Gamescom 2014: 'Tearaway Unfolded' headed to PS4 in 2015

An enhanced version of the former PlayStation Vita exclusive, Tearaway, is coming to PlayStation 4.

Sony announced during their Gamescom 2014 press conference that the new Tearaway would be coming to the new console sometime next year. From Polygon:

Tearaway Unfolded is an expanded version of the original game and will feature 1080p, 60fps and new capabilities. Players will use the DualShock 4 controller to interact with the game's world by flicking or poking the touchpad, using the light bar to interact with the world or shaking the controller.

The news comes as a bit of a mixed bag. While it's great to see an update to Tearaway, it also gives another reason for gamers not to even bother with Sony's handheld system. There's already zero first-party development going into it at the moment, and the only thing that's thriving on the system is the indie community.

Still, the update is welcomed and for those that haven't played Tearaway -- well, if you have a Vita, why wouldn't you have it? And if you don't, you'll be treated to a fantastic game. The game has received high praise across the board and features a score of 87 over at Metacritic.

Tearaway is developed by Media Molecule, the same developers who created the LittleBigPlanet franchise, and it is published by Sony.

Photo from Flickr

'Rise of the Tomb Raider' just a timed exclusive to Xbox One?

The biggest reveal at Gamescom was the announcement of Rise of Tomb Raider coming exclusively to the Xbox One during the 2015 holiday season. But is it really going to be real exclusive, or a timed exclusive?

Twinfinite author Garrett Gault discusses why it's going to be the latter. While Titanfall was the exception to the rule, Gault believes that third party companies are foolish not to release their products on multiple platforms. In the same vein to Mass Effect, we will see the sequel to the Tomb Raider reboot on PlayStation 4 in some form.

In many cases we will see the first game in a franchise be exclusive to one platform, only for the success of that first game to lead the third party publisher to expand to as many places as possible to make the most capital they can.  One of the biggest franchises in recent memory that saw a shift similar to this was Mass Effect. The first two entries of the trilogy were Microsoft exclusives (the first debuting only for 360, with the second debuting for Windows and 360), only for the third game to release simultaneously on PS3, 360, and PC, along with a retroactive re-release of the first two games in a collection of the entire series for multiple platforms.

While Square Enix is going a different route with Tomb Raider, it doesn't matter. Eventually whatever money Microsoft paid for exclusivity won't matter once the contract is up.

This can only mean that Microsoft offered them a serious amount of money, but I still think that, whatever contract has been drawn between Microsoft and Square Enix, that contract will eventually expire. When that happens, expect Square Enix to reopen the series to multiple platforms, assuming Rise of the Tomb Raidermaintain’s the quality of the 2013 reboot. 

The article is completely spot on. Square Enix is the same company that throws in a bunch of money to their games, and when their games sell millions of copies they still consider it a failure. There's such a high benchmark that Square Enix places on their games and there's no way, reasonably, that it can reach its goal. Over four million copies and the game is a failure? Really?

In the same token, Square Enix isn't abandoning the Tomb Raider franchise on PlayStation. The reboot roughly sold half a million copies more on PS3 and obviously the franchise's main games have been featured on PlayStaton hardware.

Square Enix, the same guys who said the 4 million plus reboot of the franchise was a failure is going to completely abandon hardware that can give them at least two million more copies through the door? Forget it. Microsoft just ponied up because its their alternate tactic to compete with Sony.

Gamers are now faced with a decision. Either get the Xbox One to get the game immediately, or stick to plucking away at your backlog of video games and play it on your PS4 in about a year.

Photo from Destructoid

'Resident Evil Remastered' to run at 30 FPS on PlayStation 4, Xbox One

The original Resident Evil is getting re-released for what seems to be the 1,000th time, and it will run in 30 frames per second across the board.

PlayStation Lifestyle says that while the game will run in full 1080p HD on the new generation systems (PlayStation 4, Xbox One), it will run at 30 FPS on all the consoles. There's also a slew of technical information on the game and other stuff from the official game website that PSLS highlights.

Along with running at 1080p on PS4 and Xbox One, and 720p on PS3 and Xbox 360, Resident Evil Remastered will run at 30fps on all platforms (PC specs and a price are TBD).

This won't be an exact remake right from the original. Capcom is actually creating this full HD port from the 2002 remake of Resident Evil. So how is this going to work?

Well, the game will be made to hold true to the original playing style, but some things will be tweaked and of course the game will look a lot better than its older versions. Since the game was made for standard tube TVs, players can actually play in the original 4:3 ratio or in the 16:9 widescreen ratio that will scroll around with your character.

Full 5.1 surround support has been added along with an optional control scheme where the player can move in any direction versus the traditional back step method.

Photo H/T: Resident Evil Wiki

Sony sued for 'deceptive marketing' of 'Killzone: Shadow Fall'

Somebody in California is suing Sony for false advertising of their PlayStation 4 title, Killzone: Shadow Fall because the game doesn't run at the native resolution it says it does.

Here's what the lawsuit is over and everything included in it (via Polygon). They accuse Sony of lying about the native 1080p resolution, resulting in false advertisment, fraud, and others. The amount they're going after? $5 million.

The suit, filed by California resident Douglas Ladore in Northern District California court, alleges that Sony advertised Killzone: Shadow Fall would run at native 1080p resolution but "used a technological shortcut that was supposed to provide 'subjectively similar' results."
The lawsuit alleges that "'temporal reprojection' is not the 'native 1080p' that Sony promised" and that Sony has not updated its packaging and marketing to reflect the game's actual resolution. Class allegations in the suit include negligent misrepresentation, false advertisement, unfair competition and fraud in the inducement. The amount sought in the suit exceeds $5,000,000.

The amount that these lawsuits go after are always outrageous, but it doesn't matter -- they normally don't get anywhere near that amount in the end. But the person filing this claim does have a point in technicality.

