Elysian Shadows

What did everyone think?

I like that it's using PC components. It'll make porting games a lot easier. Hopefully this will allow some of the fine-tuned optimizations that come along with fixed hardware to be back-ported to PC versions, and hopefully we'll see more PC games taking advantage of multi-core processors. Basically I'm excited for what the PS4 might contribute to PC gaming.

As for the PS4 itself, if Sony makes indie development more accessible (along the lines of XBLA, preferably with fewer restraints), I will probably buy one.

Blizzard is putting Diablo 3 on PS3/4.. that explains so much.

I don't know that we really need a PS4.. the PlayStation 3 was so under-utilized. I hope they focus efforts on getting a decent game library asap this time around.

More of the same, really. The big thing for the conference was the share button on the controller. THAT kind of innovation is what the console world needs, not more of the traditional hardware upgrade cycles.

I'll let this video speak for me:

TheBuzzSaw wrote:More of the same, really. The big thing for the conference was the share button on the controller. THAT kind of innovation is what the console world needs, not more of the traditional hardware upgrade cycles.

I seriously hope that's sarcasm.

dandymcgee wrote: I seriously hope that's sarcasm.

Not at all. You think the standard "add moar memory" cycle is good?

TheBuzzSaw wrote:

dandymcgee wrote: I seriously hope that's sarcasm.

Not at all. You think the standard "add moar memory" cycle is good?

I think RAM is a hell of a lot more useful than a Facebook button on my controller, yes.

Greater hardware = more expensive development.
That would mean that a lot of money will go to graphics and less to gameplay and social interactions and such.

I think the share-button is a great step into the right direction along with the social aspect of the console.

Off course, better hardware makes you able to put in some neat AI and other cool gameplay elements, but I don't see that much of it these days.

superLED wrote:Greater hardware = more expensive development.
That would mean that a lot of money will go to graphics and less to gameplay and social interactions and such.

I think the share-button is a great step into the right direction along with the social aspect of the console.

Off course, better hardware makes you able to put in some neat AI and other cool gameplay elements, but I don't see that much of it these days.

I don't think it's the console manufacturer's responsibility to make games fun. It's their responsibility to provide all of the tools imaginably necessary for game developers to create innovative new games. I don't think that the share button adds any value to the console over another console in the line-up. I do think that better hardware will attract big game companies looking to innovate in ways that reach far beyond better graphics.

Graphics are not the only thing that utilize RAM, in fact they probably utilize RAM the least in newer consoles with dedicated graphics hardware. Therefore your "neat AI" is going to be even neater with all of that extra processing power and memory.

Better hardware = more developers attracted = wider variety of innovation in new generation of games
Gimmick feature = more criticism = driving consumers and developers away

The Wii did an excellent job of adding interesting new controllers and interactive hardware, yet I doubt anyone would argue that overall Wii has a better game library than XBox or Playstation.
Even Kinect caters to a fairly niche selection of games (Dance Dance Revolution, 360 rehash of Wii sports, etc.). The best uses for Kinect I've seen are university research projects that make use of its affordable, portable 3D camera.

To be fair, I never saw in this thread that the share button would lead to better games - simply that it was an "innovation" (in this case, I'm skeptical to call it that, although I'll give it the benefit of the doubt) that would improve the marketing capabilities of the console. Although many people who really enjoy games (or, alongside that, enjoy what goes on behind the games) want to see improvements in hardware and the like, it's hard to say that the actual improvement in quality of games that would be provided by an upgrade in hardware is the bottleneck of console marketing. As I see it, console developers are in the stage where they want to attract audiences beyond the current audience - we saw with the Wii, for example, the extension of the intended audience to include "families", at which it did a fantastic job. It came at the cost of criticism, yes, although a real fan of The Legend of Zelda would buy Skyward Sword regardless of what console it came out on.

Console developers aren't truly concerned with improving the quality of the console as a gaming experience anymore; instead, there is a focus on integrating gimmicky things to attract those who aren't near-guaranteed customers. People buy in to the idea of Facebook/Twitter/whatever they have nowadays, and larger audiences nurture future innovation. New features like these will become the driving force of console development (whether they be parallel to or completely separate from traditional gaming-focused ventures). Eventually, they'll take over the world.

My opinion? It's stupid. It's not my opinion that matters, though.

Unfortunately the facebook button will suck ass where I live, since the government blocked it!

dandymcgee wrote:

TheBuzzSaw wrote:

dandymcgee wrote: I seriously hope that's sarcasm.

Not at all. You think the standard "add moar memory" cycle is good?

I think RAM is a hell of a lot more useful than a Facebook button on my controller, yes.

I'm pretty sure they said you can livestream with that button, which is a pretty big deal.

And if you want more RAM, take a visit to Newegg and buy yourself a few sticks. Done. Why are you waiting for the PS4 to deliver? Consoles HAVE to do something unique in order to be worth my while. I love my Wii. The gaming experiences on it are completely different from my PC ones. 360/PS3? Wait for the PC port and use mouse/keyboard, which is way superior to dual analog.

TheBuzzSaw wrote:And if you want more RAM, take a visit to Newegg and buy yourself a few sticks. Done.

Please link me to the page on Newegg selling PS3 RAM.

I agree with dandy fully on this one.

The single biggest and fatal flaw on both consoles was the puny amount of memory. A lot of modern techniques that we now use in terms of streaming resources asynchronously stem from this problem. It was a complaint from the beginning and is a complaint today.