Analysis: Sony PS4: One year on, has the PlayStation 4 lived up to the hype?

Tomorrow sees the PlayStation 4 turn one year old and it's had quite the debut.

With Nintendo and its floundering Wii U console barely a speck in the rapidly-shrinking distance, PS4 has battled Microsoft's much-maligned Xbox One console at every turn and come up smelling of roses time after time.

Records have been broken, exclusivity deals have been made and fan allegiances won and lost – so as Sony blows out the candles this November, was it greatness that awaited that sleek black box?

"Sony has now sold a mind-melting 13.5 million PS4 units worldwide"

PS4's first month couldn't have started any better; Microsoft's garbled handling of Xbox One's defining 'always online' and DRM features in the months leading up to its November 2013 launch had left its fanbase – both casual and hardcore – looking for a new port to call home.

With an aggressive PR campaign and some social media-minded executives in the form of Jack Tretton, Adam Boyes and Shuhei Yoshida, PS4 hit the ground running.

In the US alone PS4 sold 1 million units within 24 hours of its launch (a staggering figure when you think it took Nintendo a whole year to sell 1.5m Wii U's) with global sales reaching 2.1m by the beginning of December.

PS4 went into the Christmas period as a must-have item, thanks in no small part to Sony's aggressive pricing. At £399 in the UK it was a whole £30 cheaper than Microsoft's rival platform and with requests for PS4 going through the roof, Sony must have been wringing its hands with glee as it struggled to meet global demand.

All these sales are a little surprising considering the relative lack of solid software available for new adopters, though.

Two of PS4s biggest launch titles – the socially-minded racer Driveclub and the uber-hyped open-world hacker sim Watch Dogs – were delayed well into 2014, leaving Sony's new hardware a little threadbare in the software department.

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag proved to be one of the series' most popular (and commercially successful) instalments, but its availability on old-gen consoles took much of its PS4 sheen away.

It was much the same for cross-gen titles such as Need For Speed Rivals, FIFA 14, Madden 25, etc, while Battlefield 4 blew its own foot clean off with servers as unstable as its much advertised falling skyscrapers (although this issue affected every single platform DICE's shooter was released on, so its effect on PS4's overall sales seems marginal at best).

Only cutesy platformer Knack, download-only shoot-'em-up Resogun and sci-fi shooter Killzone: Shadow Fall could offer the mystique of a proper 'new-gen only' experience.

The new Killzone looked great, but its much-lauded open-ended level design was sadly resigned to a small percentage of the game, while Knack was… well, a knackered attempt at a platformer.

Only Housemarque's Resogun ticked every box, offering addictive score-hunting gameplay and visuals so good you'd want to lick the screen. In fact, it would take ten whole months for PS4 to get its first piece of unit-shifting software. You might have heard of it? It's called Destiny…

Destiny was, and is, a big deal for PlayStation. Yes, the phenomenon that made $350m for publisher Activision in just five days is technically available on both Xbox platforms as well, but a heavily-PlayStation branded advertising campaign helped drive PS4 hardware sales into the stratosphere.

Strangely it would be on Xbox One that Destiny would sell the most copies, but a ninth straight month as the number one selling console was more than enough for Sony.

In and around Destiny there were a few standout releases (inFamous: Second Son, The Last Of Us Remastered and Driveclub being the most notable) but its clear that 2015 will be the real proving ground for Sony's promise of gaming greatness.

Sony recently added the ability to change the background of the PS4's XMB

It's been almost 20 months since Sony unveiled PS4 back in February 2013 and since then Sony has sold a mind-melting 13.5 million units worldwide.

That's quite a few people that have either upgraded from PS3, switched over from a rival platform or purchased PS4 as a first console, with many of them likely charmed by Sony's refreshingly no-nonsense promises.

Question is, how many of those promises actually made it into reality 12 months on?

