EA Not Confident of Promoting Origin?

When I am interested in a game, I don't look for the positive confirmation of the popular video gaming media outlets. I would instead check the official website for the game and watch some of the gameplay videos for it to make my final determination. Game reviews these days have no shame in telling you everything about a game to the point that personal discovery is no longer respected. Yes, I do find myself reading some of these after I have played the games to avoid stumbling into the inevitable spoilers. I believe that a review should just convey in general one's feeling about a game and not divulge every single thing that the writer found in the game that can be written within its confine. This problem also occurs with movie reviews by major media outlets. I think these writers are confused that they were not supposed to be writing a synopsis. Anyway, I have been very interested in Need for Speed: Rivals for the Personal Computer ever since its release and this morning, I was watching the official trailer for the game and I noticed something odd. At the end of the trailer, Electronic Arts didn't specify that the PC version of the game is being distributed via their Origin client:

PC DVD ROM? That is so last century.

I have seen many game trailers that would end with a proud display of the Steam logo but apparently, EA has some apprehension in regards to promoting Origin. It's obvious by now that even though they are still using that client for their PC-bound releases, they don't care too much about it. The reward program that is supposed to come with Origin Achievements have yet to be made a reality and I can't find information anywhere if the newer EA published games even have Origin Achievements. Now I know there are a lot of hate out there when it comes to anything outside of Steam, though I find it funny how Steam is not even regarded as a Digital Rights Management tool that it is, but I personally like Origin. I do wish that EA would do more with it because if their interest has waned due to Steam's dominance over the PC gaming industry, they should just call it quits, work something out with Valve, and transfer those game keys to Steam.

Standing by the PS4

Do you leave your PlayStation 4 on standby? If you are like me who found that there are an extreme lack of activities surrounding the console, is there any real reason to leave the unit on standby? Surely the console would be better off being well, off? Saving electricity is always a good thing but then again, maybe there are some benefits to leaving the thing on standby:

Use those powered USB ports to charge things like... The Wii U Pro Controller!

Uplay Superseding Steam? It's True...

I love streaming my gameplay over twitch.tv, even when there's nobody watching. It's more like a gameplay recorder where I can go back and highlight cool moments if those happened during my gameplay sessions. Every time I play something, it's streamed on twitch.tv and that's just how it is these days. Gameplay broadcasting is just the new normal, that is why we can see platforms like Origin, the PlayStation 4, and soon, the X-Box One offering an easy way to help people get into streaming. Even NVIDIA is going to release a native streaming capability for their modern graphics card. So why is it that Valve still hasn't done anything in this field? Why wouldn't they provide the capability for players to broadcast gameplay natively using the Steam client? And what is this now? I was installing Rayman Legends using the Uplay client and I noticed the twitch.tv logo on the top bar that revealed this intriguing Uplay feature:

Beaten by Ubisoft? That is rather embarrassing.

I was speechless. Utterly speechless. How could this happen? And that teaser line of "This is only the beginning" - Does it mean that eventually any games being played on the Personal Computer can be streamed to twitch.tv using Uplay like the way it is with Origin? The Uplay client provides you with plenty of customization options to fit your broadcasting needs:

Looks promising but the performance isn't the best.

Even at High CPU Utilization, I found that the Uplay client did struggle to maintain a decent 60fps stream and the image quality didn't look that great when there were plenty of things happening on screen. It was better than that PS4 native stream of course but that's an easy feat to accomplish on the PC. I would still be using OBS for my gameplay broadcast but those people who value convenience may want to just use the native streaming option while playing a Uplay game since it has virtually no performance impact on the actual game being played. The burning question here is this: When will Steam reveal its gameplay broadcast plans? Perhaps Valve is trying to hatch something big that goes beyond twitch.tv streaming? I am still looking forward to the possibility of watching someone play a game that I have installed by launching that very game and see everything being ran with the in-game graphics engine. Do it Valve!

Do U Remote Control?

As you may know, I hardly watch any television. I get all of my entertainment from choosing what I want to see on the Internet - that mostly involves watching games on twitch.tv - as well as from my own video gaming sessions. Since the spouse loves cable TV however, I do have access to it in my Game Room. With the arrival of the PlayStation 4 last month, I unplugged the cable box and never bothered to set it back up until recently. One of my twitch viewers made a mention about the Wii U's TVii functionality so I decided to finally check out what the hoopla is all about.

Can't they at least make everything more colorful?

I was pretty impressed with how the Wii U GamePad synced with both the cable box and the television as it cycled through different configurations to find the right one for the units that I use. As for the TVii itself, the GamePad functions as a second screen of sort and I didn't spend too much time playing with it to be frank. Yeah, it's cool that you can set up your favorite shows with TVii and all that but since I am not a TV hound, these things are somewhat useless to me. What I was really interested in however was the fact that the GamePad can be used as a remote control without turning on the Wii U by merely pressing the TV button on the GamePad. I always thought those expensive touch screen universal remote controls are cool and to think that the Wii U GamePad could turn into one just seemed exiting to me. That wonderment didn't last however after I discovered that the GamePad could only control the cable box and my TV. Well that was disappointing. If only it could control my receiver, it would have been perfect. Nintendo needs to allow the GamePad to turn into a full-fledged universal remote for it would then become the best and coolest universal remote to ever exist.

Games Played 12/02/2013 - 12/08/2013

- 12/02/2013 -

Assassin's Creed II - PC

League of Legends - PC

Marvel Heroes - PC

Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends - PC

- 12/03/2013 -

Assassin's Creed II - PC

League of Legends - PC

Resogun - PlayStation 4

- 12/04/2013 -

Assassin's Creed II - PC

League of Legends - PC

- 12/05/2013 -

Euro Truck Simulator 2 - PC

League of Legends - PC

- 12/06/2013 -

Euro Truck Simulator 2 - PC

League of Legends - PC

Resogun - PlayStation 4

- 12/07/2013 -

Euro Truck Simulator 2 - PC

League of Legends - PC

Solstice Arena - PC

The Typing of the Dead: Overkill - PC

- 12/08/2013 -

Euro Truck Simulator 2 - PC

League of Legends - PC

Screenshot of the Week:

The wedding reception is finally over baby.

Assassin's Creed II (Personal Computer)