PlayStation Plus: Is the Value Still There?

When it was first announced at E3 2010, many were skeptical of PlayStation Plus. People wondered whether it was worth it to pay for PlayStation Network's Premium Service. However, as time progressed, people realized it was. PlayStation Plus early on was offering free games like Wipeout HD and Zen Pinball, and the quality of titles started to improve as time progressed. Then in June 2012, Sony dropped a ton of quality games onto the service like LittleBigPlanet 2, inFAMOUS 2, Just Cause 2, and more. The quality kept growing, games like Saints Row The Third, Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, and Shadow of the Colossus being added to the service. In addition, PlayStation Vita was now benefiting from the Instant Game Collection with games like Uncharted: Golden Abyss and Gravity Rush. In addition to the free games, PlayStation Plus offered automatic game updates and discounts of up to 75% on the PlayStation Store (compared to 50% for everyone else) for its customers.




In the past year, big changes have happened to the service. At E3 2013, Sony announced that PlayStation Plus would be required for multiplayer gaming on PlayStation 4, except for Free to Play Games like Planetside 2 and Warframe (note you can still play online for free on PS3 and PS Vita). While at first disappointed by the fact that free online gaming is no longer a benefit to PlayStation, the immense value of PlayStation Plus caused me and many others to forgive them. The standard benefits to PS Plus still apply to members, things like automatic game updates, discounts, and more still apply to PS4 users. The Instant Game Collection is also still available for PS Plus members and now supports PlayStation 4. Some things have happened over the last few months with the Instant Game Collection that has drew much criticism from fans. First, ever since launch, PlayStation 4 has not received any AAA titles for free like its PS3 and PS Vita counterparts. We have instead received indie titles such as Resogun, Don't Starve, and Stick it to the Man. Second, all old games from the service have been removed and instead only new games will be offered. Finally, each platform will receive 2 games each on the first Tuesday of the month and will be removed on the first Tuesday of the following month to make way for the new titles. All these things, and Xbox's improvement with their Games with Gold service has made fans wonder if their is still value for PlayStation Plus.


And I'm here to say there is still tons of value with PS Plus

I never really had any desire for PS Plus until the PS4 came out, obviously because it was mandatory for online play. However, after being a subscriber for over seven months now, I feel like a fool for not getting it earlier. For $50 a year I save so much money. Just in the next year, I will probably save around $500 on games, and that's fantastic. Money is tight, and PS Plus is a lifesaver. I never got to play games like Bioshock Infinite, Tomb Raider, or Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, but thanks to PlayStation Plus, I have. So I will explain why there is still value to PS Plus, and you are a fool if you own a PlayStation console and don't have it.


1. No publisher is willing to put their brand new PS4 game on the service: Who in their right mind would put a six month old game on the service? I see people asking for Assassin's Creed IV, Infamous Second Son, even Watch Dogs to be put on the service. Do you people know nothing about business? Those games aren't even ten months old! "But NBA 2K14 got put on the PS3 list last month, why not PS4?" Because the PS4 version (and the Xbox One version) are the primary version that they focus the majority of their energy on. So yeah, maybe Sony won in convincing 2K to put their latest basketball game on the service, but if it was the PS3 version. Yes, Sony has already confirmed AAA games will be coming onto the service by the end of the year. When the game is about a year old. THEN you may see Killzone or Knack as a free game. Driveclub will be the first one in October. So quit your whining, AAA games are coming.


2. The PS4 free games are still fantastic: If you see anyone's top 10 list for best PS4 games so far, games like Resogun, Don't Starve, Outlast, or Stick it to the Man are highly likely to be on there. Those are all indie games, and they all were free on PS Plus. And these aren't bad games either. Look at their Metacritic scores. 8/10 and 9/10 scores seem to pop up a lot on those games. The upcoming July 2014 lineup looks particularly interesting with two amazing games, Towerfall Ascension and Strider. Again, both of those titles are very well received. So if because they're indie and don't have an EA or Ubisoft sticker on them you don't get them, I can't stress enough how much you are missing out.