Well, Cerny's promise of a, "supercharged PC," has proven a solid investment thanks to its powerful 8GB of GDDR5 and the developer-friendly X86 architecture – in fact, news of new-gen games hitting 1080p and 60fps on PS4 (while failing to hit that on Xbox One) have become so common its barely newsworthy anymore.

Many of the unique features that sets PS4 from its rivals are now a reality, but its taken the best part of a year for them to get here.

Remote Play (which enables you to stream any PS4 game through your PS Vita handheld console or Xperia smartphone) remains a remarkably reliable service while the newly-added Share Play feature (where one player with a full copy of a game can invite one of his friends to join him, even if they don't own a copy themselves) looks set to be a huge hit among its ever increasing user base.

Sadly, the Suspend & Resume feature, which enables you to turn on your PS4 and jump back into a game in an instant, has proven a little too ambitious to realise quite yet.

So while Microsoft's console feels castrated without the features it was forced to tear out last summer, PS4 feels like a untapped wilderness of potential.

Even something as simple as the Share button has breathed new life into not so much the industry of making games but the industry of celebrating them.

So has it been a memorable year for PS4? Well, while it's sold extremely well it's only in the last few months that we've really seen a glimpse of what it's capable of.

With regular, tangible firmware updates and a genuine belief in the importance of supporting independent developers, it's the coming few years that will hold the most exciting developments for PS4.

Read: PlayStation 4 review

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Sony announces open invite, 2-day 'PlayStation Experience' event in Vegas

You know you want it

Sony has just announced it's hosting an event in December that it says will feature "two intense days of PlayStation gaming, content, and activities."

But the best part is that everyone is invited.

The "PlayStation Experience" will take place in Las Vegas December 6-7 this year and feature panels, mixers with developers, and hands-on time with upcoming PlayStation titles.

Attendees are also promised plenty of shwag and the chance to shop for collectibles and knick knacks direct from game developers.

"We've been planning this bad boy for some time… and with PlayStation's 20-year anniversary just around the corner, the timing couldn't be more perfect," Sony Social Media Manager Sid Shuman wrote in a PS blog post.

He added that PlayStation Experience attendees will also get "an exclusive first look at what's coming next in 2015" that they won't want to miss.

Tickets are $50 (about £30, AU$60) or $90 (about £55, AU$100) for one- and two-day passes, respectively, and it looks like they'll go on sale October 20. You need to be 18 to go.

A PlayStation-focused convention is not a bad idea - if you really love PlayStation. The rest of us can stick with our PAXes and Comic-cons.

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Hands-on review: Updated: Sony PlayStation TV

October 10, 2014: We recently updated this review to reflect recent new hands-on impressions.

Most years, the news out of E3 is is dominated by the latest flashy trailers featuring zombies, commandos and dragons, and this year was no exception. However, buried in Sony's usual hoopla this year was a tiny box that could have enormous significance for electronics giant. The product? PlayStation TV, set to debut in the U.S. on Tuesday October 14.

It's an unassuming black box a little smaller than a deck of cards, and as such might not seem to hold the same techno-majesty as Sony's PS4 or the cyber-future cachet of its Project Morpheus VR headset. However, if handled correctly, the unassuming PlayStation TV could be a very important product for Sony, acting as both as a low-cost gateway to a Sony gaming experience for casual players stepping up from smartphone games, as well as a new avenue for hardcore gamers to make their hobby more flexible.

Sony released a similar device called the PlayStation Vita TV in 2013. A Japan-only product, Vita TV allows users to play native Vita games through their TVs and was viewed as something of a curiosity outside Japan. PlayStation TV's hardware is almost identical to the Vita TV, but for its western debut it's been rebranded and given some loftier ambitions. During its E3 conference, Sony positioned it as a streaming media set-top box, presumably competitive with products such as Roku 3, Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV, and priced to match at $100/ €99 (about £58, AU$105). While all of those devices include some form of gaming features, none comes close to the size and quality of Sony's existing libraray. When PlayStation TV arrives on October 14, it will also offer access to a library of nearly 700 high-pedigree games from Sony's extensive library of PS4, PS3, PS1, PS Vita and PSP games. Available titles include such classics as God of War, Killzone, Final Fantasy X, Metal Gear Solid, Twisted Metal and Borderlands 2.

