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The PS4’s controller is a shiny device with some really interesting features: a touchpad, an LED sensor and a Share button that will let you stream gameplay footage to your friends and internet enemies.
Today, Sony has released a new video to showcase the DualShock 4. Check it out above.
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Riiiiiiidddgggeeee racerr!
massive damage
real time. Weapon change.
Just heard all of that again in my head when I read the title of this article.
Wii sports tennis had that great, visceral *thwack* come out of the speaker on the controller. Having that audio capability is a real boon for immersion.
Gotta love having touch controls on a controller, too.
Heaps of people hyped up the Wii U Gamepad before it was released too, now look how well it’s doing…Think I’m more interested to hear about the games then the flashy controller, why must E3 be so far away?
Yes but the Wii U controller also lived up to the hype. I do not want to go back to a standard controller ever again! Love offscreen play anywhere in the house and I love having instant access to menu’s and other unique gameplay features.
Thing holding Wii U back right now is game titles and AAA Nintendo titles which are all on the way. I wonder if the PS4/Nextbox will suffer the same fate with lack of games at launch. I get a feeling there just wont be a tonne of content on either at launch.
This new video is probably an attempt to get some attention before the Nextbox unveil.
Yeah, but to be honest, the thumb pad on the ps4 actually looks like it could be useful in a non gimmicky way moreso than a tablet controller would be. *shrug*
So a thumbpad that does less and at the same time allows for the same kind of controller input is less gimmicky?? Its also less user friendly.. Your essentially using it to make “Swipes” but your not directly looking at what your swiping, your having to use your fingers to navigate while looking at a completely different piece of equipement.
Added buttons, Moving all your bars on the screen info off screen, touch controls for easier interactivity and (when done right) more intuitive navigation, and quite simply the best feature, pick up and play around the house with no TV required. Hell all those features alone are in MH3U and its the best way to play and it is far from gimmicky, Its damned useful!
Each to his/her own I guess.
I bought the WiiU pretty much exclusively for MH3U, and have been playing it for a week or so. Honestly, I’m not a fan of the controller. I rarely look at the touchscreen (I’d much rather have my UI elements on the main screen where my eyes are focused almost exclusively), and I find the dimensions of it kind of uncomfortable (not that it weighs much).
Also, I had higher hopes for the offscreen play. I have the WiiU in my bedroom, and I attempted to use offscreen play in the living room (maybe 5 metres away, couple of walls in between), and had no luck, kept dropping out.
yeh I gotta admit, I sort of liked the idea of the Wii U controller when it first came out. Played with one on a demo machine at EB and I think they nailed the balance of it being comfortable to use and functionality, but end of the day I rather focus on my big TV when I’m gaming.
That’s pretty much my feeling to. Initially it sounded cool, but when I thought about it, I realised there is a reason why we are moving everything else to integrated displays.
Not sure about this pad. The touch functionality could be useful, but it just smacks of six-axis (though probably not as annoying as motion controls.
Depends on your uses.. I work in a extremely high stress/physically draining job. At the end of the day, coming home and being able to just slump in bed and still pick up and with play my games with no effort is great.
And most people wont realise how useful this controller is until they own it and start using it. I prefer to sit in front of my big arse TV and high end surround as well, but I also have to share that with my Misses when she wants to watch a stuff (as neither of us want to settle on using our lower quality TV’s 😛 ). I don’t want to move my console to my smaller TV’s/No surround so the option to swap between the TV and controller is a convenience.
If you ever end up getting the console down the line, once you’ve got a game or two under your belt that use it even half adequately you seriously wont go back.
The deciding factor for me when I was choosing between the PS3 and Xbox360 was the controller at the end of the day. I hate the Dual Shock 3, which was pretty much the same as the PS1 controller with added thumbsticks. I’m glad they have finally changed the design now (it kind of has a similar shape to the current Xbox controller). Some of those features do sound gimmicky, but I want to see how games will make use of it. They need to do more things like that encounter with Psycho Mantis in Metal Gear Solid.
One thing that I found cool on the Wii Remote (that’s not on the Xbox360 or PS3 controller) is the integrated speaker. Imagine playing an FPS with your controller making the sounds of the gun shooting and reloading. Or hearing radio chatter messages from it.
They need to do more things like that encounter with Psycho Mantis in Metal Gear Solid.
Man I laughed during that boss battle near the end of Metal Gear Solid 4 when the guy comes on the codec and suggests you swap the controller to the other port. And Snake is like “uuhh… the controllers are wireless now”… “oh… I’m out of ideas, then” 😛
I tried swapping the controller to number 2 through the XMB in the game as soon as the fight started thinking I was some cool original MGS fan but then Otacon said it won’t worked.
How cool is it that they allowed for both outcomes in the 4th wall breaking humour?
One thing that I found cool on the Wii Remote (that’s not on the Xbox360 or PS3 controller) is the integrated speaker. Imagine playing an FPS with your controller making the sounds of the gun shooting and reloading. Or hearing radio chatter messages from it.
The video says they’ve got one of those on this new controller.
You can see it on the title picture for the video: the 12 holes between the touch pad and PS button.
Yay, Sony finally took a lesson in ergonomics! The main reason my Xbox gets way more use than my PS3 is because the DS3 is so uncomfortable – my thumb joints have to stay at right angles just to use the thumbsticks and be able to reach the triggers at the same time. This layout doesn’t look much better, but the sticks look shorter and easier to reach because of the concave surface and ergonomic grip.
Ergonomic design + concave thumbsticks? This might get more use…
I like this new controller. The touch pad can act as a faster way to navigate menus, interactive play and may act extra control functions in the game. I also like the bottom of the controller it looks like it has xtra grip texture.
People mite complain about the PS controller layout but I have no problems with it since I received my 1st DSC back in the PSone days playing Ape Escape.
Finally a Share button it used to be so hard to finish the race, go to replay, go two minutes in, mark the start, watch my awesome overtaking maneuver, mark the end and than share it.
Now I can finish the race, press the share button go two minutes in, mark the start, watch my awesome overtaking maneuver, mark the end and than share it.
Seriously? A Share button isn’t that big of a deal. The share function built into every game to support said button could have easily been accessed from an options menu.
But the built in speaker proves Nintendo’s ideas from last generation are good enough for Sony’s next Generation.
Out of all the things they are adding to the DS4/PS4, the share button is the one I am most interested in. Any game on Steam, I know when something cool happens I whack F12 and save a screenshot. All the way through Mass Effect 1 and 2 on steam, I would grab interesting shots. With Mass Effect 3 on Origin, there was no screenshot ability (at least there didn’t used to be) so I would reach to save a cool image, and be disappointed that I couldn’t.
Ok, that could have been built into any game (like Wipeout HDs camera mode) but with a dedicated button, it will be built into EVERY game.
On the other hand “AWW SNAP i sniped someone from 3km, headshot while he was in a jeep, gotta share this shizz”, hit share button select last 20secs, send, back to game. Specific examples can be found for both sides of the argument.
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