What’s Under the Hood

One of the things Sony clearly wanted to highlight was the engine running under the PS4. I must of heard the term “computational power” enough to last a lifetime. However Sony did have a point, with 8GB of unified DDR5 RAM, eight AMD x86-64 cores and a GPU that generate 1.84 teraflops the PS4 may not be able to send you back in time to save Twinkies but it should have no problem with multitasking. Which brings us to….

Social Integration

These two buzz words have been flung around tech announcements like beads at Mardi Gras and Sony has continued the trend. The PS4 will allow players to record and upload recent gameplay directly from the PS4. The new DualShock 4 controller even comes with a dedicated ”share” button. You can also eavesdrop on what your friends are playing with a new feature that will allow you to watch another players gameplay in real time. The feature will allow you to take over the other players controller to help them through a difficult part of the game.

Sony also announced that new apps for iOS and Android devices will allow you to connect to the PS4 in new ways.

Games on Demand

As a member of the Playstation Plus program I love getting free games to play every month, however one thing I’m not a fan of is waiting around for those games to finally download…. and install…. and update. Compared to the Xbox 360 this has been one of the downsides to the PS3. But now Sony assures us those days are over. With the PS4 when players purchase a digital version of a game the system will download a small portion and allow you to almost instantly play while the rest of the game downloads in the background. This will also be true of game demos. Of course all of this is because of Sony’s purchase of Gaikai last year.

DualShock 4

As we reported a few days ago the leaked photos of the new DualShock 4 controller were pretty spot on. The new controller comes with a center touch screen, a share button and finally, after all these years, a microphone head jack. The back of the DualShock 4 also is equipped with a glowing light meant to identify players but more than likely its main function will be some type of motion control. The trigger buttons have also been redesigned. Check out the photos below.

The Games

Sony announced several new games we can expect to see along with stressing the strong partnership with several 3rd party developers. One game that really caught my attention was Bungie’s Destiny. Revealed earlier this week as a “shared world shooter” this game has a lot of promise coming from the makers of the Halo franchise.

Some other notable games to look forward to are:

Ubisoft: Watch Dogs: From the demo this new IP could be something truly impressive with its open world format and AI.

Capcom: Deep Down (working title): A fantasy game that will at least have some dragons to fight.

Sucker Punch: Infamous Second Son: It looks like this will be a separate game taking place in the infamous universe.

Gorilla Games: Killzone: Shadow Fall: Another entry into the well established FPS series.

A couple other things to note was that Square Enix teased a new Final Fantasy game. While no demo or trailer was shown we were told to look forward to this years E3.

How Did Sony Do?

Sony hit on a lot of notes that we all expected from a new console. Better graphics, improved hardware, social integration and games, however they seem to have intentionally held back in some key areas. The main one of course is we didn’t actually get to see the new PS4. After all this was supposed to be Sony’s moment in the spotlight. This was not E3. There was no other press conference from their competitors. They had the sole attention of gamers and the industry as a whole, yet the only hardware we got to see was the new DualShock 4 controller. I can’t help but feel Sony made this decision because they didn’t want to show Microsoft all their cards and I can understand that. Sony was first out of the gate, lifting a curtain on their new child before they knew what the neighbors kid looks like, but it still feels like a missed opportunity to me.

My other disappointment with the new PS4 came when it was announced that there would be no backwards compatibility with PS3 game discs. Yes I know that PS3 games will be available on the PS4 as digital downloads but come on, backwards compatibility has been around forever and when Sony just spent an hour talking about how powerful this new console is only to tell me its unable to read a disc from the PS3 it just feels like a way for them to try and get me to buy the games I already own. To make matters worse this morning Shuhei Yoshida, Sony’s Worldwide Studios president, announced that PSN games and PS3 saves will not transfer to the PS4. This is a bit of a kick in the teeth for PSN Plus Subscribers, like myself, who will lose all their games and saves if they upgrade to the new console.

As we get closer to E3 this summer no doubt more information will become available regarding the PS4. A console that shows a lot of promise and hopefully developers will put all that ‘computational power’ to good use. While no pricing was announced we did get a release window of Holiday 2013 which I would guess sometime early to mid November.

Be sure to leave you comment and let use know what are your thoughts on the PS4. Are you pre-ordering yours now or are you waiting to see what Microsoft has in store?

