Sony's Shady Behavior

 By: Patrick Morris

Alright going to try to keep this one as short as possible. After God of War 5 got delayed I felt like Sony was dipping back into one of the strategies they used in the lead up to the PS5 release that was a big difference maker in what pushed me to play more Xbox than PlayStation this generation. It's only natural that people do some of their best work when they're backed into a corner and Microsoft is fighting like someone who has been backed into a corner, but instead of rising to the challenge I think there have been plenty of signs that Sony is putting more work into appearing as though they are rising to the challenge than they are actually working to rise to that challenge.

 

Basically this entire article is going to be calling Sony out on some of their recent behavior and I know how rabid fanbases can get so I just want to put out a quick disclaimer: if I were to make a rough estimation I would say I played at least four times as much PS4 as I did Xbox One last generation. I own both the Series X and a PS5 and I have played both quite a bit. So I'm not some Xbox fanboy shitting all over Sony I'm someone who enjoys video games on all platforms and is concerned with calling Sony out on some recent shady behavior.

 

In late May 2020 Sony's Jim Ryan said "We have always said that we believe in generations…We believe that when you go to all the trouble of creating a next-gen console, that it should include features and benefits that the previous generation does not include. And that, in our view, people should make games that can make the most of those features." Sony was very concerned with making it crystal clear that their first party developers would be moving from the PS4 to the PS5 fairly quickly and there wouldn’t be many cross generational released. This was, of course, in response to Microsoft's very loud messaging that every single game that worked on the Xbox One would work on the Xbox Series and they would be continuing to support the Xbox family of consoles for years to come. Sony and Microsoft were utilizing very different strategies and Sony wanted that to be known.

 

What carried the PS4 to its monumental success was the killer first party exclusives. Game's like Horizon Zero Dawn, God of War, Spider-Man, Ghost of Tsushima, and depending on who you talk to The Last of Us Part 2 were some of the best games of the generation and without a doubt what compelled many gamers to buy a PS4 over an Xbox One. Understandably Sony wanted to keep that momentum going into the next generation. So the strategy became bringing those first party exclusives front and center. And that's exactly the play they ran over and over again during the PlayStation events in the back half of last year. 

 

Starting at their June event Sony gave us our first look at Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Horizon Forbidden West at their big PS5 reveal event. All throughout the video presentation and in the subsequent posts across various social media websites Sony failed to mention that both games would also be coming to the PS4. That important tidbit of information was left buried in the post on the Japanese PlayStation blog. Also included in that June event was the first trailer for Gran Turismo 7 with a "PlayStation 5 Exclusive" watermark in the corner. And just recently Sony confirmed that Gran Turismo 7 will also be coming to the PS4. Then they doubled down on their strategy of either hiding or in some cases blatantly lying about platform exclusives at their September event. The show opened with the world premiere trailer for the hotly anticipated Final Fantasy 16 and at the end of the trailer after the title card the words "PlayStation Console Exclusive" with the the PlayStation logo filled the screen. It was shortly found out by internet sleuths that Final Fantasy 16 was in fact not a console exclusive, at least not in the way Sony presented it as such. On SquareEnix's own website the asterisks reads "not available on other consoles for a limited time." Again, I have no problem with Sony paying to have Final Fantasy 16 as a timed exclusive for the PS5, but what I do have a problem with is them presenting it as though it will always be a console exclusive. 

 

And the hits have just kept coming, the latest of them being God of War 5 and new information surrounding the development of Horizon Forbidden West. Sony Santa Monica confirmed recently that God of War 5 has officially been delayed to 2022. Let’s all be honest with each other, anyone that thought that game was coming in 2021 when it was first announced was foolish and to still believe it up until the delay was official leaves me actually wondering if you are truly delusional. The delay of God of War wasn’t a problem, it was the uncertainty introduced by the juxtaposition of the context of the announcement occurring during a PS5 showcase presentation paired with Sony's previously stated commitment to generations and total ambiguity of whether God of War 5 would be exclusive to the PS5.  But with the announcement of the delay also came the announcement of the PS4 version of the game and once again Sony had misled their customers into thinking a heavy hitting exclusive would be a true PS5 game. 

