Weekend, what are you playing?

Another week, and another weekend post. Telltale's The Walking Dead was released this week and when the announcement hit the internet, I already knew what I'll be doing during the weekend. What are you guys playing this weekend? Hit the comments when you can.

Quash: The Walking Dead: Episode 2 was definitely worth the wait. Still wished Telltale would release each episode every week because just like any good series, I'm hooked. If you loved the first episode, you won't be disappointed in episode 2. Gameplay is still the same but the story is definitely getting better. You can feel the change in each character based on your decisions and the good writing does a good enough job to care about each person(except Larry). Episode 1 and 2 is well worth the $5 price, heck getting the whole bundle for $20 is worth it. I did 2 playthrough's to see how each choice changes the story, and it's actually worth making multiple games. Episode 2 is about 2-3 hours long.

After The Walking Dead, I went back to Diablo 3 for a bit to do a little farming. The addicting to this game isn't like before but it's still there. With DPS at 120k(SS) on my Demon Hunter, doing Inferno on Act 1 and Act 2 is a breeze. I do get one shot still since I built my guy as a Glass Cannon, so I still need to pay attention when playing. Repair costs are 5 times the amount since the 1.0.3 patch, so dying over and over again isn't an option unless you have millions of gold.

Migoy: Didn't really get to play much this weekend but since it was the first weekend showing of The Amazing Spider-man movie and with it's game just being released I popped in my GameCube copy of Spider-man 2 to revisit the 1st introduction of open-world web swinging to the Spider-man games. I watched a few reviews for The Amazing Spider-man game and saw a few things that I didn't like but after seeing the movie, it added fuel to my hype for the game. I might pick it up while I still got the hype for it but I've only seen R1 copies of it at Datablitz which is a little too expensive at the moment. Hopefully a 2nd hand copy emerges shortly or the stores get R3 copies soon.

Weekend, what are you playing?

Ok wow, one more week and its the end of June? This month definitely went by so fast. Third weekend of June and I'm finally playing something different now. How about you? What games have you spent your free time on?

Quash: Funny story - I once bought Diablo 3 and when the Real Money Auction House came out, I was able earn enough money selling gear to get back the money I spent on the game. And just like any crazy gamer, I bought yet another game that I wasn't planning to get anytime soon.

Dragon's Dogma took most of my free time this weekend and its great. Its like Shadow of Colossus meets Skyrim in such a good way. I'm 15 hours in so far and its fun exploring the world getting ambushed by Cyclops hiding behind rocks. My only problems at the moment is that I get these weird frame rate drops that comes and goes. Got me thinking, is my 4-year old having a hard time now, or is it just the game? I researched about Dragon's Dogma having Frame rate issues and it isn't common at all. Hopefully it doesn't get any worse as I progress through this game.

Migoy: I unlocked all the characters in Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit which ain't all that much but Z-Chronicles is just so boring that every single fight felt so tedious. Finally got to play Battlefield 3 with my friends and even though I am completely n00b it was good fun. Took me forever to learn that the 1-hit kill with the knife is done by HOLDING R2. The whole time I thought just slashing them once was enough ala CoD style. I forget that there are destructible environments in BF3 and sometimes get bewildered when the wall I'm hiding behind just crumbles away exposing me to all the raining bullets that followed.

Weekend, what are you playing?

Happy father's day to all you dads out there. Any videogame plans for this weekend? What games are you playing?

Migoy: It's both Father's Day weekend and ToyCon weekend so ToyCon took my Saturday and my dad is watching TV for Sunday. I was able to get in some Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 during Saturday morning before I left for ToyCon and a friend of mine lent me a few games. Got in almost an hour of WWE '12 but since the net was being wonky, I went with local recording over live streaming the n00b insanity.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-nVUeygpW0[/youtube]

 Quash: I won't talk about Diablo 3, I promise. This weekend, I'm trying to finish a Hitman game for once. Not much of a Hitman fan but the next entry in the series, Hitman: Absolution looks amazing. So I'm playing Blood Money to get familiar with the series and it hasn't grown on me yet. I'm a few stages in and the controls for the PC took awhile to get used to. We'll see how it goes in the end, but I'll definitely finish Blood Money.

The next generation of consoles will be the last, says David Jaffe

Bold statement. The God of War and Twisted Metal creator thinks that in the next ten years, consoles won't be around anymore. The successors of current consoles will be the last for gaming consoles. It's possible, since change always happen. The gaming industry was completely different back then and in ten years, we'll be talking on how crazy it was back then.  Not too sure yet, since we have no idea what Sony and Microsoft has in store for us, but if consoles do become a thing of the past, I don't mind that thought at all. 

