may be.


Contrast is key in illustrating both the human condition and
good storytelling, though both concepts may be codependent
on each other

I think in the spirit of taking a moment for one’s self, I’ll leave it short and sweet for today. Remember to always give yourself some time to ponder and process, so you may have a chance of moving forward an enriched individual. Till next time.

~Pashford

The Mercenaries: Operation Greener Grass

The bill comes do…always.


The reaction to the relative value being exchanged depends
on which end of the transaction one finds oneself

My opening statement can be applied to a great number of ways one “pays” of course, as the currency at hand is not always cold hard cash that one ends up paying with, so to speak. With that in mind, and following up on my thoughts from yesterday about contrasting value on the heels of my Resident Evil 3 remake, I finish up ending in a tonally appropriate way, as I look at a final, key element that the RE3 remake lacked, in showcasing a relative value of something lost, per my utilization of the A.R.T methodology, in deconstructing what did and didn’t work in Capcom’s approach to remaking Resident Evil 3. That of course, brings us to the topic at hand, and one that Conker (see above) has already posited for us.


The absolute mad lads they are

My final moments in celebrating Resident Evil 3 involve the original (not the remake), as we have one last great example of what could be used analogously as “absent rain” in my assessment of the remake. Within that regard, what an experience or moment lacks does help make up it’s very essence, as has been observed in the idea of something like a vase, in that the internal void that helps to create the “-ishness” of what is a vase, is indeed part of what isn’t there. In my original conjuration of my theory of what helps to frame value, it was relative to the lack thereof that helps us form our perspective on what remains, though in this instance, I think what isn’t there creates a painful reminder of what was lost in translation.


Fitting phrasing: imagine a remake of this film lacking Murray

Perhaps I’m being unnecessarily heady right now in complicating what is essentially “just” missing post-game content in the form of a minigame, but “The Mercenaries” felt like an extraordinarily vital part of what made the Resident Evil 3 formula work so well. Within the realm of the tradition of RE unlockables, There was a battle minigame involved as a reward for beating the original Resident Evil, but it was a mode that was exclusive to the Sega Saturn, so not many people even got to enjoy it. With that in mind, many were first treated to this style of post-game RE awesomeness in the form of “The 4th Survivor”, after one fulfilled some in-game reqs involving beating RE2, which had the player controlling an Umbrella operative named HUNK as he escaped the RPD on the eve of Raccoon City’s destruction.


Hard enough to unlock, some considered the mode
a degenerate spawned from hearsay and rumor back in the day

There was also the much harder to unlock other secret character named Tofu, who was, appropriately, a walking bean curd .


Rare you see a zombie game offer up a vegan
alternative

However, and as briefly just mentioned, both characters were quite difficult to unlock normally, so while more people were exposed to the idea of the post-game mode in the Resident Evil series with 2, it really wasn’t until 3 that people likely got their first taste of true greatness, as Mercenaries was unlocked for simply beating RE3, even just on easy, and obviously, being available on the PS1 version, there was a good chance if one at least had the constitution to simply beat the main game, you probably got down on what ended up being one of the best unlocks in a video game I’ve ever seen.


*We’ve ever seen, comrades

That’s what ended up being *just so* fascinating about Mercenaries as an entity: such a simple concept, with such basic execution providing excellency through simplicity alone. For those not in the know, you essentially just controlled one of the three main mercs involved with Umbrella’s paramilitary group from the main game of RE3, the UBCS, in the form of either Carlos, Nikolai, or Mikhail, as you fought your way through the streets of Raccoon City. No real story, no focus on dialogue or cutscenes, just the meat and potatoes of the Resident Evil experience wrapped up in a fast paced arcade experience, full tilt. What was fantastic about Mercenaries was that it had more of a compellingly relentless feel of engagement, with the player fighting against time itself to finish the scenario before the clock reached zero. The different characters all had differing loadouts of weaponry, creating some variety in how you wanted to approach the scenario, and one could score more time, depending on how many enemies one killed, or civilians saved. You could always just “zombie maze” your way right past any encounter, helping to flesh out the strategy involved. Best of all, your final score could accumulate into unlockables for the main game involving super powerful weapons, further adding to the replayability for both the minigame and the main one at the same time


Carlos, learning a grammar lesson the hard way; the
pluralization of Nemesis is Nemeses

Fairly ingenious, albeit so simple, Mercenaries added such a tremendous value to the entire package, and even Capcom knew this, as they would go on to reuse similarly structured modes for other Resident Evil games in the future, and eventually just straight up bringing back Mercenaries mode for RE4, 5, and beyond.


