- Hey guys, this is Austin, and welcome
to the ultimate PlayStation comparison.
And of course, how else could we begin,
but with the original PlayStation One?
In 1994, the world got this, the original PlayStation.
Now what's interesting is,
is that this actually almost didn't even happen.
Originally, Sony was developing the PlayStation
as an add-on for the Super Nintendo.
But after Nintendo bailed on the deal,
they figured, "Hey, we've already put the work in,
we might as well make our own game console."
And thus, the original PlayStation was born.
It's hard to overstate just how good of an idea that was.
The PlayStation was the very first game console
to ever hit 100 million sales,
and after being sold for ten years,
the games continue to come out for the PlayStation
all the way up until 2006.
You know, when the PlayStation 3 came out.
Now, I have a special attachment to the PlayStation,
as this was my very first game console.
However, it actually wasn't the only version.
They also released this, the PS1,
which was a much, much smaller version of the console.
Oh, wow.
So of course, that is the
legendary PlayStation boot up screen.
Oh, this brings me right back.
So this is Gran Turismo 2,
and as far as PlayStation One games,
I definitely spent the most time with this one.
One of the cool things about Gran Turismo,
and indeed the PlayStation One in general,
was the idea that this was one
of the very first fully 3D capable consoles.
Look at these car models.
I mean, sure, they might not look incredibly detailed
by today's standards, but for back in the 90s,
this was pretty solid.
So one of the cool things about this
was that it was actually pretty realistic.
I mean, sure, the resolution is really low.
You can see mountains and everything popping in
just in the background.
But, when you consider that the audio
was actually pretty accurate to what the car sounded like,
and this was a properly performing game.
I mean, there are real physics, yeah, see?
You can see, I pull into the shadows, my car gets darker.
I mean, this was seriously cutting edge back in the 90s.
It's funny, the resolutions is so laughably low right now,
and yet, it doesn't really matter that much.
I mean, yeah of course, the cars look a little blocky,
it's kinda hard to see, but you get the idea.
And look at this, I mean...
Awww.
Next, we have another retro classic.
And I say retro because it's what I played when I was a kid.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
And this was back when you actually
could get a decent video game based on a movie.
Unlike today where they pretty much
don't even do it anymore.
So something to keep in mind here,
is that this game came out on the tail end
of the PlayStation's life cycle,
and because of that it is one
of the more technically advanced titles.
So, while the resolution might not be massively upgraded
over something like Gran Turismo,
it actually does look pretty nice.
Something else cool about this,
is that I actually am getting full voice acting.
I forgot that this game actually had that.
- But again, this is one of the major advantages
of using a CD, you actually do have plenty
of space for things like actual audio.
Fast forward to 2000, and we have the Sony PlayStation 2.
Now this still holds the record
for the best selling game console of all time.
The next closest is the Nintendo DS,
but at 155 million units, nothing touches the PS2.
One of the main reasons why the PS2 is so successful
is actually a little bit of a weird one.
This, at the time, was the cheapest DVD player
that you could get your hands on.
And well, DVD was kind of a big deal back in 2000.
The PS2 really pushed a lot of tech forward.
So not only did it support online play
as the very first PlayStation to do so,
where it also allow you to install a hard drive.
And you can even output 1080i signals
from this guy on certain games.
Now mind you, that was stuff like Gran Turismo 4,
but considering that the PlayStation 2 was available
at a time where high def TVs really weren't even a thing,
it definitely pushed the envelope.
There was one big difference
with the PS2 compared to the PSOne.
It was much, much larger.
However, it didn't take long for Sony to fix that
by releasing the PS2 Slim.
Now this actually pretty much took all the same features,
and took it into a much, much smaller form factor,
while including things like the ethernet jack,
which used to need an actual adaptor on this guy.
What's important to remember, is that both the PS2,
as well as the PS2 Slim were fully backwards compatible.
