Joe's Monologues - 12/30/2024

Alright, everyone. We are down to the penultimate day of 2024 before we head into 2025, so today's Joe's Monologues is the final one of the year. I have exciting topics to talk about, so let's jump right in.

PlayStation's Nostalgic Revival:

As we all know, PlayStation has become a beloved brand for 30 years since its establishment. To make it even more exciting, Herman Hulst has confirmed that PlayStation is finally reviving their back catalog of their classic IPs like Ape Escape, Jak and Daxter, Sly Cooper, etc. What this means is that we are finally seeing them making a comeback for new games for the forgotten franchises. What has driven the brand to revive their back catalog of their classic IPs is Astro Bot's excellent performance. It sold a ton of copies, won Best PS5 Game of 2024 and won Game of the Year over its bots that dress up as PlayStation characters. This is great news that the dead franchises are finally getting some love they deserve, thanks to Astro Bot.

This could also mean that PS Plus Premium is getting the rest of the games of the classic franchises. The Sly Cooper franchise was already put together after the rest of the games got released on the back catalog, so it's likely that we're gonna see the PS Plus Premium versions of the sequels and the racing game of the Jak and Daxter franchise, Ape Escape 2, Ape Escape 3 and more. Finally, after years of begging, the classic franchises are making a comeback to have new games.

The golden age is coming that Herman Hulst and Hideaki Nishino are maintaining the brand for the greater good to help establish the ultimate PlayStation experience. If it wasn't for Astro Bot and as long as Jim Ryan led PlayStation in any way, shape or form, Sly Cooper, Jak and Daxter, Ape Escape, etc. were franchises that would never make a comeback. There are a lot of possibilities for them, meaning if and when the rest of the Jak and Daxter and Ape Escape franchises come to PS Plus Premium, they are literally reviving their classic IPs.

Producing Better Content:

Practically speaking, it takes a powerful computer and resources to make better content, and the with the computer I'm using being powerful enough to enhance multitasking with no slowdown and Bandicam being registered to break the 10 minute recording limit and remove the watermark, I can be able to produce better content on YouTube and looking to do reaction videos and dream logo combos.

Also, I was playing Skullgirls on my new computer and it ran smoothly. With my gaming laptop to run games smoothly, I can be able to take it online and participate in Beta branches on Steam if the Season 2 Pass is greenlit. But that won't be seeing the light of day until the VO content is released in 2025. Once that comes, we'll expect info about them. I'm gonna take action either after the additional VO content drop or after my new pair of Switch Joy Cons comes. I'm gonna start something small by opening up a two-player lobby for a few matches. After all, I do miss experiencing the Bella-Beo-Band team, the battle in the NMO Arena and the fact that we get to see charming gestures.

Goodbye, Wi-Fi, Hello, Ethernet:

That's right. I am using a wired Ethernet connection to establish a stable internet connection with no lag on both my new computer and on console. This means there will be zero lag, so no more Wi-Fi lag on gaming. I am looking forward to this. I will no longer experience all that lag when I'm using a wired Ethernet connection. Also, Remote Play is usually laggy when far away from the access point a bit, but now that I have a wired connection, I can be able to play PS5 games on my new computer.

Conclusion:

Tomorrow is the final day of 2024 as we approach 2025. Let's ring in the New Year strong.

Joe's Monologues - 12/8/24

Hello, everyone, and welcome to another Joe's Monologues that has an announcement that I am happy to share today. Before we get to the announcement, I have other topics to talk about first. Without further ado, let's dive right in.

PlayStation 30th Anniversary:

The celebration is in full swing so far. The PS5 got an update that given us an option to switch between themes of older PlayStation consoles. I liked the PS2 theme the best because of one thing besides the fact that it's the best selling Sony console. It's the charming environment platforming PS2 games have, like Jak and Daxter. We currently have them on the catalog. And we are gonna get more of them in December 10, which is when three more PS2 games get added as part of the milestone celebration.

During PlayStation's 30th year, PlayStation Plus Premium will get more classics monthly and that's something that will make the celebration even more exciting, so no more just sticking with playing our remasters bullcrap with the exception of one game that is faithful to the original's charming environment despite being remastered. That's Ty the Tasmanian Tiger, which I got to beat before playing the sequel.

