Next Gen Games (PS4)

2013 was the year I left my tired 360 behind and adopted a PS4. With a new generation of consoles on our doorstep a lot of console gamers like me couldn't wait to see the vast array of improvements a next-gen game could bring in 2014. With increased horsepower and memory we would surely be witness to a new gaming renaissance, one where developers wouldn't be shackled by how many characters they can put on screen or lower the texture resolutions just so the game wouldn't explode frying the memory chips of our outdated hardware. Unfortunately it was mostly a year of waiting, filled with delays as titles were pushed to 2015 and over-hyped AAA games that failed to deliver on their pre-release hype. Good games take time to make, apparently. Hmmph. Still we're now finally starting to unwrap the potential of the next gen consoles so I thought it would be a cool idea to summarize my thoughts on all of the big games that came out last year on the PS4.

Watch Dogs was quite fun during the time I spent with it but has since soured in my memory. While the core gameplay was indeed a lot of fun and the use of the different hacking techniques were interesting all that sticks out in my mind is the lackluster open world, cardboard cut-out protagonist, overhyped/lackluster visuals and a mediocre plot. Ultimately it's a game that shows potential for a sequel but isn't really worth playing again, I like to think it's more of a proof of concept. The one thing the game excels at is it's level design, I loved the way every situation could be tackled in a variety of different ways. Some areas don't even require you to be present, your phone hacking skills (fun if a bit impossible in real life) can do all the work for you. At a touch of a button you can literally plunge half of the city into darkness. The third person gun combat was also a delight, but again in light of more recent games Watch Dogs pales in comparison. It's a shame really, this could have been so much more. The pre-release hype over the game was also unfounded, it looks good but is nowhere near the spectacular E3 demo we got two years ago. Gone are the weather effects and lighting that made everything pop, I get the impression they bit off more than they could chew. And that's without mentioning the drab and dull depiction of Chicago, the game is steeped in gray. Give me some color Ubisoft! Watch Dogs is fun for a while but very forgettable. 6,5/10

The Last Of Us: Remastered is not a next-gen game per-say, it's an upgraded version of a game that was originally released on the PS3 one year ago. With the texture upgrades and smooth conversion to 60fps the differences between the two versions are night and day: the PS4 version is essentially the blu-ray to the PS3's DVD. Visuals aside, The Last Of Us is an amazing game that EVERYONE should play. It's 15 hour campaign is a road trip that chronicles Ellie and Joel through an apocalyptic America on their quest to find a cure for the zombie plague (or in this case, a fungii that infects the brain and turns people into zombies). Both leads are immensely awesome: Joel is an interesting protagonist because he is about as anti-hero as you can get. You sympathize with him thanks to the amazingly sad prologue but when the game skips 20 years into the future the game outright tells you he has done some f*cked up sh*t on the way to survival. Point being there's more to him than the stereotypical video game grizzled male and actor Troy Baker does a wonderful job of making Joel seem as real as possible. The real star of the show though? Ellie. She's hands down one of the best characters you'll encounter in a video-game. Think of her as the coolest, most badass 14-year-old you could ever come across and she fits the bill. Far away from a damsel in distress Ashley Johnson completely owns the role and does such a perfect job of capturing every inflection of her personality. She's every bit Joel's equal, even if he is the one doing most of the heavy lifting. Or shooting, in this case. Amazing performances and believable dialogue is not the only home-run this game has up it's sleeve however, the gameplay is tense as hell. Resources are limited and enemies can very easily one shot you if you're not careful on higher difficulties, so this isn't a game you can just casually play. Add to that some brutal death animations and the terrifying Clickers (infected that can detect you only via sound) and you've got a gaming experience that will leave you on the edge of your seat. It's not next-gen but a buttery smooth framerate and crisp visuals fool you into thinking it is: 8,5/10
 

Destiny is another game that I had fun with while playing but the moment I stopped to catch a breath it's numerous flaws become immediately apparent. It's a perfectly fine shooter that can get pretty addicting once you start seeing the level-up meter start ticking and the numerous strikes and raids are exceptionally fun so there's no denying it satisfies on a pure shoot-em-up scale. Unfortunately it has delusions of being an MMO and falls flat on its arse for failing to deliver enough content to keep us all going for longer than a couple of weeks. To stop you from reaching the level cap and getting all the cool gear too quickly it makes it incredibly tedious and grindy for you to level up, so progress is severely stunted after a while. What's the point in leveling up this gun if it's going to take me 20 hours of re-doing the same zone over and over looking for random material spawns? The effort far outweighs the reward so I put this game down and never came back to it after a month. Another baffling failure is that it DOESN'T HAVE A STORY. Outside of a few cut-scenes you have literally no idea what the hell is going on for most of the time, its quite frankly insulting as a player. Destiny is a pretty looking game though, some of the environments are flat out gorgeous, but there just isn't enough of it. Like Watch Dogs Destiny is another over-hyped game that failed to live up to the high expectations we gave it. 7/10

Call Of Duty: Advanced Warfare is, simply put, another Call Of Duty. This time you've got jet packs and future tech that adds a few interesting mechanics to the mix but ultimately it feels a bit like Black Ops 2 2.0. The six hour campaign is a mixed bag, the missions themselves are hit and miss and the story itself is pretty cliche the further you get into it even with Kevin Spacey playing the bad guy. Like most COD's the strength of Advanced Warfare lies in it's multiplayer and I'm happy to report that if you're fan of COD then this game will fit you like a glove. It's faster, snappier and all your favorite game modes return. As far as next-gen improvements go there isn't much here except for the graphical upgrade, it all looks REALLY pretty. Overall I'm satisfied with the game even if it hardly reinvents the wheel. If you like COD though you knew that already. 7,5/10

