PlayStation 4 Review

PlayStation 4

This review is going to be different than everything you read on all the gaming sites, this is more of a normal person using a new console for about a month, while working full time and traveling during the holidays.

The PS4 has been out for almost a month now, and so far I am loving it.  I like the PS4 so much so that I regret being such a big Xbox 360 fan this past generation.  I think I’ve always been a PlayStation person, but for some reason got caught up in the Xbox 360 this last go around.  I went so crazy during last week’s Best Buy trade in promotion I don’t even own an Xbox 360 right now.

Maybe it was the controller, the Xbox 360 has a much better controller and that must have been the deciding factor.  Or the fact that the Xbox 360 came out a year earlier, I honestly don’t remember anymore.  I had a PS3 pretty much the whole time, but I barely used it.   The DUALSHOCK 4 has fixed almost all the problems I had with the DUALSHOCK 3 on the PlayStation 3.  First off it is larger, which is great so now it finally fits in my hands and has a real nice weightiness to it.  The sticks are a lot better and stiffer, not as “floppy” as the DUALSHOCK 3.  The touchpad is nice and the triggers are larger and much more responsive and just feel a lot better than on the DUALSHOCK 3.  Going back to the DUALSHOCK 3 after using the DUALSHOCK 4 is painful.

DUALSHOCK 3, DUALSHOCK 4, and Xbox 360 Controller

On to more of the PS4 hardware.  The PS4 itself is nice, a weird parallelogram, I think that’s the shape.  I do think it’s difficult to plug in cables without looking because of the lip on the back, but that’s fine.  No power brick is nice.  No actual buttons on the thing is fine, although finding the eject button for the blu ray drive doesn’t feel natural at times, you do get used to it.  Overall I like the form factor just fine, it’s pretty slim and light.  It’s pretty quiet too.  I have it in my entertainment center and the fan kicks on every once in a while, but its sure quieter than my PS3.  My PS3 was so loud towards the end that I couldn’t even use it.  I traded it in a few weeks ago when Best Buy had a special promotion and got $100 for it, and then picked up the Black Friday Super Slim for $200.  Quite the upgrade, super small and quiet as well.

Menus on the PS4 are so much snappier and easier to get around.  The user interface is pretty good.  I wish you could make your own folders to store things though.  Hopefully that will come after an update.  Downloading times are also improved.  I downloaded Warframes, Resogun and Contrast all rather quickly.  If you have PlayStation Plus you need to download these free games immediately.  All are pretty fun, plus they’re free!

I’ve tried a lot of games.  I’m not sure if I’m ready to review any of them yet.  I haven’t beaten any games yet, although maybe I beat Resogun?  I’m not really sure to be honest.

I get excited to try new games on a new console and so far I've played:

NBA 2K14

First game I put in and played on my brand new PS4.  Looks amazing, a significant upgrade over the Xbox 360 version.  Great game.

Madden 25

Madden 25 has been great, I played the Xbox 360 version and this version looks slightly better and is slightly smoother.  It’s Madden.

Killzone:  Shadowfall

Best looking game on the console.  The touchpad controls are fun, but the game is pretty hard.  I’m actually thinking about starting over on easy.

Knack

Played some co-op with my son, we had fun with it.  I don’t get all the bad reviews, it was just a rental so I had to bring it back.  I’ll probably pick it up when it’s cheap.

Resogun

I love Resogun, I'm not very good at it though.  I try to play a game every day hoping that I'll become good at it. I love old fashioned type arcade games.

Contrast

It’s a little buggy, but looks cool and it’s original.  I’ve not finished it, but I will someday.

Assassins Creed 4:  Black Flag

Very good looking game, and fun to play.  I haven’t really gotten into it yet though.

Need for Speed:  Hot Pursuit
Good looking game, frame rate is great.  I'm not good at this one either, and I get frustrated easily.

Call of Duty:  Ghosts
It's Call of Duty.

Warframes
It's fun for a free game.  Communication is lacking, if it was a little tighter it would be very similar to a Phantasy Star Online.  Which was a great game.

I played NBA 2K14 on the Xbox 360 and Call of Duty:  Ghosts on the PlayStation 3.  There are definitely improvements to both games, nothing mind blowing on CoD, but NBA 2K14 looks better on the PS3 than the Xbox 360.

I will give the Playstation 4 an 8 out of 10.