The next generation of consoles have finally arrived, but with so many queues at conventions to have a 15 minute slot playing demos, how is the average consumer to differentiate the better buy?
PlayStation have set up a pop up area on Bedford Street near Charing cross station and Covent Garden. Here, you have the opportunity to get hands on time with the PS4 without purchasing a ticket or queuing.

Looking at the indie title, Contrast, one of the PS4 games that’s currently free on Playstation Plus, it was great seeing the the beautiful animation and graphics used in this game. The main focus is to light all the lamps in the game, by use of shifting into shadows to access certain areas, reminding me of the new Zelda games where you jump in the place to access different areas you can’t reach. The game gives a distinct 1920’s feel with the background and character’s face.

Knack isn’t a game I would unusually pick up but because of the mechanics of the character I thought I’d try it out. You are a robot and throughout the game you are made of stone, metal, wood etc and you pick up pieces to heal or make yourself larger. In the demo you flick between different characters small and large. I found the game easy to play and follow the pre-made routes. However the person sitting next to me had selected normal and this was becoming quite frustrating for him to play.  This game displayed the PS4’s graphics capacity with real like textures on the characters. I preferred to play the bigger characters as you could pick up cars and throw them at the helicopters.

Marvel Lego Super Heroes was my favorite though I played the game during a half played demo so I found myself stuck on screen shifting from Hulk and Spiderman not knowing what to actually do. Whilst I was Hulk I tried breaking things in hope of activating a button or story hint to no avail, as Spiderman you could web sling from anywhere and hang upside-down. Even on this game the graphics looked amazing on the next gen hardware. While playing Marvel Lego, I took time to assess the PS4’s DualShock 4 controller and found it to be quite comfortable and I barely noticed the blue glowing light underneath.

Watching fellow Parallax Play fiend ‘Shadowrep’ speed-shanking on Killzone: Shadow Fall blew me away. Literally, there is no delay in the responsiveness between the controls performed on the control pad and the action on screen. The speed at which he was running through the game almost made me think I was having motion sickness. The amount of detail in this game is immense, down to the reflection of background in the rifle scope.

 

Cheryl

It’s a very cool place to be, especially with the vibrant blue lighting. It’s cosy in places with certain booths for the different styles of play they had from social demos to full titles, I even watched a father and his two children play with the ps4, they had a great time as there was lots of giggling. There was a Driveclub competition on too which was good fun to just watch. Me and a friend were given wrist bands which could tag us in the lounge and on the games which again was a nice surprise, I was expecting just a walk in event.

Killzone was my favourite game there, it moves so much easier now and doesn’t feel as cumbersome but you still have the weight to your character adding some realism. All staff where buzzing around and there was great feedback from players and the staff there. Definitely a place to visit if you’re a gamer.

 

Shadowrep

Killzone Shadowfall had to be without a doubt my favourite title played at the event. The game is so fluid! Everything was just so seamless in its movements and the attention to detail is spot on to the point where the scope was reflecting back from what you are facing so you could really use that tactically if you really want to. I felt at times it was too fluid but that isn’t really a complaint it just made my head spin at times so that is always good! Makes things more fun! I cannot wait to get my hands on the full game when it launches in the UK on November 29th 2013