PlayStation 4: My Perspective

It's been around 2 weeks since the announcement of PS4, the latest entry into the PlayStation series and the successor to the current PS3. Generally, the reception ranged from great to mixed, but I'm not here not talking about what other people think, I'm here to say what I think about PS4.

I love my PS3, I really love playing it. But despite how much I love playing it, I accept that it's time for a new one, due to the rapid advancement of technology these days. I was also amazed how much the staying power the PS3 has over the last few years, considering the computer tech has eclipsed the PS3. The most example of that is when you placed the PC version of Crysis and Battlefield 3 with the PS3 versions side by side. Hence, PS4 is needed.

From the announcement, I was pleased about the details they revealed so far. The PS4 engineering architecture is very very close to PC. This change in architecture is probably due to complaints by game developers that PS3 is difficult to develop games, as evident in certain PS3 games, which struggled to catch up with other game consoles and gaming PC. It features an 8-core AMD Jaguar processor unit, APU developed by AMD and Sony, an unspecified GPU unit and 8GB GDDR5 memory. It was impressive, even by today's standard, this will make sure games will be easier to work on and most of all, better longevity than other generations' of consoles.

Then, there's the controller, I have mixed reaction towards it. At first, it is exciting to see that they redesigned the R2-L2 buttons from the PS3, which is a bit clunky to use. But then, they slightly redesigned the DualShock form factor, which is very comfortable for me to use because of my smaller hands. So, I need to test it before I can judge the new controller.

Sony also announced the latest PlayStation Eye camera, which will have better resolution and better integration with the PlayStation Move. I'm won't go much into details about this, because I already have doubt with the current PlayStation Move, I need more details about it to convince me.

The highlight of the announcement was probably the social features, which might be catered towards social gamers and to the more connected and more social network-centric society today. This is obvious when they showed the "SHARE" button on the DualShock 4 controller, which allows gamers to share their screenshots, gameplay videos and other gaming content through social networks like Facebook or Twitter. I believe I might use some of the time considering I have been sharing my PC screenshots quite a bit.

Lastly, it's the game. Sony announced a number of games from the conference, such as Killzone: Shadow Fall, DriveClub, inFamous: Second Son, and Knack. Games from other developers like Bungie's Destiny, Ubisoft's Watch Dogs, Blizzard's Diablo III and others. But the only game we've seen with longer gameplay sequences and show the early potential of PS4 is Killzone: Shadow Fall by Guerrilla Games. The game ran on true 1080p full HD with bigger sense of scale and details than it's PS3 counter-parts. It is not a really significant leap, but considering the game is up and running just a few months in, it's quite impressive.

I can't wait for the PS4 to come, even though we haven't seen the design of the console itself and the pricing of the console. But considering PS3 still has a lot of games still left to play, I don't need to worry much and probably wait a year before I buy one.

Lastly, a PlayStation montage!

Transformers might be the Saviour of 3-D

Let's be honest here, 3-D is getting stale, the technology is nothing more than a gimmick as of late. It is not 3-D is not amazing, but film companies and crews don't know how to utilise the technology. In many film we have seen 3-D effects nothing more than a pop out visuals and nothing else.

We've seen many films using 3-D effects at its best, when it does work, it is truly amazing and breathtaking. For instance, Avatar, which in my opinion is not a great film, but the 3-D of the movie is the best in the business. Director James Cameron utilised the technology well. he used 3-D to focus on the objects he wanted you to focus on while creating depth to other objects which is spectacular, no pop-out, in-your-face kinda gimmick and it worked! Another movie to use well to the technology is last year's Disney sci-fi action movie Tron: Legacy, not as good as Avatar but used the same method and technology of Avatar and it worked as well. The depth and pop-out effects are more balanced than other movies.

Other than these two, do I still have movie which I think that used the 3-D very well? The answer is no, absolutely no. Most of other films are just pure gimmick just to suck up viewers' wallet. Kung Fu Panda 2? Nice but not good enough. The Green Hornet? Nope, conversion 3-D is the worst offender. And the worst is? Clash of the Titans!!! Which my friends complained to me the 3-D is less than 50% of the movie.

The reason of these failures is that all the filmmakers rush their decision to put 3-D effects in their movies, and the results usually backfire. Due to success of Avatar, which is currently the only film that look spectacular and better in 3-D than in 2-D, filmmakers started rushing their movies into conversion mode, which made the images look pasted in to feel "more 3-D".

Why I said the latest Transformers will save 3-D? Because James Cameron, not because he directed it, he actually shared his 3-D technology and crews to Michael Bay, the director of Transformers. When you've seen the 3-D of Avatar, you'll know why I'm so eager to watch Dark of the Moon in 3-D. It is whether to be seen that Michael Bay can actually put the 3-D magic into Transformers, but since I have enjoyed quite a number of his films, I have hopes for that.

