naut

@Kyroki Hopefully CoD5 and Blops 1 selections. Blops 2 and up did not have good zombie maps.

@Tasuki Blops 3 Zombies has six maps total, so the "eight remastered maps" statement makes no sense in relation to that.

There are 9 zombie maps total from CoD5 and Blops 1 combined. Which one are they cutting, I wonder? I'd say "Moon" personally but it seems weird that they're cutting one map. I really hope this doesn't mean we're getting like...A couple from CoD5, a couple from Blops 1, and a couple from Blops 2 or something — Blops 1 had great zombie maps, and every zombie map since has been trash.

Some corrections here:

The review does not make clear that 358/2 Days and Re: Coded are not playable. They have not been ported and the disks contain HD cutscenes of the stories only. This is alluded to in the statement:

"The two 'movies' are more focused on character and theme than actual story exposition, with only 358/2 Days offering any sort of insight into the events of the main games."

But is seemingly contradicted earlier in the review with:

"358/2 Days is an episodic tale that fleshes out the backstory of Roxas. Then there's RE: CODED and Birth By Sleep: the former is the series' most oddball and disposable title and the latter more of a full adventure than a spin-off."

The version of BBS on the disk is its Final Mix variant (the review only mentions KH1&2 FM)

Chain of Memories was released in 2004 on GameBoy Advance, not Nintendo DS. In 2008, a complete remake of the game was created for PS2 titled, Re: Chain of Memories. The HD Remaster of the latter game is what is included on this disk.

@Bad-MuthaAdebisi Not a lot of quantity coming for Switch but the quality of titles isn't going "downhill" lol. Xenoblade 2 and Mario this year? Plus a new MegaTen game is in the works. Not to mention E3 is coming. I definitely wouldn't use the word "downhill."

@get2sammyb Exactly, you're proving my point. Celebrities should be able to speak their minds and challenge the narrative without worrying that their careers will end just because they say something controversial. It's a stupid system and it's why celebrities are mostly made up of plastic fakes — You be the person the culture expects you to be. It's good and healthy to have people that say, "But hmm what about this?", right or wrong, and make people think. Unfortunately you can't do that in this current culture or you get crucified and treated like a monster. It's utterly toxic, and so it's great to see people like Jon who are breaking out and speaking their minds despite the mob.

@get2sammyb Heavily disagree. Since he's an influential figure he's not allowed to speak his mind and have public opinions? Nonsense. We need people who challenge the narrative and speak their minds. People should not be intimated into silence because their word doesn't fit the one on the street.

It's absolutely ridiculous. He didn't even say anything bad, he basically just poorly worded some things that he better clarified later--And some of it were just some controversial facts. Things that are true but you're not supposed to say because political correctness blah blah.

But honestly that's neither here nor there. No matter what side of the fence you're on this should have never been an issue in the first place. He made some, like, single-character-cameo and all this started because some trolls on GAF started mass emailing the devs pretending like there was some public outcry. All they needed to do was be like, "Yeah the views of Jon Jafari don't represent our own," and move on. All they've done is stirred up more controversy where there didn't have to be any and quite frankly it's pathetic.

I cancelled my pre-order, I have plenty of other games to play. Suck a Jiggy, Playtonic. I'll use the $40 to buy some JonTron merch.

Yeah I mean honestly it looks like the Pro runs things pretty well--The only thing that does look genuinely disconcerting is those frame-time spikes in the open-world. Those aren't gradual "drops," I mean look at them--The game is hiccuping. That doesn't look pleasant. But, as they said, hopefully it's limited to a few select areas.

Seems strange that they wouldn't optimize something that striking, but maybe a patch later? Who knows.

@solocapers Don't really think it's that far-fetched a comparison. I actually had the same thought.

@get2sammyb Right, I wasn't saying that all Unreal games look lazy, I was just saying that they have a tendency to if not made with care. Rocket League is definitely not an example of that lol — Stellar presentation/feel.

Yup, I have hopes. We'll see what they do with it.