In addition to the base box for $100, Sony will offer a $140 (about £83, AU$149) bundle that will include a DualShock 3 controller, an 8GB memory card, and a copy of The Lego Movie: The Video Game.

It's hard to overstate the importance of a device like this for Sony. If done right. it could offer a unique value proposition in both the set top box market and the gaming space. However, a recent hands-on with the box left us wondering if PSTV will be arriving fully baked.

At their E3 presentation back in June, CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America Shawn Layden said that in addition to playing native Vita games, allowing remote play from PlayStation 4 and providing access to Sony's PlayStation Now game streaming service, the box would, "give you access to video and music streaming services." Industry watchers assumed that meant it would ship with apps for the services that have become standard on these devices, Netflix, Amazon Instant, Hulu Plus, Pandora, Spotify and others.

Indeed, at E3 I spoke with Sharon Kapitula, platform planning manager for PlayStation TV, who told me Sony was, "looking to meet our audence's needs for the apps they're looking for," adding, "if you look at other PlayStation products, we have a lot of content coming from third party partners. We're looking to leverage those partners again."

However, at a recent preview event in New York City, Sony reps were cagey about the device's media capabilities, at least at launch. I was told that the company "has not announced any entertainment stuff" and that at launch Sony was "focusing on PS4 and the way PlayStationTV can extend it." To be clear this was not a denial that these services will exist on the device, but if these features were in place, we would expect Sony to be making much more noise about them (or be willing to discuss them in the slightest).

The reps did mention that at launch the box would provide access to movies and TV shows via the PlayStation Store. But while this may pay off the letter of their E3 promise, it's a far from from the spirit of their announcement. Interestingly there was no mention even of Crackle, Sony's free, ad-supported video streaming service. Devices like this are easily updated, of course, and we would be shocked not to see apps for the major streaming services get patched in. Still, we found Sony's reticence about these aspects of the box surprising.

While we've seen very strong demos of the device's RemotePlay capabilities when paired with a PlayStation 4, the October preview event featured only native Vita games. One potential stumbling block to the PSTV as a gaming device is the fact that the games that run natively on the platform were designed for an extremely specific piece of hardware with a unique set of controls. Specifically, the PSVita features front and back touchscreens which many games use gestures as key parts of their control mechanisms. There is no direct analog for these motions on a conventional controller, so without modifications, motion controls do not map to the DualShock 3 controller.

Sony reps pointed out that one of the four games loaded on the system, Killzone: Mercenary had been reworked to map the game's gesture controls onto the control sticks. We should note that Killzone performed remarkably well for a 3D shooter running off such a tiny piece of hardware and its translation from touch to sticks seemed smooth. Other games, however, clearly had not been fully converted and suffered from incorrect on-screen directions (any that involves swiping), lending more to the overall impression that, just a few days prior to launch, Sony might not have all of PSTV's ducks in a row.

Historically, Sony has struggled to create meaningful synergy between its multifaceted products and offerings. Executed correctly, PlayStation TV could provide a key way for PlayStation fans to access their Sony devices and content along with third party services such as Netflix, Hulu Plus and Amazon Instant. Perhaps more importantly, it will provide an inexpensive avenue into gaming for the casual gaming audience. With the right services and software, this device could threaten not only its set top box brethren, but also Microsoft and Nintendo in the console space.

Here's what it looks like plugged in

I got a chance to play Diablo III on a PlayStation TV streaming from a PlayStation 4 via Remote Play and it both looked and played beautifully on a large TV. Frame rate matters less in this type of game than it does in others, such as racing games.

Naturally real life streaming performance will be limited by internet speeds both upstream from your PS4 and downstream to your Playstation TV, but a Sony rep assured me that under ideal conditions the box is capable of delivering a full 1080p stream.

