The Order 1886 - Grand Finale

image: playstation.com

Yes, this thing still exists!

I have been being a Real Adult (TM) and working full time hours (mostly), and also playing lots and lots of Fallout 4. But I might as well finish off this set, so hit the jump for the last of The Order. Didn't feel like doing captions for this set, but there's end game stuff.

The Order 1886 - Part 4

image: playstation.com

Been a while, again. But here we are with another set of The Order 1886.

Before that, earlier this week I finished the episodic series Life Is Strange, as well as Tales From The Borderlands. Both were great, and I applaud both Telltale and Dontnod for their work. I am working on a second playthrough of Life Is Strange, as I have resisted looking up the other versions of the ending and want to experience at least one first hand (well, technically I read about it, I just haven't SEEN it yet). I am preparing for this to be me:

also me after playing the Fizzie: The Inside Story side mission in Sunset Overdrive.

Also, the ending was fine. I have spoken, and I am always right. A-hyuk-hyuk.

And before the actual content, my friend Moose told me about a great band called The Unlovables, who recently got back together after an 8 year break to record a split LP with Dirt Bike Annie, who also reunited for this album. If you love sappy female fronted pop-punk like I do (it's my only true weakness in life), do yourself a solid and check them out!

Reunion Show split LP (Soundcloud link, autoplays)
Heartsickle (Bandcamp)
Crush*Boyfriend*Heartbreak (Bandcamp)

And with that, hit the jump for more Photo Mode goodness:

The Return Of Photo Mode Photography: The Order 1886 part 3

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Welp, I am officially bad at updating things. Started a new job and such, but mostly being lazy.

So let's cut to the chase and hit the jump for some more Order 1886 screenies!

The Order: 1886 - Part 3, also art

image: playstation.com

Got another patch of screens from The Order: 1886, as well as some art, because why the heck not?

So let's start with the Photoshop paintings:

One version of my Sunset Overdrive character. I like to change her up every once in a while.

That's Fizzie, the mascot for Fizzco, the beverage company slash antagonists of Sunset Overdrive, dressed up as Santa Claus. The really cool part is that it was used in a fan tribute video that is streaming IN THE GAME on Sunset TV screens, until the end of time (or, I guess until the servers streaming the video go down)!  If you have a copy of the game, do yourself a solid and check out the other great works that made it into the video.

Drew this after I saw Millencolin in concert last week. It's their mascot as it appears in the music video for Bring Me Home.

Somehow I got the idea to do a parody of Bad Religion's Suffer artwork, using The Other Side by Tonight Alive as the inspiration.

Alrighty, hit the jump for more of The Order: 1886!

The Order 1886 - Part 2, also video

image:playstation.com

Well, it's been a while, and I blame Wasteland 2 for that. Time for another batch of The Order 1886 photo mode shots.

But first, I decided to give Blender's video editor a go. Blender is a free multimedia suite that does 3D, texturing, rigging, compositing and video editing all in one program (in a nutshell, you can make an entire project inside this one program). It's kind of the opposite of "user-friendly" so if you decide to check it out, be prepared to hit up YouTube for some tutorials.

Here's the result. Nothing fancy, just some Sunset Overdrive DVR footage I had laying around cut together with some text overlays I made in Photoshop. If you have the Windows Xbox App, you can download your DVRs to your computer. Nifty!

At one point, I considered making this a lyric video, but some of the clips don't have the full mix with vocals playing, and also the explosions and utter mayhem kind of drown the vocals out in places.

And now, for more of The Order 1886, hit the jump.

The Order: 1886 - Part 1

image: playstation.com

Finally stopped being a lazy putz and got my screenshots from the PS4. Today we start a new Photo Mode set, for The Order:1886, an alternate history cover shooter set in Britain in the year, WAIT FOR IT, 1886. In this universe, the Knights Of The Round Table are still a thing, and they're packing heat.