3. Sony hasn't forgotten about PS3 or Vita: PS3 and Vita each have strong lineups every month. Last month PS3 had NBA 2K14 and Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, and Vita had Terraria and Mutant Mudds Deluxe. All excellent games, and Sly Cooper, Terraria, and Mutant Mudds all were cross buy, so you own both the PS3 and Vita version of that game. Next month is another strong lineup, with Dead Space 3 leading the PS3 lineup along with Vessel, and Vita also is good with Doki Doki Universe and Muramasa Rebirth. And all signs point to games like Saints Row IV appearing on the lineup in the coming months. It's clear Sony still has a strong commitment to the PS3 and Vita, and that shouldn't deter you from being a subscriber.


4. Sony is smart by keeping games for only 30 days on the service: While it may seem like an annoyance, Sony is saving money by restricting games to 30 days on the service, so they can spend more money to get other games for us. And by the way, just because it's on for 30 days doesn't mean you have to download it within 30 days. Just go to the Sony Entertainment Network Online Store, check out the free game, and then you can download it whenever you like, even after it gets taken off. Oh, and everything is available right at the start of the month so you don't have to keep waiting for the game you want.


5. The Instant Game Collection is still ahead of Games with Gold: Yes, Xbox has been improving their Games with Gold service. Yes, it's great how you can keep their games even after your Gold membership expires. But, PlayStation Plus still offers more games (six versus two) and newer games than Gold. Yes Xbox had a great month last month with Dark Souls for Xbox 360 and Halo Spartan Assault for Xbox One, but Dark Souls came out two and a half years ago, whereas PS Plus offers games about a year old. It's good that we have competition and I hope Xbox gets more competitive with Plus, but as of right now, Plus is the best premium in gaming.


And, in conclusion, remember that free games are still free games. Be thankful that you are even getting free games, because you would be complaining if they took that away. I have discovered great games on PS Plus that I could have never gotten to without it, and Games with Gold is molding into that. Stop your complaining, and just enjoy the content you have. Because it's fantastic. And, as always, thanks for visiting 8-Bit Ape.

Watch Dogs Review: Connection is Power

The soldiers patrolled as usual one clear evening. Then, all of a sudden, one of the guard's explosives malfunctioned, killing him and another guard. Another explosive malfunction killed another guard, and a transformer blows up, killing another. The remaining guards became fearful. One by one they fell, picked off by an malfunction in a generator or a transformer. One poor soul was attracted by a cell phone going off, only to fall victim to another explosion malfunction. As the last guard fell, I pressed the circle button on my DualShock 4 controller, retook control of the main character, and walked into the complex. I did all this without once stepping foot into the area, and simply hacked via security cameras from a distance. This is something Watch Dogs brings that is truly unique.




For those who don't know about Watch Dogs, let me fill you in. Watch Dogs is an open world action game from Ubisoft, specifically Ubisoft Montreal. The development team behind Watch Dogs is made up of many of the brilliant minds behind Assassin's Creed II, which I hold as the best in the Assassin's Creed franchise. So there's already some big expectations with Watch Dogs already, but the expectations didn't stop there. Watch Dogs was first shown at E3 2012 and blew away everyone with it's excellent hacking gameplay and impressive graphics. The hype for this game has been mounting ever since then, so does it live up to the hype? Yes and No. Watch Dogs is not the ultimate next-gen experience we were led to believe, but it is still a fantastic game.


Watch Dogs is set in Chicago, and the entire city is being controlled by a central software called ctOS. Since the implementation of ctOS, the crime rate has dropped and people get to work faster. However, someone who is able to infiltrate this system could become extremely powerful. Fortunately for you in Watch Dogs, you have.  You play as Aiden Pearce, a brilliant hacker who saw something he was never meant to see. A hit was ordered on him and it ended up killing his six year old niece. So now, 11 months later, Aiden is after those responsible. While Aiden is a more likable protagonist than say Connor from Assassin's Creed III, he still isn't really all that likeable. Especially when he puts his loved ones in danger even though he knows it would put them in danger. Along the way you will meet a much more interesting cast of characters. There's Clara Lille, a tattoo artist who also a close ally to Aiden. You'll also meet T-Bone, another hacker who has quite the booby trapped hide out. And then there's the most interesting character in the game Jordi Chin, who is a fixer and is extremely entertaining. There are also the villains Iraq, a former soldier who now runs the Viceroy gang, and Lucky Quinn, a creepy old guy who runs the Chicago South Club. The plot itself is overall pretty good and the supporting cast helps to drive this home, but unfortunately the emotional moments in the game don't really hit as Ubisoft probably would have liked to. And the ending, while it does give a satisfying conclusion to the main plot, it then comes right back after the credits and immediately sets up Watch Dogs to become a long-lasting franchise. I think they could have done that a little bit better. The dialogue is very well written, save for a few touchy lines here and there. So overall the story isn't as memorable or emotional as Ubisoft would have liked it to be, but it is still enjoyable nonetheless.


