The Playstation 4

The PS4 introduced at $400, so I was off by $100.

It’s just pure speculation. We’re assuming console-level GPU’s will handle 4k 60fps by 2020. On my PC with a 1070 graphics card, 60fps is consistent on every game I’ve played in the past couple of years (except Planet Coaster, what’s up with that?)… just not at 4k.

As a long-time PC gamer, I somewhat agree but my timing is different - to me, the PS3/Xbox360 were the first consoles that had even remotely acceptable graphics - prior to that, they were just muddy and blurry, and they couldn’t even adequately do an open-world game.

This generation is the first one were the graphics didn’t feel considerably compromised, especially with the incremental leap to the Xbox One X and PS4 Pro. Some games, like South Park or Little Big Planet, etc. might have been fine looking on the PS3 gen, but shooters like Killzone or Bioshock or Resistance, etc., look pretty flat (shading/lighting) with terrible textures and low polygon counts.

But where I agree with you is that I honestly feel that the graphics are finally at the point with games like Uncharted 4 and God of War, Witcher 3, etc., where I’d be fine remaining at this level forever. Maybe because I can’t anticipate meaningful improvements, but more photorealistic isn’t necessarily better for me. I do think VR games have massive room to grow, however.

People were saying the same thing at the end of last gen, but as you point out it’s pretty hard to go back to last gen games often running at sub 720p with outdated rendering tech. Next gen will be as much about a massive increase in CPU power as anything else which has been a pretty limiting factor for the PS4 and Xbox One. Big increases in available memory and storage performance will offer their own improvements as well.

In any case we’re still probably 2 years from the next gen launch. That will be 7 years of technological advancement. My expectations for specs would be:

8 core/16 thread Ryzen 2 based CPU clocked around 3.2Ghz.
~14TFlop GPU using AMD’s latest tech.
The above in a 7nm APU.
At least 32GB of memory. Maybe HBM2 or HBM2 plus DDR4.
2TB hard drive.
Something like 64GB of developer managed flash based storage.

Graphics can still massively improve, some expensive features like full ambient occlusion, scene-wide dynamic self-shadowing, don’t pop in screenshots but are just a dramatic improvement in motion, they make scenes that previously looked gorgeous but with that edge of surrealism look, well, real. HDR is also a huge, immediately noticeable improvement that isn’t really linked to GPU speed but support on your display.

Display resolution doesn’t matter so much. I don’t care about 4k on a monitor or TV at couch distances. Resolution does matter in VR, however. And texture resolutions are fine, even close-up, on monitors/TVs, but don’t hold up in VR when you move really close-in. That could improve too.

The X360 generation enabled new gameplay, massive open worlds were possible. Crowds in Assassin’s Creed were possible. The Xbone generation just looks nicer. Every current-gen game could have been created for the X360, exact same gameplay, just worse graphics.

The current console generation is kind of a failure. Because it failed to deliver 1080p 69FPS.

If theres a new generation of consoles, I hope they come with a slighly befier CPU than usual and they can deliver on framerate.

Many of the games that people usually play on consoles will benefict a lot with smoother animations. Is kind of a crime to give these artist so low a framerate.

LOLOLOL

Or maybe your set doesn’t support HDR. Like stusser said, HDR can make a dramatic difference in how a game looks (see: Horizon: Zero Dawn). To me, HDR is where the real jump between generations happened, not resolution.

Yeah, that too. The HDR sounds great as well.

Pick up another 20% off coupon on the PS store right now by watching a Detroit: Becoming Human trailer.

live.playstation.com

I recall reading a few years ago about a test Dolby did comparing 1080p+Dolby Vision against 4K SDR. Universally people thought the 1080p+Dolby Vision looked better. Self serving of Dolby to say that of course, but it does illustrate how significant HDR improves our perception of the image quality.

Finally a real winner for me. Been wanting to try out XCOM 2 for a while now.

Trials Fusion didn’t quite capture the same magic as Trials HD for me (my first game in the genre) but it’s still definitely worth grabbing. If a few people jump in, I’ll even work on getting good times!

PS4 - XCOM 2, Trails Fusion
PS3 - TC’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, Zombie Driver HD

X-Com 2, nice.

Much better than Xbox’s GwG for June, for sure.

Indeed

I suspect GwG is going to languish now that they also have Game Pass.

I’d just like to say “Fuck Sony” for not allowing 3rd party bluetooth headsets to connect to the PS4.

This came up elsewhere but isn’t this a problem with all of the consoles? Or maybe it was just the Switch too? It’s frustrating, but with the problems of latency wih Bluetooth, I don’t think it’s done out of contempt for the owners.

You could use them with Vita, though there was definitely latency - it made Patapon impossible. Never tried on PS3/PS4.

The PS4 will actually work with bluetooth headsets that are specifically licensed by Sony, apparently… but only those.

Pretty sure it’s just a money grab by Sony.

And ya, the XBox 360 had the same issue… I suspect the XBone does too.