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PlayStation 4 Released
Today marks the launch of the latest entrant to the next-gen console race: Sony's PlayStation 4. A number of reviews for the system have already gone up, but many outlets are waiting for next Friday's Xbox One launch before passing final judgment. With regard to the PS4's hardware and UI, Digital Foundry praises the DualShock 4 controller design and the improvements to background downloading, while worrying about fan noise in warmer environments. iFixit provides a step-by-step teardown of the device, giving it an 8/10 repairability score. Ars has many good things to say, but many bad things as well: "The PlayStation 4 has an excellent controller, decently powerful hardware, some intriguing, well-executed new features, and an interface that shows belated acknowledgment of some of Sony's most user-unfriendly past designs. It also has a lot of features that are half-assed, missing, or downright bewildering at this point." Polygon's review is more visually oriented, filled with pictures, videos, and drawings. They conclude, "[T]he PlayStation 4's focus on gaming — and only gaming — is undermined by a distinct lack of compelling software. That failing is sure to improve — better games and more of them will appear on the PlayStation 4 — but right now, this is a game console without a game to recommend it." Eurogamer's coverage includes has a round-up of launch title reviews and gameplay videos. IGN has coverage of the roughly 0.4% of PS4s that arrive broken out of the box, and Kotaku explains how they fixed theirs.
After removing the "Other OS" feature in the Playstation 3, which enabled running Linux, I'm no longer interested in your devices.
I used my ps3 for media as well as occasional gaming. PS4 lack of streaming media support that does not originate from Sony's pay sites is a real minus for me. At least with the ps4 released, I can snap up used PS3 for media consoles in the bedrooms now.
Why cant we get both loosing?
To me it's very disturbing that you have to require a Internet connection just to enable features such the Blu-ray player on the console. It SHOULD have it feature already in the box. What if a kid who wants this console don't have Internet in their home. Believe it or not, there are some families who do NOT have Internet because it's not worth the money to invest what their getting out of the connection.
Bah, I was really looking forward to a fully digital distribution model on the XBone, anyone who saw that system as overly negative weren't looking hard enough or didn't want to look hard enough.
I thought we all agreed on the SteamBox so we can play games together!
Plus in SteamBox doesn't need "other OS" feature as it already is the other OS.
The enemy of your enemy is not necessarily your friend.
it only has two games? and one of them is a generic as fuck shooter that doesn't do anything that half-life didn't already do in 1998? Yeah, ok, I think i'll just keep my money.
Move along.
you think sony is any BETTER than MS when it comes to farking over the end-user?
what the HELL??
you must be adicted to video games. that is the only reason you'd support sony. the majority of us have shunned this company due to all their collective bad behavior (too many items to list here; search on why people boycott sony).
MS is evil but sony is much much worse!
don't forget, sony is a media company and so, by definition, they start out with a balance of evil, numerically greater than zero.
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
There is a mandatory day-one firmware update, which is just north of 300 MB. If you have an internet connection and a USB drive (aka, if you are reading this) go to PSN to pre-download.
I don't think you should speak for "the majority of us." My impression is it's a vocal minority upset over things most of Slashdot doesn't particularly care about - they got rid of the Linux OS nobody was actually using, and they purchased BMG right after BMG added anti-piracy rootkits to CDs, 10 years ago.
I don't think PS4 will fuck over the user. Sony sells it as a game device and it seems to do just that.
Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
There is ZERO reason to buy either the PS4 or the (vastly inferior) Xbox One this season. They are both missing any compelling exclusive games (the four most important exclusives, Killzone, Knack, Ryse and Dead Rising, are terrible), and the cross platform titles (Assassin's Creed, COD, Battlefield) are no better than the same games running on a quite modest gaming PC. GTA5 is missing until next year.
And, of course, initial hardware tends to have significant teething troubles, and the highest costs. Next year, as Microsoft desperately tries to make up ground against Sony (if MS hasn't sold off the Xbox division by then), a full-blown price-war will be underway, with MS selling a MUCH cheaper Xbone without the NSA Kinect spy sensor system.
Previous console releases have included, at launch, exclusive software that made PC gamers jealous. For the first time, the BEST games on the new consoles are also on the PC, and run and look far far better if that PC has decent gaming hardware bought during the last three years or so.