 

Now before I wrap up in case I haven't made it absolutely crystal clear I have no problem whatsoever with cross generation games. In fact, some of my favorite games of all time have been cross generational and I love to discuss which was the better version of the game. What I have a problem with is Sony intentionally hiding information that will undoubtedly effect someone's purchasing decisions and in some cases out right lying about platform exclusives to make their console seem more appealing. It comes as no surprise to me that Sony wouldn’t want to abandon more than 110 million PS4 owners that they could potentially be selling software to, and I would never fault them for that, they have to be allowed to make money if they are going to continue to deliver some of the best games we have ever played. Had Sony not leaned so hard into their messaging about believing in generation's all of this would be a moot point, but they did lean, they leaned hard. What I have a problem with is the fact that their ambiguity feels intentionally misleading in an effort to sell consoles. It feels as though Sony is working harder to look like the PS5 is a great console to buy than they are at actually making the PS5 a great console to buy, and that is not a consumer friendly practice.

LegalSpeak Marvel Games

Marvel Games

 By: Patrick Morris

Over the past 13 years the Marvel Cinematic Universe has become the highest grossing movie franchise in history. Unfortunately for Disney, Marvel has struggled to replicate that same success in the medium of video games. Across the several Marvel video games that have been either explicitly tied in to the MCU or independent of the MCU released since 2008, with one exception, Marvel has continued to make the same fundamental mistakes that has resulted in a slew of mediocrity. That one exception being Marvel's Spider-Man on PS4 proved to be an indication of the potential that lies in Marvel properties as video games when handled correctly. Despite multiple approaches failing, the prospect of Marvel video games is still a proverbial gold mine, by making a few changes and relinquishing some control Marvel could move their heroes into a new medium at a similar level of success as their movies. 

 

Before we get into the current state of Marvel games we have to take a look at what Marvel has done with video games since the inception of the MCU. The first major foray into video games was a batch of typical cash in licensed games. Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Captain America Super Soldier, Thor God of Thunder, and The Incredible Hulk were all poorly received cash grab games that were pumped out on a rushed schedule from relatively inexperienced dev teams in order to coincide with a movie release. These titles all came out at the tail end of the era of licensed games in which undercooked releases were a typical and expected part of the marketing cycle for basically any movie that has any appeal for a younger demographic. This series of Marvel games was never intended to stand on their own, they were a marketing tool at best and an afterthought at worst. 

 

After the discontinuation of the licensed games and a several year hiatus Marvel returned to the realm of triple A gaming with Spider-Man PS4 in late 2018. Upon the announcement of Spider-Man PS4 being developed by none other than Insomniac Games it was clear that this would be a radically different direction for Marvel video games as a whole. Marvel had done what Disney rarely does and relinquished creative control of their IP to n external team. Not only did Marvel allow Insomniac to create the game they wanted but according to Insomniac's Ted Price Marvel approached them and allowed them to choose which character they wanted to build a game around. By relinquishing control Marvel finally had a Spider-Man game that felt distinctly different from all other past and current iterations of the character with a story compelling enough to stand on its own without the assistance of an upcoming film release. Insomniac was able to perfectly tailor the type of game they made to the powers of the hero that was the game's primary focus. Recognition of talent and quality then surrendering the reigns when appropriate led to arguably the best Marvel video game ever that should have been to the Marvel Video Game Universe what Iron Man was to the MCU. 

