PL4YST4TION 4

[kaputt]

I've been playing my newly bought PS4 the last three days, it's great! I'm loving Infamous: Second Son, the story could be a bit better, but it's still enjoyable, definetely superior than most stuff in AAA space. The game visuals are fantastic, all the lights, particles and beautiful animations makes it one of the most (if not the most) beautiful games I ever played. The gameplay feels better this time in my opinion, I believe the extra power of the PS4 moved the series forward in the way of creating more possibilities for you to move faster through the scenery and deal with all the enemies, specially due to the new "evade" powers, it feels way more satisfying using it to escape and to pursue your enemies. It's a great game, totally worth it.

 

Driveclub is great as well, slowly I'm getting the hang of it (but still a bit far away of matching Yasawas times - I enjoyed this online feature). The game is gorgeous and it's the most photorealistic game I ever played. However, it's just a regular racer, nothing really special about it besides its visuals, and I feel a bit disappointed that a lot of stuff is behind a paywall - I do want to have some of the extra races, but I feel kinda bad putting even more money into it.

 

Destiny was another high point for me, but I only played the first section of the demo. Game looks great, even considering that it is a cross-gen game, and I liked the gameplay and level design. I enjoyed specially the slow and more peaceful pacing of it, usually shooters are too chaotic and I don't like the swarming of bullet sounds that stays in my head for hours after playing modern war games. I do however fear that it may be not enjoyable (or not even possible) to play it alone, as I saw a lot of people saying that the game isn't really fun if you don't have a regular party to play with.

 

I also subscribed to PS+ already, as I saw that I wouldn't have much choice of not doing it. Of it's current free games, I played only Olli Olli 2 and it's pretty good, hard as hell as I always press X wanting to jump, but I'm getiing better at it. It's a good and quick past time. Later I'm going to try the revamped version of Abe's Odyssey, I loved playing the original with my neighbor as a kid.

 

I like how the OS is fast and the fact that you can multitask. The suspend feature is amazing as well. The only bad thing so far are the download speeds, even wired they kinda suck. It's a bit better than my PS3, but still so far from ideal. I tried messing with DNS and MTU but no success.

 

Overall, I think that the PS4 is amazing. With it I realized that I shouldn't invest much money in PC parts, at least not in the next couple of years. In 2013 I decided to upgrade my PC instead of buying a PS4 and I regret this decision, all the performance issues I was having on PC are non existent on PS4, I guess frame pacing is something much easier to control on consoles. It just need more games that I actually feel like playing on it, but I believe this will happen eventually.

[Griddlelol]

Wow, tower of guns and aaru's awakening are really not my cup of tea. They both look and control terribly to the point I had to stop playing - especially aaru. The...thing you are in control of has such an ugly jump animation it repulsed me.

[Vasari]

 

Hello, Destiny DLC!

[Griddlelol]

I think I'm the only person who's glad there's no raid. I'll never have chance to do it, and that horde mode they've spoken about sounds right up my alley. 

[Professor Video Games]

The arena mode definitely has potential. Plus that Osiris gear looks awesome (mainly that Anubis helmet).

 

[J.C.]

Yesterday AirMech Arena came out on PS4, restricted to PS+ users. It's basically modern day Herzog Zwei, which sees you controlling a transforming mech, with air and ground modes, building units, capturing bases, and doing this against other mechs doing the same. It's got solo, co-op, and PVP, all free to play. Cash shop doesn't seem too obnoxious at first glance, mostly cosmetic stuff and "get it now" options. There are a few pilots you can buy that seem to give bigger boosts than ones you can get through normal play but I'm not sure how much those impact actual play.

[Yasawas]

Nobody buy Ultra Street Fighter IV whatever you do. It's my favourite game! I was so excited for it. I believed their lies about this being the definitive version and when they announced last Friday that PS3 sticks would be supported I was absurdly happy I was going to be saved having to spend another £100+ to play it even though I would've. And then it came out.

