My Game Awards 2020 Predictions

Hello, everyone. As you all know, the biggest event, the Game Awards is coming tonight. I watched last year's Game Awards and it was wild. Even Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled was chosen as the Best Racing Game and we get to take a look at exciting World Premieres to give us a look on upcoming content, like Microsoft's newest console, the Xbox Series X. It appears that their World Premieres are wilder than the ones at EVO. Sadly, I didn't watch the whole thing because it's getting closer to my bedtime.

Alright, enough with the past and let's get on to my predictions for this year's Game Awards. We all know that there will be World Premieres as always. And one of them that we can expect. The next Smash Ultimate DLC fighter. It says that they will be revealed in that event, unlike last year's. My first prediction is something that came at the Crash Bandicoot 4 artbook, a potential Spyro 4. If you look at the page of the art book, the left side has a text at the end, "...and a little hint at Spyro." On the right, you see a purple dragon with Spyro's name and a number 4 below the name. That's gonna be my first prediction that we're seeing a potential Spyro 4.

My second prediction regards DLC, but most importantly, for Mortal Kombat 11. Last year, they revealed the Joker's gameplay and a Harley Quinn skin. Since MK11 Ultimate was announced, three DLC characters were introduced in Kombat Pack 2, including the one fans won't shut up asking for, Mileena. Her absence in MK11 has been a continuous point of contention, causing fans to incessantly ask. And now, she finally came. That's not all of the characters because a Kombat Pack 3 is reportedly leaked to have 4 or 5 additional characters. I can predict that.

My third prediction may be a doozy because with the next gen consoles released, future fighting games will also be set to release, including a potential SFVI, which I predict that it'll be premiered, along with future ones.

I have more predictions for this year's Game Awards, but I'm not gonna write all of them, just the ones that interest me. I'll be watching the annual event on my computer instead on my phone. Because of the dreaded COVID-19 pandemic, this year's Game Awards will be relegated into a digital format to ensure a pandemic-friendly environment. It starts tonight, so be sure to catch it.

Reasons Why I want Full Backwards Compatibility on the PS5

I'm back with another blog post, but this time, regarding reasons. If you remember the post that contains reasons why I buy the PS4 over the Xbox One, then for this blog post, I have several reasons why Sony's newest system, the PS5 should have fully extended backwards compatibility ranging from PS4 all the way to the PS1 across every single game on the PlayStation family, both physical and digital with the exception of the PSP and PSVita games for the separate accessory.

The Nostalgia - PlayStation fans wanted to feel the nostalgia of gaming. Since PSNow has been announced, the PS3 and PS2 catalogues have a limited number of games and Sony adds more of them every month, but not my favorite games. I agree with the fanbase that PSNow should have every single game across the PlayStation family, but minus the PSP and PSVita games for the separate accessory and have the catalogue of PS1 games so we can feel the nostalgia of older games.

Favorite Classics - I enjoy the types of games that have became a refresher course of nature. Mainly, my favorite PS1 and PS2 games. They are the best to enjoy. For example, take the Crash Bandicoot games for example, but most notably, The Wrath of Cortex. It's my number one favorite that I enjoyed playing since Bomberman Hero became my favorite N64 game and Naughty Dog isn't responsible of that because it's also for the original Xbox and GameCube. Fortunately, Activision wanted us to expect more of their Crash and Spyro remasters this year, so this one and Enter the Dragonfly might be next in line to be remastered, but since the PS4's life cycle is slowly approaching the end as we move on to the PS5 coming this year, they might be ported to the newest console.

Gaming Marathons - Now this is the most important reason why the PS5 needs full backwards compatibility. If you know about movie marathons, then you'll know about gaming marathons. Gaming marathons associate with playing and streaming the series in order and vice versa through generations. It's like a Let's Play series, but better. For example, let's say people wanted to stream and do a Gran Turismo marathon. They start from the very first Gran Turismo for the PS1 all the way to Gran Turismo 7 for the PS5 and vice versa. I don't know what series I should play in order.

Defunct Video Game Companies - I'm fond of missing video game companies that are defunct and bought out by their parent companies, but not often. Parent video game companies like Infinity Ward bought out Neversoft, Nordic Games bought out THQ, Inc. before they become THQ Nordic, etc. were often fates to the defunct companies.

Those are the above reasons why the PS5 should have full backwards compatibility. I signed the petition for Sony to take this into extreme consideration. As it stands now, over 1,675 people have signed it, so less than 825 people must sign it. And Sony, if you're reading this, full backwards compatibility or riot. Signing out.

Joe's Thoughts - Sony's Big PS5 Reveal (Part 2)

Hello, everyone. Just watched the big PS5 reveal and I gotta say, it's pretty darn incredible to watch and it's way more exciting than their boring specs reveal show. I won't go over all of them, but I'll go over some of the games and elements that piqued my interest.