 

Since Insomniac's Spider-Man game Marvel has partnered with Square Enix resulting in 2020's Marvel's Avengers and the recently announced Guardians of the Galaxy coming in October. From the moment it was announced Marvel's Avengers has been criticized for having the appearance of a third rate knock off of the MCU Avengers. When released the game was received poorly and heavily criticized for being made up of unimaginative combat lacking in the variety that one would expect from a game with characters whose abilities cover as wide a range as the Avengers. Many also complained of a lack of substantial story content and there in no way has been any attempt to link Marvel's Avengers to Marvel's Spider-Man. And to make things worse from what we have been shown of Guardians of the Galaxy the gameplay looks to be very similar to that of Marvel's Avengers. Of course we wont be able to pass judgement until the game is released but as of now the future of Marvel's partnership with Square Enix doesn’t look to be very fruitful. 

 

So what should Marvel do to achieve a similar level of success in video games as they have in movies? Before I get started I want to acknowledge that I am fully aware that this is all significantly easier said than done. That being said, the obvious route for Marvel is to create a Marvel Video Game Universe that is separate but telling stories in a similar way to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In order to do this Disney would need to create a development subsidiary that moving forward I will refer to as Marvel Video Game's (MVG). MVG would function as a visionary lead orchestrating the larger story arc's and how their characters will intersect with one another. Ideally MVG would have the freedom to identify talented development studios and contract those studios on a game by game basis. At the point of approach allowing those studios to choose off a menu of characters MVG intends to use in their ongoing larger story arc similar to how Insomniac was allowed to choose Spider-Man would result in developers being more interested in their work and in turn better games. Throughout all this it would be important for MVG to make long term decisions for the betterment of their games, that means not being afraid of exclusivity, and working toward larger story arc's similar to the MCU's phases. And finally these MVG games would need to look substantially different from their MCU counterparts in order to avoid the aforementioned third rate knock off look that is currently being realized in the Square Enix games. 

 

Overall the way the Marvel game's have been going in the past couple years with the exception of Spider-Man has left a lot to be desired. The fact that the video game industry generates significantly more revenue than the movie industry and the potential of a Marvel Video Game Universe should not continue to be ignored. During the early years of the MCU the movies were made great because the creators had the freedom to craft the stories they wanted surrounding the characters they cared about. While it may be highly unlikely, if Disney were to invest in a video game production house and allow them and their contracted development studios the freedom to pursue the stories and characters they were interested in Marvel could find even more success in video games than movies. But as it stands now I'm not hopeful for the future.

RetroReviews Mass Effect

Mass Effect Review

 By: Patrick Morris

Mass Effect, a term that refers to the foundational technology of an ancient alien race able to manipulate the fabric of space and time; the greatest discovery in the history of mankind and also the namesake of the 2007 space opera odyssey. With the release of the Mass Effect Legendary Edition this early Xbox 360 classic has been brought into the modern age while still maintaining the vast majority of its 2007 quirks. As an RPG Mass Effect set new standards for the genre and redefined what players were able to expect from the consequences of their choices in video games. Mass Effect is a game that is well deserving of it's legendary status and while it takes a significant shift in mindset to accommodate for the ways in which it's aged that shift is more than worth the effort for the ways in which the game continues to outshine even the best what the modern RPG genre has to offer. 

 

Based off everything I had been told about the game prior to playing I started my play through with the presumption that the game's main draw would be in its story telling. Within the spectrum of fictional space operas Mass Effect falls significantly closer to Star Trek than it does Star Wars. Full of well established societies and cultures brought to life by rich historical lore and tumultuous political relations the universe of Mass Effect feels as though it existed prior to the player's arrival and will continue to exist after they leave. As a result of this establishment of universe Mass Effect is able to create meaningful stakes while allowing for the players choices to create significant changes as individual character is more grand than the larger universe.

