A Journey Through the Seventh Generation Video Game Consoles

I've been playing video games my whole life. It all started with a Commodore 64 when I was just 3 years old, when my parents saw my love for games and fed my ambitions. So here we are in the new year (2014) and the Eighth Generation consoles are out: Wii U, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation Vita. They are exciting. They are sleek. They are impressive. But are they worth getting as soon as they come out?

I'm not going to argue with those who want to get them on Launch Day, but the recent launches of the PS4 and Xbox One made me start to believe it might be best to wait until the NEXT next gen consoles come out before purchasing THESE next gen consoles. Reasons? I've got a few.

The first one is obvious: the price tag. While it's not going to cost you an arm & a leg to get one, the price isn't exactly on the cheap side. I remember paying $500 (minus tax) for one of the first PS3's. They were big and bulky but that meant they had super power! It was fun and cool to have one, but it didn't feel more than a year later they were thinner and cheaper. If I could of waited a year, I could of had one for $200 cheaper. Now it's not a big deal to some people, but upon retrospect, I could done some things with that $200. Most likely I would of lost it betting on long shots at the track but still, I missed out on adding another memory to my life! It may not sound like a big deal, but quickly these reasons start to snow ball.

Like the next reason: options for games. When you buy a next gen console on or close to launch day, you don't have many titles to select from. And I certainly can't think of any breakthrough games that came out specifically for that system on launch day. Take the Wii for example. When it came out, you got to play The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess right off the bat. But the difference between the game on the GameCube and the Wii? You got to swing & point your remote on the Wii and the maps were completely opposite. That's it. The graphics were the same, the enemies were the same, Link yelling when swinging his sword was the same. The reason? The game was originally made for the GameCube. When the Wii was coming out, they just added two weak features and that was that. You could make the argument that it was still cool, but when Skyward Sword came out, you could see the capabilities of the Wii come out in full force. Twilight Princess looked like child's play in terms of maximizing the Wii's controls (the game itself actually kicks ass and rivals Ocarina of Time & A Link to the Past in terms of best Zelda games ever in my opinion).

Okay, back to the topic. This is just one of many examples of the types of games coming out on launch day. They mostly are games that are ports from the last generation of systems or games that haven't maximized the new system capabilities. And you don't have that many to choose from. And as you know, video games can sometimes be a dime a dozen and finding gems can take time. You generally have to wait months for a good selection of games to come out and wait even longer to have a good collection of top notch games to choose from.

Going back to when the Wii came out, I was excited about Metroid Prime 3, but after that, what were my choices? Not much. After awhile I just stopped looking and focused only on names I recognized (Super Mario, Donkey Kong, Final Fantasy, Metroid, Zelda, etc.) About 2 weeks ago I went through the titles just for the Wii system and couldn't believe the bevy of games I missed out on! Now it's my fault I didn't pay more attention, but it goes to show how much first impressions can make.

Now let me ask you, are you better at playing games the first time through or the second time? How about the third time? I already know the answer, the more you play, the better you get. This applies to almost everything in life. So why do we expect so much flawlessness on launch day? There were lots of reports of PS4's and Xbox One's not working right out of the box. In terms of percentages it's low you are going to have problems. But what if you do have a problem? Ask all the people who got PS4's on launch day and they didn't work. They had to call Sony, be put on hold because many others are calling on launch day with "issues" such as not being technologically savvy to sync their controller to their console. Then they had to spend an hour going through every possible way to get the PS4 to work. When it doesn't work, they then had to wait for Sony to ship them a box to get it fixed or get a new one, which could take weeks. It was a hassle. So while the odds are you're going to have a good system, this is still a possibility. To me, it feels like it's better to wait it out as the console makers figure out how to perfect getting the console from the factory to your hands with as little issues as possible.

Last but not least, as technology improves, so does the console. But now you have to pay extra, rather than getting it in updated bundles. PlayStation 3 came out with Move. Xbox 360 came out with Kinect. The Wii came out with Motion Plus Controllers. The Nintendo DS came out with a larger screen, 2 cameras and an Online Store. The PSP came out with bigger storage and a microphone. Some things could be added on, some you had to buy a brand new system. The point is, if I would of waited, I wouldn't of had to spend all that money to get all the cool features. Instead, I've just donated tons of money to Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony while I'm salivating and crying at all the new features I can't have unless I want to spend more money.

