The Kinect Shock 4, Part 2

Well, E3 has come and I have yet to see how the Dualshock 4 actually operates during gameplay. Sure, there have been comments on the design and feel of the controller, but there have yet to be a single demonstration of two of its key features: the Share Button, Touchpad, and the Lightbar Motion Control.

And yes, I have searched for any video on the subject at hand and this is all I got:

Yeah, it really looks innovative and plays like the Dualshock 3, and that’s all we got….

That’s it, that’s the very limit to see how well this controller works during gameplay. There’s absolutely no demonstration of the three newest features of the dualshock 4 or, gasp, how much each controller costs to the average gamer.

However…as many of you have noticed by now, the PS4 has gained high attention with gamers as of late. For those of you who have not seen the press conference (yeah, like there isn’t anyone left on the net who hasn’t heard the news), here’s the following video.

You may wanna start watching it at the 30-35 minute mark.

And I’m pretty sure many of you are absolutely gushing right about now. Don’t worry, I’ll let you scream like the fangirls/fanboys that you are. I can wait.

In fact, the friend of an online friend of mine has an entry that pretty much sums up the gaming world’s feelings towards the E3 revelations Sony Computer Entertainment of America has given. Here’s a link. The only thing missing, though, is the appropriate music.

You know you wanna do the dance.

Okay, now that we’ve collectively gotten that out of our system, allow me the pleasure to continue?

I admit, the Playstation 4 does seem attractive and almost makes me want to buy it when it comes out. Note that I said “almost” because I’ve learned my lesson with its predecessor the PS3 and am going to wait until at least a year for any potential bugs to be fixed and I have seen/read any overviews as to how the PS4 does its backwards compatibility emulator. I’m not exactly, well, comfortable with the fact that I need the Cloud in order to play even my PS3 games.

Oh and, speaking of cloud. I’m sure many of you recall my earlier statement of the possibility of purchasing the Xbox 720 in this generation? Yeah I am completely retracting that statement considering microsoft’s plans on the platform now known as the Xbox One.

I forsee a great disturbance in the stocks

Aaaaand it got worse

Apparently I’m not the only one who thinks that’s the most stupidest and contradictory name for a next generation console.

Anyway, getting back on track, the idea that I have to connect to the internet in order to access the cloud in order to use an emulator for my older playstation games doesn’t sit well with me. Especially since in the previous generation, the PS3 had an emulator patch that doesn’t need to go online. That doesn’t feel right with me, reminds me too much of the Xbox One, so that’s another reason why I should hold off purchase of the PS4 at a much later date.

Additionally, it would appear that the PS4 comes standard with a 500 GB memory according to the Wikipedia article.

Which sounds absolutely terrific….if I hadn’t upgraded my PS3 with a replacement hard drive with that amount of space. Oh well, I was running out of space anyway, though I doubt that Sony would grace us with the ability to upload our game data from the PS3 to the PS4 in a similar manner to how one uploads data from an old PC to a new one nowadays.

At least, not without the Cloud. I don’t feel right about that idea….

Anyway, feel free to discuss below and please be civil with your responces. In the meantime, here’s a bit of nostalgia for those of you who are old enough to remember.

Who want’s to bet that the PS9 will come quicker than what the ad suggests?

image courtisy of http://uncrate.com

The Kinect Shock 4, Part 1

 

I know what many of you are thinking, this blog entry is rather late considering exactly when this news came out. I’m not exactly known to make timely blog entries as many of you would have undoubtly known by now.

For those of you who are not, or are die hard Microsoft or Nintendo fans, allow me to present to you a video.

The future of Sony gameplay people. Seem familiar?

Up to speed then? Good, I’ll continue my rant.

I can only assume that the first thing that many of you have noticed upon playing the above video is that light bar at the front of the controller. This, is gonna be in the center of my blog rent at the moment but I’ll get to it eventually. First off, let me enlighten you to what many have percieved to be the prototype patent of the Dualshock 4. For lack of a better term, it shall be hense force be known as the Dualshock Move. Or until we get a better name for it, whichever comes first.

The above images were the pioneer solution that Sony had conjured when they wanted to integrate the Dual Shock and Playstation Move controllers into a single unit. Silly isn’t it? Glad that they went to the light bar, right?

