[notbov]

So, uh, there's some new, next generation-ish systems coming out this month. The PS4 comes out in ~2 days and the Xbox One is out in about 9. They both do advanced fancy things, like playing nice-looking versions of games you may or may not already care about, streaming your gameplay and voice to the world and not playing MP3s or CDs.

So, if you're getting a new funbox this month, come in and post about how there's nothing to play for the next 6 months.

(seriously, I'm expecting Resogun to be the best game out of either system's library)

With that said, let's look at some sexy teardown pictures:



http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2013/11/ps4-gallery/
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2013/05/xbox-one-development-photos/
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[notbov]

Sony is claiming that MP3 and DLNA support is coming "soon". The One is kinda in a similar spot, where it's not a full-featured DLNA client, but you can still push media to from a compatible device. It too has a fancy service you have to pay for to get in-game music (the ghosts of Zune).

PS4 reviews are slowly trickling out from Trusted Videogame Reviewers. Resogun is the best, Knack is an affront to humanity (still buying it, 60 bucks in PSN credit), Killzone is mostly good. Oh, and Sony has put out the firmware update so you can pre-load it onto a thumb drive and have the ability to fail to connect to PSN during launch as everyone tries to get on at the same time.
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[notbov]

DLNA is the set of standards that lets PS3 Media Server stream illicit goods from your computer to your PS3 and other compatible devices. It wasn't one the PS3 at launch either, so it can come "soon".
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The Vita TV region thing probably has more to do with the games they're supporting (which is not Every Vita Title), so keeping it to Japan's PSN ensures no one's buying a title they can't play.
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The issue with the current PSN store isn't the design, but rather how slow it runs. As long as it runs at a decent clip, I'll be fine with it, as opposed to actively cursing its designers names. Or, you know, use the web store.

I'd be excited about the notice that my PS4 has been shipped if I wasn't sick and slightly delirious from a lack of sleep.
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Capcom Vancouver essentially went right from DR2 to Off The Record, then seemingly to DR3. Well, that, and Ono got dumped there by the home office.

I want DR3 to be good; I enjoyed DR2 a bit and loved the performance of the PC port (60fps with no effort and quick-ass loads), so hearing of the technical foibles of 3 has me concerned but it's still pushing a bunch of funny, stupid things like a motorcycle-steamroller. I'm just confused over their official commercial, which uses Happy Together but never mentions the co-op at all (seriously, what the fuck marketers, get on your A-game).
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Shu Yoshida is streaming PS4 games because he can

I feel like this is getting too close to the powers that be in the industry. At the same time, it looks pretty nice.
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I now know that it is the future

because I updated Killzone while pooping with my Vita
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Surprisingly, the PSN is in pretty good shape, fast-ish downloads and no major issues baring a couple of errors on the shop. Though I did manage to hard lock my system already (Warframe was updating, then I went out to check streams and my PS4 went "nope"). I need to set up a twitter thing so I can help my screenshots escape the system.

Depends how much later, I have to do some light packing in a bit, but otherwise I'd be down.

also also, streaming some Knack, because the future
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Remote Play protip: Crunchyroll forgot to block streaming shows to the Vita

Amazon, Netflix and Crackle did not
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Dear 4-5 people who watched me Knack:I'm sorry for being bad. Knack on hard is Cerny out for blood. It's better than reviews are claiming, but I can see where they're coming from.

The OS is pretty robust, some jankiness aside and it makes want to see what MS does, as the 360's OS was usually a fair deal better than the PS3.
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Warframe controls pretty well, all things considered, though it isn't as easy to do chain jump slides, sadly. Black light is my personal favorite purely on the basis of being able to set separate sensitivities for free and fine aim.

Also, the lightbar is really bright. Played in a dark room last night and it was basically like a crappy LED flashlight.
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Streaming is stupid easy; you set some settings, link your twitch/Ustream account, start from the share screen and, uh, it goes. I have no idea how it looks (I Knacked on high quality, but I was usingthe same monitor as my computer), but it can't look but so bad.
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[notbov]

My dark PS4 secret: Of all the games that have some how made their way onto my system, the game I've played the most is Knack. The nagging voice in the back of my head keeps telling me that it's no great shakes, but there's a nice purity to it, an old-school flavor that's oddly compelling...

...compelling until a robot with a giant 2x4 one-shots Knack into a billion individually motion-blurred pieces. Then it starts being like a less violent, slower Hotline Miami as the die-restart-die cycle starts.
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Warframe and Blacklight don't have crossplay and DCUO only has it with PS3 players, though when War Thunder launches, it's going to share players with the PC version and have full kb/m support (and they're talking about having keyboard controls in place for FF14), so it's possible.

They dropped the ball out Blacklight too, I'm agent level 3 in that but I still can't unlock a loadout without spending money, which means I'm locked out from making guns, which is the game's Interesting Thing, so nuts to that (though it's still a decent play).
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My word, the support class's minigun in KZ is Dumb and the fact that getting revived refills your ammo makes it even dumber and the you throw your air turret buddy and if people don't knock it out of the sky, you hit Maximum Dumb, since it basically calls enemies out for you. With bullets.

I think Tiny Brains comes out before Thanksgiving, and that has 4-player local co-op. Assuming, of course, that you're willing to buy 200 bucks worth of controller.
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That system war is old and boring. We have a brand new system war to talk about here.