The bottom line is this: to me, it's better to wait than to buy right away. If I wait for a generation to run it's course, I'll have a ton of great games to play, I can get consoles with all the best features, I can get games and consoles at great prices, to me it's win-win-win. I'm not going to argue with those who want to be on the cutting edge, but for me that time has passed. I've spent too much money being on the cutting edge only to see today's technology get passed by tomorrow's in the blink of the eye. I'm okay with letting new technology get perfected over time, at which point I can enjoy at a cheaper cost.

In the meantime, let's enjoy the great games I, and possibly you, missed out on during the Seventh Generation of consoles! Feel free to come along for the ride!
http://seventhheavengaming.blogspot.com/

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Grand Theft Auto V

Well, it's happened. We finally get another Grand Theft Auto after almost six years of waiting. There's a lot to go wrong with a game this big but Rockstar has somehow managed to develop a game that's nearly perfect. That being said, there are some little problems with the overall product that leaves it very close to being one of the best video games of all time.

To call Grand Theft Auto V an ambitious game would be utterly underselling it. This is the first game that actually feels like a living, breathing world. It also implements mechanics that makes games like Call of Duty and even The Sims work so beautifully. Grand Theft Auto V is like the Rome of video games; it melts down the best features of other games and puts them into a bow-tied delicate gameplay package.

One of the big features with Grand Theft Auto V is the new concept of playing as three main characters. This caused some confusion as gamers were worried that the writing wouldn't be as sharp or the game just wouldn't mesh well as a whole. Luckily, all this is completely taken care of and the way you switch between the main characters is both innovative technically and also from a gameplay perspective.

With the three main characters in Grand Theft Auto V, you're getting different experiences. Franklin is the youngest one who focuses on his driving ability and Michael is sort of like a washed up mobster who now lives the family life. Then there's Trevor. Trevor is basically a ticking time bomb whose leash has been completely removed and almost fits into Grand Theft Auto V too well. Think of him as the Joker with a drinking problem, only even more murderous.

The storyline was very eventful and at times it was downright one of the best mission structures I've ever seen in a game before. Not to spoil anything, but you'll be flying helicopters, stealing bulldozers and occasionally flying through windows. With games these days only lasting about 8-10 hours it was great to play a game that was a marathon in length. There were so many character specific missions to partake in other than the actual story- needless to say, this game will keep you busy.

In my opinion there are actually four main characters; the fourth is Los Santos, the city where all of this takes place. Los Santos is based on Los Angeles and tries to replicate the craziest aspects of that area. You'll have beaches to run around in, military bases to infiltrate, upscale mansions to invade and even wildlife to shoot at. The best part of this world is that it will keep going with or without you. For example, I saw a high speed chase and eventually the perpetrator stopped and got out of his car and there was a massive shootout between him and the police. The game is just downright fun.

With a game so large, it would be hard to imagine them focusing on visuals, right? Rockstar is pushing the aging PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360 to their limits. While you're playing, just fly over the ocean and marvel at how gorgeous it is and how the waves come in. It's not all rainbows, though- the graphics do come at a price. There were plenty of times when the framerate would dip down pretty significantly, especially when you're in a highly populated spot full of NPC characters. The worst seemed to be when you were driving in the middle of Michael's upscale neighborhood.

With so many things to do and experience it truly feels like this game doesn't end. Even after beating the game and all the major side quests, I'm still busy with other tasks. For example, I'm trying to run a bar with Michael and even playing the stock market with all my characters. And nothing is more fun than jumping out of your burning airplane and opening up your parachute to enjoy the view. Heck, you can even customize your vehicles and weapons.

It seems the best is still yet to come with Grand Theft Auto V. In October, Rockstar will be launching the online portion of the game titled (of course) Grand Theft Auto Online. This will almost entirely be its own experience and the game is vastly ambitious. If they can pull off all the things they say are possible, we won't ever leave our televisions.

Grand Theft Auto V is the game to get; it's an incredible value for what you're paying for. It's hard to justify spending sixty dollars on anything else after this game. This could even be ported over to the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, so fingers crossed that Rockstar could implement a way to transfer your save information over to the new consoles. Even with its faults such as framerate drop, and sometimes the character switching not living up to its full potential, GTA Vis absolutely one of the best games this generation. You will truly be missing out if you don't at least play this, but you should probably just come in and buy it at your local Slackers today.

Visit http://www.slackers.com for more great reviews!