Now these days, it's a little bit hit or miss,
but back in 2000, this was pretty much unheard of.
No real game console would ever be able to play
the previous generation of games.
However, not only could you put a PSOne game
into these guys, but it also fully supported
not only the controllers, but also even the memory cards.
For the PS2, we have Gran Turismo 3.
Immediately you can tell that,
while the menus are even weirder than they were
on the PlayStation One,
the graphics are seriously improved.
Now only are we getting a higher resolution,
especially when you look at the car model and the lighting.
There is a big, big jump.
You also see obviously the track
got a huge graphical update.
But the jump between PSOne and PS2 is massive.
I mean, it's really hard to sort of overstate that.
Now, what's funny is the car models
actually don't look wildly different.
I think a lot of it is just the idea
that because you have so much power,
they pretty much overhauled everything in the game.
I'll say though, the audio actually isn't
as good as on Gran Turismo 2.
I don't remember it being like this,
but the cars don't really sound that loud.
I feel like the music is cranked up way too high.
I could probably change that though.
Dude, that frame rate is such a huge difference.
I don't know what the Gran Turismo 2
on the PlayStation One ran at,
but I wanna say it's like,
well below 30 frames per second a lot of times.
Whereas this is so much better.
Next we have Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.
Now this is a game that also does actually do
a pretty good job of showing off what the PS2 is capable of.
There's a, some pretty serious effects
on these headlights right now.
Oh, he's just jump on?
Okay. (laughs)
It's funny to think how far Grand Theft Auto has come.
I mean, when you look back at something like this,
versus like GTAV, it actually,
I mean it doesn't feel that different.
Now it might not look all that impressive today,
but the idea that you have a full open world game
on the PlayStation 2 is really something
the PSOne wasn't capable of.
I mean, think about it, Grand Theft Auto on PlayStation
was just a top down sort of shooter style game.
Whereas here, we have a fully modeled 3D world to work with.
Ugh, if I don't crash.
And I crashed, okay.
Move onto 2006, and we have the PlayStation 3.
Not only was this a much, much larger console,
but in some ways, at least in my opinion,
it was a little bit of a flop.
This was an incredibly expensive console,
that at the end of the day was not as successful
as the PSOne or even the PS2.
A lot of that comes down to price.
When the PS3 first launched, it had a base model
that was a 20GB hard drive for $500,
but if you wanted the full features and everything included,
you're gonna have to pay $600 for the 60GB version.
Where the PS2 had a lot of interesting new tech,
the PS3 was absolutely loaded with it.
Now a lot of this stuff is easy to take for granted today,
but the PlayStation 3 had some really interesting stuff.
Including 1080p over HDMI, WiFi that was built in,
Bluetooth, wireless controllers
that didn't require batteries,
not like anyone would still ship that today or anything.
And on top of that, just like the PlayStation 2
made DVD very, very popular, the PlayStation 3
almost single-handedly made Blu-ray a success.
Which is especially impressive, when you consider that this
was the cheapest Blu-ray player at the time, at like $600.
It's clear that Sony were trying
to make the most ridiculous,
over the top console they could with the PS3.
So take things like the slot loading Blu-ray drive,
which surely cost a fortune for them to make.
Or things like having four USB ports,
more than even a current PS4, and my personal favorite,
is underneath this little flap.
It has a series of different memory card slots,
including Compact Flash.
Because you know, that's what people want in a game console.
Unfortunately the PS3 really wasn't a huge success
until the PS3 Slim came out.
Now importantly, this was a much cheaper alternative
to the console, but it did that
by stripping out a ton of features.
Stuff like the extra USB ports, the card reader,
and one of the really important things,
was the lack of any kind of backwards compatibility
with PS2 games.
Something that really only the launch PS3 ever had.
All that being said, it's easy to see why the PS3 Slim
was such a huge sales success compared
to the original Fat model.
So if you take a look at it,
one of the very first things you're going to notice
is that it's going to be a lot smaller.
