After a long year of waiting, Sony has finally delivered the PlayStation 4, which is currently begging you to spend the weekend with a DualShock 4 in hand. You want to oblige, but you have neglected to pick up any PS4 games. You have read the reviews and you know about the curse of the launch lineup, but you can’t just sit around and wait for four months until Infamous: Second Son comes out. If this short story describes you, I’d like you to know that I’m in the same boat, so I’ve written this handy, completely unscientific evaluation of the three exclusive PS4 launch games to provide some assistance for befuddled gamers.
Killzone has always been a divisive shooter. Introduced as a “Halo-killer,” Killzone was set up for failure. Reviews were decent, but gamers weren’t interested, and Sony’s first major online FPS failed to kill anything, much less Halo. Since that fateful release, the Killzone games have improved significantly. As a latecomer to the PS3, Killzone 3 became my go-to online shooter. I played plenty of Call of Duty as well, but for all its miscues, Killzone 3 offered something that no other shooter on the PS3 could match – a Halo-like, sci-fi aesthetic. From the weapons and characters to the maps and special abilities, Killzone had carved out its niche, despite not being nearly as polished or as popular as the Call of Dutys and Battlefields of the world. Killzone: Shadow Fall is a launch title, as well as a follow-up to a series that has never received any critical acclaim, but if you have completely exhausted modern-day shooters on the last generation of consoles, and you’re still in the market for an online FPS, Shadow Fall might be your best bet.
Knack has drawn comparisons to the Xbox 360 launch title Kameo for a few very obvious reasons: it’s a launch day platformer, it was developed by a studio known for its consistent quality, and the title has five letters and starts with a K. Leading up to launch, Knack failed to pick up much buzz. It looks absolutely stunning from a visual perspective, but reviews have been lukewarm, citing the game’s inexplicable difficulty and monotonous gameplay. If more indie titles had launched with the PS4, there might have been a chance that a better platformer would be available on the PlayStation Store, but as it stands, Knack is your only option.
Speaking of indies, the best reviewed exclusive for the PlayStation 4 so far is Resogun, developed by Housemarque, the same team that brought Super Stardust HD to the PlayStation 3 in 2007. Resogun is a fairly standard side-scrolling space shooter, complete with power-ups, oversized bosses, and screens full of lasers. The wraparound levels bring an interesting twist to the game, and flinging the small green prisoners into a beam of light in order to save them looks like it might never get old, but here’s the bottom line: if you have a PlayStation Plus subscription (which you do, because every PS4 box has a 30-day free trial), the game is free. If neither of the triple-A releases look appealing to you, Resogun is the first-party game you should spend your weekend with.
If you pick up either of the two retail exclusives for your PlayStation 4 this weekend, know that you are taking a risk.
Although, their numbers are not large, Killzone fans should enjoy the new entry to the series. Whether or not its campaign ends up being up to snuff, the multiplayer looks to be a marked improvement over Killzone 3. Knack is sure to provide some enjoyment, especially for the younger audience, but the reaction has been decidedly less than positive. It might be safer to pick up a third-party title or two.
We’ll have full reviews coming in the next two weeks, so be sure to stay tuned until then. In the mean time, download Resogun. It’s free!
Level Up Studios have got into the app drawer market with the idea of revolutionising the Android icon grid. Have they made the must have launcher add-on of the decade, or are they trying to fix something that just ain't broke? You may have heard of Level Up Studios, they are famous for their Beautiful Widgets range of, well, beautiful widgets for Android; an astonishingly successful series of well designed widgets that most people have tried at some point. Equally successful is their star Twitter client, Plume. So, a pretty good pedigree. Quad drawer, however, is a bit of an unknown app that is designed to replace the standard Android app drawer, which is just a large grid of short-cuts, with a searchable and sortable drawer to make life easier. It was launched without much fanfare a couple of months ago, at which point it was a little flakey. I've been running it ever since on two phones, and I now feel it's got to a stage where it's worth a review. Click all images for larger versions. How it works Click the Quad Drawer icon to see the apps and a keypad Tap an icon or Search then tap on the result If you prefer your descriptions with music and pictures you can watch the official video below: http://youtu.be/7g4ho7YeppU Sounds pretty simple, right? Well there's a lot more to it than just that. Not only are the app icons searchable, but they are also sortable to your taste, or it can automatically rearrange them based on the most regularly used. It'll even display the number of times an app has been launched since Quad Drawer was installed. It also lists your contacts, allowing the same quick access from one place. I have to say that this has made the app drawer far more usable for me. I am the kind of person who'll look at a grid of icons for ages knowing that the one I want is there, but it always seems to be in my blind spot. My favourite feature, though, is the 'floating window'. This is a small semi-transparent icon that can be placed anywhere on your screen and provide access to Quad Drawer. It will float above everything else that's happening, such as Chrome, games, videos, etc. giving a way to get to your apps without having to go to the home screen first. I thought that it would interfere and become annoying, but after half a day I didn't notice it any more, only when I wanted to launch an app. Sounds great, right? Well, it is, apart from one major flaw. There are no widgets shown, and because they are part of the normal Android app drawer you loose the ability to add them. Android without widgets? May as well just have a grid of icons... I tweeted Level Up Studios and asked if I was doing something wrong. They replied that it was not technically possible. Hopefully it will be possible soon.…Quad Drawer, the quick app drawer – Android App ReviewQuad Drawer, the quick app drawer – Android App Review82