I wish we could settle on one format, let everyone's games run on everything, and focus on the games.

Simplified, I know, but more or less the ideal.

1. I don't like the Playstation controller
2. I'm extremely wary of Sony due to their past actions (installing rootkits on customer computers, removal of linux from the PS3, etc.)

On the plus side, the Playstation 1 and 2 were amazing, and Sony doesn't require paid subscription on their network.

Ultimately, if I can get Destiny on the PC - I'm happy.

I'm playing where the most friends are. If there's a way to play truly cross-platform, so much the better.

~M

That would be better, but they've already ruled it out. I'm not even sure that it's technical; I seem to recall MS policies regarding use of XBL by developers prohibiting it, or prohibiting things that are essential to achieving it.

Along with mods, this is another area where the PC platform has it over on consoles.

Uh, except for the couple-dozen PC games I can't play after upgrading to Win7...

-- Steve resorted to buying X-COM again on Steam as he just couldn't get DOSBox to play nice.

Weird. I don't use Windows at all anymore (never upgraded anything beyond XP) so I haven't experienced it, but I've read other people saying similar things.

Oddly enough, DosBox (Boxer) on OSX seems to have better luck running old DOS games than new versions of Windows.

~M

And beside the ability to upload game videos, the Ustream stuff, and the fighting-game-lobby-esque set up, I have no interest in "play my game for me" mode or the other social stuff they were pushing so hard for the first part of the show.

Microsoft has really, REALLY dropped the ball as far as exclusives go the last few years. Halo is all the have that I really care about now. I like Gears and Twisted Pixel's XBLA games, but they aren't enough to keep me there. Rare is dead, Fable 3 blew and then went Kinect, and the other big exclusive games now are Forza and Kinect.

PSN being so janky this gen is one of the reasons I stuck with 360, even if it is free. They started out with no games, but seem to have gotten it together now. Plus, there are a lot of Japanese games that still stay PS exclusive.

Basically, I went 360 this gen because of Halo 3, and Mass Effect/Bioware being MS exclusive console-wise at the time. Bioware has lost all of my good will and excitement, and MS seems to have given up on making good games beyond Halo. Now, most of my favorite developers are multiplatform anyways. Bungie, Obsidian, Bethesda, Capcom (when they get their heads out of their asses), Platinum Games, Kojima Productions, and so on.

As is, Microsoft is going to really have to blow me away at E3 and the like with the new console AND new games, backwards compatibility with at least my digital games would be nice too. Otherwise I'm getting the Playstation first, especially if default PSN stays free.

Just how does playing before it's finished downloading work?

That's probably not how it works, as that would indeed be really difficult to pull off. The sense I got from it was that they would try to predict what games you're likely to purchase and cache them locally, so that they're already on your system when you went to buy. Hence the whole "we're tracking your behaviour" stuff.

Of course, then you have the problem of cache misses; the fewer games are permitted to cache on your system, the more likely you are to try and purchase a game that's not already on your system. At which point you'd have to go ahead and wait for the download. But then, your whole idea of streaming while downloading could actually be applied there. That would be crazy interesting.

Actually from the service they bought to do this I am pretty sure it's not a cache but actually streaming the game from the Internet, kind of like OnLive.

It'd have to be, if it wasn't, you're losing drive space to games you may, or may not, ever play or purchase, and that are probably entirely hidden from view. I can't see that going over well with anyone.

Yeah, great if you're in a situation where someone else needs the only TV in the house or something, but outside of that, if I can't do it when I'm not at home, what's the point?

It's nice, but it doesn't come of as like, a major noteworthy feature. Again, I'm not trying to put anything down or be a killjoy.

Yeah I totally understand your perspective, in my case it would come in handy a lot. In fact I even like being able to be somewhere strange in my house and having my friend text me and say "Come join us for x" and I can grab my Vita and join them without having to stop watching a movie or whatever,

Just how does playing before it's finished downloading work?

That's probably not how it works, as that would indeed be really difficult to pull off. The sense I got from it was that they would try to predict what games you're likely to purchase and cache them locally, so that they're already on your system when you went to buy. Hence the whole "we're tracking your behaviour" stuff.

Of course, then you have the problem of cache misses; the fewer games are permitted to cache on your system, the more likely you are to try and purchase a game that's not already on your system. At which point you'd have to go ahead and wait for the download. But then, your whole idea of streaming while downloading could actually be applied there. That would be crazy interesting.

Actually from the service they bought to do this I am pretty sure it's not a cache but actually streaming the game from the Internet, kind of like OnLive.

Just how does playing before it's finished downloading work?

That's probably not how it works, as that would indeed be really difficult to pull off. The sense I got from it was that they would try to predict what games you're likely to purchase and cache them locally, so that they're already on your system when you went to buy. Hence the whole "we're tracking your behaviour" stuff.

Of course, then you have the problem of cache misses; the fewer games are permitted to cache on your system, the more likely you are to try and purchase a game that's not already on your system. At which point you'd have to go ahead and wait for the download. But then, your whole idea of streaming while downloading could actually be applied there. That would be crazy interesting.

It's nice, but it doesn't come of as like, a major noteworthy feature. Again, I'm not trying to put anything down or be a killjoy.

How many games will actually support being shunted to the Vita?

Yoshida: we have to have all games work on PS Vita, unless it’s like a camera-only game.

And just how does that work? The Vita doesn't have nearly the power the PS4 has, so I'm assuming it's going to act as both a controller and a receiving device, which implies streaming from the PS4 (I think they've been doing this with PSPs and PS3, right?). So again, how does that work outside of one's own home? How does lag factor into this equation? Wifi is pretty sketchy depending on where you go, and 3G cellular networks seem like they'd make your wallet cry in pain at the data costs, assuming it's fast enough.