Just enough room for all of the essential ports

Remote play has been available on PlayStation handhelds since the PSP and PS3 era, but the proposition of being able to pack tiny box on a trip that let's you play your PS4 system back home on a big screen TV in hotel is a strong one. Sony reps were quick to point out, however, that streaming performance is ruled by Internet connection speed, and that the most stable environment for Remote Play would likely be inside the home on a second TV.

Access to PlayStation Now, Sony's cloud gaming initiative that promises more than 700 titles at launch (down from Sony's original promise of 1,000, but we won't quibble), is also promising. Sony does have some work to do on the pricing of PlayStation Now, which in its beta outing has been outrageously high. We'd like to see them employ a Netflix-like subscription plan (possibly as an extension to its existing PlayStation Plus subscription service). We think the all-you-can-eat model would be most attractive to gamers if Sony can figure out a way to make it economically feasible.

After so many years, it's easy to forget just how excellent Sony's legacy library is. Between kids who were just tots when Sly Cooper was hopping around on his heists and casual gamers who've discovered games thanks to smartphones but have never played Uncharted 2, there is a wealth of untapped consumers Sony's legacy library might appeal to.

True to its PS Vita TV roots, PlayStation TV will also be able to run Vita, PSP and PS1 games natively. The box will only come with 1GB of onboard storage for downloaded games, but the system will come with a slot for PS Vita memory cards, allowing users to add up to 64GB of storage. This is somewhat aggravating, however, as PS Vita cards are both proprietary and expensive. Sony has no plans to allow the use of external hard drives at this time.

One concern about Sony making a streaming media box is that the company might revert to its old habits of locking down content avenues or limiting them to Sony content. With the wide array of third party streaming services available on PS3 and PS4, we've been optimistic that Sony has its head screwed on right about the ways consumers expect to access content. One thing is clear to us, no matter how the box functions at launch, to succeed in the streaming box market it will need to achieve parity with their set top competitors.

It's called PS Vita TV in Japan, but will take on a broader name in the West

In all, Sony looks to be delivering an extremely compelling product in PlayStation TV. Achieving parity with it's streaming competitors should not be a challenge, and it has them far outclassed when it comes to gaming. In addition, it could be attractive as a gaming-only proposition, providing a very attractive $100 price point to those who might balk at paying $400 (about £238, AU$426) to $500 (about £297, AU$533) for a state of the art system. The ability for PS4 gamers to stream state-of-the-art games to it is icing on the cake. We're looking forward to getting our hands on PlayStation TV and putting it through its paces when it launches on October 14.

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Sony PlayStation Vita Slim (PCH-2000)

Pros Feels much thinner and lighter than the original PlayStation Vita. LCD screen is crisp and vibrant. Micro USB port. Lots of classic games available over PlayStation Network.

Cons Still uses Vita memory cards. Native Vita game library isn't as compelling as that of the Nintendo 3DS. Bottom Line Even though it still uses Sony's own pricey memory cards, the slimmer, less-expensive new version of the PlayStation Vita is improved in nearly every way.

By Will Greenwald The original Sony PlayStation Vita was an impressive piece of technology. While the Nintendo 3DS has clearly relegated it to second place in the handheld game system market, the Vita's hardware is objectively better. Unfortunately, at $300, it was very expensive at launch and significantly more bulky than the 3DS, and even the 3DS XL. Sony has now released an upgraded version of the Vita, the PCH-2000. It's dropped the option for 3G, but it's thinner, lighter, more convenient, lasts longer, and at $199.99 for a bundle including Borderlands 2 (an admittedly disappointing port) and an 8GB memory card, it's a much more reasonable competitor against the 3DS XL than the Vita was against the 3DS. You still have to deal with the Vita's less interesting game library, but a strong backward-compatible catalog will appeal to classic game fans and lovers of certain genres.