 

The first thing you notice is how the menus take a second or two to respond to any imput which is weird but start playing the game and things get weirder. It's absolute trash. Hitboxes are off, the properties of moves are off, it somehow looks uglier than any other version of the game (check out that plane in the background of the airfield stage) and despite their claims it would fix the timing problems the PS3 version had it actually has more frames of input lag than any other version of SFIV. Just worthless. I bought Driveclub at launch too, when will I learn!

[Griddlelol]

Uncharted Collection has been leaked.

 

As someone who ignored both UC2&3, I think I'll have to buy this!

[Atlantic]

PS4 1TB edition announced for Europe, releasing July 15th. Price TBC.

 

I was planing on buying a PS4 today, but maybe I should hold off for two and a half weeks and get this instead. Having twice the storage space seems like it save a few headaches down the line.

 

http://www.polygon.com/2015/6/22/8822891/ps4-1-tb-hd-release-date

 

[JonCole]

Interesting enough, but I'd recommend that unless the price is incredibly compelling (it's gotta be $50 more at the most than the regular SKU) you just buy a 1TB external drive, rip the drive from the enclosure, and swap. It's pretty easy to reinstall the firmware and installing it right out of the box removes all the displeasure of upgrading a drive later in a PS4's life. Plus, you get to keep the old 500GB drive which softens the price of the drive you cannibalize.

[Atlantic]

Interesting enough, but I'd recommend that unless the price is incredibly compelling (it's gotta be $50 more at the most than the regular SKU) you just buy a 1TB external drive, rip the drive from the enclosure, and swap. It's pretty easy to reinstall the firmware and installing it right out of the box removes all the displeasure of upgrading a drive later in a PS4's life. Plus, you get to keep the old 500GB drive which softens the price of the drive you cannibalize.

 

That's not a bad idea. It all depends on the price of the PS4 in my part of the world. A big caveat: PC components are a good bit more expensive here than in the US. Unless I can get a good deal on a 1TB drive it will probably be the equivalent of $75 (and that's one that has already been reduced). If this new SKU works out cheaper than that it'll be a much more compelling offer.

[Thrik]

1TB is probably too much for most people. I had 320GB in my PS3 with loads of games installed, my entire music collection, and loads of videos, and I still never came close to filling it. I have 500GB in my PS4, and after recording endless in-game videos and installing a bunch of games I haven't even scratched the surface. Also, you can free up huge amounts of room by just uninstalling old games you no longer play.

 

If you have money to burn then why not I guess, but to me the 1TB version seems like the same kind of 'just in case' offering that drives people to buy 128GB or even just 64GB iPhones yet never fill a fraction of them.

[JonCole]

I completely filled up my 500GB PS4. It's not hard if you're a PlayStation Plus subscriber and get "free" games that fill up your drive. Or if you like AAA games and purchasing them digitally, they regularly clock in at 30-50GB of drive space. Of course, clearing out old games is a reasonable proposition but I think it's a hard one to make to a vast majority of gamers who seem like collectors/hoarders by nature. It's just nice having most of my library sitting on my drive, never know when I'll go back to play something.

 

Also, fair point about regional component pricing.

[Atlantic]

I still have a 20GB Xbox 360 from the days of yore because I never had the spare cash to get a newer model. Part of me wants to get this one with big HDD so I don't have to go through that rigmarole. The fear is that I am going to have this thing for... 7/8 years? and I'd like to be somewhat future-proofed. I would like to go for an all-digital future, but there are two big problems with that: 

 

1. Currently, the internet speeds in my area are slow. It'd take about a week to download 40GBs. There is work being done to improve this (more widespread broadband and fibre optic cabling), so in the future this may not be the trouble.

 

2. Regional PSN pricing is a kick in the balls. Most major releases on the PS3 store were €70 (roughly $80). Buying a physical copy on Amazon and waiting for shipping would be 2/3rds or half the price, and probably quicker re: internet speeds.

