Next-Gen console purchase on day-one?

With both the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One coming out next month, it might be tempting for some of you to buy the console on day-one. New hardware is always exciting, and new consoles definitely are since they only appear every 6 to 8 years. And how much I would like it to have both a PlayStation 4 and a Xbox One sitting under my TV in a month, there is a list of reasons I (and you) shouldn’t buy the next-gen consoles on launch. I have listed the 4 most important reasons that might make you think twice about getting a new console on day-one.

Which console is more powerful?

The rumours that we have heard so far have always said that the PlayStation 4 is more powerful than the Xbox 360, and the latest comparisons are only validating this. It would also be nice to know what console runs its games in 1080p and what the framerates are for these games. The new consoles are new systems that have a new architecture that developers haven’t had years of experience with yet, and this is also why most launch games don’t look that impressive.

You’re buying version 1.0

Brand new products don’t oftenly ship Not to mention the size of the HDD that comes with the early versions of the consoles, which will be 500GB for both new consoles. This may sound like a lot for now, but with some games becoming around 40GB for an install, it won’t leave space for a lot of games. The PlayStation 4 HDD will be replaceable, but the Xbox One won't and will only support external HDD’s. The first run of the next-gen consoles won't have what future versions of the consoles may have, such as bigger HDDs and fixed bugs in the system itself (RROD anyone?).

They don't come cheap

Purchasing a new console on day-one means that you will be paying top dollar: the console will only get cheaper (and better) after it has been launched. The PlayStation 3 launched with an incredible high price of $599, and a few years later you could pick it up for around $350. While $399 for the PlayStation 4 doesn’t sound like that much, you will also have to add the costs for a game and a PlayStation Plus membership if you want to play online. It’s just something you should think about when you want to buy a day-one console.

Where are the games?

The next-gen consoles don’t come with a lot of new games and most of the games that are available can also be played on the older consoles. The Xbox One has a better lineup for launch games, but to be honest neither the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One have an impressive lineup. The biggest AAA titles this year will also be playable on the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. So if game titles are your biggest reason to buy a next-gen console, there isn’t really a need to buy a next-gen console: most games will be playable on older consoles and PC.

Of course, in the end it is totally up to you if you decide if you’ll buy a next-gen console or not. Getting a new console on day-one isn’t a bad thing, but most of the time it definitely isn’t necessary and waiting for a few months is a smart thing. But my advice is: wait a bit, soft- and hardware will have been patched out or replaced and there will be a bigger library of games available, and it will probably be cheaper as well!

The Sims 4 release date & gameplay

That the The Sims 4 would be available in 2014 was already known, but yesterday Electronic Arts has announced that the game will be available somewhere in the fall of next year. Basically The Sims 4 will be the same game as its predecessors, but as with every new installment of the franchise the game will bring forward a few new features and of course the graphics and animations will be improved.

Two of the basic elements of the game have been redone and tweaked: the way you create your character and the way you build your house. In previous games you could play with sliders to shape your Sim and make it bigger or thinner, but in The Sims 4 you will be able to change the shape of your characters by simply selecting the body part and making it bigger or smaller by dragging your mouse. This way you can easily shape your Sims nose or mouth to your liking, or give your Sim wide hips or broad shoulders. Want to recreate yourself or a famous person? It will be a lot easier in The Sims 4.

Making rooms has also been simplified: where you previously had to drag the walls, you now create a square and you can easily shape it to be bigger in width and length. Another new feature in the creation mode of homes is that you can now easily merge rooms together. As an example you have a small room that isn't connected to your main house, you can now simply pick it up and merge the walls together. After that all you have to do is place a door or remove the walls in between, and the rooms are perfectly merged together. 

Electronic Arts has also improved the way Sims behave the game, giving them more emotions that can get influenced in various ways. Think about music, television, books and of course other Sims that will influence the mood of your Sim. But also the furniture of your room will have an impact on the mood, although that is something we kind of already saw in the previous games.

