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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 Boot
When 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 Applications
After 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 Carryover
From 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 Icons
Notifications 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 Parallelogram
The 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 Controller
The 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 Camera
The 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 Experience
The 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.
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VERY PLEASE & 1 TERABYTES PS4 ROCKS!! THANK YOU SONY!
Reviewed in the United States on November 25, 2013
Loving er impress with the new console as well the newly design DS4 controller and working flawless with no issue. Upgrade the hard drive on day one to 1TB and keeping the old one if the console fail within a year during warranty period so I can swap it out as the worst case scenario they return you a 500GB console. I don't recommend this to rookies/tinkers that isn't familiar with these sorts as it might do more harm to your console but if you feel confidence and pride or a tech wizard with your magic hands and tools, GO FOR IT! BTW...there are plenty of resources online(GOOGLE) for video instruction and/or step by step explanation to install a hard drive besides my so do it at your own risk as I'm not held accountable for which you might do to your console. This is just my explanation what I did to get my 1TB hard drive to work which took me 4 tries of back and fourth between PS4 and my PC. Sometimes the net isn't all that helpful and leave stuff out to have you figure on your own but with positive thinking, the negative just seem to fade away when at some point I was frustrated but I never gave up in what I set to do and that's to make my PS4 a 1TB console. 500GB don't do justice as the games takes a HUGH install on it but sooner or later it will fill up that hard drive space. Just as note when having a new "hard drive" install already, please do go into Safe mode(hold POWER button for 7 sec or so til you hear a beep and let go) screen on the console. With the formatted USB flash drive in mind(I use a 32GB which I have available but 1GB works as well), using a computer or laptop, I download the firmware update on Sony website to my USB flash drive that I save in the UPDATES folder.....Sony post firmware 1.51 as of this. To insult to injury, sometimes the newest firmware they post for download doesn't come complete(I got an error on mine which is scary for the faint of heart that it didn't detect firmware 1.51 on my USB flash drive I have save to it). So it was missing some files from firmware 1.50 and sometimes the new 1.51 firmware won't work so just a heads up if you fall in this situation. In my case, I had to get a "recovery 1.50 firmware" which is 859MB in size floating around the net to get the console to detect the 1TB hard drive and load all that files/programs firmware Sony good stuff on to it. **There's a BIG different between 1.50 firmware and recovery(keyword) 1.50 firmware** Connecting the USB flash drive and DS4 controller to the 2 empty front USB slot.....in Safe mode title screen and selecting the correct choice which I pick #7 INTIALIZE PS4(Reinstall System Software), the console did its initialization and finally download the firmware from my USB flash drive. WALLA!!...success like a new console out of the box after a restart!!! Set-up was a breeze and automatically firmware 1.51 pop up on my notification, download that with no glitch or issue and console ran smooth after it restart. As it does come with a code for a FREE 30 days Playstation Plus and FREE 30 days Music Unlimited but they REQUIRE you to have your credit card info so no thank you. Eventually the code will expired 3/31/2014 if not use so blah. Instead, I use my prepaid PSN card and redeem the code on it to sign up for a one year on it.....being on a safe side. I download 2 Indie games, which Sony gave it away for FREE being a Playstation Plus member and if not a Plus member, they are $14.99 each....the games are Contrast(sequel please??) and Resogun(kinda remind me of the retro days of Midway Defender of the 80's but with HD graphic and then some mix style to boot for 2013). BTW....good games. I did use the $10 code that came with the console that I redeem so it has its perks. Please know all of this is base on my experience in my review and thought I share it with everyone out there so everyone will vary. I'm happy w/console and the 1TB upgrade(sense of pride and a rewarding experience). Will upgrade 2TB in the future. Looking forward to what awaits in the coming months from Sony. Thank you for reading my DIY(do it yourself) guide.
Reviewed in the United States on November 25, 2013
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