PlayStation 4 is headed for a 'Holiday 2013' release date
The PlayStation 4 will go on sale later
this year and it'll be cheaper than the Xbox One - $399 in the US, £349
in the UK and €399 - compared to $499 and £429.
These pricing details were revealed along - at long last - with the look of the PS4 console itself, at Sony's E3 2013 press conference.
Sony says the PS4 was designed with an overarching theme of a "frictionless and seamless" gaming experience.
We've
known that the PS4 will track both the controller in a gamer's hand, as
well as their face, since the console's launch in Feb. But during his
GDC talk Norden revealed some interesting ways that this technology will
be implemented in games.
For
example, the old multiplayer standby of split screen, divvying up
television real estate when two or more players go at it, will be aided
by this tracking tech. If a gamer gets up and moves right or left, his
section of the screen will automatically be swapped.
We learned a whole lot more when Sony gave its E3 presentation, so read on for all you need to know about the new PlayStation...
The PS4 itself was shown off for the first time
at E3 and it's black, just like the Xbox One. However, it has an
angular design and appears to be constructed of a similar plastic to the
original PS3 Slim machine.
It looks as though it's slimmer than the Xbox One but we're not totally blown away by the design. What do you think?
PS4 release date
The
official PS4 release date is still only 'later this year'. Sony didn't
reveal any more details on the release date at E3 so we're still in the
dark. However, with Microsoft launching the Xbox One worldwide in
November, it seems likely that Sony will be going live around this time
also.
In late June, German and Dutch retail outlet Media Markt put up posters
advertising the PS4 release date as Wednesday November 13, while Dutch
site Bol.com also advertised the same on-sale date. That's two two weeks
before the Xbox One release date.
The PS4 combines shiny and matte finishes
Previously, Sony took out a newspaper ad in the UK, clearly advertising the PS4 release date as '2013'. That tallies with an interview in May with our buddies at CVG,
a source inside Sony said that the company is pulling out all the stops
to launch worldwide in 2013 and ensure that the PS4 is not trumped by
the new Xbox.
Sony also advertised at the Champions League final at Wembley Stadium, London, with 'PS4 - coming 2013' signs.
PS4 price
Sony announced the PS4 price at E3
- it'll cost $399 in the US, £349 in the UK and €399 in Europe when it
goes on sale later this year. That's a whole $100 cheaper than the Xbox
One.
That price, it must be said, does
not include the PS Eye camera, whereas the Xbox One will ship with the
second version of Kinect.
The angular design is reminiscent of Sony's Blu-ray range
PS4 used games/online check-in
Many gamers will be pleased that unlike the Xbox One, the PS4 will offer unrestricted access to pre-owned games.
So when you buy a titles, you are free to then trade it in at retail,
sell it to another person, lend it to a friend or keep it.
There
is also no online check-in requirement, and you'll be able to play
games regardless of whether you're connected to the internet or not. The
Xbox One requires an online check-in once every 24 hours and will lock
you out of your games if this doesn't happen.
PS4 specs
AMD's technology is coursing through this new system's veins, and Sony recently told us that it believes the PS4 to be the most powerful gaming device every conceived.
Sony revealed the system runs on a single-chip custom processor and
utilises eight x86-64 AMD Jaguar CPU cores, with a next-gen AMD Radeon
based graphics engine powering the way.
So
it's very much a PC-based system then, which is great news for
developers who will find it much easier to code games for the next gen
consoles and for PCs. However, that CPU is hardly next-gen - it may have
been modified for this system but the AMD Jaguar platform is by no
means the fastest of its kind - indeed it's slower than Intel's fastest
by orders of magnitude.
However, with
fewer redundancies than a PC has, the PS4 will certainly be able to make
use of every single Watt of power it draws. And the games we've seen so
far certainly look impressive.
The
"highly enhanced PC GPU" is another AMD part - something along the
lines of a Radeon 7850 card - and packs 18 GCN units. That may sound a
like a lot of techy mumbo jumbo but what it essentially means is that
the GPU packs 18 processing clusters, each packing up to 64 cores. That
provides a lot of parallel processing power, and will thus handle the
majority of the PS4's grunt work. It hits 1.84 TFLOPS of processing
mojo. This is a far more powerful component than the Jaguar CPU and is
may well have the edge on the integrated GPU inside the Xbox One.