Before we start, totally get Until Dawn if you're a horror fan. I know games are $74.99 in Canada for a standard edition, but if you can spare the money, do get this game new and support its creators. While it does have a lot of jump scares (personally not a fan), it's still got a lot of great tension build-up and atmosphere, and it is a great and campy tribute to all eras of horror. Be prepared to have great reflexes if you want the best outcomes, though, since Quick-Time Events are aplenty and can be unforgiving (while non-essential, I keep missing the one to high-five Josh, what am I even doing with my life?!).

Anywho, let's get on with the new set, shall we? Hit the jump, good sir or madam, and grab a cuppa.

Back from hiatus

Just a quick update. My computer's power switch took a dirt nap, so I had to get a new one. After a week or so of procrastinating, it's up and running, and I haven't vanished in a mysterious, computer-related explosion yet, so everything is all good so far.

I am pretty sure I have only lost a little bit of data since I backed up several things to an external HD after my old PC booted itself up by itself. Sadly, I was an idiot and turned it back off again (I swear, it tricked me. I accidentally turned it off one night, but it started up again fine when I turned it back on right away. Then I had the brilliant idea of leaving it off overnight, and that was the final nail in the coffin).

Will be back with photo mode pics soon, the next entry will be a series for PS4 exclusive The Order 1886.

Anywho, that's that. Stay tuned for The Order 1886!

The Last Of Us: Left Behind - Finale (end game spoilers)

image: playstaytion blog

It's time for the latest and final batch of Photo Mode grabs for Left Behind. There's obvious spoilers inside, but if you've played the main story, you know what's what. Not sure what's next for the blog in the short term, but I'll think of something.

Thanks once again for reading and hit the jump for all the goodness and #Feels.

The Last Of Us: Left Behind - Part 4

image: playstation blog

Howdy. We return with with more teenage hijinks from Left Behind. But before we get to that (OH LORDY NOT THE SOAPBOX AGAIN! Don't worry, it'll be brief):

Nolan North is replacing Peter Dinklage as the voice of Ghost in Destiny. Now, I traded in Destiny after a month like any sane person did, but this is a fantastic excuse to post this:

Rust in peace, Dinklebot. If you want to know why I traded in Destiny, go watch Angry Joe's review (contains lots of nerd rage and curse words, if that's not your thing). With the exception of the tasteless battered wife analogy, I pretty much agree with everything he says. That'll save me having to type out everything wrong with the game, and also costing you half an hour of your time! WIN! Well, for me at least.

With that out of the way, hit the jump for more Left Behind goodness:

Life Is Strange Episode 4: The Dark Room (slight spoilers)

image: Xbox Store

We interrupt Left Behind for some shots from the newest episode of Life Is Strange, or as I like to call it, Just Kiss Already, You Two: The Game.

Spoiler alert, it totally happens. Unless you don't, then you are dead inside. How does it feel to be dead inside?!

Episode 4 launched this week, and they definitely pulled out the Feels Sledgehammers in it. So here are some slightly spoilery shots (the first few, at least), courtesy of Hitting The Jump:

The Last Of Us: Left Behind - Part 3, Also About Troy Baker

image: playstation blog

How about a helping of new Left Behind Photo Mode screenshots? But before that:

I feel a need to address what happened with Troy Baker, Joel's voice actor.

Troy reposted a transphobic joke, comparing Brett Michaels' appearance to Caitlyn Jenner (which might as well be "he looks like a transgender woman! ha ha ha!" it's really just the transphobic equivalent of comparing Black people to monkeys), people called him on it (I cannot comment on the civility of it, because the tweet itself was deleted before I was able to see it), he got offended by people being offended and rage quit Twitter instead of being a grown up and apologizing.

"It's just a joke!" doesn't count for anything because to transgender people, this is not a joke, it is their lives. They have had to live with mockery and ridicule simply for daring to be themselves in a society that still treats them as a cheap punchline. So you'll have to excuse some people for not wanting to laugh at themselves when the world is always doing that anyway.

