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[p1nkm15t]

Good Game ANZ’s very own P1nkM15t ventured onto the floor at Digital NatioNZ, New Zealand’s first take on the Digital Entertainment Expo.  While it was a little thin on the ground for content, Sony and Microsoft were both there in force, and P1nk got a decent look at both next-gen offerings.  Read on for his impressions.

    

Playstation

         

PS4 Hardware

    

About the same size a a PS3 slim (with the disk slot, not the slide top) but square and sexy. They had them all under perspex cases, so I wasn't able to fondle :(.

    

Dualshock 4

         

Nice controller, feels a lot different to the DS3 (in a good way) though it seems smaller. Having long thumbs and  holding it how I thought was comfortable meant that the sticks would have to be at the top of the controller :/ Although it's possible that the controller I was playing with wasn't broken into its running clearances, the sticks felt firm, and the dimple on the top helped with accuracy and control. Heavier than the DS3, but feels like good electronics should - solid.

    

                                      

    

Driveclub

    

Nice change from GT, more arcadey but not too much. Though only an Alpha build, looked good, felt tight, and didn't seem to suffer from the usual aliasing or other detrimental video problems.

    

GT 6

         

They had this set up with a seat/wheel/pedal rig out the back. Looks like more of the same, but more polished. Demo was a couple of laps round an alpine course, graphics looked sweet.

    

Knack

    

Interesting looking game. Couldn't get a hands on as there were a lot of people playing, but from what I could see looks to be an interesting title. Again, sweet graphics.

    

Ratchet and Clank Nexus

         

A return to the single player format for R&C, and another worthwhile purchase if you're into the franchise.

    

                                      

    

Beyond: Two Souls

    

That new game from Quantic Dream. From what I saw it looks like playing as a military chick trying to save/help a child soldier out of some African warzone. Possess enemies, use them to kill other enemies and get you through military checkpoints. Also has the controller interaction thingies (like with car doors and stuff) that Heavy Rain had.

    

Vita

         

They had a few set up to play with, but nothing that wasn't already released, and no mini Vita either :(.

    

OctoDad

    

Looked awkward to control, but fun. Could be lots of fun drunk :).

    

Playroom (that controller thing with the little robots inside)

         

Very, very interesting. Needs to be experienced.

    

Xbox One

         

They had a MASSIVE screen, 3-4 meters high with Killer Instinct playing on it. Looked like Tekken and/or Street Fighter. All the XB1 games I saw had graphics levels comparable to that of the PS4. They also had two sections: One for R-13 Games, another for R-18 games. Didn't get into the R-18 games as the queue was too long :( Both sections appeared to have a number of caps not facing the correct direction with those gold stickers on the brim.

        

                                      

         

In the R-13 section, they had some game that had a guy being dragged (caught by the leg?) behind some sort of motorcycle. From what I could tell (and what the guy playing told me) the controls were VERY twitchy (he spent quite a while bouncing from one side of the road to the other), and wasn't very intuitive. I spent most of the time while watching this one trying to figure out why he hadn't been reduced to a bloody smear. Also in this area was more killer Instinct, and some RPG game with the word "Crimson" in the title.

         

You may be able to tell from this section that I don't pay a lot of attention to XBOne stuff :)

    

Xbox One Hardware

         

Not really much different to the PS4 hardware, had a white glowey button with the "X" on it. The PS4 seems quite subtle in comparison. Didn't get to hold a controller, but going by general comments from other gamers, not much different to the current one.

        

                                      

         

Not sure if it's my on-going prejudice against M$ or what, but nothing in the Xbox area really seemed to capture my attention. Would have liked to have seen a demo for the XBOne dashboard. The gaming area for XBOne was more cramped (though they had more available stations) than the Sony area.

    

Other Stuff

         

Gaming History Museum

    

Quite lackluster, just seemed to be some old stuff in a couple of cases.

    

Telecom Homegrown

         

Local (NZ) game devs showing off their wares. Nothing that stood out though. Good to see them getting some exposure though. Didn't see anything of that RPG that some Kiwi crowd is building.

         

Robot Warz

    

This was quite interesting, though dominated by the littler ones. Robots running around a pen, picking up balls of 2 different sizes and putting them in tubes to score points. Watched for a good 10-15 mins.

    

LG Ultra HD TVs

         

Wow. Massive jump from 1080 to 4k. The clarity was amazing.

         

3d Printing

    

Really interesting tech. Might wait for the patents to expire (next year some time) before buying one though. Showed me some really cool software that modelled my upper half into a mesh(?) that could be printed, using nothing but what appeared to be a web-cam. Made me wonder how long it is before passports are encoded with with a 3d mesh instead of a photo, and how many people will get it when someone going through a scanner says "Template, Response" :D

    

Disney Infinity

         

Some type of God Game with Disney characters, kids seemed to like it though.

    

    

Overall Impression

         

On the whole, there was some interesting stuff, but suffered from not having enough to do over a period of time. Being the first time for this sort of event in NZ, it was a good start, and hopefully they can get more interest from more companies next year. Would attend again, though probably only for one day.

    

Author: P1nkM15t

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[GasClown]

Good stuff Stinky!