[Archived] New PlayStation 4

[Kamy100]

I bought my PS3 on launch and it is still going strong, I have had hundreds of hours of enjoyment out of it, I have used it to play games, watch movies and latterly access streaming services such as Netflix, Lovefilm instant and BBC iPlayer, so what originally I bought primarily as a games machine, has now turned into a media hub which I use on a daily basis. I could buy other specialist devices but why should I? when the PS3 does everything that I want. I also had a Xbox 360 but after my 4th one broke down last year I decided not to replace it.

After 7 years, I feel that I am ready to upgrade my PS3 to a PS4. The new machine will be more powerful than the PS3, it will build on existing servies, offer new servcies which appeal to me and offer enhanced gaming experiences.

[M-K]

Come on MK you still have not answered the question, is your PS3 ready right now for an upgrade? If yes, why? Pretend you didnt know what the PS4 specs are.

Well, yes! Look at how Skyrim runs, look at how Battlefield 3 runs, look at how Far Cry 3 runs. Those games are all super jerky. Trees, grass and buildings pop up in the near distance. Textures look blurry.

Running those things on a PS3 is like running them on a low-spec PC with all the settings turned down to minimum, at below the native res of your monitor. They just look rubbish.

I would certainly rather have GTA V on a new console than on a PS3. Wouldn't you rather have a busier city, more pedestrians, smoother framerate, cars that don't vanish from the road when you reach a certain height in a helicopter? Games have reached a level of complexity that makes some of them painful to play on a console, so I want a more powerful machine.

[Biddy]

Good points there M-K, certainly makes sense.

I don't really go for the age thing as Kamy states being a reason to upgrade though if its still going strong. I suppose you've got your monies worth but I only bought mine 2 years ago and feel its got a lot left in it yet. My 360 was bought at release and is still going strong also. I'm more interested in what microsoft manage to do with the Kinect. There are rumours that they are making the viewing angle tighter (ie less space needed) and can pick up more movement and more people (up to 8). I was sceptical about the kinect and held off buying one for ages but love it now I have it and more importantly the kids love it too.

It's things like that which I feel the PS4 is still missing as a killer function.

[LeChuck]

Well, yes! Look at how Skyrim runs, look at how Battlefield 3 runs, look at how Far Cry 3 runs. Those games are all super jerky. Trees, grass and buildings pop up in the near distance. Textures look blurry.

Running those things on a PS3 is like running them on a low-spec PC with all the settings turned down to minimum, at below the native res of your monitor. They just look rubbish.

I would certainly rather have GTA V on a new console than on a PS3. Wouldn't you rather have a busier city, more pedestrians, smoother framerate, cars that don't vanish from the road when you reach a certain height in a helicopter? Games have reached a level of complexity that makes some of them painful to play on a console, so I want a more powerful machine.

All that is fair enough, but I think the one mistake the PS3 made initially was to just make games that were graphically appealing, but didn't offer anything new on the actual playing side. GTA IV was one of the biggest culprits. If anything it was a step down from San Andreas.

Honestly, I'd rather play a GTA V that had fun gameplay as it's main priority and not fancy graphics. When developers concentrate on graphics ahead of gameplay they end up removing what is actually fun about playing games. For me the best games are those that try to offer something different. The likes of Little Big Planet, Heavy Rain, LA Noire etc. Graphics are a tiny part of what makes a game good.

[M-K]

All that is fair enough, but I think the one mistake the PS3 made initially was to just make games that were graphically appealing, but didn't offer anything new on the actual playing side. GTA IV was one of the biggest culprits. If anything it was a step down from San Andreas.

Honestly, I'd rather play a GTA V that had fun gameplay as it's main priority and not fancy graphics. When developers concentrate on graphics ahead of gameplay they end up removing what is actually fun about playing games. For me the best games are those that try to offer something different. The likes of Little Big Planet, Heavy Rain, LA Noire etc. Graphics are a tiny part of what makes a game good.

None of the three games you mention could have been done on PS2, so better hardware isn't just about better graphics. (Actually, LA Noire - surely its *only* selling point was the fancy facial animation, i.e. the graphics. It's a terrible game!)

I loved GTA IV, though. Not as good as San Andreas, but if you go back to San Andreas now it looks like a dog's dinner in comparison, and isn't pleasant to play. Once you've kicked a busker down a flight of stairs and watched him bounce realistically off every step, it's hard to go back to the wooden characters of old.

They reintroduced a lot of the silly stuff in The Ballad of Gay Tony add-on, which is completely amazing. You should play that, if you haven't already. You can do things like grab vehicles using a magnetic helicopter, and skydive off the top of the Empire State onto the back of a moving truck.

So they did learn from their mistakes, and I expect GTA V to be great fun. If only it would look like this and run smoothly, i.e. if only it was on PS4:

(that's the PC version with a few shader mods)

[CapeTownRover]

Fair dos MK, if thats your reason then i understand. I maintain though, that if the PS4 was released today people would buy it. However, if Sony then released a PS5 say 6 months down the line, those people would buy that as well. Its just down to wanting it, for the sake of it. I just got an old 80GB for like 40 pounds, and im enjoying it, because much of what the PS4 offers doesnt appeal to me right now as im just a casual gamer playing Pro Evo over and over on easy mode

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

[Amo]

Really don't think this emphasis on social media interaction is going to help the single player experience in the long run.

[CapeTownRover]

Agree Amarillo

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

[Kamy100]

Sony smashed the ball out of the park at their presser.

Playstation 4 will not have any DRM on disc based games, it will not check that you are online every 24 hours and then they announced a price of £350 (which is £80 cheaper than Xbox One). Microsoft are in real trouble here, as Sony have delivered a compelling argument to buy the PS4 over the Xbox one.