Speaking of which, the One won't have built-in livestreaming at launch, which is a bit of a bummer, but it doesn't have HDCP over HDMI for games, so you can still use capture cards. I'm also delighted by the DR3 reviews coming out, since that's like, the one Xbone game I want.
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twitch please

I was hipstering streams before you made it a thing

I'm also going to assume that the app is going to be terrible or subpar, like nearly every other official twitch app
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I think, on some level, I went PS4 because I know it'll get the kind of Japanese support the 'Bone won't

odds are, this will blow up in my face, 360-getting-every-Cave-port style

time to wait for that Phantom Breaker BattleGrounds sequel
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The only thing that personally raises a red flag from the One reviews going online is that it doesn't passthrough surround sound from the HDMI in port, only stereo

how do you fuck that up, the fucking centerpiece of your multimedia functions

I'm quite literally mindboggled at the notion that surround sound from cable boxes (or, hell, a 360/PS3/PS4/better Blu-ray player) was either too hard or not important enough to make launch
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[notbov]

Xbone: no

PS4: yes, but the games have to be programmed to do so, like how Driveclub will support PS3 wheels because Evolution added support themselves

sadly, someone got a 360 fightstick to work on a debug unit during the Xbone tour demos and people got excited. nope, 200 bucks to Mad Catz please
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[notbov]

Speaking as someone part of the idort master race (prior to the Bone's release an hour ago, the only current-ish thing I didn't have is a 3DS), let me say two things:
1. Don't do it
2. I need a real hobby
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The PS4 has feet on the right corners (looking at the console), but instead of ones in the left corners, they line up with the partition on the system where the matte and glossy parts meet (where the light is). So, if you push down on the left, it tilts because you turn it into a simple fulcrum-thing. The solution to this is to not push down on it, much like how you wouldn't activate the 360 slim's disc-eating powers by not moving it in the middle of a game.

Watching the Giant Bomb Xbone steam. Seems like they changed parties to be kinda-sort-a-but-not game specific and it made it seem like they still give cross-game chat, but the party is associated with X game? Feels odd that they would change it, but now you can multitask while waiting in matchmaking, so I dunno
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oh god

I think I want to platinum Knack

I'm not even bothered by the fact that I'll probably have to play through the main game 4 or 5 more times to unlock all the crystal and gadget bits I didn't get on my first playthrough or that I'll have to beat the game on Very Hard (I'm guessing that mode just has Knack's life bar for show) without my beloved combo meter

no, what gets me is that you have to S-rank all the Time Attacks that unlock after beating the game; one of them ends with "Here's four of one of the hardiest enemies in the game in a closed area, have fun!" and I hate whoever came up with it. on that note, the Time and Coliseum Attacks are pretty good and serve to show the game as a whole has a decent amount of depth

I also get the feeling from how much I ended up liking Knack that I'd probably like Ryse too, which is something I thought would never happen
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Do you know about Knack's dash punch? It's actually one of the trophies; if you attack after a dodge, you get a swipe with tiny bit of extra reach to it (on top of the dodge movement). You can also use it to extend the standard 3-hit combo (do your swings, dodge->dash punch) and it makes getting pokes a hell of a lot safer than trying to walk in. The only downside is that it takes a long to time recover from, maybe a second or so before you can dodge or jump again. In cases of multiple enemies where dodging is needed, I'd say you should poke with one attack then jump to cancel the animation.

It's also really obvious in the Coliseum attacks, but the combat encounters are more or less puzzles, since you can explicitly get enemies to react the same way nearly every time once you learn their patterns and behaviors.

[notbov]

My other recommendation is to pray that the game gives you the combo meter because once you get good at not getting hit, that thing is stupid powerful. Like, getting up to two-hitting tanks and one-shotting robots and robosuits.
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What's that Knack

you're giving me crystals for a form I've already unlocked, which essentially means unlocking forms is a giant, dumb lottery

>:l

At least Vampire Knack is hilarious, since it turns the game into a constant speedrun
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I read some recent data that, although the 3DS has fallen in line with the DS sales curve recently, it's pushing far, far less software than the DS did. Now, whether that's down to less or shovelware, the economy or more savvy consumers is probably a post mortem discussion, but it's got to be worrying for some companies.
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Not being able to curse in relation to video games is the greatest offense to my freedoms and I cannot support such an endeavor

Next you're gonna tell me I can't play Uno naked on Live

So, I like the idea of custom Warzones in Killzone, but the only way they get exposure is if people are playing them, and other players can only see them if they're active

basically, I'm angry no one will play Super CTF Bros. 3, the long-awaited sequel to the worst Halo gametype I hurriedly made up not because it's dumb, but because they literally will never be able to find it
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fun fact if you have a PS4: log in to your system with your JPSN account, mosey on over to the JPSN store and claim your free 3 months of JPSN PS+ while launch madness is still in effect

for those going "so what?", the Japanese PS+ has a large, huge chunk of PS1 games downloadable for the life of the subscription and I for one am going to put them all on my PS3

more importantly: the JPSN store is accessible with no hoops to jump through on foreign PS4s and it's time to download Dream C Club: Free 2 Play Edition
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[notbov]