Monthly Archives: June 2013

Thanks to the improved hardware in the PlayStation 4, we'll be able to witness a whole lot more in our gameplay than the PlayStation 3 previously allowed us to.

One good example of this is in infamous: Second Son, a game that Sucker Punch has recently revealed will be capable of keeping track of the things you destroy in-game, meaning that when you come back, that damage will still be there.

This new capability is possible largely to the GDDR5 8GB RAM found in the PlayStation 4, which is miles apart from the PS3's tiny 512MB DDR3 RAM.

Sucker Punch has said "it was very difficult in a PlayStation 3 timeframe, where you don't have enough RAM to store information about every object in the whole universe. The areas would just be refreshed when you leave and come back. But now we have a lot more to work with."

Personally I think this is great progress for gaming and I can't wait for InFamous: SS.

Evil Controllers is currently brainstorming the best ideas for next generation hardware. What do our mods need when the new round of consoles come out? Should we modify the PS4 Controller touch pad? Should we look into modifying the Kinect 2.0 for rapid fire like gameplay mods? The new hardware is a playground for tons of new ideas, but what Evil does know, is that cosmetic upgrades for the next generation will match what you have come to expect from Evil Controllers.

Take a look at Evil's Flickr account to see all of the potential options that are likely to be available when the new controllers get added to our Controller Creator.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/evilcontrollers/

Here is a sneak peak at a Custom Xbox One Controller:

One thing that Microsoft couldn't boast enough at this year's E3 was 'the power of the cloud.' Matchmaking, stats and other player and game information could now be computed in the cloud, on Microsoft's own servers.

According to Microsoft this meant the Xbox One could be even more powerful as it didn't need to compute these things itself. It also opened up windows for new technologies such as the Forza 5 Drivatar AI.

However, Sony has said that the new PlayStation 4 can also harness the power of the cloud as well. Shuhei Yoshida made a statement saying "Linking, matchmaking, there are already many computations being done on the cloud side, if your title needs an online connection to provide some online features: Go for it."

So is Microsoft's hyped 'power of the cloud' nothing that special? Microsoft has managed to make good use of it with Forza's Drivatar, and hopefully we'll see more good uses in the future.

If you didn't know already, Microsoft revealed at E3 that Gold members will now be eligible to two free Xbox 360 games each month. There wasn't really much information on how this new promotion works, although some keen-eyed Gold members had already spotted that Fable 3 was up for grabs for free before Microsoft even announced the new promotion.

To clear a few things up, Microsoft has now given a few new details on their promotion, stating that "As our way of saying thanks, we're giving all active Gold members two bonus Xbox 360 games each month for the rest of the year. Each specially selected, fan-favorite game will be available to download only for a limited time, so grab them before they're gone and keep them no matter what."

A new game will be available on the 1^st and the 16^th of the month for free for a limited time, and every Gold member that downloads the game will then be able to play the game for free forever, even if there Gold membership runs

The PlayStation 4 has been in such a demand that many stores have had to stop any new pre-orders as they have already reached their allowed limits for pre-orders on the console. It has since been a terribly difficult challenge to get your hands on a PlayStation 4 pre-order, but it seems that is all about to change.

According to a few sources, GameStop stores have now been given permission by Sony to take in an unlimited number of pre-orders. This will mean all customers that have not yet been able to take pre-orders will now be able to without any hassle.

A question arises from this change in Sony's pre-order scheme though, and that is of course- What happens when the pre-orders outweigh the amount of consoles available at launch?

This is something we see a lot these days, and as demand for certain hardware increases, so does the strain on production, and production speeds simply can't keep up with the huge demands consumers are asking for.

We

Destiny will have different graphics for different platforms according to Harold Ryan, Bungie's president.

He didn't state what that meant between each platform, but it's obviously clear that the older generation consoles, the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360, will have worse graphics than newer generation Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

He didn't state whether there would be any difference between the PS4 and Xbox One, and instead said "We're not committing right now to any specific platform features. The great thing for us with timing is that we were making a new engine, and then two new consoles were coming out, which led us to invest more into making the new engine for it.

"There are a whole bunch of great opportunities for us to go after, like full player experiences, etc. We're investigating all of those and building the core experience of Destiny, which will be similar across all the platforms. The graphics are different,

Whilst firmware updates are usually made for fixing bugs and issues on a system, there are times when a new bug goes unnoticed and slips into the firmware update. It seems a new update for the PlayStation 3, update 4.45, is causing issues for some people.

Plenty of people are complaining that after downloading the update and rebooting their consoles, the console will then freeze every time it tries to turn on.

Instead of showing the normal user interface, people have reported that the console shows strange wavy lines but never gets to the main interface.

If you downloaded the new 4.45 firmware update, Sony has a new update to fix the error coming out on the 27th.

One of the major reasons a lot of people have decided to side with Sony's PlayStation 4 instead of the Xbox One is down to the restrictions that Microsoft originally planned out for the Xbox One. These restrictions include clamping down on used games, no unhindered access to the console without a constant internet connection, and region locks forcing players to only be able to play their Xbox One in their home country.

Since Microsoft's announcement of these features, there has been an outcry in the gaming community, and surprisingly, after noticing, Microsoft has decided to make an apology and make a change to the DRM features on the new Xbox One.

The Xbox One will now be capable of playing used games, so gamers can still swap, trade and lend games between one another, and there are now no region restrictions on the console. On top of this, the console will no longer need to be online to be used after a first time set-up.

It's

There's always a lot of tension between companies when they are competing to make the better product, and this certainly is the case when considering Microsoft and Sony. They were the first most noticeable company to have a 'war' between each other, drawing fans on either side of the battle as each side would try and explain why their favorite beat the other in every way possible.

The tension was present leading up to this year's E3 as well, but it seems like Sony is currently jumping in joy because of Microsoft and their decisions made for their new console.

Head of Sony Worldwide Studios Software Product Development, Scott Rohde, commented on the situation, saying that their team were 'running up and down the aisles' when they heard about the price difference between the cheaper PlayStation 4 and the more expensive Xbox One.

Rohde went onto saying "Absolutely great. It was an amazing feeling. Absolutely. We went nuts. We

As technology evolves, there are some steps that are needed to move the masses forward. For example, we went from video and cassette tapes to CDs and DVDs, and before that we had vinyl. We're currently seeing a shift from DVD to Blu-ray as well, and now, on top of that, a lot of the world has started to move to 'HD only.'

This is certainly the case when regarding the PlayStation 4- the next gen console will only have HDMI adaptively, so if you want to make the most of it, you'll need an HD capable TV.

Luckily though, if you've bought a TV in the last 6 or 7 years it's more than likely your TV already has HDMI input, and if it doesn't perhaps it's time for you to update your living room a little.

Although it's not confirmed, it wouldn't surprise me if the Xbox One had the same connection options. We also don't know yet whether you'll be able to use an adapter, and if you can, what quality will be reached by using such equipment.