The strength of the Assassin's Creed series has for me always relied on the setting, everything else is secondary to the stunning recreations of historical cities that they manage to pull out of a hat year after year. Assassins Creed: Unity doesn't disappoint in that regard: revolutionary Paris is quite frankly MIND BLOWING in it's scope and beauty. Feel like taking a tour of Notre Dame or strolling through Versailles? Be my guest, 17th century Paris has been rendered in stunning detail and feels like a living, breathing city thanks to the enormous amount of NPC's walking around and going about their daily lives. The world building here is so good it almost completely negates the less polished aspects of the game like the buggy AI or sub par framerate. Everything about Unity feels next-gen, it's just a shame they haven't ironed out the kinks yet. Overall this is a step forward for the series, it's just disappointing the once again so-so story can't live up to the breathtaking vistas and productions values. Paris is so gorgeous though, I can't wait to see Victorian London next year: 8/10

You could argue that out of all the AAA games released over the holiday season (AC: Unity, COD: Modern Warfare, Far Cry 4...) Dragon Age stands tall for not only aiming high with its ambitions but also for how it offers an uncompromising RPG experience with Skyrim-esque open worlds and quality storytelling. Bioware has clearly put all of its cards on the table for this one, essentially saying 'That's all I got!' and dropping the mic. The sheer enormity of content in this game is staggering, my semi-completionist playthrough finished at around 117 hours to give you an idea of how much time you can pore into the world of Thedas. A lot of it is optional of course, you can cruise through the main story in around 30 hours without even glimpsing the vast open world areas but you'll be missing out on a good 70% of what makes this game a triumph: lush rainforests, deserts, cities, snowcapped mountains, bogs, hills of lush countryside...just endless amounts of things to do and explore that in true Skyrim fashion have NOTHING to do with the main plot at all but are there if you want to explore. The sheer scale of these areas is daunting but it does an excellent job of immersing you in the world and the lore. 

Past Dragon Age games have only hinted at what lies beyond your field of view and were largely story focused affairs, Inquisition tears away the background curtain and lets you see everything for yourself. It's very much the whole 'See that mountain in the distance? You can go there!' idea and succeeds in making Thedas a living, breathing world. It's also incredibly pretty, the visual upgrade has left my mouth wide open on quite a few occasions admiring the lush landscape on display. The world is teeming with detail and personality, enough credit cannot be given to the level designers and artists who have brought the world to life. The campaign is also first rate stuff: while it may suffer a lame villain and an anticlimatic ending Bioware is still great at doing what it does best: writing amazing characters. The cast of nine companions in this game are nothing short of superb, quickly subverting their deceiving first impressions. Cassandra is the classic bad-ass warrior female who is a real romantic at heart, Sera is a dumb wisecracking elf hiding her fear of pretty much everything and the stoic Blackwall is hiding his dark past ect...all of them are fleshed out and voiced incredibly well, which is as to be expected from a Bioware game. I guess what elevates Dragon Age above the other games that have come out is that it combines the quality storytelling that Bioware is known for with an excellent open world game, so whichever way it cut it you'll be getting the best of both worlds. I'm going to be a tad hyperbolic here but Inquisition is pretty much the ultimate role playing experience, it ticks every possible box I can think of. It's an epic, in every sense of the word. That's a pretty impressive achievement, god knows what their next Mass Effect is going to be like *HYPERVENTILATES*! In terms of sheer value for money and it's next-gen feel, this is another game that can't be missed: 9/10

Far Cry 4 is basically Far Cry 3,5 with slight increases in visual fidelity and a refinement to Far Cry 3's already great gameplay. Everything that made Far Cry 3 so good is back, it's the age old saying of 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it'. Kyrat is an interesting locale for a game and the story, while not winning many awards, was still fun and full of memorable characters. My only real complaint is that the main bad guy is once again sidelined and barely shows up during the campaign. Pagan Min is a great villain so why is he so underutilized? There's also nothing really next gen here aside from more detailed character models and a smooth framerate, so very minor graphical and performance leaps. I'm fine with this but if they make zero graphical or mechanical improvements for Far Cry 5 then I'm going to be a bit pissed. Use that extra horsepower game developers! Anyway, it's polished open world mechanics and above average story definitely makes Far Cry 4 worth playing: 8/10

It feels appropriate to finish this list with the recently released PS4 exclusive 'The Order 1886'. Unlike the other games on this list I haven't played this one and with good reason. From what I can see the developer of 'The Order' Ready At Dawn were so obsessed with the technical side of things that they basically forgot to build a game. By all accounts this is the best looking game on the PS4 at the moment, every ounce of the console's horsepower has been optimized to give you the most detailed, cinematic experience possible. The gameplay itself however is a competent but bland 3rd person shooter that quite frankly looks lazy. A game like The Order is undeniably gorgeous but how many times are we going to play the same 3rd person based cover shooter before they start adding new mechanics? Another game I've yet to play is Shadow Of Mordor, and from what I've seen it's a true next gen experience because the nemesis system (aka the ability to randomly generate new enemies) is too taxing on old-gen systems to work and is something that can only be made possible due to current gen. However 'Mordor' is a fine looking game but it's nowhere near 'The Order' in terms of visual fidelity. Graphics are evolving at a breakneck pace but so far it seems gameplay remains rooted very much in the last generation. It's a question we have to ask ourselves: do we want better visuals or innovation/improved performance in next gen games? Is it possible to have both? We'll see what the future holds, but upcoming releases like The Witcher 3 and Batman Arkham Knight make me very excited.