This would be similar to how Sony priced the PS3 when it first launched when it offered a $499.00 and $599.00 version.  What do you think of the rumor and Sony’s price point for their new console? Leave a comment and let us know. In the meantime Toys and Geek will have a recap of all the events at tomorrow’s press conference.

If you want to read the whole article hit the link below.

 http://kotaku.com/5985356/source-the-ps4-will-be-out-this-november-and-youll-be-able-to-control-it-with-your-phone

Is this a glimpse into the future?

With the recent leak of what looks like the new PS4 controller and some inside tips from some very reliable sources it looks like Sony will be the first to unveil their new console in a year where it’s expected that Microsoft will announce the successor to the successful Xbox 360.

The PS4 is rumored to support streaming of full games, social media integration, a touch screen built into the controller and also allow gamers to directly upload videos to YouTube.

But regardless we should know a lot more in just under 48 hours!

You can catch the whole Sony event live presented by our friends over at IGN. Hit the link below to check out the stream.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/02/14/watch-the-220-playstation-event-on-ign

Wow, if news of another Star Wars wasn’t enough, Entertainment Weekly is reporting the spin off movies are in the works for Han Sol and Boba Fett!

I know some people have mixed feelings about Disney now controlling the Star Wars franchise, but our opinion is more Star Wars is a good thing.  Also with J.J. Abrams in control and the success of the Marvel franchises I fully expect these movies to be done well.

Thank goodness the Mayans were wrong, can’t wait for a future full of new Star Wars!

Tickets are on sale on the site, but you can get discounted tickets through a Groupon offer!  Get your tickets now and start planning for this great event with guests like Stan Lee.

See you there!

The guest line up is great this year and with more vendors expected everyone should be able to find something they love and matches their inner geek.  So there are only a few hours left to get the full event passes at this discounted price so get them here!

Even if you plan on going just 1 or 2 days get your tickets early so you can save and spend more on cool stuff at the Con.

We’re all looking forward to another great event in 2013!!!

Eureka was a great show too!

Happily it’s been reported that BSG and Eureka alum James Callis will be joining the cast of the CW’s “Arrow”. Callis will be taking on the roll of The Dodger, a master thief who, at least in the comics, eventually teams up with The Green Arrow at one point.

The Dodger!

We’ll have to wait and see how The Dodger’s story unfolds but regardless Arrow has picked up a great addition to the cast.

Be sure to check out Arrow when it returns to the CW on January 16th at 8/7c.

We’re always looking for new geek stuff to do and strategy games are definitely included.  We seem to keep running into Iconica, a strategy game developed from the World of Rynaga.

There is a group that gets together, typically with the games inventor, Eric Torres.  They meet the third Saturday of every month at 5pm  at Samurai Comics at 1051 E. Camelback Rd Phoenix, AZ.

We had seen the game at Phoenix Comicon and at Red Hot Robot before they closed down last year.  We’ve started hearing more buzz from some friends so we decided to take a trip on down to Samurai Comics.

There were a few people there, getting their game sets together.  The turnout was light at first, probably because of the bad weather that day, but soon more and more people started showing up until several tables were filled and games even were later combined.  A couple different groups were nice enough to take us in and show us how to play the game.  There are alot of details to the game, but nothing too complicated for the average gamer.  There is a starter set and expansion cards, and of course the various games pieces, all nicely done in high quality, especially for an independent game.  We were highly impressed.  In fact, it was hard to get the standard “this is how you play the game” the first time because I couldn’t stop admiring the details on the character cards.

A brief description from the games website explains it as, “Iconica is an indie card game set within the World of Rynaga. Iconica blends strategy with a twist of chance for a card game experience in a category of its own. Intuitive gameplay, colorful characters and lots of backstory. It’s more than a game, it’s a journey.”

Check out the links to the game and the story behind it, there is much more than we can cover here, but well worth your time.  Hopefully you will find this hidden gem as we did and start playing Iconica.  Hope to see you next month at Samurai Comics.  The cretaor of Iconica sells the starter sets for $45 and expansion sets are $25 at Samurai Comics on gmae nights, or you can go to the Etsy site for Iconica and get the game as well as other sweet World of Rynaga items.

Here’s a list and link to all of the games you can snag for free today:

Fruit Ninja HD

Fruit Ninja

Fruit Ninja: Puss in Boots

Fruit Ninja: Puss in Boots HD

Monster Dash

Age of Zombies

Age of Zombies Anniversary

Blast Off

Jetpack Joyride