It’s been a pretty big week for gaming this week as the annual Gamescom event has been taking place in Cologne Germany over the last few days. Both Sony and Microsoft have been on hand to show off and promote their old and new consoles so there has been a lot of new information on offer.
Sony shows its hand
Sony has finally laid out its full line-up of PlayStation 4 information including the end pricing, release day games, accessories and most importantly the release date. What few of us expected was that the Sony PS4 would be released so late in the year, with our US cousins getting the console a whole 2 weeks before us in Europe.
The PS4 will be landing in the US on November 15th and then two weeks later in the UK we’ll be able to get our hands on the console from November 29th.
Sony has officially announced 15 games which will be available as physical Blu-ray releases on the PS4’s launch day, which are:
- NBA 2K14 (Visual Concepts, 2K Sports)
- Call of Duty: Ghosts (Infinity Ward, Activision)
- Skylanders Swap Force (Vicarious Visions, Activision)
- Need for Speed: Rivals (Ghost Games/Criterion Games, EA)
- Battlefield 4 (EA DICE, EA)
- Madden 25 (EA Tiburon, EA)
- FIFA 14 (EA Canada, EA)
- NBA Live 14 (EA Tiburon, EA)
- Killzone: Shadown Fall (Guerilla Games, Sony)
- Driveclub (Evolution Studios, Sony)
- Knack (SCE Japan, Sony)
- Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag (Ubisoft, Ubisoft)
- Watch Dogs (Ubisoft, Ubisoft)
- Just Dance 2014 (Ubisoft, Ubisoft)
- LEGO Marvel Super Heroes (TT Games, Warner Bros. Interactive)
Plus Sony has outlined a total of 33 titles which include digital releases for day one as well as a host of games which will be launched in the “launch window” which roughly runs up until March 2014. These include:
- Destiny (Bungie, Activision)
- Diablo 3 (Blizzard, Blizzard)
- Mad Max (Avalanche Studios, Warner Bros. Interactive)
- Minecraft (Mojang)
- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (CD Projekt Red, Warner Bros. Interactive)
- The Division (Ubisoft, Ubisoft)
- Dragone Age 3 (BioWare, EA)
- Hohokum (Honeyslug)
- Planetside 2 (Sony Online Entertainment)
- Warframe (Digital Extremes, Sony)
- Blacklight: Retribution (Zombie Studios, Perfect World Entertainment)
- Shadow of the Beast (Heavy Spectrum)
- The Order: 1886 (Ready at Dawn, Sony)
- Infamous: Second Son (Sucker Punch, Sony)
- Rime (Tequila Works)
- Hell Divers (Arrowhead)
- Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture (thechineseroom)
- Resogun (Housemarque)
- Tiny Brains (Spearhead Games)
That’s a lot of games to get your head around, but not really that shocking an amount of variation. EA is leading the way with its familiar franchise titles (FIFA, NBA, Madden, Battlefield and Need for Speed) and Ubisoft is releasing its multi-platform games on both the Xbox One and PS4.
Sony also announced that the sometimes seen, sometimes not camera attachment for the PS4 will be called the PlayStation 4 Camera which will need to be bought separately from the console for $59.99 (no UK pricing), but as there are no major games that use the camera it’s going to be a purchase that can wait. Also on the accessories front Sony revealed two DualShock 4 controller colour variants; Magma Red and Wave Blue.
We are not in love with the looks of the Black and Red additional controllers, but seeing as this writer grew up in a house with 3 brothers I understand the need for a different looking controller to claim as your own.
Pricing is still the same for Sony, so £349.99 for the console in the UK + games, but we expect a few bundle deals will be announced in the coming weeks.
Xbox One will always have Kinect
Last week Microsoft performed yet another u-turn on the Xbox One by announcing that gamers could in fact play games on the Xbox One without the Kinect gaming camera being connected. However, today Microsoft’s Phil Harrison, who has been speaking with CVG, has answered questions from fans once and for all surrounding the Kinect motion control camera.
When speaking in response to the “Will Xbox one be sold without Kinect?” question, Harrison stated that the “Xbox One is Kinect. They are not separate systems. An Xbox One has chips, it has memory, it has Blu-ray, it has Kinect, it has a controller. These are all part of the platform ecosystem.”
Thus confirming that unlike the Xbox 360, there will not be a possibility to buy the console (new that is) without the Kinect system in the future. If you want the Xbox One then you are buying the Kinect as part of the console.
To which we say… okay. As stated before, we at Gadget Helpline feel that for motion controllers and games consoles as a whole to move forward, certain innovations need to become standard. Kinect is one of these things, so if Microsoft has made that decision and is committing to make the Kinect a new feature of the Xbox One then so be it. We personally would love to be able to control our new console completely with Kinect and the only way for people to embrace the technology is if everyone has access to it.
So, Kinect, the ball is yours; let’s see what you can make of it.
Summer is ending, Winter is gaming
We are still in the summer months so there’s no need to panic, but with the summer holidays coming to a close in the next 2 weeks this means one thing for the gaming world: The biggest games of the year will be released in the next few months.
Just take a look at the list of blockbuster games all coming out between now and November:
GTA V, FIFA 14, WWE 2K14, Battlefield 4, Watch Dogs, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Saints Row 4, Splinter Cell: Blacklist, Diablo 3, The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD, Beyond: Two Souls, Batman Arkham Origins, Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag and more.
We are officially into the good time for gaming. The blockbusters all start to creep out from September 17th when Rockstar unleashes the latest game in the Grand Theft Auto line-up, GTA V, which looks amazing. From then onwards we get a whole shedload of blockbuster games like Diablo 3, Saints Row 4 and one that we are especially looking forward to, Batman Arkham Origins.
Plus the list of games that will be doing double duty this Christmas on the Xbox 360/One and the Playstation 3/4 like Watch Dogs, Call of Duty: Ghosts and Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag.
So start planning your social times let your family know you won’t be about as much and let’s look forward to gaming our hearts out.
What’s out this week?
This week has been a great week for new games as earlier on we saw the release of Disney Infinity which combines gaming, collectible toys and the Disney universe into an interactive world. It’s been getting great reviews and is available for the Wii U, Wii, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC and Nintendo 3DS.
Then, from Friday 23rd you can also get your hands on Splinter cell: Blacklist and Saints Row 4 for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.
Bye Bye
Normally we like to end with a fun gaming related video, however last week’s announcement trailer for GTA Online is still getting us super excited, so here it is for you to watch again.
… and here is the funny video!
Mike Tyson playing Punch Out for the first time ever. Gold.