Guess who’s back? Back again.

Capcom ended up seeing enough value in the concept to make it into it’s very own game, The Mercenaries 3D for the 3DS. While the game did meet with some controversy over what was seen as a shady business tactic by Capcom to curb the used game market by not being able to delete the save file on the cartridge, and many others decried the game for being overpriced for what was being offered, it was still a damn good time.


Raccoon City Reunion Right Here (and Krauser)

Aside from some small blemishes in Mercenaries history, it is largely celebrated as the piece de resistance in Resident Evil fame, and with good reason. Why Capcom thought it was at all a wise decision to not include it with the remake is beyond me, as Mercenaries seems like a vital part of the DNA that makes up not just the core fundamentals of what made RE3 so groovy, but it an integral part of the value of the RE series as a whole. I would posit the notion that after Capcom justified making Mercenaries into a full game experience, they would use that reasoning as a citation enough for the exclusion of the mode in the RE3 remake, but the RE4 remake eventually saw an update including Mercenaries as well, so that notion doesn’t hold water. Were it not for that fact, you could look at the absence of Mercenaries from the RE3 remake much like Nintendo omitting the old school NES games, like Balloon Fight, Donkey Kong, Excitebike, available for play in future Animal Crossing games after the Gamecube version, operating under the assumption the company isn’t going to just give games away for free as unlocks in one of their titles, when they could easily charge you for a digital copy or the full price of a title. But again, the RE4 remake, with Mercenaries included exists, so any logic there after is whatever broken handwaving they wish to utilize.


The RE3 remake did come with a multiplayer
component, but it’s about as meh as meh gets

So yeah, that represents my celebration of what wasn’t, however queer of a notion that may be . As mentioned when I started, and as previously stated in my summation of my finalized thoughts involving the RE3 remake, what we ended up getting was a “respectable salute to the end of Raccoon City”, but a Mercenaries sized hole is left apparent in the heart of the entire experience. It’s true what they say. The grass is always greener, and you don’t really know what you had, until it’s gone. Gone.


Gone.

~Pashford

Encyclopedia Muranica: The Absent Rain Theorem

Sometimes, you’ve got to look at the absence of what’s not there for the deepest, relative value you care about, and the lack observed thereafter will help put into perspective what matters most.


For example, not pictured: Fry

After a nearly week long romp of raging through Raccoon City, I’m more or less at ease with my adventures through the abhorrently infested zone of nightmarishly ghoulish proportions. As predicted, I took a second to size my unofficial review of the game up, and I think I more or less hit all of the notes of importance I wanted to. “Back in my day”…so to speak, when I was writing reviews in a more official capacity, they use to be far more long winded, maybe even taking a fine toothed comb of the entire process to a certain detrimental nature of sorts. I gladly leave that structural approach behind, as it feels a bit too outdated at this point, and perhaps leaned too heavily on magnifying the nitty gritty details almost obsessively, to the point of being OCD about the most frivolous of nonsense.


Much in the vein of: 0MFG! NEMESIS DOES TENTACLE THINGS TO
MONSTERS IN THE REMAKE! HE NEVER DID TENTACLE THINGS TO
MONSTERS IN THE ORIGINAL!!!11!

One important takeaway I feel of my overall thoughts involving the RE3 remake, was in regards to a notion I mentioned awhile back…which is ironic, cause I don’t even remember what it was initially in reference too, but the idea was sound I think I initially used a different name for the happening as well, but I’m reutilizing it again with the new dubbing “The Absent Rain Theorem”, as it deals with the concept of seeing value relative to what isn’t present. I initially posited it in terms of focusing on how much it isn’t raining when I ride my bike, as opposed to how much it is raining, to help frame my own perspective on the moment itself, and I ended up reusing the very same idea for my review on the RE3 remake, in all of the excessive absences that make up it’s quality.


