So you’re a PlayStation fan. Then I take it you enjoy having a sleek, powerful gaming console that can truly do it all. PlayStation was the first console to play CDs and DVDs. Sony, the owners of PlayStation, played a huge role in creating Blu-Ray, beating out others to establish the format as the go-to for video game discs. And with PlayStation VR, virtual reality is now more affordable and accessible to the average consumer. With PlayStation, it’s about more than just games. It’s about having the complete multimedia package.
That’s not to say that Sony skimps on the games. PlayStation games have been some of the most memorable, defining experiences in many gamer’s lives. After school hours were spent with Crash Bandicoot and Parappa the Rapper. Uncharted blurred the line between story and gameplay to create a perfect union.
There’s a lot to be proud of when you’re a PlayStation fan. But there’s also a lot to rage over. Why don’t they make more Crash Bandicoot games so today’s kids can play them after school? Who thought the Vita was a good idea? And why do they use quick time events in so many games? Being a PlayStation fan is a unique experience, one that these comics cover in ways that will make you laugh, think, and laugh again.
20 Sony Won E3
Anyone remember the E3 when the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 were both revealed? Here’s a refresher: Microsoft announced a console that would always be connected to the internet. In fact, even playing a single-player game required internet access. Then, they announced limitations on used games. The Xbox One would be potentially programmed to reject a game that was already tied to another person’s console. Oh yeah, and a new Halo or something. Fan reaction was negative, to say the least. The next day, Sony had to say exactly two things about the PlayStation 4: it doesn’t need internet and it plays all used games. They said that, and fans rejoiced. What’s that? You want to know the price and launch games? You should probably watch the video making fun of Xbox’s stance on used games again.
19 Not Exactly An Upgrade
It took getting a Super Nintendo Classic to remind me how troublesome controllers with cables are. Even if you just set them down to take a quick snack break, the darn things get tangled. Not so in the modern age of wireless controllers. No, with those you just have to worry about losing them. Although truthfully, I often suffer a different problem with my Playstation 3 and 4: controllers running out of battery. Sometimes you just want to sit far away from the console, relaxed on the couch. But then the light starts blinking and you have to attach a cable to charge. Here’s hoping that the tech world’s new fascination with wireless charging makes its way to game consoles.
18 ShootGun Game Of The Year For Sure
The war between PlayStation and Xbox had raged on for years. And really, it’s largely pointless. Both consoles tend to perform similarly, and exclusive games seem to be getting rarer and rarer. Nowadays, it tends to be exclusive DLC or that one console gets a multiplayer beta first. Not exactly amazing reasons to choose one $300-$400 machine over the other. The only reason to pick one over the other is brand loyalty. Which is more of a personal choice in the end. People are going to just go with what they love. And after all is said and done, PC players will be laughing at us either way.
17 Not For Amateurs
I have a PS4 Pro, and I really like it. But who names these things? What exactly is so professional about a souped-up PlayStation. Does that mean that every PlayStation before this one were amateurs? Am I an amateur for using these inferior PlayStations all my life? How could I have been so foolish? Still, I suppose its better than the names the competition comes up with. What even is a Wii U? And who thought Xbox One X was a good idea? Did they just want to mimic the way all the 12-year-olds on Xbox live write their screen names? Here’s hoping the next PlayStation just gets to be the PS5 with no levels of expertise tacked on.
16 He Said Yes To Sonic…
Given how crazy well Super Mario Odyssey has been received, who wouldn’t love a Miyamoto-designed Crash or Sonic game? Sonic is almost there. His games seem to sell the most on Nintendo consoles, and he’s frequently teaming up with Mario for Smash Bros. and olympics. Now all we need is Crash to join him. Then again, Naughty Dog is still around. And Uncharted proves that the Naughty Dog team still knows how to make amazing games. They just have to actually…make video games with Crash Bandicoot in them. Hopefully the recent HD remake of the original games sparks a new interest in Crash. PlayStation needs its mascot back. Sorry, Drake. You’re cool, but you’re not Bandicoot cool.
15 They Almost Got It Right
Now that we know what the upcoming God of War is about, this Penny Arcade is more relevant than ever. While Kratos won’t do battle with these exact figures, we do know that he finds himself in a Norse-inspired realm. So it’s not hard to guess that he will be battling the Norse gods next. Is that the direction of the franchise now? Is Kratos set to just work his way through every mythology, timed-button pressing his way to victory against every god in history? Because that…actually sounds really cool. I’ll take the Egyptian gods next, Sony. Or really, we’ll take a lot of different gods — let’s do them all.
