Playstation Plus for Vita

We already knew that Sony was planning on bringing its Playstation Plus service to Vita, we just didn’t know when. Well, all was revealed last night at T.G.S. Starting in November, PS+ will be available to Vita users. If you are currently a PS+ subscriber, the service will come at no additional charge. New members can pay 18 USD for 3 months or 50 USD for a year of service.

According to the PlayStation Blog, features for the Vita will include: “Instant Game Collection, Discounts, Online Game save Storage, Automatic Updates, and Automatic Trophy sync”. We here at Techfixation can’t wait for this to hit our Vita’s, but what do you think? Are you interested in this feature? Let us know in the comments below.

Written by Mitchell Morgan

@Mdawg2438

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Mass Effect 4?

BioWare Edmonton and Montreal general manager Aaryn Flynn confirmed as much in a new blog post discussing the future of BioWare in the wake of the just-announced retirement of co-founders Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka.

Mass Effect 3 brought the current story arc to a close, but of course that doesn't spell the end for the much-loved franchise. "The Mass Effect universe is vast, and [Executive Producer Casey Hudson] and our teams have plans for another full game," confirmed Flynn.

"'Where to go next?' with such a project has been a question a lot of us have been asking, and we'd all love to hear your ideas."

Even more excitingly, Flynn goes on to reveal that it's also working on a new IP seemingly for next-gen hardware. "Both Dragon Age and Mass Effect started as single games but grew into vast universes. But we aren't stopping there," he said.

"While Casey continues to oversee the development of our new Mass Effect project, he and his leads are putting together their vision for an all new game set in a fictional universe, built from the bottom-up with all new gaming technology."

Flynn also confirmed that there will be another bit of Mass Effect 3 single player DLC and that it will be named "Omega."

Written By Daniel Goad

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Morrowind Modded Into Skyrim

Behold these lovely screenshots and videos from Skywind, the ambitious fan-driven project to mod all of Morrowind in the world of Skyrim.

The project is already pretty stunning, but they have a ways to go. The modders are posting about their plans and goals on the forums of Morroblivion, a site designed to re-createMorrowind in Oblivion.

(And in case you want more Elder Scrolls recreations, it looks like they're making Oblivion in Skyrim too: You can see the Imperial City from Oblivion in one of the videos below.)

Written By Daniel Goad

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New Playstation 3

Late last night at it's TGS press conference, Sony annouced it's brand new lineup of PlayStation 3's . Available in black, and white (Japan only), the new models are "Approxmately 20% smaller and 25% lighter than the current PS3.” They come in 250 and 500 GB Sku’s. The 250 GB console will retail for $270 USD and will be bundled exclusively with Uncharted 3 GOTY and DUST 514.

The 500 GB redesign will be available in a limited bundle with Assassin’s Creed 3 on October 30^th. The 250 GB will come to store shelves next week on September 25^th  here in the states. For our European friends, a 12 Gb console will retail for 230 Euros on October 12^th. And the 500 GB model will be ready much sooner, September 28^th for 299 Euros.

For more on the latest in Tech and Video Games, check back atTheTechfixation.com.

By Mitchell Morgan

@Mdawg2438

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Walking Dead the Game Ep 3 Spoilercast

The Walking Dead Video Game

- All the in's and out's of Episode 3

- The Choices we made

- The Outcomes of our Apocalypse

- What we done to avoid close quarters with the Zombies

Download Here!

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Walking Dead The Game Ep 2 Spoilercast

TheWalkingDead Episode 2 Spoiler Cast

The grinding theories may keep you on your toes and your survival skills are put to the test!

Download Here!

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Walking Dead The Game Ep 1 Spoilercast

TheWalkingDead Episode 1 Spoiler Cast

An all in one grip on the decisions and outcomes of the comic book thriller!

Download Here!

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TechFixation Podcast Episode 51

iPhone 5 Released!

LBPvita is a Smashing Hit!

Borderlands 2 - A Great Co-op Experience!

Metal Gear Solid 2

Baxter is a Walking, Talking Robot

HTC Announces 8X and 8S win pho's

Tokyo Game Show:

    Super Slim PS3

    New Vita Games Announced!

    Play Station Plus Comes to Vita

    Zone of Enders HD has been Dated!

High Impact, Air bag deploying Helmet

Dragon Age III was Announced

Mass Effect DLC Announced

Mass Effect Game In the Works!