Grand Theft Auto V - Rockstar Games has ported their successive sandbox to the PS5 and it will be a new version with feature enhancements and be expanded. There is some scoops about GTA 6 and it said to come in next gen consoles. Honestly, I never played this game, but I might get it soon, knowing it's not for everyone since its M rating and its content that children can't experience, like nudity and strong sexual content. Also, its standalone GTA Online will be free for all PS5 owners for a limited time.

Spider-Man: Miles Morales - It is a PS5 Spider-Man game that features the role of Miles Morales as a main character. If you watched Spider-Man: Into the Spider Verse, then chances are, you can experience his role, although it might apply to those protests that are still ongoing.

Destruction Allstars - The guys that brought you Switchblade Lucid Games has announced a Twisted Metal-esque game that you can destroy vehicles and contains characters without a vehicle. I find this game to be fun. I'm not a Twisted Metal fan, but it's worth experiencing this one. I love to blow up things and some crap.

Godfall - The first gameplay footage was shown at The Game Awards 2019. Its gameplay features melee combat and a whole variety of melee weapons to choose from. There has been some criticisms about Godfall's gameplay since its announcement at The Game Awards.

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart - Insomniac Games' newest Ratchet & Clank game has a focus on worlds that are colliding together. I'm not a Ratchet & Clank fan, but I did see the movie. The logo looks futuristic enough the reflect the future of gaming. Gameplay-wise, you'll bring the parts together to make the world whole.

Kena: Bridge of Spirits - From the looks of the gameplay, it appears to be basically a family friendly Horizon Zero Dawn as you can tell from the way its played. You play the role of a girl who goes on an adventure.

Horizon Forbidden West - Speaking of Horizon Zero Dawn, Aloy's journey continues in a sequel to the original game by Guerilla. Forbidden West continues the story about Aloy's journey to the western part that is forbidden.

The PS5's Official Design - Finally, after a long wait, we get to take a look at the official design for the PS5. From the looks of it, it has a curved and stylized look. It is incredble and it comes in two variants that the Xbox One S uses, the one that uses a disc drive and the all digital one, which does not feature a disc drive and is slimmer. The design looks incredible that you can set it either vertically or horizontally, but does it resemble the past, present and future of gaming?

It's hopeful that we finally get to see what the PS5 will officially look like, but full backwards compability remains a mystery as we know that it'll play PS4 games. It is proven to be under my expections. With that being said, a blog post about reasons why the PS5 should have extended backwards compability will be written in a later date. They do say that updates about backwards compatibility will be posted in the coming months.

The PS5 has a slogan "Play Has No Limits". I'm liking the slogan and I think it might apply to fully extended backwards compability. Now, the price and the true release date is still unknown, but Sony will reveal them later on. Well, that wraps up my PS5 reveal thoughts. Signing out.

Joe's Thoughts - Sony's Big PS5 Reveal (Part 1)

Hey, guys, I know I have another thought in a row, but I have something to get this off my chest, the moment we been waiting for that in June 4th, Sony is finally revealing the the official design of their newest console to come out this year, the PS5. Ever since the PS5 has been announced, there has been a lot of rumors spread across the world, including the one feature that make fans freak out, full backwards compability raging from PS4 all the way to the PS1. I'll talk about that later.

Earlier this year, Sony was supposed to hold consumer events, but thanks to the pandemic, their plans have been postponed, but after a while, the Japanese giant is set to finally hold the big event where they reveal the official design for the PS5 and its games that will come out upon launch. We are ready for the future of gaming that suits our video game needs. First off, let talk about the powerful controller, the DualSense. It contains haptic feedback and a built in mic so you don't have to plug in a headset. It is more practical than the previous DualShock controllers that feel null. In fact, it is perfect for the future of gaming that no one ever experienced before.

Now with that out of the way, let's get to Sony's event that became a sleeper, the specs reveal keynote. Mark Cerny stated the specs for the PS5, including the fact that you don't have to wait long for the patches to apply and most notably, backwards compability. Mark has stated that the PS5 will play PS4 games and he didn't mention PS3, PS2 and PS1 games to be played. I was disappointed that it can only play PS4 games on the new system, but since I realized that there is space in the backwards compatibility diorama, previous platforms might be on it, I hope. But before you jump to conclusions, they didn't turn down PS3, PS2 and PS1 games. They gotta test PS4 games on the PS5 first because they are easy to do. They do also say that they are gonna give us further updates on backwards compability in the coming months.