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Moral Choices in Video Games: The Problem of Problem Solving

In Star Trek: The Next Generation - "Thine Own Self," ship counselor Deanna Troi decides to take the test for becoming a higher-ranking officer of the starship Enterprise. She is required to solve a simulated disaster that would destroy the entire ship and its hundreds of civilian inhabitants.
The problem is a leak in the warp-plasma shaft, which leads to a devastating explosion when left unfixed. The shaft is flooded with radiation, however; any person who directly patches the leak will have no chance of survival afterwards.

So Deanna assumes there must be some logistical way to bypass the leak. She tries everything she can think of: switching to auxiliary control, modifying the EM power inverter, ejecting antimatter storage containers - each solution leading to the complete destruction of the Enterprise without fail.
Convinced that she is missing something, Deanna studies the ship's manuals for hours, and takes the test three more times. She traps herself in her problem-solving mindset, too afraid to notice that one possibility that nags at her subconscious - sending a crewmate into the shaft.

In Deus Ex: Human Revolution - The Missing Link, player-controlled Adam Jensen finds himself in a facility being flooded with toxic gas. There are two main sections: one contains cells full of oppressed prisoners, while the other contains a small population of scientists - scientists who could provide evidence that would crush an evil corporation.

Jensen climbs down a ladder that leads to a control room, but he can only use it to redirect the gas into one part of the facility - he can save the scientists or the prisoners. So the player finds himself faced with a clear moral choice - he will have to consider which option is best for society, which respects individual life more, which serves the most justice.

But if the player stops this train of thought and climbs back up the ladder, he will notice a network of pipes running throughout the facility. And if he follows the pipes, behind walls and through vents, he will find an obscured entrance. Behind it lies a valve that regulates the flow of the toxic gas - destroying it stops the flow entirely, saving both the prisoners and the scientists.

This is what Deanna is afraid of in "Thine Own Self". Behind the veil of logistics and technical solutions lies a philosophical, moral dilemma - can she kill one person to save hundreds? But what if she starts worrying about that problem too soon? What if during the few minutes that she spends deliberating morality, she misses the one unnoticed factor, hiding away behind a corner - the one piece that could solve the problem and save everyone?

It is a scary reality of making moral decisions - that you could start too early, and miss the solution hiding in front of you. That maybe you should keep problem solving until the very end, even if a moral choice leads to the better outcome.

And it would be nice if more games tapped into this fear. When presenting a moral choice to the player, many games do not leave any flexibility, any way to check untied loose ends. In most cases, the player is pulled from the world entirely - the action pauses, and the two choices get mapped to their respective shoulder buttons.

Even when players are left in control, they rarely get any chance to believe that they missed something, that they need to work with the game's mechanics for just a bit longer before making their choice. Take the infamous Mass Effect 3, where three empty branching paths represent the game's ending decision. The only possible, "non-moral" stone left unturned is spinning Commander Shepard around in circles, or making him shoot at the sky.

Mass Effect 3′s ending and other choices like it are missing the vital hints that make fear of morality real - the freedom to explore unexplored areas on a map, the ability to search for those few missing audio logs, curious leads in the environment, small story issues that were never quite resolved.
"Thine Own Self" shows us why unresolved loose ends and looming, untested possibilities are so important to making moral choices realistic. Because making a moral choice is not only about noticing a moral dilemma, or having one presented to you; it is about having the volition to leave the technical world and accept the decision - to give up on trying to save everyone. As Troi's superior tells her after she passes the test: "you considered all of your options, you tried every alternative, and then you made the hard choice."

Alex Rinaldi is a writer for Think-Entertainment, a website devoted to a thought-driven approach to popular media.

You can read similar pieces about storytelling in films, video games, television, and writing - and its cultural impact - at http://www.think-entertainment.net

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Montages Are About to Hit the Fan - So Here's Some Tips to Get Yours Noticed

With the Ps4 and Xbox One hitting the markets with gusto it's easy to lose sight of a few things that will have a profound impact on the gaming community. What am I talking about? Montages, Frag Videos, those awesome five minutes of watching skilled players rip apart the gaming community with sick headshots and other kills to music that we love.

Now I'm not saying every video that gets out there is rockstar quality. In actual fact, there's a lot of failures out there. But everyone needs a starting point, and the field is about to be leveled... well in a few updates at least.

When montages first started hitting YouTube they made jaws drop, eyes got crossed and made gamers drool for days on end. But what was the main issue? Capture Cards for the PC were like 200$, and external PVR devices were near double that. Over the years prices have gone down. Hell if you go to Amazon right now you could pick up a Used Hauppauge HD PVR 2 Gaming Edition for around $110 (That includes shipping) where the new out of the box ones at retail stores are between $130-200. That is if you can find a HD PVR at the retail store that works with a PS3 or XboX 360, most stores will direct you to the Bell/Rogers or whatever else cable company you have in your area HD PVR having NO CLUE about what you're looking for.

