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

And man, this is gonna ruffle your feathers. Now, if you have been living under a rock, fighting games have been a staple for the FGC. You would know that fighting game tournaments were invented to celebrate the revolution of the FGC both locally and online. Specifically, I'll talk about the only fighting game tournament, Evolution, or EVO for short. This has been the most prestigious fighting game tournament of all time for over a decade, becoming the king of the FGC.

However, as soon as the pandemic hit, things took a turn for the event. EVO 2020 was relegated into an online format that will have five weekends of fighting game action with online tournaments for games that have 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 with lag 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 lineup 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 is. 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 Mightykeef'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 lineup, the FGC revolution is united.

Now let's get to the part that is the reason why the four games are in the lineup 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, and that's Skullgirls. So why is it that Skullgirls deserved to be part of the event? There are two reasons.

Firstly is straight up improvements to netcode. Skullgirls uses a buttery smooth and good netcode to allow your character to immediately act upon a button press and it predicts the inputs rather than waiting for the signal to hit the server before your character performs. And it's getting drastic improvements to improve the player experience.

Secondly, bringing Skullgirls to EVO Online benefitted calling attention back to the game to get the Combo Breaker 2020 patch, which contains new palettes, a cameo of SonicFox in the training stage, new intros for the remaining characters taken directly from from Skullgirls Mobile and the most exciting thing, KO screams for all characters when they get KOed in the air. Now that's the only thing I like to hear often. 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. But the sad thing is that they couldn't bring it to Xbox One because Microsoft wouldn't keep their act together.

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 now has bad netcode according to fans, then why the heck put that there? Yeah, nice knowing your responsibility.

Honestly, this was an interesting deal that putting games with delay based netcode on online tournaments like Granblue Fantasy Versus and letting the slideshow moment unfold can convince companies to implement rollback netcode to their games because it is known for predicting inputs rather than waiting for the signal to hit the server before an action no matter the stage. Nintendo, though? Nope, they don't have the resources to implement rollback netcode into Smash Ultimate.

Indivisible Rundown (Part 2)

Hello, everyone, I'm back with another rundown and this time, it's for part 2 of the Indivisible Rundown. Now, if you remember almost 4 years ago, the Indivisible Indiegogo Campaign has went live and the funding has been successful. That means the game will happen. As the development goes on, Indivisible has becoming better with the elements. Here are the details on how the game is going.

The Battle System:

If you remember the battle system, the hit sounds from Skullgirls have been changed to its own sounds and the number of hits and damage dealt shown. The UI is changed and the action gauge is simple to understand. All of their moves are well polished and the battle system is more fun than before. As usual, Ajna can have up to 3 Incarnations on her team.

Incarnations:

Of course, there is also another thing in Indivisible is the Incarnations, the companions of Ajna who are from the other world. As development rises, most of the Incarnations' voice changed. For example, if you take Razmi, her voice is changed to what has displeased fans. It was a shock that a lot of people would prefer the old one. The new one is just terrible. Voice aside, there is one of them that has a name and model change. If you remeber the Incarnation who has a model and name change, Vasco is one of them. He was formerly named "Vasco" and has a former design. And now, after the development flow, his design changed and Vasco is now renamed Latigo as an example since everything was subject to change. Not to mention that there is a new Incarnation that has been added.

Development Flow:

Almost 4 years since Indivisible has funded, 505 Games and Lab Zero were diligently developing the game. Basically, the game was supposed to release on that year, but apparently, with a couple of technical hurdles that have been hit, they have confirmed that Indivisible will release this year. They used to do streams of their development, including producing elements, adding animations, special effects and producing a full voice cast.

The Conclusion:

Indivisible is rated T for Fantasy Violence, Blood and Suggestive Themes and is set to release October 8 for PC, PS4 and Xbox One, but a Switch version is released at a later date. PC pre-orders are live while console pre-orders will be live in a later date.

Joe's Rant: Sony's Selfishness

Okay, I have a rant about Sony's selfishness. Want to know why? I'll tell you right now. Sony is just selfish because they don't want cross-platform on PS4 because they think it's a sore issue in the past. I don't care if it's a sore issue. They need to support cross-platform on PS4. This is just bullcrap that they are less cooperative in the past when it comes to cross play. Last year, Hi-Rez has announced that they are gonna bring cross-play and cross-progression to SMITE, Paladins and Realm Royale and I was hyped for it, but PC, Xbox and Nintendo Switch currently support it while PS4 doesn't yet. What the heck, Sony? That makes me very upset with them, but fortunately, Stew Chisam, the president of Hi-Rez Studios has submitted cross-platform licenses for their three games to Sony and told them to stop playing favorites and tear down the cross-play and cross-progression wall for everyone, including me and has added that SMITE, Paladins and Realm Royale are ready to go for cross-platform on PS4. Now we just wait for Sony to make things dangerous. By make things dangerous, I mean wait for Sony to green light all three games simultaneously or one game at a time, I don't care as long as they do it because cross-play helps improve things like getting higher quality matches quicker and a significant decrease of ELO and bad matches.

I'm sorry, but from a gaming standpoint, if Sony doesn't support cross-play, they are selfish. I would be freaking ticked! That's the worst thing I have ever seen in my entire life. Sony, if you're reading this, everyone is very upset with you because your system doesn't support cross-platform just because you said that it's a sore issue in the past. I don't care if it is, but you need to enable cross-platform on your system no matter if it's a sore issue of not. I've even sent my long email about how mad I was about you not supporting cross-play on your system. Microsoft and Nintendo have supported cross-platform, but you on the other hand, doesn't. Cross-play improves things. There's no excuse to not allow this amazing feature. You get greatly improved matchmaking, you get greatly improved quality, you get a significant rate increase. There's no purpose to this. It's the number one reason why you should play nice with others.

You don't deserve to freaking earn an award because you're just freaking less cooperative when it comes to cross-play. What happened to you, Sony? Once, you were a selfless and cooperative manufacturer, but now, you care about money and exclusives more than us players. Then all of a sudden, BAM, you have enabled cross-play on Fortnite and Rocket League on PS4 for your PlayStation Cross-Play Program in Beta that you're gonna add more games to in the future, so I'll give you credit for that, even though they are not my cup of tea. But still, you should've enabled it in the first place because back in that year's E3, Microsoft and Nintendo have announced that they're gonna do cross-play with each other and that's something you should've done, Sony.

That's the number one reason why your system isn't included in Hi-Rez's cross-play and cross-progression FAQ yet, so a while back, the president has submitted SMITE, Paladins and Realm Royale cross-platform licenses to you to green light. All three games or one at a time, I don't care as long as you do it. There's no excuse.

Well, that's all I have to say for now. Signing out.