The PS4 thread

[Captain Kirk]

Don't think it's the best deal, the ratings are massively spiked for some players just because they're average at everything. Best checking what they're good at individually. 2nd rounders are good to have as you can usually pick up a good 3 point shooter to come off the bench for cheap that way.

[Meacon Keaton]

I always get rid of my second rounders. I never see anyone worth having there. I'd rather package it with my first and move up four or five spots in the first round.

If you're hoping to lose Bogut's $13 million, I'm assuming you intend to make a splash in free agency?

[Your Mom]

I was hoping so and by my play style Center is really the least important spot on my team

[Captain Kirk]

If it's the least important then try and see if you can make a deal for Omer Asik, he offers almost nothing offensively which is why he has such a low rating but he's one of the best rim defenders in the game. Only problem is his massive contract in the next season so sometimes worth picking him up cheap in free agency 2 years in.

[Your Mom]

That might be a good plan. I mean Bogut is good for rebounds and blocks but I don't shoot with him much unless he is wide open. All I know is Lance Stephenson is getting all the money! 30 points in my last game with 8 three pointers!

[Baddar]

Update 1.62 has been released!

...nah, it's nothing major.

[Dan]

"Project Morpheus" VR Headset for PS4.

[zero]

Are we already due for another point where the gaming industry thinks people are going to care about Virtual Reality?

Just typing the phrase "Virtual Reality" time warps me to 1995.

[TKz]

The tech works now, though. Have you tried an Occulus Rift? It's fucking nuts.

[Your Mom]

Are we already due for another point where the gaming industry thinks people are going to care about Virtual Reality?

Just typing the phrase "Virtual Reality" time warps me to 1995.

I care! I went nuts for that stuff back then

[Maxx]

The tech works now, though. Have you tried an Occulus Rift? It's fucking nuts.

Yeah, this is way beyond anything they had in 1995. We're not talking Virtual boy 2.0 here.

[zero]

And 3D came a long way from the days of the blue and red cardboard glasses. We still couldn't get people to wear the glasses at home and no one is going to wear that goofy thing on their head to play games.

[Quom]

9000 people backed the Oculus kickstarter giving them close to $2.5 million, this was in 2012 when it was a new thing. Plenty of other people have since ordered dev kits. The gaming press and pretty much anyone who has used one have pimped the shit out of it. The newest version is meant to be pretty spot on.

I had no interest in 3D. However the thought of playing a driving game or a FPS or Skyrim or pretty much anything for that matter with accurate head tracking sounds pretty amazing and about as different to 3D as you can get. It could literally be game changing, no longer would you need a lean button as you do that via the helmet etc. Depending on how advanced the technology is you could potentially play most games with 2/3 buttons and the rest being done via movement tracking. The technology is the only thing worrying me. I don't have that much interest in a monitor you wear. It needs to have accurate (not Wii level) motion sensing.

[zero]

And 63,000 people donated $8.5 million to the Ouya.

I have no doubt the technology is slick, I just don't see the practicality of it or the mainstream appeal to make it a worthwhile investment. I'd love for it to catch on, unique ways to play games are always welcome, I just have a hunch that there are going to be a lot of these sitting next to Guitar Hero drum kits at various Goodwills a year after release.

[Maxx]

YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT OLD MAN!

[zero]

Back in my day, we had Kinect and we liked it just... Not at all.

[Quom]

And 63,000 people donated $8.5 million to the Ouya.

I have no doubt the technology is slick, I just don't see the practicality of it or the mainstream appeal to make it a worthwhile investment. I'd love for it to catch on, unique ways to play games are always welcome, I just have a hunch that there are going to be a lot of these sitting next to Guitar Hero drum kits at various Goodwills a year after release.

The difference between the Oculus and Ouya is that everyone who uses the Oculus seems to like it and hype it. There is also plenty of evidence that everything is constantly being refined to ensure it's working as well as possible. If they were happy to release a mediocre piece of kit it would have been out in 2012.

We'll have to agree to disagree, but I don't think you can compare many/any devices currently available as being equivalent or within the ballpark.

[EWB's Best Poster.]

The move was damn accurate, with the gyro in it showing not only up down and sideways but front back and tilting too. I played the ping pong on sports champ like a mad man. If sony incorporates that, accuracy is a given. To me, weight is a bigger factor. How heavy until your neck strains.

[Bobfoc]

As far as mainstream appeal is concerned, price and marketing will be far more important than the device's technical specifications. The Wii's level of accuracy was estimated by some developers as being around 10%, but it sold well from the get-go because of a combination of clever advertising to the correct demographics, Nintendo's historic reputation among the so-called core gamers and a low barrier of entry.

The same can be said about Kinect, albeit to a considerably lesser extent. Pretty much every news site that tried it noted its awkward input lag and finicky range of functionality, but it sold reasonably well because Microsoft threw all of its advertising might behind making sure as many families as possible knew what it was and why they should own it.

Neither the Wii nor the Kinect were put forward by their respective companies as what are often typecast as "geeks' video game machines". Instead, Nintendo and Microsoft made sure to accentuate their devices' ease of use, potential for light family entertainment and somewhat exaggerated readiness as alternative fitness equipment. And it worked better than most people could have predicted.

The difference with VR headsets is that we're mainly hearing about how technologically impressive they are, and how they'll boost immersion in what are more traditionally labelled "video games" than the Wii Sports, Kinect Adventures and Just Dances of this world. For me, that's no bad thing, but for the masses, I'm not convinced that such a premise can catch on as a mainstream hit, especially if it requires a hefty sum of cash on top of the price of a PS4. Besides anything else, sitting down with a giant pair of goggles strapped to someone's forehead will be much harder to market than a family jumping around and having fun.

I don't like using the term, but when you're talking about "casual gamers", they're much less likely to care about accuracy of motion and input delay than Sony seemed to think they were when they released the Playstation Move. "Like the Wii, but more powerful and precise" was never a sales pitch that would have appealed to the customers I used to encounter when I worked in games retail, because most of them were getting exactly what they wanted out of their Wiis without knowing or caring about how graphically or technically up-to-date they were. If they can't hook these kinds of players, they're left with the more dedicated gaming audience, and plenty of those people tend to prefer to stick with what they're familiar with, rather than splashing out on what they perceive to be expensive gimmickery, whereas those who do have the money and interest to take the plunge probably wouldn't be enough to make it the kind of industry-changing phenomenon Sony and the Oculus rift folks want it to be.

Whatever happens, I'll be keeping a keen eye on things, but it's certainly a case of "wait and see" in terms of my own likelihood of picking one up.

[apsham]

I don't see stuff like the Oculous being all that much of a fad, essentially since it's basically just another screen to play your games on. The idea of taking your games off the television and onto what is essentially a tablet is already something that is catching on and at least semi-successful. I'm looking forward to the idea of doing the same with something like the Oculous.