With the new systems, that won't be needed anymore. Sony and Microsoft have both put the PVR ability into the console. Now, I won't say this is flawless (Sony has already stated that the PVR ability needs a patch that will be released at a later date to function. Xbox One is stating "limited PVR capabilities" which basically means they don't want to comment on what it lacks) but this is all technicalities to anyone who sees the forest for the trees. Gamers are not slow indaviduals, you can bet that there will be a work around of some sort, or something along those lines to get you your desired result.

Now, I said back up there that "there's a lot of failures out there." Well, that's mainly because of a lack of knowledge. You can't simply chop your video, add some music, and call it a day. Well... You could do that, but then you'll end up wasting your time on a video that will barely blip on YouTube... and we all know you want the world to see how awesome your skills are.

What I recommend is watching a boat load of Montages. Find the ones with the most views study it. Then, adfter your eyes and ears have had so many joygasims you can barely contain yourself start recording yourself.

Hey, Johnny Hotshot, 2 hours of recording is not gonna cut it. I mean seriously, in 2 hours of gameplay you might have three or four really awesome games where you can get a couple of seconds of video. Yeah, I said it, a couple of seconds. You're going to want a day or two of gameplay, just remember the maps you did awesome on and skimming through the footage won't be a problem.

Awesome, you got your clips, and your music, but what should you use to make the video? For first timers... Windows Movie Maker... seriously, but don't expect AMAZING results. This will get you familiar with what goes into making a montage. "But Swoop, I want an Epic Montage!" well then, Sony Vegas Pro is your answer. But that's NOT cheap, it could cost you anywhere from $200-$600. A step down would be Corel's VideoStudio or Sony Movie Studio (They tend to be around $50-$100 depending on which one you buy) after you get that, spend some time learning it, go on YouTube, find some tutorials, play around with it.

After all this is said and done, your montage is ready to go, the world will see how awesome you are!

I'm giving you an example of one of my first videos I created. The quality suffered, but that was because of the method I used to capture the game clips. Some of you might remember that you could upload a clip from Black Ops to YouTube, limited to about 30 seconds however. So, I did just that, uploaded to YouTube, downloaded from YouTube. The quality took a hit big time, but these were my first steps, and I'll admit I'm still working on my skills editing, but you have to start somewhere right?

So now it's all a question of when, and will you sit back and simply watch the movies? Or will you be the start of one of your own?

Swoopster out.

http://www.theinformedgamer.com

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How to Use Giants Effectively in Clash of Clans

In my opinion, Giants are currently the best troops in Clash of Clans for many reasons. One reason is because Giants can fill the tank role better than Barbarians because they have a lot more health and thus they are less vulnerable to splash attack from Mortars and Wizard Towers. They are also effective on the map because they prioritize targeting a defensive building which means by using Giants you can focus on neutralizing the enemy's defensive power as fast as possible. Moreover, Giants are also well-known for their excellent uses to distract and soak up hits for their comrades.
One effective raiding strategy can be utilized using a combination of few Giants and lots of Archers. First, deploy Giants to distract all the defensive buildings attack focus and then quickly drop Archers near the attacking tower to destroy them. This strategy, when used correctly, can easily wipe out an entire base and ended up rewarding you with a 3-star victory.

Giants had been proven to be very useful when combined with Wall breakers and Goblins. This strategy works great when used on a heavily fortified base with lots of resources available. First, just like the previous tactic, deploy Giants to distract all the defensive buildings and then drop the Wall breakers right near the column of walls you want to breach. You just need to make sure that any defensive towers in the vicinity had their focus on the Giants because Wall breakers are so fragile. Once the walls have been breached, quickly release all the offensive units like Barbarians or Archers to destroy the defensive towers and Goblins to steal the resources.

There is also another famous raiding strategy using a combination of lots of Giants and 2 healers. This strategy will work in almost all types of bases. Basically, you just need to spam all the Giants you have on the map, preferably close to each other, and then when the Giants start to get focus fired by the adjacent defensive building, you deploy the 2 healers about 5 tiles behind the group of Giants. This strategy works because most of the time the 2 healers, will heal back all the damage that has been done to the group of Giants in front of them. Given enough time, those Giants could wipe out a well-fortified enemy base with only few casualties. However, you have to be careful when employing this strategy because an Air Defense can 2-shotted your healer unit from afar and also be wary of the spring traps that could kill your Giants in an instant.

