My hands are numb. Probably the cold but equally likely to be the result of having to hold a pencil for the first time in years. You want to hear about technology: I’m making notes with a ruddy pencil whilst Sony are ranting on about connecting up Facebook accounts I don’t have with car manufacturers I don’t like and promising to download games they think I’ll be into based on the games I’ve already played. A pencil.
This is the PlayStation 4.
Everything’s connected to a million other things and everybody’s doing a damned liveblog about it at the same time despite dozens of official streams of the real thing and all I can see everytime the lights dim is a sea of Macbooks hosting Tweetdeck and some custom content management system and – argh – my hand.
I wrote a fair bit. 19 little pages of even smaller, scratchy words that need digesting now before they mean even less than they already do. I’m up on the first – no, second balcony because Sony’s big fancy wrap-around screen needs my full attention and I’m in almost complete darkness trying to put thoughts onto paper rather than dictating like an idiot hunched over my phone or disseminating what I think might be interesting to anybody silly enough to listen into something more modern.
“Knack looks a bit duff”, I wrote.
When that was going through my head I’d envisaged some clever diatribe about following it up with Killzone and how it looks oh so fabulous but you all saw the stream: Shadow Fall looked bloody amazing (see, Guerrilla can do colour) and sounded stunning in the conference hall – that was next gen as much as anything we’ve seen, and the cheeky ‘share’ at the end? A nice touch. Did you download the video from their Facebook? That’s the future. Oh my did Killzone look good.
Two things there – Killzone’s massive and they didn’t piss it up the wall by using a pre-rendered video and, just as importantly, this new ‘share’ feature is absolutely crucial to the PS4’s core. It’s got its own button. Its own UI subsystem. Its clever because it’s so simple and it works because Sony have built the entire console around new features like this rather than retrofitting them in in firmware updates. Sharing stuff is now, and Sony are wise to grab that by the balls.
Andrew House perhaps said it best: the stakes are high, and this is the moment of truth. Firing out the PS4 logo soon (after the wickedly smart misstep at the beginning) meant that there wasn’t any faffing around afterwards – we’ve had enough pretending and skulking in the corners. By the end of the two or so hours the Meeting lasted, PS4 was already a familiar term – every developer said it, and it’s already second nature. And based on what we all saw, the PS3, bless it, looks decidedly tired and dated.
Here’s the thing. There was applause when David Cage mentioned Beyond because the crowd assumed we’d get a PS4 specific version too. We won’t, which is cruel because 3rd party titles like Diablo III and Destiny will appear on both. And whilst The Last Of Us looks great and I’ll happily lap up Ascension, that bit in the caves on Capcom’s Drop Dead? A million miles away from what the current gen can do. And that’s the issue – by showing off the PS4, Sony have instantly dated the PS3.
Do Sony care? I’d probably say so. Don’t write the old dog off yet – there’s lots to come (announced or otherwise) and that install base is gold dust to a platform holder delicately trying to balance two distinct levels of technology.
That upper echelon of tech appears, by all accounts, to be a PC. PC CPU, PC GPU, top of the line PC RAM (all 8 GB of it) and that’s the end of Cell. Wisely so – nobody wants to struggle again with silly custom hardware – it’s now about ensuring that games can be ported quickly (that Panta Rhei engine won’t feed itself) and efficiently, and that multi-format titles look better on PS4. For Sony this early into a generation, that’s the only thing that matters.
So enter the tech demo. If it’s not Unreal 3 it’s Quantic Dream and some old guy doing an extreme close-up; Media Molecule’s odd sculpure sequence that was bookended by a live (or so we’re told) band; another meandering Bungie demonstration. Everyone’s got nice things to say about PS4 but not everyone’s got a game ready yet.
Except Evolution. Bless them, they’ve been holding onto that Drive Club brand for a decade waiting for a console from Sony with the visual grunt and the connectivity that the PS4 brings. Owning a car is something Forza 3 and 4 tried to simulate, but Drive Club’s first person viewpoint is a whole new level and the car squad thing ticks every box I had. Test Drive Unlimited tried this too, and the handling seems familar, but in Evo we trust.
Equally, Mark Cerny’s new role has resulted in a console that finally Sony will find plenty of respect from developers. Its PC bearings only tell half the story – and all those weeks of gossiping about spec levels are moot. Being able to play digital download titles as they download is groundbreaking; the social stuff is industry leading and Dave Perry’s streaming tech – although obviously in a very early state – is the future, no question.
This is Sony crossing off the checklists of developers, publishers and gamers all at the same time – vastly different wishlists seemingly satisfied in a single two hour slot. So yeah we’d like more new IP and less subheadings but Ubisoft now have games (hi, Watch Dogs) that run on PS4, Activision are behind the console, the first parties are still leading the way (although nobody knows what Media Molecule are up to) and everything’s looking peachy.
