PlayStation 4

The PlayStation 4 is an amazing video game system. After I upgraded the hard drive – a painless procedure – I booted the console into Safe Mode to install the 1.5 system update I had downloaded earlier in the week. Quoting Sony, "System software 1.5 adds numerous features to the functionality of the PS4, including playing Blu-Ray discs, voice commands, access to the PSN, sharing videos and screenshots online, and more." The update installed in a couple of minutes, and I was ready to boot for the first time.First BootWhen you first turn the PS4 on, the boot screen shows a simple white PS logo on a solid black background. There's no loading indicator, but the process is relatively short and doesn't need one. When the PS logo disappears, you're greeted with a wavy blue menu featuring ambient music that gives you the initial setup options like language, internet connection, time zone, etc. It's interesting to note that with no CAT5 cable hooked up and 3 wireless access points nearby, LAN was the default selected option in setup. Maybe Sony realizes the lack of wireless AC standard and 5GHz will encourage some hardcore gamers to go the wired route. But I digress.The Home Screen and Default ApplicationsAfter initial setup, the new PlayStation Dynamic Menu fades onto the screen. Here, you're given options for system services and games (after you install them), starting with a What's New block on the left that will show you newly available store items. Applications that appear here are sorted by most recently played left to right, with the exception of What's New, which is always the leftmost icon. Pre-installed items include "TV & Video" which houses these on-demand internet video services: Amazon Instant Video, Redbox Instant, Netflix, Hulu Plus, VUDU, NBA Game Time, Crackle, Crunchyroll, Epix, NHL Gamecenter, and YuppTV. All of these apps are free to download, but each require either a free or paid account to operate them. The only one I have tested as of this review is Netflix, which features their new interface. It is refreshingly quick and easy to use."Live from PlayStation" is another app sitting on the home row, giving instant access to the native gameplay streaming features from Twitch and Ustream, where you can watch anyone in the world currently playing and sharing their PS4 screen. Viewing is accessible to anyone, but interactivity like live commenting or voice chat are limited to registered users of the respective websites, which is thankfully free and simple to do on-screen. As far as I can tell, there are a few options a user can set to customize shared gameplay: a full-screen view, a windowed version showing viewer interactions, and the ability to toggle a player cam overlay. A "Start This Game" button also adorns this screen, giving you the option to launch straight into the showcased game, or search for it on the store if you don't own it or have the disc in."The Playroom" is the only pre-installed game on the system, giving you the ability to showcase that new tiny, entirely optional PlayStation camera with some pretty funny and cute augmented reality, featuring adorable robotic creatures that populate the screen and interact with you. The novelty factor is high here, but it's a neat party trick to show anyone who hasn't seen it, and an easy way to kill your first hour with the system if you happen to have bought the camera. A final mini-game in The Playroom is virtual air hockey that harnesses the power of two DualShock 4 controllers using motion controls in a versus match between two players. The option is unavailable without two connected controllers.Other default programs are Sony's own Video and Music Unlimited services, both offering paid streaming media content (TV Shows, Movies, and Music) directly to your screen. Music Unlimited has a free 30-day trial included in launch PlayStation 4 boxes, which lets you listen to just about anything while doing any other function on the console. Just don't forget to cancel auto-renew on the trial, otherwise Sony will bill you when 30 days is up.Wrapping up the home screen is the "Internet Browser," which gives you a fully-functional WebKit browser on your big-screen TV. A notable feature here is a truly full-screen view, filling all 2,073,600 pixels with the website you're currently viewing. JavaScript is supported, but most other plugins will are noticeably missing. Stick to websites that use h.264 video and HTML 5 in lieu of Flash and you shouldn't