The game is ready for pre-order on the website of The Sims, where you can buy a Limited Edition and a Digital Deluxe Edition. The Limited Edition is available for $59,99 and the Digital Deluxe will cost $69,99. The Deluxe Edition will feature 'bonus content' called Life of the Party and Up All Night. Whether this bonus content will be ti be sold as DLC is unknown so far. Chances are high that there will be coming a lot of DLC / expansion packs for The Sims 4, just like all the previous games in the series. The franchise stays the biggest milk-cow of EA and is one most profitable franchises. 

Back in May of 2013 EA announced that the game would be available for both Windows and OS X in 2014, but there was only word of the Windows versions in yesterday's announcement. If the version of OS X will be scrapped completely is unsure, and it may get released later in 2014 or even 2015. More news and an exact release date will follow in the months ahead, so we might be hearing more about the OS X version later!

Europe: PS+ November

It’s that time of the month again: the games that will be free to download for PlayStation Plus members have been announced. Normally as a PlayStation Plus member you would get three PlayStation 3 games, but this month you will (only) get two games. Don’t get frustrated yet, since there is some good news: a free game every month for the PlayStation 4. The first game that will be free to download for PS+ members that are getting a PlayStation 4 is the game Drive Club.

Below is a list of the games that will be free to download starting October 23rd.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (PS3) Ready for some real action on your screen? In that case you shouldn't be  skipping this game this month. It definitely isn't a game you would expect from the Metal Gear franchise, and Revengeance gives the player a whole new experience. If you are a fan of the franchise, you should definitely give this refreshing game a chance.

Remember Me (PS3) While most critics did not like this game and the metascore is pretty low as well, a lot of people are still eager to try it out. The game takes place in the year 2084 and in this time personal memories no longer belong just to yourself. They are now being sold, traded, gifted and stolen. In the game you play Nilin, a memory huntress that escaped from jail. With the help of her only friend she tries to recover her identity.

Oddworld Stranger's Wrath (PS Vita) In the HD remake of this classic game, you take the role of a mysterious bounty hunter. For unknown reasons, you are trying to collect enough money for a surgery that he needs to survive. The game combines first-person shooting with platforming and puzzling, a silly but surprisingly awesome trio. The original game got praised a lot, and the remake of the game makes sure that the game still feels up-to-date (for all the graphics lovers out there).

Motorstorm RC (PS Vita)
If you own a PlayStation you have probably ever heard of the Motorstorm games. Motorstorm RC is a racing game just like the other games in the series, but there is something that makes it different: radio-controlled cars. Instead of the original games, this game is played from a somewhat top-down angled camera, which doesn't disturb the gameplay. The game features 16 different tracks and 24 different cars, and the game has little to no loading time. Spin-offs of big games don't have to necessarily be bad, and Motorstorm RC proves this. 

With PlayStation Plus becoming mandatory for online multiplayer on the PlayStation 4, it is obvious that a lot of new people will become PlayStation Plus members. Will this affect the games that are free every month in a good or a bad way, or will nothing change? With Drive Club being the first free game for PlayStation Plus members with a PlayStation 4 it is looking good so far, so let's hope that the future has a lot more cool stuff in store for us!

Thief Trailer & Preview

 It has been almost 15 years since the first game in the Thief series, that is back in the days you were still gaming on Windows 98. Since the last game that dates back to 2004, it has been scaringly silent around the Thief franchise. Finally we are getting a fourth game, which already has been announced back in March this year. Although it has been quite some years since the last game, that does not mean that Garrett's skills got rusty.

When you watch the trailer, you should get a good idea of what the game is about. Since the other games in the series are pretty old, there is chance that you don't know what the games are like. The game mainly focusses on sneaking through the shadows and not getting spotted, and the game actually expects you to follow these points or you won't get very far. As Garrett you aren't the strongest or must muscular person in the city, and if you get spotted first there is quite a chance that you won't survive if you can't manage to escape.

Thief producer Stephane Roy is also claiming that Thief is focussing on more stealth-like gameplay, and that an aggressive way of playing won't get you very far. "If you are aggressive like a soldier, you will probably die because the mechanics of the game don't want to see you going into the light." And that is also what the Thief series stand for: stealth gameplay. If you played Dishonored and you just ran through levels while shooting everyone in your path, then this game might not be your thing. If you really enjoyed the stealth gameplay in Dishonored, then there is a big chance that you will also like the next Thief game.