Next year will see the trend reverse a little, as the first games appear that actually take advantage of the power of the new consoles. But it seems likely that the best games will continue to be published on the PC as well (note how Microsoft has paid tens of millions of dollars to keep Titanfall off the PS4, and yet that giant robot FPS is coming to the PC). If AMD's Mantle initiative takes hold, the PC versions will always look and play as least as good as the PS4 version.
Both Microsoft and Sony should be ashamed that they failed to 'encourage' better launch software.
1. Sony put out a rootkit a while back.
2. By challenging Geohot, Sony effectively told the world that you're not allowed to modify the toy you own to make it work in the way you want.
Those two alone make for compelling reasons not to buy this gaming console right away. Not to mention the potential first-gen problems.
Wait a year, then see if it's worth your while. Just don't directly support $ony with your money. If anything, go for the lesser of two evils and buy used from Gamestop.
Can't we get an article for Playstation that does not refer to Xbox or vice versa?
outlasted 3 xbox 360s and now a 4th is jacked due to an update.
I'm sorry, but I have seen nothing in the history of Sony and their behavior to believe you'll see anything different from Sony on this front.
Sony is a HUGE content provider, and is absolutely going to want to monetize everything they can. They're going to be trying very hard to lock you in, get you buying stuff from them, ensuring their DRM is enforced, and generally treating it like it's still their console and not yours.
For me, both of these consoles fall squarely in the "If they're not screwing you now, they will be soon" category.
I don't see Sony beating Microsoft in this generation of consoles being any better for consumers in the long run. In the end, they're all going to be trying to do the same thing.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
UH... and you think SONY winning will send that message? Lulwut...
I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
Because everyone has written off Nintendo. Which is what I'm sticking to this round.
Well, we discussed this Dell SFF PC in June http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/13/06/13/225216/dells-haswell-powered-alienware-x51-r2-sff-a-pc-gamers-console-alternative
And before that there was the Dell X18 http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/13/06/08/1843254/dells-new-x18-5-pounds-18-inches
And a couple more from April http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/13/04/20/1537204/ars-reviewer-is-happily-bored-with-dells-linux-ultrabook
http://linux.slashdot.org/story/13/04/06/0530246/dell-offers-ubuntu-option-with-alienware-gaming-desktop
Next week seems like a good time to finally get that PS3 I've been thinking about. They've probably gotten all the kinks worked out of it by now.
Yes, that's not a typo: PS3. Not 4. I don't mind being a generation behind. And hopefully prices on the PS3 will fall pretty quick now.
If any of you are considering purchasing the console, do ponder for a moment that you're supporting a company that's actively user hostile.
They're responsible for SecuROM, they handled the PSN hack poorly, they placed root-kits on audio CDs, they removed "OtherOS" and "backwards compatibility" from PS3 units, and that is merely the tip of the iceberg.
This is why BestBuy was a total nerdocalypse at midnight when I drove by it last night.
Another Sony product I won't buy!
Viva la Dreamcast!
Why cant we get both loosing?
They have been loosed upon us.
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
Other people however have moved on
I have moved on, from Sony products that is. I'll consider moving back under either of two conditions: A. SCE reverses the decision and embraces hobbyist development of apps and games for PlayStation 4, or B. those in charge of SCE's decision are no longer with SCE. But incidentally, after Microsoft initially announced that only disc game publishers could publish download games for Xbox One, SCE publicly announced one step toward A, allowing indies to self-publish on PlayStation Store in much the same way as on mobile app stores, and got Microsoft to reverse this.
How can you trust this link after the recent GHCQ and NHS spoofing revelations.
No links on Slashdot can be trusted.
Thanks dick heads.
A quad core with 2-way SMT and out-of-order execution should beat the pants of the in-order Cell Broadband Engine, especially for branchy code.
One problem is that "better machines to run Linux on" usually aren't next to the TV. Though gaming frameworks for X11/Linux happily support several game controllers on one machine, and though PCs have video outputs compatible with HDTV, it's hard for more than one person to view the output of a program running on a Linux box if the Linux box is chained to a desk one or two rooms away from the TV.
Sit down with some friends
If certain Slashdot users are to be believed, a lot of gamers choose Sony or Microsoft consoles because their friends live hundreds of km or miles away. They can't even arrange schedules for an online friend match let alone an in-person match. So instead, they choose platforms with robust support for online pickup games with strangers, and this rules out Nintendo with its friend codes.
FTFY...
or not...you see, both competing systems are made by large companies who **screw the consumer over** as a matter of bussiness development.
