Just something I found on the web and thought it was applicable here... still hope the PS4 can seriously impress us eventually but so far that entire marketing campaign/slogan seems to be nothing but marketing fluff.
Can't wait to see what Sony Santa Monica, Naughty Dog and Quantic Dream are up to...
I mean, Im not going to sit here and say that I can describe all of the nuances that go into making a game look technically great. I am fortunate enough to have a good gaming PC, and a PS4. So, I've experienced a lot of PC games at maxed out settings. Then I went to Second Son and MGS Grounds Zero. From my perspective, the exclusives (be it console or platform exclusive) has looked top notch. Im sure we could talk about all kinds of techniques that those games arent using, or that are only on gaming PCs. Perhaps, on paper ( or to a better eye than mine) those differences makes a significant difference. But I personally think that the PS4 already has a good baseline that its starting from.
But yeah, at a certain point Sony is a big business, and big businesses only care about the bottom line. Im sure they will do something to challenge my trust. Im sure that when they were looking at the PS4 they made decisions based around cost more than how powerful the hardware is. It is a 100% guarantee that they weren't thinking something like, " Lets advance this medium despite money or share holder opinion." I will say this though, they have made some fairly consumer friendly choices. Free to play games dont require PS+, they pushed real big into the indie scene and are helping developers that the people like us really like, they didnt start this gen with apps behind a payed wall. Your right, a lot is marketing fluff, they didnt develop the console soley for us, and they will make choices that upset us down the line, Im sure of it.
As for Watch Dogs, I said this in an early post, but I think the problem is more with Ubisoft. AC Black Flag wasnt very well optimized, and that kinda told me a few things. It first told me not to expect launch titles to be indicative of what consoles (or my own PC) can really do. The scheduling on a multiplatform launch title had have horrific. Watch Dogs has had a interesting development, it started off being one of those multiplatform launch titles. Im sure the damage that particular situation did to it, cant be reversed in the aloted time that the devs had. Even with the extra time, Im sure at a certain point you can only mitagate so much.
Im exicited for Watch Dogs, Im exicited to see the story of this game's development come to a close. Its not going to be a tech masterpiece, and perhaps the other things that go into making a good game wont be so good in this one. Im willing to look at the gameplay videos and read the reviews to find out for myself though.