On this week's episode of Morning Wood, @Chandler Wood and @D'yani discuss an email asking what it is that we can expect from this new generation of consoles that might not have been addressed last generation, while using the saddest music of all time to add flavor to their WWI dramatization inspired by Valiant Hearts: The Great War.
Check it out:
Open Ended Mashups and Magnum Opus Indies
Obviously we can expect to see some brand new kinds of gameplay from established developers who want to make their products stand out from the herd. One early example of this is Ubisoft Montreal's Child of Light, which takes 2D Metroidvania platforming and RPG elements to the next level by adding a turn-based ATB-styled battle system that integrates well with the DualShock 4's touchpad (used to manipulate a small firefly creature that is used both in and out of combat). Bungie's Destiny will mesh together MMO elements with a first person sci-fi shooter that wouldn't be out of place in comparisons to both Halo and World of Warcraft to different extents. Major developers seem to be crafting varietal pieces that bring out a multitude of elements for gamers, and people are widely adopting new genres of games that they normally do not play. It's an interesting movement!
Child of Light's turn-based battle system with an active time battle system shown at the bottom of the screen.
Then we have indie developers who are making the games that they've never been able to achieve in prior generations. An early example of this is Zombie Studios' survival horror game, Daylight, which uses procedurally-generated environments to guide your character through a series of creepy locations and solve puzzles the point-and-click way. Another upcoming title by Hello Games, No Man's Sky, will be comprised of a massive procedurally-generated universe where things are created that not even the devs know about sometimes, and the worlds will be shared between connected players online.
This stuff just spontaneously showed up one day.
VR Troopers
Another cool idea is the implementation of virtual reality tech being developed both by Sony and Oculus, which will likely take gamers through places that seem more real than not. @D'yani's idea about having a Sims VR game on Morpheus where you mimic your own life sounds hilarious, but this is likely going to be a target to achieve by developers who decide to take the risk and invest in these projects. I mean - take the way your life is, and use the builder in the Sims to make it. Now go back and add dinosaurs, weird celestial sightings, and whatever other Utopian ideals that you can imagine and put them into the simulation. Next, take the role of your character and traverse the world you've created as you gaze into a dimension of your imagination's choosing. This is what I'm looking forward to seeing: things that inspire me to continue growing as I carve my own niche into the world.
Imagine building a life and then walking around in it...
New Social Experiences
I remember last year after the PlayStation 4 announcement and after E3, people were concerned about the fate of online connectivity for gamers. Some people were afraid that Microsoft (and to some extent, Sony) were going to make online gaming mandatory, and they were terrified of change. Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag came out during the fall, and I saw a sort of social connectivity in the single player mode that was pretty delightful. Every now and then, a notification would popup saying that someone I know found a white whale, and the location was automatically shared with me so I could hunt it and use its carcass for my own pirating needs. I didn't actually have to wait for a matchmaking service to take me into a multiplayer realm (though that was available, too). All I had to do was show up and reap the benefits. When I played the game on PS4, I was then able to upload a video of me taking down a legendary pirate ship in the game to help out a friend of mine who was having trouble accomplishing the same task.
Watch me take out El Impoluto by using its tactics against it!
Drunken whaling away!
PSLS has embraced a huge social feature that has been implemented in current gen consoles - streaming. On Thursday nights, you can see Chandler, D'yani, or @Dan Oravasaari playing new video games and giving a commentary about all of the nuances surrounding the titles. In some games, such as Daylight, Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition, Dynasty Warriors 8 XL:CE, and Dead Nation: Apocalypse Edition, you can enter chat commands to people's streams to add different types of functionality to games.
Dead Nation: Apocalypse Edition, Ages 18+
With the recent announcements regarding Far Cry 4, we've also discovered that social connectivity is going to have another function: you're going to be able to share a limited amount of gameplay with people who don't even own the same game as you! Seriously, how awesome is that? This is one of the coolest features I've seen so far, and I'm hoping that it pans out as well as its intended to do. With more sharing being done with friends and other community members, we'll effectively drive up the demand of newer and fresher products and inspire developers to come up with new ways to wow us again. Seriously, social gaming rocks, and I'm a mostly single-player gamer.