Microsoft & Sony both bottleneck features to squeeze profit from basic computing functions.
But that doesn't mean one isn't better for you...
Thank you Dave Raggett
Are there games for linux?
Yes, and a lot of them are developed by hobbyists. Every homebrew game for a classic console is a game for Linux. I've written several NES games myself. And every game written in Pygame, the Python wrapper around SDL, is a game for Linux as long as it doesn't use any platform-specific services. I'm working on a couple of those as well. Every game made for OUYA runs on Android, which is a user space that runs on Linux.
I agree that those things Sony did are 100% bullshit. Me personally, I was most disappointed by their insistence upon using a proprietary memory stick that only worked on Sony devices.
fine...
but /. threads are going to be intolerable if we don't talk about **the alternative** while we bash Sony's dumb design choices...
**MICROSOFT ALSO SUCKS ASS**
if any random /.'er wants to vent about how 'Sony still sucks' I say fine, but let's not pretend we're having a productive discussion about which Next Gen system is better or will be more successful, or which one gamers should buy...
Thank you Dave Raggett
Even after swearing that this time, IT WOULD KILL AGAIN!
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Nintendo could have had a chance if they'd bothered to release any games at launch. I love my Wii U (and am thoroughly enjoying Windwaker HD at the moment, though more looking forward to Project X), but the launch was absolutely botched.
I've been on hold for 2+ hours waiting to talk to PS Support about my bricked PS4. Couldn't be more pissed off. It started up and looked pretty quick. Then, it asked me to sync the controller. I pressed the PS button on the controller and everything locked up. Hasn't boot since that time. *Should have bought an Xbox*
So you can't activate the PS4 somewhere with a connection? It only needs that connection once.
Satellite Internet equipment costs so much that a "connection once" will cost you the price of 24 months of service with a hefty ETF. It'd be more practical to haul the PS4 into a coffee shop like someone did with a computer.
If the answer involves giving money to Sony, you asked the wrong question.
... After all, they apologized and fired the Bertelsmann exec responsible.
Oh, wait, no, they didn't fire him. They promoted him to the position of President of Global Digital Business, US Sales, and Corporate Strategy.
Sony customers deserve their own entry in the DSM-V next to sufferers of Battered Spouse Syndrome.
That would explain the absence of a couple of co-workers at work today. I thought the excuse "24 hour AIDs" was a little suspicious.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
mini-pcs can be pricey, but there are alternatives that run Linux/XMBC. This is far from a thoroughly list, but they are relatively recent pieces of hardware:
http://www.mini-itx.com/store/?c=85
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/gigabyte-brix-pc-gaming-iris-pro-5200-haswell,24246.html
http://www.itxcanada.com/products/VIA_EPIA_P910_10Q_Pico_ITX_Motherboard_1_0GHz_VIA_Quad_Core_E_Processor-1166-0.html
http://www.ebay.de/itm/Jynxbox-TV-BOX-HD-Amlogic-8726-1080p-XBMC-MELE-F10-PRO-MIC-Speaker-Remote-/400549785064?clk_rvr_id=546961982081
Simple Android Hardware could do the trick and the price is less-expensive:
http://en.mele.cn/products/show/31.htm
http://www.ebay.de/itm/MINIX-NEO-X7-Android-4-2-Quad-Core-2GB-DDR3-WIFI-XBMC-1080p-Rii-mini-N7-Remote-/400566821009?pt=Netzanschluss&hash=item5d43a4a091
http://www.cloudsto.com/mk902-pc/rikomagic-mk902-quad-core-16gb-flash-dhl-express-shipping-detail.html
Most inexpensive android ARM-based hardware do not have gigabit ethernet on the hardware because the SOC's can't achieve more than 470~Mbps..
Intel/AMD motherboards are true-Gigabit ethernet. Gamers would tend to agree this is important for network gameplay. Gamers also tend to purchase PC-Hardware because you can buy gamer-specific optimized network equipment to give you a competitive edge when playing. It's take it or leave it with consoles unless you do mod it yourself. Oh wait, Sony doesn't make open-hardware, so the consumer will go for the open-hardware. It's important to have gigabit ethernet if you intend on running any kind of web server/mail server on your open software system in order for it to be an optimal experience for the user while not costing a fortune for a general-purpose hardware rather than single-purpose game-console appliance hardware. The other added advantage about pc's and mini-pc's over android devices and consoles is that you can create content with them rather than simply consume content with them. Keep in mind content is not king. The consumer is.