And because of that, it's also not only going
to be more efficient, which then makes it quieter,
makes it take less power, but also importantly,
it had a lot fewer reliability issues.
The original Fat PS3, while it was
for the most part better than something like the Xbox 360,
still had its fair share of yellow light of death issues.
But all of that was absolutely second to the fact
that the PS3 Slim was going to be a lot cheaper than the OG.
Now this was by far the most popular model.
However, they actually did make one more.
The PS3 Super Slim.
Now the issue here was just like how the Slim
was not as good as the Fat PS3,
this was not as good as the PS3 Slim.
So my biggest problem with it was this.
It was just a stupid sliding door mechanism,
which of course saved a lot of money,
but it just feels cheap compared
to the nice slot-loading drives on the originals.
Something that all three models share, though,
is the Cell processor which was enormously expensive
to develop, but did make the PlayStation 3
the most powerful console of its generation.
Unfortunately, it was also the most difficult
to work with console of its generation.
So especially in the early days with the Fat PS3,
a lot of PS3 games just didn't look
as good as the technically inferior Xbox 360.
However, toward the end of the life cycle,
as developers really got their hands on it,
titles like Last of Us really go to show
that there was a ton of potential in this hardware.
It takes exactly two seconds to realize that Last of Us
is not only one of the best looking games on the PS3,
but it is one of the best looking games
of this entire generation.
It's crazy that this is running on a PS3.
It's really clear that Naughty Dog was able
to push this console to its absolute limit with this game.
Now of course, some of the Uncharted titles
look really good, and there's some awesome scenes
in things like God of War.
But for me, Last of Us was pretty much the top.
And of course, Last of Us was remade on the PS4,
and while that's still a better looking version of the game,
the fact that this is running on PS3 at all.
Oh, look at that.
The detail, the motion blur.
Aw man, I love this game so much.
It's such an amazing game.
I feel like if you've never played The Last of Us,
you really owe it to yourself to give it a try.
Continuing the trend of playing Gran Turismo
on every PlayStation ever, we have GT6.
Now actually this is still the most complete version
of Gran Turismo that has been made up until today.
Aw yeah, yeah. (laughs)
So the physics were majorly overhauled
for this version of Gran Turismo.
Now part of that actually is due to the fact
that this is going to be a much more powerful console.
So with those eight SPEs, what you're getting here
is a system that has a lot more power
than the PlayStation 2 ever did.
One of my favorite parts of Gran Turismo 6,
was the idea that we actually can play
inside the cockpit view, which is always the way I like
to play pretty much, well, any racing game.
Now, one of the issues was,
was that it actually did have a lot of older car models,
so that not all of the actual interiors were modeled.
Some of them looked straight out of the PS2.
But, I mean, come on, this, this is pretty good.
Gran Turismo 6 really is a game
that pushed the PS3 to its absolute limit.
Not only did it support high resolutions
and high frame rates, but also the level of detail,
the level of cars in here,
kinda pushed it a little bit too far sometimes.
But it's still a game that holds up
surprisingly well, even today.
Move onto the PlayStation 4,
and you will see a huge contrast with the PS3.
Whereas that system tried to do everything well,
whereas yes, this does have a Netflix app,
and a Blu-ray player just like it did.
The real focus here is on being an uncomplicated simple
and straightforward gaming system.
What you're not going to find is a giant leap in graphics.
Now sure, PS4 titles are definitely going to look better
than their PS3 counterparts.
But, when you look traditionally at something
like the PSOne to PS2 transition,
or especially the PS2 to PS3 transition,
there were huge, huge graphical leaps.
Whereas the PS4 is a little bit more
of an evolutionary change.
Now there were some key updates.
First of all, this had much more powerful graphics,
which would allow games
to actually hit a full 1080p pretty consistently.
And there's also going to be a lot more memory.
