PL4YST4TION 4

[Jayel]

I'm struggling to form an opinion. Hmm.

 

I like that it will have streaming demo via Gaikai. Playing demos instantly was by far my favourite thing on OnLive (to make purchase decision on other - better - platforms). Resume/suspend thing is pretty cool too. Touchpad seems like a useful thing, but the placement of it seem awkward (wouldn't the analog sticks get in your way?).

[miffy495]

What I have gathered so far is that it will be a new console, and that PS1, 2, and 3 games will be played via streaming as a backwards compatibility option. That is a fascinating idea, but the reliance on there actually being good internet everywhere for it to work worries me. Also, I wonder how they will handle the licensing for this. Is anything that I've purchased digitally off the PSN to date going to be stream-able?

[Forbin]

Totally uninterested in auto-downloading games that the system believes I will buy.  I'd rather my internet wasn't pegged, or bandwidth used up on waste like that.

 

Never going to use the "share" feature ever, but I'm sure there will be some interesting clips from other people.  If they don't fully integrate with youtube at launch there's a huge missed opportunity.

 

I'm glad they seem to be going for a somewhat standard architecture, and the sleep mode method of dismissing a game seems like it'll be similar to iOS.  Meaning that developers hopefully won't have to jump through hoops to get the functionality.  I think if Xbox's architecture and specs are similar, there will be a huge amount of 3rd party development on the PC in the next 5-6 years as it'll all be fairly portable.

 

I won't buy a PS Vita, but if they can use my iPhone to do cool stuff that'd be nice.  I didn't get to see too much of the interoperability stuff, but if they can make a simplified remote control then I think my relatives could finally figure out how to use the thing to play DVDs/netflix.

 

That amount of GDDR Ram may be excessive, which is good, but may also make the thing fairly expensive.  I think that people may be right that it may have a cheaper bundle with a Playstation Plus subscription that subsidizes, but without that discount the console could be somewhere around $800.  I think we'll have to wait until E3 to know for sure though.

[Tanukitsune]

I had to go to bed after two hours.... did they say anything about the Vita apart from it being like the WiiU tablet?

[blackmamba]

I'm wondering if the share function will only allow you to stream or will you be able to archive video with it? I'd be very interested in that sort of function. As far as the preemptive downloading, I can only say I hope there is a toggle for that because everything about it rubs me the wrong way. I'm into pretty much everything else though assuming I can disable some of the social features.

[brkl]

If the BBC article was accurate, this offers nothing to me. They didn't even fix the pad.

[BigJKO]

Well! That finally convinced me that I'll never want a traditional console ever again.

Please Be Excited.

[Frenetic Pony]

Totally uninterested in auto-downloading games that the system believes I will buy.  I'd rather my internet wasn't pegged, or bandwidth used up on waste like that.

 

I'm glad they seem to be going for a somewhat standard architecture, and the sleep mode method of dismissing a game seems like it'll be similar to iOS.  Meaning that developers hopefully won't have to jump through hoops to get the functionality.  I think if Xbox's architecture and specs are similar, there will be a huge amount of 3rd party development on the PC in the next 5-6 years as it'll all be fairly portable.

 

 

That amount of GDDR Ram may be excessive, which is good, but may also make the thing fairly expensive.  I think that people may be right that it may have a cheaper bundle with a Playstation Plus subscription that subsidizes, but without that discount the console could be somewhere around $800.  I think we'll have to wait until E3 to know for sure though.

A. Didn't see them announce that, it would be weird too, thought they mentioned the streaming would be the way you could try out games.

 

The CPU for the next Xbox is the exact same one as in the PS4 essentially. They also have the same amount of RAM. But ram has gotten dirt cheap after... 2007 was it? Years ago now after anti trust litigation was brought against a bunch of DRAM makers, apparently they'd colluded to artificially hike up the price.

 

Speaking of cost, rumor is about 300 euros, which probably means $400. Expect around the same price point from MS.

 

It's weird and disappointing that both consoles are, once again, going to have very similar experiences. While the PS4 has some more horsepower under the hood, at a more divergent gap than the 360 vs PS3 (which the 360 won btw) it's still not enough to diverge the experiences remarkably. They both have 3d cameras standard, both have big HDD's and "Cloud" stuff from the outset, both have small advancements on the same old Dual Shock we've had since the PS1. Kind of disappointing neither really went nuts, nor did Nintendo, who's "our controller is a tablet!" is one of the stupidest business mistakes in history when actual tablets are about to eclipse PC sales anyway.

[toblix]

I expected to wake up to hilarious photoshop meme image macros of the Activision men. What happened?

[Tanukitsune]

300€ sounds too cheap for all the thing they claim it can do, but I doubt it be as expensive as the PS3 was originally. 

[Hermie]

I'm not ready to declare the PS4, or even the conference, "best" or "worst" yet. They took their time to explain the core philosophy behind the box, and how it's constructed and controlled, and gave an early glimpse of new titles. Result is that I'm curious and interested, and will keep paying attention to see if they actually follow through or not. I'm kind of confused by people on Twitter exclaiming either that Sony is out of the race forever, or that they will get this thing Day 1, PlayStation Nation Woo! How do you know yet?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PS: DRIVECLUB..

