Little Gamers Update - Looking back at 2014

So 2015 is upon us all and the gaming industry is looking ahead as to what will define 2015. Rather late to the party, I wanted to take a look back at 2014 an what it meant to me and what games shone out in 2014.

2014 was the year I jumped on to the Next Gen train and have not looked back. Since getting a PlayStation 4 in March, I have played 60 PS4 titles! Not a bad amount for a new console in its first year. The Vita is still a wonderful piece of kit andhas never been far from my side and is still home to some of my best gaming moments of the year. The PS3 keeps moving around the house, as soon as I give it to the Little Gamers to play on something comes up on PS Plus that makes me take right back into my gaming den.

So what were my highlights of the year, which game swill go down as the most memorable, fun and sometimes broken? Indulge me as I take a look at my own Games of 2014 list.

Minecraft PlayStation Vita Edition - First Impressions

So last week, I wrote a piece expressing my doubts over the future of the PS Vita. Well, its amazing how much difference a week can make. Minecraft finally came out last week on the Vita and I have been sucked back into it on a new level. This yet another version of a game that has appeared on all Sony platforms but is best suited to the Vita.

Minecraft Out This Week - Is it too late for Vita though?

So after months and months of waiting and testing 4J Studios finally tweeted that Minecraft PlayStation Vita Edition has passed final testing and Sony will be releasing it next week on the 15th October. Cause to celebrate or cause to be concerned.

I got my Vita at launch and began a love affair with Sony's wonderful handheld. A love affair that saw me move away from Xbox over to PlayStation 3 and eventually PlayStation 4. Never has a handheld console had such a profound effect on my gaming world.

Recently, though things have not been as good for the Vita. Its fair to say that Sony have forgotten it. No more first party titles are going to be made for it. So the heyday of games like Uncharted, Killzone: Mercenary and Gravity Rush have gone and do look to return. Looking at the coming soon section for the Vita at Metacritic it lists 10 games. Of these ten, six are quirky Japanese games that will only sell to Gamers who want them. The only main stream title is Lego Batman 3, which is going to be a port of the Nintendo 3DS game, hardly utilising the power of the console.



So what is the future for Vita. Well it appears to be a companion device to the PS4. Remote Play is being pushed as the main selling point for PlayStation TV (formerly Vita TV in Japan). My experience of remote play is not very good. It constantly freezes and disconnects making it pretty useless, unless I am sat in the same room as the console or router. Now I know this is due to the set-up of my house and the network in it. The problem is this is how I have to have it. I cannot change it.

That leaves cross-buy games on the store. With the likes of Rogue Legacy and Velocity 2x the cross platform experience works well. This quality cannot be said across all of the PS4/PSVita cross buy titles. Counterspy and Pix the Cat capture the same gameplay as their PS4 counterpart, but suffer from longer load times and the controls do not feel as responsive, making for a diminished overall experience. Cross-cut seems to be the future for the console now, as a day rare goes past without another indie title being announced over at the PlayStation Blog coming to PS4 and PS Vita.

So for the first time since owning one, I am looking at it and thinking "It it time to trade you in and go back to a 3DS?" Which is shame because I believe that Vita still has huge potential. Sony have failed to find the right place for the Vita in their scheme. The huge success of the PlayStation 4 has helped with this as Sony are quite rightly focusing on that.

For me though, I will take Minecraft next week (it's free for me) and I hope that it delivers what I had hoped to playing a year ago. I fully expect thought that this maybe the last time I get to look forward to a new release on the Vita. A sad thing to have to admit.

Little Gamers Update - This time, We're back!

Hello one again to another Little Gamer update, hot on the heels of the first proper article to hit the site since November. Been a few reasons for this as I explained in previous updates, I had a little break which turned into a long break. After Christmas though, I found myself in a bit of a gaming malaise. The arrival of new tech saw my attention diverted away from gaming. Also, since the release of the next generation of consoles, I have been looking at my PS3 rather differently. I want it to be a PS4, but it doesn't seem to have the courtesy to actually turn itself into one. The cheek of it.

Little Gamer Update: Locking down the Xbox

So, I have a new dilemma... Eldest daughter, Betsy-Lou has been continuing her journey into the wonderful world of gaming. She has started playing Minecraft and for the first time she is addicted. All she talks about is Minecraft, what she is going to do in it, when she is going to do it, when can she next play it, you get the picture. So I am caught between letting her play a game that has harnessed her creativity and imagination and her real life obligations like homework and helping to tidy up her mess around the house. This has caused a few arguments already and it has lead me to something I would never ever do.

I have enabled the Family timer on the Xbox!

The parental settings on the Xbox 360 are full of nice little features that help you as a parent control what your child plays, what advertising they see and also how long they can spend on it. Do parents know that it is there? but also how to to use it to their advantage? Lets take a look at how easy it is to get this working on your Xbox 360 system.

First of all, turn on the Xbox (well, Duh!) and scroll to the settings menu at the far right of the menu (see below). Move down and select the Family tile.

Now you can turn on the console safety. When this is turned on you will need to configure a pin code, via the controller to act as an overide. Once this is done you can start configuring the level of access you want your kids to have.

First, of all go into Ratings and content and select the game rating (based on Pegi ratings) you want to allow your kids to play. Currently, I have allowed content up to PG to be played and no Explict content to be shown on any other service.

The main thing for me to use this was to set a time limit on how much the Xbox gets used. You can set a weekly limit or daily limit. I chose a daily limit of 30 minutes per day. Once this is set and the time runs out, the parent can decide to top up the time in increments of 5 minutes if they choose to.

Simple eh! It has stopped the fighing over Minecraft to a certain degree. At least now she can't just sit there for hours not doing her homework.

Minecraft - An Introduction by Fresh It Productions

So the world of Minecraft is unleashed to the Xbox masses today. So what is Minecraft what is it all about?

How do you you play it? What the hell is a creeper?

All these questions and more can be answered now, thanks to the guys over at Fresh It Productions. Fresh It are Alpster and Skillful_Kai, two young dudes who enjoy playing a ridiculous amount of video games and then talking about for all of you to enjoy.

Warning to any gaming parents: These chaps are what we would call YOUNG PEOPLE, so expect lots of language that we don't understand. Just nod your head and pretend you do, it will help look more relevant than you actually are.

Also, to the Little Gamers, these tutorials contain grown up words. Best go and watch CBeebies now.

Episode 1: Getting Started



Episode 2: Fundamentals



Episode 3: How to drown yourself



Episode 4: How to build a Knob Noob Tower



Episode 5: Spelunking Crafting Finding Diamond part 1 + 2





More episodes coming soon and you can check more gameplay videos from the guys over at Fresh It on their Youtube channel, here!

The Prototype 2 Walkthrough is really good viewing.

Minecraft - Out today on Xbox 360

Minecraft releases today on Xbox 360 for 1600 MSP (£13.71) and promises to bring the joy of the worlds greatest ever indie game to the console loving population. With 4 player split screen action and 8 player Xbox live multi-player. Here is a little trailer to show off the multi-player possibilities.



As someone who has only dabbled in Minecraft very early on and only single player. I am looking forward to experiencing the whole social mining and building thing. What should I build first though? Undoubtedly it will a big underground cavern, which I will naturally call the Bat-Cave. Even though I probably made it by mistake.

Finally, I can't mention Minecraft with linking to this....

Minecraft: Pocket Edition is hitting Android Today

Minecraft Pocket Edition has been avaliable on the Android Market for a month or two now as a Xperia Play exclusive. Today though it relaunches to hopefully most Android handsets with full touch screen controls. I really want my old HTC Desire to support this, as mobile hole digging is what I need in my life.