run into many problems. And since a YouTube app is missing as well, visit their experimental HTML 5 portal to give you a workaround in the meantime.In a fitting bookend to the right side of the home screen, we are left with the "Library," which houses all digitally-purchased applications if they have fallen off the recently-played row. I can't make heads or tails about how content is sorted on this page, but it appears to me that games are up top and media apps are below. I would assume that future software updates will allow people with larger digital libraries to be able to sort this content in many different ways.PS3 CarryoverFrom the home screen, if you navigate up, you’re presented with a menu that bears a striking resemblance to the horizontal portion of PS3’s XrossMediaBar interface. None of these icons have vertical menus attached, but instead take you to their respective submenus on a separate screen.Some familiar icons include, PlayStation Store, Friends, Messages, Profile, Trophies, and Settings. For the most part, these items behave just the way they did on the PS3, but are much, much faster on the PS4.PlayStation Store is virtually unchanged, taking on the form of the redesign PS3 saw last year. The icons here are large and beautiful, but I have a feeling the size of them is hiding the fact that there’s not much PS4 content available yet, being the day after launch. PS3 to PS4 houses all those games marketed as “Buy on PS3, upgrade to PS4 when it launches!” $9.99 nets you a next-gen version of the game you probably couldn’t wait to get your hands on just a few months ago. Some PS3 Cross-Buy titles exist as well, meaning if you purchased the PS3 or even the Vita version of a game, it is accessible here to be downloaded for free (or purchased and downloaded on legacy hardware).Friends is the hub for all your PSN friends, of which popular people can now have up to 2,000. Additional social options include “Send Name Request,” which lets two real-life friends exchange full-name identities, so you don’t have to wonder who “XxBurninatorxX is every time they sign on to watch Netflix. Profiles now look like social media pages, featuring Trophies, Recent Activities, Profile Introductions, and friend-of-friends lists.Messages is both as simple as it sounds and yet one of the most powerful social features of the system. Here you can have full conversations with one or more PlayStation friends, hopefully by utilizing a USB keyboard, since the on-screen typing is largely the same, requiring analog stick input of individual letters. Worth noting is the default predictive-text dictionary has a much larger vocabulary this time around, making it easier on your thumbs by guessing what you want to type before you type it.Profile is the social media page I was talking about earlier, except here it shows all of your own trophies and stats.Trophies shows you all of your gaming accomplishments across all of Sony’s current platforms and synchronization is lightning fast compared to the PS3. New is the “rarity” rating of individual achievements, which doesn’t let you know how hard it is to get them, but rather how many people in the world have received them. Many of the achievements are listed as Very Rare or Ultra Rare on the day after release, I’m sure because people haven’t buzzed through launch titles in less than 48 hours.Settings is where the gold lies, letting you customize just about everything you could want on the PS4. It also houses the User’s Guide and Health, Safety, and Intellectual Property notices, if you’re keen on falling asleep after some heavy reading. A noticeable improvement includes an easier system storage management interface, which shows a bar graph of what is taking up space on your console. The default 500GB hard drive will likely need some managing after about a year or so with the console, depending on your gaming habits. AAA titles can be as small as 16GB, but get up to a hefty 50GB, and all of them are mandatory installations.The New IconsNotifications is the catch-all for system messages. Here you can see when you’ve received new messages, game invites, download or update notifications, and current app downloads or video uploads.Party is the other social hub, allowing you to invite any of your PSN friends into a single lobby, which lets you text and voice chat with them, launch and share games, and hang out with them in a virtual environment.The ParallelogramThe console itself is absolutely