PS4 Owner Impressions

By +Audioboxer
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GotBored

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Ok, So I've had my PS4 for a few months now and think its a good time to give a current review on it.

 

The PS4 itself has been working great, have had no issues with build quality.

 

PS4 Controllers are much better than the PS3's and even better than the X360's which I think are better than the updated Xbox One's controllers. (This is my personal opinion, but it seems to be echoed on most gaming sites). Battery life is an issue, I bought Infamous: Second Son and Diablo 3 on the PS4 and had some long gaming session where the PS4 controller batteries ran out after maybe 4-5 hours?. I bought a second controller and charge unit and just swap out my controllers to continue playing but if you only have one controller I can see how this can be an issue. (You can also buy a larger capacity battery to extend the battery life or maybe a long usb charge cable to continue playing? but having a second controller comes in handy for quick swaps.)

 

PS4 touch pad also comes in handy and adds extra buttons or control over a game, I originally didn't think it was going to be useful but it's something I use in every game and even in the PS4 GUI now.

 

PSN Network -

The PSN Network is much faster and a very smooth experience these days, downloads are quick and the PSN Network in general is a huge improvement from the PSN I remember on the PS3. On the PS3 a large update would take days to download, moving through the PSN Store pages took ages and it was just a pain to use. This has been vastly improved for the PS4 and I actually visit it to check what games are out and to preview trailers rather than going to my PC instead cause it would take forever to do it on my previously owned PS3.

 

New features I have found to be useful:

Live from Playstation - Video Stream.

I like this feature on the PS4 because it lets you watch players playing games live and it lets you check out a game that you might want to purchase. It also comes in handy to ask for gaming tips.. for example I was terrible with Chomper on PvZ Garden Warfare and didnt think I was using the character correctly so in the chat I asked a player who had a live stream of his gameplay to play with Chomper and he did and I was able to figure out how to correctly use his attacks. Some people also like to use the camera to chat with other PS4 players and also throw house party's and stream it live to the PS4.

 

Share features -

I personally don't upload any videos onto the PSN but I find this feature useful just to record moments in the game that are funny or unique just to save onto my PS4 for later viewing.

 

Voice Controls -

I typically just pick up the controller and press the PS button to turn it on but I always use the voice controls to turn off the PS4 because I'm done playing with it and don't want to go through the options to select a shutdown method. Its much easier to just say PlayStation > Power > Stand-by (Or Shut down) and it does it via voice commands.

I also see this becoming more useful when I build up my games library as I don't want to swipe through tons of games to get to the one I want when I can use voice commands from anywhere in the User Interface to start a game.

 

Automatic background downloads and updates -

When the PS4 is in stand-by or on it can automatically begin downloading updates and unlike the PS3 you can let the downloads run in the background while you continue to play a game or do anything else on the PS4. The remote download feature is great too, I have the PS App on my iPhone and iPad and when I'm outside of the house, at work or even on a work trip I can buy a game from the PS store and it automatically begins downloading it onto my PS4 while it is in stand-by so when I get back home the game is ready to be played. (Hell, I've been overseas on work trips and used my phone to download games onto my PS4 back home even!)

 

PS4 Camera -

I seem to one of the few people who liked the Kinect and games that utilized it like Just Dance for example. I would only buy motion detection type games for my X360 when I owned one because I hated using the PS3 orb controllers.. Fortunately the PS4 camera doesn't require any additional accessories to detect motion and I can bust my Just Dance moves without holding a controller now which I think is great. Just Dance 14 doesn't seem to very accurate at picking up movements but hopefully the next game (or similar game) is better.

- Also face recognition to log-in to the PS4 isn't too bad either.

 

Remote play -

If you own a Vita i can see how it would be good to finish up a PS4 game outside of the living room and in your warm comfortable bed on the Vita before you head off to sleep that night, I personally haven't picked one up yet but do intend to within the next few months just for this feature.

 

There are a few other new features which I find useful and others that I personally don't use but others would find useful, but I'll try keep this brief and move on to the negatives or things I want changed/updated/added.

 

PS App -

I want the store to be incorporated into the app, currently it opens up your web browser where you log-in to the PSN store and make purchases or get your PS4 to download PS+ games. Making it be native to the app rather than opening an external browser would be much better.

 

PS4 Controller Light -

It basically is useless for most games and all it does is drain the battery life on the controller quicker, it would be good if they released an update that allowed you to turn the light off completely purely because of the battery life issue.

 

PS4 UI Theme and background -

I'm sure this will be sorted with an update later on, but currently you can't change the UI theme or background. It would be nice to be able to customize the look and feel of the UI.

 

YouTube app and DLNA Support -

Youtube app is coming with the 2.0 update but I don't know when that is coming I also don't know when DLNA Support is coming. I'd like to stream videos from my PC to the PS4, I actually use my PC as a media center and can watch videos from it on the big screen tv but using the PS4 to do it would allow me to swap through from gaming to movies instantly rather than changing input selection on my amp and then going to my movie folder to start playing a movie and then switching back when I want to play a game again.

 

I am also looking forward to Share Play on the PS4 when it comes with the 2.0 update.