14 The Console War Has Been Decided
We already covered the silliness of console wars, so let’s talk about the accuracy and irony in this comic. Because those to me are the funniest things about it. First, the Smash Bros. prediction was entirely accurate. Wii U was home to arguably the best version of Super Smash Bros. ever, and PlayStation and Xbox still don’t have brawlers that can compete. Then there’s the Destiny comment. That sweet, sweet ironic celebration. For as the PlayStation and Xbox guys walk away victoriously, they have no idea that Destiny is bound to terribly disappoint them. For all its hype, the first Destiny had so many problems that it was just glaringly average. It took several pricey expansions to turn the game into something worth playing. Now Destiny 2? That’s worth the hype.
13 Dream Job
The Tester was such an odd idea for a show. The most passionate PlayStation fans in the country compete for a job at Sony. The job? Testing video games. Which sounds cool at first. Who wouldn’t want to play video games for a living? But that’s when things go downhill. Anyone who has looked into the industry knows that testing (or quality control or whatever a particular company calls it) is an extremely tedious and under-appreciated job. Testers work long hours, are seen as the lowliest employees, and rather than play the video games, they just sort of run into walls and jump millions of times, hoping to catch the one tiny spot where the wall is bugged. Still, the idea of a game-based reality show was fun. Maybe next time they’ll give away a better prize. Like, a year of PS Plus or something.
12 This One Doesn’t Hold Up
The most hilarious thing about this comic is how inaccurate it is today. Back when this comic was drawn, the Kinect was full of potential. It made dance games more fun, it had slight facial recognition, and even had applications in the medical world. The PlayStation Move, meanwhile, was seen as little more than a glorified Wiimote. Then PlayStation VR happened. All of a sudden the Move controllers were part of an ambitious package. To hold them now is to control the game world around you. They’re even more important than Wiimotes now. The Kinect, meanwhile, has been officially abandoned by Microsoft. Time certainly changes things.
11 Sound Business Plan
The joke that PlayStation All Stars Battle Royale is just a clone of Super Smash Bros has been done to death. But I totally forgot about Little Big Planet Karting. It does really seem that, at some point, Sony looked at Nintendo’s success with the Wii and wanted some of that. Which is fair. Companies borrow ideas from one another all the time. But it does make me wonder what lessons Sony and Microsoft will learn from the Switch. Then again, Sony is in a pretty good place with PlayStation VR right now. They should really be using this momentum to release a kart game for VR. Crash Team Racing, maybe? If done right, that could easily beat Mario Kart.
10 The Figure Was Sweet Though
It must have been quite a shock for Crash Bandicoot fans to find out that their beloved mascot was returning…as a Skylander. The funny thing is, the Skylanders games aren’t actually that bad. They’ve got pretty solid progression and mechanics. They’re just not the full Crash experience. There was always the hope that Crash being in any game at all meant that he could make a return. After all, the Skylanders Crash set featured a special level that was modeled after Crash Bandicoot’s gameplay. And lo and behold, Crash did return…in a remaster of his old games. Being a Crash Bandicoot fan must be a special kind of suffering…
9 They Really Do Love Their QTEs…
The writer of Nerd Rage may have done this intentionally, but all three of the game characters pictured in this comic all use timed button presses in some form. There was certainly a period where all console games loved quick time events, but PlayStation exclusive games saw a lot of them. They’re still quite prevalent today. Perhaps it’s part of the package with games that are a “cinematic experience.” Or maybe the developers at Sony’s partner studios just really love them. I personally enjoy them, and don’t see the hatred some people have for them. Although, it would be nice to see Kratos fight a different way in the new God of War…
8 Better Pre-Order
Okay, so it actually didn’t happen that fast. The PlayStation 2 was around for a very long time, and the PS3 had a good run. But I do think this comic sort of predicts the future/comments on the idea of remakes. We have a PS4 slim and Pro now? How long until the next upgrade happens? Or the next new slimmed-down, cost-effective version? As fans, it’s difficult to keep up with the upgrades. Sure, if you bought at launch you can just use your original unit. But then you hear about how the newer models play games better and run PSVR more efficiently. Sometimes it feels like PC gamers have it right. Just buy one unit and upgrade over time. Then again, you miss out on exclusives. Tough choice, right?
