PlayStation Meeting 2013

1997. Summer had come to an end. My second year year at Junior High school had recently begun.  I walked into the local GameZilla, no doubt returning a rental that I had recently made on some awesome SNES game. Probably Lufia or Breath of Fire, I’ve always had a soft spot for RPG’s. I would have dropped off the game into the bin next to the door and then, though my allowance only offered so many rentals a month, I probably went over to the shelves to purvey more of the precious lifeblood that filled my childhood veins.

I’m not sure what it was that made me take a look over at the shelf that I always ignore, but when I looked over I remember one image catching my eye. It had a relatively minimalistic colour scheme compared to those around it and a dude with the stupidest looking sword I’d ever seen held behind his back with one hand. But what caught my eye the most was that small bit of text in the upper right corner, “Final Fantasy VII”.

Fuck. The. What?

These were the days of being a kid. 1997? Shit, I’d just turned 13 only a few months earlier. Money was a scarce commodity in those days. Drool? Not so scarce. I remember studying the back of the game case and just being in awe. What the hell happened to Final Fantasys IV through VI? How was there a seventh one?! Were the other three all released on this mysterious Playstation that I knew almost nothing about? News was almost as scarce as money at that age. There was no internet (at least not in my household, nor in the households in almost anyone I knew), and if it came down to spending your allowance on renting a game or buying a game magazine you can be sure it would be spent on renting a game. Almost all knowledge came from word of mouth on the playground, and most of it was unreliable, and geared toward fighting games and sports games.

Fast forward a couple months and lo and behold one of my compatriots had decided he didn’t want his Playstation anymore. Yeah, I have difficulty understanding that even today, but it’s true. Anyways, I convinced him to part with it in exchange for $100 CAD. It was a lot for me to part with, but I did so, and man, did that Playstation bring me hours of joy. When I eventually played Final Fantasy VII it was one of the best memories of my youth. We will not speak of Final Fantasy VIII here. Fuck that. And believe it or not but that Playstation actually helped me get my start with making movies. I remember using it for a school project where I shot film on our camcorder, and then edited it using the camcorder, a vcr, and even edited sound in using a cd that was being played on the Playstation. It was a labour of love.

I wouldn’t say that I’m a Sony fanboy, especially after the annoyance of the PS3’s OtherOS debacle, but the Playstation brand has been one that has brought me many fond memories. It’s had a great library of games over the years and was what got be both into DVD and into BluRay. The game that we’re making right now, Super Hematoma, in my opinion would be ideally suited as a console game, and it would be fantastic to be able to have it on the PSN some day (and of course XBLA and WiiWare). I normally try to stay away from getting excited about previews of technology or of games, but as today is a blog day and also the day of the PlayStation Meeting 2013, I felt it might be worthwhile to update the blog with information that was just shared at the official page for the meeting.

