Back in 1995, Sony released something that took the world by storm (in Europe before anyone gets confused) and left little nine year old me in a bit of confusion. At the time, I didn't see the appeal of the original PlayStation, but a later debate I had at college opened my eyes a bit more to it when I realized just how many varied games there were on the platform. True, they weren't all classics but the PlayStation really had something for everyone.
Move forwards eighteen years following the amazingly successful PS2 (PlayStation 2) and the turned around joke the PS3 (PlayStation3) and Sony has officially announced the imaginatively named PS4 (PlayStation 4) and have shown they still don’t really have a single original thought in their heads, but at least they’re getting their act together after the PS3’s desperate attempt to push a difficult to work with chip set.
From a technical stand point, the PS4 seemingly is a very high end gaming computer in both terms of architecture and specs, making up for the PS3’s faults by being easy to develop for and having much more memory to play with (a full 8 GB, which for the non-techies is a hell of a lot). It will also utilize the same Blu-ray discs the PS3 used with up to 50 GB of storage.
Despite all the talk of the console’s specs, the machine itself was absent from the announcement, but the controller wasn't Displaying Sony’s spectacular imagination for naming, the Dual Shock 4 controller is are modelled version of the Dual Shock 3/SixAxis controller with a few new functions. My main gripe with the old controller has been addressed with the‘R2’ and ‘L2’ trigger buttons now becoming concave and the control sticks have been lowered slightly, though Sony are sticking with the layout of the buttons and control sticks. Joining them is a multi-touch touch pad (akin to the one on the back of Sony’s PS Vita handheld) in the middle of the controller, a small speaker and a‘light bar’ which gives the control some pointing functionality from the PlayStation Move controllers.
Speaking of Move, which can be used with the new system, the PS4 will come with a new version of the PlayStation Eye. In Sony’s usual complete lack of subtlety, the new PS Eye will have some of the functions of Microsoft’s Kinect (nothing’s officially confirmed, but it looks that way), but with the Dual Shock 4 controller’s light bar being watched by the new PS Eye and giving you control of an on screen pointer, it could turn out to be very clever indeed. If the light bar is used in such a way, however, then I struggle to see the point of the controller’s touch pad.
All the techie stuff’s all well and good, but what you really want a video game console for is the games. Just to be awkward, I’ll hold that off for another two paragraph and tell you something else Sony’s added to their new system which they claim is unique but has already been demonstrated by someone else, this time Onlive. Actually, there are two things(and it’s a little unfair to say the second was purely Onlive), but I’ll start with the ‘share’ function. As you play, the PS4 will record the last fifteen minutes of play. If you do something you want to share, you can press the handy‘share’ button on the Dual Shock 4 controller, crop your recorded footage and post it online for your friends to see either on the PS4’s online services or social media sites like Facebook. You can also allow friends or other users to watch you play and, if you really want to, you can hand control over to one of your observers if you’re having difficulty (To give Sony credit, the handing over control thing is actually new, so far as I know).
The next ‘thing’ is the promise of cloud streaming. Sony acquired Onlive’s rival Gaikai in 2012 and are planning on using their streaming technology to not only stream PS4 games to the PS Vita (if you really want to play the game on a hand held which has fewer controls then the game needs) but also stream PS3 games as the PS4 will not run any of your PS3 games(disc based or downloaded). With such a recent acquisition, not to mention the likelihood of people not using the feature much in future, I can’t see many games becoming available through such feature, though I could be proven wrong(PlayStation, PS2, PSP and PS Vita games are going to be available as well at some point, so that could mean no native backwards compatibility at all).
Now the important bit, the games. With every new generation of systems, the fans look forwards to not just new entries in their favourite franchises, but all new games as well. Last time we had the likes of Uncharted, inFamous, Assassin’s Creed, Gears of War and Modern Warfare to name but a few, yet in Sony’s two hour presentation only one totally original game was shown.
While Knack looks like it could be fun, reminding me of my favourite Xbox 360 launch title Kameo: Elements of Power in terms of gameplay, the fact it was the one and only original full scale title worries me. There was The Witness as well, a puzzle game from the same man who made the Indie darling Braid, but that’s a downloadable game, but when even Sony themselves only show off a singular original exclusive title, there’s always cause for concern. The rest of the presentation consisted of the impressive looking (and this time not ‘target footage’) Killzone: Shadow Fall, a trailer for inFamous: Second Son,some sort of creation tool from Media Molecule (who made Little Big Planet), demos of Epic Games’, Square Enix’s and Capcom’s new graphics engines and games that are either already out or coming to current consoles (Watch_Dogs and Destiny). Square Enix also quickly threw in a reminder that a new Final Fantasy title’s in development, though after Final Fantasy XIII and the fact Final Fantasy XIII Versus never seemed to materialize (god only knows what they were actually ‘versus’), I don’t hold a huge amount of hope for it.
Blizzard also came and did a presentation, expertly raising our hopes of a return to something like Starcraft Ghost before revealing they were just porting the behind the times and stupid DRM (Digital Rights Management) equipped Diablo 3 to PS3 and PS4, dashing everyone’s hopes. Bravo, Blizzard, you’ve just lost what little respect I still had for you, though I have a feeling your buddies Activision may have had more of a say in this then you. Mind you, when Bungie was talking about Destiny the guy was flanked by three others who just watched without saying a word, so maybe Activision doesn't trust any of its‘partners’ with original thought.
As I said, Killzone: Shadow Fall looks impressive and to prove it was genuine, the guys from Guerrilla Games showed it off on an American talk show Late Night with Jimmy Fallon after the presentation and let the host Jimmy Fallon have a go (which involved a lot of screaming and shooting air vents). However, as impressive as it looks, it doesn't look like much of a step forwards with only slightly more detail, slightly larger crowds and slightly better lighting then recent PC and console games. Going from PS1 to PS2 was a fairly big leap in terms of system capability, PS2 to PS3 less so but still pretty clear. PS4 games so far and in some cases actually are possible on current systems, the fact the likes of Watch_Dogs, Destiny and Diablo 3 are having simultaneous releases on the previous generation systems as well as a PS4 release prove that point.Development costs will continue to rise, even with the easier to use architecture and that will mean companies will be less willing to risk new ideas and we’ll likely continue the current trend of several big games getting annual instalments with no real improvements.
Sony didn’t mention anything to do with system pricing, though it seems retail games are going to stay at pretty much the same price asthey currently are (a range of $0.99 to $60 was mentioned after the presentation). Free to Play games were also suggested and the rumour of used game blocking was put to rest after the presentation when it was confirmed the PS4 will be able to play pre-owned games. However, we’re not looking at some revolutionary device, merely an evolution on what was already available. I'm certainly interested in seeing more of the PS4 and what games comes out for it, Sony is more likely to take a punt on something unproven then their main rival or most third party publishers after all, but I'm not feeling any real excitement or hype for it just yet. We shall have to see as the vague 'November 2013' release date approaches
Image Credits: BBC, Engadget, Gamefreaks, Gamerant,
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