Hi there, If you want more useful tips and tricks for Clash of Clans, then visit my website at http://www.iphonegametips.com. It's full of strategy and tactics you need to know to get the winning edge for playing Clash of Clans. I will try to update the site daily, so make sure you visit it regularly. Thanks and have fun reading!

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Which Tier-1 Troops I Should Upgrade First in Clash of Clans?

Many of you Clash of Clans players may get confused on which troops to upgrade first when you had finished the construction of your laboratory. My answer is simple, archers upgrade should be your first priority when doing upgrades. Why? Because archers are more valuable in the long run especially if you are a very active Clash of Clans players who likes to raid and make someone else's base turn to rubble. There are 3 reasons why archer is your highest priority troops to upgrade.

First, archer has the best attacking power compared to barbarians or goblins. You might wondering why because not only archer has the lowest health but it also has the lowest damage per second (dps) attack power compared to barbs or goblins. That's because archer has one attack ability that the others don't, and it's called ranged attack ability. This means that archers have a better opportunity to hit those defensive buildings such as cannons or towers regardless of wall protections. Try to compare that with barbarians which need to breakthrough the wall first before they can get to anything.

Second, archer doesn't pick targets. Unlike goblins which prioritize the resource buildings when attacking, the archers hit anything on their sight (including walls unfortunately). This gives archers a better chance to wipe out a base compared to goblins that is picky because resource storages often placed deep within the base and fully protected. Don't get me wrong here, goblins are the best troop if your only concern is to steal resources. However, you cannot deploy goblins without the assistance of other troops such as barbs or giants because they will get crushed easily. On the other hand, an army consists of 100% archers will definitely able to take out any base with decent protections and even sometimes reward you with 3 stars!

Third, archers are an excellent Clan Castle troops. The most popular requested troops for Clan Castle at the moment is archer for obvious reasons. Archers ability to hit from afar is already dangerous and now try to put archers inside a dozen of strong, protective walls. The result is you will get a group of army that can attack an enemy without having to fear of getting hit back. It's a deadly combination!
A note to consider is that it may be very effective to deploy a full army of archers for a low level Town Hall base (1 to 5). However, once you hit a level 6 to above Town Hall level base you might want to combine archers with other troops such as giants or wallbreakers.

Hi there,
If you want more useful tips and tricks for playing Clash of Clans, then visit my website at http://www.iphonegametips.com. It's full of strategy and tactics you need to know to get the winning edge in Clash of Clans. I will try to update the site daily, so make sure you visit it regularly.
Thanks and have fun reading!

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Still Waiting For Valkyrie Profile 3

How long has it been since we heard "Nibuleng Valesti"? A lot of us are still waiting for a new installment for the series, yes there was Covenant of the Plume for the Nintendo DS but most of us were waiting for a new title on the new generation consoles. The story of Lenneth and Silmeria have been told and the most valid character that would be next is Hrist. Though the ending of Valkyrie Profile 2 was left in shambles, we still want to know what kind of life Hrist had, how she became ruthless and heartless towards humans.

The story line of the series made us play at the edge of our seats as the events grew more and more intense, so intense that you could almost feel Lenneth's sadness in Valkyrie Profile. The ending of the first game left a lot of holes so that a second game would be necessary to fill in those holes likewise the ending of the sequel also had a lot of mysteries and cliffhangers that a lot of people would want to know and see. Who knew that a game which was solely based on Norse mythology can be so interesting and fun to have.

If we were to have a new game in the series namely Valkyrie Profile 3, we would all be happy as long as it remained true to itself like it's predecessors. Imagine playing this in glorious high-definition with the current gaming consoles we have now is such a nice thought to have join this with in-depth gaming customization and battle phase, then you my friend have a high quality game at your hand. If the third game would be created and developed, it would quench the thirst of the fans of the series around the world.

The waiting is still on as we hang on to what the game series has given us. All those emotions we shared with them, all the anguish and despair, up to now we still could feel it. We still hope for the best that Square-Enix and Tri-Ace would still keep the series alive and running and still sticking to its roots. As of now, we are all ready to take control of the last Goddess who govern fate, Hrist Valkyrie, on how her story unfolds. Nevertheless, we could all say that the next installment of the game is still worth the wait.

If you want to know more about games and stuff you could check it here http://jmikcatain.blogspot.com/

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