But, there’s an issue that needs to be pointed out. You see, just like the Playstation Move controller, the Dualshock 4’s Lightbar requires a camera. Not just any camera, but one with binocular vision as seen below:

I’m sure that many of you can see my ire in this idea by now. If not, allow me to present to you another picture.

You all see my issue now? Sony’s next generation console has a controller that utilizes a peripheral accessory that is effectively THE KINECT!!! It even has a microphone! Oh no wait, FOUR of them!

How Microsoft didn’t catch Sony in this, I’ll never know. All I know is that this is personally a disturbing trend with console developers focusing on motion control gaming. I’m not a big fan of this and rants about the above mentioned Kinect show that it’s not exactly holding up the promise that “You are the Controller”.

I have no idea how much Sony’s gonna charge for this bundle, but I can feel it in me bones that it’ll be more expensive then the Dualshock 3, and that thing is equal to the cost of a single game. Which kinda explains why I haven’t heard of many games offering split screen multiplayer: It’s cheaper hardware wise to just do it online rather then get separate controllers. Heck, with each controller not purchased means another game takes it place.

But, before I get distracted, I gotta get back to my original rant. You should know by this paragraph that I’m not exactly a big fan of this design philosophy. I can already guess that it decreased development time and simplifies production if the Dualshock 4 and theoretical Playstation Move 2 were a single system rather then two different peripherals. Doesn’t mean that I have to like it. I just don’t see the Playstation as a party machine and that’s how I see motion control gaming; not an experience for a single player but to allow other people to join in on the action. The Playstation is more suited, in my honest opinion, as a single player machine which allows them to play with other people via the technological wonder which is the internet.

Yeah, I know that it sounds like the freaken desktop computer, but work with me here people.

However, as the thought mingled in my head, I am reminded of a review of a Kinect-centric game that had promises it could not keep simply because of the limitations of the hardware itself.

Don’t worry, I can wait until you’re all finished with the video. I got all the time in the world to wait.

Done? Good, we can continue then.

As our guest reviewer Angry Joe has noted, the game has its flaws. This is where the innovative though occurs with the Dualshock 4. Potentially, and I really can’t stress this enough, the Dualshock 4 could allow a port of that game be more accurate with its simulation with not only the camera tracking the position of the controller, but can also allow simple button command to tell the digital avatar to select that highlighted option so it can be manipulated more easily rather then swing and hope that it does what it wants you to do.

I say potentially simply because, well, game developers haven’t exactly been on their game as of late.

heheh…”.game”

Anyway, the above brain fart just shows that I have become too optimistic for my own good when it comes to this particular sector of the entertainment industry.

As for the other features, well I can’t really say much about it. Why? Oh, it’s simple really. All these people talk about what the Dualshock 4 can do, but they never, ever, ever SHOW how it does it. Is it so hard and too much to ask for a visual demonstration on how its myriad of buttons, touch pads, and motion control work while playing a game?

Oh well, one reason why this blog entry is entitled “Part 1”. They’ll eventually show us how those games are played via the Dualshock 4 come E3. Hopefully.

Am I gonna get the Playstation 4, several of you might ask? Well, to put it bluntly, no. Why? Because it has no backwards compatibility with my current library of Playstaton games. Not even with Playstation 3 games. None.

I know that eventually they’ll come out with an emulator or whatever to allow such backwards compatibility to be available on the PSN store, the same as they did with the latter models that took out the hardware backwards compatibility on the PS3 consoles to decrease the purchase price per unit. Or at least, I hope that they’ll do such a solution.

So until then, I’ll wait for the price drop and the emulator download. And who knows? They might put in a terrabyte of internal memory into the new models by then.

For now, I got a wish list of Playstation games to acquire and a $600, 60gb console recently upgraded to 500gb of internal memory to spend my gaming time. And I see no need to upgrade anytime soon. Not only that, but I don’t see why my next upgrade should even be a Playstation 4, what with its lack of backwards compatibility. Heck, I might even eventually get the Xbox 720 if I hear attractive things about it, such as backwards compatibility.

If not, well I’ll know how those retro gamers feel.

Anyway, feel free to comment and discuss below. And let’s attempt to be civilized about this shall we?

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