Using what's called "temporal reprojection" in multiplayer, the game doesn't have native 1080p resolution, instead using lower-resloution frames to create a 1080p image. How big of a difference is there? Like most of this stuff, incredibly little.

Because there's such a finite change between native resolution and "temporal reprojection", it's highly doubtful that the amount even if won would be much, and it'd be better if more people were in on this class action lawsuit than just one guy.

Photo H/T: Amazon

Why is Insomniac Games' 'Sunset Overdrive' exclusive to Xbox One?

Insomniac Games, who’s made their claim to fame with many Sony exclusives such as Ratchet and Clank and Resistance, is creating Sunset Overdrive, which is exclusive to the Xbox One. So why’s the company all of a sudden buddy-buddy with Microsoft when they’ve thrived under the other?

The developer’s CEO, Ted Price, explained to Game Revolution that while they have had many games for PlayStation hardware, they want to put out their games on the most logical place.

The studio his has a great relationship with Sony and has every intention of remaining independent. "We’re still an independent developer," Price added. "Why do I mention that? First, a lot of people assume that we’re part of some larger organization; that’s never been the case. Second, one of the benefits of operating as an independent studio and creating and owning one’s IP is that you can develop for the platforms that make the most sense for the game."

Basically, Price is pointing to SO’’s multiplayer mode. It’s no secret that the Xbox 360 is better than the PS3 in terms of a multiplayer community. Plus, there’s more resources that Insomniac can use, which Price iterates that “Microsoft’s muscle on the platform and Xbox Live fronts has been invaluable in helping us create a unique multiplayer experience.” If any game is going to be based around multiplayer, or it’s at least the key focus, then it will probably be better on Microsoft’s hardware.

Insomniac will try to improve on its open world formula with SO after not receiving much praise for Fuse. It wasn’t a failure, but it was regarded as an Overstrike clone and very dull and generic.

Photo H/T: Insomniac Games

Los Angeles Kings Notebook: Stadium series game vs San Jose Sharks set at Levi's Stadium?

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Puck Daddy on Yahoo! Sports reports that Ticketmaster leaked information revealing that one of the five games between the Los Angeles Kings and the San Jose Sharks will be at the San Francisco 49ers' new home, Levi's Stadium.

When the schedule was released earlier this year, it was analyzed that the game would have a game outdoors and it would be either at the 49ers' home or at AT&T Park. Why Levi's? Capacity.

But the reason the league looks like it's going with Levi's Stadium, which held its first-ever event just Saturday night (a Major League Soccer game between the San Jose Earthquakes and the Seattle Sounders), is right there in the final line: 26,997 more seats. Multiply that by whatever they're charging for admission, and you have a whole lot of sweet, sweet coin.

The game will likely take place on Saturday, February 21st, at 7:00 PM Pacific time, according to the Ticketmaster photo.


Other Kings news

• As the team approaches the salary cap, the Kings were able to re-sign Dwight King with a three-year deal for $5.9 million. They've been able to hold on to the majority of the players from last season and still have roughly $200,000 left in cap space. That's basically it for them signing players this offseason.
• Jarrett Stoll strolled around Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, with the Stanley Cup, giving fans a chance to look at the trophy and get pictures from the Kings player.

San Francisco Giants vs Milwaukee Brewers: Series preview

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The San Francisco Giants (61-51) head to the Midwest for a pair of three-game series. First up, it's the Milwaukee Brewers (61-51), who are trying to get a bad month of July out of their system.

Milwaukee won just nine games last month, and didn't open up August in great fashion with losing two out of three to the St. Louis Cardinals over the weekend. After having the NL's best record for most of the season, they now cling to a one-game lead over last weekend's foe and will hope to extend it over the course of this week.

On the flipside, San Francisco currently has a 1.5 game deficit against the Los Angeles Dodgers and would like to make up the deficit. The Giants won three out of four against the New York Mets over the weekend, and it could have very well been a sweep if Jake Peavy didn't lose the gas in his no-hitter between both starters through the first six innings.

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That loss featured 10 hits in the final three innings between the clubs. The Mets put up four runs in total in the bottom of the seventh as the inning got away from Peavy and the Giants. SF was able to tack on two runs in the ensuing half inning, but they were unable to mount a comeback.

Outside of Peavy's glitch in that game, the Giants' starting pitchers were strong throughout the first three games of the series against the Mets, and they hope to bring the same stuff against a Milwaukee team that can slug the ball. There is only one team in the MLB that has five players that have reeled in over 50 RBIs, and it's the Brewers: Ryan Braun, Khris Davis, Carlos Gomez, Jonathan Lucroy, and Amaris Ramirez.

The good news? San Francisco will start off the series with their most reliable starter, Tim Lincecum, while Milwaukee will go with rookie Jimmy Nelson who has struggled in his last three starts (0-2, 5.71 ERA). Buster Posey will likely have the night off and be back in action on Wednesday. Plus, there's no Dan Uggla in sight after rejecting the offer to head to Triple-A and was released from the team.

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Even better news? Angel Pagan continues his journey back to the Giants as he will play for the Fresno Grizzlies again tonight. He may not make the trek to Milwaukee, but fingers are crossed that he'll make it against the Kansas City Royals.