I want to get to the goods of this post soon, so in conclusion, Troy handled this in the worst possible way, which is very disappointing because he's a great actor and I love hearing him in the games I play. All Troy needs to do is come back and apologize, and hopefully learn from this. That said, comedy is hard, and people need room to make mistakes. I hope Troy's critics know that. Before I get off the soapbox, I would like to point out that both Nolan North (voice of David in The Last Of Us, also That Guy From Every Other Game, Ever) and Evil Dead legend Bruce Campbell have also made transphobic posts and guess what? They owned up to them instead cowering away in the Angry Dome. Take notes, Mr. DeWitt.

Okay, with that out of the way, hit the jump for Part 3!

The Last Of Us: Left Behind - Part 2

image: playstation blog

Time for another helping of Photo Mode pics from Left Behind. In this post, we'll meet Riley, portrayed by Yaani King.

Hit the jump for shenanigans.

The Last Of Us: Left Behind - Part 1

image: playstation blog

Well, it's a been a while, so here we go with shots from The Last Of Us' one and only story DLC, Left Behind, which tells the story of Ellie and her best friend, Riley, before the main events of The Last Of Us through a framed narrative which switches between  the Winter time segment and the past.

Hit the jump for more Last Of Us goodness!

The Last Of Us Remastered - Part 14 (End game spoilers)

image: playstation.com

This is it, the final set of shots for the main story of The Last Of Us. I had a blast reliving this amazing emotional journey for the third time.

Obviously, there will be end game spoilers after the jump. Enjoy.

The Last Of Us Remastered - Part 13 (story spoilers)

image: playstation.com

It's the penultimate entry for The Last Of Us' main story! There will be story spoilers in this one.

Thinking about grabbing The Order 1886, I hear it has Photo Mode. It's also been criticized for being very short (about 4 hours with little replay value), but it's gone down to $40, so $10/hour is still pretty good. Better value than most things, at least.

Anywho, hit the jump for shots.

The Last Of Us Remastered - Part 12

image: playstation.com

We're getting pretty close to the end here with The Last Of Us! At some point I may consider doing a New Game+ to grab some shots from sections I missed due to not thinking of doing this at the time (also, PS4 Trophies. Precious, precious Trophies that mean nothing at all!).

Of course, I am expecting my schedule for work any time soon, so who knows how many more posts I'll get done before it slows down.

Anywho, enjoy the next set.

The Last Of Us Remastered - Part 11

image: playstation.com

A few days have past since the last post, meaning it is time for the obligatory update! Some freaky/disturbing stuff within.

The Last Of Us Remastered - Part 10

image: playstation.com

Been a while, time for more of The Last Of Us! I knew this was going to happen to moment I started playing Elder Scrolls Online.

I got nothing to preface this with, so here's the obligatory "hit the jump" sentence.

InFamous: Second Son - Part 2

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Time for the second and final set of InFamous: Second Son pics.

But first, I must say that this year's E3 reveals were pretty stellar. Mass Effect: Andromeda and Gears 4 (and the previously gushed upon Fallout 4) are on the "to obsess over" list. Really liked the Star Wars: Battlefront footage, but it's out too soon after Fallout 4. Dark Souls 3 will be more delightful masochism and nerd rage. And DOOM looks like a great treat for old fans and those of us who played it later when it went up on Steam, and it's sure to stir up the moral panic-y types. I haven't watched it yet, but I am sure I will love the Deus Ex: Mankind Divided gameplay demo. Backwards compatibility for the Xbox One is great but all the people who traded their games in for the One are probably understandably annoyed.

On the flip side:

The Black Ops 3 demo used really, really, boring campaign footage, which is a shame because I think the Black Ops campaigns are the best of the franchise. I'm sure there will be more eventful parts, but that was way too underwhelming for a franchise known for being "like Michael Bay, but video games". And like Battlefront, it's too close to the release of Fallout 4.

I was also pretty disappointed that Sony didn't show off Salt And Sanctuary, the new game from Ska Studios, the creators of Dishwasher and Charlie Murder. I've been watching their dev streams on Twitch and the game is looking solid. They are also a two person husband-wife studio (with cats), and could have greatly benefited from the exposure.