stunning, but simple. You know what it looks like, you saw it before you started reading this review. The pictures don’t do it justice. It is remarkably small for how much power it offers. The top is part gloss and part matte, which makes only part of it a fingerprint and scratch magnet. Here’s a tip: touch the matte part if you can help it. The small gap in the front of the console hides two USB 3.0 ports and a slot-loading Blu-ray drive quite well – you can’t see them unless you really look closely. The gap on the sides plays host to a bunch of air intake vents. The back is 80% exhaust vents, and 20% I/O ports. The minimum number of cables you need to set up the PS4 is two: power and HDMI. The other ports include Optical S/PDIF Audio Out, gigabit ethernet, and the AUX port which right now only the PlayStation Camera utilizes.The ControllerThe DualShock 4 is, without a doubt, the nicest controller I have ever used. I know the DualShock has evolved as slow as possible over the last 17 years, but this controller has had an overnight makeover that puts it ahead of all competition. The now-totally-digital face buttons are clicky and responsive instead of soft and mushy (think DualShock 2 & 3). The analog sticks have a nice textured recess to keep your thumbs in place. The R2 and L2 trigger buttons now have an appropriate finger-hugging design, and have just the right amount of analog travel.Some other reviews mention that the Share, Options, and PS buttons are too hard to press, and to that I say “That is the whole point.” Wouldn’t it just be catastrophic if you were busy on a 10-man kill-streak in Battlefield 4 and your finger slipped off the square button and landed on the Options button? It would take you right out of the action and probably get you killed in the process. These buttons are not meant to be hit accidentally, and it is nearly impossible to do so. The end result is, if you really do want to push them, you have to exert a little more force to get a response. The PS button is tucked away between the analog sticks so nicely, I often times went for the speaker instead, having been used to the DualShock 3.The PS button has a neat little hidden feature – a double tap takes you instantly between your last two applications. This means you can be floating leisurely through Flower and switch back and forth between a chat or internet session instantly.The CameraThe PlayStation Camera is still merely an afterthought for Sony, even though this is their third try at a camera peripheral. The two former attempts were called PlayStation Eye, which is kind of creepy in an age when people are talking about the privacy concerns of the always-on (always-spying – joking!) Kinect. This iteration is very small and kind of looks like a regular-sized Tootsie Roll. It houses a pair of 800p lenses and 4 microphones, giving it the ability to sense things in a 3D space without the witchcraft of infrared lasers. In my short testing of The Playroom, it did a pretty good job of sensing the floor in my cramped, low-lit bedroom. The picture was a bit fuzzy, which is what happens with low-light environments. I’m sure daylight in a more open room is much more impressive. The camera accessory includes a TV mount, that lets you set it on top of just about any display you might have. It pivots up and down to let you set the scene for any games that might require a different viewpoint. I’m excited to see the future possibilities of the PlayStation Camera.The ExperienceThe PlayStation 4 is the best console I have ever used, and I have used them all (yes, even Xbox One). It is a games console first and foremost, and it is incredible at it. Load times are much shorter now that the Blu-ray drive has sped up quite a bit and processing power has increased. The graphics I’ve seen are stunning, though I’m sure that depends on which titles you pick up and play. It has tons of media features, even though they are all tied to the internet. I’m sure Sony will figure out how to add CD/MP3 playback and DLNA in for all the people who care about it, but really those are not important at the moment. There are hundreds of other devices that do those things. The PlayStation 4 plays games out of the box better than any other system on the market (or coming out in a week). It’s easy to use, it’s fast, and it’s simple. I couldn’t ask for more from it on this, the day after release. It will only get better throughout the next 7-10 years, but what a great place to start.