Well, except the console itself. Even a post-credits sit-in yielded nothing. We got the refined controller – looking lovely – and that boxy camera array – looking boxy – but nothing on what the unit itself would look like. It doesn’t matter, of course, not yet – the PS4’s “holiday 2013” date is tentative and there just to give Microsoft a target – but it also means that the leaks, rumours and mockups have a home for just a little longer.
But we’re here. PlayStation 4. And we’re happy.
hannes_truce
Very happy. More so than I expected.
bmg_123
That Mm thing looked really cool IMO. If all that sculpting is possible in the final product (or whatever it is) then imagine what else could be made, it’s like a 3d Littlebigplanet. Loved the look of infamous and killzone as well, but the standout surprise of the night for me is how far they’ve pushed the new network features, that’s what I’m most interested in PS4 by.
XisTG
I will start saving today :)
Temascos
Looking back at the conference, a lot of cool stuff was shown. Not all of it was stuff that’d appeal to me but will work for many others, like the social features
Very exciting stuff, gonna wait a while to move onto this new system but I’m likely to get it eventually. .
Voolar
“Knack looks a bit duff”
I thought the same during the trailer, but there was some gameplay in the background while he was talking and it looked terrific…!
gazo69
Great read!
I would rather the share button uploaded to YouTube!
kjkg
I think it does. You can use it to upload videos direct to YouTube. No HD capture cams needed now.
seravok
I’m with you on that one. Hope that you can chose what site to upload it to as we come closer to the release of the console.
Upload to Youtube > Share Youtube video on Facebook? (yes/no)
The tube is gonna be filed with Gamefails and epic moments. :)
freezebug2
I would assume that’ll be a given seeing as YouTube is an integral app. for PS3 and Vita. I don’t imagine that share will be restricted to chavbook ;)
kjkg
Agreed on Knack. Can’t quite understand why that was the first game showcased. Any ideas?
cc_star
Dunno, looks-wise – it looked awful imo… Kind of thing I’d expect at a PS2 reveal.
kjkg
Made me think of a more child friendly game like Mini Ninjas (which I enjoyed). Just seemed an odd thing to start with.
Still, the rest of the event appeased my worries.
cc_star
Actually just saw it again on a better quality video than my stream was.
Looks an ok puzzling platformer where you change form to suit situations so interesting to me in that regard.
Wonder if it will be on PS3 too, where there’s going to be a far, far larger audience for that sort of thing for a very long time.
Peter Chapman
I’m hearing that it looks a lot nicer close up on a good video than it did on the stream or at the venue last night.
kjkg
I can believe that. It wasn’t even that it didn’t look great visually (it didn’t) but that it seemed an odd new IP to start with.
Still, I’ll end up playing it anyway.
cc_star
Away from the main features what I took from last night was Sony’s war on loading times.
They talked about no more it taking 3mins to boot up & get into a game to start playing
Being able to play a game as it downloads, although with UK broadband I think your mileage may vary
Suspend & instant resume
As someone who’s introduction to gaming came with the near instant booting & loading of cartridges this pleases me.
As for the games, I’m really not into Killzone & can’t stand inFamous, Knack did indeed look a bit duff & The Witness seems like something you need to play rather than watch so on the PS4 front itself there was nothing stand-out for me, just YET.
But with Watch Dogs, Destiny & Diablo 3 all coming to PS3 (along with all the usual year end titles like CoD, Bf4, FIFA & Assassin’s it’s going to be an awesome Christmas for PS3 which will be needed as it does look like PS4 will launch in 2014 here.
KeRaSh
Exactly. I really, REALLY like the suspend and instant resume feature. Sometimes I only have 30-60 minutes after work before the missus comes home so usually I don’t even bother booting up the PS3 because for such a short timeframe it’s just not worth it, especially if you can only save at certain points in the game. With this I press a button and I’m back in the action. This is a very underrated feature.
Awayze
Doesn’t look to bad tbh. Just want to see how the console itself looks like.
hazelam
all in all, i found myself impressed with what i saw, until my bloody internet decided to crap out in the middle of the Sucker Punch video.
it’s not just the same but more powerful, it’s got a lot of new ideas for a console.
now Sony’s purchase of Gaikai makes sense, not just for their network, but it also seems, to incorporate some of the tech in the actual console, for live streaming and remote play.
the play while you’re downloading feature sounds neat, honestly, i’d have been happy if you just didn’t need to install the games after they’ve downloaded so this is even better.
also, my hope is that if they can stream video in the background, they shouldn’t have any problem with custom soundtrack support. ^_^
the titles on show looked mightily impressive, assuming they were realtime.
depending on price, and certain other factors, i think i’ll be getting one, sooner or later.
i don’t know if it’ll be at launch though.
cc_star
I loved the idea of Gaikai & OnLive. Depite being in the middle of nowhere with well below average bandwidth they never caused me problems, but as a proposition they’re just not enough to stand up on its own, but as part of a wider system… It’s one hell of a feature
Will be able to play the whole game (timed) as a demo without having to download 2 or 3 gigs of demo first.
KeRaSh
Many internet connections disconnect and reconnect automatically every night. Mine did that during the conference. :)