Another good example: this wall has now enhanced in quality,
because of the massive fucking hole Jill just blew through it. It’s the
absence of material that makes it so god damn metal. The theorem
works in many ways of detailing quality.

To wit; the A.R.T (Absent Rain Theorem) I ended up utilizing was extraordinarily helpful in focusing my perspective involving the RE3 remake by what wasn’t present, more so than what was, and then parsing through whether or not that was good or bad….or just, different, relatively speaking. That doesn’t necessarily mean it drove me down a mad path of delusion involving said quality, or kept me in denial about the inherent “-ishness” (that’s right, I used that idea a little while back, too) of the game, as it in fact lacked too much in most regards, failing it’s own “-ishness”, both in what was absent, and what was present, but I think my approach with A.R.T in mind was a useful philosophical approach that has now worked in a couple of different applications, and I think will get a lot of use out of me moving forward.


Pictured: Nemesis, trying to get (a) value (meal) out of a
Jill (Sandwich)

With all of that said, and the post mortem on the event more or less done and dusted, I figured I would mirror the game a bit in it’s machinations…or at least, the original release of Resident Evil 3, by having my last focus on the game be about what comes after the escape from Raccoon City, and ironically, fits in with my mention and usage of A.R.T, in distilling the nature of what the RE3 remake fundamentally lacks, and one of the core absences that degrade the entire process after the fact.

And that’s the Mercenaries.


Absence makes the heart grow fonder

To be concluded…

~Pashford

Raccoon City Limits Pt.2

When life imitates art…


We all see bad box art Mega Man in the mirror

During my recent attempts at writing about replaying the Resident Evil 3 remake, in regards to my annual observation of the significance involving September 28th, I’ve been detailing elements of the game I feel just don’t quite hold a candle up to the original. Not because I dislike the game on any real level, mind you, but the fondness I have for classic Resident Evil throbs in my veins to this day, and that sort of energy is harder to beat into submission than a Nemesis that just won’t take the hint.


It sucks when someone misses out on hints of subtleties

While I have enjoyed the bite sized addresses to the elements I speak of, and they have fittingly run alongside the track of the days involving the demise of Raccoon City itself, it also comes at a time when my schedule has turned completely upside down, with me waking up mere hours before midnight to complete a list of activities I prefer to have done by midnight, so my time conjuring thoughts on Jill Valentine and her heroics involving tenure as a S.T.A.R.S member have been not unlike the nightmare of keeping a schedule in order while fighting against the hordes of the undead.


The textbook definition of no chill

I plan on doing some compartmentalizing of my thoughts into one super-cut article here in the next day(?) to tidy everything up a bit, given that I’m nearly out of time to write anything of long winded merit here, but I will leave you with yet another point of disinterest related to why the remake of Resident Evil 3 was kind of a step down from the original in another regard, as the game reduces a players autonomy by dispensing of the branching story options of emergency the original provided. While some were of small note in their implementation, others provided large deviation to the overall pacing of the narrative at hand, and in terms of how you went about navigating the back alleys of Raccoon City.


I hate when they don’t include the relevant number
of self-defenestrations needed when navigating a map

Just another element I’ll have to roll up into the eventual equivalent of a Resident Evil 3 Remake burrito for your enjoyment. To be continued…

~Pashford

Raccoon City Limits

Last time, on Resident Evil Z!


The crossover you never knew you needed

As I was saying yesterday, due to the exuberant vibe emanating from within me to celebrate September 28th by starting a replay of RE3 (remake), I was still of the mind to take the game to task on some of it’s failings, so that we may collectively find benefit in the experiences blemishes. The pacing issues are of a wild sort from moment one, and the game never fully recovers from that point of ingress. I know that modern day Resident Evil, even the remakes of the classic titles that possess a more survival horror oriented bent, tend to trend repping the RE4 formula, more boom than bump in the night, but the totally absent build up to the eventuality of Nemesis’ appearance is such a fall from grace for what should be the main contingency of the entire foundational merits of the game in itself, one can’t feel the developers were off the mark from moment one.