 

Still, I think I may have done well in not buying one today. Even if the 1TB SKU isn't worth the price, it will probably push down the prices of the 500GB version. Either way I'll get a better deal on one.

 

Thanks for all of the input though. 

[Thrik]

I'm similar to you in that I get shafted on my internet connectivity, so I don't download that much in the way of PSN content. I am quite tidy about uninstalling games I've not touched for months, although I do admittedly tend to leave what little PSN stuff I have on there and reserve uninstallation for the disc games. If I had an internet connection fast enough to be capable of using PSN properly, I'd probably just delete/re-download those too.

 

If you're actually filling up 500GB then OK I guess the 1TB is a great idea, but I don't think that vastly under-using available space is uncommon with all kinds of devices including games consoles. And if you do fill it up, by that point you'll probably be able to get a replacement drive for about 10 cents. But like I say, if the extra expense right now really doesn't matter to you then you might as well.

[tegan]

While we're on it, did anyone else find that the PS3 online store was usually unreasonably slow? I have pretty fast internet, and although I prefer to buy all my games digitally, downloads on that system were an absolute slog for some reason. I assume it's a server-side thing. Did Sony ever fix it?

[Thrik]

Yes it was. I couldn't say if the PS4 has fixed it because my internet is much worse than it was back then.

One thing that continues to irritate me is that the new store Sony implemented shortly before the release of the PS4 has UI lag like a bastard, on both the PS3 and PS4. I could understand it on the former, but it's consistently janky on the latter too. I believe it's because they switched from a native app to a HTML/JavaScript (i.e. website) approach, however it's shit. Netflix is also a web app but has no such problems.

[jeremywc]

While we're on it, did anyone else find that the PS3 online store was usually unreasonably slow? I have pretty fast internet, and although I prefer to buy all my games digitally, downloads on that system were an absolute slog for some reason. I assume it's a server-side thing. Did Sony ever fix it?

 

I had similar issues with my original PS3. On a recommendation from a forum post, I ran a super long ethernet cable to my PS3 and it seemed to help a lot. 

[syntheticgerbil]

I miss the previous PS3 store. It was easier to navigate as well. They should have just left it as it was, but two years after the fact I guess I have gotten used to the shitty lag in the current store. I figure they would have optimized it within a month after the release but I guess they don't give a damn.

[N1njaSquirrel]

For some odd reason, like 70% of the time I go to the PS Store on my PS4, it refuses to load. I just get a fancy blue screen. On the PS3 it works or it doesn't, but at least it tells you it's crashed.

 

Also the search function is so much garbage. Having to scroll through the alphabet is so slow and stupid. Ugh. The worst.

[syntheticgerbil]

Haha, apparently typing with the keyboard you use for everything else on the system is nonsense to them.

 

Also there's a couple of videos and junk in the store that never properly made the conversion. I know for sure you can't normally get the animated prequel videos and wallpapers for Heavenly Sword by searching. I think I had to find it by making a list of content from the beginning of PS3 time.

[Vasari]

PS4 has communities and groups now! I'm not sure how they work, but one of these would be a good way to find other Thumbs without filling up your friends list.

[Griddlelol]

There's not much info on those, but I interested in them. I hope it's not just videos, I never upload videos...

On another note, it looks both Super Meatboy and Broken Age are ps+ games. I've heard a lot of good things about broken age, but I'm sure I'll hate it. SMB on the other hand, I'm sure I'll adore, and cannot wait to get my hands on it.

[antikewl]

I couldn't find one, so i just created one. It's called "Idle Thumbs".

 

Sony appear to have not included search, for some reason, so to find it you'll probably need to scroll through hundreds of pages of crap.

 

Enjoy!

[Donosar]

The easiest way to find a community at this point is to search for someone in the community.  Joined the Idle Thumbs community that Antikewl set up by searching for his PSN then going down to communities under his profile.  Wish they had put in a better way.