[Niyeaux]

Driveclub looks fun, but it also looks like a bunch of features that the Forza series has already successfully integrated. One also has to wonder how much of an arcadey dorifto monstrosity it's going to be, given that Polyphony is inevitably working on the next Gran Turismo already, which will be a proper sim racer. I don't foresee wanting to put out two first-party sim racing franchises one after another.

 

In other news...who the fuck gives a shit about all this game streaming nonsense? I already can't stand the input lag on most big LCD displays, and now I'm supposed to buy into the idea of playing games with internet-connection levels of input latency? And I'm supposed to buy all my PS1, PS2 and PS3 games all over again on fucking Gaikai, because there won't be any hardware backwards compatibility? NOTHANKYOU.JPG

[Gormongous]

I haven't been paying attention to the release news, except for RPS trumpeting that the PS4 is basically a PC, so in my head the whole event is basically just the Qualcomm 2013 CES keynote all over again.

 

Hermie has it right though, all the things Sony has announced so far are Schrodinger's features, simultaneously good and bad until we actually see them for ourselves. Except for sharing, fuck that.

[toblix]

Yeah, it was interesting that they chose to focus on improved input lag on the controller, and then start talking about video game streaming. I guess the streaming lag forced them to work on input lag. Hopefully this will trigger some work on output lag as well. The amount of time the image stays in modern televisions just to pass the broken copy protection inspection and all the other rounds of processing is ridiculous. I'm sure John Carmack said that doing all of that in parallel wouldn't be super-hard, and he would know, right? Maybe 2014 will be the year of INSTANT EMOTION™ LOW LAG GAMING DISPLAYS. Maybe there's room for improvement in the HDMI spec as well.

[melmer]

ARCHIVED STREAM

 

i'm only about 30min

[BigJKO]

It just failed spectacularly at convincing me why I'd need another Playbox. There were two exclusive games? A year old PC game. The Share Buthon™. Tech demos we'd seen before. The only thing that was even remotely interesting was the instant play from power on stuff. 

It's not "worst" or "best" just.. "meh.."

 

Oh, wait.. my mind exploded when Media Molecule showed that sculpting stuff. They should've just let Media Molecule do a full show instead of all that other shit.

Also, The Witness looks great and exciting but Jon Blow's intro for it.. "We distilled the essence of Aha.."

 

PS: DRIVECLUB..

 

SHADOWCLUB KILLFALL

[Twig]

I am kind of legitimately excited about it! Which is weird. I don't do the console thing anymore. I have a 3DS, but barely play it. That's the closest I get. But man Sony is doing a ton of really neat things. The software they demoed was not very exciting to me, but that will come with time. I have no doubt. Whether or not I decide I have the time... who knows.

 

It only remains to be seen if they can pull through on the execution. I remain optimistic, as there seemed to be a lot less "look we're awesome guys EMOTIONS AND CELLS" and a lot more concrete examples of what they're going for, but there's definitely still room for failure.

 

Random thought: wonder why they emphasized Ustream, when I'm fairly certain (albeit not 100%) that twitch.tv is the general go-to streaming service for gamers? I may be incorrect. Have I mentioned I'm not sure?

 

Exciting thought: self-publishing for independent developers! Combined with x86 architecture, for hopefully easier porting? NEAT.

[Larsen B]

Then what should a console be based on? Frankly it's a little brilliant. People love watching others playing games, or sharing games, I've seen people take turns playing a single player game and the like. Making that possible and easy for people seems a good bet.

 

Games?

 

The fun of sharing a play experience is, in my mind, being in the same physical space. If I get home and turn on my PS4, I may as well play one of my own games rather than remotely watch someone else play. Otherwise, why not just watch it on a PC on Twitch or whatever?

 

It's a cool thing but not a $400 cool thing.

[toblix]

I really think The Witness is going to be something special, but Blow felt like a bad fit for that kind of presentation. It's good that Sony is showing interest in weird games, though.

[BigJKO]

I had the exact opposite reaction to Twig.. This drained every last drop of excitement I previously had for big games / next gen / etc..  My only hope now is a proper Steam Box announcement soon.

[melmer]

Jonathan blow just came on stage! WTFBBQAWESOME I thought that the witness was only coming to PC and Ipad. So i'm very happy i'll get to play it on the big screen

 

I'm totally sold on this thing

[melmer]

Yay just watched the witness trailer. I can wait to buy my £400 the witness machine

[BigJKO]

Or just play it on your PC?

 

Here's a take on the event that echoes my feelings about the thing: http://gameological.com/2013/02/more-more-morehow-do-you-like-it/

[BigJKO]

Did the DRIVECLUB guy really say

that some of the DriveClub cars featured virtual carbon-fiber exteriors in which the physical response of every thread in the fiber is calculated separately.

?

[melmer]

Or just play it on your PC?

My PC is a 7 year old second-hand laptop with the screen hanging off which i turn on once a week to download the walking dead