Probable starters / TV schedule

• Tuesday: Tim Lincecum (R, 9-7, 4.21) vs Jimmy Nelson (R, 1-2, 4.30)
  First pitch: 8:10 PM ET | TV: CSN Bay Area, FOX Sports Milwaukee
• Wednesday: Ryan Vogelsong (R, 6-8, 3.88) vs Yovani Gallardo (R, 6-5, 3.38)
  First pitch: 8:10 PM ET | TV: CSN Bay Area, FOX Sports Milwaukee
• Thursday: Jake Peavy (R, 0-2, 4.73) vs Wily Peralta (R, 13-6, 3.52)
  First pitch: 2:10 PM ET | TV: CSN Bay Area, FOX Sports Milwaukee, MLB Network

San Francisco Giants: Picking up the pieces after Los Angeles Dodgers sweep

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Well that was rough. Going into a series against the Los Angeles Dodgers a game and a half above them in the National League West, the San Francisco Giants (57-48) get rocked in two games and let the third one get away on Sunday Night Baseball to fall 1.5 games back in the division.

The Dodgers outscored the Giants 17-4, got to Tim Lincecum, Ryan Vogelsong, and eventually new starter Jake Peavy in the fifth inning. It was brutal to see the offense also sputter throughout the weekend, but that was expected with the pitching lineup coming in. Don Mattingly organized the pitching staff against the Giants after the All-Star break, and that proved to work wonders.

Now, San Francisco will have to get over it quickly as a three-game pack against the Pittsburgh Pirates (55-49) begins on Monday night, and they're also looking for a playoff spot. It's an important series in case either of these teams are looking for one of the wild card spots at the end of the season. If the Pirates sweep this, they'll have a better record than the Giants.

Pittsburgh is in the midst of a 16-game jaunt against NL West teams. After sweeping the Colorado Rockies earlier, they lost back-to-back 8-1 games before salvaging the final game. Now they'll have to face the beefy portion of the Giants' starting lineup with Madison Bumgarner, Tim Hudson, and Big Time Timmy Jim.

Andrew McCutchen is the only player hitting over .300 (.312) in the batting lineup for the Pirates. Neil Walker has been the second power hitter with 15 home runs and 48 RBIs; Pedro Alvarez has the same number of HRs and just one less RBI. Josh Harrison has reeled in seven hits, four RBIs, and two stolen bases in the last seven games.

Pitching Matchups

• Monday: Madison Bumgarner (L, 12-7, 3.19) vs Vance Worley (R, 3-1, 3.10)
  First pitch - 10:15 PM ET | TV: NBC Bay Area, ROOT Sports Pittsburgh
• Tuesday: Tim Hudson (R, 8-7, 2.65) vs Francisco Liriano (L, 2-7, 4.18)
  First pitch - 10:15 PM ET | TV: CSN Bay Area, ROOT Sports Pittsburgh, MLB Network
• Wednesday: Tim Lincecum (R, 9-7, 3.96) vs Charlie Morton (R, 5-10, 3.40)
  First pitch - 3:45 PM ET | TV: CSN Bay Area, ROOT Sports Pittsburgh, MLB Network

San Francisco Giants Notebook: Tough pitching challenge in way of extending division lead

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There was no sweep of the struggling Philadelphia Phillies, but the San Francisco Giants (57-45) finally remembers what it's like to win some games.

After getting blown away by Oakland, San Francisco has won three consecutive series and boast a 7-3 record in their last 10 games. Sure, those series are against some of the worst competition in the National League at the moment, but after a horrendous June and all the nagging injuries that are piling up this team, the Giants will take anything positive.

The SF offense finally took a slide this week in the finale, losing a 2-1 decision that saw the team strand seven in scoring position. Tim Hudson had too high of a pitch count to get past six innings but pitched relatively well considering he gave up eight hits. Cole Hamels was a shade better with 10 strikeouts in eight innings.

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At least Jonathan Papelbon didn't give it up for Philly. He was the reason why Tuesday night's game turned into a 5+ hour long jaunt by giving up the game-tying run in the ninth inning. He was also responsible for giving up a three-run double to Hunter Pence on Wednesday night, the only runs scored in that game.

Papelbon's rough week was glorious for the Giants. Now taking a firm lead back in the NL West, they look to extend it in a weekend series against the Los Angeles Dodgers (56-47).

LA lost their final two games in Pittsburgh and have lost four of their last six. It could be a lot more if San Diego wasn't so insufferable on offense, barely scraping by with 1-0 wins on the weekend before the All-Star Break.

The offense has been a let down for most of the slide, but in the last two losses, both pitching and defense has been a problem as they gave up 18 total runs. But the Dodgers will have their great trifecta of starting pitchers coming to San Francisco. Runs could be at premium.

Notes

• Brandon Belt, who's still fighting concussion symptoms, will be returning to San Francisco with the team.
• It's possible that Yasiel Puig will be back as early as the series opener on Friday night.
• The Dodgers are 3-7 against the Giants this season.

Pitching Matchups

• Friday, July 25th - Zack Greinke (R, 11-6, 2.90) vs Tim Lincecum (L, 9-6, 3.65)
  First pitch - 10:15 PM ET | TV: NBC Bay Area, SportsNet LA
• Saturday, July 26th - Clayton Kershaw (L, 11-2, 1.92) vs Ryan Vogelsong (R, 5-7, 3.99)
  First pitch - 9:05 PM ET | TV: CSN Bay Area, SportsNet LA, MLB Network
• Sunday, July 27th - Hyun-Jin Ryu (L, 11-5, 3.39) vs Yusmeiro Petit (R, 3-3, 4.24)
  First pitch - 8:07 PM ET | TV: ESPN

BC Lions Notebook: A battle between CFL's best tailbacks

Photo from CFL.ca

After putting down the Montreal Alouettes 41-5, the BC Lions have surged back to an even .500 record and will look to keep the momentum going when they host the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, who are coming off of their first loss of the season.

Quarterback Kevin Glenn is starting to look comfortable under center. The fill-in for Travis Lulay completed 23 out of 31 passes for 301 yards and 2 touchdowns in the Alouettes beatdown, an efficient night with zero turnovers. The backfield tandem of Andrew Harris and Stefan Logan reeled in a total of 146 yards on the ground, not making an impact in the endzone but kept the ball in the hands of BC.