It doesn't have the hackable potential of the Android-based Nvidia Shield, nor is it quite as easy to use to access larger and more legally dubious classic video game libraries. However, it's much lighter, much sleeker, and has a much more robust selection of "legitimate" games to play, making it our new Editors' Choice for handheld game systems.

Thinner Design
While it's just fractionally slimmer and lighter than the original Vita, the PCH-2000 is much more comfortable to hold and gives the impression of being much smaller. It shares the same pinched-oval 3.3-by-7.2-inch (HW) face of the original Vita, and measures just 0.6 inches deep compared with the original's 0.7-inch profile. But a much more curved profile and rounded edges instead of nearly flat sides make the PCH-2000 feel like it's half as thick as its predecessor. That it weighs 7.6 ounces compared to its predecessor's 9.8 ounces makes it feel even more pocket-friendly.

The controls have been altered slightly. The small analog sticks, direction pad, and face buttons remain untouched, but the Start, Select, and PlayStation buttons are now larger and circular instead of oblong, and the shoulder buttons feel a bit more responsive. The back panel still holds a touchpad area, but that area is smaller and has large oval-shaped resting zones for the fingers so you don't accidentally trigger it.

The ports and power buttons remain in generally the same place, with a few very welcome changes. First, the PCH-2000 has a micro USB port, not Sony's proprietary Vita charging port. This means you can connect it to a charger or your computer (with Sony's software to handle media transfers and backups), with a regular micro USB cable instead of shelling out extra for Sony's own cable. The mysterious and ultimately unused accessory shoe on the top edge of the original Vita is gone, and the game card slot has been moved to a more central position. The power lights have also been relocated to the top edge instead of shining through the PlayStation button.

The memory card slot was relocated from the left side to the bottom edge next to the headphone jack, and this is where the PCH-2000's biggest disappointment lies. The memory card slot position is fine, but its format isn't. While Sony replaced its own cable with micro USB on the PCH-2000, it still uses proprietary and expensive Vita memory cards instead of standard microSD. On a system that relies on downloads, a storage format that costs four times as much as the more universal memory card equivalent is a big problem.

Display, Battery Life
The LCD is a 960-by-544 resolution, 5-inch touch screen just like the original Vita, and this is where it faces the most controversy. It's not OLED like on the previous model. I've sung the praises of OLED technology before, especially in HDTVs, but on a 5-inch, $200 gaming handheld it doesn't make an appreciable difference. The LCD is marginally less bright and can't produce quite as dark blacks, but it still looks crisp and vibrant. The colors are slightly warmer on the LCD, which is a matter of taste, but I find it to be a positive change. At this size and on this type of device, the switch from OLED to LCD is not a significant factor.

Yes, I'm serious, and yes, I'm familiar with OLED displays. The technology has a lot of promise and has produced the most impressive picture I've seen on an HDTV, but here it isn't as compelling and doesn't justify a premium. Both screens, OLED and LCD alike, ultimately look excellent.

Sony boosted the PCH-2000's battery life by about 20 percent, bumping it up to six hours compared with the previous Vita's five. I found the PCH-2000 to last fairly long every day, easily handling both directions of my commute and a few hours of additional Persona 4: Golden gameplay before I plugged it in for the night. Even then, the battery meter didn't hit yellow.

Interface and Games
The interface is identical to the original Vita's. I go into deeper detail regarding the menu system in the first review, but essentially the Vita uses large, friendly bubble-shaped icons and multiple tabs to organize information about games and apps. It has a built-in Web browser and can access PlayStation Vita, PlayStation Portable, and PSOne Classic games through the PlayStation Store—though you need to download them to a proprietary memory card, and the bundled 8GB card can't hold more than a handful of titles. The Vita has plenty of home entertainment apps, including Netflix, Hulu Plus, and Sony's own Music Unlimited services. It's functional, and hasn't changed much since launch besides some minor usability improvements.