"Look, consoles are going away. I think in 10 years - probably sooner, but 10 years is always the safe thing to say so you don't sound like an idiot - but here's what I'll say: I'll go on the record and say that the next generation of hardware will be the last consoles. And they should be," David Jeff said during an interview with GamesIndustry

"It doesn't mean you won't buy a piece of hardware from Sony, but you'll probably buy a television that streams the stuff. And you'll still have Sony, loud and proud and strong making these great, big, epic games like God of War and Uncharted, and they'll be making great little games like Sound Shapes, but they'll become more like movie studios for video games. I'll be able to stream in the next Uncharted and Plants vs Zombies and you won't even think about it. It'll just be like I can watch a public access show on my TV or I can watch Avatar."

"So this is the last generation of consoles coming up. I'm going to go out on a limb, because why the f**k not? I don't care if I'm wrong, I'm not a business guy. I think next-gen consoles are going to do 40 percent of [the sales volume] of the current gen hardware."

"The asteroid has hit the Earth, the dust cloud is covering the sun and the dinosaurs are on the way out - but not the games! We'll always have great games and bleeding edge graphics... it's just going to be a new delivery mechanism."

Can the gaming industry live without consoles?  It's slowly leading to that. Even physical copies of video games will be a thing of the past in the next few years. Technology evolves in such a rapid rate that its hard to tell how the industry will be in the next 10 years. Sony and Microsoft has yet to announce the successor to the Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360, and only then will we get a clearer picture of the future.

The Wii U is the start of the next cycle and David Jaffe isn't too impress with what it brings.

"I don't see the Wii U and say 'oh my God I have to have that.' But with new hardware that's usually the case; the software's going to drive it. Or it's like Apple and the hardware is so elegantly designed that it's like, 'Oh they make toilet plungers? I'll buy it!' I played some games, I enjoyed Rayman... it's not like I'm knocking it but I would say that I wasn't blown away by any individual piece of software that was exclusive to Wii U," Jaffe commented.

"But their audience isn't necessarily core gamers like you or the analysts you talk to, so I could still see Wii U being mainstream. But honestly though, if I had to put money down, I think that the iPhone and the iPad has basically taken the market that was so excited by the Wii and so I think Wii U is not going to be anywhere near the success of the Wii. But I don't f***ing know - I mean I thought PSP was going to clobber the DS. I'm in the industry, I make a living in the industry, but I have no track record of guessing this shit."

The Wii U is still a confusing piece of hardware even after two E3 presentations. Does Nintendo intend to catch the casual market again? Or core gamers? I'm not quite sure. If they do continue to focus on the causal market, the Wii U will indeed have a hard time with iPhone/iPad games , and even social network games that currently rule the market.

Do you also agree that the next batch of consoles will be the last? Hit the comments and lets get a conversation going.

Recent Buys: Episode 10 - Kaioken x320gig!

My cousin just came back from America where he got a summer job so he hella rich at the moment. And with that cash we took a quick trip to Greenhills and basically burned it all in less than an hour. Mostly at just the one shop.

He went and got a metallic red 320gig PlayStation 3 Slim. We got it for 12800php (cash price) at Mr. Dynamic, the same place where I got Ziggy. Along with that he got Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 at the same shop for 1300php (cash price) and a 2nd PS3 Dual-Shock3 controller for 1800php (cash price).

We wanted to test out UMvC3 first so the game installed itself after popping the disc in so while waiting we went around GH. I spotted the D-Arts Zero Type-2 and my cousin told me that he owed me a birthday gift so he paid for most of the cost of the figure and I got myself both X and Zero, awesome stuff. Thanks Bud!

After we returned for the PS3 and packed it up, a dude saw what we were carrying and call out "sir, 2nd-hand PS3 games?" and I thought to myself "hmm.. why not look at their wares". I saw that they had a copy of Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit.

I've been looking for this game for quite some time. I've been meaning to get that, Dragon Ball Z: Raging Blast 2 and then finally Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi. I've seen Raging Blast 2 in Datablitz so that can wait and the only copies of Ultimate Tenkaichi I've seen are R1 copies so they be hella expensive. Burst limit is the only I haven't encountered till yesterday so I got the dan thing for 500php. It didn't come with the manual and the case looks to be a bit yellowed from sun exposure but the disc was still fine and runs like a charm. The game is far from perfect though and maybe I'll get to that next time.