 

The story revolves around Commander Shepard during his or her pursuit or the rogue spectre agent Saren after suspicions of Saren's betrayal of the council and the Milky Way races alliance are confirmed. This conflict with and pursuit of Saren serves the game as a compelling "A" story to keep the player involved without overwhelming them with lore to build the larger conflict. After arriving on Virmire the player discovers that Saren has awoken an ancient synthetic-organic starship that is part of a race better known as the Reapers. In a captivating conversation between Shepard and the Reaper, the Reaper reveals that its name is Sovereign and it is one of thousands of Reapers, the rest of which have been left adrift in dark space with no means of communication or navigation back to the Milky Way galaxy. Weaving the primary conflict between Shepard and Saren into the larger plot of Sovereign's plan to recall the Reapers and lead a genocidal takeover of all the races of the Milky Way organically escalates the plot from the more contained Shepard vs. Saren to the grander Alliance vs. Reapers. This escalation functions as an excellent way to raise the stakes and make the first game feel capable of both standing on its own while also serving as the first part of a larger multipart story. 

 

The game opens with Shepard teaming up with a Turian Spectre named Nihlus in pursuit of Saren. Shortly thereafter Saren murder's Nihlus in cold blood and Shepard is unable to stop it. After coming in contact with a mysterious Prothean beacon Shepard has a vision the likes of which cannot be deduced and reports back to the alliance council to report on the events of Eden Prime and is promoted to the rank of Spectre then given the mission of investigating the rogue Spectre Saren. The player is then given the freedom to explore the Milky Way and undertakes story progressing quests on Feros, Noveria, and in the Artemis Tau cluster. After these three are completed the player is sent to Virmire where they experience three major plot points. Despite how enthralling the events of Virmire were they are also the game's biggest short coming. The encounter with Wrex that has the potential to radically change the dynamic amongst the crew of the Normandy, followed by the conversation Shepard has with Soverign, and capped off with the conversation between Shepard and Saren all provide hard hitting story moments and dialogue options that will greatly effect the outcome of the game. But despite how captivating the events of Virmire are I couldn’t help but feel as though stacking all those major story beats in quick succession made for less than ideal pacing. After reaching Virmire I was so hooked on the game that I finished it that day, but to get to Virmire the game was asking for roughly 7-10 hours of good but not great gameplay and story telling. Had those moments been spread out across the events of Feros, Noveria, and Artemis Tau the player would have had significantly more reason to continue to want to know what would be happening next in the story. 

 

At the core of the story are the characters and their relationship's with Shepard. It may sound cliché but the player gets as much out of those relationships as they are willing to put in. Obviously everyone will have different opinions of each character but in my playthrough the standouts were Wrex and Liara. Each character has significant backstory to explore giving the player not only the opportunity better understand the universe but also develop relationships with those characters. Wrex's instinctual loyalty to the preservation of the Krogan, Liara's curiosity of other species, and Ashley's…space racism, all offer deep and intricate dialogue options with lasting consequences in which choices are dictated by how the player has invested their stat points and their past dialogue decisions. 

 

Despite the excellence of the story, the gameplay is where Mass Effect shows its age in the most significant way and stands as the largest hurdle to enjoying the game in a modern context. Gunplay can be charitably described as serviceable at best, movement feels slow and stiff, and combat scenarios are almost entirely unimaginative cover based encounters. The game lacks any sense of variance in combat and exploration offering little to no verticality leaving me feeling as though the squad based abilities are superfluous and squandered.  Without a doubt the highlight moments of the game are in the conversations. Mass Effect doesn’t offer any massive set pieces that will stick in my mind the same way thing's like Uncharted 3's airplane sequence, Gear of War's train in the finale, or Metal Gear Solid 3's Shagohad chase but what it does offer is jaw dropping revelations that are provided to the character conversationally. So where the game excels at story telling it leaves something to be desired in the gameplay department.

 

The ultimate question surrounding Mass Effect with the newly released legendary edition is whether or not the game holds up in the context of 2021. Being someone who didn’t play the game until now I found myself so enthralled in it's story and characters that I was scrambling to download the second game within minutes of finishing the first. With a slight shift in mindset and expectations to account for the fact that it is a game that was originally released in 2007 and remains almost entirely unchanged the majesty of Mass Effect can still be fully appreciated. It is a game that is well deserving of it's classic status and should be played and enjoyed by everyone.