The slim Vita has the same game library as the original Vita, for good and bad. On one hand, the list of compelling Vita-native games is tiny compared with the 3DS. On the other hand, its support for downloadable PSP and PSOne Classic games make its full library very worthwhile, especially if you enjoy older RPGs. The ability to play the first ten Final Fantasy games, Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics Ogre, all four Persona games, Xenogears, and Wild Arms should please any fan of the genre, and at least there are enough Vita-native games of all genres to justify the new Vita's lower $200 price tag.

Conclusion
The Sony PlayStation Vita Slim PCH-2000 improves on its predecessor in nearly every way. The continued reliance on Sony's proprietary Vita memory cards is disappointing, while the lower price and the switch from OLED to LCD is a generally even trade-off. But the slimmer, more comfortable design, longer battery life, and micro USB port all make the new Vita wholly improved over the original. It easily replaces the first Vita as our Editors' Choice for handheld game systems.

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Borderlands 2 (for PlayStation Vita)

Pros It's unabashedly gun crazy. Same content as all the other versions, complete with DLC.

Cons Repetitive gameplay. Choppy frame rate. Glitchy enemies. Illegible text. Terrible reliance on rear touchpad. Only two-player online co-op. No PC cross-save. Bottom Line Borderlands 2 for Vita is packed with content, but it lacks everything else in this ill-conceived port. You're better off playing this FPS/RPG hybrid on your PC or console.

By Timothy Torres

Yet another port lands on Sony's PlayStation Vita. This time it's Borderlands 2, a game that's been available on PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 for a couple of years now. A hybrid of the first-person shooter and RPG genres, Borderlands 2 casts you as a Vault Hunter on the planet Pandora. Basically, you're a treasure hunter, and the place is littered with boxes, lockers, and nooks where you find guns. Lots and lots of guns. The aim of the game is to collect all this "loot," upgrade your character, and shoot your way through psychos and madmen.

But you won't want to do that on this poorly optimized, ill-conceived port. It's commendable that Iron Galaxy managed to squeeze all the content of Borderlands 2, including its expansion campaigns and two DLC characters, into a portable version, but it did so at the expense of the visuals, the controls, and the co-operative multiplayer. Instead of four-player online co-op, you can only play two, and that's if you're lucky enough to connect to Sony's finicky PlayStation Network. Otherwise, you're on your own and that's not the ideal way to get through this repetitive grind. 

All Loot, No Bite
Port or no, Borderlands 2 gets tiresome, as it doesn't excel at either of the genres it combines. The quest system, the majority of the game, is a chore. Talking to one character after another, fulfilling a task, and then going back and forth across bland environments to collect the rewards becomes tedious. The quests are rarely anything other than fetch quests and janitor work. Clean the area of these monsters. Clean the area of these gangsters. Go to this waypoint. Get to that waypoint. And so on. Sometimes the rewards are worthwhile, like a decent sniper rifle, but usually the prizes are like the points on Whose Line Is It Anyway. They don't matter. The same goes for the contents of the never-ending parade of loot boxes. There are dozens upon dozens of guns to find, but they share similar, negligible stats. It's not rewarding, and you're limited to carrying just two at a time, so trying them all is out of the question.

There's some satisfaction in the simple shooting part of the game. Enemies blow up in bright gobs of red, and tiny numbers indicating their lost hit points pop out when you pop them off. That's pleasant. Otherwise, weapons feel weak and unsatisfying, and foes display little to no intelligence. Most bouts involve running backwards from bad guys that rush you, and rushing at enemies that run away from you. That's about the extent of the game's AI and battle strategy. And you don't even have to fight some bosses. Quit the game mid-fight, and some bosses will have disappeared when you load the game back up. In my testing, one boss even got trapped in an animation loop, which made it a breeze to beat. Simply sitting in a corner and taking potshots ended another fray.

When you're not shooting, and sometimes even when you are, you're listening to characters spout inane dialogue. Characters range from merely tolerable to downright annoying, and the writing never rises above its reliance on outdated memes and pop culture references for laughs. Entire quests revolve around them. Hey, remember the Ninja Turtles?