Not all Kamehamehas are created equal

And perhaps I’ve erroneously pegged Resident Evil over the years as being narratively driven, as the game marched forward in the spiritual wake of Night of the Living Dead in the virtual interactive space as the flag bearer for what was, but the complete lack of re-canonization involving the nittier, grittier details in the wake of the Arklay Mansion facilities demise, and the soon to be obliterated Raccoon City seems as if such an embarrassingly wasted opportunity in setting the record straight for the series moving forward. If nothing else, the time when one looks back on the value of life and the quality imbued with the merits of the very soul of an individual, should be within the last moments of remembrance involving the eulogy and the day of mourning, and October 1st leaves nothing but a Raccoon City crater sized hole in the heart of Resident Evil history.


The cost of corporate hubris

To be continued…

~Pashford

Spilled Tea: Switch 2, Warhammer, and AI…

…Oh my!

The Principle of Credulity is a philosophical axiom by Thomas Reid that suggest we have “a disposition to confide in the veracity of others, and believe what they tell us”.


Everyday on the internet leads me to believe this is very true

Today is all about about gossip and rumor here on ATE , as there seems to be quite an awful lot of it swirling around gaming news sources as of late, so what the hell? Let’s spill some tea. Before we begin, I just wanted to mention that throughout my day, I always have a hundred little conversations with myself that I think “hey, this would make an interesting aside for one of my ATE articles”. I think that share is possibly one of the first times I actually remembered to retain said kind of conversation, and we are all technically worse off for it. Not because the share was inane or valueless, mind you, but as a reminder of all the times I was unable to remember the rest of them. I really got to start carrying around a tape recorder ala Coop from Twin Peaks to record my thoughts, as every time you read a write up, it is only one of a very large number of permutations we both could have delighted in, had things just turned out differently.


Strange how it all works out

With multiversal shenanigans now in play as a relevant topic of interest, we shift our focus to a peculiar happening that timeextension brought to revelatory light, with a delightful little article going in-depth about how some Capcom staff were initially resistant to the whole idea of crossover fighters involving the Street Fighter crew from very early on. Apparently, due to the lack of sales of X-Men: Children of the Atom and Marvel Super Heroes in Japan, many at Capcom were silently hoping X-Men vs Street Fighter would die a quiet, quick death. This gave the team a lot of wiggle room to over deliver when the time came, and the break out success of the title would go on to eventually spawn the Marvel vs Capcom series, which has stood the test of popular time, as evidenced by the recent release of Marvel vs Capcom: Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics release.


As I always say: set lower expectations and then over deliver

Continuing on with the theme of what is old is new again, it looks as if Nintendo’s lawyer have finally caught wind of Palworld, an open-world multiplayer survival game, which has designs reminiscent of the big N’s own critically acclaimed Pokémon series, and are ready to mount a legal battle over copyright infringement claims. I’m surprised Nintendo’s legal ninjas took so much time getting around to this one, as this sucker has been making lots of noise since earlier this year, and is even an official release on multiple platforms, and not even a fan made dealie. Ultimately, time will tell if Nintendo wins out with the legal disputes involving the developers of the game Pocketpair, but Nintendo has historically been quite grumpy about this kind of thing for a long time now, and regularly geared towards legal actions in the course of their own history. They even took Blockbuster to task for copyright infringement over their manuals for Christ’s sake. I might love their games, but the Pokémon company has had a stick up their ass over petty frivolities for awhile now, so I hope this just blows up in their face.


How Chinpokomon flew under the radar all these years I
will never know

Staying on the topic of Nintendo, potential images of the follow up to the Switch have “leaked”, according to a number of rampant shares on the internet, which I surmised were all pulled from the same dodgy ass source on the internet that no one bothered to check the legitimacy of….or at least I thought as much, and then I read a piece from Eurogamer commenting on the whole affair. The article mentions how the models do seem to correspond with data that has leaked in the past about Nintendo’s next console, but they did come from a 3D modeler’s post on a Chinese social media website, who as since deleted the posts. Like most leaks: dubious at best, and what took someone possibly two hours to make is now going to be discussed for two weeks with endless pissing competitions involving the veracity of the claims themselves. No news from Nintendo on the matter (big surprise).


