PlayStation 4 Review

The Social Next-Gen

Sony’s launch of the PlayStation 3 was one marred by mis-steps. A high launch price combined with the several other gaffes forced the company which once had clear domination into a heated battle for consumers. The PS3 was clearly a system that was Sony’s attempt to get Blu-Ray and 3D into every living room, shifting their focus from games first and instead worrying more about their technologies adoption.

The PlayStation 4 is a return to a mindset we saw before the PlayStation 3, it looks and feels more like the PlayStation 2 and this time there’s no burgeoning technology fighting for attention. Instead Sony has opted to use standard PC architecture making the PlayStation 4 a faster and more developer friendly machine.

It’s truly impressive to open the PlayStation 4 box and see such a small and capable device with all the required connections. It’s really close in size to the PlayStation 3 slim and there’s no external power brick either making this a great addition to your entertainment center.

There’s no discernible buttons on the console, the power button resides in the middle above a slot loading blu-ray drive. To turn the console on you simply swipe your finger over the gap. The line from the power button runs the width of the console revealing a light bar that changes colors based on what is happening. Blue while powering on, white while engaged, orange while sleeping. It’s a nice touch and really ties everything together.

We won’t go much into the technical specifications of the console, but under the hood you’ll find a device that’s equally as powerful as a modern high-end PC with a few custom tweaks. There’s no analog video output, instead you must use an HDMI cable to connect the console to a TV. As of now there is HDCP encryption over HDMI, which could cause some issues with cheaper televisions or video capture devices.

You’ll also find an optical audio out port, two front facing USB ports, and a port for the optional PS4 camera. There’s an ethernet jack for connecting to the internet or the built in A/G/N Wi-Fi adapter may be used as well. Sadly the wi-fi only supports the crowded 2.4Ghz channel, instead of the growing 5Ghz standard. It also doesn’t support the emerging 802.11AC standard as well, which would increase range, bandwidth and help future proof itself.

The box comes with a small earbud headset that can be used for voice chat. It works, but the quality isn’t that great and it really isn’t the most comfortable. But at least it’s standard so voice chat shouldn’t be a problem. Luckily the PS4 controller allows for standard headsets with the single pole connection to work out of the box.

Perhaps the biggest letdown in terms of features for the PlayStation 4 is its hard drive. While 500GB seems like a lot on the surface, the fact that every game installs itself fully to the drive makes you realize this isn’t going to last long. I have 7 launch lineup games and have download two additional titles. I’m already down to 300GB free. After a week of playing with video captures running automatically, I have 100GB free. Hopefully the PlayStation 4 won't become a disk management nightmare.

If you’ve used the revamped online store on the PlayStation 3 you’ll feel mostly at home on the PlayStation 4 as its adopted many the same features. Sony wants to build a strong community around their console; so much so, in fact, that the embedded social features are found just about everywhere. The first menu item when you boot up the PS4 is called “What’s New” and it showcases a feed of what all of your friends have recently done. Whether its getting a new highscore in Resogun, unlocking trophies in NBA 2k14, or completing multiplayer sessions in Killzone - all of these items generate posts to your feed. You can view, like, and even launch a game right from these posts.

Along with this built in social network comes integration with Facebook and Twitter allowing you to share your PlayStation 4 conquests just about anywhere, much to the chagrin of your friends on those platforms. Using those networks, you can post screenshots or videos you’ve taken with the built in sharing function; it’s something Sony has made incredibly easy and seamless. Oddly though there is no way to get these screens and videos off your console other than sharing them to social networks, we tried hooking up a USB drive and copying them, but the interface simply doesn't allow it.

Sharing is also extended to streaming networks Twitch.TV and UStream. Simply linking your account via the console allows you to stream any game at any time just by hitting the share button on your controller. The game will shrink down slightly while the interface brings in comments and some other stats for you to see on screen. These feeds can be viewed directly on the dashboard via the “Live on PlayStation” menu or you can view them online as well. One interesting thing I noted - viewing the feed on the Twitch.TV website doesn’t increase the viewers on the console itself, but comments from the web do show up on screen. So while the top feeds on PS4 might only have a few hundred viewers, there might be hundreds more watching via the web.