Main review here:As I note below, I'm very, very, very happy with the purchase of my Sony PlayStation 4. I have been greatly enjoying the gaming that I've done on it so far (over the first week since its release). Understand though, that despite my happiness with the system, there are some areas that need to be and hopefully will be improved in the not so distant future:* Bluetooth support for headsets (third party and/or Sony manufactured)* The release of a media remote control, either third party or Sony's own. With the lack of support for PS3 peripheral usage, there was no way to use the existing PS3 Blu-ray remote control with the PS4 :-( and < mad smiley! >-- note to above, there is a third party media remote control due to be released at the end of December 2013 that should help in this area, but it adds a slight negative in that in order to use it, you must place a USB dongle into service that will mean losing the use of one of the available USB ports on your PS4* Sony's continued lack of support for IR remote controls. As with the PS3, Sony insisted on NOT building in InfraRed remote control support, so the use of IR remote controls, especially useful for those with fancy 'universal' remote controls (such as the Harmony series) are left in the cold again. I would have hoped that Sony learned their lesson about this with the previous generation, but no such luck.* No 3D Blu-ray playback at release of the system. That should be resolved in the future, but it is yet another reminder that to some extent Sony (and Microsoft, who had the same limitation on their Xbox One platform at release) rushed to put out release date hardware that is not feature complete at the time they put it out on the market.* No MP3 or CD playback at release of the system. Not that I intended to be using this device for such playback, but some people would and/or did with the PS3 and that is a drawback to the system until it is corrected.* No DLNA support at release of the system. Yet again, hopefully fixed in the not too distant future, but lacking at release of the system.* The Blu-ray drive is a slot-loading drive that sits in the system in a manner that some might find confusing based on the way the system is assembled. The drive sits to the left front of the device, partly under the shiny black plastic cover, and partly under the more matte plastic area, with the eject button and power button on the systems lined up over a portion of the drive slot rather than being completely to the left or right of the drive slot as one might expect. This seems to have been a case of Sony being too smart for their own good in trying to hide or minimize the thought of using the drive. While the future may be digital distribution of content, the drive in this device is likely to be used over and over again and hiding it shouldn't have taken precedence. It should have been easy to find, as should have been the power button and eject buttons.* Speaking of which, yeah, the power button and eject buttons are easy to see, yet not so easily identified as to which button does what. There are markings on the button for power that are there, but awfully small and not so easily seen. There is no reason anyone should have to consult a cheat sheet or user guide as to what button does what and yet Sony has put the system together in a manner that doesn't really cooperate in that area.* At least initially there seems to be no way within the system configuration to turn off or mute the microphone that is built-in to the PlayStation 4 camera -- except for plugging in a separate headset/microphone that would have to have its own mute button on it.Things that I like about the system:* Less expensive than it's competition, even with the addition of the very nice PlayStation 4 camera (which I do recommend)* The controllers have a nice feel to them. In the initial release of the last generation of PlayStation (PS3), the original controllers (Sixaxis controllers) were too light for my tastes and just didn't feel that comfortable for my taste. I really like the feel of the DualShock 4 controllers, and the weight that they have. I don't want them to be too heavy, but don't want them so light weight that I can't tell that I have one in hand (which was my problem with the Sixaxis controllers for the PS3)* Setup is pretty simple. 'nuff said in that area really.* The new interface is pretty slick and easy to navigate through.Neutral for me, but probably negative for others:* The need to have a PlayStation Network (PSN) membership for many gaming features. On the PS3 the need to have an active PlayStation Network account (membership, fee based) was minimal. Not so with the PS4. Sony has basically copied their competition here and pretty much requires PSN membership which brings a yearly fee with it. It is (to me, and to many others) worth the fee, but others might complain and so I note that issue here.How are the games?At the time of release, the games are good, but still a bit rough around the edges. We are obviously at the start of the next generation in console gaming (at the time I'm writing this review). A few years out we'll be (hopefully) seeing games that truly push the limits of the next-gen hardware, and we'll see the PS4 and Xbox One systems doing things that truly impress us, at least for a few years. Eventually these/those systems are going to be 'old' and 'long in the tooth' and we'll be pining for the next next-generation to come along, but for now, the games