I’m eagerly awaiting the final chapter of Uncharted “A Thief’s end” to arrive in the post, knowing full well I’m not actually going to play until sometime tonight… As my son chews on my PS4 controller while I put this together (I’ve stopped 3 times on this paragraph already to protect my right trigger from his ever growing collection teeth!). But this whole thing has me in a reflective mood as I realised Uncharted games have had such a positive influence on my gaming in the previous generation, and so have Naughty Dog with their astounding ability to create action adventure games that, for me, are the best you can play.

You may think this is just another PlayStation gamer gushing over an exclusive game, but my journey with Uncharted actually started as an Xbox 360 gamer, who was playing happily away on the Gears of War series (that I love and will be playing number 4 asap too) plus other great games when my girlfriend at the time – now mother of said control pad chewing son and his big sister – proved she was the woman of my dreams when she bought me a PS3 for my Birthday (an age I’d happily trade my next Birthday for!).

So what was the game I put in first? Well, I picked up Metal Gear Solid 4 and Uncharted knowing both were exclusives I’d missed being on the Xbox. Next thing I’m flipping a coin to decide my fate and Uncharted won out… I barely looked up from the screen for the next few days.

It blew me away with everything it did, it was the full package of everything I enjoyed in gaming, I continued to play through all the Uncharted games as soon as possible and I’ve not looked back since.

Uncharted Territory

The original title did so many things well, even the remastered version, which we reviewed still stands out as a great title. There were stunning visuals and environments that had you using platforming mechanics, executed in a way that really makes every jump feel a real grasp for survival. Action that rivals Gears of War that I’d enjoyed so much, but best of all; a real sense of action movie adrenaline with characters and story that made the game the full package for me.

And this was only the first game; the sequels – which I’ll move onto soon – took this to the next level. But like any great film series or books, games that have great sequels start from ambitious originals that may not be perfect, but they really push the genre to the next level in what they try to do. The original Uncharted did that for me and I’ll always remember it fondly.

An introduction to both Nathan Drake and Nolan North’s ability as a voice actor for gaming also came with the first game. Perhaps something we take more for granted the series days, but the voice acting of the characters in the Uncharted games is just as important as the other elements of Naughty Dog’s creation. Nolan has made a number of characters awesome, one of my other favourites being the lead in Spec Ops The Line as Captain Walker, an amazing game that everyone fond of the third-person shooter should play.

But Nate is his best performance (although my daughter may say he’s pretty good in Blaze and The Monster Machines too) and he’s made the character one of the best in gaming, why?

Well because you like him but he’s a bit of an idiot most of the time. He’s not a typical hero and while he’s not exactly an anti-hero like Joel from The Last of Us – which I will get to later on in the article – he just makes some stupid decisions, and gets himself in a right mess most of the time. But this makes him identifiable as a character and only makes his story stronger for me, especially as the series progresses.

But what also does it for me is the supporting cast with Sully, played so perfectly by Richard McGonagle, hits the supporting role perfectly alongside Nate along with some well created female characters too played by Emily Rose and Claudia Black. This just gets better as the sequels come in and more of Drake’s past becomes clearer.

That can also be said for the action, visuals and action-movie feel to the game as the series goes on too. Like most gamers I would say that second game, Among Thieves is the best of the Uncharted games. I’m not going to have a big fight with anyone who says 3 was the best because it was amazing, the airplane sequence followed by the desert scene being one of my favourite moments in gaming. But for me, the action, platforming and overall feel of Drake’s story in the second game is the best so far.

But then, I haven’t played 4 as I write this (day one patch is currently downloading as I ready this article!) and I have a feeling this is going to blow me away. I avoid spoilers and reviews generally when I want to play something as much as this game, but the words “Naughty Dog’s best game” has been said and that is one hell of a statement.

Good Dog

Even though they are apparently naughty, the Uncharted games are only part of my affection for these developers that really need letting out of the dog house now and given a nice tasty treat.

Before the obvious I’ll say this about my first love with Naughty Dog’s work; Jak and Daxter is amazing and a series I just couldn’t stop playing. Having just finished Ratchet and Clank (and doping my best with typing up the review), which in summary was awesome, I really hope these two make it to PS4 as well.

