So, today was the opening day of the 2nd Athens Gaming Festival (more on that later) and of course I was anticipating this opportunity to get to see first-hand the capabilities of the next-gen consoles. Unfortunately, the only one available to us here in Greece was the PS4, since it seems that Microsoft only has it's plans for the financially stable countries. And, even though the Wii U has been available for quite a while, Nintendo in their entirety have been absent from the expo.
But enough with that. Let's move on to more important things. Namely the PS4. The machine's size was noticeably larger than what people and gaming sites have been making it out to be. I honestly expected it to be a small device. But still it is quite compact, not to mention elegant, and the colored line in the middle that defines the situation the console is in, makes it easier to see the difference in the shades of black. I got a small chance to check out it's rear, and the outputs are quite undistinguishable. They're kind of hard to find, even though there are a lot of them. There's also the extra fact that even though it comes with UMD ports, the machine doesn't support any type of MP3, AVI, MP4, or other such format playback. Sony has responded that this may be implemented in the future, yet it remains to be seen. On the outside, definitely a step forward from the PS3!
I checked out the DualShock 4 while I had the chance. While I will have to agree with most reviewers that the grip feels better thanks to the softer handles and the L2/R2 buttons are much better implemented, there are a few things I noticed. The touchpad is actually pressable (just like any other button, you hear a "click" when you push it downwards) and the sticks or L3/R3 buttons are now much easier to use. But the controller overall feels smaller. All previous DualShock versions (from the very first one to the Sixaxis) are average-sized. This just felt, sorta tiny. It could just be my idea though, but it felt like the space between the "triangle", "square", "X" and "O" buttons was greatly diminished.
I probably got about one or two minutes to check the interface (since you are only allowed to play the games), but from what I saw, it's very up to date. Very fast, no lag (unlike the PS3), a lot of elegance, like a high-tech machine should be nowadays. It just felt, well, a little "Windows 8" to be honest! And from a product that's supposed to be competing with Microsoft (the creator of the Windows 8, for those of you who don't know), you really don't want that!
Onto the games. I got to check out all of the day 1 releases and I got to play a few as well. You would think after the PS3 and XBox 360 came out that there's only so much they can do after that, but this machine shows that we ain't seen nothin' yet! I caught myself being lost in the magnificent landscapes of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, the futuristic city of Killzone:Shadow Fall and the mind-blowing capabilities of little Knack. After waiting in line for about 20 minutes, I finally got a chance to play FIFA '14. I own it on my PS3, so I thought I'd be easily able to play it, but I was left glaring at the interactions between the players and the artificial crowds in the stands. The way this game brings football to life is astonishing!
Overall, it's a nice machine! But, like I've said before though, there's really not much of a reason to go throwing your money away for it. Wait for the hype train to settle down, prices to drop, more enhancements (like GAIKAI and MP3 support) to be added and better games to be released. This is definitely something I would recommend every gamer should own!
But enough with that. Let's move on to more important things. Namely the PS4. The machine's size was noticeably larger than what people and gaming sites have been making it out to be. I honestly expected it to be a small device. But still it is quite compact, not to mention elegant, and the colored line in the middle that defines the situation the console is in, makes it easier to see the difference in the shades of black. I got a small chance to check out it's rear, and the outputs are quite undistinguishable. They're kind of hard to find, even though there are a lot of them. There's also the extra fact that even though it comes with UMD ports, the machine doesn't support any type of MP3, AVI, MP4, or other such format playback. Sony has responded that this may be implemented in the future, yet it remains to be seen. On the outside, definitely a step forward from the PS3!
I checked out the DualShock 4 while I had the chance. While I will have to agree with most reviewers that the grip feels better thanks to the softer handles and the L2/R2 buttons are much better implemented, there are a few things I noticed. The touchpad is actually pressable (just like any other button, you hear a "click" when you push it downwards) and the sticks or L3/R3 buttons are now much easier to use. But the controller overall feels smaller. All previous DualShock versions (from the very first one to the Sixaxis) are average-sized. This just felt, sorta tiny. It could just be my idea though, but it felt like the space between the "triangle", "square", "X" and "O" buttons was greatly diminished.
I probably got about one or two minutes to check the interface (since you are only allowed to play the games), but from what I saw, it's very up to date. Very fast, no lag (unlike the PS3), a lot of elegance, like a high-tech machine should be nowadays. It just felt, well, a little "Windows 8" to be honest! And from a product that's supposed to be competing with Microsoft (the creator of the Windows 8, for those of you who don't know), you really don't want that!
Onto the games. I got to check out all of the day 1 releases and I got to play a few as well. You would think after the PS3 and XBox 360 came out that there's only so much they can do after that, but this machine shows that we ain't seen nothin' yet! I caught myself being lost in the magnificent landscapes of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, the futuristic city of Killzone:Shadow Fall and the mind-blowing capabilities of little Knack. After waiting in line for about 20 minutes, I finally got a chance to play FIFA '14. I own it on my PS3, so I thought I'd be easily able to play it, but I was left glaring at the interactions between the players and the artificial crowds in the stands. The way this game brings football to life is astonishing!
Overall, it's a nice machine! But, like I've said before though, there's really not much of a reason to go throwing your money away for it. Wait for the hype train to settle down, prices to drop, more enhancements (like GAIKAI and MP3 support) to be added and better games to be released. This is definitely something I would recommend every gamer should own!
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