Ones To Watch In 2014: PlayStation 4

Tomorrow marks the start of a new year, where all of the games and many more that we’ve highlighted in the Ones To Watch feature will edge ever closer to their completion and release.

We’ve covered cross platform titles, a plethora of Indie games and Sony’s rivals, both at home and handheld. Today we cap things off with the PlayStation 4. Some might say we’ve saved the best till last, but these are really just another small selection of games from what is looking to be another fantastic year for gamers.

We’ll start things off with one of the handful of titles that was pushed back from 2013 to 2014. DriveClub was delayed by just a few months, in order to give Evolution Studios a little bit of breathing space and more time to deliver on their vision, but leaving the PS4 with a dearth of racers at launch.

Since that point, Evo have gone on a campaign of 12 second teaser videos. Compared to the 1080p30 Time Trial cum Challenge demos which were playable at various game shows, these have already shown off many more details to the gameplay. Damage from collisions, multiplayer races, dynamic clouds, flocks of birds, a simply gorgeous day-night transition…

We’ll no doubt have more details soon, but the latest rumours point to a release on 28th February. Oh, and lets not forget the PS+ edition of the game, which will put this in practically every PS4 owner’s hands, albeit with limited tracks and cars.

Similarly, Deep Down will be available to all for the price of nothing, coming as a free-to-play title from Capcom, the first to use their new Panta Rhei engine. It really shows off the stunning capabilities of the new generation of hardware, with a highly detailed world and another impressively accurate lighting engine.

However, for all the dungeon crawling we’ve seen so far, the game is actually set in a late 21st Century version of New York, where magical artifacts will teleport you back in time to the more fantastical setting.

It’s here where comparisons to the gruellingly difficult Dark Souls are made, with combat that seems to hold a similarly methodical and painstaking style. However, Deep Down will feature two major differences, in the form of its online co-operative play and the procedurally generated dungeons, which will make every instance of play different.

As yet, there’s still fairly little known about the game, other than that it’s really pretty, but there’s a fairly tentative release pencilled in for next year.

We already know quite a lot about Planetside 2, since it has been out on PC since the end of 2012, but bringing it to PS4 will open up a whole new market for the Free to Play MMOFPS.

Quite impressively, the developers have already said that the PS4 will be running the Forgelight engine at setting equivalent to a maxed out PC presentation, but I feel that the main thing to highlight, since its original launch, is an overhaul to the way it accommodates new players.

It’s easy to see how it would be overwhelming to newcomers, and this was my feeling with the initial PC release. There’s class-based combat between three factions, spread across the continents of the planet Auraxis, each of with is split into territories and the sectors, with maps that can host thousands of players at a time.

As it heads towards PS4, the game already has a much improved tutorial system and a better method of handing out tasks via Directives and Missions. Combined with the jaw-dropping scope, it’s certainly one to check out when it reaches the console.

Armed with nothing but a smartphone to light your way in the darkest of passages, you must explore and escape a hospital, filled with supernatural puzzles and psychological terrors.

The game is also notable for not giving you any weapons to fight with, and should a phantom appear that can actually hurt you, you’ll have to either run away or try to use a flare to protect yourself.

Each play through is intended to last around 30 minutes, as you guide the female protagonist to safety, but it’s only over multiple play throughs that you’ll unravel more of the story and the mystery behind the hospital, with more content set to come after release. With the hospital procedurally generated each time you start a new game, it’s sure to keep you on the edge of your seat.

Daylight is coming to both PC and PS4 early next year.

When it was announced, The Order 1886 came out of nowhere. Ready at Dawn were best known for their work on the PSP God of War games, and they’re now embarking on a major new title and franchise for the PS4, with the support of the development powerhouse at Santa Monica.

We still know very little about the game, but do know that it’s set in an alternate version of 1886 London, and sees the eponymous order of knights battling with mysterious beasts, using futuristic – for the time – weaponry and technologies to do so.

Speaking which, RAD Engine 4.0 feels like a truly revolutionary piece of software. It pulls together the ability to imbue an in-game object with a material, rather than wrap it in a texture, whilst also using a soft body physics engine that gives each object a more accurate and realistic set of world interactions.

Hopefully they’ll be ready to show more of this game soon, as it is currently planned for a release towards the end of 2014.

With Second Son, we really have saved the best until last, with a game that astonishes with every showing.

Moving from the fictional Empire City and New Marais, Second Son skips forward a few years and features a new wave of Conduits in a distopian version of Seattle. Delsin Rowe, played by the seemingly omnipresent Troy Baker, takes up the fight against the oppressive Department of Unified Protection, making use of his initial smoke-based powers, and picking up more along the way.

Simply put, this game looks absolutely incredible in motion, with particle effects on show at every turn, particularly when Delsin’s powers are in use. The world looks to have an impressive level of destructibility too, with DUP barriers and towers the main constructs to show off the physics engine.

inFamous is really a title to look forward to for PS4 owners, and even though it’s set for a fairly early release next year, on 21st March, it can’t get here soon enough.

So there you have it, all of the games to be excited about in 2014 in a nice series of articles. 

OK, so really this was just the tip of the iceberg, with plenty that we’ve not managed to include or haven’t even been announced yet. I guess you’ll just have to keep reading TSA in 2014 to see what else crops up, eh?