Download Here!

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Darksiders II Review

As we know in real life, War leads to Death. This also holds true in Darksiders II, as we play as Death.  One of the four horsemen within the apocalypse and War's brother, who is on a quest to clear his name and to bring back humanity. This is not a true sequel since it takes place in the same timeline as the events of the original Darksiders. The Amazing - Vigil Games has brought along a new entry in the this game universe, and it is larger, grittier and 10X the fun experienced in the original!

Gameplay

The core gameplay in Darksiders II is similar to the first; hack and slash enemies with a huge array of scythes, or unleash combos with your secondary weapons comprised of various axes, hammers, and claws. You will still spend a lot of your time climbing walls and exploring vast dungeons solving challenging puzzles. This serves as a great way to break up the action, whereas the first game was more going from room to room to battle your foes. Although there are not too many new game mechanics for solving puzzles, they are varied enough to keep from growing stale. This brings us to one of the best additions to Darksiders II, the ever so glorious RPG mechanics. Defeating beasts and demons no longer feels like a waste of time, since every kill you make earns you XP and every chest you crack open gives your wonderful loot and currency. This is a fairly detailed RPG system. Once you level up, you are given a skill point which you can assign to task trees, to unlock special abilities for Death to use. Loot will quite often drop from slain enemies. The user interface makes the RPG system that much better. You can view the item on the ground and compare the stats to see if it is worth picking it up or not. Weapons are divided into classes from common to legendary and are color coded to make it even more simple.  If I had one complaint about the menu system it would be that the text is too small to read without leaning closer to my TV. I play on a 1080p 42" and sit about 7 feet away and I had a hard time reading the menu. Other than that it was easy to use and very clean.

The story and side quests in Darksiders II can take you in the upwards of dozens of hours. It also has a Crucible mode, which is a series of arena wave based challenges that increase in difficulty. After 5 waves you have the option to take a reward of loot or to keep playing on for a chance to earn better prizes. Survive all one hundred waves and consider yourself the champion of all things Darksiders!

The story is well structured and carries you on from puzzle to boss fight and so on, as you travel to many areas and new worlds. One nice feature is that when you reload a save, the game will play you a narrated recap video. It is a nice touch and I'm glad it was feature that was added to the Gold Master. Once you beat the game you have the option of starting a New Game + which allows you to start the game over while still keeping all of the character progress that you have made.

Graphics

The first thing that struck me when I played was how grand the landscapes were in both size and scope. The art design in this game is proof that the developers put a lot of heart and sole into this RPG.  From a city kept a float by two giant serpents, to a huge field surrounded by towering mountains, the art exudes polish. Excellent use of colors and particle effects makes the game shine. The graphics as a whole, aren't the best in todays ever changing era.  Although, some of the shrubbery takes a while to pop in and some textures seem lower resolution than others, one can still fully understand where the focus of Vigil Games' was.  The overall design still does really well for the atmosphere of the game. A few technical flaws keep it from absolute perfection. The game will occasionally pause when you are riding your horse through new areas or when opening doors.  It isn't too frequent and I found it only mildly frustrating. I found myself slicing at enemies only to have them get wedged in a wall and be out of reach. A few times Death would get held up on a tiny seam in the floor that I should have easily been able to walk over without having to jump or back up. It sounds like I had an absolute terrible time, but no! Looking at the entire picture, it was very well put together and the graphics go very well with this type of post apocalyptic action game. 

Sound

The music in Darksiders II really struck a chord with me. From the epic crescendos of the first boss fight to the Celtic flute and string instruments, I knew that the music composed by Jesper Kyd would be phenomenal. The music blends nicely to the atmosphere as you ride across the fields and strikes up to epic proportions when you have engaged in combat. The sound effects when you slice into an enemy or when your scythe clanks off of a rock pillar are spot on and help to create the universe!

Michael Wincott lends his voice talent for Death and brings in a great performance. As a character he always has some sarcastic comment to bring into the dialogue but continues to have plenty of depth. Almost too much depth,  considering you are playing as the Grim Reaper himself, and you are willing to lend your aid to people in need, but it goes good with the story never the less. 

