PSA: PS4 and XB1 playable at FanExpo Toronto right now

Man, that's super disappointing to hear about jaggies in the X1 demos. Oh well, lets hope it's just launch games!
 
SC blacklist on PS4?

From what I could see SC:Blacklist was either 360 or XB1. I thought it was XB1 based on the controllers, but then I realized I actually saw the console OS when the multiplayer round was over, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't XB1-esque.

Booth setups: Xbox One had three separate lines for each of Ryse, Killer Instinct and Forza 5. Forza 5 took less than half an hour to try out. PS4 booth, by contrast, put everyone into one big line to play any of Knack, Driveclub or Assassin's Creed IV; every time one of the stations freed up, the Sony people would ask the line if they were interested in that particular game, so you could still play the game you wanted, it's just the line was longer. Probably just under an hour and a half for that line, maybe 1:15. (I expect Saturday will be even worse, though I noticed the PS4 line stayed roughly the same length the entire time I was in it, so maybe it's self-regulating.) PAX East this ain't, thankfully.

Played Forza 5 at the XB1 booth and Driveclub at the PS4 booth. Xbox Ones with the new Kinects were visible at every station, though I suppose they could have been dummies. New controller feels quite a bit nicer than the 360. The triggers in particular feel more securely attached; they flare out at the part where they hinge into the controller body, so it's not just a thin piece of plastic anymore. The force feedback triggers feel like the sort of thing that won't really be a very big deal in general, but I did kind of miss them a little when I was playing Driveclub. D-pad's the clicky, low-travel type. I like it.

Forza 5 definitely had its share of jaggies, but whatever. Car models definitely look improved, though I only got a good look at the car models after the race was over and Forza switches to a cinematic view of your car driving into the pits. The weirdest thing to me, though, was the asphalt. The course in the demo was Laguna Seca, so you can compare it visually to the Gran Turismo version to an extent, and while stuff like the lighting and shadows look great, the asphalt seemed oddly flat and featureless, like it was just a big matte black rubber surface or something. Dunno if that's just me or some HDR lighting crushing the blacks or what.

Weird thing I overheard while in line (that may or may not be true): Microsoft may not be making ANY wheel peripherals for Xbox One, or at least none are in the works. Something about there being so many other options out there, except didn't we already hear 360 peripherals won't work with the XB1? Unfortunate if true (though if it turns out someone like Thrustmaster is taking over those duties, I guess the only loss is there won't be a relatively inexpensive 360 wheel anymore).

PS4s were hidden at the PS4 booth; only the controllers and the PS Eyes were out (Driveclub was doing the whole Burnout Paradise-style mugshot thing). I think the Driveclub demo was essentially the E3 demo; in the top-left there was a badge stating "Pre-Alpha Build: 35% Complete" or something along those lines. The controller feels good--the triggers feel a bit smaller than the XB1 but otherwise it's all very similar to my admittedly not-so-discerning hands. The touchpad's clickiness seems pretty easy to activate, but not so easy that you'll be doing it by mistake. Totally forgot to check the d-pad.

As for Driveclub itself: I actually kinda like it. For whatever reason, Sony turned off the driving line assists by default (Microsoft left it all on, though you could change the assists if you wanted to) so I saw a lot more people mess up and crash spectacularly; I don't know if those people came away with a favourable impression. But I really liked the evolution of the rivals system that Forza Horizon had (and similar leaderboard systems in Need For Speed and Burnout) where you're always competing against your friends not just for lap times, but also in discrete challenges scattered throughout the race. I never drift in racing games unless I'm asked to, so it was kind of nice that Driveclub encouraged you to try it out via a one-turn challenge section of the track that you could just ignore if you felt like it. (I totally didn't ignore those sections--got #1 for fame points, y'all!)

I'm getting a PS4 and not getting an XB1 at launch, so Driveclub wins for me by default. Interesting to hear all the opinions and perceptions from the general public about both consoles, though--for example, I heard one father try to explain to his son what the cloud servers were all about with a straight face. Also, way more people in that PS4 line wanted to play Knack than I expected. Like, there was a group of six or so people at the front of the line and whenever the Sony woman would call out AC or Driveclub, people behind them would take the stations. And when the woman asked them which game they wanted to play, just to make sure, they all said in unison "Knack!" Well done, Cerny.

Oh, one other thing: the line to play Gran Turismo 6 was super short/non-existent, but part of that may be because it looked like the GT Academy demo that you can already play at home. Oh well.
 
Blim said Forza 5 was really clean looking at E3. What's up with these jaggies all of a sudden?

Was the TV just maybe so big that it really looked bad?
 
Also, way more people in that PS4 line wanted to play Knack than I expected. Like, there was a group of six or so people at the front of the line and whenever the Sony woman would call out AC or Driveclub, people behind them would take the stations. And when the woman asked them which game they wanted to play, just to make sure, they all said in unison "Knack!" Well done, Cerny.

I wonder if this is actual interest in playing it, or just wanting to test the waters to see if it's worth it to buy or not. Personally, I'm looking forward to a lighter, easier game like Crash or Spyro, and I expect I'll get good fun out of hard mode. But I haven't really heard great reactions to Knack so far (not gameplay reactions, just general disinterest).
 
Blim said Forza 5 was really clean looking at E3. What's up with these jaggies all of a sudden?

Was the TV just maybe so big that it really looked bad?

Oh, to be clear: Forza 5 did NOT look bad, at least not to me. I think the only reason I really noticed the aliasing was because I knew to look for it from someone else in this thread. Really, the weird asphalt was more off-putting to me.
 
So...the entire weekend flew by and I wasn't ever able to actually try out the PS4. So disappointed, haha. Oh well. It's here in a few months.

I'm glad some of you got to.

Also, did anyone get to try out Oculus Rift? It was available with a short line at the triOS College booth on Saturday and possibly earlier days too. I wish WISH I got to, but had to get back to my booth. f0ck
 
Need videos, TorontoGAF don't disappoint!!

Most of the time, booth employees prohibited it. Also, wouldn't you rather just watch all the direct feed videos all over the net? They're all better than off-screen videos filmed with a smartphone, ....right?
 
I went on Saturday. I can confirm that most people were passing on Driveclub and were there to play Knack or settle on Assassin's Creed 4. We kept having to yell at people in the back of the line if they wanted to play Driveclub.

It was kind of sad.

Knack is what I played and and it's fairly simple 3D brawler. There was a lot framerate issues but it was okay mostly. The particle effects in this game are insane.

I also played through the stealth demo which was pretty neat where you would switch between glass Knack and burly Knack.

I was only really in the line to get a free tshirt that said "Keep calm, PS4 was coming". Also managed to snag a Nathan Drake statue that they were holding a contest with.

The people in the line were pretty excited for the PS4. Was mostly talking to this one couple, girl dressed as Connor Kenway from AC3. She wasn't that interested but wanted to play AC4. The boyfriend wanted to play Knack and he mentioned how he wished he had signed up for Plus earlier.

There was another kid in the line dressed up as Delsin from Infamous who wanted to play AC4.

That line was two hours long but there were a lot of interesting characters there. There were a couple of dudes talking about The Last of Us who spoiled the shit out of it and made someone yell.
 
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