1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF FEBRUARY 18 | GAMES GO TO HOLLYWOOD
True Grit: The Influence of Westerns on Games
Cover Story: We examine how the romanticism of the Wild West influences games of all genres.
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n arid wasteland gives way to a small, ramshackle town as tumbleweeds blow past and a rattlesnake slithers by. The bustle of the town is interrupted by a herd of horses bearing a revolver-toting gang of criminals who claim the town as their own to do with what they see fit. Their leader steps forward towards the center of the one-street community, waiting patiently with his hand on his gun. Suddenly, a striking, striking presence appears sporting a star-shaped badge that reads "Sheriff" and stares down the ringleader. They pause, gaze at each other for a moment, then, once the sun hits its highest point, attempt to fire a single shot at one another. The sheriff is faster, as the ringleader grabs his chest and crumples to the ground. The rest of the gang is rounded up by the sheriff's posse and hung just outside of town.
If this sounds familiar, then you've probably seen one of the countless Western movies or TV shows that were created in the past century. But even though they seem reliant on staid tropes more than most genres, it still remains one of the most beloved across multiple media even today. And now that we're seeing it appear in video games, it can tell us much about how different groups of people perceived the concept and implemented it in this new medium.
It's true, the games are ultimately what we are most concerned with when we talk about a games console. But when they are first announced, it's the systems themselves that are often the most fascinating topics. This is perhaps truer than ever before in the case of the PlayStation 4, what with the industry changing so dramatically and the current generation of systems having lasted for as long as it has. Going into today's event, I was of the belief that Sony needed to present a convincing reason for why it chose to make the decisions it would unveil and, more importantly, why it is that gamers should care about investing hundreds of dollars in a new system. At least part of Sony's answer to the latter question revolved around making the PS4 a much more social platform than other consoles, though whether that's a satisfactory justification remains to be seen.
The picture of the system's new controller that has been circulating around the web for the past week did prove to be real. The DualShock 4 uses Bluetooth and is largely the same as its predecessor, save for some tweaks (like merging the Start and Select buttons into one, and the introduction of new, concave analog sticks, which are unfortunately not offset, Xbox-style) and a few new features: a headphone jack, a Share button, a touchpad, and a light bar. The touchpad, which I figured would have received some attention during the event, was all but ignored; I had hoped to see some reason for its inclusion. Perhaps it's better that the games we saw didn't include it, as it's the sort of input that should only be used when it makes sense to do so, not simply because it's there.
Jose Otero: At the PlayStation event, Sony showed some of the best and worst kept secrets in the gaming industry. We all got our first peek at the PlayStation 4's controller and the rumored social features, like the ability to allow other users to spectate the games you're currently playing. I went into this thing unsure of how social features would help boost this upcoming generation of hardware, but I walked away impressed by all of the possibilities. Today's Internet thrives on a socially connected culture where people share pictures, video, and information at a rapid pace. It only makes sense that games would go in the same direction. The next gen doesn't appear driven by graphics and polygons like the previous one's that came before. If Sony placed their bets properly, it's more about the social features and what they bring to the table.
Marty Sliva: Yeah, one of the biggest things I took aware from the conference was Sony's push to make the PS4 the first social network with "meaning," their words, not mine. Strange verbiage aside, they said all of the right things to make me believe that this could be the first console to succeed in connecting gamers on the same level that a platform like Facebook does. The idea of being able to watch what my buddies are playing on the fly, or upload something amazing that just happened in whatever game I might be playing is promising to say the least. If "Let's Plays" seem popular now, just wait until any kid with a PS4 can record commentary without ever leaving their living room.
As expected, today's big Sony event focused solely on one thing: the newly announced PlayStation 4. The presentation clocked in at two hours and covered a wide variety of subjects, although many of the key details -- a specific release date, a price, plans for its online service -- were nowhere to be found. What we do know is the system will indeed be known as the PS4, its rumored controller is the real deal, it's coming this holiday, and its games look very pretty -- although it's debatable whether the games we saw showed the kind of innovation you'd hope to find on a next-generation console.
When it came to the games shown, what was and was not real gameplay footage was not always clear. Some things were clearly labeled as tech demos. We got a glimpse of the Unreal 4 Engine demo shown previously, as well as Agni's Philosophy, the impressive-looking demonstration of Square Enix's next-generation engine first seen at last year's E3. In the case of the latter, there was no doubting it looks tremendous. However beautiful it is, though, there's no denying the demo loses its luster when accounting for the fact that the same footage made the rounds last year. Word of a new Final Fantasy being in development did provide an opportunity for Square Enix's presence on stage to have some real significance, but forcing us to weight for E3 to learn anything about it was a cruel tease for series fans who were hoping to hear about the status of Versus XIII.
1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF FEBRUARY 18 | GAMES GO TO HOLLYWOOD
When Video Games Met Films
Cover Story: What the two industries could learn from one-another.
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oral ambiguity, brotherhood, and deception are themes prevalent in Infernal Affairs, a film that follows a Hong Kong police detective going undercover as a Triad gang member. If some of this sounds familiar, that's because the open-world game Sleeping Dogs loosely follows the film's script. However, the keyword here is loosely, as the game doesn't go out of its way to perfectly recreate the film, nor is it titled Infernal Affairs: The Game. It merely samples some of storyline elements and gives us an open-world crime game evoking the same themes as its movie counterpart.
Similarly, Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay is another example of a game inspired by a movie, but still manages to give us an original product that is fun to play. Despite having the film's name in its title, it doesn't follow any direct plot, but serves as a tie-in prequel of sorts to the Chronicles of Riddick franchise. Not being a direct translation from one medium to another saves the game from suffering the same fate many movie tie-in games often face.
The future of PlayStation is set to be revealed in just a matter of hours. 1UP will be in New York City to see firsthand what is widely presumed to be the unveiling of the PlayStation 4. As we get closer to the start of the event -- scheduled to begin at 3pm Pacific, 6pm Eastern -- you'll find a livestream of the event above. You can also follow along with all the happenings by way of our Twitter stream below.
We also want to hear what you have to say as Sony kicks off the next generation of console gaming. We'll be talking a great deal about everything we learn (and don't learn) tonight in the coming days, and we have one story coming tonight that we'd like to include your thoughts in. If you'd like a chance at having your take on the new console featured here on 1UP, simply tweet @1UP using the hashtag #1UPps4 with your impressions.
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