 

Overall I like the PS4, I have used it to play Infamous, Diablo 3, PvZ Garden Warfare, BF4, Warframe, a few of the PS+ games, NFS: Rivals, Fifa 14, Just Dance 14, Oddworld, few other games and I'm looking forward to a few of the games coming out soon and the graphics improvements over last gen systems is very noticable so I am happy with the purchase and would recommend it as a gaming console. I would also recommend it over the Wii U and Xbox One due to the better hardware specs and the resulting graphics improvements over the two if graphics is important to you and you don't need the additional media features (HDMI pass-though and TV Guide) or Halo of the Xbox One or if you aren't that interested in the exclusives like Mario, Super Smash Brothers and Mario Kart for the Wii U than the PS4 is in my opinion your best pick.

  • trooper11, +Anarkii and DirtyLarry
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Grand Master

neo1911

Posted
Posted

My mini review of PS4 (August 2014 US model)

 

The only game I am playing is The Last of Us Remastered. 60fps smooth gameplay destroys any similar game running at 30fps. In future, I will refuse to buy any games running at 30fps. The bar has been set. 

PSN store is more accessible and easy to navigate. I too encountered battery life problems with DS4 remote. Guess that light bar is zapping it's battery. So far it's a great upgrade to my earlier PS3. 

 

Wish: 

mkv and DLNA support in the future.

 

How's everyone's DS4's L sticks rubber holding up? Has Sony fixed rubber thumb grip wearing out issue?

Veteran

GotBored

Posted
Posted

How's everyone's DS4's L sticks rubber holding up? Has Sony fixed rubber thumb grip wearing out issue?

 

I've had one since a bit after the initial release (It was sold out in Australia for about 3 months before I could get one) and the rubber thumb sticks are still holding up well, I actually haven't noticed any wear and tear on them at all.

- I'm not sure what people were doing with their thumb sticks to make them look like a dogs chew toy but I have a fair few games on the PS4 now and have clocked quite a few hours of gameplay on it and haven't had an issue with the thumb stick rubbers.

  • 3 weeks later...
Grand Master

Emn1ty

Posted
Posted

My first impression after a few days of use and directly comparing it to the X1:

 

Dashboard

X1 has a better dashboard, to me. I know where I am contextually and it's overall very simple to navigate. The PS4 has a few issues for me but it's mostly the same issues I had with the PS3's menus. I dislike this layered navigation they have, where I have to go to different layers on either axis to get to what I want. It is far easier to navigate on the PS4 than the PS3 though.

 

Categorization wise, the PS4 has categories at the top which seem to be multi-purpose. What I mean by that is I feel like what I'm looking for without knowing where it is off the bat could fall into two or three different sections. When I was looking for how to add a friend, for example, I recalled seeing friend information on my profile. So I went to my account and found I could only see which ones were online. I proceeded to back out to notice that there was a friends icon. So it seems easy to get lost in it. On the X1, however, some things are just hard to find at first (not having any menu items at all). It took me a moment to realize that I could similarly hold the guide button down and get more options like on the 360 but once I found that it was a breeze to handle it dashboard wise.

 

Controller

I will have to give Sony credit with the new dualshock. It is much more comfortable to hold and use. While I still dislike the joystick placement it's miles ahead of their older pads. The X1 is not bad either, but there's some nuances to it that put it below the 360 pad. Mostly they made the shape too flat, having it lose much of its ergonomics. Also, the joysticks are very loud when they make contact with their borders... unlike the PS4 which is about as loud as I expect. Also, the increased height of the X1's controller near the top (with the guide button), makes the bumpers far more awkward in the hands. My fingers feel stretched just a bit too far for it to really feel right.

 

Installs & Load Times

This is my current frustration with this generation. The PS4 has handle installs the best it seems, allowing near immediate access to the games as they are downloaded to the HDD. That's no real surprise, considering they've had a decade to understand Blu-Ray technology. Microsoft has done a poor job here, taking upwards of 5-10 minutes to get access to a game and play it. But really this isn't a problem either. The real problem is the Blu-Ray itself, in my opinion. The discs are just plain inefficient and I cannot wait till they are abandoned entirely. Other than that I noticed once the installs were complete, the X1 loaded games and levels faster than the PS4 on average. I found myself waiting a lot Destiny to bring me to the next area, coupling that with the inability to skip cutscenes (as far as I know) I felt I was spending more time not playing than I was playing. While in Ryse I never waited more than 10-15 seconds for an area to load. Sure, not a very equal comparison but since I possibly plan on getting Destiny on both platforms I might do a more direct comparison later.

 

So far, I've seen no glaring flaws with the PS4. It's responsive and does what I expect it to do.

 

 

Once I've spent some more time with it, I might say more but for now that's all I got.

  • trooper11 and +Audioboxer
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Grand Master

soniqstylz

Posted
Posted

If I hold down the PS-button the movie pauses. I can turn off the controller, but the movie doesn't resume playing.

But if I put the controller down and let it time out, at least the movie still plays. But also kills unnecessary battery on the DS4..

 

Just plug your controller in while you watch a movie.

Grand Master

Showan

Posted
Posted

Just plug your controller in while you watch a movie.

This is what I've resorted to actually...

Since the PS4 USB Cable is so short, I let my Xbox One charge my PS4 controller since the USB cable reaches far enough...

I'm gonna order a longer cable from Amazon (when I stop being lazy about it...

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