Adding in the time former BYU quarterback John Beck put in, BC had 373 total yards in the air. Emmanuel Arceneaux was the leader in the clubhouse with 145 yards on 8 catches with 3 touchdowns. Six different players recorded a multi-catch effort. Arceneaux was sorely missed in the first two weeks of the season and it's shown.

Things are on the uprise for BC. Now they'll have a strong test at home against Winnipeg. Last week's big game saw the Blue Bombers get rocked 26-3 against the Edmonton Eskimos' incredible defense. A well oiled offensive machine early this season was halted and quarterback Drew Willy struggled.

Willy completed just above 50 percent of his passes and rookie running back Nic Grigsby couldn't get anything significant going on the ground. Grigsby has been a great surprise for Winnipeg this season, tied at second in the CFL in rushing with 268 yards, just five yards behind the league leader, Harris.

If Grigsby can be contained and Willy has a similar outing against the BC defense, the Lions will look poised to grab a winning record on Friday night.

>Game 5: Winnipeg (3-1) at BC (2-2) | Kickoff: Friday, July 25th, 10:00 PM ET | Web: ESPN3

Keys to the Game

• All Harris, all the time. The dual-threat tailback had 150 yards by himself in the win last week, including a catch in the endzone. If Harris thrives, the team will be too.
• Carry over the defensive torment from last week. BC would only make this game easier if the effort on defense from last week is duplicated. The Bombers did nothing until the end of the first half, but even when got a little offense going as the game went on, the Eskimos didn't give up anything in the endzone. The Lions don't have to be that stingy, but close.
• Glenn keeps the ball out of the other teams' hands. In the first two losses, Glenn threw six turnovers. Last two victories. None.

BC Lions Notebook: Revenge on the mind against Montreal Alouettes

The BC Lions got off the two-game losing streak schnide after defeating the Saskatchewan Roughriders 26-13 on the road and moving to 1-2 on the season. Up next, they'll have a rematch against the Montreal Alouettes after looking abysmal in the first meeting.

Everything went wrong in a 24-9 loss two weeks ago in Toronto when quarterback Kevin Glenn got sacked five times and running backs Stefan Logan and Andrew Harris had 13 carries for just 54 yards. Harris took the loss personally and told CFL.ca that he wasn't mentally ready for the game.

“After the week we got embarrassed in Montreal I just took it personally to make an impact, I was miserable all week because I had a bad taste in my mouth so I just came with an attitude and attacked every play,” Harris said. “When you have space and you have that attitude everything seems to work out.” 

Harris is a key weapon if BC wants to get revenge on Montreal. He leads the league in yards from scrimmage (47 carries for 368 yards) and was much more positive on the outcome in Riderville.

As Harris believes a team should get better as the season progresses, BC definitely set expectations low after starting the season off with two losses. But all of this is considered damage control until Travis Lulay gets back.

Originally expected to be out just for the season opener, Lulay was put on the six-game injured list right before their Week 1 game. He will be out for Friday's game against Winnipeg and the following Friday's road game at Calgary. For now, he's scheduled to return in a home date against Hamilton on Friday, August 8th.

Montreal could very easily be 2-1 but lost to Winnipeg in a heart-breaking loss in which the Blue Bombers threw a game-winning touchdown on their final down with under 30 seconds to go. Alouettes head coach Tom Higgins blamed penalties and believed that outside of the gut-wrenching loss, the team is getting better.

“There were way too many penalties, that hurt, but I think it was a good football team out on the field and we’re getting better, but it would feel better if we could have finished that drive and not let it go in for a touchdown.”

Three Keys to the Game

1. Start improving turnover ratio. As it stands right now, the Lions are -5 in turnovers this season. Their offensive line is completely banged up already but they must avoid giving the Alouettes extra possessions like they did two weeks ago.
2. Limit Brandon Whitaker. He's third in the CFL in rushing with 203 yards on 38 touches.
3. Keep the game clean. Penalties plagued the Alouettes last week, but the Lions draw just 9.7 flags per game, over 3 penalties less than the league average.

Giants Notebook: What to look for in season's second half

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What to watch in the second half of the season

1) The starting rotation will have a new order. Madison Bumgarner leads the pack, followed by Tim Hudson, Tim Lincecum, Ryan Vogelsong, and Matt Cain. Seeing Cain last in the order looks weird, but he's definitely not been the same over the past few years. His record looks worse than his actual pitching, however, and none of the pitchers have showed that they deserve to be demoted from the starting lineup.

Cain's move to the final starter is still it bit shocking, considering he's improved over the course of his last three starts and given up just four total runs.

Over the course of the Giants' downfall, Tim Lincecum probably emerges as the starting pitcher the Giants can trust the most. We'll see if Bumgarner can gain some more consistency and if Hudson can return to the form he was at in the first two months of this season.

2) How will the bullpen improve? As of late in the Giants' tumble in June, the starting pitching has been less of an issue and more of a bullpen problem. There are a handful of games that they could have come away from victorious and instead it took Sergio Romo failing in the final inning or multiple relievers blowing a lead or a tie down the stretch.

Jean Machi needs to return to how he was pitching earlier in the season to aid the bullpen, and it would be terrific for San Francisco if Santiago Casilla could become the go-to guy at the closer position.

3) What helps the Giants down the stretch? They have the easiest record based on win-loss total in the National League. The NL West is a disaster, but more importantly, they have to win games at home again. While it is the easiest schedule, there are more trips further out East. Chicago, Kansas City, Milwaukee, New York Philadelphia, Washington, tonight in Miami are all part of a brutal month and a half slate.

Basically, any stretches of 6-16 a AT&T Park will be unacceptable. They must keep winning the series at home.

