PS4 Announced ... Thoughts?

[Fusty]

You're not the only one Strawberry. In fact I used to think the same not that long ago.
Just recently I've been realizing it makes no sense to keep playing the console for the reasons you mentioned, because as Xilef said, you can easily connect a controller and a bigger screen to your pc nowadays.

 

[StrawberrySmiles]

I can't connect my PC to the TV - it doesn't have the plug. I could connect Star's PC, but it can't run many games either.

Though, in the future we will be investing in a gaming PC, but probably not any time soon.

 

[Byron]

Meh. I'll get it, yeh, but I think I'll enjoy the PS3 a little longer y'know. I only got it last year.

Also on the PSP topic, I love my PSP. All the final fantasy games and patapon make it worth it.

A Vita would be cool, but I still just... Meh.
I'm a nintendo fanboy... What can you expect. :P

 

[Juan J. Sánchez]

I'm with the Final Fantasy fan boys on this one. Also, it's way cheaper to buy a console than to buy a gaming PC.

 

[Xilef]

I'm with the Final Fantasy fan boys on this one. Also, it's way cheaper to buy a console than to buy a gaming PC.

Not true anymore, it's now the reverse with the high prices of console games and accessories, the PS4 though might change that as it is quite literally the guts of a gaming PC and the off-the-shelf parts reflect that, you can build a PS4 equivalent for £472.97, Sony is getting parts direct from suppliers so will have it cheaper + their accessories of the controller and console extras you'll be looking at about a similar price, it really is unfair to call PCs the more expensive option these days when console games are £60 and their PC counter-parts £35 (not to mention that for some reason everyone who owns a current-gen console also owns a PC that - if bought after 2009 - matches or exceeds the power of their gaming console).

I think the PS4 will not be sold at a loss which is a good thing, it will stop this dream-world that hardware manufacturers live in where they make money back on the software, the used games market absolutely destroys that idea, with the current market it's software that drives the buyers to a console so getting on the sweet-side of developers is the smartest move, and the PS4 being an x86 PC hooked up to the television is incredibly smart, means the development machines have the same architecture as the target platform, if you make a PC game, it's going to be a hop-skip-jump to compile it for PS4 and vice-versa.

Valve kept saying about the next step is PCs in the living room, I didn't expect Sony to out-right take components from the shelves of PC World for the PS4, really is a clever move, the next stage is see what Microsoft pull in the used-game area, if that is locked down then Sony can really advertise well for developers.

 

[united washcloth express]

$500 will buy you a gaming PC if you build it yourself. Even $800-1000 for prebuilt is worth it considering it is still an open computer. You can do far more with it. You don't need to buy new cutting edge parts every year.

I *might* have to get a new video card in like, 5 years if I want to continue playing on ultra.

THE ONLY REASON TO EVEN STAY ON CONSOLES IS SHITTY PC PORTS

 

[Jason]

Well, people say it's now cheaper to buy a gaming PC, but never take into consideration the fact that, if you want to constantly play games at 60FPS in 1080p, you have to upgrade your components over time... I know that if I kept my components from late 2007, I wouldn't be able to play many of today's games on the highest possible graphics AND at a constant 60FPS, without having to pay even more to upgrade...

Anyways, about the PS4, I'm getting one day one, and hopefully with Killzone Shadowfall if it's a launch day title (It's launch title, but we don't know if it's launch day or launch period), and obviously other games too, I WAS going to get Watch Dogs on PS3, but since it's coming out for PS4 now, my choice has been changed, lol. There'll also, most likely, be more games announced before release too, I mean there's GDC next month and E3 in June, surely both of these will show something, and TGS is in September, and Gamescom in October, right before the expected release of the console, since apparently it'll be releasing around November time... again, but that's pretty much just rumour and speculation right now.

 

[Mega Flare]

Woo Jason! Day one ps4 pals!

