JazGalaxy

Oh, I should add that when I see contrast is beautiful, I mean that it is stylistically pretty. I do not mean that it looks in anyway like a PS four games. It does not. I am completely baffled why Sony would want to give this game away with every PlayStation 4.

One of the main reasons I chose a ps3 over an xbox is the, essentially, two free pack in games that come with the ps3 resogun and contrast. I know contrast was added later, after drive club was delayed, but it looked interesting enough from screenshots, and including it, essentially, with every playstation made me think Sony had some faith in it.

What were they thinking?

I'm about three fourths of the way through contrast and I wouldn't be able to tell you what it's about. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, because contrast aptly has contrasting positives and negatives. The lack of story cohesion might be intentional. Or it might not. It's all up in the air at this point.

But what is not up in the air is the fact that contrast plays like butt. It both looks and feels like a third person game made from an fps mod-kit, like in the quake 3 days. I frequently find myself stuck on geometry in a manner I haven't felt since the ps1 days. One time I actually had to quit out of the game due to being trapped on something and unable to escape.

But the real letdown about contrast is its horrible game design. Hese are the decisions that took place before hand ever hit keyboard. For instance, the game is ostensibly about a superhero with the ability to merge with their shadow and use the shadows of other objects to run across. This is a fantastic idea and the manifestation of a game all kids played, just like wondering what it would be like to walk on the ceiling and racing raindrops on car windshields during road trips. The problem is, instead of setting the game at NOON when contrast would be greatest and shadows would be more apparent, they set the game in he middle of the night where shadows are everywhere. In theory, this COUlD just provide more opportunities to use the players power. In reality, it just means that the game ignores it's own rules and only let's players merge with the shadows when the game wants you to. Usually when there's a random projector around. This inconsistency In and of itself almost entire deflates contrast. The fun and games implied by the games premise almost never happen. Make no mistake, when the game is doing what it promises, it's actually really quite something. There is a short section I. The. Idle of the game that cleverly abandons the problems of the game design to Retreat entirely into a 2d limboesque sequence. It's almost easy to forget about contrasts problems as it does this scene so well. But then it ends and you're left to remember that much of this game stinks.

The writing is ncreadibly uneven, bordering on terrible. Much of it is saved by fantastic voice acting, but much of it is beyond saving. It is a common trait for hack writers to want to write little girls. After all little girls are vulnerable. vulnerability makes for emotional writing. The problem is most have writers don't know how to write little girls. The main character in contrast, Didi, is written anywhere between five and 11 years old. One second she saying things like "mommy, when is daddyy coming home "in the next second she saying things like "we need to like that beacon!" Or "I bet he's in the control room!" At one point didi asks "daddy, what's a taunt? ". Oh sure you know what a beacon is but you don't know what a taunt is? The poor writing seeks to undermine the emotional depth that contrast is trying to achieve.

It's not all bad however. Contrast manages to be gorgeous even despite its technical faults. Many ideas the game presents are solid. If they chose to make a contrast 2, I hope they spend more time working on the game to make it more solid and fix the problems this disappointing game has

Mine was fine, as far as I could tell, but I definitely thought to myself "this packaging seems really chitzy" when I was taking it out of the box. IT certainly didn't seem well protected.

The unit itself also feels a little cheap in comparison to the PS3, which felt pretty sturdy.

Gamestop is actually the LAST place to go to get one since pre-orders is their whole schtick. THey would be happiest if they never had anything in stock, ever.

I remember the launch of Halo 3. A guy at my work was smugly telling me he preordered his. I told him I planned to get it, but hadn't preordered anything. He laughed at me and told me "good luck getting one! I just picked mine up at Gamestop and they said they wouldn't have any more until next week!". I got in my car, drove to Sears, where they had like 20, paid and drove back to work. The whole process took 30 minutes.

Since product design became a thing.

For something to be satire, the author has to be making a point subversive to the one that is explicitly stated.

I'm not seeing any sort of point here at all...

