U R Not E

Sony revealed one of the worst kept secrets in the gaming world at their event last Wednesday evening, the PS4.  As a gamer the announcement of any new console is something that I'm going to have to opine on.  Although I realize the current generation of consoles was getting a bit stale (especially the Wii), I really wasn't in any hurry to grab a new system.  In regards to the PS3, the system has taken quite a while to hit its stride if you will.  In my opinion this is due the 360 simply being the better console for multiplatform titles, a better online experience in Live, and a convincing number of solid exclusives.  The PS3 is far from being without its merits though.  Exclusives like the Uncharted trilogy, Ni No Kuni, God of War Collection, Little Big Planet 1 and 2, Heavy Rain, and some others make the system a must own for any serious gamer.  For the money PS Plus is incredibly novel since you get an interesting selection of "free" titles every month or so.  Additionally it is still one of the best bluray players available.  Oddly enough from what I've seen from Sony's presentation it doesn't seem like they have really built on many of these strengths, yet.  The PS4 hardware sounds very interesting though, x86 based hardware and a PC style architecture should definitely eliminate the issues developers had with the PS3.  The new Dual Shock 4 seems a bit underwhelming and honestly looks a bit odd to me.  I guess placing a touchpad in the middle of a controller is the answer to a question that was never asked.  On the positive side, even though you can't play PSX-PS3 discs on the system Sony is promising a streaming based solution which on the surface seems interesting.  I am also intrigued by being able to play PS4 titles on a Vita.  This definitely seems like a hail mary to save the floundering Vita, but I think it may be good one especially if Sony lowers the price of the system.

All that being said, nice hardware is not much good without good software.  After all, games are the reason gamers purchase any console.  Sony quite frankly did not show any games that I care about or even found interesting.  I am pretty meh on the FPS genre so a new Killzone fell flat on me and the other titles shown did not do much for me either.  Drive Club?  Where was a next gen Gran Tourismo?  I will admit though that the list of 3rd party devs on board is impressive, so I'm guessing Sony will show more software the 2013 E3.  Overall, I'm sure most will agree that it is nice to know another next gen offering will be available this year.  Other than no games that got my attention and a suspect controller I don't think Sony made any real mistakes in their PS4 press event.  I can't speak for every gamer, but I have a healthy backlog of games to work through across multiple platforms so I am relatively sure unless there is a serious must own title I will pass on the PS4 until next year.

Oh yeah, extra geek points to those who get the post title.