Everyone knows the Switch 2 is just going to be 16 Gamecubes
duct-taped together, what are we even speculating for?

In another moment of interesting hearsay, IGN reported about a bizarre happening involving recently released shooter 40,000: Space Marine 2, in a story that allegedly has the CEO of Saber, Matthew Karch, commenting on a Youtube video by user Asmongold about the quality of the title. The gist of the posit which was *allegedly* Karch, has the CEO going on about other devs “imposing morals on gamers”, reinforcing games should be about the design itself and not beating the brow of gamers with some kind of overt messaging muddying the waters. Putting aside for a second just how broad of a declaration that is to even confront, the comment hasn’t even been officially verified as the actual CEO, and a comment which could potentially be some kind of windup from a rando impersonating him, trying to create a fuss in the comments section on a Youtube video in a silly attempt at fanning the flames in the name of some obtuse culture war nonsense. I guess, regardless of whether or not it is actually the CEO of the company hanging out in a Youtube comment section (why would he?) giving praise to their own game (why wouldn’t they?), a good game is a good game regardless of messaging. Don’t worry about what other people are playing, do what you want.


To quote a modern day prophet

And finally, to wrap our daily tea spilling as we are nearing an empty pot, EA decided to remind people why they were voted worst company in the US two years in a row, by deciding to make generative AI as their main talking point in a recent investors day presentation, much to the surprise of no one who is use to EA’s bullshit. They went on to assure onlookers that AI is not a buzzword, and is a core element at the heart of their game development strategy. Read the room guys: with so many negative news stories coming out weekly about foot in mouth comments involving AI, to other very real impacts the practice of using AI has had on workers within the industry, you’d think EA would avoid saying the quiet part out-loud and just keep the fuck quiet about their internal machinations, just to save some face in the name of good PR alone.


A picture of EA’s new PR manager

Cheers for joining me in spilling some tea. Until our next party, then…

~Pashford

Stay Frosty

Hey Gamers

At times like these, I’m very glad gaming is a regular indoor activity. The conditions at my current location are, to articulate my thoughts in more modern colloquialisms, pretty shitty.

Not this shitty.

Fear not! While the weather my halt my better sense of external activity, my brain searches for something comparable, in a realm I’m more comfortable with. I turn to the wide world of gaming to present me with warmer pastures. I’ve partly failed in this regard, as my focus on gaming, brings me once again to colder territories. Capcom has recently released some new tidbits about Lost Planet 3, a series not foreign to almighty chills, or great mighty poos.

And the bastard bugs that shit them.

Seems as if the series is awakening from what seems like a much too long hibernation, and will be bursting forth with the third installment on June 25th.

Among some of the boasts Capcom is making, LP3 is promised to possess, dynamic battle fields with always changing climates, a return of a fully fledged mulitplayer, and a main hero named Jim.

Picture possibly related.

The game looks to be using The Unreal Engine 3, needless to say, the game’s looking pretty good.

A nice blend of lighting and environmental effects, almost distracts you from all of the gigantic bug ass you’ll be stomping in this bad boy.

In a place like this, you might be asking yourself…is it gonna be another bug hunt?

Yup…it’s a bug hunt.

The game will have both first person and third person elements, and boast some vehicle combat, as seen in these screenshots. Anyone who found the first two titles reliable in the intense conditions and difficulty they provided, you should feel right at home. I put a lot of time in the first LP, and enjoyed what I played of the second. The odd sense of survival the title created, in forcing you to keep moving and finding more energy to stay warm, was a novel experience in suspense, to be sure.

I suppose we have Resident Evil 4 to thank for all of this, as the game’s massive success was adopted directly, or has inspired a countless number of other great series.

To

Name

A

Few

Ironically, the only series RE4 didn’t help to inspire after the game’s initial launch…

Was it’s own.