Keys to the second half of the season

1. Angel Pagan's health. Now for two straight years, the Giants have fell off the map when Pagan is out for an extended period of time. There's talk of the Giants going after some bats, bud I'd wait to see what happens when Pagan is back at 100 percent.
2. Lincecum's return to dominance. He's absolutely been tearing it up, and fans have truly been celebrating "Tim Lincecum Day" because it's turned out to provide this team's best chance to win in recent weeks.
3. Smash it early. On offense, the Giants need to do two things. Start hitting the ball out of the park again, and do it early. San Francisco is 38-11 when put the first run on the board. They aren't built to be a comeback team. They're built to destroy everybody on the mound, play small ball, and to get runners in with two outs. All of that went missing in June.

Next up: at Marlins (44-50)

Similar to San Francisco, Miami has really struggled heading into the All-Star break pit stop. The Marlins have been a pain in the Giants' side, but they've been tougher to handle at AT&T Park. Dealing with plenty of injuries like Jarrod Saltalamacchia and A.J. Ramos out along with their ace Jose Fernandez, SF must capitalize and get off to a solid start in the back half of the season just to gain a little bit of momentum.

PlayStation News: Battlefield 4 releases large patch, Uncharted trilogy on PS4?

Here's the latest news I wrote over at Gamer Headlines for Wednesday, July 9th, 2014.

Battlefield 4 releases patch for PlayStation 3 and 4, adds modes and game fixes

A large amount of bugs and glitches were fixed along with DICE even adding a new game mode to both PlayStation editions of Battlefield 4, a game that apparently will never be completely fixed.

It's been eight months since the game has been released and many fans and gamers are just looking ahead to the next installment, Battlefield: Hardline -- assuming that isn't filled with bugs and glitches that make the game damn near unplayable.

I truly admire DICE's attempt to fix a disaster, but EA needs to do some quality control instead of releasing a buggy game and simply apologizing for it later. By no means does game need to be 100% out of the box, but game-breaking glitches are simply not acceptable.

Sony president believes Uncharted 'good candidate' to remake on PlayStation 4

We all saw a ton of Sony HD remasters on the PS3 -- God of War, Jak and Daxter, Sly Cooper, etc. Let's hope that trend doesn't continue with 1080P and 60FPS updates on the PS4. There's no need for those games to be re-released on the PS4 and there's no reason to upgrade the entire PS3 catalog to the "super high-definition" we get in PS4 games.

However, with the PS4 opening up its life with a much bigger install base than its predecessor, it would be wise for Sony to update its biggest hits and re-release them. They're doing it with The Last of Us, and they should do it with Uncharted. Releasing a trilogy package would be a great deal for those that missed out on it in the last generation.

San Francisco Giants Notebook: Oakland A's bring more heavy artillery to the mound

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The San Francisco Giants (49-41) won't have to deal with Jeff Samardzija, but they'll still have to face the debut of Cole Hammel, another Chicago Cubs pitcher that the Oakland A's (57-33) received in their blockbuster deal.

The first two games of the Battle of the Bay series weren't exactly dominated by the A's, but they final score certainly showed it. A solid pitching duel ended as Oakland broke through in Monday night's game, and San Francisco only got one runner home plate while going 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position on Tuesday.

Bringing in runs with two outs remains a thing of the past for the Giants, and the struggles in the bullpen continue. On Monday, Ryan Vogelsong may have been tagged with three earned runs, but it was Juan Gutierrez who came in and let two runners on base immediately score after throwing one pitch. Then two runs were tagged on him (unearned).

The pitching in general wasn't good that night. The A's had 19 RISP; the Giants had two.

Madison Bumgarner had a bad third inning giving up four runs but San Francisco easily could have had some offense in the first couple innings. Instead, Sonny Gray cruised to 9-3 and had more strikeouts (8) than hits (6) given up.

It won't get any easier in AT&T Park. The A's will come in fully loaded on the mound with Hammel tonight and then Scott Kazmir on Thursday night. Both players combine with an 18-8 record on the season and a 2.76 ERA.

Bottom line: The Giants are still slumping with a 7-20 record since starting the season hot and they've run into a huge buzzsaw in a much better team. We'll see if the magic can come back at AT&T Park and if anything bounces in their favor in the final two games of this series.

XBlaze Code: Embryo Review for PlayStation Vita

Aksys Games has an interest to localize more visual novels in North America, and it certainly had a winner when Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward was released on the PlayStation Vita and Nintendo 3DS. They try it again with Arc System Words, a developer that strays from its fighting roots and creates a visual novel based off one of its popular franchises, BlazBlue. Take away all the intuitive puzzles and interaction from Zero Escape, and you’re left with XBlaze: Code Embryo.

Embryo takes place 150 years prior to the BlazBlue storyline. Despite its ties, it really isn’t necessary to know anything about BlazBlue to understand what’s going on. Fans of the fighting series will recognize Easter eggs throughout.

However, if you take away any of the BlazBlue links, what you have is a mediocre storyline. In some way shape or form, this story has been done before, and a lot better.

The protagonist is a high-school guy, timid and shy, that doesn’t know how to handle himself when a bunch of busty women enter his life. It all starts when he ventures out into the unknown and finds a zombie– er, a “Union”, and has the mysterious power of picking them up with a bell-ringing sound. You find out rather quickly that the reason he can hear the sounds is because he’s a Union himself. Drama ensues.

As expected, Embryo becomes nothing short of a short anime series that belongs in the harem genre. Yet for those that love that genre, it still leaves the player/viewer empty.

There’s nothing spectacularly gripping about the plot, which is a mighty downfall considering it’s a visual novel. But does the game still actually play well?

Embryo’s gameplay is exclusively in the TOi, a device that lets users pick what news stories they want to read. That’s it — based on what the player reads, the game will send them in a certain direction. While the key replay value in visual novels is to have multiple endings (and sometimes needing to avoid the bad ending), just picking paragraph-long articles to read becomes tedious.

