Not to sound spoiled, but when you've just downloaded or purchased a game you've been aching to play for months, watching the time count down while the game installs can be one of the most excruciating things ever. Thankfully, it seems like this frustrating endeavor will be a thing of the past once the new generation of consoles arrive. For Sony at least.
While explaining how the cosnole's installation process works to Kotaku, Lead System Architect Mark Cerney let the site know that Knack, one of the console's launch titles, is playable in "tens of seconds" once the installation process has begun. As the site reported, "After that, as you play, the game will stream more content to the console's 500GB hard drive."
Similarly, Guerilla Games Managing Director Hermen Hulst told Polygon that his shooter Killzone: Shadow Fall, takes less than three minutes to get started after you insert the disc - 2 minutes 44 seconds exactly (just enough time to make a sandwich or make a quick trip to the john) counting the introductory cinematic and profile creation.
"You put in a disc and it's going to take 30 seconds to get into the menu. Then if you immediately press X to start the single-player campaign, a 1.5 minute introduction video that explains what happened at the end of Killzone 3 will play," said Hulst.
If players choose to play the game while it downloads, the game will download the first two levels. While players play through them, the rest of the game will download in the background, Hulst explained. If players' Internet connection is fast enough, transition between levels should be almost seamless.
Now, "Tens of seconds" and 3 minutes isn't the most sizable difference in terms of time, but you can chalk it up to the games' install size - 37 GB for Knack, compared to Killzone: Shadow Fall's 39GB.
Under the hood, the PlayStation 4 boasts Supercharged PC architecture, X86 CPU, Enhanced PC GPU, and 8GB Unified Memory according to the official specs.
It will support the same PlayStation Plus service as the Vita and PlayStation 3. However, a Plus subscription will be required for online multiplayer games, but not for additional media services like Netflix. Sony has also updated the Dual Shock controllers with a touch screen and improved shoulder triggers, and bundles the console with a headset.
The PlayStation 4 is set to release on November 15 in North America and on November 29 in Europe. Day one games available for the system includeAssassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, Battlefield 4, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Killzone: Shadow Fall, Madden NFL 25, NBA 2K14, Need for Speed: Rivals, and more. It will retail for $399.
The company has some last minute games to announce, but won't be doing so until the console gets a bit of its own "midnight madness." The night before it launches, at 11pm EST, GameTrailers TV is hosing a PS4 All Access event, with Sony set to take center stage with some world premieres for titles that have not yet been formally announced in a blaze of last minute hype for the console finally releases. So it's got that going for it, which is nice.
Be sure to keep checking back with Gamenguide for more of the latest updates.