In any case, LP3 has me interested, as so very few Capcom franchises do in this day and age. While some of these pre-screens and info help to whet my appetite, I’ll consider all of this an hors d’oeuvre till the E3 showing. Here’s hoping the frigid conditions of Lost Planet 3, will lead us to some warm feelings of gaming greatness.

Stay Frosty, Gamers.

PS4 News Round Up (Finale)

Having covered the bulk of the Sony Press Conference, and the exciting new prospect of the PS4, I have just a few loose ends to discuss. While I have looked at some of the finer points of the system tech itself, and the slew of games mentioned, there remained larger conceptual projects yet to be touched upon. Some of the ideas shown off weren’t in concrete game form, nor did they offer themselves to what the PS4 is capable of by itself, but what the hardware can do with the right creativity.

As mentioned previously, one of Sony’s big focuses in discussing the PS4 was how developer friendly, and even, developer contributed the core building process has been. Sony demoed a small video clip going over some of the finer points of what they wish to see in conjunction with developers, and some of their ideas going forward.

The video covers a wide arrange of topics and observations of gaming, helping to paint an honest picture of where the PS4 needs to be, in moving towards a successful future. Smaller developers, like Ready at Dawn Studios (contributors to the Jak & Daxter series and God of War series), make a mention of Sony’s all inclusiveness. Hardcore, casual, social…etc, all of these trends help to motivate each other, and work well to create a dynamic picture of gaming. Instead of just one subjective vision of what a “console experience” should be, a fun game will be a fun game, regardless of it’s market approach, or demographic aim.

Other big names in the small community come from the likes of Tim Schafer, who was open in referring to Sony as approaching him with questions. Questions on how best to execute an inviting environment for a smaller studio like Double Fine, and and how to service a company who is usually restrained in their creative vision.

Other third part devs of note, like Randy Pitchford of Gearbox fame, comments on Sony working hard with dev feedback to provide a simple system to work on. Pitchford mentioned the platform having a certain “elegance” in it’s approach to designing engaging experiences. Elegant in the sense of creating  streamlined simplicity, to more easily create these fun video games devs want to make, and players want to explore.

Others still, like Alex Rigopulos of Harmonix (Guitar Hero, Rock Band), talks about retaining their individuality in property, to better hone what they believe to be a better craft of game making.

While the developer video will of course, be favorable to Sony, a lot of the devs they talked to haven’t historically shilled for Sony related press, signifying they are trying to reach beyond their own creative walls. On top of the simple fact that many of these men are usually too busy developing games of their own, and are usually very frank about their own visions, paints a favorable picture for the PS4. The off the shelf PC hardware innards of the PS4 has pros and cons certainly, but if nothing else, should provide needed benefit to companies who only have the time and money to produce one really great product. With the alternative being not affording a longer budget of money and time to port the game to more complicated hardware. The PS4 sharing hardware commonality from a unified development stand point, is an overall win for gamers and third party developers alike.

One of the other designers they interviewed was David Cage from Quantic Dreams (Indigo Prophecy, Heavy Rain). He was invited to the conference in person, to talk about his new tech, and the emotionally driven, but technologically backed vision he sees possible on the PS4.

“Getting the player involved is the holy grail of all game designers”, complete immersion being a huge challenge for any one in the field of creation. David Cage is well known for his more cinematic approach to game design, so comparisons to black and white movies with a contrast to older game tech and the PS4 isn’t surprising. He outlines how far his own company has come, showcasing the dramatic rise in technological advancement involved.

Starting with his first game, Omicron in 99, the game boasted a mere 350 polygons per character.  Moving forward through the years, the poly’s involved in making the characters spring to life is exponential, with his next game, Beyond starring Ellen Page, reaching over 30,ooo polygon’s involved with a single character.

This all leads up to Quantic Dreams next big leap in technology, with what has now been dubbed as “The Old Man Tech”. Cage showed off, what is likely the most realistic character model ever showcased during a video game press conference, with the visage of an incredibly detailed old man living and breathing, in real time.

