实测报告：PS4潜能尚待挖掘

    每当被问到索尼电脑娱乐公司（Sony Computer Entertainment）的最新产品PS4时，总裁安德鲁•豪斯都会简洁地回答：“我们从PS3遭遇的挑战中学到了很多东西。”PS3比它主要的竞争对手——微软（Microsoft）Xbox 360——的价格更高。而它采用的尖端技术，正如豪斯所言：“给大多数开发商造成了不小的困难。”

    索尼把这些教训谨记于心。本周五即将上架的PS4将以399美元出售——比全新的Xbox One低了100美元。而索尼也不再花重金投入豪斯所谓的“定制（技术）架构”，而是采用了和PC机相类似的内部组件。对开发商而言，它意味着制作PS4平台的游戏会简单不少，同时也让他们相信会有更多大作，让PS4成为玩家不可或缺的产品。

    本周早些时候，索尼借给了我一台PS4。我只用了不到两天，所以我的观点虽是亲身体会，却并不全面。到目前为止，这台主机给我留下了深刻的印象。

    硬件。豪斯表示，PS4的设计真正采用了平行四边形元素。确实如此，这个灵感体现得十分明显。这台黑色塑料主机的边角很尖，没什么流线感，还有着倾斜的角度。它比上一代主机小了很多，所以我要对此表示感谢。因为上一代主机是一台钢琴黑的庞然大物，在我的电视旁占据了许多空间。光盘上的游戏会自动转存到PS4的500GB硬盘上，这个过程很快，只需要几分钟。不过考虑到许多游戏都有超过30GB的大小，因此硬盘肯定很快就会装满。

    控制器与上一代非常相似，不过也有许多舒适感上的调整。比如，触发按钮和控制键现在是凹面的，而不是凸的，这与手的形状更加吻合。跟任天堂（Nintendo）巨大的Wii U平板控制器相比，这一点体现得更加明显。后者让我感觉自己像是拿着一本硬皮书。（实际上，PS4的控制器很快就成为了迄今为止我最喜欢的游戏控制器。）控制器上还有个小型扬声器，用来播放音频，告诉玩家屏幕上发生了什么。此外，控制器中间还有一块光滑灵敏的触控板。不过坦白地说，我几乎没有在游戏中用到它。非要说缺点的话，控制器的电池一次充电只能用4个小时。这样也不错了，不过，我还是更希望在插入电源充电前，它能让我用上更长时间。

    Ask Sony Computer Entertainment President Andrew House about the company's newest device, the PlayStation 4, and he'll put it quite simply: "We learned a lot from challenges with PlayStation 3." The PlayStation 3 was priced higher than its primary competitor, Microsoft's (MSFT) Xbox 360, and its cutting-edge technology posed, as House puts it, "considerable challenges to a large swath of developers."

    Sony (SNE) has taken those lessons to heart. When the PlayStation 4 arrives in U.S. stores this Friday, the console will be priced at $399 — $100 less than the all-new Xbox One. And, instead of investing heavily in what House calls "bespoke [tech] architecture," Sony went with internal components that more closely resemble those found in personal computers. For developers, that means making games for the PlayStation 4 should be a smoother process, with the hopes that there will be more hit games that make the PlayStation 4 a must-have item.

    Sony loaned me a PlayStation 4 earlier this week, and since I've spent less than two days with it, consider this more of a hands-on than an all-out review. But my time with the console so far has left me with strong impressions:

    The hardware. House calls the PlayStation 4 a veritable ode to the parallelogram, and indeed, the inspiration is obvious, with sharp corners, few curves, and slanted angles dominating the plastic black console's overall design. It's a lot smaller than its predecessor -- a gorgeous, piano-black behemoth that hogged up too much space next to my TV -- and for that, I'm grateful. Games on disc are automatically downloaded to the PS4's 500-gigabyte hard drive, a quick process that only takes a few minutes. But given how many games take up 30-plus gigabytes of space, that hard drive is bound to fill up quickly.

    The controller bears a strong resemblance to last generation's, but it's been tweaked a lot for comfort: The trigger buttons and controller nubs are concave instead of convex, for instance, and overall, it's more contoured to the hand, much more so than the giant tablet controller on Nintendo's Wii U device, which still feels like I'm holding something vaguely resembling a hardcover book. (In fact, the PS4 controller is quickly becoming my favorite game controller to date.) There's also a tiny speaker on it that pipes out audio to complement whatever's happening onscreen, and a smooth, responsive touchpad in the middle, which frankly, I barely need to use for the games I played. The controller's weakness, if anything, would be the four hours of battery life in-between charges. That's fine, but I'd prefer more time before having to plug back in.