I'm glad I didn't stick to watching this thing on Playstation Home because it ran horribly there, when it even managed to start. People were in the theater crying about Sony forsaking them and shit, thank god for Gametrailers.com.
I like the whole Share feature set. The option to take over a friend's game or let them take over yours is pretty sick, though any self respecting gamer will play through their own games. I also like that you'll be able to put the system into a low power state when you're not playing, then go back to playing whenever you're ready. No more long loading times. PC has had this for ages along with general save states for various games, so it's good to see consoles finally go in this direction.
Having gameplay queued up behind the scenes is fucking WONDERFUL. As someone who occasionally posts gameplay videos, I can't tell you how many times I've played something on a whim and wished I had recorded it. Just having that option is fucking fantastic. But the one downside is that the internet will get flooded with random clips now. Many will not have any type of commentary, description, etc. Just tons of random people who never used YouTube before, never had an interest in uploading anything for any reason, uploading every little thing that they do.
I'm not a fan of having your real name out there. I hope that is NOT the default option for player profiles.
The controller still needs a bit more improving, I think. That's probably part of the reason why they didn't show the system itself; they're still not finalized. Pricing and the look of the system will be (leaked) around E3.
GDDR5 RAM? 8 GBs? Big Playstation event and no mention of the price at said event?
Kinda worried about that price point now. I hope Sony doesn't go "$699 US Dollars!" at E3 and expect fanfare because that's not how the console userbase operates.
The Playstation 4 was built with added Gaikai technology that will help with streaming games to the PSVita, but the PSVita itself presumably doesn't have this same tech under the hood. Obviously the PS4 picks up more of the slack with this task, but how well does it work and from what distance? Sony has been known to exaggerate a bit when it comes to hyping products, only to scale expectations closer to release. We'll have to see how this plays out, what they say over the coming weeks and months leading into E3 where most of their cards will be on the table.
Blizzard initially made it seem as though they were in an exclusive partnership with Sony during the event, but when asked about it on Gametrailers' post show (Skip to about 3:04:40) John Hight from Blizzard said "Well, tonight really is Sony's event. We'll talk more down the road about D3 and what we're doing...future plans....", so perhaps it'll hit the next Xbox at a later point, or Sony will be getting some exclusive content or something. We'll see. Generally, I don't think Xbox is going to be entirely left out. Nintendo might even get something.
Killzone Shadowfall looked great and seemed to be running pretty well. There was one moment during the playthrough where the player was shooting someone and opted not to finish them off for some reason(if you watch the footage again, it's some time after he leaps down to flank the Helghast, he probably just did it for time constraints) , but other than that I didn't see anything that was odd. The helicopter shit was awesome. Made me think of The Matrix when he landed after planting the C4. Excellent sequence that probably would have gotten even more praise if it were Call of Duty 57 or whatever number they're up to now.
Thing is, will this game survive? Look at what happened with Killzone 3. People stopped playing it and Sony had to sell the MP separately just to TRY and keep it going. I hope that doesn't happen this time, especially if the game looks and runs that good online. We'll see if it can hang with Call of Duty and Battlefield next gen.
Knack looked alright. A little too "kiddie" but then again if you just go by looks you tend to miss things like Jak and Daxter or Ratchet and Clank. Whenever I get the PS4 I will try the eventual demo.
Infamous: Second Son's trailer was good, but a bit too short and didn't have any gameplay. They hinted at several people having different powers but only showed one guy. Looking forward to more info on this game. Multiple characters? Online play with a selection of heroes and villains to choose from? We'll see.
I kind of felt bad for Johnathan Blow. Following Infamous: Second Son with a quiet trailer like that (The Witness) kind of takes the wind from the viewer's sails. He even said it before they showed his trailer "I don't know how I'm gonna follow all those...explosions!" :lol:. I do like the premise behind his game though. Capturing "epiphany moments" sounds very interesting. That moment when you stumble upon the solution for something is always a positive experience so if the final product really does leap from one to the next, expect a very fun game for fans of his work.
Quantic Dream's random old man tech demo was pretty impressive. The eyes needed a little bit of tweaking(a little too bug-eyed, or even fish like), but other than that it looked so damn lifelike, and like they said it can be improved upon even further(slightly better shadowing, maybe some added blemishes). When I hear "next gen", that's what I really imagine games looking like.
Playstation 3 games are not natively supported on Playstation 4. Sony said they're working on a way to let people play PSOne, PS2, PS3 and PSvita games on their PS4, but could not elaborate at this time. That's not a good sign. I know damn well I'm not rebuying any of my PS3 games just to play them on a PS4, fuck that.
With that said, this does work in Sony's favor. Not only because it gives them an avenue to continue to keep the PS3 relevant, but also because it dramatically cuts down on trade-ins of the PS3.
Coincidentally, it was also confirmed after the event that the PS4 will not block used games. So the tech Sony patented last month will not be used in the PS4 after all. Kind of surprising, but probably a relief for Gamestop. Developers are shit out of luck here, though. They will continue to get screwed over by used games sales unless Gamestop is willing to pay them a percentage of some kind.
Watch Dogs again looked amazing. Some screentearing, but I'm sure they'll iron that out. Unscripted gameplay, just some random shit that could happen while you play. Elements of freerunning similar to Sleeping Dogs. Hack this, hack that, control damn near everything. Precision shooting. Fucking love it. And during that playthrough, someone else was in the game trying to take the main character(Adian Pierce) down. At the end of the demo you see a name above a camera, the person is trying to hack in through it. Adian manages to stop it at the end. In the Gametrailers post show, the dev being interviewed said that "sometimes the other person was there physically". Looking at the footage again I didn't notice anyone else running around. That's pretty crazy. Can't wait to play this game. Once again though, the gameplay was on PC, although that particular PC was supposedly comparable to a PS4(also from the Gametrailers post show).
I don't like how they're making the game for PS3 and Xbox 360 as well. Other games coming out in the same timeframe also might be doing the same thing. Games that have multiplayer elements then have a divided fanbase. You are also taking the "one toe in" approach to next gen by not committing entirely to the new system.
I also don't like that developers could have been taking more time to fine tune the PS4, PC, Xbox 720 and WiiU versions instead of doing PS3 and Xbox 360 versions on top of that.
This makes me wonder about GTA V and whether or not they've held the game back because they're working on PS4 and Xbox 720 versions(and obviously PC). If that was the case, it changes the game dramatically. Just like that, the PS4 and Xbox 720 go from systems you might wait to purchase to day one, "get the fuck outta my way NOW" buys. Why get Rockstar's latest and greatest for "last" gen when you can make the leap and then buy a game you KNOW you're going to put tons of hours into? Granted it looks like Watch Dogs will be right up there with GTA(maybe even surpass it in certain areas), but it's a new IP, it's unproven. GTA is the big "dog", Watch Dogs has to step into the ring and survive(oh it WILL, we've just gotta wait to play it).
I understand though, it's about the money. You have a very large install base this gen on the PS3 and Xbox 360, the safer bet is to make a product that's there for them instead of hoping they'll take the $400, $500 or maybe even $600 leap towards a new system, THEN buy your game. Totally get that, just don't like how it for the aforementioned reasons.
Of course Rockstar could stay true to its word and only release the game for current gen consoles(and PC). We'll have to wait and see.
What were your thoughts on the Playstation Meeting? Did it leave you hyped for this holiday season, or were you disappointed?