A lot of gamers have been looking forward to a new Thief game, but there has also been a lot fear that the game might get casualized too much. Gamers are also afraid that the reboot won't be like the older Thief games.  Joe Khoury, producer of the game, is trying to reassure these gamers and promises that they have listened to the feedback of gamers and that they have also looked at the older games. 

The trailer also shows us how great the game is looking so far, the lightning effects in the game are simply looking amazing. Buildings and props are looking good and detailed, and the textures of the game make everything feel like a whole. The graphics freaks that weren't satisfied with the graphics of Dishonored, will probably not have a problem with Thief. 

But we will only know what the game will be like when the game finally gets released, which will be released on February the 25th in North America. The PAL and European versions will be released 3 days later, on February the 28th. So, will you be getting the new Thief game or will you be passing this one? Check out the gameplay trailer below and decide for yourself!

Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus Preview

If you enjoy platformers and you have ever owned a PlayStation 2 or 3, there is quite a chance that you have ever played a game from the Ratchet & Clank Series. But lately our furry Lombax and shiny metal friend haven't had a lot of old-school adventures. With All 4 One being a 4 player co-op game and QForce being more of a tower-defense styled game, it feels like the series has lost it's sense of traditional gameplay. The exploring and free-roaming that made the earlier games in the series so great, has made place for newer types of gameplay. Luckily a new game has been announced by Insomniac Games and it should feel like the older games.

Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus will be released on the PlayStation 3 and should bring the old-school gameplay back. This means that there will be lots of crazy weapons, heaps of bolts, a lot of jokes and of course there will be platforming. A new addition to the gameplay will be gravity, which will be an important aspect of the game. 

Ratchet's trusty gravity boots will be returning, making it possible to make huge jumps between platforms. The Swingshot will be returning as well, so get ready for grappling from platform to platform. But like every Ratchet & Clank game, there will be new gadgets: the Gravity Tether will allow a bunch of new cool puzzles, which is always a fun thing to do between the shooting and smacking.

The semi open world has always been one of the factors that made the series great, and it looks like Insomniac has found a way to perfect the series. There will be multiple paths to complete missions as the planets don't have just one way to get to the end. As always, there will be lots of funky and deadly weapons that you will be able to purchase and upgrade. As always this will all be accompanied by the classic humor the series is known for, together with an entertaining story. You might think it's more of the same, but it's something we have learned to love. 

And the art style of the game remains the same, but the graphics have been slightly upgraded. The particle system has been upgraded, and it gives the environment the feeling it's more alive. The lightning system helps the graphics as well, it just feels right and makes the movement of the characters look fluid. 

It's everything that the fans of the series have been waiting for, and it might be Ratchet's last adventure on the PlayStation 3. For those that have been disappointed by the last two games, Into the Nexus might be the game that will restore the faith in the series.

Destiny beta announced and new trailer

Most people know Bungie from the Halo series, but as we know they have been working hard on their brand new game Destiny. While there are still a lot things we don't know yet and we still have to learn about, there are a few things that we know so far.

The game is classed as a MMOFPS, which means the world will be massive and open, and the combat will be first person. At E3 we have seen a little bit from the world of Destiny, but a recent trailer shows part of the world of Destiny we haven’t seen before.

In the trailer we get a glimpse of Earth’s moon, but it’s a very different version of what the moon looks like now. Instead of an empty gray planet, the moon has got enormous structures on it. A new race called the Hive has also been revealed, an alien race that tries to harvest what’s left of Earth.

The game that has been planned for a release in 2014, will also be getting a beta and information about the beta got announced by Activision. The beta is planned to start in “early 2014”, which could mean that the game gets launched in the 2nd quarter of 2014.

To participate in the beta of Destiny you will need to have or make a pre-order on the game, and the pre-order has made at one of the participating partners, and an international list of participating retailers can be found here.

We think Destiny will be one of the games that a lot of people will embrace. It has a combat system that feels a bit like Halo, and that’s something a lot of people got used to over the past years and it may draw a lot customers to the game. With the game also having MMO aspects, it might merge the worlds of two different kind of gamers together and that’s a great thing.