What I like to see the most on the PS2 department are Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, the Budokai trilogy and the Simpsons: Hit & Run. These games are the ones I loved as a child and been holding them to my heart today with the exception of the 3D-era Mortal Kombat games because I was too young to play them and Mortal Kombat is a franchise only suitable for mature audiences because there is extreme violence with gore and strong language on games on the NRS-era, which consisted of hearing the f word. Hopefully, I can be able to revisit them if Sony ever brings them to us.

Seasons of Mana:

Of course, I have did my pitch for the next Mana title. What makes it so special is that I have been coming up with avenues it can really take, like Unreal Engine 5, the party of six characters, etc. But I have one piece of information left over that I have not talked about in my Seasons of Mana pitch yet. Activating Elemental Lighthouses to gain access to the Sanctuary of Mana. Like how Mario & Luigi: Brothership involved relighting the four Great Lighthouses in a way to restore Concordia to its former glory and Tales of Symphonia involved activating all eight Elemental Temples, you would activate all eight Elemental Lighthouses, so Great Lighthouses + Elemental Temples = Elemental Lighthouses.

So when you are at the point when you have all eight Alms, you would be tasked to activate all eight Elemental Lighthouses. Each lighthouse has a Benevodon you must fight. Activate all eight Elemental Lighthouses and the portal to the Sanctuary of Mana would open at the naval of the world located in the land of four seasons.

Again, we don't know if Seasons of Mana is potentially the next mainline Mana title. We will be in the know for the next one when 2026 comes.

Big Announcement:

Alright, folks, it's time for the big announcement. I have officially bought my new gaming laptop. The specs are good that it can not just play games smoothly, but also uses graphics cards to enhance multitasking with little to no slowdown. With it, I can be able to start my journey to also become a PC player, do video editing to create my own video game logo combos, speed up my Wrapper Offline career and send an invite to my online casual. I was playing MultiVersus on it as a test run and it turned out to be smooth. I am doing a PC streaming test on MultiVersus. Because this is a test stream, there will be commentary, I will be playing against bots throughout the test stream.

I plan to get games I have on console on PC, like MultiVersus and Marvel Rivals, which is a great hero shooter. I also plan to get games on both PC and console in a way to become an onmiplayer, a player who plays their games on both PC and console like others before me. I will be posting video game clips and VODs on my gaming channel on YouTube, so don't forget to subscribe there. Here's the link to my gaming channel.

https://www.youtube.com/@KnockDownJoeGaming

Also, if Seasons of Mana comes into fruition, I will get it on Steam first now that I got a gaming laptop.

Conclusion:

As we approach the end of 2024, this is potentially the final Joe's Monologues of this year before we head into 2025. I am excited to start this journey to also become a PC player. You have a wonderful day.

PlayStation 30th Anniversary is Here

Ladies and gentlemen of the gaming community, PlayStation has just turned 30 today. That's right. It has been 30 years since PlayStation was first established in 1994. It has been an insane road for the beloved brand. Let's jump right in.

Hello, everybody. I am back with a post to give us big news for the community. You would know that the game industry is known developing and publishing games by manufacturers, starting with Nintendo to Xbox. They have become a factor of the game industry. But I like to talk about the only brand that is turning 30 on this post, and that's PlayStation.

So this brand is turning 30 today and they have a huge library of their games, being kings of the game industry on their time in their PS1 and PS2 era. However, as soon as the PS4 came out, things took a turn for the brand. The older games were fizzled out other than the ones on PS Now.

All developers that worked with PlayStation are also a part of this, except one developer, Firewalk Studios. They were developers of the flopped short lived FPS game called Concord. They will not make it because the studio was shut down after the developers couldn't explore options to better reach more players. That means Concord will always be forgotten because of it. It went under that Firewalk is gonna miss the celebration because their game flopped by having its bland cast of characters and maps, the $40 pricing on a hero shooter game and slow-paced gameplay. However, it will remain on Secret Level despite that.

These first and third party games have become gems of PlayStation that they are cherishable. We love these games and been holding them to our hearts for so long. If you have been losing track, the first PlayStation has great games. Then the PS2 followed suit and it is backwards compatible to every PS1 game. When the PS3 came out, some models can play PS1 games while some others can play PS2 games. Its digital storefront has a lot of PS1 games, but has a small library of PS2 games.

