F1 Fanatic

Where’s the USP for this console; what’s it going to do that no other console will? So far, I can’t see anything whatsoever.

We won’t know until Microsoft release their next console. But so far I haven’t seen a console where you can record gameplay and send it to friends on the console, and I don’t know any other console where you can immediately play the beginning of a digital game whilst the rest of it downloads as you play it.

To tell the truth, the PS3 and Xbox aren’t that different from each other either. PS3 has Blu-ray and the 360 has cross game chat, but apart from that there are not many significant differences between the two.

@MazdaChris – Sony have confirmed that the PS4 WILL be backwards compatible through a cloud feature, allowing people to stream old games. You probably won’t be able to play games you currently own, which isn’t necessarily great, but that’s something every console has to deal with. Also, have you not been reading? They are clearly not ignoring tablets or other mainstream technology, they have already said that you will be able to other Sony tech, like laptops, phone, Vita and so I doubt they’d forget about a tablet.

I’d also like to add that this is all very early. This was the first official announcement of the PS4. Did everyone really expect that they would show all their cards this early, and leave nothing for the rest of the year, whilst their hype slowly dies down? It would have been absolutely foolish to do so. I believe that there is still more to come. More features and certainly more games.

My belief is that later in the year, they will announce more titles, which will be set for release for the PS4. The first game that comes to mind would be Uncharted 4. Uncharted 3 came out late 2011, with the previous iteration coming out in 2009. All signals would point to a new Uncharted later this year, releasing it with the PS4, which would be a major draw-in for many people, including myself.

And perhaps Gran Turismo 6? Sony need a great console for starters, which I believe they could have on their hands, but major titles will be what sells it, and Gran Turismo 6 could be one of them. In November, it will be 3 years since GT5 was released, which would be a little less time than between GT4 and GT5, but could well be on the cards.

InFamous: Second son has already been announced, which I am very excited for, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Little Big Planet 3 make an appearance either. There are still plenty of announcements to come, with big games on the horizon.

@jamiefranklinf1 That’s not really backwards compatibility. Backwards compatibility means that I can use my old games with the console. Which I can’t. Being able to pay to stream old games is not the same thing at all.

Yes, I did see that other Sony products would integrate with this, but that’s hardly on the sort of scale I’m talking about. So you’ll be spending £300+ on the console, then you need to spend another £200 odd on a Vita to get the whole experience. When you probably already own a smartphone or a tablet. Restricting it to only Sony products means restricting the proliferation of the titles available on the console. I can understand why they would want to go down that route, but it screams missed opportunity to me.

Your list of games simply highlights the lack of real innovation here. Another Uncharted, another InFamous, another Gran Turismo, another Little Big Planet. All of which will be basically the same as their predecessors but with higher resolution graphics and probably even longer development times. Which in the case of Gran Turismo means they may as well not even bother.

Personally I see this generation of consoles as a bit of a stopgap. More of a PS3.5; more or less the same stuff but with updated tech. I can imagine that in the next decade we’ll start to see the entire concept of the home games console becoming redundant, in favour of cloud hosted games you just link up to directly from your smart TV or set-top box. It’ll mean having to have fibre broadband, but that seems fairly reasonable. You’ll be able to access the games directly from all sorts of machines, like smartphones, tablets, PCs, and so on. Paying a monthly subscription a bit like spotify, but with a premium pricing model for the AAA titles. You can already see this happening with software licensing on PCs – you can now pay a monthly fee to use software like Adobe Creative Suite, rather than paying over a thousand pound for a license and physical media. That’s the future right there. These new consoles are anachronistic dinosaurs.

Not that it’ll stop me buying one and playing of course. I just don’t find it that exciting.

I’m going to have to wait until the next Xbox is shown off before I can go fawning over anything. There’s no point in getting excited about one thing until you can tell how it stacks up against its competitors, and what they can or can’t do that it can or can’t.

The PS4 had some interesting ideas, but I fail to see how the others (Microsoft, Valve) aren’t considering similar things. I have no interest in motion controls, I play games to relax and have fun, and waving my arms and bouncing around isn’t my idea of that, so the Wii U is completely out. No longer interested in Nintendo any more after my Wii has spent the past 3 years gathering dust. So anything related to that doesn’t concern me.

I mainly use by 360 for gaming, and my PS3 for media, Blu-Ray and streaming. Once the new Xbox is announced and shown I’ll have a look and make a decision. I won’t be buying on release though. Too expensive and the games are never all that good. Although all this comes at a time when my hours spent gaming on my PC are at an all-time high, so I might not need any of them.