The only downer from the Presser was that if you want to play games online then you will need to get a PSN Plus subscription, although with the PSN Plus subscription you will get a free game each month.

[cmb211087]

PSN Plus is worth paying just for the free content alone. I have got many many more times the cash worth out of it than what I put in for the one year subscription.

[M-K]

How are they going to do PSN+ when all the games are brand new? On PS3 they've got a massive games library, so they can pick from any number of titles from the last six years to give away. Are they seriously saying on PS4 you'll pay £40 and after a year you'll have 12 games, all of which are less than 12 months old? I'd buy one if that's the case.

[J*B]

http://bit.ly/19kbRPN

[Kamy100]

How are they going to do PSN+ when all the games are brand new? On PS3 they've got a massive games library, so they can pick from any number of titles from the last six years to give away. Are they seriously saying on PS4 you'll pay £40 and after a year you'll have 12 games, all of which are less than 12 months old? I'd buy one if that's the case.

At the press conference they showed three PS4 exclusive games which will be available to download for free on PSN Plus, one each month over the first three months.

What they do after the initial three months will be interesting, I think that some of the free games will be games released on PSN from indie developers which cost £10-£20 rather than the full £40 games.

[M-K]

At the press conference they showed three PS4 exclusive games which will be available to download for free on PSN Plus, one each month over the first three months.

What they do after the initial three months will be interesting, I think that some of the free games will be games released on PSN from indie developers which cost £10-£20 rather than the full £40 games.

Most sites seem to be saying you get Drive Club for free at the start of the subscription and a selection of indie games thereafter. So it's basically buy Drive Club for £40 and you can play online for a year (which you currently don't have to pay for on PS3) plus you get access to some cheapo games for nothing.

I guess it will improve when they've got more games to choose from. If nothing else it ensures a big userbase for Drive Club.

[K-Hod]

I suspect I'll be getting one of these bad boys, I'll keep my PS3 as a media centre, cannot believe how much of a bollock Microsoft have dropped.

[DE.]

The most amusing thing about the PS4 E3 presser was that all it took to make them look great was to say they weren't doing everything Bigbrothersoft are doing

[Biddy]

Although I note that Sony are still saying "The DRM decision for third-party games will be up to publishers."

Which still suggests to me that the technology is there, they are just shifting the blame to the publishers if and when they implement it on a per game basis. I have yet to be convinced and I really hope I'm wrong.

Of course Sony are still one of the biggest "Big Brother" companies out there. The way they changed the rules on what the original PS3 could do firstly by removing the ability to play PS2 games and then removing Linux support. Some people bought it for those reasons and Sony took it away in a forced firmware update all in the name of fighting piracy.

Then they went on the war path chasing down people who dared to hack the firmware.

Then they added totally draconian wording into the usage guidelines (you know, the ones we all accept without reading) after they were hacked and user details stolen so that you could no longer start a class action law suit against them and they can track you and upload information (read it, its all in there).

Also, they implemented technologies to stop you playing some media for example anything with Cinevia flags in the soundtrack will stop the audio from being played on the PS3. No matter if you re-encode, the flag is there and the PS3 hardware will stop it being played.

By no means is Sony a nice company acting on behalf of the gamer.

But Microsoft are still stupid and at this point in time I will be buying the PS4 (when it goes under £300)

[DE.]

All fair points Biddy. I never owned a PS3 so can't comment on any of the above, but like any big corporation Sony will be as ruthless as they can get away with. They're just basking in the glow of being perceived as the 'good guys' for now, and Microsoft have made it easy for them.

[M-K]

Of course Sony are still one of the biggest "Big Brother" companies out there. The way they changed the rules on what the original PS3 could do firstly by removing the ability to play PS2 games and then removing Linux support. Some people bought it for those reasons and Sony took it away in a forced firmware update all in the name of fighting piracy.

They claimed that it wasn't possible to emulate the PS2 after they removed the PS2 hardware chip that was in the first batch of PS3s. Then they released a range of PS2 classics, which you had to pay for and download, even if you owned the original disc. Then hackers figured out that it actually *was* possible to emulate any PS2 game on PS3, and Sony had been lying about it, presumably for the sake of profit.

Also, I remember the CD copy protection stuff they introduced, that would secretly install malware on your PC. It's quite a turnaround from all that to being the company that sticks up for gamers' rights and supports the little indie developers. Hurrah for Sony!

Sony = evil. Microsoft = evil, too.

Actually, all big business is fairly evil. Tax-dodging, profiteering pirates of commerce, peddling their overpriced, transient products to a world brainwashed by marketing.

(must ... pre-order ... PS4)

[Mike E]

[Cowan]

Can't wait for this! Thought about getting xbox but PS4 is cheaper and what I'm used to so might as well stick with it.

[ABBEY]

im not back posting but........

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/how-serious-are-the-ps4-s-blue-light-of-death-and-broken-hardware-reports/1100-6416222/

[Amo]

Why You Shouldn't Buy a PS4...yet

[DE.]

Why You Shouldn't Buy a PS4...yet

I've pretty much said the same thing in the X1 thread... nex gen consoles aren't really worth picking up until at least a year later when developers have had a chance to fully grasp the architecture of the machines and put it to good use. Unlike fifteen to twenty years ago when new consoles provided a genuinely impressive leap in graphical capabilities, nowadays improvement in that area is very limited and gameplay for the time being will be better on the PS3/360 than PS4/X1.

[M-K]

They're both pretty underwhelming, really. Playstation, N64, PS2, Xbox and PS3 were all powerhouses when they were released. Even the SNES was amazing compared to the computers of its day. Right now, if you've played a PC game in the last two or three years then you've already experienced much better graphics than you're ever likely to see from Xbox One or PS4.

Really expensive and quite underpowered.