•  3:03PM – Started a little late… I had been fussing with my tablet and forgot to re-set my alarm after rebooting, luckily I made it just on time for the beginning of the discussion. Had to view it via pcmag as Sony’s site couldn’t handle the traffic.
• 3:06PM – Seems very confident about how awesome Vita is…
• 3:08PM – So everything’s supposed to be “simple” and “interactive” and “powerful” and… lots of hype. PS4 officially announced. Going to be the “authority” on play. Hmm… is this going to be something like Steam? I remember them talking years ago that PS4 would likely not be hardware…
• 3:10PM – Oh shit… “next couple of hours” this is going to be longer than I’d thought… also… the shirt this guy is wearing is NOT tv friendly. Note to self: don’t wear a shirt with tiny lines on it unless I want to give people seizures when I’m a celebrity. Also, it’s cold in my apartment… I should put on a shirt.
• 3:13PM – Top platform for Netflix eh? Interesting, it’s my platform of choice to. SD tv’s are awesome.
• 3:14PM – He said the word “fun factor”. Interestingly he reminds me of the dude in the 3.5 Game Pro fun factor ratings
• 3:16PM – Multi (8) core processor, x86 CPU, enhanced GPU, 8gb RAM, and local HD. The new Dual Shock controller looks similar, but has a new touch-pad, and a social media share button. Huh. Works with a stereo camera to behave as a Move controller. I really should give Move a shot some day. It’s supposedly got less latency too.
• 3:19PM – GDDR5 ram. 176gb bandwidth per second. The CPU and GPU are supposed to work in tandem, sharing resources, and allow for heaps of speed.  Heaps is my description, not his.
• 3:22PM – Not sure why they’re showing pre-rendered cinematics to show off the PS4… it doesn’t show anything that couldn’t already be done. Knack seems like it has potential, don’t get me wrong, but… hmm… odd time/place to demonstrate it I think.
• 3:23PM – Looking at improved load time, being able to suspend console games the same way that you would with PSP or DS. Good move I think, but ideally I’d want to be able to do other things with the system too, not just put it to sleep. Get to play games as they’re downloading! Good! Social media is to be important. Now you can share gameplay videos on the fly (clips from the previous couple of minutes of play). Sounds like a good concept.  Live gameplay spectating! I like this… this should bode well for game competitions. Very smart.
• 3:27pm – oh shit, my sound cut out… fuck… I refreshed and now it says it’s offline… fuuuuuck
• 3:33pm – ok… so it’s working again. Different speaker… but seems to be the same topic. They’re pushing spectating. I’m all for that. Live broadcasting really does seem cool. If this stream is any indication though… internet bandwidth still needs to improve.
• 3:34PM – Director mode sounds like they’re doing what Steam hinted at with Left4Dead. I remember doing this in Duckhunt with the second controller. Multiplayer is fun.
• 3:35PM – Remote play PSVita is to the PS4 as the PSP is to the PS3. Apparently people like remote play… I’ve never really been a fan… I like the idea of a game being available on multiple platforms and have saves that work across platforms… or let friends play multiplayer with whatever they want. But I don’t like the server-client relationship between two consoles. I feel like the only purpose it serves is for me to be able to keep playing Metal Gear while I’m taking a dump. Everyone knows that’s where I should be playing Super Hexagon.
• 3:38PM – Damn… I’m thirsty… I wish I’d refilled my water when the stream was failing…
• 3:39PM – “Everything Everywhere” -> cloud services… to be rolled out in stages… basically they’re not telling us what it is right now.
• 3:41PM – Oh yeah.. I forget that I have speakers on my monitor sometimes… time to get more water.
• 3:42PM – Oh yeah… the speakers suck… that’s why I use headphones at all times. Basically they’re interviewing a bunch of developers and giving sound bytes about “it’s fast, it’s a win, you can just press go, one button press and you get what you want”. Hype hype hype with nothing to really back it up… reminds me about the fake TED talks. Or heck… it reminds me of TED talks.
• 3:45PM – The electronica they used to introduce the next speaker was cooler than the video of hype. Just sayin’. I can’t quite place his accent. Is he British? sounds a little like Helena Bonham Carter..
• 3:47PM – Guerrilla Games is doing a game pitch? For a Kill Zone? The graphics look mondo…ish… the camera is really floaty though… it’s supposed to be a fps I guess, but there’s something that feels off about it. I didn’t see a reflection of the character in the surface he was walking toward… hmmm… I haven’t played any Kill Zone games… the cinematography in this was really odd though. I keep hoping that this is going to turn into gameplay footage…
• 3:51PM – There we go… so it turned into gameplay footage. The graphics were pretty seamless. I guess this is the equivalent to the MGS4 stuff when the PS3 came out. I hope there’s keyboard and mouse support… although I’m sure it will come out for PC. Sorry folks… I just can’t get into FPS on consoles.
• 3:53PM – That’s some weird compositing… is it supposed to be shadow? The gun was held up as a person crouched by a wall and there was a weird dark outline.
• 3:54PM – No fucking way is someone going to hang off of a rope on a helicopter (a rope?) with one hand, and shoot and be able to keep themselves from swinging around… this all looks like it’d be cool in an anime… with some better music… but… hmm…
• 3:56PM – Gran Turismo? Or Need For Speed? Or… “Drive Club”? I’m all for new properties. Let get some more information. It’s been in progress for 9 years? Fast cars in good locations? Multiplayer? Sounds like a normal car game to me so far. Oh wait, it’s not about fast cars in good locations, it’s about collaboration.
• 3:58PM – Meant to be played… in clubs? Like… bars? Or Arcades? I… ap on your phone? Drama of watching people try to meet your challenge?
• 4:00PM – The paint flecks are “modeled?” Realistic detail is “borderline insane”? There goes my sound again… it doesn’t sound like I was missing much though… just nattering about how good the cars are and how it’ll be just like owning a real car. I’m sure it will be great. For be Top Gear 2 on the SNES was the last good racing game I played. I remember hating Gran Turismo 1 and haven’t played any racing games since then. Heck, I’m a pedestrian most of the time. Admittedly I’m not the target audience for a car game. Ohh, sound is back.
• 4:03PM – This random developer was tear gassed by police?! Who… who is he? They didn’t introduce him at all! Has this all of a sudden turned into an Anonymous or Wikileaks ad?!
• 4:05PM – An Exclusive! My stream is stuttering though
• 4:07PM – He was congratulated for having the coolest demo. And I didn’t get to see it at all
• 4:09PM – NOOOOOOOO WHAT IS HE SAYING? SOMETHING ABOUT SELF PUBLISHING, AND EASY FOR INDIE DEVELOPERS!!! And… Johnathan Blow. I… I can’t hear anything that’s happening… it’s too laggy Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo…
• 4:11PM – So my stream is horrible… but I confirmed that the Exclusive title is Infamous. I think Mr. Blow just said that his game will also be a PS4 exclusive.
• 4:13PM – I got to see an image of a record player in the woods… the color scheme makes me want to play Guild Wars. Unfortunately the video is still super laggy and I can’t really say anything relevant to the trailer. I’m looking forward to getting more info though about indie games on PS4. It would be awesome to get Super Hematoma on the PS4.
• 4:15PM – Also according to Polygon, Jonathan Blow’s title is The Witness
• 4:17PM – Apparently games will be comparable to modern film… In 1999 characters had 350 polys and now they’ll have over 30k polys.  The real time rendering of the character’s head seems kind of cool. Our retro game would so completely waste the capabilities of that system. It’ll be awesome.
• 4:19PM – “With PlayStation 4, creators can forget about technology limitations.” Bwahahahaha,  “We are now only limited by our imagination.” Hopefully this means that developers will stop pushing toward realism now.
• 4:23PM – What the hell am I looking at? The stream is going fast again, but I’m just as confused now as when I couldn’t make out what was being said. Sculptures? Are they trying to be the next Mine Craft or Little Big Planet? I guess it could work. People seem to eat this stuff up.
• 4:25PM – Oh. Also, you’ll be able to make your characters that you create play instruments that you make. Looks legit. Are they playing Journey? As in the band? No… I guess not. Sounded similar to this though.
• 4:27PM – “Virtually” ever major 3rd party will support PS4. Who are the Luddites?
• 4:28PM – Ono from Japan is amazing. He wants us to stretch. Also:
  