@get2sammyb Yeah that's a big issue with games made in Unreal. The visuals often really lazy and generic. But, it is a beta after all. Hopefully they'll take feedback and spruce things up.

You're right about Windjammers proper, but one thing I think that this game really has going for it is doubles. My roommate and I has a lot of fun with doubles, and you can't do that in Windjammers.

Funny, I had the same thought about this being the next RL. You can tell even by the UI that they're going for that feel. I've had a really good time playing the beta. Like you said, the presentation isn't quite "there" yet, but I feel like it has serious potential.

Wow. What a complete and utter disappointment. I was holding off to buy the game until this patch came out, and now the game's in an even worse state. What a mess.

Still wish they had kept the old combat system, but this at least looks promising. Seems they're going for an almost "Tales-y" feel.

Finally! I was beginning to think it had been scrapped.

How about the 60FPS Pro patch? What's going on with that?!

@RenanKJ @ZurapiiYohane64 Personally, my favorite is BBS. 358/2 has my favorite story of all the games, but BBS has an amazing story too and its battle system is just so good. The overall best in my opinion.

@FullbringIchigo Agreed. If you just keep a couple Drop-Me-Nots on you at all times it's a complete non-issue.

@johncalmc — I mean obviously there's no law forcing you to play all the KH games. Even if you don't have a clue what's going on in the story, anyone could enjoy the combat, aethstetic, music, etc. — But as far as I'm concerned, half the appeal of KH is the story. Missing out on it would be a crying shame and I don't recommend it. And if you do want to properly understand the story, you do need to play them all, that's for certain.

@Jake3103 — KH games, on average, run about 30 hours. If you played KH1, KH2, CoM, BBS, and KH3D it'd run you about 150 hours. About the time it'd take to play two large JRPGs. It's not that bad, really.

@johncalmc I don't think you understand just how important Chain of Memories and especially Birth By Sleep are to understanding the story in any capacity. If you haven't played Birth By Sleep, you'd be absolutely, positively lost going into KH3.

@Jake3103 — Take it from a fan of the series. If you want to get into Kingdom Hearts, get the collection that's coming out in March. With it, you can play KH1, Chain of Memories, KH2, and Birth By Sleep. You can also use it to watch HD movies of 358/2 Days and Re: Coded which will get you up to speed on the DS games as well, if you have no desire to play them. From there, you can buy 2.8 and play KH3D and 0.2 — And done. You'll be up to speed and ready for KH3.

In any case, @DrJoeystein won't be very happy about this lol. He's a big RE fan and a stickler for hard modes--Especially in survival horror.

Really a crying shame that you had to have a preorder copy to have Madhouse out-of-the-box. Such an arbitrary thing to lock behind a wall like that.

@get2sammyb — Highly recommended. Made a complete 180 of my experience.

@get2sammyb I wonder, did you play the game standing? I initially played the demo sitting down and got very sick. Later I played it standing, and my experience improved drastically--I played it for somewhere around 2 hours straight experiencing little-to-no sickness.

@get2sammyb You da man.

@get2sammyb So after playing the demo in PSVR I was thinking this would be the PSVR game to own. The best current show of the tech. Does it not meet that criteria for you?

With no TLG on this list, I'm surprised this even made it past @get2sammyb

@get2sammyb As someone who only owns a standard HDTV and won't be having the cash to upgrade any time soon, is the Pro worth the investment for the overall performance hikes alone? I feel like, from what I've heard, the Pro will be the only way to play FFXV in any quality fashion.

@Furtin For real, the insane difficulty in even the easy campaign is a turn-off from even playing the game.

Please just tell me that the frame rate will be better on Pro.

Played the demo and it made me violently ill. I seem to be the minority in that regard, though...

@Utena-mobile Apparently this is also digital only.

@Heckteck

@Ackbar7 One preview video and a English sub notification: "Lot of coverage."

VR is saved.

Am I the only one who hated this? Don't really get how platformers are meant for VR at all. Looking around when your playing in third-person is just sort of a pain, and not being able to backtrack was a nuisance. Nothing about it clicked with me. Made me want to boot up the ol' Wii U and play some 3D World.