The
PS4 will also use GPU compute features to take advantage of the GPU's
raw power - it'll be used for general computation tasks as well as
making games shiny.
Memory
The
PS4 will ship packing 8GB of GDDR5 memory. That's some super-fast stuff
right there and should enable lightning fast performance.
Indeed,
Sony has revealed that you will be able to power down the PS4 mid-game
and then switch it on again in seconds and pick up right where you left
off. That's the sort of loading power that this memory enables.
Other specs
We're
also looking at Blu-ray disk support plus good ol' DVD, plus HDMI
output support as well as Analog-AV out and an optical digital output.
The PS4 Eye will be sold separatelyPlayStation 4 Eye
What's
really grabbing though is the development of the PlayStation 4 Eye, a
newly developed camera system that utilizes two high-sensitivity camera
equipped with wide-angle lenses and 85-degree diagonal angle views.
Sony
said the cameras (amounting to 1280 x 800 pixels) can cut out the image
of a player from the background or differentiate between players in the
background and foreground, enhancing game play handily. There's also
mention of logging in using facial recognition and using voice and body
movements to play games "more intuitively."
So far, you can pro-order your console at ShopTo, GAME and ASDA.
DualShock 4
If you have an eye for details you may have noticed that the PS4's DualShock 4
controller has no Start or Select buttons. Norden confirmed this,
saying that it will have a so-called Option button instead, as well as
the much bandied about Share button on the rear.
See what we thought when we put the DualShock 4 against the DualShock 3
The
analogue sticks have been tightened up to be more precise, and the
controller also features a brand new three-axis gyroscopic motion sensor
with three-axis accelerometer which should be great for getting you
immersed in the games. The camera continuously tracks all four
controllers with precise accuracy. Rotational tracking is provided by
the internal components.
The controller
has a two-point Vita-like touchpad on the front with a 1920x900
resolution, and a tactile clicking sound letting you know you've pressed
it. The light bar on the front will glow different colours depending on
whether you're player 1, 2, 3 or 4 and will be tracked by the new PS
Eye camera. The controller also has an Xbox-style headset jack and a
mono speaker inside it.
Video-watchers take note
This new PS4 controller won't accidentally fast forward when you set it
down. Norden said this was one of the biggest complaints his team heard
about the PS3's DualShock. The PS4's controller has triggers designed
not to depress when set down. What's more, Norden even said he'd been
dropping controllers without skipping a single frame.
That
touchpad on the DualShock 4 will be capable of two simultaneous inputs.
The light on the controller will glow blue, red, green or pink light,
depending on whether you're player one, two, three or four.
The Share button
The
PS4's ardware encoder always records the last several minutes of game
play without using any additional resources from the game, by pressing
the Share button you can then upload or save your gameplay and show your
friends or keep it just for your own amusement.
You can lay the PS4 flat or use the bundled stand to prop it up
DualShock 4 lightbar
The
DualShock 4 controller, you will notice, carries a Move-like glowing
light bar. This makes it possible for the PlayStation Camera to track
the controller's position. This, it has been revealed,
is a permanent fixture and cannot be turned off, so if you don't like
controller-sourced mood lighting, think about getting a third party pad.
PS4 Streaming
PS4
streaming lets you stream out live gameplay to your friends. This is
all built into the hardware and does not need to be supported by
developers. Users can react to the video by typing comments in real
time. You can do this to friends, or public.
PS4 user interface
The XrossMediaBar (XMB) interface of PlayStations past has been completely ditched in the PS4, with Sony instead choosing to design a new OS that looks a lot more like that of the Xbox 360 than the PS3.
Will the PS4 be 4K capable?
In a chat with Kotaku, Sony has revealed
that the PlayStation 4 will be able to playback 4K/Ultra HD video.
However, it will not upscale to 4K or play games at 4K resolution.
Sony has also confirmed that it will definitely launch a 4K movie service on the PS4 and is looking at ways it can get around the 100GB downloads required.
0 comentarii:
Post a Comment