The developers believed that picking articles may have created a unique way to progress in a visual novel, but it ends up being a chore. Especially when they aren’t written well, and a lot of them are simply boring. It actually devalues replay, because there’s really no interest to “play” through this mediocre plot. It’s completely unintuitive.

Touchscreen controls on the Vita are responsive and exact, but messing around with the TOi interface feels unnatural. Having to click into a section and then clicking on an item should only be needed when selecting things with the physical buttons. Again, that all enters into the lack of effort that appears made toward this game.

Embryo needs something more than just choosing articles to read. We all understand what a visual novel is, but one that’s listed at a $40 retail price on an actual gaming device needs a little more meat. This is something that could have come out on Androids for $10.

Not only that, but the game suffers from spelling errors and glitches. While I didn’t run into any trophy issues (to my knowledge) in my test run with the Vita version, there’s been players saying that the game cannot be completed at 100 percent due to saving glitches in between episodes. What I did run into were spelling and grammar errors in multiple instances.

It wasn’t enough to distract from the game. Especially when grammar’s concerned, it’s expected to see stuff like that slip through the cracks in translation. What’s actually disappointing is the fact that this was released last July in Japan, and there was no effort to create an English track nearly a year after for the North American audience. This is not a long visual novel — if a 50-hour Tales of game can be completed with English dialogue, there’s no excuse this game couldn’t have the option.

What Embryo does get right are the visuals. The photos are gorgeously detailed and the character design is rather unique — something the BlazBlue series thrives on. There’s even the option to remove the text on-screen with the Select button and take pictures with the Vita. Despite the substandard plot, the characters are so wildly different that it’s easy for fans to start picking out who they like and dislike throughout the story. Unfortunately, some of the fantastic art is hindered with limited, repetitive animations by the characters. Again, the effort just doesn’t feel like it was set at 100 percent.

BlazBlue fans will have more of an attachment to Embryo and will see past some of the shortcomings. But still, they’ll be left with a below average storyline that will be forgotten as soon as something else is played. It’s a game that can easily be polished off over a weekend (or a really lazy Saturday) and possibly never picked up again.

If Aksys wants to continue localizing visual novels and actually net a profit, it has to stray away from substandard plots that offer zero interactivity and doesn’t take advantage of the Vita’s capabilities. It may sell with its BlazBlue ties, but even the biggest fans of the franchise will disappointed in this effort both in development and localization.

What's Good

• Full touchscreen support
• Art slides are visually appealing
• Anybody can enjoy the story even with BlazBlue ties

What's Not

• Mediocre storyline
• Choosing your way feels unintuitive
• No English dialogue option
• Spelling and grammatical erros

Final Score: 4/10

San Francisco Giants Notebook: A two-game winning streak never felt so good

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The San Francisco Giants won their first series since defeating the Arizona Diamondbacks during the weekend of June 21st and 22nd. Prior to that, it was still during the Giants' heyday.

Back in early June, the Giants' domination of the St. Louis Cardinals trickled into June 1st with an 8-0 victory. Then came defeating the Cincinnati Reds in two games, then sweeping the New York Mets. After that? 5 wins and 17 losses prior to this series against the San Diego Padres.

It's been hell watching a 10-game lead evaporate and now seeing the Los Angeles Dodgers atop the NL West, but it's what everybody expected -- to see the Dodgers at the top. However, after the floor was pulled from under the Giants just as it was a season ago, at least they can still salvage things and rebound unlike last year.

Making adjustments in the batting order worked wonders. Even though it followed up with two straight losses, Hunter Pence leading off was a major reason the Giants were able to get on top early in Sunday's win over the Padres. It also helps that one of the long-injured players, Brandon Belt, is back to give the lineup a jolt.

With Belt back, that makes it easy to push Pence in the starting role, and that should fill the void of a leadoff hitter until Angel Pagan returns. But the weekend wasn't all fireworks -- now another injury was dealt to Pablo Sandoval, who's had one of the hottest bats in a meager offense during the downslide. Sandoval is simply day-to-day, but with the luck that the Giants have had with injuries, we'll see how fast he gets back into the lineup.

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Tim Lincecum finds consistency. It's hard to believe, but Lincecum recorded his third straight terrific outings after Sunday's 5-3 victory. It wasn't dominating like his no-hitter against the Padres, throwing 105 pitches in 6.1 innings of work, but he was able to limit damage. He only gave up three hits and a run while striking out six. He moves to 8-5 on the season and quickly becoming the team's renewed ace.

Sergio Romo continues to struggle. He gave up a two-run bomb in the eighth inning to give the Padres a little bit of life and cut the lead to two runs. Thank god the team scored two runs in the top half of the inning. Romo is certainly in a slump and it's continuing to get worse. We can simply hope he gets it together to help out in the bullpen late in the year.

Is Saturday's comeback finally the turnaround the Giants need? Every fan is trying to pinpoint the moment that will turn this team back into its winning ways. We've been wrong so far. Would it be Big Time Timmy Jim's no hitter? Nope. Would it be the fourth inning against the Cardinals that resulted in stranding the opponent with bases loaded and zero outs and scoring in the bottom half of that inning? Nope. Now, can it finally be a game-tying Michael Morse home run in the ninth inning and winning in extras? It will have to be done against the Bay Area rivals that haven't slipped yet this season.

