quote:

ORIGINAL: sroey

If they sort the ridiculous prices of games on demand out then I could see it happening eventually. For some reason games you can pickup in stores for £20 are added to GoD service for £39.99. Why would anyone bother? Its a waste of fecking bandwidth!

MS better knock it out of the park this time. If I am going to have all these bloody adverts and services thrown at me then at least invest in some decent original games.

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ORIGINAL: Chief

I'd happily download games on demand if the price was right. More chance of an impulse/drunken buy that way and I wouldn't have to get off my arse and go out.

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ORIGINAL: sroey

This would be huge if true...

http://www.oxm.co.uk/50182/bungies-timed-xbox-exclusive-destiny-to-scoop-sonys-ps4-reveal/

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ORIGINAL: Harry Tuttle

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ORIGINAL: Chief

I'd happily download games on demand if the price was right. More chance of an impulse/drunken buy that way and I wouldn't have to get off my arse and go out.

That's the kicker though innit, the prices are nowhere near right at the moment. It's Microsoft's absurd On Demand pricing that will make opting out of the first generation of consoles with no physical drive a no brainer for me. That and always on internet connection are deal breakers as far as I'm concerned. I'd be pissed off if they started pissing about with DRM and phased out the 2nd hand market but I'd be able to deal with it. Having the ability to use my console at the mercy of my ISP and the pricing of the games at the mercy of Microsoft/Sony would be a huge no no though.

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ORIGINAL: From_Hell

The PS4 console is now available to pre-order at £400.

http://www.shopto.net/video%20games/ps4/PS4HW00-playstation-4-console

I guess it would be fair to assume the new Xbox is going to be priced about the same...

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ORIGINAL: From_Hell

The PS4 console is now available to pre-order at £400.

http://www.shopto.net/video%20games/ps4/PS4HW00-playstation-4-console

I guess it would be fair to assume the new Xbox is going to be priced about the same...

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ORIGINAL: Titanm21

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/gaming/news/a460855/new-xbox-announcement-expected-in-april.html

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ORIGINAL: sroey

Agree - Not sure how Sony think they have ruffled MS feathers with that announcement...

It was pretty good but nothing earth shattering. In fact looking back now the hype has died down I'd say it was a little bit bland. Controller looks nice and the share function is interesting but the streaming tech was only mentioned briefly and the move is the same right? No upgrade there - new PS Eye?

If MS show the actually device (somehow this is important) with more concrete details then they will already have one up on Sony. If the Kinect 2.0 is bundled with it and the system has some Killer new IP then that's all I'll need to see

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ORIGINAL: Dpp1978

I know there is a dedicated PS4 thread, but this seems to have become the de facto next gen console discussion thread so I'll post this here.

Bob: Here is the spec sheet Sony released after the conference: click me.

The reason the announcement was really well received by developers and more tech savvy gamers was the choice of a single pool of 8GB of ultra fast GDDR RAM. Up to that point the rumour mill was sure it would be 4GB (and in all other respects the rumours were spot on) compared with Xbox's 8GB of much slower DDR3 RAM (albeit with a cache of faster memory to help compensate).

This led to a back and forth over which solution would be better: was a smaller pool of fast RAM better than a Bigger pool of slow RAM, or vice versa. Both sides made valid points, but the consensus among the hardware geeks was Sony's solution was probably better for games. When Sony announced there is to 8GB: matching MS' rumoured offering, and at triple the bandwidth of DDR3 it seems that any discussion about which is better has become largely moot. I'm not a tech specialist. I'm reasonably savvy so can follow the debate even if I don't completely understand the subtleties. So give this analysis as much weight as it deserves.

On top of this Sony's console is reported to have a significantly more powerful graphics chip and is apparently much easier to develop for than the PS3 was. Sony appears to have learned their lesson after 2 generations of exotic architecture and gone with a more conventional design.

Xbox is rumoured to have a stronger CPU, and their choice of low latency memory is reportedly better for general purpose computing so it might not be as one sided as current speculation would have us believe.

I should probably note at this point that the next gen Xbox's reported specs are still based on leaked documents. It is possible that things have changed. but the same sources who leaked these specs were almost right on the money about PS4 (except for the quantity of memory, which appears to be last minute revision).

