"I heard that PS4 was launched recently, is it good, how does it compared with PS3?"
<<The Hardware>>
Supercharged PC-based Architecture
PS4 hardware is based on a supercharged PC-based architecture, making it easier to program. While PS3 Cell-processor architecture was powerful and ahead of its time, it was also very difficult to program for 3rd party developers. PS4 was built from the lessons learned from PS3's painful evolution and developer feedback. The result, is a PC-based architecture that is well understood, 10x more powerful than a PS3 and supported with matured toolsets to help developers shorten their ramp-up time to develop for PS4.
Console Performance Parity
With PS3's complex architecture, many of PS3's multiplatform titles tend to suffer in graphical fidelity or game performance. With PS4, Sony and Microsoft are on a level playing field in terms of hardware with a slight edge on PS4 vs Xbox One, demonstrated by some of the launch titles such as Call of Duty Ghosts which runs natively at 1080p on PS4, but only at 720p on Xbox One which uprezed it to 1080p to your TV.
<<The Software>>
PS4, with a more powerful hardware, can deliver greater graphics and better sound in your games.
Graphically, PS3's graphics references DirectX9/OpenGL2.0 features that circa 2003/2004 compared to PS4's that is up to the recent 2012 DirectX11.2/OpenGL4.4 specifications. PS4 benefitted from this 8-year technology jump that makes games on PS4 looking closer to modern PC standards.
With a more powerful console, developers now can further enrich the sound fidelity in their games. One example is Call of Duty Ghosts -- contextual acoustics are implemented so that each gun fired sound different based on the environment that you are in, each bullet shell dropping onto wood, dirt or steel giving off different sound.
With PS4 being closer to a PC, we expect to see more titles getting the console 'treatment'. We can expect to see more indie titles and free-to-play games to further enrich the console gamer's portfolio.
<<The User Experience>>
To put things into perspective, when PS3 was launched in November 2006, iphone has not even been released. Facebook was just two years old. As we moved further into the PS3's lifecycle, the social network really took off. Online multiplayer becomes a phenomenon and games with large open world exploration World of Warcraft and Skyrim captures the imagination of many.
PS4's hardware allows for transition from PS3's Networked Experience (online multiplayer, digital downloads) to the Social Experience of PS4. You can either immediately share your special gameplay moments on Facebook/Twitter or choose to broadcast your gameplay to a worldwide audience via twitch.tv or ustream.tv
PS4 also have added a few key improvements over PS3 that enhanced the overall user experience.
They are:
- ability to run in a low-powered state - that charges the controllers and download any updates/patches
- suspend and resume a game (available in a future firmware update)
- improved controller design that is more comfortable and precise compared to Dualshock3
- able to play a game (while a portion of the game is still downloading or installing)
- better user-interface layout and response time
So there you have it. My answer to you, what is PS4, what has improved and how it compares with PS3.
I leave you with a quick look at one the games releasing this month, Tomb Raider The Definitive Edition, with the producer describing what they have done for the game on PS4.
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