Witness PS4's The PlayRoom, as demoed by Jimmy Fallon and Ice-T
Abuse robots, play virtual Pong and spray champagne.
US talk show host Jimmy Fallon, along with fellow gamer Ice-T, televised an early look at the PS4 last night in which the comedian and rapper took a spin with The PlayRoom, Double Fine's quirky software that comes pre-installed on the console.
The pair, along with head of special projects at PlayStation Richard Marks, first demoed a section of The PlayRoom called AR Bots in which players use the PlayStation Eye to see themselves and their environments reflected through the game, then an on-screen robot seemingly fills their DualShock 4 controller with other adorable Asobi robots. The controller will make noise to indicate that it's housing all the sentient critters and players can flick them onto their virtual on-screen environment and mess about with the cute little droids. Amazingly, they'll wave back to you and you can kick them into the screen if you're so inclined. It's all very Kinect Party, which should come as no surprise given that the same team at Double Fine who headed that title worked on this as well.
Additionally, players can use the PlayStation App on tablets to draw items and toss them into the pit of robots, who will then play with them. Fallon simply drew a circle that manifested itself as a beach ball, but I reckon you can get more inventive when not rushing through a demo on a TV show. Players can also check out the robots when they're inside your controller, where pressing buttons creates colorful club lights emanating from their ceiling, which they'll dance to.
Another demo, AR Hockey, is basically Pong - only using the PlayStation Eye with the DualShock 4's lights, it can track players' movements to alter the shape of the playing field. As players re-position themselves in real-life, the virtual air hockey table changes shape as well. The winner gets to celebrate by shaking the controller like a virtual champagne bottle and spraying virtual champagne at the screen. It's all very goofy, but looks like good fun.