that we're getting, well, they are pretty nice even if they aren't overly impressive.Graphics in some of the release day games are good, mildly impressive, but just not where we all expect they'll wind up being. It really is a matter of the developers learning how to do things on these new devices.Games I like: Call of Duty: Ghosts. First person shooter that looks pretty nice and plays well. Later we'll look back at that game as being one that seems so crude by comparison to later releases in that franchise. :-p Knack. Knack has proven to be a lot more fun than I had expected. Very Crash Bandicoot-ish. Easy to play (at least on the 'easy mode' that I prefer for now) and yet still a lot of fun. Battlefield 4. An alternative to CoD: Ghosts. Assassin's Creed. Beautiful game, looking forward to playing through it completely. Lego: Marvel Super Heroes. Just a ton of fun, especially for younger audiences. Madden 25 is OK for a football/sports game fix, but isn't necessarily something that I'd recommend buying. It is nice, but it continues to have issues that nag me too much to spend money buying it.End rating: 5 stars. Note that I might also give the Xbox One 5 stars if I were rating it, but I'd be doing so more from my love of the systems as I expect them to be, rather than as they are right now. Neither are perfect, both will eventually improve, and both should continue to push the other to be better for all of us to enjoy.History lesson follows:I'm very, very happy with my purchase of the Sony Playstation 4, though I must admit that when I made the pre-order I was really not sure that I'd be able to come back and say that.Let me start by saying that in the previous generation, I was very much a fan of the Playstation 4's main competition, the Xbox 360 I liked the Xbox 360 an awful lot. To the point of 'when you can pry it from my cold dead hands'. Despite multiple issues along the way, mostly the notorious red-ring-of-death that was experienced by most early adopters of the Xbox 360, I still very much loved that system. Why? Xbox Live primarily. It was head and shoulders above anything that anyone else could offer. The ability to quickly and easily socialize with other gamers that you were playing with or against took console video gaming to the next level. In FPS (first-person-shooters) this was great because you could plan team maneuvers in the games, while in more social (arcade type) games you could sit and socialize with old friends or new that you happen to make from your travels (as an example, I wound up making several friends by sitting and playing the Xbox Live Arcade version of Uno for many thousands of games).I owned a PS3, a couple of them in fact, but I really only ever used them as media players. Blu-ray players primarily. Gaming on them just didn't feel as comfortable to me. My friends were gaming on Xbox Live, and I wanted to be there with them. The games seemed nicer/better on the Xbox 360 (though normally it would be a draw as to which system had the better version of any one game). The whole experience just seemed nicer on the 360, so my PS3's sat lonely most of the time.Years later, when the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 were announced I followed the news anxiously, looking for reasons to choose one platform over the other, and I fretted over which system was going to be the right one for me. I wanted to stay with the Xbox line, but was leery of rumors of new features and/or new ways of installing and use the software on the system enough that I held back waiting for the official announcements of what was coming. Once those announcements hit, I found myself unable to place any faith in Microsoft that what they were promising was not going to be incredibly harmful to myself and to other gamers. The ability to trade in old software, sell off used games, and other similar things was going to be gone, or severely limited and restricted in ways that I just couldn't support. A day or two later, Sony announced what they'd be doing with the PlayStation 4 and at that point, they were instantly the gamers best friends. No restrictions on selling or trading away disc-based copies of games. Yay! Other seemingly draconian restrictions that Microsoft had talked about were also non-existent in the Sony world. Double Yay. I quickly placed a pre-order for a Launch Edition (Release date) PS4 system here and then waited impatiently for it to be released.Over the course of the next very volatile few days, Microsoft took a beating in the court of public opinion. They wound up back-tracking on almost all of the new paradigm they had promised (some would say threatened). In the end, they pretty much offered up a continuation of what they had done previously, but for me, and many others it seems, it was too little too late. While I could still have placed an order for an Xbox One system, I had cast my die and my seething and hatred of what Microsoft had said they were going to do couldn't be quelled so easily.Here, (at the time I'm writing this), months later, both systems have been released, and I've been enjoying the use of my PS4 for the first week of it's life. After installing the requisite launch day patch, there's since been one other firmware upgrade. There are still features that aren't quite working yet, but should in the future, and certainly patches that will continue to come. The competition between both major parties will ensure that continues to be the case.End of history lesson.