But we get to my current favourite Naughty Dog game, The Last of Us. Now without pouring my heart out about it, and I could easily do another 1k words on just how good it is, TLOU changed gaming for me. It brought emotion out of me that a game never really has before. I was really saddened at the start and I went up and down throughout, especially the David scene with Ellie.

None of it good for a man with a daughter to experience.

But without the Uncharted games this could never be, and adversely, the new Uncharted is certainly going to close Nate’s adventure off with a lot of lessons learned from TLOU. Getting that emotion into the game is what I’m looking forward to most.

The Uncharted games have had a massive influence on my gaming and Naughty Dog too; I certainly can’t wait to experience more of it this week. So, as an end to this I will say, should I be lucky enough for someone to check this out from the studio, thank you Naughty Dog for what you’ve made so far and I’m thrilled to be experiencing Nathan Drake’s final chapter.

And that is about to start! Looks like I’ve typed for so long that all is downloaded and ready to go! Now, if I can just find a place to stash my Son I’ll be fine…

Game On

Here is the most popular Sony PSP Hack for playing old games on your PSP.

Many PSP fans, including myself, are already looking for ways to push their PSP’s to the extreme. I want more options, more PSP games, and a whole cinema full of PSP Movies.

Here’s a great example; many PSP fans are old gamers of the past and since hauling around your old super nintendo is out…and totally nerdy… here’s what you can do:

Search the web for a PSP Game Emulator.

What’s a game emulator?

Ah, that is the secret to a world of PSP fun. Real simply a PSP Game Emulator is software that lets your PSP pretend that is another type of game console. So you can load up games from say your PlayStation 2 and play them on your Sony PSP.

Using a PSP Game Emulator is a very simple way to hack your PSP and open up new worlds of fun…Plus your friends will be impressed…and you’ll look really hip!

Once you find and download the game emulator you are looking for, you can put it on your psp memory and run the hack.

Bingo! Your in game heaven. Most PSP game hacks come with some simple instructions that will make it really easy.

You’re playing as Kiryu Kazuma in Yakuza 0 for PlayStation 4 (PS4). At one point, you’ll be introduce to Miss Tatsu in Chapter 2: The Real Estate Broker in the Shadows, another Bacchus’s friend met at the Theatre Alley. She’s the master of Beast Style, where you’ll unleash a yellow-ish aura in a ferocious manner, like a beast as they say.

What is Beast Style?

The “Power”style of fighting that focuses on inflicting heavy damages on your enemy. Your moves and attacks are the slowest than the Brawler and Rush styles. However, you’re the master on using weapons, pressing square on the nearby weapons instinctively swings the weapon to the enemies around you.

Personally for Beast Style, you can swing a nearby object against large number of enemies. In one-on-one battles, like boss fights, you can approach the enemy at grabbing (pressing Circle) distance to perform Heat and powerslam moves.

Unfortunately, you’re handicapped in speed. Slower Quicksteps, pressing X, can be painstaking when dodging from enemy’s fast attacks, especially from the weapon-holder ones. Evasive roll is the best you can manouver from bullets, punches and weapons.

How to Perfect Beast Style?

Upgrading your abilities to inflict more damage on enemies and boss battles. You’ll learn more from Miss Tatsu about Beast Style moves at the Tokyo Pier. You’ll need to pay for her session, which consists of Training and Jobs.

Training contains “obstacle course” sets-up at the Pier. You’re given a time limit to smash, pressing square, on all mannequins using boxes to achieve the target. Each boxes contains different value of money that you can gain. You must overcome ten training sessions.

Then, you’ll unlocked Jobs after completing each Training session. Your Beast skills are put to test when encountering Miss Tatsu’s Five Job assignments.

Domoto the Runaway

Your first assignment is to eliminate Domoto, a man who escapes from debt collectors for 20 years. You’ll learn the Iron Fortitude skill as a reward.

Scowling Gingoro

The next assignment is to eliminate the Scowling Gingoro. He’s the owner of cosmetics company that fell behind on his payments to the Yakuza. You’ll learn the Crushing Hammer skill after completing this job.

Kinji the Antique Yakuza

Then, a tricky third assignment. You’ll face Kinji, whom wields a katana in his hands. After beating Kinji, you’ll acquire the Essence of the Beast: Wall Pin Heat Action.

