My first impressions of the PS4

   So, today was the opening day of the 2nd Athens Gaming Festival (more on that later) and of course I was anticipating this opportunity to get to see first-hand the capabilities of the next-gen consoles. Unfortunately, the only one available to us here in Greece was the PS4, since it seems that Microsoft only has it's plans for the financially stable countries. And, even though the Wii U has been available for quite a while, Nintendo in their entirety have been absent from the expo.

   But enough with that. Let's move on to more important things. Namely the PS4. The machine's size was noticeably larger than what people and gaming sites have been making it out to be. I honestly expected it to be a small device. But still it is quite compact, not to mention elegant, and the colored line in the middle that defines the situation the console is in, makes it easier to see the difference in the shades of black. I got a small chance to check out it's rear, and the outputs are quite undistinguishable. They're kind of hard to find, even though there are a lot of them. There's also the extra fact that even though it comes with UMD ports, the machine doesn't support any type of MP3, AVI, MP4, or other such format playback. Sony has responded that this may be implemented in the future, yet it remains to be seen. On the outside, definitely a step forward from the PS3!

   I checked out the DualShock 4 while I had the chance. While I will have to agree with most reviewers that the grip feels better thanks to the softer handles and the L2/R2 buttons are much better implemented, there are a few things I noticed. The touchpad is actually pressable (just like any other button, you hear a "click" when you push it downwards) and the sticks or L3/R3 buttons are now much easier to use. But the controller overall feels smaller. All previous DualShock versions (from the very first one to the Sixaxis) are average-sized. This just felt, sorta tiny. It could just be my idea though, but it felt like the space between the "triangle", "square", "X" and "O" buttons was greatly diminished.

   I probably got about one or two minutes to check the interface (since you are only allowed to play the games), but from what I saw, it's very up to date. Very fast, no lag (unlike the PS3), a lot of elegance, like a high-tech machine should be nowadays. It just felt, well, a little "Windows 8" to be honest! And from a product that's supposed to be competing with Microsoft (the creator of the Windows 8, for those of you who don't know), you really don't want that! 
   Onto the games. I got to check out all of the day 1 releases and I got to play a few as well. You would think after the PS3 and XBox 360 came out that there's only so much they can do after that, but this machine shows that we ain't seen nothin' yet! I caught myself being lost in the magnificent landscapes of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, the futuristic city of Killzone:Shadow Fall and the mind-blowing capabilities of little Knack. After waiting in line for about 20 minutes, I finally got a chance to play FIFA '14. I own it on my PS3, so I thought I'd be easily able to play it, but I was left glaring at the interactions between the players and the artificial crowds in the stands. The way this game brings football to life is astonishing!
   Overall, it's a nice machine! But, like I've said before though, there's really not much of a reason to go throwing your money away for it. Wait for the hype train to settle down, prices to drop, more enhancements (like GAIKAI and MP3 support) to be added and better games to be released. This is definitely something I would recommend every gamer should own!  
 

A big shout out to a lyrical genius!

  Ok, so considering I write mostly about games, and my previous article was about FPS, I would like to take a time-out from all that and just pay tribute to an artist that actually has a song on one of the pre-mentioned FPS's. Call Of Duty: Ghosts has a collaboration with Rap legend Eminem. If you also add the fact that he was just handed the award for MTV's Global Icon, yeah, I think I've got a couple of good excuses to write about him.
   I first came into contact with Em's music when I was in still in high-school. Immediately I began to grow attached to the raw emotion with which he would spit his lyrics! This wasn't no poppy artist that just sang the song just to get the checks every month, no. These lyrics had a deeper meaning, something ripped out of his own life that had music put into it. Something anyone could easily relate to, because life isn't always "Let me show you the shape of my heart". There are moments when you feel "Like I'm surrounded by a wall of bricks". And that is what Em has always been about!

   Revealing himself to the world back in 1997, Eminem was always keeping it real in his music. He had a problem with someone, he'd straight up let'em have it! But fame and publicity was something that a young boy from a trailer-park home in Detroit would find difficult to adjust to. And to add to all that, problems at home only made things worse. His wife Kimberly Scott decided to file for a divorce after Eminem (a.k.a. Marshall Mathers 3rd) depicted her murder in the song "Kim", but they shared custody of his daughter Hailey, who has been a constant inspiration for him.
   Eminem decided to use all these problems to his advantage and lashed out against practically everyone on his award winning track "The Way I Am" (which is also the first song of his I ever heard). The fans, his record company, his wife, his mother, other celebrities (most notably Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears and, more recently, Mariah Carey) were constantly mentioned in Em's tracks. Sometimes he would add a lyric that would go like "I'm not Mr. Friendly, I can be a prick if you tempt me, my tank is on empty" just to remind us all of who he is.
 

