The PlayStation 4 has been touted as a powerful piece of hardware ever since its initial reveal, and even if it will take developers several years to truly realize the potential of the device, that doesn’t stop some from delivering a significant upgrade in typical game experiences – as lead designer Jaime Griesemer for inFamous: Second Son revealed.
Speaking about how the hardware essentially removes all limitations, Griesemer stated that, “The thing that’s great about working on new hardware is that I don’t hear ‘no’. I’ve worked on many teams where I’ve had to go through — I finally got a combat encounter working just perfectly, and then the engine team comes through and they say, ‘You’ve got 15 AI active at the same time. You can only have five. I hope you can make that encounter work again.’ It’s like, no, I can’t. I’m gonna have to spawn guys behind rocks and do all this horrible stuff.”
The reveal trailer.
It’s not just about better looking graphics though, as studio director Nate Fox puts it. “I think everybody expects graphics to be better: ‘Oh yeah, that’s just what I thought would happen’. Having a better feeling controller, including some feedback mechanisms like a speaker in your controller—to me that’s not some gimmicky thing. That’s like, I’m absolutely touching this thing every time I game. It being such a big improvement is a subtle thing that I think everyone will be excited about,” he said to Kotaku.
This also extends to the detail in sound, as the developer can now use five different combinations of five sounds for one single power, resulting in 25 different sounds where they may have earlier used five.
Griesemer added that, “[The PS4 is] just streamlined — more effortless. That’s really what you’re paying for with a console.”
inFamous: Second Son releases in February 2014 while the PlayStation 4 is slated to release on November 15th in North America, November 29th in Europe and February 22nd 2014 in Japan.
