Grave Gamer News & Views — ps4

Street Fighter V: Cross-Play, Exclusivity, and Roman Numerals

Street Fighter V (and I think that’s Roman numeral five and not Vee — hate to specify but we live in a world where Mortal Kombat Ecks is a fucking thing) is coming exclusively to the PlayStation 4 and PC. And if it’s a timed exclusive, Capcom sure as shit isn’t saying so.

Two Japanese juggernauts, Sony and Capcom, joining forces makes a sobering kind of sense. Sony isn’t just dumping money onto the project like a Porsche driving Hollywood producer blowing through red lights on their way to a strip club. They’re actually assisting in development, ensuring SFV is a lean, mean, Hadoken firing machine on their console.

Sony’s own Adam Boyes insists the PS4 is the only console you’ll ever see Street Fighter V on, and if that truly remains a solemn fact, it’s a serious blow to Microsoft. A Focus Punch even. To go without the most popular fighting game franchise of all time? Goddamn. Let’s just say Killer Instinct Season Two ain’t where the thunder is.

PC people have a lot more to smile about, though. Not only are they getting the game at launch but they’ll be able to enact a Put Up or Shut Up policy against console players thanks to cross-play between the PS4 and PC. It’s a beautiful coalescence where two warring factions can finally come together and smack the stupid out of each other.

Street Fighter V Teaser Leaked… And It’s a PS4/PC Exclusive?!

A mere day before the first ever PlayStation Experience and already a bombshell announcement has cannon spiked its way onto the internet.

The original teaser, which tastefully shines a spotlight on the fighting game community, was spotted by — who else? — a NeoGAF user but has since gone private. I was going to link you to a mirrored version of the teaser featuring the above next-gen sparring session, but even that video has been pulled down while I was still typing this article up. The immediate copyright enforcement and the teaser’s high production values definitely lend to its credibility.

The shocker here isn’t that Street Fighter V exists; it’s the teaser’s bold proclamation that the sequel is exclusive to the PlayStation 4 and PC. This news having been ripped from the horse’s mouth, the horse in this case being Capcom, it’s difficult to ascertain what’s what and what’s not. More information to come as this story develops.

Till then, salivate over these GIFs Kotaku cooked up.

Happy birthday, PlayStation 4! It seems like only yesterday I was pulling you from your swanky box and watching you update for hours on end.

Let’s have a moment of silence for the vast caverns of time I’ve spent with my PS4 instead of, say, doing something productive.

…

All right, nice. Here’s to many more hours of shutting out the world around me!

Xbox One Price Dropped by $50 for the Holidays

Ah, yes. Time to dust off that floating Xbone pic – the Big X has got some news.

Beginning next week and running all the way to January 3rd of 2015, you can snag a brand new Xbox One starting at $350. Now, that’s the price on the core model sans the Kinect. But fear not, purveyors of motion technology/accidentally broadcasting yourself nude. Every Xbox One bundle is getting $50 knocked off the price tag.

The offer is only good at participating retailers, but honestly, throw a dart and you’ll hit a store hosting the deal. Best Buy, Gamestop, Walmart, Target, Microsoft’s own Apple-a-like stores; even the brick n’ mortar-less Amazon is offering the deal.

The price drop, temporary as it may be, isn’t very surprising. The PlayStation 4, having taken advantage of Microsoft’s serious missteps even before next-gen’s launch last November, is killing it. Undercutting the PS4’s already attractive price – not just matching it – may be Microsoft’s best hope at filling homes with Xbox One’s.

The higher ground will be lost, however, if Sony announces a similar pricing initiative, but given the goodwill already earned for the console, we’re unlikely to see a massive upset this Holiday.

Rumble at the Loot Cave

Chaos broke out at the Loot Cave last night.

Having maxed out my weekly allotment of Vanguard and Crucible Marks, instead of pouring five billion hours into upping my faction standing (roving christ, what am I saying? This game is infecting me), I decided to hop on over to Old Russia’s now infamous exploit spot.

With only one other stranger by my side, things were nominal for fifteen minutes or so. Nominal, as in completely boring but still better than relinquishing myself to the bitter roulette wheel of Destiny’s loot drops elsewhere in the game.

Then, I get a warning that my “enemies are moving in on each other.” That’s when dozens of Fallen and Hive start swarming the area from fucking nowhere. We’re talking all types; warlocks, Knights, and everything in between. It’s a full-on brawl. Blowing through one wave gave way to a new flood of harder enemies. Shielded enemies. Vicious enemies. Not a single one was above a level 11 but their sheer numbers had me sweating, a level 25, sweating and dancing around, trying to fend for life.

The literal stream of enemies is no doubt a coy response from Bungie to smoke players out of using the Loot Cave. But you know what? It was pretty goddamn awesome. It was the first genuine surprise this game has dropped on my lap since I’ve taken on the heavy burden of leveling past 20.

This game needs more moments like this. Sporadic moments. Moments not predetermined by spawn points. Genuinely organic moments. Truly fun, unadulterated pieces of gameplay like this shouldn’t be as rare as a legendary item. It should be the backbone of this game. Why players should want to return. Not for some measly fucking piece of armor that one player can randomly get in one hour where another slogging through one-hundred cannot.

I want to see this game evolve like a true MMO. The Destiny we have now should not be the Destiny we venture to in six months time. Heed the call, Bungie.