A First-Person Shooter on a Portable?
The Vita wasn't meant to run first-person shooters, at least not with Borderlands 2-style controls. Aiming, or simply looking, can be a challenge. Turning around takes far too long, especially in the midst of battle as a giant four-armed ape is trouncing your head. You can adjust the sensitivity of the X- and Y-axis, but, even then, precision aiming with the tiny sticks is nigh impossible. This port tries to alleviate the problem by bring the Vita's gyroscope motion sensor into the mix. By holding the L button to look down a weapon's sight, you can move the Vita around to aim, but it's still imprecise. There's always a little lag between your movements and the in-game crosshair focusing.

To make matters far worse, Borderlands 2 for Vita uses the rear touchpad, which means lots of accidental grenade throws, melee attacks, sprints, or whatever's mapped to it. It's possible to remap the controls, including the rear and front touchpads, but it's not possible to turn off either touchpad. You have to map something to the awkward rear pad, thus dooming two abilities to continual accidental use due to the rear pad's awful sensitivity. That basically renders two actions worthless, which is a big blow to gameplay.

Graphics Aren't Everything, But...
When traversing Pandora, the world often sputters and flips out, the frame rate skips completely, and  you find yourself facing a wall when you don't want to. The game rarely ever goes near the 30 frames per second range. In fact, Borderlands 2 seems most comfortable around 10 frames per second, which makes gameplay an even bigger chore than it already is. To add to the annoyance, textures on the wall flicker and blip in and out of existence. The tiny text, with letters maybe three pixels wide, strains the eyes to the point where a magnifying glass is almost necessary. Colors appear darker and duller than they should—a waste of the Vita's beautiful screen. And the HUD is so small as to be useless.

The sound lags, too. Dialogue text will appear on screen and scroll by with the accompanying audio kicking in seconds too late. Sometimes there's no audio at all. Menus have a tendency to lag, with many selections slowing down to a crawl. And finally, there is cross-save support for the PlayStation 3 version, but no such luck for PC players.

Buy It on Steam Instead
If this version had come out alongside the original release of Borderlands 2 it might have had a reason for existing, but releasing it now, when everyone has already played it on other platforms, is just baffling. It also does nothing for the Sony's vision of the Vita as a handheld capable of delivering the full console experience. If you want the full Borderlands 2 experience, you're better off buying the console or PC versions. The Vita version may be great for that extremely forgiving Vault Hunter who just can't live without a loot fix on the bus or the plane, but that's about it. 

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2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil (for PlayStation 3)

Pros Captures the spirit of the Brazilian World Cup. New dribbling system adds flexibility. Exciting challenges based on real-world events from this year's World Cup.

Cons Frustrating new passing system. Only available on Xbox 360 and PS3—a step down for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One players. Bottom Line This "Brazilified" version of FIFA 14 captures the spirit of the World Cup with a new presentation style, team rosters, and game modes. Soccer (ahem, "football") enthusiasts will enjoy total immersion in this year's World Cup events, but next-gen console gamers are left out.

By Matt Sarrel

It's that magic moment that happens every four years, when people the world over join together in peace and harmony to pin their hopes on their country's team winning the World Cup. The FIFA World Cup is the world's biggest sporting event, watched by almost a billion people worldwide. Every four years, EA Sports taps into this spirit and ships an alternative version of its FIFA video game in recognition of the big event. This year, the annual game is FIFA 14 and the special edition is 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil ($59.99).

FIFA 14 was the first game in the FIFA franchise for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, yet 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil is made for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 only. (I tested on the PS3.) This decision makes some sense when you consider  the international flavor of FIFA, as there are far more last-generation consoles around the world than new ones. So it's great news for those with Xbox 360s and PS3s, but less-great news for anyone who upgraded to a PS4 or Xbox One. For the latter, the real question is whether the Brazilian look and feel and the timing of the game's release to coincide with the World Cup are enough to offset the step backward in graphics and gameplay.

