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Post by jklinders on Feb 22, 2013 0:14:35 GMT 1
Sony is trotting out their new console. I've never really made any bones about my preference for PC as a platform but I have a special place of hatred in my heart for some of Sony's business practices. Sure enough, they are not making it backwards compatible with PS3 games. Obviously this means they intend to repackage the PS3 games for resale in a "compatible format" in the future. The hardware specs look reasonable but I am finding myself questioning the need to do a another console generation when the current generation seems plenty powerful to me. bah here is the link ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/right-click/playstation-4-announced-sony-special-event-york-003421557.htmlI'll get off my soapbox and let you all figure it out.
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Post by Mr. Glow on Feb 22, 2013 0:29:10 GMT 1
Talking 'bout dat PS Quadruple? BALLIN'!
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Post by A Normal Pathfinder on Feb 22, 2013 1:13:22 GMT 1
It was pretty much annouced a while ago...
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Post by Mister Buch on Feb 22, 2013 1:56:14 GMT 1
I believe the official announcement was today or yesterday.
I'd agree with Linders - that there doesn't seem to be much call to launch a new console generation right now. But it has been a few years since the last one. That must be the only reason.
I'll be interested to see how motion control is incorporated into the next few years' crop of games, since I secretly love it and it looks like PS4 and Xbox 3 will feaure it inbuilt.
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Post by Mr. Glow on Feb 22, 2013 18:27:44 GMT 1
The hardware specs look reasonable but I am finding myself questioning the need to do a another console generation when the current generation seems plenty powerful to me. I'd agree with Linders - that there doesn't seem to be much call to launch a new console generation right now. But it has been a few years since the last one. That must be the only reason. It's been nearly a decade, you know.
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Post by Warhammer Gorvar on Feb 22, 2013 18:45:34 GMT 1
Im still playing my Gamecube....like a boss.
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Post by jklinders on Feb 22, 2013 19:28:45 GMT 1
Speaking as someone who grew up with Pong, Glow, I'm dead serious.
The quibbles in those 2 screen caps are just that....quibbles.
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Post by Mister Buch on Feb 22, 2013 21:23:18 GMT 1
Same here. My first game was 'Jump Man' for Commodore. Those two screenshots look fine to me. Not that the two scenes looked anything like that on my TV, which is way, way older than 10 years.
There ought to be more reason to launch a generation of consoles than 'If you zoom in then that giant pile of corpses looks a bit weak'. The leaps between 8 bit and 16 Bit, to 3D (less so betwen Playstation 1 to 2 or 2 to 3...) were big deals. There was a noticable and industry-wide change in the way games looked and played. That's not the same thing as changing a background texture for a pile of objects.
---
Also - BioWare really do love spamming that Phoenix armour, don't they? Glad to see it got one last hurrah.
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Post by Warhammer Gorvar on Feb 22, 2013 21:35:26 GMT 1
I cannot unsee Wrex in Phoenix Armour...
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Post by Mr. Glow on Feb 22, 2013 22:19:26 GMT 1
Ah, I see. Because you guys got into gaming on a whatever-bit console, they should keep developing games for the same hardware they use now.
I don't claim to know anything about the technical side of video games, but surely better hardware means developers can create bigger and better games. In theory, at least.
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Post by Mister Buch on Feb 22, 2013 23:32:29 GMT 1
Ah, I see. Because you guys got into gaming on a whatever-bit console, they should keep developing games for the same hardware they use now. Maybe we were being oversimplistic or nostalgic with that argument, but you know that's not what we meant. That's over-simplifying it. I just think the hardware should improve a lot rather than a little, and the games for it should have a clear trajectory and change, before Microsoft and Sony take another few hundred quid off us all.
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Post by Mr. Glow on Feb 22, 2013 23:52:20 GMT 1
The ironic thing is I'm defending the next gen when I thought the PS4 announcement was pretty underwhelming, what with the less than massive hardware improvement, pretty poor titles and uneccesary social networking stuff.
But yeah, it seems like we've reached a bottleneck for this kind of stuff, at least visually.
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Post by Knightfall on Feb 23, 2013 3:18:26 GMT 1
I'm actually pretty excited for the PS4, granted that there are some interesting games to go along with it. Watch_Dogs, Destiny and The Witcher 3 being the only three I can think of that would pique my interest.
Both consoles were really pushing it in terms their overall capabilities and "mission statement." There were limitations in the PS3 hardware that made it difficult/impossible for developers like Bethesda to develop for it. It had top of the line everything, but limited RAM and a really silly cell processor made it so that the PS3 was behind the curve on a lot of things.
So the PS4 makes sense for Sony in that regard, since they've made a lot of concessions and threw some really great hardware that will make it a dream console for developers. Plus adding the ability to stream the entire Playstation Network library is kickass, and it's a more graceful alternative to straight up backwards compatibility.
Xbox 360 is also hitting some major technical snags with regards to disc space on their DVDs and just the all around dated hardware. They had to cut some serious corners so that games like Mass Effect 3 could be shipped on even two discs. There's also the issue of their treatment of indie developers for Xbox Live Arcade and their oddball certification process - not to mention their paid XBL service that is just silly in so many ways.
All of these things will have to be fixed for the next console generation, so I think we'll see some really cool changes/games come out of it all.
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Post by jklinders on Feb 23, 2013 3:23:02 GMT 1
New and better hardware usually means higher costs for making the most out of those spiffy new graphics and motion controllers. Gameplay is becoming less and less important compared to eye candy. Setting up and testing for a new hardware standard is lots more expensive.
Sure maybe I'm oversimplifying a morsel but the industry does not need more graphics. It needs more focus on what is important. Is the bloody thing fun?
I need a better reason than it's been six years since the last console generation was replaced to replace this one. The last console generation was bottlenecking game development. You could really tell a console developed game from a PC exclusive. But the lines are a lot blurrier now as there seems to be perfectly adequate power in these platforms yet.
My question, especially with Sony's cynical refusal to make the PS3 games compatible with the PS4, is are they doing this to make a better user experiance while making money, or is it a cash grab. Right now it looks like the latter.
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Post by Mister Buch on Feb 23, 2013 3:29:12 GMT 1
It looks like a cash grab to me too - a way of justifying a 'new console every few years whether we need it or not' policy - but... I'm actually pretty excited for the PS4, granted that there are some interesting games to go along with it. Watch_Dogs, Destiny and The Witcher 3 being the only three I can think of that would pique my interest. Both consoles were really pushing it in terms their overall capabilities and "mission statement." There were limitations in the PS3 hardware that made it difficult/impossible for developers like Bethesda to develop for it. It had top of the line everything, but limited RAM and a really silly cell processor made it so that the PS3 was behind the curve on a lot of things. So the PS4 makes sense for Sony in that regard, since they've made a lot of concessions and threw some really great hardware that will make it a dream console for developers. Plus adding the ability to stream the entire Playstation Network library is kickass, and it's a more graceful alternative to straight up backwards compatibility. Xbox 360 is also hitting some major technical snags with regards to disc space on their DVDs and just the all around dated hardware. They had to cut some serious corners so that games like Mass Effect 3 could be shipped on even two discs. There's also the issue of their treatment of indie developers for Xbox Live Arcade and their oddball certification process - not to mention their paid XBL service that is just silly in so many ways. All of these things will have to be fixed for the next console generation, so I think we'll see some really cool changes/games come out of it all. Ahhhhh, those are all very good points.
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