But is Activision giving themselves and other big companies a new competitor? Will it keep gamers away from buying games such as Call of Duty and Battlefield, or will gamers just buy both? We will see it in the future, and let’s hope Destiny won’t be a letdown!

Battlefiield 4 Multiplayer modes announced

EA has announced Battlefield 4's game modes that will be available when the game launches. Some explanation about the numbers of players in certain maps have also been given and it differs between PC, current-gen consoles and next-gen consoles.

Team Deathmatch: If you have played FPS online, you definitely know this game mode. There are two teams, and the team that reaches the score limit first wins the round. Simple yet enjoyable.

Squad Deathmatch: A different approach on the old formula of Deathmatch: there are four different squads, and the use of vehicles will be limited. The idea behind it still is the same, except that there will be four teams instead of two.

Conquest: This is the mode that is most known in Battlefield. Huge battles between a lot of players. You will fight your enemy on foot, in armoured vehicles, tanks, ships and planes. The goal is to capture neutral and enemy flags, and reduce the enemy score till it hits zero. Current-gen consoles will run the game with a total of 24 players, while next-gen consoles and the PC version will be able to have battles with up to 64 players.

Domination: This is basically the same as Conquest, except that capturing flags goes a lot faster and the game mode doesn’t have any vehicles in it. Another difference with Conquest is that only 20 players will be able to join a match, instead of the massive 64 that is possible in Conquest mode.

Rush: Push the enemy back by destroying the enemies’ M-COM stations. The attackers of the round will have a limited supply of respawn tickets, while the defending team will have unlimited. The attackers can win by destroying all the M-COM stations, and the defending team will have to make sure that the attackers respawn tickets run out. Current-gen will have a maximum of 24 players, while the PC and next-gen versions will have a maximum of 32 players.

Obliteration (new): A bomb will spawn at a random place in the map (but after quite a few matches you will probably know most of these random places) and both teams have to try to deliver the bomb at one of the three objectives of the enemy team to blow it up. The timer of the bomb will make sure rounds of this game mode won’t be too long. Current-gen will play this mode with up to 24 players, while next-gen and PC will play this game with 32 players.

Defuse (new): Teamwork is one of the most important aspects in this gamemode, since you will only have one life each round. With two teams of five players, every soldier counts. You can win a round by eliminating a military objective. All versions of Battlefield 4 will only support a total of ten players in a match.

Check out the best moments of the Battlefield 4 multiplayer that took place at E3 this year. Are you gonna pick up Battlefield 4 on November 1?

Steam Controller: Revolutionary?

This has definitely been the week of Steam, with Valve making three big announcements. Steam Machines have been announced, and also the operating system called SteamOS. The third and last thing that Valve has announced is their own controller, the Steam Controller. If you give it a quick glimpse it might look like an ordinary controller, but it definitely isn't a controller you have seen the last past few years.

The first thing you will notice about the Steam Controller is that there are two things missing: there are no thumbsticks. Instead of the thumbsticks, Valve has placed two "high-resolution trackpads" that are driven by the players thumbs. With a lot of text and fancy words Valve claims that these trackpads have the resolution and precision that you would expect from a computer mouse. The new controller has a pretty cool feature, the controller will be compatible with both old and new games.

In the center of the controller is a touchscreen which can be used for various things. You will be able to scroll through Steam with it, but developers will also get access to the API so it might get some other uses such as maps or game-menu's as well. Instead of the touchscreens that we all know, this one is actually clickable. What that means that you will have to actually click the screen if you want to select something.

Just like the Steam Machines there will also be a beta for the Steam Controller, and if you participate for the Steam Machine than you will also participate for the Steam Controller. The two differences from the final version of the controller is that there won't be a touchscreen on the beta controller and the controller won't be won't be wireless in the beta.

Valve now has it's own OS, it will have its own hardware and now also has its own controller. Will all these things combined change the way that we play games, and is this enough for Valve to conquer the living room? It will definitely change the way that a lot of gamers play games, but will it turn console gamers into .. PC-console gamers?

Steam OS and Steam Box announced

Valve has made two of the three announcements they are going to make, and it seems that the rumours were true: there will be a Steam Box. Actually, there will be multiple Steam Boxes or as Valve calls them, Steam Machines. These boxes will be running on Valve’s own operating system, which they have crowned as SteamOS.