From where we stand it looks like PS4 will be significantly more powerful than the next Xbox, but we'll have to wait at least until MS do their unveiling to be sure what their offering's spec sheet looks like (assuming they release it). Whichever is more powerful, both are beasts compared to the current generation of consoles (plus WiiU) and whatever side of the fanboy divide we find ourselves (if any) there is plenty to be happy about.

sroey: There is a new camera. It is stereo for better depth tracking and should work better with the Move controller: for those who are into that sort of thing.

The mad thing is that we are still probably the best part of a year away from release and already the tribes of rabid fanboys from both camps are sharpening their poisoned pens. I happen to find fanboy wars incredibly entertaining as a spectator sport. I can only imagine how much fun things are going to be as things develop.

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ORIGINAL: sroey

I hope Kinect 2.0 lives up to its potential more this time around. Same with Move and the eye/camera thingy.

quote:

ORIGINAL: sroey

Only part I dont quite agree with...

Still I can pick apart the Sony conference all I want - after the presentation all I could think of was how the MS reveal will be more or less the same...oooh shiny graphics...

I hope Kinect 2.0 lives up to its potential more this time around. Same with Move and the eye/camera thingy.

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ORIGINAL: Chief


No matter what they come up with, both will still involve you you standing flapping your arms about like a dickhead in your living room. Good fun half a dozen times a year when you've got a house full of pissed up friends, shite the rest of the time when you want to sit down and shoot aliens.

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ORIGINAL: Dpp1978

quote:

ORIGINAL: Chief


No matter what they come up with, both will still involve you you standing flapping your arms about like a dickhead in your living room. Good fun half a dozen times a year when you've got a house full of pissed up friends, shite the rest of the time when you want to sit down and shoot aliens.

I still think true 1:1 head tracking for first person games would be amazing. If the perspective on the screen shifted to match your viewing angle your TV would be like looking through a window.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Chief


The theory sounds cool, but I think it would prove awkward. I mean, if I'm sitting on my couch and I turn my head to the right I'd be looking into my kitchen. My eyes would have to remain on the screen.

Unless you had one of those 3 screen set ups it would be pointless, I can see the whole screen without moving. If they could track eye movement then it might work.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Dpp1978

quote:

ORIGINAL: sroey

Only part I dont quite agree with...

Still I can pick apart the Sony conference all I want - after the presentation all I could think of was how the MS reveal will be more or less the same...oooh shiny graphics...

I hope Kinect 2.0 lives up to its potential more this time around. Same with Move and the eye/camera thingy.

Should probably have put "on paper" into that sentence somewhere. Never mind.

What I find interesting is how Sony pretty much opened the show with a spec list. It was almost like a statement of intent for the hardcore. The question is have they misjudged the current market?

I find it really hard to believe they don't have a better idea of what MS is up to than the bloggers. To open with a spec list implies (at least to me) that they know they have a beast so are happy to come out with it. It will be interesting to see MS' response. Will they even mention their specs? Will they fudge them? And if they do what inferences can be drawn? Of course that is assuming the leaked info is true. What if theirs is even more beastly?

It is like manna from heaven for the fanboys.

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ORIGINAL: Dpp1978

quote:

ORIGINAL: Chief


The theory sounds cool, but I think it would prove awkward. I mean, if I'm sitting on my couch and I turn my head to the right I'd be looking into my kitchen. My eyes would have to remain on the screen.

Unless you had one of those 3 screen set ups it would be pointless, I can see the whole screen without moving. If they could track eye movement then it might work.

That isn't exactly what I had in mind. Your eyes would be fixed on the screen, but your heads position relative to it defines what is rendered. As you get closer the field of view opens up as you get further away it closes in. Move to the left and a little more image is shown on the right, with all the resulting parallax cues to sell the effect.

In effect your screen becomes a window to the game world and your position relative to it defines where the in game "camera" is. As such it would probably work better sitting close to a monitor rather than in your typical living room set up. In any case it'd be very hard to get it to work properly (any discrepancy between what you can see and what your brain expects might cause serious disorientation, if not nausea) but I've seen proof of concept tests and the illusion is uncanny. It is perfect for driving games in particular. With all this extra processing power it might be possible: if the will to develop it were there.

Then there is the Oculus Rift, which if reports are to be believed would render it obsolete anyway.

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As motion controls have already proved thus far, moving around the room to play games does not add to the experience and in fact sitting down and kicking back is half the appeal, if I have to move around my living room and walk about to get the full experience then count me out. This is also a tech that would be heavily reliant on living room space, and those of us with TVs in the corners of our rooms would be fucked.