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Next up: Oakland A's (55-33)

• 1st in the AL West
• Added Jeff Samardzija in a blockbuster deal with the Chicago Cubs
• Scored most runs in MLB (435) while having 14th-best team batting average (.245)
• Second-best team in MLB in pitching (3.16 ERA, Washington is 1st)

The offense won't wow you, but the A's are able to score. Derek Norris is the only regular that is hitting above .300. Coco Crisp is hitting .291 but has an on-base percentage of .383. Thanks to Crisp and Jed Lowrie, that's led to Brandon Moss and Josh Donaldson taking advantage at the 4 and 3 position in the order, respectively. Moss leads the team with 19 home runs and 62 RBIs.

For the Giants to keep the train moving positively, they'll have a tall order in a four-game, split-home series against the A's before having three against the Diamondbacks at home to end the first half of the season.

Pitching matchups

• Monday - Ryan Vogelsong (R, 5-5, 3.86) vs Jesse Chavez (R, 6-5, 3.23)
  9:05 PM CT | TV: NBC Bay Area / CSN California 
• Tuesday - Madison Bumgarner (L, 9-6, 3.09) vs Sonny Gray (R, 8-3, 3.08)
  9:05 PM CT | TV: CSN Bay Area / CSN California
• Wednesday - TBA vs Matt Cain (R, 1-7, 4.27)
  9:15 PM CT | TV: CSN Bay Area / CSN California
• Thursday - Scott Kazmir (L, 10-3, 2.53) vs Tim Hudson (R, 7-5, 2.53)
  2:45 PM CT | TV: CSN Bay Area / CSN California / MLB Network

Luckily, the Giants won't have to face Samardzija as he made his debut on Sunday. We don't know who will be pitching on Wednesday just yet, but the best matchup is the Thursday afternoon showdown between Kazmir and Hudson, assuming Hudson brings the good stuff. That game will also be seen nationally on MLB Network for those that don't live in California.

The Last Relationship Post I'll Ever Write

One of the biggest sensations any of us will face is finding out when an ex has moved on with a different person.

No matter where we're at in our lives, regardless of whether we're dating somebody else or not, it always makes you think. Even if the relationship sucked, you'll still think of how that person was able to convince another person to reach that stage of Friendship+ with them.

I'm currently in an amazing relationship that today, seven months ago, we committed to. In the same week that she is on vacation overseas, it was the same week that I found out my previous ex was currently in a relationship with someone else.

For the first time in my life, I had two reactions at the exact same time when seeing it. Happiness and guilt. Nothing whatsoever involving anger. Which has been a far cry from my previous experiences in dealing with that news.

Why happiness? It's a long story that I would never get into publicly, but she deserved somebody great to be with. There's a lot of great qualities in her -- like being one of the nicest and hilarious people I know while also being a huge sports fan. That would attract anybody.

Because of our situation and how we handled certain aspects of it, things didn't work out between us. When it was too late, I realized some of the things I did wrong. Perhaps something could have been fixed after we broke up, but in a short amount of time I met my current girlfriend. One that was everything I was looking for in a girl after my previous one. The right balance of differences that meshed perfectly together.

Ultimately it worked out between us and we're still thriving strong. Because of all the lessons I've learned in the past. That's where the guilt lies. I can only imagine how she felt when I quickly moved on with somebody else.

There's not much I regret from my previous relationships. At the end of the day, it's all learning experiences as we grow up in life. Yes, there are things I shouldn't have said, some things I didn't handle well, but it was marred with a long history of girls that were dishonest with me or liked to take advantage of a nice guy.

I finally grew up shortly after college, abandoning the one-night stand life and just going after the first girl that batted her eyes at me and wanted to have a conversation with me before any other dude bros at the bar could have a pathetic attempt to give them a rum and coke and an horrible pickup line.

It was that time that the quality of girls I dated improved. Over two years ago now, there's been three girls I've had a relationship with and all three of them had one thing in common -- loyalty. Unfortunately, it was me that still had to do some growing up.

I still retained selfishness, looking toward the end of a relationship when we hit hiccups and being a little too comfortable with myself. I love being sarcastic and poking fun at my significant other, and unfortunately I would reach a level that they wouldn't like. I also wasn't happy with my personal life -- my job, money situation -- I focused on that more than just being happy with the girl, talking to them and putting them ahead of me more.

With my current girlfriend, I'd have to say I'm one of the luckiest people in the world. We met at the perfect time. A moment that I'm finally learning to be a respectful boyfriend while she couldn't be more cute, sweet, beautiful, and there's so many more adjectives I could list.

Back in the day, I used to complain and bitch about why things with girls didn't work out. Well, you quickly find out that the stupid rules you learn through life aren't necessarily true. A girl doesn't distinguish whether they want to be with a guy or not in the first 15 seconds they meet them. A guy may think about girl(s) every 15 seconds but that doesn't mean they're always thinking about somebody else they aren't dating. 

No guy is ever "friend zoned" -- they just need to learn how to talk to women. It's something that took me a few years out of college to figure out. Experience that all of my previous relationship blog post garbage never had implemented in them.

This is why I'm happy that my old blogs have either been shut down or terminated now. All the history of nonsense is out of pool that is the interwebs and it was gone before I ever get into the journalism world. Nothing I say on here could ever actually help as advice. The bottom line is everyone has to experience it themselves. For better or for worse, we all have to learn. Success and failure will be had many times.

Who knows what will happen with my current relationship. I hope it lasts forever. I love her to death. But anything could happen to affect it whether good or bad.

But finally, the feelings I have are calm, cool, and collected. The anger of my past fizzled out years ago, and now the process of actually being a decent guy is settling in because I improved the life around me.

Perhaps the best relationship advice anyone could ever give are the following: Just live your life and go along for the ride. Try not to let the emotions completely take over. Time always heals everything no matter how bad something gets. Don't let a couple of bad relationships in the past spoil potential great ones.

That is something I should have written in my very first blog post I wrote on relationships. It should have also been the last like this one will be.