In terms of Sound Design, Watch Dogs excels here. The voice acting is well done across the board, even from Aiden, and the game's score is epic. However, the radio songs are absolutely garbage, so there needs to be some major improvement there. Of course the most talked about thing about Watch Dogs over the last few months has been the graphics and their supposed downgrade from what we were shown earlier in Watch Dogs' development. I can confirm that yes there is a downgrade, but honestly the game still looks pretty good especially at night in the rain. The animations are very impressive also. The more important aspect in my opinion is performance. Watch Dogs runs really well and maintains a good 30 FPS consistently except occasionally in multiplayer matches. There was one bug during a mission that forced me to quit the game and restart it, but that's basically it. Sure the graphics may not look as good back in 2012, but as long as the game runs well that's really all that matters, and in that aspect Watch Dogs succeeds.


What everyone has been really excited to know is how good is the gameplay. I can happily report that Watch Dogs succeeds in this aspect for the most part. The hacking gameplay is very fun and entertaining. It adds a new dynamic to the traditional open world gameplay. Hacking traffic lights to cause a massive car crash is entertaining, as well as blowing a steam pipe or causing a city-wide blackout. And even though I do wish we could have done melee combat outside of contextual takedowns, gunplay is very fun. Slow motion shooting with Focus is awesome, and the cover system is also really good. There is also a cool crafting system where you can craft bombs and devices to lure guards, similar to the way The Last of Us did it. This all combines to make incredibly diverse combat sections I mentioned at the start of the review. You can go in guns blazing, hack from a distance, or silently sneak around taking out enemies or avoiding them. It's all up to you, and I wish you could replay missions because I would love to replay some of those. However not all missions are great. The auto-fail stealth missions can become annoying, and it seems like half of the levels were designed by a different team. However, perhaps the worst aspect of the gameplay is the driving. It's not the worst driving I've ever had in an open world game, but it just seems far too boat-like compared to Grand Theft Auto V's more controlled driving. This makes the car chases and stealth driving sections the worst types of missions, and the final mission has a big car chase in it that will frustrate the heck out of you. This is a shame because Ubisoft really hyped up the driving preceding Watch Dogs' release.


Chicago is a massive world and while not exactly diverse (save for the countryside town of Pawnee), is still packed with things to do. Solve several investigations, infiltrate gang hideouts, ambush criminal convoys, perform fixer contracts, stop crimes, play poker, drink, and more. There is so much packed into this game that it will take you a long time to get to 100%. Using the profiler, you can also see into the lives of the NPC's walking the streets and steal bank accounts, songs, cars, or even get hints on potential crimes and items of interest. There is a strong sense of characterization with the people roaming the streets, and it makes you wonder if you should steal a rich bank account from someone whose best friend was recently killed. Eventually, you will run into the law, and you can chase through the city trying to hack blockers, traffic lights, steam pipes, bridges, and more to try to get them off of you. However there is one glaring flaw with this, you can get away VERY easily by hopping on a boat, even a slow speed taxi boat. The only thing that will follow you is a helicopter, but you can unlock a skill that disables it long enough for you to get away! Did they forget to add in police boats? This makes chases have a very similar outcome as you will find yourself almost always getting away by boat. This should be addressed.


There is a much-touted multiplayer mode, and this is the thing that will probably keep you coming back to Watch Dogs long after the credits roll. There is a fun capture-the-flag style Decryption mode, as well as online races, free roam, and a mode competing against mobile players on the ctOS app, but the one mode that stands out is online hacking. This is the one thing that truly exceeds any expectations for the game. You're essentially tailing another player, and they don't know you're there. Then, you install a backdoor virus into their game and the other player needs to find you while you try to blend in with the crowd or maneuvering around them. Whether if you're hunting another player or hiding, it is very tense. And if the hacker is spotted, the ensuing chase is also exciting as both players try to use their hacking skills to best the other. It is a very unique experience, and I have made some very awesome memories playing this mode. I only wish you could hack your friends, because that would make victory even sweeter.