Hiroya the Debt King

For your final lesson is to eliminate Hiroya. After beating the Giant Man, you’ll face Hiroya the Debt King at the Tokyo Pier. Using Heat moves on Hiroya at the right time is the best since he’s fast at dodging your attacks. After beating Hiroya, you’ll learn the Essence of the Beast: Overrun Heat Action.

Now that you’ve acquired all moves on Beast Style. Let’s put those skills on the streets of Kamurocho. Have a good day!

The extremely popular PlayStation Portable game device has become the latest target of malicious software writers, with the discovery of a “Trojan horse” program that renders the machines inoperable.

PSP is specially designed to run only approved programs and games but unauthorised codes or patches can be downloaded to bypass these restrictions.The newly discovered malicious software, or “malware”, poses as just such an illicit patch. The problem is that, once installed, it deletes four critical system files, rendering the infected device useless.

Researchers at antivirus firm Symantec say the Trojan, dubbed Trojan.PSPBrick, was found circulating on gaming web sites last week.

PSP users who unwittingly install it will see the message “Your PSP 2.0 is hacked, please reboot” pop up on the screen of their console. However, efforts to restart the gadget are likely to end in frustration.

“It’s a really nasty trick,” says Mikko Hyppönen, director of antivirus research at Finnish company F-Secure. He believes there is no way to remedy an infected machine without taking it for costly repairs. “A hacker as destructive as this obviously isn’t thinking straight.”

So basically once this malicious software has been installed you’ve got yourself an extremely expensive “brick” which could be used to build your dream house!

Devil May Cry V has been leaked. Capcoms hack ‘n’ slash franchise game Devil May Cry has been a popular game since our childhood. It first came on Ps2 which was a success leading it to become a franchise. The last Devil May Cry game was Devil May Cry 4 which was released on 2008 and a reboot of DMC was made on 2013.

Since then there has been no solid news about a new Devil May Cry V title except for the DMC4 SE and the DMC definitive edition which are the rebooted version of DMC4 SE and DMC game. Fans have been waiting for a long time to hear something from the Devil May Cry franchise director Hideaki Itsuno to announce a new game but there has been no news. He tweeted about his new game which is going smoothly which can be DMC 5 but there is no proof.

Recently a huge Devil May Cry V leak has surfaced which has potential details about the new Devil may cry game, its story, characters, development and more. The leak was posted by ResetEra user named Son of Sparda who said he will accept the permanent ban if this leak turns out to be fake.

Release date and production

The game is to be released in sometime in the fiscal year of 2019 which means between the year of 2018 and 2019.

Originally Devil May Cry V was intended to be announced at Sony PSX event on December 8 but after receiving feedback Sony will announce the new game at E3 2018.

There will be a demo version of the game which will be playable before the game’s release.

This will be the highest time a DMC game was in development which is around 5 years. The development of the game is progressing smoothly to avoid any mistakes.

This time Sony is paying for some of the funding which might make this title a PS4 exclusive for a short period of time. It can be a ps4 exclusive, console exclusive or a timed exclusive.

This time the DMC V title is said to be ‘ambitious’ with a broader appeal.

DMC V will contain the longest cutscene time of all the DMC game.

A trailer has been ready for a while now. The initial trailer is 1 minute 50 seconds long. The trailer is mostly focused on the story, characters, and gameplay. A city like setting is shown in the trailer much like Fortuna city in DMC4.

Development Team

Itsunos team which made previous DMC games is also making this new game.

Yuji Shimomura is returning as the cutscene director who worked on DMC3, 4 and Bayonetta cutscenes.

Voice actor for Dante is Reuben Langdon, for Nero is Johny Young Bosch and for Vergil is Dan Southworth.

Onyay Pheori is helping with the soundtrack.

No word on the actresses who played Trish and Lady if they will be returning or not is unknown.

Characters and Story

DMCV picks up the story right from where the DMC 4 left off.

More than one player is playable being Dante and Nero and the third character is unknown but it will be Vergil. Up to 3 playable characters have been suggested for now.

Trish has a prominent role in DMC5, but she is playable or not it is unknown.

Character switch during key story points in the game.

The ‘prince of darkness’ is featured in the game as the main antagonist of the story.

No word on whether Vergil will be playable or not.

DMC5 might be the end of the “son of Sparda” storyline.