I've had a pretty easy time with the display. I have found the resolution to be a tad disappointing. Things up close like pretty slick, but after you gaze about 7 feet or farther from your initial position, things kind of turn into a muddy blur (see: Gotham cityscape, or the surroundings in The Getaway). Guess that's just the nature of the gen-1 hardware though.

@HeisenbergBlue brings up a good point about possible Pro advantages. I'll be looking forward to reviews, and seeing if all the launch titles run smoothly on the standard PS4 hardware, without the aid of Pro.

Shame it's on the weaker side but I'm already getting the bundle so eh. Thing I've heard about the London Heist that peeves me a bit is that the thugs use some strong language--A non-issue for me, but will make it un-playable at the next family get-to-together with mother dearest and all the younger kiddos who will inevitably gather around to watch/play.

Awesome overview, Sammy. A bit disappointing that you can't properly turn all the way around, 360 degrees. That's something I find really cool and immersive about my cheapo Gear VR, so it's kind of awkward that the far superior headset is missing something that seemingly simple.

Great article. If your difficulty scaling is basically just, "Now the enemies have more health and do more damage," you're doing it wrong. Difficulties should be made to compliment your mechanics--Which is why I've always said there shouldn't be multiple difficulties in games. If you want your game to be hard, create your mechanics around a brutal difficulty. If you want it to be cinematic and easier, design your mechanics around that.

Just my opinion, anyhow.

Now if only we could do this with avis.

Yeah, was afraid this would end up being a snore-fest. I'm still impressed we managed to get this game censor-free, though. I can certainly respect it for that aspect alone.

Oh, brother. Journey. Can't wait 'til The Last Guardian comes out and shoots up to #1. Of course, that game will be actually deserving of that spot (most likely) lol.

Looks great — Sammy, do you ever write anything objective? Everything is always "GotY" with you. Not sure if that's how journalism is supposed to work.

_{@naut Watch the language -Tasuki-}

@rjejr Your overblowing it again lol. It's an "either/or" thing. You can play every game in the series with either:

1. A PS3 and a PS4 (two systems). Or--

2. A PS2, DS, PSP, and 3DS. All pretty dang common for most gamers except the PSP.

Also, as a huge Nintendo-fan I can tell you that the 3D is basically worthless. I have a New 3DS XL and I keep the 3D turned off constantly. It's cool sometimes but usually it just makes the game looks fuzzy and strains the eyes. If you were buying a N3DSXL you'd be buying it for the faster speeds and bigger screens — Not the 3D. Also, you're going to skip out on the whole entire 3DS library for the NX? Yokay lol. I'm starting to understand what kind of gamer I'm dealing with here.

@rjejr The current system in the lineup is the New 3DS XL which, yes, is $200 but has much better hardware than the original 3DS had. Like you just pointed out, you can get a 2DS for like $80 (w/ game!) so just go ahead and do that if you don't care about latest and greatest. Don't see what the issue is.

1.5 and 2.5 were both in development before the PS4 launched, and they released within like a year of the PS4's launch. Makes sense that they weren't in development for PS3. Plus, releasing them on PS3 made them very accessible since the PS3 has an incredibly large user-base at this point. The reason 2.8 is only on PS4 is because the new prequel episode I mentioned is running on the KH3 engine — So obviously there can't be a PS3 version. No one's smoking crack — again — you're just blowing it out of proportion because this series is slightly more complicated than your typical RPG series.

@SKC_Diamond Yeah pretty short.

@rjejr 1.5 and 2.5 are PS3 only.

2.8 has:

1. An HD remake of the latest game in the series (Dream Drop Distance) — The only game missing from 1.5 and 2.5.

2. A small prequel game to KH3 called Birth By Sleep: A Fragmentary Passage.

3. An hour long movie called "Back Cover" which takes place hundreds of years before the original game.

Also, side note. 3DS is pretty darn inexpensive and has a wonderful library. No excuse there, really.