7 I Wouldn’t Wait Either
Oh the day a new big game comes out. You watch the clock slowly tick down, you can’t focus on anything, and you watch people post videos and pictures on social media. When you’re finally free, you rush to buy the game and then rush home, breaking several traffic laws in the process. You pop the disk in as soon as you get home, only to discover that it needs a day-one update. After that long process, you log and see…people already at the max level. It’s insane. But what can you do? Call out sick? Actually, that’s not a bad idea. I might just have a cold the day Battlefront 2 comes out…
6 But That Cross Platform!
The Vita is actually an amazing piece of hardware. It just seems like it never got any killer software that took advantage of its capabilities. Every time I browse a game store and look at the Vita section, I see a lot of anime-style games. Which appeals to me. I’m a filthy weeb and I know it. But I can see how having anime as the selling point of your system wouldn’t bring in a large, varied audience. Oh, and there’s cross-platform play, I guess? Another cool idea that seems underutilized. I don’t know many people who won’t just wait until they get home to play on their TV. Or they prefer the all-in-one of the Switch. Maybe that’s what Sony needs. A high-powered Vita that can also be the PS5. Throw the ability to connect to PSVR, and I’m sold.
5 Journey’s End
Journey was such a calm and relaxing game, so it’s fun to imagine what would happen if more danger was inserted into its world. In this case, the artist decided that a Star Wars crossover would be appropriate. And that’s about it. What, you were expecting some deep analysis of the comic, or witty remark about its commentary of the gaming industry? Nope, sorry. This is literally just three panels of setup and a punchline. Maybe you should just go on over to the next comic. No, seriously. I’m done here. My fingers are starting to get tired of typing. Can you please move on now?
4 YO THIS IS IMPORTANT
There does seem to be this need in video game journalism to report every little thing that happens. Which makes sense on some level. In the sports world, people eat that stuff up. “WHO got traded to WHERE?” “THAT guy is the new coach?” But fans of video games don’t really care. We may care about what happens to prolific developers like Hideo Kojima, but for the most part the workings of the industry don’t really shake us. We just want to play our games. But websites have quotas to meet. And anything can be news if its extrapolated on enough. Basically, you just need to find different ways to say the same thing. Pad out an article with extra words, and they won’t even noticed you’ve been talking nonsense about a three-panel comic for a whole paragraph. See how that works?
3 Totally Not Biased
Having been to E3, I can reliably say that the hype is real. So real that everyone, journalist or regular fan, is crammed into the booths trying to play their most-anticipated games. The shortest wait time to demo a game is around an hour. With so much going on and so much time spent in lines, no one person can see it all. So people are forced to pick their favorites and focus on those. In such an environment, where picking favorites is encouraged, it makes sense that biases are at all-time highs. That’s why we see one proclamation of “SONY WON E3” right next to another that says “SMASH RULEZ #NINTENDOWONE3.” In reality, no one really wins. There’s no trophy. But darn it all if every Youtuber and gaming news outlet doesn’t try to say otherwise.
2 Don’t Ask About Sly Cooper Either
One of the worst aspects of being a longtime PlayStation fan is watching your favorite franchises disappear into nothingness. Crash was the face of PlayStation, and now he’s just an HD remake. Spyro was cool, and now he’s part of a dead initiative to make figures into video games. MediEvil is…just not there. The strangest thing about this is that fans are quite vocal about wanting sequels for these old games. There’s already a built-in base of buyers waiting with their wallets open. Some, certainly, are beyond Sony’s power because of rights issues. Others just seem like negligence on Sony’s part. They’d rather focus on big, movie-esque games like Uncharted and The Last Of Us. Meanwhile, nice shout out with Colony Wars. I had to look it up to remind myself what it was.
1 Fully Immersive Experience
The Uncharted games are one of the best relationships between gameplay and story in video game history. The developers of Uncharted, Naughty Dog, clearly give a lot of thought to context. Every gameplay action is reflected in the story, whether it be a joking reference or a direct result of a character’s decision. So when something in an Uncharted game doesn’t exactly ring true, it’s glaringly obvious. Such as when a character is clearly wearing a rope and won’t use it to climb. Then again, it could just be that Sam is the worst. Sully and Elena would use rope if they had it. Sully and Elena would never let us down. Actually, can the next game just have Sully and Elena without Sam?