Crasher Music Awards and Crasher Movie Awards 2010

Well another year, another awards... This has become an annual event here at Crasher, make sure to check back for the awards, coming out soon...

A Very Good Drug to Forget Gran Turismo 5 Delay

Well, I'm not in a good mood whenever I hear Gran Turismo 5, because ever since the delay, I've been cursing and blaming Sony for whatever reason I can find. I just can't accept it. Waiting for 6 years, already bought my own PS3 to wait for the game, have to wait again...

Now, I just found one perfect drug to forget about it, Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit. I've been a Need For Speed fan for quite awhile, but for the past few years EA been experimenting with the franchise, which I hate... Now at least EA know that the series is better suited to the roots, so they created Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit.

NFS: Hot Pursuit is like the original Need For Speed, very fast cars and very crazy cop chases. I played before on the PlayStation and PlayStation 2, and I love it. See the trailers for it:

A Video Game Trailer that can really Match Movie Trailers

Man, I just love video games trailers these days, they are so finely made they feel like they are movie trailers. This $100 million sequel to Starcraft did just that, pure epicness!!!

Gorgeous Gran Turismo 5 Trailer

No time for 2nd of November 2010...

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood Trailer

Gaming is very very big business right now (except Malaysia la, where everyone is still just torrent and buy pirated DVD), and the trailer they made for games can rival Hollywood blockbusters these days and many games these days can use millions to make. For example, Grand Theft Auto IV cost US$100 million to produce...

One of the trailer I'm gonna show you today is Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, who just entered the list of games I wanna play this year. The trailer looked just stunning, the scale look just like a Hollywood movie...

Enjoy:

 

Five Games I'm Looking Forward to for the Rest of the Year

E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) has ended, showcases about video games is done and many interesting games are shown there... But five games really caught my eyes, here is the list:

1.) Gran Turismo 5

Reality or Virtual Reality? You Judge

The game is finally here. Not exactly here, but what I meant is the release date here... As I watched the briefing about the PS3 and the games, Sony exec showed the trailer for the game and a release date at the end of it. It got cheers from the crowd because people have been waiting for the game since 2005 and no date has been given every time they show a snippet... If the date is true (2nd November 2010), you might find me collecting cars and licenses with over 1000 of them... ;p

2.) Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

I love Assassin's Creed, I just love the gameplay and the story. The story is about a man, who has the DNA of the Assassins Order, traveled back in time through his DNA and experience what his ancestors experience. During the game, he discovered there was a war that he never knew even existed, the war between the Templars and Assassins, which also involved many famous people throughout the history, including Genghis Khan, Henry Ford, Nicolai Tesla and many others... I can't wait who will I meet up next, alternate history game couldn't be more interesting than this.

3.) PlayStation Move

It is not a game, I know I know... Based on the Wii success on their Wiimote (Wii sounds like peeing), Sony decided to fight back with a improved concept based on it, that is the Wiimote. What is different from the Wii is that the Move has a camera (PlayStation Eye) and LED balls on top of the Move. Sony said that will offer more precision than the Wii. Based on the video people recorded with them demo-ing during E3, it did look more closer to 1:1 than the Wii. Da Jie is very interested with the PlayStation Move as she might not need to buy a Nintendo Wii and buy the Move instead.

4.) Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit

Ram it or U-Turn. You decide this November

A game series I finally interested again after years of failure with experimentations with the game mechanics. This entry of the series is developed by Criterion Games, which is famed for it's Burnout series (another racing game). This version is back to the style people loved years back, involving exotic cars, beautiful locales and adrenaline pumping cop chase scene, just like Hollywood. With Criterion at helm, this could be a blast.

5.) Crysis 2

The physics engine for the game is crazy

Another processor hungry game, the first game is so hungry to process graphics it could literally make a PS3 and Xbox 360 melt, only a highly customizable PC with the highest-end specification could make the cut, the rest is bye bye. This time the developers created a new engine that could satisfy Xbox 360, PS3 and lower end PCs playing on beautiful graphics. With the open world gameplay set in the Big Apple, this could be interesting...

Sackboy, I LOVE YOU!!!

Remember this cute little doll? Well, he is Sackboy, he is from the game called LittleBigPlanet. Sackboy is one of the most adaptable and most adorable and cutest game characters in recent game history... I've never seen a video game character that is so cute in recent years, since video game started making realistic characters and real personality into it.