From what I remember slashdot was a place to talk about stuff related to linux. The word "slashdot" and the logo /. have to do especially with Linux/POSIX stuff. Since when does Slashdot plug Sony hardware especially when it's not Linux friendly any longer? Oh yeah since Slashdot is owned by Condé-Nast and needs to generate revenue for its patrons; let me guess Sony is one of it's patrons?
I'm going SteamBox and I'm never coming back. Finally XBMC running on a games console with a massive selection of titles. Bye Bye Sony/Microsoft I will be running Linux and steam on a 22Tb fileserver.
Which console are you talking about ;-)
All the dedicated consoles have been historically hostile to users who want to use or contribute to game mods. The only console not intentionally hostile to game modders is a living room PC. True, fewer than 50 percent of gamers install user-made mods, but it might not be a minority if consoles supported mods.
Honestly, you are missing out on one of the best features of game consoles... playing with friends, on the couch, pizza on the way, beer in the fridge.
Step 1: Plug a PC's HDMI out into an HDTV's HDMI in or a PC's VGA+audio out into an HDTV's VGA+audio in.
Step 2: Plug in up to four USB gamepads. Many games are already set up for Xbox 360 controllers; wired ones work out of the box, and wireless ones work with a transceiver that plugs into a USB port.
Step 3: Install a PC game that supports couch multiplayer. I have been compiling a list of games recommended by other Slashdot users.
There are whole genres that play to that on consoles that don't exist on PCs.
*cough*Mortal Kombat?*cough*
Mortal Kombat 2011 is on PC, and classic Mortal Kombat II and Mortal Kombat 3 are emulated in Midway Arcade Treasures 2.
the cross platform titles (Assassin's Creed, COD, Battlefield) are no better than the same games running on a quite modest gaming PC.
A lot of games, such as every Call of Duty game for Xbox 360 that I've seen, let up to two players use one console by splitting the screen or by putting both players in one semi-fixed camera view. If you happen to have friends or relatives who game with you, this means you don't need to dismantle your PC and take it with you in order to game together in a room. Furthermore, being able to see where your teammate is builds team cohesion. Ideally, more PC games would support split-screen mode when connected to an HDTV, but publishers want to sell multiple copies to a household.
For the first time, the BEST games on the new consoles are also on the PC
That'll be true up until the moment Nintendo releases Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.
But it seems likely that the best games will continue to be published on the PC as well
Will these games include games that are best played with two to four gamepads? For example, will the next Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat come to PC in month 1, or will there be a 2-year delay as there was with Mortal Kombat 2011?
You can also friend people in real life and invite them over.
I'm brand new to this real-life friending thing outside my own family. I know kids in K-12 school or college can find real-life friends there, but where does one start after having graduated? (sincere)
As for me, I found this hack where if you perform a certain action with your wife, you can make your own gaming friends.
But first I'd need to overcome my low charisma roll and find a wife, which brings me back to the real-life friending thing.
What prevents someone from putting a mini PC next to their TV?
Four things, at least.
You talk about "piracy enabling" as if, say, infringing copies of major-label GBA games were the only thing that could run on a GBA flash cart. If something has a substantial noninfringing use (Sony v. Universal City Studios) and is promoted for such uses (MGM v. Grokster), I don't see how it's any more "piracy enabling" than a CD burner, especially given what was a thriving homebrew scene on the GBA. For example, in 2004, gbadev.org ran a minigame development competition whose top 10 entries were put on a cart for sale; I have my name in the credits of Swish-It as a music composer. And early 2005, around the PSP's release, a rudimentary music player application to fit 2.5 hours of music on a 256 Mbit cart was released for GBA. And the PocketNES emulator let a GBA flash cart run not only GBA games but also NES games. Without GBA flash carts, PocketNES would have never been developed, which means NES compilations by Jaleco and Atlus on GBA and the unlockable NES games in Contra 4 for DS wouldn't have been possible.
What else was Lik Sang doing that was more clearly "piracy enabling"?
It has 22 at launch with downloadable titles, and close to 200 in development...
- "Scientia non habet inimicum nisp ignorantem"
gta san andreas game coming soon in mobile devices. http://www.rockstargames.com/newswire/article/51870/grand-theft-auto-san-andreas-mobile-coming-this-december.html