The Verdict______________________________

Watch Dogs is a fantastic start to a new IP. It is not exactly what it was hyped up to be, and it isn't the game that dethrones Rockstar from the Open World Throne. Red Dead Redemption is still the best open world game ever made in my opinion, and Grand Theft Auto V is a better game than this. But Watch Dogs is a legitimate competitor to games like Grand Theft Auto, and I can't wait to see what's next. If you are a fan of open world games I highly recommend you check this one out. Don't believe the dishonest 0/10 user scores on Metacritic and give it a go for yourself. The first game in a new IP always isn't as strong as its sequels, and if this is what we get for the first game, I can't wait to see what we get with the inevitable Watch Dogs 2.

Rating:

9/10

Amazing

Have you played Watch Dogs yet? If so, what do you think? What would you like to see in a sequel? Please let me know. And, as always, thanks for visiting 8-Bit Ape.






Watch Dogs is out now for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC, and is due out later this year for Wii U. This review was of the PlayStation 4 version of the game. Experience may vary from platform to platform.

Destiny Alpha Impressions

I got to tell you, I wasn't really expecting much of Destiny.


Destiny is an upcoming online first person shooter from developer Bungie, who created the Halo franchise. It was first revealed to us February 2013. And had not really impressed me. It just looked like an online co-op shooter with exploration elements. It didn't look too special. Don't get me wrong I was looking forward to it, but I wasn't super hyped either. So when Sony announced an exclusive PS4 Alpha for the game, I thought I'd give it go. Sure enough Friday morning I got the invite, and I jumped in.


And it's been hard to jump out.


Destiny has stunned me. It has blown away ALL of my expectations. It went from a I'll wait for a price drop to I need this day one. Sure it was just a little sampling of an unfinished game, but what we got was impressive. You start out with creating a character. This isn't as in-depth as customizing the width of your nose like in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, but it was a pretty substantial customization for an alpha build. The Alpha doesn't give much explanation to the story, there's the intro mission and another mission you can partake in. In addition to that, you can take part in an exploration area, where you and 2 other people can roam around taking side missions or taking out enemies. The enemies, while there isn't a whole lot of variety yet, are smart and fun to take out thanks to the excellent combat system. There's also the tower, which is above Earth and right next to that giant ball you've seen in promotional art. That is essentially a hub, and you can purchase weapons and armor, get missions, and interact with other players. Then there's the Crucible, where the competitive modes take place. My personal favorite, Control, involves teams running around trying to hold capture points.


So that's all that's available for the Alpha. There obviously will be more content in the final build, and that excites me because what's available in the Alpha is amazing. The co-op areas are wonderful. You can hop in your vehicle and zoom across the map, then jump off and take out the enemies. As I said earlier, the combat system is excellent. The shooting is fluid and responsive and maneuvering around enemies is awesome. The competitive multiplayer on the Crucible is also fun (though I'm terrible at it) but I wish there would be some competitive space battles. I'm sure it will be there eventually, but it just seems perfect for a game like this. After all, Bungie showed they could do space battles in Halo Reach. The Tower is the only place where the game is viewed in third person, much like how you would find it in an MMO. It also is the place where you can start dancing with five other players, laughing the whole way through.


The controls feel good, although I do find it a little strange that the mapped the melee button to the R1/RB button instead of R3/RS. The rest of the controls are standard shooter controls, but you can double tap the jump button to activate your jetpack for a few seconds. This made for some entertaining firefights with other players while playing Control. The graphics are also really good, they actually look a lot better than they did in the trailers. In terms of problems, I don't have many. Obviously the content here is limited since this is an alpha, but I do hope the final release has some substantial varied content to play. Surprisingly I didn't find too many bugs except for maybe the occasional texture pop-in, but it's hard to notice and I'm very happy the game is in this state for an alpha.