GAMEPLAY

Console is targeted for 60 frames per second like the previous DMC games.

There is no stamina bar.

There will be some areas where you will face more enemies then you are used to in DMC games.

Missions and ranking systems similar to previous DMC games.Bosses being ramped up dramatically in DMCV. One of the boss fights moves between multiple areas of the game.

Camera pulls back during big fights. The devs are really proud of the new dynamic camera system.

There is some online integration but no multiplayer PVP.

Dodge system is reworked and dodging, in general, is supposed to be a lot smoother than before.

Enemies will react a bit different depending on the style.

There is some dynamic environment destruction/transformation in play but not on the scale of Dmc thus far.

Level design and exploration in Devil May Cry is similar to Bayonetta with action set pieces thrown in there but without QTE or quick time event. QTE’s, in general, don’t exist in DMC games.

Animations are being improved to be less stiff.

While Devil May Cry V will not be an open world game, some inspirations have been taken from Dragon’s Dogma.

So guys take this information with a grain of salt because there is no original announcement from CAPCOM. But the announcement will be in E3 2018. So let’s just hope its true.

You’re playing as Kiryu Kazuma, a member of the Yakuza family walking down the Red Light District in Kamurocho, set in the scene of economic boom atmosphere in 1988 Yakuza 0 PlayStation 4 (PS4).

Living in the underworld of Yakuza is certainly not easy and always under surveillance from the family members. Playing as Kiryu Kazuma, battle styles ensures your survival against the enemies and future boss battles in Kamurocho.

As you progress throughout the main story, you’ll meet new trainers, which teaches you three fighting styles; Brawler, Rush and Beast. All battle styles depends on your preference and strategy towards the enemies.

Brawler Style

Firstly, you’ll meet Bacchus whom will teach you Brawler fighting style. Kiryu encapsulated by blue vibes, achieves balance between power and speed of battle on any type of enemies and bosses. Great for counter-attacking after absorbing hits and evade from enemies using weapons, pressing triangle to unleash Heat moves. So, buckle up to learn some new moves at the Tenkaichi Alley.

Rush Style

Secondly, if you’re more defensive. Then Rush battle style suits best on weaker enemies. The battle style, surrounded by pink vibes, focuses more on evasive action from the enemy’s attack (by pressing X swiftly) and hitting on the counter (by pressing square promptly). Kamoji will be your trainer at the Shichifuku Parking Lot to unlock new skills.

Beast Style

Thirdly, you’ll meet Miss Tatsu at some point of the Yakuza 0 main story to hone your Beast style of battle at Tokyo Pier. Covered by yellow golden vibes, giving the ferocious impression, swinging those heavy weapons with power and urgency, by pressing square with directional button, on large groups of enemy and finish off the tougher boss battles with heat moves by pressing triangle.

Dragon of Dojima Style

Lastly, the secret legend fighting style unlocked by completing the entire Real Estate Royale (Chapter 5) storyline. Special style with precision and relatively speedy style with great power. Put it simply, combination of Brawler and Rush styles into one. You’ll go through some serious grinding with patience to get the legend fighting style. Once acquired, you’ll need to go to the menu and press square to activate this style at the expense of disabling other battle styles.

Well, that’s the four battle styles essential for Kiryu Kazuma’s survival in Kamurocho, Japan. Grind those monies by investing in real estate properties, taking out street thugs, completing substories and other forms of mini games. Let’s get ready to unlock four battle style abilities in Yakuza 0 PS4.

If you’re a gamer and you’ve given more than a cursory glance to industry news in the last couple of years then you’ll probably be aware of how Microsoft well and truly bungled the launch of the Xbox One. Whether it was arrogance, hubris, or just sheer bone-headedness, somebody at Microsoft really misjudged the marketing for the latest Xbox console, and the effects of that can still be felt today as the PS4 dominates the charts month after month. Sony might be celebrating now, but they too found themselves in a similar situation last generation when they tried to launch their PS3 amid controversy, a high price point, and bad marketing.

While Microsoft are in the middle of rehabilitating their image following the Xbox One DRM debacle and Sony implemented what they’d learned from the relative failure of the PS3 to improve the PS4, at least those companies are still releasing consoles. Back in 1995, SEGA were one of “the big two” when it came to console gaming (along with Nintendo) but some appalling marketing decisions with the Saturn put the company into a tailspin that it never truly recovered from, resulting in the early abandonment of their next console, the Dreamcast, and ultimately them retreating from the hardware game entirely.