Conclusion

I was thoroughly surprised with Darksiders II. It is a challenging, yet clever game that implements some excellent RPG mechanics that continuously drives you forward in a search for the next best loot drop. With a story that is much longer that the original and a wonderful art/sound design, Darksiders II is a game that must be played!  A few technical flaws do little to hold it back. Vigil Games should be proud for a job well done, and we can sit tight while waiting for the next adventure come from the hands of these developers!

Score: $48 of $60

In a Few Words: Must Be Played!

Roger Havens - @Afro_GearDarksiders II - PS3 - PS3 Games (Google Affiliate Ad)

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Sound Shapes Review

Sound Shapes is an absolute delight. Created by the folks over at Queasy Games, the highly anticipated Sound Shapes is an addictive side scrolling musical platformer. It was released last week on PSN store for the PlayStation Vita and the PlayStation 3.  Even though there are some issues that are hard to overlook, this game is one of the best reasons to own a PlayStation Vita.

Like any other platformer, Sound Shapes tasks you with getting from point A to point B. The difference in this title is that instead of battling enemies on your voyage, you collect music notes. Each note you obtain gets added to the background music of the game, thus creating a complex and wonderful tune. Enemies and other level decorations add their notes to the song as well.

A game based on music must have a grade ‘A’ soundtrack. Thankfully, Sound Shapes knocks it out of the park. Because not only is there one amazing soundtrack, there are 5, each created by a different musician. Songs range from Deadmau5’s upbeat electronic music to I am Robot and Proud’s peaceful melodies. Every one of the songs are a pleasure to play through, and some of the tracks may even leave you speechless.

    The game features 3 different game modes. Campaign mode, where you play through different albums, each with their own distinct graphics. After you complete the 5 album long campaign, you unlock the other 2 game modes. Beat School, were you try to match a section of a song by placing notes on the screen. And finally, there’s Death Mode. Death mode requires you to retrieve a certain amount of notes without dying, under a very strict time limit. This mode can become very, very infuriating, so beating all of the levels will take some time and patience.

Sound Shapes is also available on PS3, and when you buy one version, you get the other for free. There is almost no difference between the versions, other than the menu layout. Sound Shapes allows you to sync your save from your Vita to PS3 and vice versa. The game has the same trophies across both versions, but they aren’t connected. So, when you earn a trophy on Vita, you don’t receive it on the PS3 until you sync the save. So, trophy lovers like myself will be ecstatic to find that you will get double the trophies for this game, including a double platinum.

The game comes packed with a level editor, enabling you to make your own songs and share them with the world. I have played a lot of games with a level editor, from Little Big Planet to inFAMOUS 2, and I can easily say the editor is the best I have ever used. It is very simple to put together levels and songs, and not to mention a ton of fun. The community has already done some fantastic stuff with the level editor and the game has only been out in the wild for a week. You can expect to see a lot of unique levels for some time to come.

 
 Alas, the game isn’t perfect. For a good 4 days after the game was released, the servers were down. No one could access user created levels nor sync their saves. While the issues have been fixed for the time being, it was a little ridiculous not being able to play online for most of the first week. Furthermore, I received more than a couple “Scripting errors” where the game just crashed on me. These issues shouldn’t be enough to halt your purchase, but they are prevalent nonetheless.

Sound Shapes is a fantastic adventure. It is great to see Sony pushing these unique titles to the PlayStation store, and I hope to see more titles like this in the future. With the level creator, the 3 different game modes and all of the community levels at your disposal, this game will keep you busy for a long time to come. Go pick it up, it’s well worth it.

$15/$15

Mitchell Morgan

@Mdawg2438

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Blacklight: Retribution Review

Game Conquered By @Mdawg2438

         

When you think about Free to play games, what comes to mind? Poor, unbalanced gameplay? Cheap, ugly looking textures? Just plain boring? Enter Blacklight: Retribution, a first person shooter that blows all of these stereotypes out of the water. While the game isn’t perfect, this is a Free to Play game you Need to try out!

Customization is the name of the game in Blacklight. Every part of your character and weapons can be changed or upgraded. From your scope and your magazine to your armor and abilities. Upgrades are acquired by spending GP or Zen. GP is earned during games depending on your performance, and Zen must be bought. There are certain things that can only be bought with Zen (new characters, taunts), but you can easily go through the game without using any cash.

