PlayStation 4: Thoughts On Its Launch

Okay, so the Playstation 4 (PS4) has been out for a few days, now and there has been some drama over its release. There have been some issues with it, but more or less I just want to give my personal experiences with and thoughts about it.

Bottom line up front: I love it.

My PS4 with Battlefield 4, Killzone Shadow Fall, and Lego Marvel Super Heroes

There is no doubt that there are pros and cons to buying the PS4 system. First of all, I will address the more negative stuff just to get it out of the way.

Cons (as they pertain to the system during the launch weekend):

• Headset integration: my biggest pet peeve with the system right now is that they did not make it compatible with current gaming headsets. People spend hundreds of dollars on just a single headset, sometimes, and for those to not be fully integrated on day one is a letdown. The only real solution(s) to that is:
  
  • Buy the Turtle Beach Ear Force PX4, which were designed with the PS4 in mind. (Be careful to read all of the instructions online with regard to how to set these up. If you’re having trouble, here is a link that will step you through what the PS4 settings ought to be.) I bought these, and once I figured the settings out, I have really been enjoying them. The one down side to using these with the proper settings is that the sound that your system sends to the speaker on your controller won’t be routed through your headset. If you do route those sounds to your headset, for some reason, I think it overloads the headset and it can’t handle all of that information, so it only sends intermittent signals to the headset at that point until you fix the settings.
    
  

  Turtle Beach Ear Force PX4

• Use some Apple-like earbuds with a built-in microphone (like the ones that come standard, now) because those actually work – I tested it.
• Use the included mono earbud (singular) with built-in microphone that plugs into the Dualshock 4.
• Playstation Plus (PS+) is now required for online multiplayer. This isn’t as big of a deal, though, because for one, it’s still cheaper than Xbox Live Gold subscriptions, and you can still do everything on your PS4 without PS+ except playing games online with other people. I’ll address some of the perks of PS+ in the “Pros” section below, though.
• General bugs/kinks that need to be worked out: As I go about exploring and utilizing my new source of joy and adventure, I do notice bugs here or there. One example is the “What’s New” tab when you first log on to the system. It is supposed to show you all of your recent activity on your machine – like if you’ve streamed your gameplay, or earned a trophy – but mine has only worked once. Besides that one time, I haven’t seen anything on my “What’s New” tab.
• Social Media: There is no Google+ integration. I really want to see that changed. I want to be able to have my PS4 post a status on my Google+ account just like it does to Twitter and Facebook whenever I earn a new trophy, live stream my game play, or upload a screen shot or video.

Here’s the deal: Sony has admitted that there have been a number of PS4 that arrived at their new loving homes dead on arrival. The internet has blown up with these complaints and concerns, and to be fair, for those affected, this is a huge concern and they need to know what to do in order to get it taken care of. Which, by the way, one really good resource is this web page: IGN’s PS4 Problems page; but the issues have been blown out of proportion. Sony has released statements about it and they have isolated the batch of bad PS4 systems. It equates to 0.4% of the systems sold. For math nerds out there, there were 1,000,000 systems sold in the first 24 hours. 0.4% of 1 mil is about 4,000 machines. So, 4,000 machines out of 1,000,000 is a REALLY good track record.
So, here’s the good stuff, in my opinion.

Pros (as they pertain to the system during the launch weekend):