After putting several hours into the Alpha, I have a new opinion on Destiny. I headed into E3 last week with my doubts on Destiny. Bungie had to really impress me with it. And now that I've played it, all my doubts now seem foolish. Bungie may have something special here. They might have just topped their work with Halo. I could see myself really getting into this. I don't know if this is going to make the numbers Halo makes, but than again, Destiny has already surpassed expectations before release.


Did you play the Destiny Alpha on PS4? What did you think? Will you be picking up Destiny? Let me know! And, as always, thanks for visiting 8-Bit Ape.

The IGN Last Guardian Controversy: An Update (Please Read)

I would just like to update you all that IGN has issued an apology about the whole Last Guardian misinformation fiasco. IGN Editor in Chief Steve Butts has apologized, taken responsibility for the error, and shown steps that will be taken to prevent this from happening again. He also explained what happened to make the false claims about The Last Guardian being cancelled.


In a post I wrote today, I criticized IGN for making said claims and am thankful that they owned up to it. Hopefully this shows IGN and other gaming sites that treating reports as facts will not be tolerated by gamers. Since IGN did the respectable thing and owned up to it, I will not be boycotting IGN this week, and you should know IGN is an option for viewing E3 coverage.


E3 starts in just over 12 hours! Keep up to date with the blog's twitter @8bitapeblog for my latest impressions of what's revealed. I will be writing several posts throughout the week to explore it in-depth, so stay tuned. Enjoy E3 everybody. And, as always, thanks for visiting 8-Bit Ape.

IGN's Misinformation Campaign: A New Low for Gaming Journalism

I have been actively following the industry in depth for over two years now and I have never seen a journalism website go this low for clicks. So now it needs to be addressed. This revolves around The Last Guardian, a PS3 exclusive from Team ICO (makers of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus) that has been stuck in development hell for years now. So a Russian source recently reported to IGN that The Last Guardian has been cancelled. So, it is understandable why IGN would post an article about this report, it's there job after all to report on the news. However, even though the article states it's a report, their tweets have you think otherwise. Here is the tweet IGN posted earlier.


As you can see, IGN does NOT say that this is just a rumor, they say it is OFFICIAL. That means that even without an official confirmation from Sony, IGN has you believe the game is really cancelled, and thus is click bait. The tweet, at the time of this writing, has around 800 retweets. So you can imagine that confusion was created when Scott Rhode, PlayStation Software Product Development Head tweeted that him and Sony Worldwide Studios head Shuhei Yoshida, "laughed at this news over dinner" and stated that the game is not cancelled, which Yoshida reaffirmed. You would think IGN would apologize for treating a rumor as fact, but no, they instead just update the article about Scott Rhode's tweet and change the title from "The Last Guardian is cancelled" to "The Last Guardian may have been cancelled" This, ladies and gentlemen, is a new low for gaming journalism.


Last time I checked, IGN is the #1 gaming website in the world (ironic, considering half of their articles are about movies or TV shows), and this is what they give us? Was this some sort of publicity stunt? There is NO way that they missed the fact that they neglected to put "report" in the title. And then some of the editors start tweeting out about the article, showing how "sad they are that the game has been officially canceled". IGN needed some attention heading into E3 and some money, so what better way to do that then to treat a rumor as confirmation and not apologize when the rumor is denied? IGN did not handle this professionally, so we need to take action.

I am asking for a boycott of IGN. Anyone who has their rip off IGN Prime service should cancel their subscription. Avoid IGN's E3 coverage this week and instead head to other gaming websites like Gamespot, Kotaku, and Destructoid, just to name a few. And if you are viewing IGN, make sure Adblock is turned on. I know that may sound a little harsh, but we don't click on IGN or watch their videos to be misinformed, we watch them to be INFORMED. And IGN misinformed us today, and they have not apologized for their actions. Maybe if enough people do this, maybe then IGN will get the dollar signs out of their eyes, realize what a terrible mistake they've made, and apologize to us. We need IGN to know that what they did was wrong, and make sure they and other gaming sites know gamers will not tolerate misinformation.




Please consider what I have discussed here. Comment below or tweet @8bitapeblog to discuss this with me. Stay tuned for my impressions of everything E3 related this week. And, as always, thanks for visiting 8-Bit Ape.