And with that out of the way, hit the jump for more super powered fun times, in screenshot form!

The Last Of Us Remastered - Part 9 (story spoilers)

image: playstation.com

It's time for another round of The Last Of Us Remastered!

I recently started playing The Elder Scrolls Online, so you'll have to forgive me if I manage to forget to post an update. Last night around 3-ish I said, "I'll just finish this quest and go to bed" and it was 4:30 before I knew it. Yeah.

Anyway, hit that jump for some spoiler-ific shots. Maybe disturbing content for some.

InFamous: Second Son - Part 1

image: playstation.com

Taking a small break from The Last Of Us, I recently logged back into InFamous: Second Son to grab some shots in Photo Mode.

A brief plug before we get to that, though. The Xbox One exclusive Sunset Overdrive is on sale this for Deals With Gold this week. If you have a Gold account, you can grab the standard or deluxe editions on the dashboard at a discount. If you have the game but no DLC, you can grab the Season Pass at a discount as well (Deluxe comes with the pass plus some extra guns and melee skins). It's one of the most fun games I've ever played, and I highly recommend it. Best of all, you can play three hours for free and keep your save progress (I think. That's usually how it works). All info is right here.

Now then:

Second Son is an open world game where Delsin Rowe, an Akomish Native American with the power to absorb the powers of other Conduits (who have the ability to manipulate materials such as smoke and neon) seeks to absorb the powers of Augustine, a Conduit who embeds concrete shards into the bodies of his tribe members, so he can heal them. Delsin travels to Seattle to do this, and Seattle is put in lockdown by Augustine's DUP forces (Department of Unified Protection), who are there to capture any runaway Conduits. Second Son features a Karma system, which goes towards Good or Evil depending on the player's choices in terms of play style and plot decisions.

All shots are taken post-game, and there are no real plot spoilers.

The Last Of Us Remastered - Part 8

image: playstation.com

It's been a few days, so here's another update.

Before that, though, I of course must voice my excitement for the announcement of Fallout 4:

Okay, that video is 10 hours long, don't watch the whole thing (unless you really want to). I absolutely love the Fallout series, and cannot wait to explore the wasteland again. I just hope it's a bit more stable than previous games, though it really isn't a Fallout game without game breaking bugs, is it?

Anyway, onto the next segment of The Last Of Us!

The Last Of Us Remastered - Part 7

image: playstation.com

Time for another helping of The Last Of Us Remastered. I have finished the story and have all the pics organized. I won't bombard you with all of them at once, of course. The next course will be to do the same with the Left Behind DLC.

I'll save my gushing over the game for the final post in this series. For now, hit the jump for the next set of shots.

The Last Of Us Remastered - Part 6

image: playstation.com

Time for another update for The Last Of Us Remastered. Let's see what Ellie and Joel have gotten themselves into this time.

Cutting Room Floor - UI Part 1

Here is the first part in what I predict will be an ongoing series of shots where UI was in the way for whatever reason. This set is pretty all-ages, some* blood and a bit of blunt force trauma aside.

 *okay, it's not just some, but it's not a gushing wound or a head exploding or something, it's just a big smear.

The Last Of Us Remastered - Part 5

image: playstation.com

Another day, another batch of The Last Of Us Remastered Photo Mode fun. Slight spoilers within.

The Last Of Us Remastered - Part 4

image: playstation.com

Time for another helping of The Last Of Us Remastered! Let's see what our friends have gotten themselves into this time. A bit of mildly violent and somewhat disturbing content warning.

Videos!

So here's the first video post. At least one of them is actually new!

Obvious violence and maybe language warnings.

The Last Of Us Remastered - Part 3

image: playstation.com

And we're back with more shots from The Last Of Us Remastered! Hit the jump to continue on to Part 3!

edit: While adding a search description to these posts I noticed I forgot to set these images to "large". Derp.

Life Is Strange - Part 1

Many choices lie ahead, none of them easy.