Prior to the launch of the Saturn, SEGA announced that the console would be released one week before the new Sony console, the PlayStation, in September 1995. Whether it was out of fear of the new kid on the block, or just an incredibly misguided marketing ploy, somebody at SEGA HQ decided it would be a good idea to surprise everybody by launching the Saturn in May as a big surprise. To everybody. Including gamers. And retailers. And developers. And publishers. Oh and forget about developing for the 32X, that’s so last month.

Yes, the SEGA Saturn launched in the May of 1995 but as far as most gamers were concerned it wasn’t expected until September and so they didn’t have chance to save up or warn their parents it was coming. That didn’t really matter so much though, since most retailers were also unaware that the console was coming and so their stores weren’t readily equipped to take on the launch of a brand new console five months before they were expecting it. Although, upon reflection, perhaps they were worried about nothing since there were no games ready for the system since SEGA also failed to alert game developers of the change in release date meaning that there were only six games available at launch and all of them were made by SEGA.

In one fell swoop, SEGA managed to upset practically every retailer, every game developer and publisher that wasn’t them, and confuse gamers around the world. It was basically the gaming equivalent of sending all of your Christmas cards out in June and then wondering why nobody bothered sending you one back.

The Saturn wasn’t quite the straw that broke the camel’s back, but the decision to swerve everybody with a phony release date for the console crippled it and allowed the PlayStation to clean up when it was finally released on the day that Sony told people it would be released in September. SEGA didn’t attempt any such chicanery with their next console, the Dreamcast, but the damage to their brand had already been done, and in doing so, given Sony a chance to find footing within the console market. The PlayStation 2 went on to be the best selling console of all time, and the Dreamcast lasted less than two years on the market before SEGA abandoned hardware altogether to concentrate on just developing and publishing games for other consoles.

So you got an Xbox/Wii/PS3/PS4/Xbox One but don’t know which motion sensing dance games to buy. It can be a difficult decision being that there is almost an over saturation of dance games for all the current and last generation consoles.

I personally prefer the Xbox 360 and Xbox One as I find the motion sensing via the Kinect and Kinect 2 sensor are far more superior to the other consoles motion sensing peripherals.

Aside from that, Dance Central and Just Dance have some differences but are similar in many ways. Just Dance is more suited to those wanting to just have fun. Dance Central is more suited to those wanting to learn how to dance.

Dance Central is developed by Harmonix, who previously created the Rock Band and Guitar Hero games. Just Dance is created by Ubisoft which isn’t quite known for their music or rhythm games.

Dance Central has been claimed to be the best selling dance game series so far. Dance Central was also one of the launch titles when the Kinect sensor first came out (previously called Project Natal when in development).

Just Dance has a pretty big following as well, with the first few games only being released for the Wii (later released as Greatest hits on other consoles). Just Dance is available on all current and last generation consoles. Just Dance has even released games for the PS4 and Xbox One (so far dance central has been shelved and is not in development for current systems).

Dance Central is more realistic and has more variable difficulty. Songs in Dance Central are graded from 1 to 5 stars based on difficulty. You can also choose individual difficulty for each song as well, ranging from beginner to hard. As you progress through the lower difficulty moves you can move onto the harder difficulties to try it out.

As the difficulty for the song is increased (by the player’s choice), the moves become more difficult and faster paced. They also build upon previous difficulties dance moves, with hard difficulty incorporating moves from easy and medium with new added moves. One minor drawback to Dance Central is that the dance moves don’t always flow as much as they do in Just Dance which I find to be a minor setback.

There is also a practice mode In Dance Central you can use to practice moves of a particular song. You can slow down the song, practice certain parts practice the whole song in practice mode.

Just Dance on the other hand doesn’t have any practice mode. Most of the songs have normal or hard difficulty and most songs are typically faster paced (more of a workout if that’s what you are looking for). Just Dance has flashcards for the upcoming dance moves scrolled across the bottom (going right to left) as you dance to the choreographed dance of the onscreen character to the song you chose.

Dance Central uses a similar system but has flashcards with the names of the dance moves, scrolled from bottom to top on the right or left side as you follow the on screen dancer/character dance to the song.