   Against all odds, Slim Shady became a moviestar! In 2002, Em starred in the movie 8 mile, in which he pretty much played himself (a boy down on his luck that finds his way through underground rap battles). Em also released the 8 mile soundtrack that featured a number of hits, including the awe-inspiring "Till I Collapse" and the one-verse "Run Rabbit, Run".
   Marshall was enjoying success and the awards were coming in one after another, but as with everything else, thing weren't as peachy as one would think. In order to keep up with his tours and exhausting daily schedules, the rapper began to grow addicted to sleeping medication. To the point where he would sleep a couple of hours a day, wake up, gobble up 40-60 pills and go off to work again. Of course his organism wasn't able to handle this routine and eventually Eminem collapsed. That's when he decided to go to rehab. During all this time (2004-2009) Eminem was absent from the music scene, so there was a lot of speculation on whether or not he has retired.
   After a lot of hard work (both in the studio and on himself) Em came back in spectacular fashion. Releasing his sixth album "Relapse" in 2009 and his seventh, "Recovery" one year later, he showed the music industry that not only was he not done, but that they had a whole lot more of him to see! He went on to collaborate with Royce Da 5'9'' in a second Bad Meets Evil album in 2011 which featured a hit single with Bruno Mars, titled "Lighters". Slim Shady was back, better than ever!
 

   Which brings us to today. Last week he released his eighth album titled "The Marshall Mathers LP 2". As I aforementioned above, MTV just awarded him the Global Icon award and he seems to be at the top of his game, even at the age of 41. A lot of people still question him to this day, but he always knows the best way to answer to his criticizers (just listen to "Rap God" and you'll understand what I mean!).
   Sure, he's had his troubles with his family, his friends, the law, the celebrities, the government, even the damn president (wow!), but from day one, he's always been genuine. It's his own opinion that we hear in those songs. He never changed, he never gave in for anyone.  He goes by many names... Slim Shady, Ken Kaniff, Eminem. But at the end of the day, the world should give a round of applause to a man that made a name for himself for speaking his (twisted) mind. Marshall Mathers the third.

Rebirth of the FPS

   
   Welcome everyone, to what will go down in history as "the month of the next-gen consoles". As we eagerly anticipate the arrival of both the PlayStation 4 and the XBox One, we have a plethora of new games being released for current-gen consoles (for those in the dark, current-gen means both the PS3 and the XBox 360). Amongst those games, quite a few popular ones are FPS (first-person shooters).
   Firstly (but totally randomly) we have Call Of Duty: Ghosts. The tenth game in the COD franchise is available for both current and next-gen consoles as well as PCs and there's a dog called Riley in it who's become something like a mascot for the game. Its campaign mode involves a member of U.S. Special Operations personnel named Logan. The multiplayer mode has been largely expanded from the previous installment to the series since there are a number of different ways to play (Search And Rescue, Cranked, Free For All, Blitz, Team Deathmatch, etc). What's also impressive about this game is that you can play in space, though I'm not quite sure if that stage is available in multiplayer or if it's for campaign purposes only.

   Then, we have Battlefield 4. In this game, that takes place six years after the events of Battlefield 3, you control a U.S. Special Operations unit squad Sergeant (dejavu anyone?) called Daniel Recker. I must confess, the multiplayer of this particular title is rather impressive, since you can control practically any vehicle (from jeeps, to tanks, to choppers) and in some stages you can actually bring down an entire skyscraper! Whoever is on it when it comes crashing down automatically gets wiped and the entire arena changes drastically! Also, there's a lot of customization in this game. It take quite some time to make a character that you're comfortable with, since there's a wide variety of weapons and equipment available, but that just means you'll have all the more fun exploring the possibilities that are at your disposal.

   Well, after those two games that have already been released, we have Killzone: Shadow Fall, a launch title exclusive to the PS4. What's different about the Killzone saga is that it brakes away from the "U.S. soldier vs bad South American/African/Asian" motto that the rest of the FPS's seem to have going on. In this game, you see the world through the eyes of Lucas Kellan, an agent of the Interplanetary Strategic Alliance (ISA), that fights in a "cold war" between the citizens of the planet Helghan and those of planet Vekta. Killzone: Shadow Fall will be the fourth main title and six overall in the Killzone saga.

   Apart from those that are releasing (or have already released) this month though, there are future FPS that fans of the genre are really looking forward to. Two of those are new IP's. The one is called Destiny. Destiny is developed by Bungie and Activision and it enrolls a player in a story that takes place hundreds of years in the future, in which apparently the humans have left the Earth and colonized other planets in the Solar system. Until for some unknown they began to die out and the only humans left were those who chose to remain on Earth. Now aliens are threatening those few survivors and it's up to them to protect the planet. The second of these two new IPs is called Titanfall and is being developed by EA and Respawn. It won several awards at this year's E3 and the reason is apparent. Players in this game have the ability to run on walls, control mechs and all sorts of machinery and, to top it all of, they get to battle inside colossal robotic Titans whenever they please. Destiny is scheduled for release sometime next spring for next-gen consoles only, whereas Titanfall will be releasing on March 11th (NA) and March 13th (EU) for PC, XBox 360 and XBox One.
   So, there you have it! Five top-class shooter's to knock'em dead! Which one would you choose to play and why?