Haven't gotten to unwrap your PS4 yet and wondering what the experience is like? Well, pretty much the same as unwrapping your PS3. Which is, if you forgot, pretty much exactly the same as unwrapping your PS2.

Sony's philosophy since the beginning of the Playstation 2 era was "the same, but MORE". The PS4, at this point, seems to be no exception. The box to the PS4 is, at first glance, almost indistinguishable from the box of a PS3. The controller, sans small details, is identical to the PS3 controller which was, sans tiny details, the same as the PS2 controller which was a black version of the PS1 controller. The welcome screen is a slightly modified version fo the PS3's welcome screen. The sedate "Playstaiton Blue" serves as the background, which I haven't yet figured out how to change.

Even the unit itself at a distance, is almost entirely the same as the PS3.

There is zero fun about getting this new unit. I'm not saying the unit doesn't provide fun. I'm positive it will. But, as for the thrill of plugging a new device... there simply isn't one. Contrast that with the thrill of plugging in your Wii for the first time and it's a sad, missed opportunity.

I just wrote a big text block talking up Halo, but I didn't mean to suggest it was the last great launch title.

Wii Sports is very much that.

I personally thought Dead Or Alive 4 was also a really fantastic launch title.

It annoys me when people like Brad, on the podcast, say things like "launch games are never any good" because that's actually the exception, not the rule. For Nintendo especially, their launch titles are frequently some of the best content that will hit the console. Super Mario Brothers, The Legend Of Zelda, Pilotwings, F-Zero, Super Mario World, Mario 64, Waverace, Pikmin, Wii Sports, etc.

Just because Sony has classically had terrible, terrible launches doesn't mean everyone does.

Anybody who doesn't count Halo is an idiot and has no idea what they are talking about.

I was in my sophomore college year when the xbox came out. A feature in a print magazine combined with my dissatisfaction with PS2 is what made me decide to roll the dice on an Xbox. This is when PS2 was still hard to find, and it was spoken of in hushed tones like it was some legendary thing. What most people who didn't have one didn't know, though, was that it took 1-1 1/2 years before anything decent came out on the console (Meanwhile people were trying to convince themselves that garbage like Dark Cloud 1 was really as good as Zelda. Ugh.. console wars.).

I took my PS2 to trade it into the games store. The girl behind the desk immediately called up her boyfriend and in hushed tones said "some guy just traded in a PLAYSTATION 2! COME OVER HERE RIGHT NOW!"

It was xbox launch day and there were about 30 systems siting in boxes on the floor. I probably could have shoplifted one and nobody would have noticed or cared. IT was a stark contrast to Playstation launch, where there were lines out the door and most people went home empty handed. I picked one up and got a copy of Halo.

That night, over a tiny CRT, my friends and I took turns trading off controllers and playing one of the best games any of us had ever played. In the middle of the night we went to Wal Mart and bought another controller. The next day we bought two more. Pretty soon, word got out that I had an "Xbox" and "some game called Halo". Complete strangers were stopping by my dorm asking to play. I played through the campaign at least two dozen times, each with a new person. (I'm one of those people where playing with someone new makes the whole experience new as I experience it through their eyes). Pretty soon other people were buying xboxs and we were playing on network. The campus was hosting xbox parties and Halo parties. Pretty soon, I was burnt out on Halo and people were borrowing my xbox to take it to other people's houses to show it to other people.

There hasn't been another Halo anywhere close to Halo 1.

Halo was FANTASTIC. And a seminal launch game. It's not even dabateable.

@oldenglishc said:

I've been through all the consoles wars and still struggle with flashbacks to this very day. I think at times like this, it's important to remember that there are casualties in this unnecessary battle. Paying tribute to their sacrifice will remind us that in the end, no one wins.

R.I.P, old friend. Your heroism will never be forgotten.

GOSH the dreamcast was so great. Best launch of any console ever. Possibly the greatest console of any console ever.

I wonder what was it that made it so fantastic?