PlayStation 4: Are We Excited?

Griff Williams, avid videogamer and creative writer of stuff, casts his probing eye on the recent PlayStation 4 news…

Andy Jamieson, Editor 

Well, the latest generation of the Console Wars is drawing to a close, and the more I look back upon it the closer I come to the unhappy conclusion that the PS3 lost. It goes without saying that the Wii kerb-stomped the competition when it came to sales, and both Sony and Microsoft spent the latter portion of the generation attempting to graft motion controls onto their consoles in order to mitigate the damage. The 360 meanwhile came out on top with regards to online development in comparison to the Wii‘s atrophied connectivity features and the PlayStation Network‘s controversy-marred history.

Certainly, it is not a crushing defeat – no Dreamcast or CD-i – more a defeat through an absence of victory. The PS3 was still a solid console. But with the announcement of the PS4 and the dawning of a new generation of the Console Wars, Sony is clearly hoping to give us more than just another solid console.

The Basics

I’ll keep this brief, because readers will either already know the hardware specs or easily be able to find someone more tech-fluent than myself to explain them. The PS4 is being touted as a more PC-based, Western developer-friendly console, and everything that was true about the PS3 will be true about the PS4. A lot of memory, a lot of processing, a lot of graphics, a lot of Blu-ray, a lot of backwards compa- oh, wait, no, strike that last one. Some things never change.

A ‘souped-up PC’ is how some commentators are touting it, and that doesn’t strike me as a bad thing. We all, I think, remember the old ‘PS3 has no games’ meme, and given the impressive success countless Western-developed games have met with over this past generation, it seems only logical that Sony should attempt to court and facilitate third party interest for the PS4 straight from the get-go. Besides that, there’s little I can offer when the bottom line for the specs reads like Daft Punk lyrics. Harder, better, faster, stronger.

The Controller

The DualShock 3 is, to me, the last word in gaming controllers. It made playing a PS3 simple, intuitive, unobtrusive and absolutely immersive. Whenever I pick it up, it’s moments before I forget there’s even a controller in my hands. It cannot be improved upon.

Sony has announced the DualShock 4 as an attempted improvement. Oh dear.

At least they haven’t tried to fix what isn’t broken. We still have the dual analogue sticks, the iconic buttons, shoulder triggers and the vestigial D-pad. But now a touch pad has been included in the centre. And there’s to be a ‘Share’ button for automatic video recording. Make of that latter detail what you will.

Perhaps the touch pad won’t be as obtrusive as our worst fears suggest. It is not, after all, the same monolithic beast that dominates the WiiU‘s controller, and by numerous accounts the PS Vita has done well by its own touch pad. And yet I cannot shake the concern that this will lead to the same problem Nintendo had with the Wii and DS: perfectly good games marred by the unnecessary inclusion of waggle-physics and touch features respectively, included only to justify the hardware.

If the DualShock 4 can still pull off the unconscious gaming nirvana than its predecessor set as the industry standard, then I will gladly eat my words. After all, even as I write this article, I’m using my laptop’s own touch pad to navigate around the screen without a second thought, or even that much of a first thought really. But then again, does anyone remember the PS3‘s attempt to foist the sixaxis on players? How many games of Killzone 2 or Mirror’s Edge were ground to a halt (or, in the latter case, sent plummeting off a pipe) because the games insisted on reminding us there was a controller in our hands, and we had to twist it like we wanted to twist the developers’ necks for including that feature?

The Connectivity

The PS4 might have abandoned even the pretence of backwards-compatibility, but amongst the bells and whistles of its online features is the promise of streaming PS3 games. Furthermore, there are murmurings that Sony’s subscription service PlayStation Plus will be getting a vamped-up role on the new console, with potentially different levels of membership depending on how much you’re prepared to fork out. Details still seem sketchy, but what appears certain is the PS4‘s full embracing of digital distribution: all games will be available for download, only some from an actual shelf at your local gaming store. So far, so Xbox Live.

The big boasts from Sony are that the new connectivity features are going to enhance gamers’ experience of the console. Games will only need to partially download before they are playable, and the PS4 will be able to connect with the Vita and other handheld devices (via downloadable apps in the latter cases) for both remote purchasing of products and some varying degree of functionality in games. So far, so WiiU.

In short, Sony will be working very hard to ensure that the PS4 makes it as easy as possible for you to spend your money. Here’s hoping they work as hard protecting your online information.

The PS4 Eye

Yup, the PS4 is getting its own version of the Kinect. Don’t worry, it’ll also provide continuing support for the Move. I really don’t know what to say about this, except the obvious HAL 9000 jokes and an exasperated ‘have you learned nothing?’.

The Games

I can’t pretend the PS4 has wowed me as a system – or, more accurately, as anything beyond a more powerful version of what I already have. What I’ve had to say so far has, I fully recognise, been… less than positive.

But here’s the bottom line: Killzone Shadow Fall, Watch Dogs, Destiny, Assassin’s Creed 4, Cyberpunk 2077, Infamous: Second Son. So far only the first and last of those appear to be PS4 exclusives, but hot damn, would you look at that line up already?

I complained that the DualShock 4 risks drifting away from the core essence of what a controller should be, but to be honest I’ve been guilty of that myself in this article. I’ve distracted myself with all the big pronouncements over the PS4‘s additional features, and completely forgotten about the core essence of the console. It goes back to the PS4‘s basics, of establishing a system that’ll support and encourage the best possible games. And, from what has been shown so far, that ambition is looking pretty damn realised.

Because all these other features are just that: features. Sony is obviously out to win the next Console War by selling the most units, I get that, and it’s done its level best to create a hybrid of everything that’s proven financially successful so far to do it. But from the perspective not of an industry analyst, but a geek (trick’s in the magazine title), that’s not what interests me. Ultimately, it won’t matter how I buy my game, or even how I play it. Contrary, perhaps, to perception, I do actually enjoy a good few games on both the Wii and DS – not the Kinect though; even my magnanimity has its limits.

What matters is that I enjoy the game. What’ll really get me spending my money and helping make the PS4 financially successful is the feeling that I’ve gotten my money’s worth. Sure, that means my consumer support ultimately comes down to what exclusivities the PS4 secures against the WiiU and Xbox, and any attempts made by the parent companies to thwart me getting my money’s worth (looking at you Microsoft, look at you very closely). But in the end, I’m a gamer: I’m only interested in the games, and whatever console I own, with whatever features it possesses, is a means to that end.

The Playstations have always been solid consoles, with solid games. Sure, they have the potential to be more, to try new things, and kudos to them for finally starting to explore that potential (even if it is tentative). But perhaps, ironically, the reason the PS3 wasn’t hurt as bad in this generation of the Console Wars as it might have been was exactly that quiet dependability. And this was with a less developer-friendly platform. If Sony’s Tyrell-esque marketing is to be believed, and the PS4 is more PC than PC, then we could be looking at a golden age of third-party games, regardless of whatever else is tacked on.

So please, Sony, whatever else you do with the PS4, don’t screw up the games. Screw up everything else by all means, just make your games worth the effort.

Griff Williams, writer-at-arms