Played it today at the Sony Store. Hardly anybody else there, so I had a good amount of time with it.
Impressions:
- The system and controller both look cooler in person than they do in pictures, the materials represent better to the eye than they do the camera lens, imo. Curiously, I saw an Xbone in person today too, and I was surprised by how much smaller that seems in person that in pictures. I'm a lot less down on that design after seeing it, it's not the goliath compared to the PS4 that it's presented as.
- The ds4 is an upgrade on ds3 for sure, the feel of the analogue sticks is fantastic and the dpad is nice as well. The triggers are better, but not otherworldly or anything. It's a little larger, but not as wide as the Xbone controller; it seems like a good compromise between eastern and western ergonomic needs. It's also very light, like the DS3. I'm not feeling the same orgasmic rapture that some commentators have expressed though; I've been spoiled by the Wii U pro controller, which feels a lot like a more solid version of the same thing. Nothing bad to say about it though, however I am really curious about how the Xbone controller feels now. Microsoft store guys said they'd have demo units in 2 weeks.
- The games in the demo kiosk are totally underwhelming, and not representative of what this baby will be pumping out in the future. After seeing what the PS3 is still capable of putting out in stuff like TLoU, Two Souls or GT6, if you told me that any of those games were on PS3 I would have absolutely believed you, without even questioning it.
- I'm sure if you sit and count triangles Knack comes out ahead of anything the PS3 puts out, but during the subjective experience of playing it that doesn't really come across. The gameplay in the demo was also braindead simple, hopefully there's more to it in the full version. As I was stomping through the city with the camera zoomed out, all kinds of bits moving on my character and cartoony military stuff attacking me I strangely got kind of a Wonderful 101 for dummies vibe. But I have faith that there'll be more to the final game than the demo showed.
- Aside from a couple of things maybe being a little shinier, FIFA was indistinguishable from current gen to me. The other games were all indies, which are not terribly graphics intensive and don't take much advantage of the system.
- Octodad is every bit as hilarious to play in person as it looks. It is super awkward to play, but that's kind of the point. Though I did see another guy who mostly had the controls dialled.
- Contrast was a good choice as the day 1 PS+ replacement for Drive Club. It's got some fun ideas, and frankly will probably be better remembered as a launch action platform entry than Knack will be. I actually was reminded of Pandemonium, the old PS1 platformer, for some reason.
One or two other people there seemed impressed, but I walked away thinking"meh." I know it's not representative of what this thing will actually be like down the line though.