Valve's Steam boxes are made for the living room, so we are expecting boxes that won't be a lot bigger than your average console. Valve is working together with multiple partners so they can bring a variety of Steam boxes on the market in 2014. All these boxes will have different specifications, prices and of course a difference performance. Since Valve is embracing open-source you will also be able to build your own Steam box with SteamOS running on it. Valve also states that it’s up to you what you do with the Steam Box, so if you feel like running a different OS on it, that’s perfectly fine as well.

Linux based SteamOS is designed for the TV and the living room, and it’s likely it will work a bit like the Big Picture mode that has been introduced last year. Everything will run in the Steam ecosystem, so you will have all your games, friends and achievements in there. The OS will allow you to stream games over your home network from your gaming machine to your Steam box, this means that you won’t need a powerful Steam box in your living room if you already have a powerful PC somewhere else in your house. Steam praises the OS for it’s openness, and developers and users will be able to add and remove certain functions from the OS.

Valve is also working together with many of the big media services, and they will be available on both Steam and Steam. It will “allow you to access your favorite music and video”, so we might be seeing services such as Netflix and Spotify appear on the platform. Steam’s new function called Family Sharing will also be available on SteamOS.

Valve is also looking for 300 beta testers to get sent a Steam box prototype, so if you are feeling lucky you can try to participate. Read more on how to do so here.

Steam Box getting announced Monday?

For about a year there are rumours that Valve was releasing their own console, or at least their own hardware for gaming. It has been a bit silent around this so called Steam Box, but it is time for new rumours to show up. Valve has announced that “the Steam Universe is expanding in 2014”. The webpage that displays this message, also shows a TV and a controller.

The second thing you will see on the page are 3 circles, each with a (for now) meaningless figure in them. Under the first circle is a timer that started at 72 hours and will end on Monday, September 23rd. It isn’t yet known what will be announced by Valve, but the message under the timer makes the Steam Box a very viable option. The message tells you about the Steam Big Picture mode, which has been introduced somewhere last year and makes it easier to make use of Steam on a bigger screen and with a controller. If a Steam Box would be announced, the Big Picture mode will probably be the the way you play games on your TV.

A few days ago at LinuxCon 2013 Gaben Newell talked about the power and future of Linux, and how they will be bringing Linux to the living room. Valve has been supporting Linux for a while, with the introduction of a lot of Linux games in the Steam Store. It's only logical that we will be seeing a lot more of Linux in the coming days.

With the release of both the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One in November, will we be getting another console? And will this be classified as a console if it runs on Linux and runs PC games, or will it just be a living room PC?

With the release of both the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One in November, we might be getting another 'console' as well. With Steam featuring most games that are available on the PC, as well as a lot of indie games, a console that has access to the Steam Library would be able to play a lot of games. But we will be hearing more next Monday, so be sure to check Steam for updates on Monday's announcement.

Europe: PS+ October 2013

PlayStation has announced the games that will be free to download for PlayStation Plus members in October. Just like the past few months the selected titles this month are pretty amazing. Assassin's Creed III was last month's big free game, and this month you will be getting another amazing title that was one of the biggest games of 2012. As always, you will be getting three games for the PlayStation 3 and two for the PlayStation Vita.

Far Cry 3Big chance that you remember this awesome game from last year, and the time has come to play it if you didn't already. In Far Cry 3 you take the role of Jason Brody, whose tropical holiday with his friends turns into a horrifying disaster when they get stranded on an island that is getting terrorized by pirate and slave trader Vaas. Do you have the will to survive on the massive open-world island and rescue your friends, or is certain doom awaiting you?

Dragon's Dogma: Dark ArisenDark Arisen is the re-release of the action-adventure RPG Dragon's Dogma. The re-release features a lot of new content for the game, as well as a few changes. In this open-world fantasy game you will be fighting against huge monsters, as well as exploring caves and castles. If you feel like playing a good RPG, you should definitely check out this one.