Life Is Strange is an episodic adventure/puzzle game by DONTNOD Entertainment. It follows the story of Max(ine) Caufield, who has returned to her hometown of Arcadia Bay after going to school in Seattle for 5 years, to attend the prestigious Blackwell Academy. She discovers she has the power to rewind time, which she uses to save her best friend, Chloe Price, a former student at Blackwell whom she hasn't seen since leaving for Seattle. Reunited, they try to figure out what the deal with her power is, as well as getting caught up in the dark dealings at Blackwell, the disappearance for Chloe's friend Rachel Amber, and a vision Max has of Arcadia Bay's destruction. It is a 5-part game, for which three episodes have been released so far. It takes a page from the book of Telltale Games, who are known for their excellent storytelling and choice/consequences in their games. This game stands out from Telltale's by allowing the player to rewind time to not only see all the possible dialogue options (itself a puzzle mechanic), but to change any choices they made that have an impact on the plot. You have to settle on a choice eventually, though.

Unlike The Last Of Us Remastered, this game does not feature a similar "photo mode" (kind of ironic, seeing how Max is an aspiring photographer and photography is an optional gameplay mechanic). However, I did find a few cool shots that fit in with the premise of this blog.

Hit the jump to continue. One minor curse in the first shot, otherwise clean.

The Last Of Us Remastered - Part 2

image: playstation.com

Welcome to the next installment of The Last Of Us Remastered. I've got a bigger update here, and I will try to keep updates (for this game at least) nice and meaty. I took a slew of screenshots last night, and don't want to overwhelm myself by the time I update this thing. Also, more content for the reader. Win-win!

As a side note, most of these are in sequential order of the game, and major spoilers are probably unavoidable (posts will be flagged as such).

Anywho, hit the jump to continue to Part 2!

The Last Of Us Remastered - Part 1

image: playstation.com

In June 2013, Naughty Dog and Sony released The Last Of Us, a Playstation 3 exclusive about a teenage girl named Ellie being escorted across post-apocalyptic America by Joel, a survivor of an outbreak of Cordyceps, a fungus that normally infects and controls insects and arachnids. This strain has mutated to infect humans, and the resulting outbreak has caused society to collapse. Ellie was born after the outbreak, and is seeing the world outside of her quarantine zone for the first time. Last year, the game was re-released for the Playstation 4 console with improved visuals and a new Photo Mode, which allowed the player to pause the game and take screenshots as if they were there with a camera (with limitations of course).

TIME Magazine ran an article about one photographer's experience with the feature, which you can find here.

After the jump are some of the shots I have captured using the Photo Mode feature. More will come as I am still playing through it. When I get to it, I will also include shots from the Left Behind downloadable content (DLC), which is now available as a standalone title.

Introduction

Hi. My name is Chris Chan. I am an animation grad, concert goer, video game player, background extra and odd-job taker. I also contribute to the Sunset Overdrive Wikia. I have decided to start up a blog after fiddling with the Photo Mode on the Playstation 4 game, The Last Of Us Remastered. Most of the updates will be screenshots which I deem to have photography-grade quality, although some may have UI elements due to the lack of a Photo Mode. I might even link to the odd video I hack together in Xbox One's Upload Studio (or PS4 Share Factory, should I get around to using it). The odd opinion piece might spring up as well.

I have no intended schedule for this blog, and stuff will be updated whenever. Here's a few examples of stuff I'll be posting.

Photo Mode example: InFamous: First Light, PS4 (Sucker Punch Productions, 2014)

Raw example: Sunset Overdrive, Xbox One (Insomniac Games, 2014)

Video example: Sunset Overdrive (made in Upload Studio), violence and language warning.

Speaking of violent content, I'll do my best to keep it PG-13. So, the one of Cassie Cage taking a selfie after knocking out Jason Vorhees' jaw in Mortal Kombat X is probably out of the question. Maybe I'll do an external link thing for those instead.

Anywho, hopefully this will catch the interest of some people. I've got a run of The Last Of Us Remastered shots lined up, with more to come (I am still trudging through it, been taking my time since I have played through it twice on PS3), so content is going up soon.