The one thing on how the classic titles were fizzled out after the release of the PS4 is due to the shift to the modern era. That's why Sony came up with a service, PlayStation Now. That service was terrible because of its limited selection of PS2 games and the lack of PS1 games. It's worth noting that the PS3's architecture is hard to work for, which is why the PS4 lacked backwards compatibility while the PS5 is only backwards compatible to both current and future PS4 games.

These two factors are how none of PlayStation's previous anniversaries in the 20s turned out to be exciting, and playing remasters of games originally released on the classic trio of consoles is just bullcrap that it is not nearly enough to make the previous milestone celebrations even more exciting since they work on modern consoles. But Ty the Tasmanian Tiger would be an exception because the game and its sequel retain their charming environment despite them remastered.

But PlayStation 30th Anniversary will be even more exciting because of one thing that revived retro gaming back in 2022. That is PlayStation Plus Premium. Now, why is it that this service is making PlayStation 30th Anniversary even more exciting? Well, besides a bigger selection of classic games and adding new classics monthly, there are three reasons.

The first reason is straight up an early look at the lineup for this month's retro games. This month's lineup has Sly 2: Band of Thieves, Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves and Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy. There are sequels in the original trilogy that became fan favorites due to the innovation and the Mickey, Donald and Goofy-style trio introduced in them and the next existing PS2 game to have all of the bells and whistles while the PS Now version would still be available and they're all in my wish list. None of the previous anniversaries in the 20s came even close to how even more exciting this celebration became.

Second reason, a padding that we're having with Sony is that they plan to announce a lineup of new classics on each special event. This year's Days of Play announced Sly Cooper and the Thievious Raccoonus, Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Tomb Raider: Legends. September's State of Play announced Dino Crisis and Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain. And PlayStation 30th Anniversary announced sequels in the original Sly Cooper trilogy and the PS Plus Premium release of Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy. To my knowledge, there hasn't been a new PS2 game so long since the launch of the new PS Plus, so they had to release a lot more PS2 games, including the ones in the lineup coming this month to make things up.

Also, the catalog of PS1, PS2 and PSP games is continuing to grow because of the special events, so they have divided it into three separate catalogs. One for PS1 games, one for PS2 games and one for PSP games in time for the brand's 30th year milestone. However, there are some flaws in them. They have remakes, remasters and PlayStation Plus Extra-eligible games on there and they are not reflecting the current library of classics. I feel like that they need to be updated to have latest classics and remove games that are part of PS Plus Extra, remakes and remasters for clarity because having them on the Classics Catalog makes it confusing and remakes and remasters work on powerful consoles.

Thirdly, playing PSP games on the big screen for the first time marked history, and it's largely applied to playing GB and GBA games on the big screen on with Nintendo Switch Online. Now, if I am correct, Sony is working a new PS5 portable console that is gonna compete with Nintendo's upcoming Switch 2, Valve's Steam Deck and the new handheld console Xbox is planning. This is the first time Sony is finally returning to the handheld market since the PSVita launched in Japan back in 2011 until it was discontinued back in early 2019 in Japan before the PS5 was released, but remains available in North America. This means the new PS Plus is likely to be continued on the new handheld, especially when they want to play their games from their childhood on the go.

Reasons above, PlayStation Plus Premium is how PlayStation 30th Anniversary is gonna be even more exciting because of its ever growing selection of classics and the early look at the lineup. Just so you know, if PS Now still existed in any way, shape or form, the celebration of the brand's 30th year milestone would never be even more hype. But that will never be the case because since PS Plus Premium is in order, it will continue to receive more classic games, meaning if and when the brand's later Anniversaries come, we will see new classics get announced on them.

And I know you are asking what about the sequels in the Jak and Daxter trilogy and its racing game. Well, they exist, but they are the PS Now versions of them. Since the PS Plus Premium version of the first game is coming, the sequels and the racing game will follow up.

The PS5 got a free update that gives us the option to switch between the PS1, PS2, PS3 and PS4 themes under PlayStation 30th Anniversary in Settings and when you boot the PS5, you'll re-experience the PS1 startup screen every time. It only lasts during the celebration. If I want to choose between the themes, it's gonna be the PS1 and PS2 themes.

One last thing to point out. We fans of PlayStation have enjoyed the tradition we all adore. It has been a wonderful product for 30 years. What I'm trying to say is that PlayStation will change you. You could be a part of this massive community. Let's look at the brighter future and not let go of the past together as friends and family.