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Enlarge / "Asari? I'm sorry, too!" (credit: Electronic Arts / Bioware)

The Internet was abuzz with rumor and speculation prior to today’s Sony PlayStation 4 event that BioWare might sneak in with some surprise information about the next game in the Mass Effect series, Mass Effect: Andromeda. Since formally announcing the game way back at E3 2015, Bioware has played things very close to the vest—in spite of a few teases since, there are few concrete details on the game’s plot or the characters.

The rumors proved right: BioWare General Manager Aaryn Flynn took the stage and showed us a three-minute video that included a bit of gameplay and a bit of exploration—in addition to announcing that the game will take advantage of the Playstation Pro's 4K and HDR capabilities (as will FIFA 17 and Battlefield One). "You'll be totally immersed in Andromeda," he said to the crowd, "discovering all new alien worlds, brought to life with sharper graphics and high dynamic range lighting. We're also able to create more lifelike characters, which will continue to allow you to experience the best stories you can play."

We already know that Mass Effect: Andromeda takes place in the Helios Cluster, a region of space located in the distant Andromeda galaxy. The game breaks from previous Mass Effect titles and features a whole new cast of humans and aliens. Based on tweets and other hints, the humans in the new cast of characters appear to be part of a family with the surname "Ryder," with the story (possibly) centering around the young woman shown in the 2016 E3 trailer.

Before I go off to try out the new HDR and 4K gaming capabilities of the just-announced PlayStation 4 Pro, we at Ars thought you might want to see the hardware itself that is being shown off here at the PlayStation Theater. Here's a quick gallery of the new box that will be sitting underneath many of your entertainment centers this November—if you're willing to shell out $400, that is.

Click through for a good look at the width and height of the new hardware compared to other systems, along with a surprise refresh of the PlayStation Camera, which is now more cylindrical and less like Short Circuit's Jonny 5.

Enlarge / A livestream representation isn't a good way to show off HDR, but Sony's Mark Cerny attempts to show it off. (credit: PlayStation)

Sony's PlayStation 4 Pro event on Wednesday loudly trumpeted the benefits of HDR (high dynamic range) rendering as one reason to buy the new system, but in a surprise move, PlayStation's Andrew House announced that every PlayStation 4 owner can expect HDR compatibility—and as soon as next week.

"With the proper display, all 40 million PlayStation 4 owners can join the HDR revolution," House told the crowd after confirming that a firmware update will go out to all users next week (though an exact date wasn't specified). However, House didn't confirm whether that HDR spec will be locked to the Dolby Vision standard or to HDR-10.

This somewhat leaves Xbox One gamers in the HDR dust, as that system's HDR compatibility only works for owners of the brand-new Xbox One S hardware revision. That system works only with the HDR-10 spec, which is slightly more limited than Dolby Vision in terms of color and brightness spectrum.

(Re)Introducing the PlayStation 4 Slim. (video link)

Unlike Microsoft's compact console offering, the Xbox One S, the new smaller, slimmer, less glossy PlayStation 4 doesn't support 4K (UHD) resolution. It doesn't have a 4K Blu-ray player, nor does it feature slightly faster graphics processing than its bigger brother. Instead, the new PS4 (which replaces the old one) is much like the PS3 Slim: a leaner version of an existing console.

That's no bad thing. When it goes on sale on September 15 the 500GB version of the new PS4 will retail for £259/$299. That price means the new PS4 costs largely the same as the old one, and some features have been cut despite the lack of price reduction. That said, they're not ones most players will miss. In fact, after a week playing around with the new PS4, I'd even say some of those cuts have made it more attractive.