The Old Man  dwarves any other character Quantic Dream has ever rendered in  polygon count alone. This is without the mention of their engine utilizing advanced skin shaders with translucency,  realistic eye shading, volumetric light reactions, 3D depth of field, and several other complex systems working smoothly real time, in 3D, to create one of the most impressive character models developed to show off a game engine to date.

Cage points out that the  technological feats that go into making  the “Old Man” possible isn’t  important to remember for the gamer, of course. He merely runs through the laundry list of features to further underline that the PS4 is capable of creating a new image of video game visual excellence. This is all in an effort to push the boundaries of how meaningful games can be, and what kind of emotional experiences can come from it.

David Cage want in helping set a precedence for visual standards, and what the PS4 can achieve in the future was the key of the Old Man Tech Demo. The Old man being a character that doesn’t say a word, but simply displays the emotion through visual cues alone.

With a decided push towards some third party exposure, Capcom had the light shined on them and their new game engine “Panta Rhei”. Yoshinori Ono (Executive Producer for the  Street Fighter series) was on hand, to help boisterously introduce the new tech from Capcom. The engine Panta Rhei,  looked to be using some incredibly impressive texture mapping and lighting effects, to give an early glimpse at the working titled game “Deep Down”.

While not a whole lot of additional information was provided for the game, the trailer provides a stunning glimpse into what looks to be an Elder Scrolls like game, complete with  a first person perspective, and incredibly detailed environments to explore.

Throughout the trailer, an element of survival horror is hinted at, possibly suggesting the game may borrow some elements of suspense to keep the game play tight, and fast paced. There are several more action packed segments later on where the knight in the trailer, rushes at and is fighting a dragon from a behind the shoulder third person perspective a la Resident Evil 4.

Whether or not the first person and third persons stuff can be switched at will, or forced upon the player depending on circumstance remains to be seen. Given the rather successful nature of RE4, I’d venture a guess and say it may rely more heavily on a third person view, with small  in between first person glimpses from  the eyes of the adventurer, to heighten the thrills.

In one final moment of the trailer, the knight rushed the dragon unsuccessfully, and buckled down as the beast shot a stream of flame, clashing with his shield to create a brilliant display of fiery chaos.

While the Panta Rhei engine is looking impressive, without any concrete information to go on for the game “Deep Down”, it may remain merely an awesome tech demo. My fingers are crossed Capcom has the game in development, as some kind of third/or first person medieval survival horror game, which would represent a powerfully grand game play experience worth my time with the PS4.

No newly founded CGI tech demo fest would be complete without Square Enix present, and present they were.

They showed off their own next gen proprietary engine to wow the audience, but had no information to spare. Not even a name was given to the “state of the art game engine”, which was an honest mistake in the face of the other competition on hand. While bereft of informative detail, the visual wealth of knowledge was in line with what Square Enix is known for, in providing graphic quality rarely matched in any tech arena.

While  the sites were grandiose to gaze upon, I can’t really interject with further speculation of my own, as I found  it hard to deliver further context for what was shown.

The engine definitely looked impressive, with particle effects and complex lighting elements…though the themes of the cinematic were all over the place.

One moment we were in an isolated desert town.

The next moment we were in a dark and claustrophobic indoor structure, involved with some magical ritual.

At one point, guerilla soldiers broke into and crashed the ritual with (Ak-47’s?) …

…and then a woman shot electricity out of her hand.

Also, a hyena

The engine looked just to throw everything and the kitchen sink out at the viewer, in order to  showcase any number of common game elements to try and impress us with. While graphically the engine had some eye popping fidelity, and a fluidity to match (more so than my screenshots can provide), the content in motion confused more than enticed (as no solid game play footage of any kind was shown or hinted at).

The trailer ends after an incursion with the surprise enemy force, and an unnamed female magician barely escaping into a far stretching vista.

Could this be the new Final Fantasy game SquareEnix hyped during the press conference? There is a possibility, though it looks to be a long way from completion.

Last up, is probably the most ambitious idea from the entire conceptual side of the PS4 conference. The company who displayed their ever ambitious nature was Media Molecule (Little Big Planet.  They showed off their interest in striving to understand and use Sony’s motion controller, The Playstation Move, in order to help broaden gaming dialogue through creation.

