This covers only the games I chose to play
Playroom
It’s a simple free form toy. It’s a limited experience but the core tech is great. The camera fidelity, the motion control, and the AR effect are all much improved over similar Move experiences from PS3. A quick novelty and demo for adults. It’s more fun with small kids 1-6 who maybe can’t play normal games.
Killzone
The graphics are absolutely amazing. Well beyond anything I’ve ever seen, including high end PCs. This is a great graphics showcase for the system. Obviously, everything is much prettier, but the biggest difference for me is just how much more clearly I can see what’s going on. PS3 games feel so blurry by comparison, like a lot of technical rough edges have to be drowned in filters to make them look cool.
The multiplayer is great. The rotating objective setup is still very affective. The campaign story touches on interesting immigration politics, but much of the character dialog is pretty annoying. The first real level, the forest level was somewhat open world style which is a nice change of pace.
Resogun
From the previews I expected a super polished but simple reflex shoot ’em up, like Super StarDust. It’s more nuanced, more fun, more flashy graphics, and more difficult than I expected. The length is somewhat limited with only five unique levels with some replayability differences with difficulty settings and ship choice.
Flower
Obviously, same as PS3 version with better graphics and enhanced motion controls. Great, for a day one title and even better that it’s free for people who already bought it.
Sound Shapes
I originally didn’t see the purpose of a PS4 remaster because this game is so technically simple. It’s still a great game, there is some new content, and it’s nice to have with the PS4 OS.
DCUO
This game looks gorgeous and plays well. I don’t have a ton of time for an MMO, but this games seems to get much less attention than it deserves. It isn’t new, but it’s a deep and flashy game with an active user base that is ready on console launch day!
Console Hardware
It’s definitely an attractive box. Much smaller than I would’ve thought for a generally powerful system.
System Overall
My favorite feature is how fast the system UI is compared to PS3: switching out of a game or resuming a suspended game is instant. Background downloading + installing works much more smoothly, the store interface is extremely responsive. Vita had most of this, but it’s all a little more polished on PS4.
Launch Lineup Overall
The launch lineup is excellent. It’s almost completely remasters, ports, or sequels, but it’s high quality innovative stuff that is great for what it is. Most serious gamers will probably prefer content on a more established platform (Dark Souls for me), but there is a real thrill and fun in using such a completely new system, including the hardware, controller, and the system features.
Wishlist
The system really meets my expectations. As unusually large as that launch lineup is (I’m not kidding, usually launch lineups are pretty sparse), the horizon looks pretty dry. I hope we get some cool playable demos or betas in the next few months, like possibly PlanetSide 2 or a Drive Club beta.
