And there it is, the moment we’ve all been waiting for, The Last Of Us Part II is finally here! Well, it will be in a few years time, anyway. But let’s not get too caught up worrying about the painfully long wait just yet, and instead, indulge ourselves in the good news that the follow-up to the PS3’s swan song hit is indeed in development.
PlayStation fans rejoice, it’s that time of year again, and for this outing, PlayStation Experience is off to Anaheim for what promises to be the biggest PlayStation bonanza yet; a celebration of all things we love about the world’s most popular console brand.
With holiday season fast approaching and the dreaded shitstorm that is Black Friday so uncomfortably close that I feel as though I can already smell the whiff of a thousand rampant sweaty bargain hunters, it’s time to start fantasizing about what gaming goodies to purchase. And this year we’ve got a smorgasbord of sexy gadgetry that has recently made its debut, each offering the latest and greatest in graphical advancements to enhance gaming experiences.
Nintendo fan or not, the Switch is an undeniably intriguing piece of kit, and its reveal has sparked a renewed wave of enthusiasm for the company. The Switch feels like Nintendo grown up, a design and concept with a mature market in mind. And its form factor is appropriately slick, too - a sheen and polish that seems more MacBook Air than Wii U’s tacky Fisher and Paykel finish. Yes, we don’t know quite enough about the console to say with any certainty that Nintendo are back as a tour de force in the console space again, but you do get the sense that they appreciate the importance of a change in company direction.
After Battlefield 1’s WWI premise so effectively captivated the gaming community, Activision was surely prepared for a divisive reception to Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare’s teaser trailer. But even then, they must have gotten quite a shock when it became the most disliked video on the internet. In the weeks following both trailer reveals, the FPS community had never felt so segregated and, even if enthusiasm for CoD has waned slightly ever since Ghosts, had never felt quite so opposed to what has been the most successful and popular FPS franchise for a decade.
Things have been going pretty swell for Sony over the past few years. There’s no denying that the Japanese giant is currently reigning kingpin over its rival hardware manufacturers, with PS4’s impressive sales putting it on track to beat records. So much so that Sony have all but abandoned support for their handheld unit, the PS Vita, choosing instead to double down on PS4’s success with the souped-up Pro edition, and its recently released peripheral, PlayStation VR.
With an estimated install base of 2.4 billion phones, it’s no small wonder that mobile gaming has all but buried the handheld market. Unless you’re in Japan, where the devices such as the 3DS and Vita still sell respectably, tablets and phones are quite clearly the devices of choice over consoles. These days, at least in the West, an all in one device reigns supreme over a dedicated gaming machine, and the evidence of that is plain to see.
