

Playstation 4 - The Review - knocknock
http://www.polygon.com/a/ps4-review

======
hugofirth
Quite aside from the content - I thought the review itself was a very nice
piece of design (The animations that I thought would annoy me ended up being a
nice touch).

One thing I take issue with is the completely arbitrary nature of the rating
at the end. Why bother giving the platform a rating at all at this stage - it
exists in a vacuum. Only time will tell how Sony's latest offering, along with
its attempts at a platform, will stack up against Steam and Microsoft. Besides
that - there seemed no clear criteria for the points system whatsoever.

It is at times like these that I am reminded of the "IGN: Fair. 10/10" meme.

~~~
jwcooper
They cover that at the end of the review. It's basically the score of the
system as it is today. It's a fair way to judge something that people will
consider purchasing and wanting to have fun with right away. I wouldn't want
to buy a console only to hope I have fun with it in 2 years (buy it in 2 years
instead). [1]

"But the PlayStation 4's focus on gaming — and only gaming — is undermined by
a distinct lack of compelling software. That failing is sure to improve —
better games and more of them will appear on the PlayStation 4 — but right
now, this is a game console without a game to recommend it. Early adopters of
the PS4 this fall are buying potential energy. We're just waiting for a place
to spend it."

[1]
[http://www.polygon.com/a/ps4-review/conclusion](http://www.polygon.com/a/ps4-review/conclusion)

~~~
hugofirth
I understand the concept of scoring the system as it is today. On the other
hand I disagree emphatically with the premise for doing so.

A "general impressions" wrap-up paragraph would be fine. A rating system with
a very low granularity (Thumbs up/even/down for example) would even be
acceptable.

A score of 7.5 implies, at the very least, a granularity of 20. This is only
useful in a case where you have either 20 binary criteria, or ~5 criteria with
some kind of sub-scoring system. Where, or what, are these criteria? Are they
implicitly, yet obviously, defined through the content or structure of the
article? No.

I'm not defending the PS4 - I am ranting at the profligacy of meaningless
scoring systems throughout the entire video games industry.

------
bbx
I haven't read the whole review because I'm not planning on purchasing a next-
gen console but I was quite impressed by the page design. Usually, animated UI
tweaks are frowned upon because they hinder the readability and hurt the
usability. But here the execution is well balanced and actually supports the
content. Plus, the animated wireframes are simply beautiful.

~~~
niuzeta
yeah, I kept scrolling without reading the texts(not a big console gamer) but
just to see the animated wireframe going.

------
nobodysfool
A pretty poor review without specs. What version of bluetooth is supported?
Does it include a blu-ray drive? (I know its Sony and probably does, but if
they are competing on price, it would make sense to drop it and go with online
downloads instead). They show it accepting discs, so I am assuming it does
indeed have a blu-ray drive, however is it a mini? does it support BDXL or IH-
BD? Will Linux be installable? These omissions from the review makes is seem
haphazard at best.

------
iamshs
This has been the overall impressions of the system on all the review sites:
Good hardware but no software. It is a beefed up PS3, no next-gen leap worthy
step, and the games are not there. Seems like an iPad3 to iPad 4 type
transition, not like iPad 2 to iPad Air type.

One of the PS3's selling point was Bluray drive, which is not a selling point
anymore. It is an affordable system, and I want to see it improve its UI, XMB
is hideously ugly. Let's wait for Naughty Dog magic on games side. Sony has
high quality first party studios.

That webpage is beautiful. Minor nuisance was the jarring transition while
scrolling onto next section it kept me taking to top of the page, but it's
still fine. Well done by the designer.

~~~
markild
> It is a beefed up PS3, no next-gen leap worthy step, and the games are not
> there.

I feel you could almost substitute "PS3" for "PS2" and target it at original
PS3 at launch as well.

I'm guessing that Sony simply wants to get the hardware out of the door, and
do software features as they go. Considering how much updates the PS3 has seen
over the years, I believe this holds for the PS4 as well, but as they say in
this review, for now, it's a tad underwhelming.

~~~
iamshs
The launch games are getting 5/10 (Killzone) and 1.5/10 (Knack) it feels
totally underwhelming. Compare with Xbox. One is a distinct leap over 360,
bluray drive and massively improved Kinect. Although, I am worried for games
on Xbox One too.