For anyone who has been left out of the loop, Media Molecule has helped add tremendously to the stable of top notch Playstation titles with Little Big Planet, and it’s successfully fruitful ambition of providing the player with endless creativity. Not only does the game stand on traditional grounds, and offer an extremely fun title to play through, but also allowed players to customize, design, and even flesh out their own ideas in the game’s level creator.

The second title even let players design games and levels that were far outside the traditional scope of the simplistic platformer Little Big Planet was intended as. This stand out accomplishment didn’t happen in a vacuum, as millions of players have custom created millions of different ideas, all due in part to Media Molecules creative savvy with Little Big Planet.

The only reason I give such lengthy exposition, is due to the rather weighty (and admittedly) unbelievable mission statement MM had during the PS4 press conference. In their quest to give players ultimate control in creativity, Media Molecule has sought to”Let you record your Dreams”. This sentiment is grand enough, but then MM continues to go on and explain they want to do it through the use of Sony’s motion controller, The Playstation Move, a yet to be  ratified tool in conventional game playing, let alone abstract  creation.

Media Molecule helps to expedite Sony’s message of a diverse platform through sharing with the PS4, by providing this unique perspective into “recording your dreams”. This vast and ambitious process of using the Playstation move to create your own experiences exists as a detour to the common problem of creation frustration. The rep from MM refers to traditional game creation as “The Tyranny of the Polygon”, and with the Move, hopes to ease the pain and simplify the process for those who have the ideas to create, but not technical know how to do so.

Upon further explanation, Media Molecule goes into detail about their own experiences using the motion controller interface of the Playstation Move. Just through rudimentary testing and playing around, they found the Move to provide the level of accuracy they required  and the ease of movement necessary,  to help improve the process of creation, rather than hinder it. One example used prevalently throughout the demonstration was sculpting, and the incredibly detailed models you could create.This demonstration was  through nothing else but the ease of movement involved with the motion control of the PS Move, and your own talent.

He went on to show real time lapse of other very detailed sculptures, and then two more, and then 100 more. This in turned showcased how quickly adapted  and entertained his entire team was in expressing their creative sides, solely through the use of The Playstation Move.

He went on to show other real results using The Move, with an incredibly intricate sculpted town, complimentary with walls, houses, roads, and a large tower.

MM then showed off a video that was made entirely with The PS Move, involving marionettes, orchestrated music, choreography, and the players who made it possible.

While the presentation left me with a lot of questions, it left me with even more wonder. While the end of the demonstration was reminiscent of more awkward moments from E3’s of the past, this seemed a little more genuine in design and motivation. I felt some kind of soul behind the ideas of the project, and a general passion from Media Molecule in showing it off. The Move has yet to find it’s place as a staple in the Playstation library, and this would be the perfect ideal that propels the controller into the stratosphere of the memorable. The MM rep mentioned that sculpting was just the beginning, with suggestions that any form of creation would be equally possible with enough time and thought involved.

While The Move demo was not a singular game, and more of a proposed experience on the PS4, I really hope these lofty ideas to create this “ultimate form of user creation” comes to fruition. Everything they showed was within technological reason, and I’ve learned not to underestimate the fervor and creativity of gamers the world over. Little Big Planet sounded like a pipe dream when I first heard of it, thinking a company couldn’t possibly pull off that level of service in the department of creativity. Low and behold, LBP is one of the coolest and most engrossing creation properties in Sony’s library, and a unique gem across the gaming spectrum as a whole. I have adjusted expectations, trying to break through unreasonable excitement, but if anyone can pull of this class of quality, it’s Media Molecule.

That wraps up my look at the entirety of the PS4 Press Conference! From the PS4 details, to the mass of games on display, and the conceptual stuff following suit, I was nothing short of bursting with anticipation the entire time. I hope I’ve helped to shed some light on what Sony wishes to give you in the future with the PS4, and have provided some drool worthy details to keep you held over till E3. I’ll be doing a quick recap on everything I’ve covered in the past few days, with some final thoughts to go along with it.

See you next time, and cheers to a future with the PS4.