Now, it's time to give you all that juicy news on what the PS4 has inside it. And although the console itself wasn't shown and amidst unconfirmed rumours of the games running on a PC we found out a few details. First up we found out that PS4 will have 8 gig of GDDR5 memory, it will have an undisclosed amount of local HDD storage, there was a boast of supercharged PC architecture and it all running on an X86 processor which is capable of running the beautiful Unreal 4 engine.

If that wasn't enough it also has 8 core CPU and it’s own GPU that was quite happily running a million object animation. Yes 1,000,000 objects. This was showcased in a short video which featured a million little blue balls rolling around, impressive on paper but when you couldn't even begin to count the little blue balls it was hard to not take this announcement with a little pinch of cynicism and salt.

A far as the hardware was concerned we saw no sign of what the console will look like, but we did see the controller, which in my opinion didn't look as streamlined as it should. I felt it looked clunky, almost retro and out of place with the features it boasts. Those features were the usual wireless, dual shock fare, but there was also the promise of light bars for easy recogniion of who has what pad, there were also mentions of a Vita-esque touchpad and stereo cameras to spot where in the room a controller might be. It also touted was the slightly impressive if done before (by OnLive)  share button which allows people to spectate friend's games, to upload your own gameplay and to even jump in and help in games, even to the point that you can even give items from your own game or even take over and complete those tricky bits in games that have been troubling you for a while.

Gakiai, a company now owned by Sony have had a lot to do with many of these online areas of PS4z. They have also said that using PS Store will be easier and quicker, allowing for better demo play and even hinted at the possibility of PS4 taking cues from TiVo where it will learn your gaming habits and likes, even to the point of automatically showcasing and maybe even downloading the bare bones of a game to allow you to start playing the demo before you even buy it. It all seems very brave and boastful, but if these hints are what I read into them, this much could at least be quite revolutionary, in time we shall see but I'll be keeping that salt and cynicism near by.

Connectivity with the PS Vita was a much mentioned thing where hardware was concerned, especially where remote play is concerned. We all know this was the idea with PS3 anyway, but it looks like it may well be a serious sales point for PS4, there was the announcement of more cue-taking from Nintendo's Wii U  which means you can still play while sharing the TV with those who don't want to watch your gaming exploits.

And finally there was talk of the cloud. Sony are planning on using cloud technology to allow PS1, PS2 and PS3 games to stream to your PS4, so green lights are there for a very technological version of "backwards compatibility". The cloud services won’t be there at launch but will be rolled out over time, and in my salty cynical ways I can't help but think that this is a way to buy those much loved games again rather than true backwards compatibility.

Now, it wasn't all about the hardware it was about the games too and a few were showcased.

First up was Guerilla Games with Killzone Shadowfall which wasn’t all that inspiring, it looked a little awkward and not much better than anything the PS3 can do, it was a bit of a letdown after hearing about the magical promises of Gandalf in tech but seeing a delivery of Gollum’s childhood tears  in gaming promise.

Second up was team based racer Drive Club came from Evolution Studios which promised to let you drive the best cars in the world's best locations as a team, promising a "new" idea done before by TDU and NFS. But they offer “true first person racing”  which means you can watch yourself get in the car and put your seatbelt on. All this suggested to me was they’ll be letting us tell the kids in the back we’ll turn the car round and go home in Drive Club 2 but the graphics were pretty impressive and they did promise some special sounding textural and lighting effects.

Infamous Second Son was up next, and like so many games lately is set in a dystopian Orwellian world with superpowers. I actually can’t really say mean things here because this one has so much potential after playing and quite enjoying the original a few years ago. This one is a PS4 exclusive and is showing if nothing else that PS4 is looking to familiar gaming experiences which to be fair is in many ways a positive thing but is hardly brave considering the technology and capabilities Sony are trying to sell to the world.

Jonathan Blow appeared to announce The Witness, an exploration, puzzle game set on an isolated island which leads to an “epiphany” in his words. Or as I’d put it, a MYST inspired game in an open world and hopefully with more action. Another exclusive that promise 25 hours of puzzle gameplay that isn’t arbitrary but hardly looks inspired or next gen and almost looks like it should be a Steam indie game. This one has left me very unsure.

After an impressive facial graphical demo presented by David Cage which showed an old man's face displaying emotion, that could be used to great effect in games like LA Noire came more games, we got to see some of the bigger players for this year's Triple A titles and they included the following games.

Media Molecule, creators of Little Big Planet who want to let people record their dreams.  This is an idea they want to achieve by unleashing the power of Playstation Move as an artistic tool for creating sculptures from what seems like digital clay and even animating your creations. This would be impressive if the target audience weren’t teenagers who’ll likely create phallic sculptures.

Capcom have touted a new engine called Panta Rhei, the new engine showed new IP codenamed “Deep Down” which looked like a very pretty Skyrimesque adventure filled with swords, dragons and fire. Which faded out to a computer screen with the sounds of an overhead helicopter. Interesting…but the prettiness was seemingly CG rather than gameplay and rivalling of DX11, so this is one to be watched before commented upon.

Square Enix put in the appearance you’d expect. They didn’t show very much other than an animated piece set in what seemed to be a cross between post apocalypse and a Satanist’s convention.  It showcased guns and magic in one video, as well as an incident with a wolf and another dragon. I’m not sure what this video is meant to be but it looked confusingly exciting despite it’s rather modest applause. They did promise a big reveal at E3, you can almost expect that to be a new Final Fantasy, but we shall find out this summer it seems.

Ubisoft  came along to showcase the very cool looking Watchdogs which looks more like Person of Interest every time I see something new on it. To be fair though, I’m highly interested in this one, the whole idea of stopping crimes before they happen is an old idea like in the aforementioned series and Minority Report. This game promises something new as a game and although hardly looks next gen, it does look a lot of fun to play.

Chris Metzen from Blizzard showed up to share Diablo 3 with us that we as a world have been playing for a year. So, wake me when that one’s over, I should at least be grateful it wasn’t WoW for the PS3 and PS4. He did promise more on this at PAX East, so news around the corner on this one.

Finally we had Activision spilling more on Bungie and Destiny. There was in engine footage rather than in game footage, but any excuse to get excited about Destiny is worth waiting up for. The  persistent customisable MMO is still looking lovely and exciting, but there was no real new news other than it’s due on PS4 too.

In summary, the PS4 promises much but fails to deliver within its' own promises. I know it's early days and I'm not about to damn a console before it comes out, but as the unit itself wasn't shown, the games didn't really do much to show the technological capabilities. I can definitely say I'm not all that impressed. I feel a little let down like a child who expected Disney but got  a math book. But if I'm brutally honest my excitement for PS4 is lukewarm at best.