LegalSpeak XCloud

Xcloud First Impressions

 By: Patrick Morris

Game streaming has become a unicorn that major players in the industry have been chasing for a few years now and every time a new service launches I sign up for the free trial and after a few days of experimenting walk away with the same conclusion: that the technology just isn't ready yet. I've played games on PlayStation Now, Google Stadia, and Amazon Luna and every single time I buy into the hype and before I know it I'm Leo McGarry and these tech giants are the joint chief's telling me they have a missile defense system that will actually work this time! Well last week I got an invite into the Xcloud beta program and after spending several hours with it I am happy to say that while Microsoft definitely hasn’t caught that elusive unicorn yet they are closer than anyone ever has been by a country mile. Xcloud is a service that if it were a stand alone would be lost in the shuffle of an already crowded space full of undesirables, but instead, it's inclusion with Gamepass ultimate changes it from an additional expense to an added value that elevates it from just another face in the crowd to what will almost certainly be the premier platform for game streaming.

There are several major players in the game streaming space and I've tried almost all of them, PSnow, Stadia, Luna, the only one that really springs to mind that I haven't tried is GeForce now. And of the services that I have tested they all seem to have similar strengths but also suffer from the same problems. Convincing developer's to put their games on a brand new streaming platform hasn’t seemed to be an issue for any of them. Sony has a huge back catalog of PlayStation 3 games available to stream, and both Google and Amazon have smaller but more modern libraries the latter of which even has a price tier that includes access to Ubisoft's subscription service Ubisoft+. But where they all seem to have the same issues is the quality of service they provide combined with the way in which those services are monetized. Both PSnow and Luna rely on a month or annual subscription while Stadia relies on individual purchases with the option for a monthly subscription to improve the graphical fidelity of the games being played. This revenue model has been proven in the movie and tv industry but the differene there is in the experience. When I turn on a movie on HBO I sit down and experience the movie, sure it's not as fantastic as seeing the movie in theaters but it's perfectly fine and therefore they have earned my money. But every time I sit down to stream a game on one of these major services the disparity of the experiences between streaming and playing on local hardware is so large that I feel these services cant function as the primary gaming platform for even the most casual players much less totally replace an Xbox, PlayStation, or high end gaming PC. 

 

After playing Xcloud for a week I cant help but notice how Microsoft's streaming service outdoes the competition in just about every way but one of the most notable is in performance. For once game's being streamed to a device are actually playable. The single biggest issues with all of these services and what makes them essentially unplayable save but a few titles is latency. With regard to latency I'm happy to say that while it is noticeable it's not game breaking on nearly as many titles on Xcloud as it is on other services. It's difficulty to describe but the latency on Xcloud can be felt but rarely seen. On other services I can see my thumb physically press a button and see the delay in that action being taken in game. Whereas with Xcloud I can feel myself press a button or move an analog stick and while there is still a minor delay between feeling my action and seeing that action occur on screen that delay is reduced to the point that I cant see it and if someone were watching over my should I don’t think they would be able to see it either. So essentially latency exists on Xcloud but it can only be felt a bit and not seen which makes for a significantly better experience. 

 

Resolution and frame rates are, in my opinion, somewhat of a moot point when it comes to streaming. The way I see it is that if you cant push a 720P image at 30 frames per second to my phone or browser with negligible latency then advertising visual performance at 4K/60 with graphics settings on high or ultra is essentially selling snake oil. Games on Xcloud look good but not great. According to Android Authority.com the hardware driving Xcloud servers is based off the Xbox one S. At a glance this may seem to be limiting when comparing to the likes of Luna, Stadia, and GeForce now but to my admittedly limited understanding of how this technology works it appears to be working in Microsoft's favor. 

