The PS4

For every generation i have had a playstation. First it was the original playstation, then the playstation 2 and playstation 3 so when i heard that it was soon to be announced i got pretty excited. Overall i liked the show they gave as it when over some new key features such as the controller and the new user interface aswell as an improved online system. The only problems i had was the exclusion of the actual console, it would have been great to see what it looks like. In this post i am going to split the show into different parts and talk about each one individually. Starting with the controller.

The Controller

I was not really surprised by this controller as i had seen the leaked prototype photos a few days earlier but i do really like the changes they made from the previous dual shock controller. The first big change you will notice is the vita like touch pad that is right in the middle where the old start and select button used to be and to be honest im not sure about this addition, is it really necessary ?. I mean how many games or other uses are here for this, i don't think there will be many. The next thing i noticed was the increase in size,which i am very happy about that, it was the only thing that made the dual shock second to the xbox controller as it was sometimes painful to wrap your hands round a fairly small device for long periods of time. Also the  triggers have been redesigned so they are easier to use and much more accessible. If you look to the sides of the touch pad you will notice the introduction of the share button and the options button which looks like the replacement of the start button. The little share button lets you upload video footage straight to youtube and other sites aswell as on your playstation account to share with your friends. 

The next addition is the colour bar that is on the top of the controller where the old red LED light used to be so you knew which controller you had. This light is also used with the move technology as it will be able to tell the playstation where you are sat and let you interact with the game more. The last addition is the use of a headphone jack which i was surprised by a bit as they pushed the use of Bluetooth headset with the ps3. The controller will also use the old mini usb way of charging which is fine by me.

The Hardware

Obviously the new ps4 will be a big step up from the ps3 and it shows when you see the hardware it will use. Firstly The PS4 will be packing 8GB of GDDR5 memory. That is super-fast memory and should enable some fast performance. Sony also revealed the system runs on a single-chip processor and utilizes eight x86-64 AMD Jaguar CPU cores, with a next-gen AMD Radeon based graphics. The GPU packs 18 processing clusters, each packing up to 64 cores. That provides a lot of parallel processing power, and will handle the majority of the PS4's work. It also has 1.84 TeraFLOPS of processing power. The storage it will use is the typical hard drive aswell as a return for the blu ray. There is also speculation that the system will not accept use games as it will use a system similar to steam where a game is tied to an account all though there is nothing confirmed on this.  Also the new system will take advantage of cloud gaming, which after sonys takeover of gaikai is no suprise, this will allow you to play games before they are fully downloaded, stream straight from your ps4 and allows your friends to take over your game to help you out. There are probobly lots more features yet to be seen. 

The games

The actual games that will be released on ps4 took up the main part of the show and it came up with some interesting titles. My favorite game on show was killzone shadowfall, it looks like it will have the tradition gameplay as the other killzone games but it looks much more colourfull and less BROWN which i feel is a great way to take the franchise also, the graphics look amazing and the story looks great with both helgast and vektans living on the same planet with a wall dividing them, it will take place 30 years after the previous games.


The next game i wanted to talk about was driveclub, this is a racing game thats focus is on team based racing. This means you create a club with your friends and take on the world which i am really looking forward too. 
Next there was the reappearance of watchdogs which is shaping up to be a fantastic game which is a game made by ubisoft and is set in a alternate reality Chicago and is centered around the idea of information warfare.  


Also shown at the meeting was inFamous: Second Son, from Sucker Punch, The Witness, a new IP from the creators of Braid, Deep Down a new IP from Capcom, KNACK which is a new IP from the creator of Jak & Daxter, Destiny from Bungie and not surprisingly the announcement of diablo 3 for consoles. 

So as you can see the new console is shaping up to be a fantastic leap forward to the next generation even before everything has been shown and announced so xbox is going to have to pull something brilliant out the bag to beat the PS4 this time.