I love LittleBigPlanet, I played it when I borrowed from my cousin and I play a lot. Even though the single player is short, there is a lot of online feature for the game. The game online is just a video game version of YouTube, everyone can create their stuffs and put it on the internet. I play a lot of other users' content, like mini Star Wars, Indiana Jones, jokes about Xbox and many many more. The possibilities are actually endless, which made me wonder, will a sequel possible considering the first one is literally use up your whole gaming life.

Well, there is.. And the features for this sequel is tremendous, the community will be expanded and the you can play driving games, shooting games, Bubble Bobble, Space Invaders and many many more... And you can create not just one level, but a whole new different game! And create new story and even music videos (Yeah, You heard that right) for your game!!

Let's see the trailer for the sequel and I can't get enough of Sackboy!!!

Iron Man 2 Trailer 2

This is better than the first trailer:

First Crysis 2 Trailer is Up

Every gamer knows Crysis, a game that set the graphics benchmark for video games history, just like Avatar did to the movie industry. Original Crysis is a power hungry software, and will laugh at almost every computer hardware thrown at it, developer Crytek said that the sequel will less demanding the the old ones...

In case, you don't know about Crysis. The first game tells a story about a group of special forces were sent to a remote tropical island to save scientists from North Korean hand. During the mission, the alien forces hidden under the island woke up and attack the humanity...

The sequel will now set in war torn New York, where alien has taken over the city. Trust me, the graphics will be even better and more epic...!!!

GranTurismo 5 Leaked Trailer

This delay and wait is killing me... I've been waiting for the game release this March, but Sony have pushed back the title again and again and again...

In the mean time, I can enjoy this shiny new leaked trailer showing racing at night in GT and new damage modeling... Unbelievable.

American Idol: My Own Top 12

Well, 4 more contestants will leave the show next week and we will have finalist singing together... Here's my top 12 and why:

Michael Lynche
When I first saw him at the audition round, I say 'Dude doesn't look like a singing type'. But he surprise me, his singing is very good. His first week on semi final singing This Love by Maroon 5 is not so good, but good enough to put him trough. This week with James Brown's It's A Man's Man's Man's World (WHAT KIND OF SONG TITLE IS THAT), he is one of the best of the week... So, he's in my list.

Casey James
I always like rocker on the finals, like David Cook and Chris Daughtry. This year is no exception, Casey James is another rocker I want him to be in. After his decent audition impressed the judges (particular the females), he went to Hollywood week singing Colbie Cailliet's Bubbly, which was amazing. He is one of the contestants that can really perform consistent on the show.

Alex Lambert
No, not Adam Lambert and he doesn't have any relationship whatsoever with Adam. The boy might not be good, but his singing is decent enough in the boys group to qualify for the finals

Andrew Garcia
Since his interpretation of Paula Abdul's Straight Up, he is being going downhill, maybe because since that performance is so good, everybody expect him to be even better for the coming performances. But he is still one of the best contestants in the competition.

Aaron Kelly
A young boy who have big stage presence. He is a good singer, but he still unable to control his nerves to perform in front of millions of viewers.

Lee Dewyze
The last man to be in the 6 main male finalist. This man is pretty much under my radar for sometime now, but his performance of Snow Patrol's Chasing Cars has caught my eyes. Even Simon Cowell commented it was one of the best performance in the competition. But, he still shaky while on stage.

Crystal Bowersox
A main competitor for the Idol crown started a long long time ago. She has a very strong voice and knows her song selections for her performances. However, she need to change her looks a bit, she still lacking star quality and stage presence, which are important for finals.

Lacey Brown
Finally entered the semis after the failed first attempt previous seasons. She is not as strong as other female contestants, but she deserved to be in the finals.

Katie Stevens
A 17 year-old who has a very strong start at idol with a deserving good auditions, but she seems to be diminished at the Hollywood Week (maybe I didn't see her). During the semi finals, she wowed the audiences and viewers with her strong performances and vocals. I agree with the judges, particularly Ellen and Simon, where she needs to perform songs that are more younger and much more suitable to her age. Strong contender for finals though...

Lilly Scott
She is a great singer, with good vocal and knows how to play her instruments. She usually sings songs that others usually won't pick for their performances, that's really given her the advantages than others already.

Katelyn Epperly
I don't remember her for most of the season, but last week's performance of The Scientist by Coldplay has really put her back into the spotlight. If she continues a strong performances like this, she can be a dark horse.

Siobhan Magnus
I don't remember either but her last two performances are amazing, especially last week's performance, where she sang Aretha Franklin's Think. Her vocals is like, "WOAH!!!"

Preview: Iron Man 2

Well, the first movie was one of the biggest surprise, it contain a balanced amount of story, action and humour into the movie and entertained the audience... The movie also reignited Robert Downey Jr. troublesome movie career...