 

While Luna, Stadia, and GeForce now are all utilizing PC hardware and streaming the PC versions of their respective games to the end user's device undoubtedly results in the potential for higher fidelity gaming, in the real world use case the result is actually the opposite. Like I mentioned before most of these services are struggling to push a 720p image at 30fps to my device, so if the stream is where the bottle neck exists then the potential of the hardware means nothing. And to add even further to the issues with utilizing PC hardware it is a well known fact that PC games are designed to be largely scalable to accommodate for the nearly infinite variety of hardware configurations that could be in any given gaming PC. Xbox games, on the other hand, are designed for a small number of possible hardware configurations, the one S being the lowest configuration on that spec sheet. So while PC hardware results in a higher ceiling that is functionally restricted by the bottle neck of internet speeds it also allows the hardware to scale graphical settings down making for a lower floor and less visually impressive picture. So amazingly, in this hyper specific use case that is so fringe that most of these services aren't even out of beta testing, the Xbox one S appears to be somewhat of a sweet spot for performance. 

 

Everyone knows that even the best hardware in the world is nothing without good software, and the same can be said for the best streaming services in the world. And while Amazon, Google, and Nvidia are undoubtedly doing a great job wheeling and dealing getting games on their services Microsoft has an absolute advantage in this respect. Gamepass is an already existing service for which Microsoft is already striking deals with developers to bring their games to, the addition of Xcloud is presumably a simply amendment to or clause in an already existing or new contract. So while Amazon, Google, and Nvidia are incurring relatively large costs signing developers and those contracts are only for games being streamed on their respective services Microsoft is simply adding a relatively minor cost to contracts for existing services while also being able to offer the allure of a developers game not only being on their streaming service but also being added to the white hot Gamepass service on Xbox and PC. 

 

So the technology is better than their competitors, the potential for games and the library is comparable if not better than their competitors, but what about the actual user experience? Initially I was disappointed when Apple put a stop to game streaming via native apps on iOS, and honestly I still am disappointed. It seems like an unnecessary power move to try to micro manage the developers on their platform. Then when Phil Spencer announced that the Xbox team would be developing a web app I was a bit apprehensive of it becoming a fairly clunky and slow experience that required me to open my browser and go to a specific site then log in every time I wanted to play which would be enough of a hassle that it would have prevented me from ever actually using the service. But as it is, the experience of playing Xcloud on iOS is totally acceptable. After receiving the invitation and logging in to xbox.com/play the user is then prompted to save the web shortcut to their home screen and access the web app from there. From that moment on the web app was nearly indistinguishable from an actual native app. There is no hint of the Safari UI anywhere in sight and while it would definitely be nice to have this functionality baked into the official Xbox app or even the Gamepass app like it is on Android the web app is perfectly usable and doesn’t pose any major barriers between me and playing my games.

 

Everything about Xcloud is best in class, but unfortunately that class needs to be graded on a pretty sharp curve. So while Xcloud is better than Luna, Stadia, and PSnow, it's still very evident that they have a long way to go before it's worth paying for. But there in lies the rub, Xcloud is entirely added value. Microsoft is creating a new tier called Gamepass Ultimate Plus or whatever and adding $5/month to the cost, they are just giving users more functionality and inherently value for the same price they are already paying. Which is completely in line with everything the Xbox division has been doing in recent years. They don’t care where you play or on what platform you play just as long as you are somehow using Xbox services. Microsoft is building a gaming ecosystem so unless you are playing on a PlayStation or switch they will have a good chance at getting a small piece of the pie.

 

Overall my experience with Xcloud has been great and I look forward to the platform continuing to grow and improve. There are definitely some minor bugs here and there, my volume bar and home screen bar get stuck at the top and bottom of my screen while playing, the Xcloud UI never goes away, and my phone gets uncomfortably hot and drains battery faster than what is acceptable. But these are all issues that will undoubtedly be addressed in future updates. The idea of paying for a game streaming service and getting nothing but that streaming service leaves a bad taste in my mouth with respect to game streaming in general, but the additional functionality being added to something I already pay for does the total opposite for streaming. Microsoft has taken something with a fairly negative outlook and turned it into a very positive experience and for the first time using a game streaming service regularly seems more like a realistic probability than it does an idealistic sci-fi utopian possibility.