 

[Xilef]

Well, people say it's now cheaper to buy a gaming PC, but never take into consideration the fact that, if you want to constantly play games at 60FPS in 1080p, you have to upgrade your components over time... I know that if I kept my components from late 2007, I wouldn't be able to play many of today's games on the highest possible graphics AND at a constant 60FPS, without having to pay even more to upgrade...

Aha, but the gotcha is the fact that console games with medium-level graphics are at 600p and 30fps, dropping down to below 15fps in some instances.
Black Ops 2 runs at below 60fps (Despite Activisions claims) and is 720p, GTA IV is the best example, it's actually running at 720x540 with 20-30fps and is aspect-ratio corrected, so if you want to stick at console level graphics it's medium range settings at < 1080p resolution and > 30 fps, which is a reasonable target for high-end GPUs of today that will last a fair bit into the future, my 3 year old graphics card is still doing > 30fps on new releases on ultra graphics and 1080p, I can easily match the console resolution and graphical settings and have over 100 frames [before vsync'd to my monitor's 60], the PS4 is literally using PC components that currently exist, the only (Rather big) edge that consoles have over desktop machines is the unified RAM (Gaming laptops solve this problem, but gaming on a laptop is still not a viable solution for hard-core gamers) and the one that affects PCs across the board is the overhead that the operating system puts between the drivers and the hardware, OSX has poor performance in it's Apple-vended drivers because of the objective-c smalltalk style messages that wait so long in the system and relies on a lot of checking (C pointers are waaay faster when it comes to graphics), Linux is the only one with clean, near-direct hardware access but the drivers are only recently being improved and Linux gaming has only just started to mature.

However, a LOT of this could change with the PS4's x86 chip and next-gen AMD PC GPU, the PS4 shares the same architecture as the desktop PC, so all chip-specific, GPU specific enhancements are ported straight across (Sorry NVidia/Intel users!), Sony are surprisingly good with releasing the source code to their hardware-optimised libraries (Maths lib comes to mind, it is most excellent on x86), so I'm still not sure that the consoles will keep any cost/performance edge on the PC in the given future.

 

[Venetia]

Part of the PC master race here.

If I have money to pass away and the PC ports remain shitty, I may get one and hack it.

^

Actually I question whether anything would make me want it enough to bother. Possibly another Uncharted. But I don't know because Uncharted 3 wasn't really very great.

/shrug. I'm just looking forward to the Steam box that Valve is planning. I already have that, in the form of multiple PCs set up around the house with Steam installed, but I look forward to PC games really invading strict-console-gamers' houses. Plus it's theorized it'll be cheaper than any of the other consoles.

 

[Jason]

Too long to quote it all but I read it.

Yes, but, the majority of console gamers aren't bothered about graphics, they just want to play their games, whereas PC gamers, or most of the ones I know anyway, get a raging boner over graphics, and mod their games to get even better graphics, and spend a LOT more than the price of a console to make their games prettier...

Surely you have to agree to a certain extent, right?

 

[Jason]

Woo Jason! Day one ps4 pals!

Hells yeah lol :thumb:

 

[Spoo]

I wasn't horribly impressed, TBQH. But then again, I'm not a Sonyphile anyways, so I don't have much credibility in this department.

New controller looks a lot better, though.

 

[Xilef]

......

Surely you have to agree to a certain extent, right?

I agree about the graphics part, I love game technologies and computer science, however I do play shitty looking games and not complain, I think it's unfair to say the reason for PC gaming is graphics, multitasking and money saving were my reasons.

Also I know console gamers who argue over which system has the best graphics and compliment games that look pretty.

And a cheap PC these days is right up to 10x more powerful than a 360, it's probably other factors like misinformation and lack of split screen and the biggest one is friends, people get a console so they can talk about it with their pals.

Until the PC is in the living room it's still a pretty autistic machine to game on, I expect the PS4 to change some of this with how developers respond to the technologies, more so with the planned steam console from valve's partners sharing the same guts as a PS4.