As opposed to 512MB of RAM on the PS3,
you're getting a full 8GB of GDDR5 on the PS4,
allowing it not only to be able
to have much more detailed worlds,
but also going to be just bigger ones.
Now the original PS4 was actually a pretty strong seller
out of the gate, however with the addition
of the PS4 Slim, as always with these kind of things,
what you're getting here is going to be a smaller console.
It's going to be a little bit quieter,
and a little bit more efficient,
which is also going to be cheaper.
And instead of the $400 price tag that you got
on the original PS4, this guy comes in at $300.
Moving on from the PS4 and the PS4 Slim,
we have the PS4 Pro.
Now this is the first time
that we've seen a mid-cycle update
that actually increases the performance.
So in a lot of ways you can think of this as not a PS4,
but as a PS4.5, not quite a full generational leap,
but this guy is going to be a lot more powerful.
The big difference here is going to be in that performance.
So the PS4 Pro is capable
of outputting a full 4K resolution,
and it also includes support for HDR.
Now, what's really interesting about this
is that even though a lot of games are going
to be aiming at a little bit of a lower resolution
such as 1440p, through the use of checkerboard upscaling,
the games are going to look really, really nice
on a 4K display, and of course it's going to be a big leap
over something like a standard PS4.
Now in GT Sport, which mind you
is not a full Gran Turismo game, I guess.
It's got a lot of the features, it's got a lot
of the stuff that you would expect,
but it's not maybe quite as full featured as GT6.
You're still going to be getting a lot,
and importantly, you're going to be getting the new engine
with the new graphics.
Unfortunately, we don't have Mid-Field available here,
but we do have Streets of Willow,
which looks close enough to the other tracks,
if you squint a little bit.
Not only are the physics improved here,
but also they've done a lot with the audio.
So the cars actually sound like, well, cars should.
I mean if I cook it too hot into this corner,
we hear just a ton of tire squeal.
(laughs) Like I actually bump into a car,
and it feels like I'm hitting an actual vehicle.
Jump into the cockpit view and we're gonna be getting
that full detailed experience.
Something else that Gran Turismo Sport includes,
is HDR support.
Now I really can't show you that in a YouTube video
like this, but the idea here is
that if you're playing on an HDR display,
you get a really impressive range of brightnesses.
Something about GT Sport that really jumps out to me
is just how much better it sounds
than earlier versions of Gran Turismo.
Instead of that sort of vague vacuum cleaner sound,
you're actually getting all of the different sounds
of your tires, your suspension,
your tires off road, the engine.
Everything feels a lot more realistic because of that.
Also, what is that Raptor doing here, are you serious?
Next we have Rise of the Tomb Raider.
And one of the reasons I've picked this game
is because it actually has selectable graphics options.
So if I was playing on a normal PS4,
it pretty much would just look like the way it looks like.
However, we can play it not only 4K
or rather an upscaled version of 4K,
but you can also go for a high frame rate version,
essentially 1080p at 60.
Or you can go for the maximum visuals
with the same 1080p resolution.
It's nice about a lot of PS4 Pro games,
is that you do have multiple options.
Something that, well, consoles don't usually give you.
So Rise of the Tomb Raider actually is a game
that was available on last generation consoles.
If you count the actually surprisingly decent Xbox 360 port.
However, it does a very good job of showing off
just what these consoles are capable of.
Now mind you, I actually do think
that it looks a little bit better on the Xbox One X.
And generally speaking,
that actually is the case with the PS4 Pro across the board.
You're going to be getting more powerful hardware there...
And I died.
So what's interesting about the PS4 Pro is
that it does give you somewhat of a generational leap.
So sure, it's not going to be as big a difference
as going from a PS3 to a PS4 game,
but we are going to be getting an increased resolution,
and a lot of cases, there's going to be a lot more detail,
and sometimes even better frame rates.
So out of all four generations of PlayStation,
which one is your favorite?
Let me know in the comments below.
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