FIFA, Brazilified
The most apparent difference between FIFA World Cup Brazil and FIFA 14 is that the special edition has been given a Brazilian, so to speak. There's a Carnival atmosphere and plenty of samba music, and bright green and yellow (Brazil's national colors) are sprinkled all over the game's menus.

EA Sports captures the excitement of this year's World Cup before the game even starts. Witty banter from Ian Darke and Andy Goldstein, or Michael Davies and Roger Bennett, kick off the scene. No matter which pair you choose, the opinions fly freely while you navigate menus to start your first match. More than 50 hours of dialogue specific to the teams spice up both the menus and the matches.

The game includes the 12 new stadiums in Brazil's host cities in the Road to Rio de Janeiro (online) mode. All the stadiums (even those that weren't built on time) are licensed and authentic. It's fun to compete in Online Stages, where the deal is basically win or go home. If you make it through all 12 stages (which I'm sad to say I didn't), you get to hold aloft the FIFA World Cup Trophy at the Estádio do Maracanã in Rio de Janeiro.

One of the coolest features of 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil is the patriotic presentation. You can actually feel that each nation is rallying behind its team with all-new crowd scenes including banners, flags, and seat cards in the stadium, and from live events taking place in cities around the world. For example, score a goal for England and you're rewarded with a cut-away to celebrating crowds in Trafalgar Square.

Other cool features include the game modes Story of Qualifying and Story of Finals (online). In Story of Qualifying, you play through more than 60 real scenarios that took place during the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification. Story of Finals (online) is activated at the beginning of the tournament and allows you to play challenges based on what happened that day.

So Many Modes
2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil offers a dizzying array of game modes, but there is some duplication and overlapping among them. For example, Road to Rio de Janeiro (online) and Online FIFA World Cup are just about the same thing, except that Online FIFA World Cup starts at the Group Stage and Road to Rio de Janeiro (online) starts earlier in the tournament.

I liked Captain Your Country, because it brings additional drama to the pitch. I played as a single player, started at the bottom of my team's roster, worked my way up the squad list, and finally led my country (the perennial soccer powerhouse of The Philippines) through the qualifying rounds and all the way to winning the FIFA World Cup. I had to play on the beginner level of difficulty to get that far, and, yes, the beginner level is way too easy. But, hey, I needed to win at least once so I could write this review.

Controls, Controls, Controls
I found the controls to be accessible when I first started playing the game. Once I got the hang of them, they were as precise and detailed as I wanted them to be (with the exception of passing). I dribbled with the left thumbstick. After I was comfortable with that, I added the left trigger so I could move in slow-motion and cut on a dime. After that, I added the right thumbstick to pull off skill moves, of which there are 45. The right thumbstick also gave me the ability to accomplish the most important part of a soccer player's career—celebrating a goal. There are over 100 different celebrations, some of which have an enchantingly Brazilian flare.

There's also a new "pinpoint" passing system that claims to provide more accurate passing. The pin must be pretty big, because I found it almost impossible to control my passes with any precision. The passing skills drill ended abruptly when I threw my controller to the ground in disgust, as I aimed the ball hard right and yet somehow passed it straight ahead. Instead of improving the game, this new passing mode increases frustration.

On the other hand, I like the new controls that let me use the D-pad to arrange my team during corner kicks. This brings a new dimension to the game, because it lets me command my teammates to run to the near post, the far post, the edge of the box, or—my personal favorite—crowd the keeper.

FIFA Fever
I really like 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil, but it falls short of an Editors' Choice award because of the passing system and the lack of compelling advances from FIFA 14—not to mention the step backwards to last-gen consoles. If you love the FIFA World Cup and are looking for some Brazil memorabilia (and still have your PS3 or Xbox 360), don't hesitate to get this game. Otherwise, you should probably just stick with FIFA 14 this year.

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