Just Dance allows you to unlock songs using mojo points (and in Just Dance 2014 Xbox Live points, Wii points/ PSN points) to unlock new/alternate dance routines for songs, mashups and battles. You can also download new songs via points or money (depending on system you are playing on).

In Dance Central you have the option of importing songs from previous dance central titles as well as new songs via DLC with points or money. With this you can create quite a large library of songs on one game with up to 100-200 songs on one game. With Just Dance you typically have to change game discs to get more songs or play different songs.

Video games always have been one of the greatest inventions in entertainment. But there are now a variety of ways we can enjoy it. From consoles to handheld devices there is just no way of stopping game developers to full fill those deepest desires of a gamer all over the world and in different ages. But what exactly is the difference in how we want to play those games, do we want something affordable or something more appealing. Some of those who play video games care much more about the graphics and some the game play. Let us start first where it all began:

The video games are first made from a PC or the personal computer, so the games where first available from floppy disks and can be copied from different computers. Then the consoles were invented which is a fixed device that allows the game to be viewed by connecting to a t.v. And played using a controller. Video games now come in cartridges as programs are stored in microchips.

Handheld video game players were also made that came from black and white then full color, video game companies also created their own version of handheld video game players requires cartridges for larger games. When compact discs were used, new consoles were made to make use of this new storage technology that can store a higher amount of data. Which means better graphics and sound, that made games more appealing and attractive with longer hours of game play.

These are just some of the few factors that affect the gamer both young and old:

Age

Older players tend to spend more time and money playing in consoles while really younger players prefer something more simple like playing in handheld devices like the Playstation portable or the Nintendo 3DS, since they have little hands and it is easy for them to operate.

Budget

Being affordable is also a factor, those who are wealthy care much more about the quality of the game, while those who are in a tight budget would get anything that they can play with to kill time or simply for amusement.

Portable

A handheld device allow you to play anywhere you want and anytime you want, it is also improving in game quality as technology develops. Consoles are only good to play at home or a gaming network, you can’t basically take it anywhere with you.

It really depends on operation, time and budget. A gamer may also prefer both for those who are really addicted in playing video games wherever they want or whenever they have the opportunity.

Even though Microsoft adjusted their strategy and finally dropped some of the bad-perceived aspects of the Xbox One, the rival’s console, Sony PlayStation 4, seems to be ahead for the time being, in the race for the best next gen gaming console. Let us take a look on how things worked out so far between the two giants and what factors influenced the public opinion to lean towards Sony’s product.

When talking about games, both Sony and Microsoft managed to present balanced products at E3 this year. However, gamers tend to think that Sony will come up with better games and will provide these exclusively for PS4, as they did in the past with PS3, and these will be better than the ones available for Xbox (like on Xbox 360).

According to Forbes, the odds that PlayStation 4 will sell better than Xbox One are rising every day, and Microsoft is the one to blame.

Xbox One presentation at E3 was a great example on how not to announce a new console. While Sony got a round of applause when they confirmed that PS4 will run old and rented games and it doesn’t require permanent Internet connection, Microsoft suffered a big hit. Even though they said they won’t go further with the restrictions, the general idea most people in the audience got is that, for Xbox One makers it is more important to score sales that satisfy the customers. Microsoft adopted Sony’s strategy on games, but it seems it’s too late, as PS4 is preferred by games, and this opinion will probably convert into sales.

Another important point was scored by PS4 when they announced the prices for the consoles. Originally valued the same, Sony decided to remove the PS4 Eye from the new PlayStation Standard package, and sell it separately. That reduced the console’s costs and it is now cheaper by 100 euros than the Xbox One.

The beating Xbox took socially and the privacy concerns regarding the impossibility to disconnect the Kinect while you are playing will surely cost Microsoft and seriously affect the sales, the first ones at least.

If we are talking priorities, Sony seems to have taken the lead as well, starting from the media presentation. While the PlayStation 4 is presented as the best choice a gamer could make, Xbox One is going on the all-in-one road, saying it’s a gaming platform, that could become a box set and home entertainment package, things that don’t present much interest to most gamers. We don’t know the final result of this war between the two giants, but it’s clear the first battle was won by Sony. We’ll have to wait to see what happens this autumn with them to make an idea for ourselves about the outcome.