Sony was constantly playing catch up last generation when it came to online play and online features. But the PlayStation 4 implements everything we’ve come to expect from online gaming pretty flawlessly. There’s an 8 person party system which allows you to voice chat with friends while in game and out. You can even tweak volume priorities to be sure you can hear what’s going on in the party. Cross game inviting works as expected and in certain cases the PS4 will even auto invite you if a party starts playing a game you own, which we saw happen with Killzone: Shadow Fall.

Your friends list is now expanded and can have up to 2000 friends according to Sony. Right now the lists seem a little slow to load up, I think due to the traffic surrounding the launch. Sadly there’s no way to organize or group all of these friends, which I think will be a problem moving forward, but it’s nothing that can’t be remedied. My favorite feature is the ability to display real names with people. To do this you’ll need to send a request to the person and then it’ll display their real name right above their PSN ID in the friends list. If that person has linked Facebook and is showing their profile picture, you’ll also see that instead of the avatar. This lessens the whole internet anonymity and makes your friends feel a bit more personal.

The social integration is evident within the friends list too. Bringing up a friend’s profile will showcase some info about them and then a stream of recent activities and accomplishments which you can interact with much like the “What’s New” stream on the front page.

It can not be overstated how much better the Dual Shock 4 is than the Dual Shock 3. Let’s face it, the old Dual Shock design was horrible for modern gaming. Holding a DS3 after holding a DS4 makes the old controller feel like some cheap plastic toy. Everything from the tweaked analog sticks and triggers to the weighting and built in headset jack make the Dual Shock 4 a thing of beauty to use.

The analog sticks have just the right amount of tension and spacing for first person shooters. The triggers are curved just right for gripping. The weight of the controller helps it sit right in your hands. The headset jack on the bottom allows you to connect a simple headset for voice chat or a full pair a cans to enable all of your game and voice audio through it. No need for expensive wireless headsets, this functionality is out of the box and great for late night gamers or gamers with families.

The touch pad frees up button presses and allows gesture like motions to be used in games. The best example would be the old radial select menu. Most games implemented this by holding a modifier button and then rotating analog stick. Now you just swipe on the gamepad the direction you want.

There’s a little speaker in the controller as well, and the first time it goes off, it’s a bit jarring. So far it isn’t clear how games will use this - but we’ve seen Killzone play audio logs through the device and other games play an “announcer” through it. Thankfully most titles let you disable the output through the controller.

If you happen to own a PlayStation Vita, the PlayStation 4 supports remote play throughout the whole system. What is remote play? It’s the ability to mimic exactly what is happening on the console through the Vita. Say your TV is being occupied by your kid watching the latest episode of Doc McStuffins. All you need to do is fire up your Vita, hit connect to PS4, and you can browse your dashboard and play some Resogun or another title. For the most part this seems to work pretty well with minimal delay. The only thing we noticed at times was graphical artifacts and such. Sometimes we’d lose the connection altogether to the PS4 depending on network conditions and we'd have to restart the connection or pick up on the console.

Second screen is a little different in that not every game implements it. Knack utilizes second screen in a great way allowing a co-op player to join in on the action with their own viewpoint played with the Vita. If the player joined in on the console they would be locked to player 1’s view, so this is a great alternative method of couch co-op. It’s just too bad Knack isn’t a very good game.

Sony has really delivered a solid package here with the PlayStation 4. The console’s sleek form factor and attractive style, easy set up, and redesigned controller feel like Sony has returned to a past form. It does feel like the UI is in its infancy and while there’s a solid base there, several items related to organization and ease of access could be greatly improved. Thankfully, in the age of firmware updates, Sony can remedy and adapt the system based on community feedback. And with so few titles available right now, there’s not a huge rush for these things.

The PlayStation 4 isn’t leaps and bounds greater than the previous generation of consoles. We’re accustomed to consoles coming out that are graphically superior to PCs, with PCs taking 2 or 3 years to catch up; this time it’s a much more even playing field. So rather than attempt a graphical coup, Sony has opted to create a more refined and simplified experience than what is offered on the computer, baking in things like streaming and social networking directly into the package.

The bottom line is, you don’t need a PS4 right now for the games. You don’t need it for better graphics or increased friend limits. But as with any new device, if you crave the new hotness and want to see what the future brings, the $400 investment is a sound one.