Promising more power and more immersive gaming experiences, Sony offered a sneak peek at the PlayStation 4 yesterday. We don’t know how much the new system will set you back or when it will hit the market at this time, though initial reports indicate Sony would like to have the console in stores before the holiday season.
David Cage, founder of Quantic Dream, worked with actress Ellen Page on Beyond: Two Souls, an upcoming PS3 action adventure game, and said the new Sony console opens up the types of special effects — like 3D depth of field and translucency — which have previously been reserved for Hollywood CG movies.
“We’ve reached a point with the PS4 where you can see subtle emotions in a character’s face and look into his eyes and see his soul,” said Cage. “Game creators can forget about technology limitations and focus on game experiences that will take you to places you’ve never been before, and feel emotions you’ve never felt before (in a game). We are now only limited by our own imagination.”
Sony demonstrated the potential of the PS4 hardware, which features a high-end GPU and an 8-core CPU on the same die, with 8 gigs of DDR5 RAM, more processing power and memory than any other console available today. While Sony didn’t show the actual console, it did showcase a new DualShock 4 controller, which features a light bar on the top with three color LEDs.
The light bar illuminates to match the color of characters in a game to offer a simpler way to identify players, even when playing side by side, and includes a sensor pad for touch controls and a headphone jack. The addition of a Share button will allow players to instantly share gameplay experiences through Facebook, UStream and social networks.
Sony also debuted the PlayStation 4 Eye, a newly-developed device that incorporates two high-sensitivity cameras with wide-angle lenses sporting 85-degree diagonal angle views which can recognize depth of space. This allows the image of the player to be cut from the background, or to grasp players’ position in space. Four microphones also detect sound and where it came from, and users will also be able to login to their PS4 with face recognition.
I can’t wait, but I will anyway. After all, what’s the point of getting a console as soon as it is released. If you wait, you can get it for a quarter of the price, and there will be a lot more games to choose from as well. I suppose if everyone thought the way I do, then game consoles would come to a quick and bitter end, so to everyone else. You better buy this as soon as it comes out.
Also, the Playstation 4 better be a WIP Title. They need start using something else now, such as maybe, Playstaion Ultra, or Playstation Ul4ra, or Playstaion GraFX. Ok, these are examples, I would not reccomend any of those titles, but you get what I’m trying to say right?
I could not be more stoked. I really believe that the PS4 will be able to compete with the higher end PC gaming machines. I’m not totally sold on the new controller design but I’m sure that will change when I get my hands on one. The game streaming feature also appeals to me!