PlayStation 4 exclusive Bloodborne isn't just Demon's Souls 2

Yes, Demon's Souls does have a "sequel" and it's spawned into the Dark Souls franchise, but this is the Sony exclusive and with the main director back, this could be the true sequel that fans have been waiting for.

When the trailer was released for Bloodborne, I was pretty excited like every other Demon's Souls fan on Twitter. Even though the horror genre isn't my favorite and the gameplay was incredibly difficult, I was still intrigued by the environment Demon's Souls had. It's a game that I wanted to be good at, but it continued to kick my ass. It still does when I pick it up from time to time, regardless of how positive I am heading into it.

I finally got a chance to play Demon's Souls when it was a free game on PlayStation Plus, and it was a great experience. Bloodborne looks like that and so much more.

Here's what director Hidetaka Miyazaki talked about working on Bloodborne in the PlayStation Blog, who passed up the opportunity to guide Dark Souls 2 to work with Sony again.

“Creating Bloodborne as a completely new game on the new PlayStation 4 hardware has allowed us to really push the envelope in myriad ways. That being said, in more ways than one, it also very much retains our distinct, signature style. As has been at the core of our development philosophy since Demon’s Souls, we make true games for people who love games. Please watch for more to come on Bloodborne, and thank you very much for your support.”

Now that gameplay features have been released on the interwebs, things look even more promising. When I talk about the environment of Demon's Souls, I don't mean the difficulty. I mean the setting. Keza MacDonald of Kotaku gives us a look into what they experienced while testing out the game.

It's set in an impressively gothic town, all looming, craggy towers and imposing churches, the building all pressed up against each other and blocking out a dark sky. The people and... things that live here are, unsurprisingly, not friendly. Townspeople clad in quasi-Victorian apparel - long coats, elaborate hats - lumber around the streets, attacking on sight. In the distance, a crowd of them gather around some crucified monster as it burns on its cross, watching wordlessly. It is profoundly chilling. I was gripped by curiosity at what was going on here, battling with a simultaneous urge to run away and never look back - exactly the same feeling that I get upon entering some unknown area in Souls.

Having the duo of FromSoftware and Miyazaki together is the boost this game needs for fans that were disappointed in the ingredient Dark Souls 2 lacked, and I'm intrigued that it doesn't just look like some kind of sequel that's slopped together to push out and get money. It's a whole new world that promises to have the same amount of beautiful creepiness from the original Demon's Souls.

Photos via Flickr

Uncharted 4 teaser trailer looks incredible

Naughty Dog has the trailer for Uncharted 4: A Thief's End for PlayStation 4 online, ready to stream in breathtaking 1080p and at a full 60 FPS for your viewing pleasure. It's incredible.

Take a look at the best version of the teaser trailer here. Otherwise, here's a YouTube clip of the action.

From beginning to end, this is a perfect teaser trailer that shows Nathan Drake rising up from a watery sleep as there's dialogue between both Drake and Sully in the background. Obviously, it looks like the two sequences don't happen at the same time.

There's a clear dark tone that's in this game, and that's where some traditional Uncharted fans may groan. It's less Indiana Jones with the lighthearted dialogue and comedy and it looks plenty more serious.

Don't worry, I'm not expecting something like The Last of Us: Uncharted. It's not going to turn into a zombie fest or feature everybody in the cast dying except Drake. The point of a teaser trailer is to show something that grabs your attention, and this certainly does that instead of your standard bruhaha from the first four games.

I highly doubt this will be the whole tone for the game.

Here's what makes the game even more incredible. From the Naughty Dog trailer post:

All footage you see in the trailer was captured completely in engine. That’s Nathan Drake rendered in 1080p full glory using the power of our PS4 engine. All footage you see in the trailer was captured completely in engine. We’re targeting 60fps for Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and as you can see the visual fidelity for our character models will reach new heights. In fact, thanks to the power of the PS4, right now Drake’s Uncharted 4 model is over double the polygons of Joel from The Last of Us PS3.

What is awesome is how great this game looks. Having a game look like this in engine is incredible, and 1080p is becoming the gold standard in gaming. But I'm surprised they're pushing it all the way to the potential of having 60 FPS.

I'm not too picky in frame rates, but an adventure game like Uncharted seems to be more suitable in the 30 FPS range. Remember, frames not rendered leave your mind to complete the rendering, adding to the storytelling of a game when you don't even realize it. At the very least, hopefully the rate is capped so we don't see slowdown issues completely taking people out of the experience.

What are your thoughts on the game's tone and push to 60 FPS?

Giants Notebook: Doug Fister edges Madison Bumgarner in pitcher's duel vs Nationals

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This is what a losing streak feels like. For the first time since losing the first two games in the series against Miami in mid-May, San Francisco has lost another two games in a row.

Washington took a 2-1 pitching duel last night with Doug Fister pitching a dominant seven innings, giving up eight hits but not letting any runs cross home plate. The Giants' old woes of runners in scoring position reared their ugly head with the team going 1-10; the only one finally happening by Brandon Crawford in the final inning.

The Nationals nearly had the same fate, going just 1-9 themselves in the same category. But they were able to open up the game in the fifth inning to finally break into Madison Bumgarner, who went seven innings himself and gave up as many hits, but two earned runs.

Too bad the Giants can't play the Atlanta Braves and New York Mets all the time.

Wednesday's matchup: Matt Cain (R, 1-3, 3.52) vs Tanner Roark (R, 4-4, 2.91)
Game time: 7:15 PT | TV: Comcast Bay Area, MASN 2 | Live Stream: MLB.TV

Manager Bruce Bochy believes this is a good wake-up call for the Giants who have been thriving for about four weeks. Washington currently sits tied with Atlanta at 34-29, and they could easily have the best team in the division to make the postseason and take on San Francisco at some point.

The Giants will try to even this four-game regular season series up with another game tonight followed by a day game on Thursday.