Giana Sisters: Twisted DreamsIf you are old enough you might remember a game called The Great Giana Sisters, a game that was released for the Commodore all the way back in 1987. Twisted Dreams is the successor to that game, and in this beautiful fantasy platformer you are set out to save your sister, who has been abducted by a Giant Dragon. It doesn't get more old school than that!

Street Fighter X Tekken (PS Vita)

One of this month's games for the Vita is a fighting game. In Street Fighter X Tekken a lot of the Tekken characters will be stepping into the world and 2D style of Street Fighter. Can a person wish for more? Well, you certainly can since you get a lot more in the Vita version than the PS3 version, such as: 12 DLC characters for free and over 35 alternative costumes. Pretty good!

Touch My Katamari (PS Vita)

This was one of the launch games for the PS Vita, and the objective is pretty simple: roll the ball, also known as the Katamari. The ball has to grow in size and reach certain spots. A simple game that some people will definitely enjoy.

Steam introduces Family Sharing

Remember one of the earlier features of the Xbox One that later on got scrapped? The Family Sharing that was supposed to be one of the best features of best features of Microsoft's next-gen console, but sadly it was removed. But there is some good news for the PC gamers, and definitely those that have a big Steam library: Steam Family Sharing. Valve announced Family Sharing, but there will be a limited beta before the feature will be officially launched.

But what is it exactly, and what are the limitations? Steam Family Sharing will allow you to share your full Steam library with up to 10 friends or family members. Sounds pretty good, but the 'bad' news is that only one user will be able to access a shared library at a time. So, if a friend wants to play a game in your library while you are playing another game in your library, the friend won't be able to use your library. A friend with access to your library won't be able to kick you out of your game though, but vice versa you can kick friends out if you feel like playing.

You won't be able to share all your games through Family Sharing though, as "region-restricted content will remain in place when lending or borrowing content", which is of course only logical. As a lender you will also be lending your items to a certain Steam user, on a certain device. This means that you will only be able to play the games in the shared library if you are on the device that has gotten the rights to the library.

If you are interested in Steam Family Sharing, and you want to participate in the beta you can do so here. The beta will start in a few days, so better hurry up with signing up because this is a feature that you don't want to miss out on. Only thousand people that have applied will be lucky enough to get access to the beta of Family Sharing.

PlayStation TV and new PS Vita

In a press conference in Japan, the homeland of Sony, the Vita TV and a new version of the PlayStation Vita have been announced. While the new version of the PS Vita is an upgrade or a downgrade (depends on how you look at it), the Vita TV is really an entirely new device. But first things first: what’s up with the new PS Vita?

Sony classifies the newer model of the PS Vita as a more casual and easier to use model of the PS Vita. It will also be released in a bunch of colors, instead of the black that we all know from the handheld. But that’s not the only appearance change that the PS Vita has gone through, because the new version will be 20% thinner and about 15% lighter than the older model. But one of the more drastic changes is that Sony replaced the OLED screen with a LCD display. While the battery life has been increased by an hour, some people might dislike the LCD display since the quality of these displays are of lesser quality than OLED screens most of the time. The new PS Vita also has 1 gigabyte of built-in storage, which is not very impressing but still a welcome addition to the handheld.

What a lot of people didn’t see coming is the Vita TV: a console with the size of a smartphonethat you will be able to plug into your TV. It’s comparable with the Ouya, except that this console runs Vita games, but you will also be able to play old PSP and PlayStation One games on it. To control the device you will be making use of the DualShock 3 controller, the controller that is used with the PlayStation 3. The specs of the Vita TV are the same as the PS Vita, but since you will be playing it on a TV the resolution will be upscaled from 966x544 to 720p or 1080p.

But you will be able to use the Vita TV for more than Vita and PS One games: if you own a PlayStation 4 you will be able to stream content to the Vita TV and display everything that is running on the PS4 on the TV that the Vita TV is linked to. What else Sony has planned for the Vita TV isn’t sure yet, but with the launch of the PS4 heading closer there is a big chance we will be hearing more about the Vita TV and it’s functionalities.

The Vita TV will cost around $100 USD and will only be available in Japan at launch. It’s not sure yet if western countries will be getting the Vita TV. A bundle with a DualShock 3 controller and an 8GB Vita memory card will also be sold, which will cost around $150 USD.