Tablets, Smartphones, Next-Gen Consoles: Why I'm Not Excited About the PS4

The big things in a next-gen console are not going to be cloud features. Although they are nice, they largely exist today on current-gen consoles. The differences the PS4 (at least as far as we currently know) brings to the table are cloud features like further integration into social networks, the ability to play and download in the background, as well as stop, turn off the console or open another application, and pick up where you left off. Again, these are all new features, and while cool, they will not convince people to buy the console. The next big things are going to be new innovations and integrations into playing style. As the gap between tablets, smartphones, alternative gaming platforms and traditional consoles closes (Have you seen Infinity Blade?), updated graphics and social network integration are not enough.. In fact consoles are playing catch up in regard to social networking integration (which isn't something most gamers are really that excited about anyway). 

The next big thing is going to be a new way of experiencing games, something that you can't easily reproduce on a tablet or smartphone (you can already hook up controllers on the Android platform and play a huge number of titles, basically just like a console).I want something that will allow me to video chat with friends while I'm playing a game, hopefully like how Star Fox characters would pop up in little boxes in Starfox 64 whenever they were talking to you. I want something that will change the way I play video games. Rumor has it Microsoft will be releasing a new version of its Kinect motion sensor that will be fully integrated with the new Xbox. This Kinect v2. will allow for complete motion control and further project the image outside of the screen, we're talking full augmented reality. The details were published by gameinformer a while back.


The Wii U is failing because its basically the Wii with a tablet. They market towards casual gamers now and as such are being outdone by the new market of gaming on tablets and smartphones, they aren't innovating experience. Long story short, what Nintendo and Sony are doing with the Wii U and the PS4, respectively, is too little too late. New performance is nice but it doesn't really make too much of a difference, current-gen performance is still pretty great. Social networking integration is not what the market is asking for. Ability to boot up from where I left off and download in the background is cool, definitely not going to get me out to buy the console. These guys aren't really playing to what the market wants, they're playing to what they think they want. Very Ho-Hum.

Port Forwarding (PC)

Have you ever tried to join a server in a PC co-op game, only to have fail with some sort of nondescript error along the lines of "Failed to connect"? Have you been playing with friends and tried to host your own game, only to hear them complain of this? If so then you have probably encountered a host, or been a host, who has not correctly forwarded ports.

Most PC games today have some sort of co-op multiplayer in which a user can host their own game. Examples of these games include Borderlands, Magicka, Team Fortress 2, and the new Torchlight 2 to name a few. If you wish to host your own game with friends, there are a few simple steps you can take that will most likely solve your problems.

Click here to learn more about Port Forwarding.

To start forwarding your own ports start here:

NOTE: To find all of your internal port information, for PCs click start, then run. This will prompt a dialog box into which you should enter "cmd". This will open up the command line, into which you should enter "ipconfig". Now on the command line you will see a number of things. The first thing is IP Address, which is your internal IP address (which is needed for later). The second thing is not important for this, and the third thing, Default Gateway is the default internal IP to be added to

1) In the url of your browser, type in the "Default Gateway" of your router. The default IP is "192.168.0.1".

2) Enter the username and password for your router. This was most likely setup when you first setup your router.

3) Navigate to the port forwarding section in your router.

4) Enter the desired port you wish to forward. This is the main step, where you must find the correct port to forward, and select which computer on your network to forward it to. A list of ports for certain games can be found here (you are required to enter your routers information). For your convience, here are the few that I have found:

• Magicka - 7331
• Team Fortress 2 - 27000 to 27050
  
• Borderlands - 7777, 28900 , 27900, 28910, 28902
• Torchlight 2 - 4171
• Minecraft - 25565

NOTE: You can also search your games forums (as someone has probably already done this) by googling something along the lines of "(Game name) ports forwarding".

Next, you will be prompted to enter TCP or UDP. I personally enter both just to be safe (one less thing to worry about) but you can experiment yourself if you want to narrow down which one exactly you want. Finally you will be prompted to select which computer to forward to the port to. This is the "IP Address" from the command line.

And that is it! You should be able to host your own games now, and have friends connect and play with you. Enjoy!

-K