• The system is physically beautiful: It’s small, light weight, and simple.
• The Playstation (PS) user interface (UI) has definitely been improved and works wonderfully smooth. I love how easily you can transition between your game (or other app) and the home screen and back. I love how easily accessible everything is. It’s intuitive, whereas the PS3 UI was not. Also, all of the system’s settings can be found under one single menu heading. So, no more hunting around the UI for the setting menu you’re looking for.
• DVD’s look as crisp and clear coming out of the PS4 as BluRays do on the PS3. I don’t know how this works. I’m not sure what mechanics are at play here, but we have watched a handful of both BluRay and DVD on the PS4 since it arrived last Friday (15 November), and the DVDs play as smooth, crisp, and clear as BluRays.
• PS+: With Sony’s PS+ program, you get free junk. There are three or four games available right now on the PS Store for the PS4 that would cost non-PS+ members $15 or more, but they are free to download and use. One game in particular is actually free to everyone, it’s called Warframe, but PS+ members get some expansion stuff for free. Also, PS+ is not required to watch media on your Amazon Prime app, or Netflix, Hulu, or whatever other streaming app you like.
• Social media and integration: I love how integrated the PS4 is with Twitter and Facebook.
• Along the lines of social media, there is live streaming: The Xbox One has a very very similar function as the PS4 in this regard, but the PS4 can live stream your game play onto Twitch or Ustream, and it is always recording while you’re playing so that if you want to upload a video to Facebook or Twitter, it’ll upload up to 15 minutes worth of game play. It also allows you to post screen shots onto your Facebook or Twitter account. You can also watch other gamers’ streams directly from your PS4, if you want – AND, in the near future you will be able to go look at someone’s live stream, and if you have the same game they do, you’ll be able to just hop into their game with them. (They are going to have to push an update to the systems in order for this to work, but this is a function they’ve advertised for months now and have built the system in order to do this.)
• Sony’s attitude towards gamers: This is huge. To be perfectly transparent and honest, this was my biggest deciding factor in buying the PS4. Sony has made it apparent since they announced the PS4 that they made this system with gamers in mind. The innovations they’ve made and the policies they have established cement this fact. Sony, plus the outpouring of ire on the internet, is the reason Microsoft had to backpedal on some of their policies for the Xbox One which alienated gamers a little in an attempt to lure non-gamers into the gaming console market. I can’t emphasize this point enough. Even with the systems that were DOA at launch, Sony has been up front, responsive, and they haven’t tried to hide or deny anything. They’ve admitted that some of their systems are faulty, and every new bug that is discovered, Sony is quickly behind that discovery with a response that they are working to fix it.
• Dualshock 4 controller: When looking at pictures, and comparing those pictures to the Dualshock 3 controller, it is hard to imagine that a new controller that is so similar in design to its predecessor could make an impression; but it did. The very first time I opened my PS4 box, and unwrapped the Dualshock 4, my brain started tingling with endorphins. It was unexpected. But, I think there were three main things (among a handful of things in total) that stood out to me:
  • The first was the material that the controller is made out of. It’s smooth, yet it doesn’t slip i your hands. It just has this…almost velvety feeling to it. So, I guess you might say that it feels soft, as well as smooth. It just feels good to hold.
  • The buttons and joysticks: the buttons and joysticks are so much more accurate, precise, and smooth. And the new L2 and R2 buttons (the triggers) feel great – and that’s coming from a guy who has been converted from the Xbox consoles.
  • The touchpad: So far, my only experience with this is in Killzone Shadow Fall, and even though it was a simple and almost unimaginative use for the touchpad, it clearly works as intended, and it is sensitive and responsive (it is also a clickable/pushable button).

When I started gaming on these new consoles, I was an Xbox guy (original Xbox). I stayed with Xbox for the Xbox 360, and it wasn’t until I decided Xbox Live Gold wasn’t worth the money that I decided to migrate (slowly…very slowly) over to the Playstation family. I only just bought a PS3 maybe 2 years ago. And, it took a lot of adjusting. The PS3 UI wasn’t anywhere near as immersive and interesting as the Xbox UI. Games that I loved when I played them on my Xbox 360, I had a really hard time getting into on the PS3. But, now, I feel like I could never go back to Xbox – and mainly because they are losing their focus on gamers, and Sony has kept in touch with it’s primary demographic.

There is no doubt that the Xbox One has plenty of Pros and plenty of amazing content to offer its customers. But, for me, the choice was clear to gamble on the PS4 when I decided to pre-order a next gen system. And, now that it has launched, even with the hiccups, I am glad that I did. It is an amazing system, and it will only get better over time.

I would love to hear about your own experiences, though. Feel free to tell your story in the comments below. Just make sure to keep it professional and leave profanity out of it.

By the way, if you’re interested in gaming together on PSN, my PSN ID is: FE42LESS. Look me up. Send me a message and tell me you got my PSN from this post.

UPDATE:
Here is a link that Sony just posted if you’re having a PS4 “Blue Light” problem: Troubleshooting guide.