You never want to play a game where you feel like you lost because of the controls, right? This will not be a problem in Blacklight. The controls have been finely tuned to give you the best shooting experience possible. When you get killed in this game, it feels totally fair.  
The game itself looks astounding. Blacklight has a wide array of locations to battle in, from a Tokyo-like town to a construction zone, each of them with their own style. The guns look futuristic, but still realistic. The same goes for the games sound.  Bullets whiz past your head as the gravel crunches beneath you.

There is another thing that makes Blacklight stand out from other first person shooters. Most shooters have a minimap in the corner of the screen, but a map is nowhere to be seen in Blacklight. So, say hello to the HRV, a device that will give you a huge tactical advantage on the battlefield. Equipping your HRV allows you to see everything on the map, from supply depots to allies and foes. Using this device means sacrificing your ability to attack for a few moments, so use it wisely.

There is so much to do in Blacklight: Retribution. Playing matches results in leveling up your character, thus unlocking more things for you to buy. And you will be constantly earning GP, allowing you to purchase gun parts and new characters. Zombie Studio updates the game frequently, adding in new maps, items and even game modes. You can easily sink a ton of time into this game, and have a great time doing so.

A game like this doesn’t come without its flaws though. Although rare, lag can be seen in certain matches, leading to some frustration. Other things like dead players often clip into environments. Many of the bugs have and are being fixed though, so the game is constantly improving. While some of these issues are small, they are still noticeable,

It’s hard to believe Blacklight is free. It feels like a game you should cost at least 15 bucks. The game feels great, sounds amazing, and looks even better! Do yourself a favor and try out this game. You might find a brand new gaming addiction.

I would pay $15 dollars for this game knowing good and well the game costs $0.

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HD Remasters

@SyphiloidMonkey

To kick this article off, and rant slightly about some things I’ve read that bug me, playing an HD remastered game is not retro gaming.  I am not a fan of retro gaming, particularly when it seems to only consist of sidescrolling shooters, basic jump and climb platform games, and anything that’s a Ricochet clone.  I grew up avoiding patterns of flashing bullets on the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and Amiga, and whilst they were great at the time things have moved on since then.  Being really pedantic, the retro tag should only be applied to something over 15 - 20 years old (thanks Wikipedia for that one!), and on the current generation, a lot of PSOne games on the PS Vita will be retro games.  It’s got an HD display, multi-touch screen, online capable software, dual analogue sticks, and most of this will not be used by the PSOne games.  I’d rather have the money spent developing PSOne emulation moved to enhancing remote play, or even marketing how great the Vita is.  Alright, I’m done moaning.  For now.

HD remasters have been coming out steadily for the last couple of years, mainly on the PS3 but are now starting to appear in larger numbers on the Xbox 360, and in most cases have been selling well.  The gaming community seems quite divided on them, are they a good or bad thing?  There’s one side that bemoans the soulless-ness of games companies cynically cashing in on their old IPs and not having to bother with investing in new game development (though they seem happy to buy into the CoD, Madden, Fifa and Tiger Woods franchises every year); and the other side that praises the efforts of developers to bring their franchises to new generations so that classic games are never forgotten (and maybe don’t always see how moving a game in a new direction isn’t always bad).  Whichever camp you fall in is not going to affect whether they’re released or not, and the chances are (I hope) you’ve played at least one of the remasters to give you the opinion you have.

I lean towards the positive side of having these remasters, mainly because I’ve been able to play games I never got round to during the PS2 and Xbox years.  Maybe it’s my dislike of retro gaming going into overdrive, but whenever I’ve traded up to the next generation of console I’ve not gone back to playing older games, even if the backwards compatibility is there, and this has meant with the move to the current generation I missed a couple of high profile releases from the end of the last console era.  There’s also the fact I am a PlayStation fanboy who won’t defile my apartment with an Xbox, so gaming experiences have been written off before they had a chance to even suggest how good they’d be.

Have a think, how many of the following did you play on PS2 or Xbox? 

• Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, Warrior Within, The Two Thrones
• God of War: 1, 2, Chains of Olympus, Ghost of Sparta
• Splinter Cell: 1, Pandora Tomorrow, Chaos Theory
• Ico, Shadow of the Colussus
• Sly Cooper: Thievius Raccoonus, Band of Thieves, Honour Among Thieves
• Ratchet & Clank: 1, Going Commando, Up Your Arsenal (the US titles were so much better than the EU numbering!)
• Silent Hill: 2, 3
• Metal Gear Solid: 2, 3, Peace Walker
• Halo
• Oddworld: Strangers Wrath
• Medal of Honor: Frontline
• Tomb Raider: Legend, Anniversary
• Resident Evil: 4, Code: Veronica X
• Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, Renegade, 3
• Beyond Good & Evil
• Devil May Cry: 1, 2, Dante’s Awakening

I think I played about half, but that didn’t include the God of War franchise, Sly Cooper, or the Splinter Cell sequels.  And this is unforgivable, but I’d never played the full game of Shadow of the Colossus.  All the titles in the list are available to buy or download right now, and there are more planned for release in the coming months, with some being games I’ve yet to have a go at like Zone of the Enders, or ones I can’t wait to play again like the Hitman Collection.  

What I like about this current run of HD remasters is that the games being done don’t vary too much from the gameplay style we get from the current triple A titles.  Some show their age a bit, Ratchet & Clank 1 doesn’t have a strafe option that’s in all the other games, and Sly Cooper has a lives system that I don’t think I’ve seen in a game for about 5 years, but the majority are great to play and look fantastic with the reworked visuals.  In particular God of War 2 is stunning, and it’s amazing how the developers have brought the PSP games detail out so that they can be played on much larger TV screens.

This leads us nicely to the technical side of the remasters and the studios that have done the work to get these up to scratch.  Probably the best ones are the MGS, God of War and Ico Collections, all of them done by Bluepoint Games who seem to spend a lot of time and care getting the best out of the original assets.  Next up would be Just Add Water who are doing the Oddworld updates, followed by Idol Minds who handled the Ratchet & Clank collection (as well as being the studio behind Pain).  What stands out with these studios is not just the HD overhaul, but the smoothness of the games, lack of screen tear and slickness of the revamped presentation.  Shadow of the Colussus has really benefitted, according to people who played the original there was a lot of slowdown whilst battling the Colussi, this has been completely eliminated. And it’s worth remembering that it’s not just the graphics that are done, audio is overhauled and re-recorded in some instances (MGS HD on the Vita), the source code is optimised, and new engines developed so that the older games will work with the newer hardware.  It might sound obvious, but it’s not just a case of picking a game and burning it to a blu-ray for sale, there’s a lot of detailed work needed.

MGS2 SD on Bottom, MGS2 HD on Top

However, and this is where I understand the cynical, money-grabbing side of the argument, not all developers lavish the care and attention these games deserve.  Most high profile in its failure is Konami/Hijinx Studios and the Silent Hill Collection with Silent Hill 2 missing the fog from the town.  The very thing that gives the game the atmosphere is gone, caused by the updated coding, but passed through QA anyway. This has been patched on the PS3 but took nearly 2 months to arrive and is unlikely to fix the loss in sales.  The Xbox version is still waiting to get this patched.  Although not a glaring error this time, Resident Evil 4 came in for some bad reviews.  The gameplay was still there but the graphics were pretty poor.  This could have something to do with the fact that the PS2 game was an inferior port from the GameCube version (according to the developers), and that version was the one used for the remaster.  And lastly combining bad graphics with poor gameplay comes the Prince of Persia Trilogy.  I have genuinely never been so happy to trade a game in, Ubisoft made a mess of these and I could not force myself to even finish the third game.



Silent Hill 2 SD Right: Silent Hill 2 HD Left

That said I’m glad that we’re getting the chance to play these games again in an updated format.  There are plenty of people out there, usually trolling forums, that think we should all break out the old consoles and just play the originals as they should be experienced.  But that’s missing what’s great about the remasters, I don’t have dig out and setup my PS2 and drop the resolution on my TV to sub-HD.  I can enjoy the games I’ve played before and see them looking better than I remember (so often not the case with memories of games), and trophies add the incentive of doing things differently to how I’ve done them before, or finding all the secrets and collectibles.  For the ones I’ve not played before I get to appreciate how good some of these games were for their time, and in the case of God of War, experience the full story arc without having to manage different pieces of hardware and track down second hand discs and UMDs.

It’s a matter of preference on whether you want to play an original or remaster, much the same as whether you prefer vinyl, CD or MP3.  But if the developers didn’t give the go ahead and work on remasters then there would be no choice for gamers, and it’s sad to say that some of these great games would be consigned to words and pictures in articles instead of being played and experienced.

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