Begun, The Console Wars Have

So the PlayStation 4 got announced, that happened. Normally the hardware manufacturers announce new consoles at E3, which takes place in June, but apparently Sony just couldn't wait. In the long run, this early announcement will probably work out in their favor, since they are planning to launch this new console by the end of this year. If they had waited until June, it would have been too late to properly generate hype for this holiday season. Also, this standalone event was widely advertised, and saw viewership in the millions during the live press conference. These independent press releases may become the way of the future for hardware announcements, since Microsoft is allegedly planning one for April.

While the system itself was not shown during the conference, (it's likely still in the development stage, so the machine itself would look more like a PC at the moment) we did get a sneak peek at the PS4's internal architecture, and what we saw was both surprising and not. Unsurprisingly, the internal hardware is being compared to a PC at every turn. As this new generation continues to press forward into the realms of gaming that were previously unavailable to consoles, such as modding and streaming, the comparisons to PC's become more and more apparent. In the past, consoles existed separately from PC's on the gaming front, because they filled different roles, and offered different advantages, but as we face the dawn of a new generation, this line continues to become more and more blurry. The PS4 is tailor made for this style of crossover, offering an x86 8 core AMD processor, a “next generation” AMD Radeon based GPU, and an impressive 8 Gigs of GDDR5 RAM.

What is surprising however, is the degree to which these features are being implemented. The PS4 features specifications that are far beyond anything the current generation of consoles has to offer, which isn't too surprising since the PS3 came out in 2006, but still impressive nonetheless. Sony plans to make use of these features with their “Share” button, a new button on every controller that will allow real time screenshots, video recording, and even streaming of anything you are playing. The PS4 will also feature cloud based storage and streaming, features which will supposedly allow you to access your games and media anywhere through your phone, tablet, or PS Vita.

The new controller isn't anything special, it deviates very little from the established design of the PlayStation brand controller. The biggest change, aside from the aforementioned “Share” button, is the introduction of a touch-pad, and an LED light bar, that will be detected by a new 3D camera for motion detection.

From this angle it looks like a Dwebble

Sony claims that this motion detection is not a replacement for the PlayStation Move platform, but rather an addition to it, however nothing shows off how lazy a peripheral design is like when it is remade correctly, and actually integrates quite nicely.

There are still quite a few mysteries about the PlayStation 4 that have not been answered yet, most notably the price. By my estimate, it would cost in the ballpark of $600 to build a PC with the kind of numbers they are talking about, but that is definitely on the high end. After the press disaster that was the PS3 launch, I doubt Sony will charge any more than they absolutely have to, but I could still see it hovering around the $450 to $500 range. Another question involves the maximum capabilities of the system. If Sony wants these features like streaming and cloud downloading to be operational for every title, then games will have to be designed with an artificial cap in mind, since the system will need to keep resources reserved for those features. We’ll probably have to wait till E3 to get more information, but if Sony can live up to all of these promises, then you can bet I’ll be getting one.

Travelogue: Katsucon 2013

Anime conventions are an interesting beast. All of the subsets of nerd conventions feature some crossover between fandoms. There are strictly video game based conventions like PAX, but you’ll still see anime cosplayers and comic book elements there. Similarly, at comic book conventions like Comic-con there will be crossovers with anime, video games, and big franchises like Star Wars or Lord of the Rings, even really specific conventions like Star Trek ones will see some crossover. Anime conventions however are by far the most homogenized, featuring near equal parts of a wide variety of different cultures, and Katsucon was no 

exception. 

Additional pictures provided by Norse Dance Party Cosplay

Katsucon featured a wide variety of events and activities that would appeal to many different people. It featured everything from voice actor autograph signings to AMV contests to a video game room. The convention definitely offered something for everyone, even if you aren't a fan of anime. The costumes that people wore to the event also featured lots of variety, continuing the mixing of cultures and fandoms.


The most likely cause for the mixing of cultures is that anime conventions encourage cosplay, and have the highest rate of people who dress up to attend. Many different people choose to dress up, and for many different reasons, but the most common reason would be that the person likes the outfit or character. When you have several hundred different people all dressing up as things they like, there will be very little overlap, and lots of variety.