So umm... that's what I can expect, anyway.
Check it out:
Open Ended Mashups and Magnum Opus Indies
Obviously we can expect to see some brand new kinds of gameplay from established developers who want to make their products stand out from the herd. One early example of this is Ubisoft Montreal's Child of Light, which takes 2D Metroidvania platforming and RPG elements to the next level by adding a turn-based ATB-styled battle system that integrates well with the DualShock 4's touchpad (used to manipulate a small firefly creature that is used both in and out of combat). Bungie's Destiny will mesh together MMO elements with a first person sci-fi shooter that wouldn't be out of place in comparisons to both Halo and World of Warcraft to different extents. Major developers seem to be crafting varietal pieces that bring out a multitude of elements for gamers, and people are widely adopting new genres of games that they normally do not play. It's an interesting movement!
Child of Light's turn-based battle system with an active time battle system shown at the bottom of the screen.
Then we have indie developers who are making the games that they've never been able to achieve in prior generations. An early example of this is Zombie Studios' survival horror game, Daylight, which uses procedurally-generated environments to guide your character through a series of creepy locations and solve puzzles the point-and-click way. Another upcoming title by Hello Games, No Man's Sky, will be comprised of a massive procedurally-generated universe where things are created that not even the devs know about sometimes, and the worlds will be shared between connected players online.
This stuff just spontaneously showed up one day.
VR Troopers
Another cool idea is the implementation of virtual reality tech being developed both by Sony and Oculus, which will likely take gamers through places that seem more real than not. @D'yani's idea about having a Sims VR game on Morpheus where you mimic your own life sounds hilarious, but this is likely going to be a target to achieve by developers who decide to take the risk and invest in these projects. I mean - take the way your life is, and use the builder in the Sims to make it. Now go back and add dinosaurs, weird celestial sightings, and whatever other Utopian ideals that you can imagine and put them into the simulation. Next, take the role of your character and traverse the world you've created as you gaze into a dimension of your imagination's choosing. This is what I'm looking forward to seeing: things that inspire me to continue growing as I carve my own niche into the world.
Imagine building a life and then walking around in it...
New Social Experiences
I remember last year after the PlayStation 4 announcement and after E3, people were concerned about the fate of online connectivity for gamers. Some people were afraid that Microsoft (and to some extent, Sony) were going to make online gaming mandatory, and they were terrified of change. Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag came out during the fall, and I saw a sort of social connectivity in the single player mode that was pretty delightful. Every now and then, a notification would popup saying that someone I know found a white whale, and the location was automatically shared with me so I could hunt it and use its carcass for my own pirating needs. I didn't actually have to wait for a matchmaking service to take me into a multiplayer realm (though that was available, too). All I had to do was show up and reap the benefits. When I played the game on PS4, I was then able to upload a video of me taking down a legendary pirate ship in the game to help out a friend of mine who was having trouble accomplishing the same task.
Watch me take out El Impoluto by using its tactics against it!
Drunken whaling away!
PSLS has embraced a huge social feature that has been implemented in current gen consoles - streaming. On Thursday nights, you can see Chandler, D'yani, or @Dan Oravasaari playing new video games and giving a commentary about all of the nuances surrounding the titles. In some games, such as Daylight, Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition, Dynasty Warriors 8 XL:CE, and Dead Nation: Apocalypse Edition, you can enter chat commands to people's streams to add different types of functionality to games.
Dead Nation: Apocalypse Edition, Ages 18+
With the recent announcements regarding Far Cry 4, we've also discovered that social connectivity is going to have another function: you're going to be able to share a limited amount of gameplay with people who don't even own the same game as you! Seriously, how awesome is that? This is one of the coolest features I've seen so far, and I'm hoping that it pans out as well as its intended to do. With more sharing being done with friends and other community members, we'll effectively drive up the demand of newer and fresher products and inspire developers to come up with new ways to wow us again. Seriously, social gaming rocks, and I'm a mostly single-player gamer.
So umm... that's what I can expect, anyway.