And Sony, you can't just blatantly ignore your fans' years of demand wanting full backwards compability and not mention PS3, PS2 and PS1 games. We don't want to play only PS4 games on your newest system, but games on previous PlayStation consoles as well, including Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, a game that I enjoy playing, as well as old school RPGs Mana Khemia and Atelier Iris. You need to listen to your fans and take things into extreme consideration. It's very hopeful that you've finally opened cross-play, but the only thing you must do is listen to your PlayStation fans and fully extend backwards compatibility from PS4 all the way to PS1. Besides, Microsoft has the upper hand because their newest system, the Xbox Series X will have fully extended backwards compability from Xbox One all the way to the original Xbox, and that's something your newest system must have, Sony.

Now let's hope that the big PS5 reveal puts a lot more effort than they did at the specs reveal and that includes fully extending backwards compability from PS4 all the way to PS1, making it the ultimate console that we PlayStation fans want, and better yet, add more PS3 and PS2 games and add a PS1 catalogue on PSNow at least. I can't want to see what will the PS5 officially look like and what games will it have during launch. I bet it's a new PlayStation All-Stars game. I don't know about you guys, but the big PS5 reveal starts in June 4th at 1:00 PM here, so be sure to tune in.

UPDATE: Sony's big PS5 reveal event in June 4 has been postponed because of the weekend's series of protests against police violence throughout the US. I know it's a huge disappointment, but they can't hold that event until everything blows over, so a later date for the future of gaming reveal is still unknown. Signing out.

Joe's Thoughts - EVO Online

These thoughts may be mildly controversial. Anyway, let's talk about EVO Online. EVO 2020 was supposed to happen this year, but because of the coronavirus pandemic, it has been cancelled in person, so they have to relegate it to online. In the online format, it will have 5 weekends of fighting game action with online tournaments for games that has good netcode. I don't want to be specific, but there are two gory games and two colorful games on the EVO Online lineup. Because this is an online format, there will be special exhibitions and upcoming content for games in the original lineup, but the only difference is, Smash Ultimate and the MvC2 Invitational were taken out.

First off, let's talk about the elephant in the room, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Now, as you may know, Smash Ultimate has been cut off from the line up because it has a terrible online experience since it has that abysmal netcode. If they input a button, they wait 3 seconds before the character make an action. That's what delay based netcode it. Honestly, I had a lot of fun playing it online. A rightful decision for them to remove it because they wouldn't want to play such a slideshow game, especially when it comes to annoying Sonic mains.

If you watch The Keef Crew's video on YouTube, you'll experience the jealousy of Smash Ultimate not welcome to the EVO Online club since it isn't in the lineup because of its terrible netcode. With Smash Ultimate not in the line up, the FGC revolution is united.

Now let's get to the part that is the reason why the four games are in the line up of open online tournaments, rollback netcode. Rollback is a type of netcode that makes you feel that you're playing online without the delay. For example, let's take one of the fighting games that has made its debut at EVO Online after a long wait, Skullgirls. Skullgirls uses a rollback netcode, used by GGPO. It ensures a smooth online play. Thanks to EVO Online, Skullgirls gets further patches, including the Combo Breaker 2020 one, which contains new palettes, a cameo of SonicFox in the training stage, new intros for the three characters from Skullgirls Mobile and most notably, KO screams for all characters when they get KOed in the air. Now that's the only thing I'm expecting.

I heard them firsthand during Ronaldokun's Skullgalz Showdown tournament and the devs say that further gameplay updates will not be made until after EVO Online and they'll bring it to PS4 and Nintendo Switch. I'm hoping that they also bring to PS3 and PSVita. They need some love as well. Finally, the sad thing is, they couldn't bring it to Xbox One because Microsoft wouldn't keep their act together and they are idiots. You know what will make Skullgirls great? If they introduce full cross-play across PC, PS4, PSVita, PS3 and Switch. Currently, PS3, PSVita and PS4 have cross-play with each other. Please, make it happen.

Know this? Wikipedia has a list of games with rollback/GGPO netcode and Street Fighter V is on the list, but not on the EVO Online lineup of online tournaments. And even though, if Street Fighter V has bad netcode according to fans, then why the heck put that there? Yeah, nice knowing your responsibility.

Some companies weren't driven to put the rollback netcode on to their games just to drive fans crazy. And then, the delay based netcode is complete bullcrap. Because if you press a button, you have to wait 3 seconds before your character can do something. That's the number one reason why Smash Ultimate is taken out. That says how bad its online netplay is. If you press a button, a delay is between that and the character's action. Then the newest fighting game Granblue Fantasy Versus is one of them to be on a special exhibition and have delay based netcode.

Honestly, I sort of do want the games in the original lineup to be played in online tournaments because not only I want to see the lag and disconnection with opponents. It's also to convince companies to realize that their fighting games and implement rollback netcode onto their games, but it's for the better since the games with rollback netcode like Skullgirls are being played in online tournaments. Well, this wraps up my thoughts for EVO Online.