In a week where a government shutdown has occurred, one
would expect me to heap the praise on Ted Cruz and Mike Lee for their courage
under fire. However, I pretty much said my peace on the matter. Obamacare needs
to go, I don’t care how it gets done, it needs to go. All the party in-fighting
over procedure is obnoxious at best and will only encourage more conservative
voters to sit out future elections at worst. I’ve been railing against this
problem for years now, so, this week I am taking a break to finish a tech blog
series I started a couple months ago when the new game systems were announced.
Before I start that process though I would like to encourage
you all to check out my book; The Great
Compromise: Getting Past the Emotional Nonsense Dividing Americ, available
on Amazon.com. Some of you have written me asking for a Kindle version, but
getting that done will cost some $300.00. In other words I need to sell some
physical copies before I can afford the cost of the conversion. The proposals
are designed to get a national conversation going, so it is important that you
read this book, find the areas of agreement and then let’s start reaching out
to people, otherwise we are dead in the water politically. Your patronage is
greatly appreciated.
Last time I wrote about the Xbox One and I predicted doom
for it. Since then, Microsoft has walked back a lot of their more controversial
proposals, and the pre-orders have pretty well sold out. This should not be
indicative of a future success. It is important to remember that the Wii-U also
sold out its pre-orders, it was what happened afterword that gave us a real
indication of the market’s reaction to the new system. I predict
that there is only one system that can really succeed in today’s market.
The era of multi-platform ownership is over, at least until we get a new
President and Obamcare and the money devaluing policies are repealed… I can
dream right?
In terms of raw power, most agree that Playstation 4 is
where it is at. Moreover, the tech demos I have seen from the PS4 have blown me
right away. While games remain in the uncanny valley, the animation is becoming
a great deal smoother, creating very life like visuals like those seen in
Infamous: Second Son.
In terms of social networking, the PS4 is ready to connect to everything.
This got started with the PS3, those of you who check out my facebook posts
with regularity are bound to see My PS3 bragging on my behalf. The system does
it automatically, letting my friends know what trophies I have unlocked in what
game as I go. PS4 will build upon that, allowing players to record live clips from
their games and then post them to facebook, so that moment your little sister
humiliates you in Mortal Kombat can no longer be kept under wraps. She can post it to her facebook page right
away and re-tweet it until her heart is content. That epic moment you saved the
kingdom from the dragon menace, or saved the city from a zombie infestation can
be posted too.
Another aspect I am looking forward to is the improvements
to digital distribution. I had resisted this in the past, I like having discs
and the art books and such, but without realizing it I purchased well over 50
games digitally in this last cycle, mostly re-releases of classic games, but
still it happened. I’d have done even more if the PS3 wasn’t so slow in
downloading games. The PS4 will be much faster, not only that but it will let
you play the games as they load, which is awesome.
The only negative side of the new unit is that it will not
be backward compatible. So far that includes the games you purchased through
the PS Network (download), though I have read some indicators that this may
change for PSN games only. Your PS1, PS2 and PS3 discs will not work, and that
is a shame because I have limited shelf space as it is.
Moreover, Sony’s backing away from 3D games serves as
further frustration, as they have done
almost as much as Nintendo to sell me on the idea and the PS4 will be 3D
capable, as well as 4K capable, though it will not emphasize either, which is a
shame. 3D really changes the gaming experience, and as budget priced 3D TVs are
starting to re-emerge on shelves at Costco and Best Buy it wouldn’t hurt for
them to remember this niche, but growing, market.
The PS4 is priced to sell at only $400.00. It’s lower price
point gives it another edge over the competition. It is more powerful than both
the Wii-U and the Xbox One, yet only a little more than the Wii-U and
significantly less than the Xbox One. With all this horsepower and it’s
reasonable price structure the PS4 is ready to dominate the next generation.
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