So apparently Sony has put up some demo kiosks in the states for people to come check out. They have demos of Fifa 14, Super Motherload, Knack, Octodad: Dadliest Catch, Contrast, and Pinball Arcade. You can check for demos near you here: http://experienceplaystation.com/

There's one about 5 minutes from my school, so yesterday I grabbed a friend and checked it out. My impressions are below. Let me know what you guys think as well if you check one out. When I showed up there was only one group playing, so we didn't have to wait long. Once we got it, it was about 20 minutes before anyone else showed up to play. Maybe you guys will have similar luck! The store employees only seemed roughly aware of what the thing was. They asked us a few questions about the games and how we liked it, but nobody asked us about preordering and they didn't hover around us. I appreciated that.

Knack

I didn't actually play any, but the people in line before us were playing it. Overall it seemed to match the early impressions I've heard. It just looks boring. It's a throwback to old run and jump platformers, but it seemed kind of lifeless.

Octodad: Dadliest Catch

This was the first thing I loaded up when I got to my turn. I loved the original, and this seems like it will be a great followup. It controls really smoothly with the PS4 controller, which was actually a bit of a turnoff. Screwy controls are part of what made Octodad fun. I think I'll play this one with a mouse when it comes out, but everything I saw of it looked great here. This was the high point of the demos I played.

Contrast

Oops, the demo didn't load. Moving on!

Fifa 14

Yep, it was Fifa. The ball control stuff looked great. EA was right to brag about it this year. The graphics looked fine, and players didn't get as fuzzy as they do in modern sports games when the camera pulls out too much. The crowd was still an EA sports crowd.

Super Motherload

Didn't play much of this since some people finally stepped in line as we loaded it up. Reminded me of Steamworld Dig. Dig to get stuff. Take it to the surface and get money. Use money for upgrades. Rinse and repeat. Seems like there's probably some story here with some voice work that I found enjoyable.

The Controller

Definitely a big step up from the PS3 controller. It felt pretty good to hold and I love the feel of the joysticks. We tried flicking the touch pad during a few games, but none that we played seemed to use it. I still think I like the 360 controller better. The rounded sides fit better in my hands. Still, I imagine I could happily use that controller if I purchase a PS4 down the road.

Overall

It's more or less what I expected, I suppose. I knew coming in that the only demo game I cared about was Octodad. Therefore it's unsurprising that it's the only one that left an impression. Graphics seemed good, particularly in Knack. Nothing about it was terribly awe-inspiring, but it was nice to see high quality textures all around, not much aliasing, and a smooth framerate. I guess neither of the new consoles have done anything to win me over yet.

Octodad: Dadliest Catch seems to be getting a lot of hype from what i have been reading.

Apparently there are zero in the Seattle area. Weird.

That's weird. I would expect a city that big to be represented. Maybe you could check out the Xbox One? They have that tour going around, and apparently they're coming to Seattle. http://www.xbox.com/en-US/onetour

I'd check that out myself, but none are coming very close to me.

It seems like it's just Octodad, now featuring a budget. I can get behind that. The short demo suggested that they've maintained the charm of the original. I'd love to see that expanded into a bigger game with more to do.

That site is pretty broken. My zip code returns a result in the middle of a World War II memorial park.

@defe: Yeah its weird. There is a PS4 kiosk near me in Glasgow Scotland but they picked the worst area to put a kiosk up. Is the xbox one tour coming outside of america by any chance?

As far as I can tell, it's just in the US. Maybe I'm wrong? I thought the PS4 thing was just in the US too, but Glasgow is just a bit outside of the states.

When I plugged in the address it gave me, Google Maps took me to an apartment complex. I just tried entering "Sony Store" after that, and it took me to a store a few minutes away. Maybe that's on Google's end? Maybe Sony's? I dunno, but your situation sounds way crazier.

There are apparently none from here to Oregon or Idaho. Weird.

@nodima: I was confused at first because I thought the "A" marker was where a kiosk is (which incidentally was also about 3 blocks away from me. thought I'd at least hear some screaming fanboys). Turns out, that just signifies your zip code. If any PS logo markers pop up, there be consoles.

Nothing by Chicago? Why does the game industry hate us. We have developers and a lot of people! But no PAX thing, no esports events, sigh...

There aren't any in Washington at all. ;_;

@joshwent said:

@nodima: I was confused at first because I thought the "A" marker was where a kiosk is (which incidentally was also about 3 blocks away from me. thought I'd at least hear some screaming fanboys). Turns out, that just signifies your zip code. If any PS logo markers pop up, there be consoles.

I hear ya...

That IS weird, because there is supposedly one at Target here in Waco, Texas. I'm waiting on my girlfriend's cousin (who works at the Target) to confirm that they have one.

*EDIT*

There are none in Waco. I was wrong.

I assume Washington gets snubbed by a lot of stuff. We're in the middle of things and random things come to town, but I figured you guys have it much tougher being out of the way.

Is it a given that the Bay Area always gets something? There's a Sony store in Palo Alto.

Seems like it's mainly just Sony stores for now. I wouldn't be surprised to see Gamestop/Best Buy get some demo kiosks by the end of October hopefully.

@joshwent said:

@nodima: I was confused at first because I thought the "A" marker was where a kiosk is (which incidentally was also about 3 blocks away from me. thought I'd at least hear some screaming fanboys). Turns out, that just signifies your zip code. If any PS logo markers pop up, there be consoles.

I...guess that...makes...sense?

Crazy asian internet design at it again hah.

I went and saw one today. Knack was pretty but incredibly soulless. Contrast seemed interesting and I really dig the art style. Nothing about it said "next gen" but I'm not going to turn my nose up to playing it with that sexy controller. Pinball Arcade was the one thing that blew my mind, which I feel weird about saying. Cirqus Voltaire never looked so good, but I'm not going to buy all of those tables again on PSN. I saw some other people play FIFA and Octodad. Futbol is futbol as far as I can tell, but they adapted Octodad to the console in some interesting ways so that should be fun(?).

Overall, I'm still super duper excited for launch. The controller was simply sublime. My only real hangup was the extremely long load times there were, particularly when returning to the demo selection menu. It's hard to say if that's indicative of the final box though, since the consoles they had on display were just hollow mockups and the games were actually running on some unknown phantom device buried inside the wall. Also the system itself looked slick in person. I can't wait to see that thing sitting on my entertainment center.

They said that all digital content is going to carry over. Don't you think you'll be able to play Pinball Arcade on the PS4?

@barrock: Doesn't seem like they are going to do cross buy for the ps4 version of pinball arcade unless something has changed since e3. According to this facebook post they are going to discount it but I'm not sure by how much. https://www.facebook.com/pinballarcade/posts/586266621394402

I wasn't clear enough. I own all the tables on iOS.

Looks like Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto is supposed to have one. I was expecting at least something in SF too, but might check out the one in Palo Alto. So, pretty much a given. ;)

I was surprised to find one near my home in Essex, England.

My son had a go on Knack, and now he is obsessed.

@joshwent said:

The site is updated now showing PS4 kiosks at the Sony Store in Center City and a Gamestop somewhere in NE Philly (incidentally right near where the Xbox One event was).