  It took 98 minutes to get a Japanese guy on stage. Not that I’m counting.

  — Alex Navarro (@alex_navarro) February 21, 2013

• 4:34PM – Honestly I didn’t pay much attention to this demo… but apparently Capcom is working on an exciting Panty Raid engine… or something.
• 4:35PM – SQUENIX! *rubbing hands together excitedly* Yoshihisa Hashimoto, you best not disappoint me.
• 4:36PM – State of the art game engine, eh? Is it as good as Panty Raid? Wait… I’ve seen this demo already. A few months ago. Yeah, it’s powerful as far as game … my stream stopped. Someone must have found out that SQUENIX was presenting and decided to join the stream. Straw. Camel. Back.
• 4:40PM – That’s the level of quality they want in their PS4 games. That’s cool. I guess. What’s weird is that tech specs don’t really excite me that much. I’m not really a fan of realism.
• 4:41PM – Shinji Hashimoto, brand director for Final Fantasy at Squenix. “I just have one thing to say. On the occasion of this presention[…] I would also like to announce that we are preparing for development of a Final Fantasy title. Please, please be exicted for E3 this year. Thank you so much. Bye.” I wonder if they finally have plans on doing FFXIII Versus? That would be timely.
• 4:43PM – Someone from Ubisoft wants to put us in control of everything. Because we’re awesome. And we like to be immersed. Or something. My video is choppy again. Also, we’ll be excited for PS4, and there will be millions of new customers.
• 4:45PM – He sounds very smug about the concept of a smart city. Smart phone, smart city. I guess we get to control everything in Watch Dogs. I wonder if it’ll be anything like Nintendogs?
• 4:51PM – The video is too choppy. I’m resorting to Twitter for news. Apparently it’s the same as Infamous, but without super powers. Also Minority Report. So…
• 4:52PM – Blizzard is talking about how they’re old school, and crashing the Sony party. They entered a strategic partnership… through which they will take over the world. The truth comes out.
• 4:55PM – Apparently they’re moving Diablo III to the living room. I guess it could work better there than your mom’s dark basement. Maybe. Wait… thePS4 gets last year’s PC titles? This is the hype? They should have gone with a new Lost Vikings.
• 4:58PM – I see an Activision logo. Next generation of great games… excitement… what will it be? What will it be? Bungie. Hmm… apparently they make good games. I don’t think I’ve played any of them.
• 5:00PM – The only words I’ve heard in the past 2 minutes due to choppy video: Destiny is going to be amazing on the “sweet piece of gear” known as the playstation 4. There also seems to be some sort of epic orchestral score.
• 5:05PM – Sooooooooooo everything is now going super fast now that it’s ended. On the plus side if these weren’t enough notes for you, they’re going to be repeating the stream.

So all in all, I guess it’s a cool look forward. Did they announce a release date? Or a price? I didn’t catch that in there. I’m looking forward to seeing how they improve the social networking, and to see if anything is better for indie publishers. I find it funny that Squenix bothered to make a FF announcement that was basically “look forward to a FF announcement!”.

Also, just a quick note, two weeks ago I made a post about how I prefer games to be difficult. The Guardian actually has a good article about this same topic that had been posted on Valentine’s day. They were a little more in-depth about it than I, and it’s a good read.