However, the story doesn't end there... There is a new sequel to the original movie, Iron Man 2, one of the planned part of trilogy. This movie has already become one of my most anticipated movie for 2010.

Here's the trailer for Iron Man 2:

Orianthi Panagaris

Umm... Many people who watched Michael Jackson's This Is It will probably know her, she was the guitarist of MJ's planned 50 sold out concert in London.

Actually, she is a singer, which is not famous until the day the rehearsal videos leaked onto YouTube and she's getting more and more attentions these days...

This is one of her song from her new album (Believe):

Orianthi - According To You - Watch more amazing videos here

Now, getting back to study...

Idol Battle Season 9 V2: New Singles

Well, last time in many Internet poll, Kris Allen won the battle of No Boundaries, beating Adam Lambert.

Now, both singers have their new singles coming out at the same time. Kris Allen make his rendition of Live Like We're Dying, a song by The Script, then Adam release another song called Time For Miracles, which is used in the soundtrack of 2012...

Please login your IMEEM Account if you have to listen to full song

Please vote on your LEFT!!!

Kris Allen

Live Like Were Dying - Kris Allen

VS

Adam Lambert

Time for Miracles - Adam Lambert

What I want from Transformers 3...

Well, I love Transformers motion picture, I really do, with amazing CGI and awesome action sequences. But even giving 4.5/5 for the sequel, Revenge of the Fallen, I think the movie is really a failure. Because I'm for the works of people at Industrial Light & Magic (kudos to them), without giving actual ratings on other stuffs.

With Transformers 3 announced to be released in July 4th, 2011, director Michael Bay can make even better with certain point I want Transformers to change as of below:

• Better story line - Come on, the story is really, I mean REALLY! Abysmal to look at. I never seen a mega blockbuster earning $800 million worldwide had such a horrible storyline. It features no developments and no emotional at all(I don't care at emotion but critics' review is can influence the mind of the audience). Even with Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, the pair behind the highly praised 2009 Star Trek can't make a story decent enough, the Revenge of the Fallen failed in storyline in a big way.

• Kill Megan Fox's ccharacter Mikaela early in the movie - She's sexy, I admit, but she just ruined the host lead actress thingy, she is boring, bad acting, unfunny, and rude. Come on, many actress can do that and beat her easily. When I said to my friends during a conversation about Transformers, I said I want her dead in the sequel, some agreed, some don't. For those who don't, are you so desperate for a sexy girl? You can watch some chick flicks or even sit at Borders Bookstore and read FHM or Galaxie and you can find even more sexy girls, or even sexier than Megan Fox.

• No more jokes with sexual suggestions - I mean it... For a movie to attract general audience, the jokes of the movie, especially Revenge of the Fallen, had stepped over the limit. Many parents and cinema goers, including me, will not take children to the cinema to watch it because of sexual suggested contents inside. If I'm the parents and plan to watch it with my children at the cinema, I would have scrapped the plans if the reviews of the movie has 8 complain about the sexual content out of 10. Even you put it on a male robot humping on female and show its testicles hanging around, Michael Bay in the end defended the film because the audiences are mostly 20s man. If a man crazy in this kind of stuff, he would rather watch pornography right? Who needs it in a blockbuster?

• Use common sense DUDE!!! - Ya, I know this might be controversial but this is error is too big to ignore it, it is minor problem but it is a bit stupid. After all those Autobots and Decepticons fighting at the city in the first one, how come everyone don't know their existences after all those damages? Another US government conspiracy? It is a bit too huge to hide from the public eyes... During the 2 years in the story time line , no one has ever capture a full video or a full photo of the robots. They have, but they only captured the feet of the robots after the whopping 2 years!!!

These suggestions above could be rejected by people, but I think that is what I think Transformers (especially Revenge of the Fallen) is lacking. I hope Michael Bay make at least some of the changes and make the movie more epic.

The new AE-86 finally previewed

Do you remember the original AE-86 from Toyota? Well, it is popular in manga culture because it is the main character's car in Initial D... Now, there's a new one on the horizon, and it looks aggressive, could be a Nissan GT-R beater!

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 2nd trailer

Well, this year most hyped first-person shooter game of the year is nearly here, and the 2nd trailer is released... Nice narrating.

2nd Crasher Music Awards Pre-show

Well, the music award almost wanna start... The full awards and nominee will probably be announced on 1st of October night, or later, depends on the Internet speed I'm picking up. But let's kick off the show with the year's biggest hits, shall we?

The first show kicking off is I Gotta Feeling by Black Eyed Peas, but is lipdub by students from University of Quebec. I wish my school can do this kind of activity, it is really fun!!!