If I had any complaints about the convention, it would be the large crowds making high traffic areas difficult to move in, and the limited food options in the convention center. Most other conventions are connected to a mall or food court, or they provide their own food vendors to offer those services. These issues though are largely out of the control of the convention staff, and fall to the hotel that houses the convention center.


Despite the long drive, Katsucon was a lot of fun, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who lives in or is visiting the D.C. area. It is similar in a lot of ways to more local conventions (for me) like Anime Boston, so I don’t know if you would consider it worth the trip, but I suppose it depends on where you live.

About Me: The Blog Post

When I made this blog, I decided that was going to try to avoid making posts about myself. I mean, every post is technically about me, but all of them are just posts about my opinions on things. I created this blog for multiple reasons, but mainly just to get my opinions on various matters written down for all to see. However, necessity dictates that I do a post about my adventures, since next week is going to be quite busy for me.

This upcoming weekend, February 15^th – 17^th, I’ll be at Katsu-Con, in National Harbor, Maryland. One of the original reasons I started this blog was to have a place to recount my convention-going adventures (hence the name Wandering Gamer), however this is the first convention I will actually be going to since the blog was created. I've never been to Katsu-Con before, so I'm not exactly sure what to expect, but I have a basic idea. I'll be going with some friends, however I'm the one who get to drive across 4 states to get there, so that'll be fun. If you are going to Katsu-Con, keep an eye out for me, I'll be in my trademark Pikmin shirt:

The other piece of big news is that I'll be starting my new job after getting back from Katsu-Con. It only took nearly two years of job hunting to find a job in my field, but what can you do. This new job will be taking up a lot more of my time than my old job did, so I may have to change to a bi-weekly update schedule. I hope I don’t have to do that, especially with several conventions coming up that I’ll want to post about, so believe that I'm going to do everything in my power to keep making posts every Tuesday.

So next week expect a “Reflections from Katsu-Con” post about what I saw there. I'll include any games I got to play, anything interesting I saw, and pictures, lots of pictures. There will also be several more of the convention reflection posts coming, with PAX East, Anime Boston, and Boston Comic-Con all within a few weeks of each other. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to Fire Emblem: Awakening, which I’m pretty sure has eaten my soul.

This Post is Whack, Yo

You know, I never thought I’d have to do a racism post on this blog, but here we are. People get so defensive whenever racism is brought up as a part of an argument. This probably stems from the virtual flogging that celebrities and other famous people receive whenever that say something that could even be misinterpreted as racist. As a result, many people (erroneously) believe that simply throwing up the racism card is an easy way to win arguments, or at least gain sympathy and supporters.

This leads me to our racism debacle de jour for the week: Mike Sacco, a contractor for Cryptozoic Entertainment, made a tweet about how he feels that the character Tiny Tina from Borderlands 2 is a racial stereotype, and should be removed from the game. This led to a number of other tweets from fans in agreement of the accusation, and finally a response from the CEO of Gearbox, stating that “tina is not racist”.

This is Tiny Tina:

She’s a wacky, mildly insane 13 year old with a capacity for violence and a twisted sense of humor. Her dialogue ranges from delightful childlike rants, to impromptu rap songs, to ADD fueled randomness, but it’s her propensity toward “urban slang” that has earned her so much ire from fans. According to Sacco, she is a “white girl talkin’ like them urban folk!!” and has even been referred to as “verbal blackface”. The problem here is that these people don’t really understand racism, so I’m going to try to put this as simply as I can:

If you think that the character of Tiny Tina is racist, than you are a racist. Here’s why:

These people are claiming that “urban slang” is the domain of low class black people, and to have a white character saying those lines is insensitive. Insensitive to whom!? Black people don’t own that way of speaking, just like how white people don’t own speaking in a British accent. Manners of speaking cannot be owned by anyone, racially or otherwise, and to believe that black people should all sound like other black people and all white people should sound like other white people is the epitome of racism. There are plenty of people living in low class areas of all races that speak that way, just like how there are eloquent and well-mannered people of all races. The circumstances of your birth are effectively random, and should never be a source of pride or shame, and to believe that people should sound the way they look means that you assign values to people based on their race, and expect them to act accordingly.

You said it kid.

The sooner we all get over our racial guilt that happier we’ll all be, because let’s face it, Tiny Tina is hilarious.