Skare's 10 Minute Game....wait....PS4 review!
Nov. 21, 2013Skare’s 10 Minute Game….wait….PS4 review!
I’m a borderline Sony Fanboy. Borderline in that I hold no ill will for Microsoft and Xbox and, truth be told, think they make a hell of a product too. I own a 360 and enjoy using it when there’s a rare exclusive I want to play. Let’s be clear here, apart from exclusives and a few features there’s not much difference between Sony and Microsoft gaming. But these aren’t insignificant differences either and that’s why I added fanboy into the mix. Sony has a few key things that have turned me into a staunch early adopter. How staunch? I sold a guitar and a bunch of PS3 stuff to pay for my launch day PS4. The good news is that by doing that it’s not a Christmas related acquisition and it’s open and ready to rock! Let’s get to it.
The Midnight Launchiest!
Interface
I’ve seen a lot of rave reviews about the UI. I disagree. It looks really pretty and gives you quick access to your newest feats (and I presume your friends, but since I don’t know anyone else with a PS4 it just sings my praises). Unlike the XMB single row of tasks with vertical tiles it’s organized into two horizontal rows. The one on launch starts you on the “what’s new” equivalent which is tied pretty heavily into social media. Moving right takes you through the games and apps you have downloaded with the most recently used one first. You can access different options like “start the game” or shop for add-ons with each tile. There’s a “library” of all of these at the far right. Here’s my problem with the UI. I have several games downloaded already, as well as a couple of apps. Instead of using the library to sort and get to the thing I want to play or do, the horizontal row has EVERYTHING. Whereas the PS3 XMB let’s you quickly move through the type of media (I want a game I slide over to games and can reorder the list there), the PS4 makes you cycle through a jumble. As I start to fill up my HDD this will increasingly frustrate me I feel. On the plus side, pressing up brings you to the very nice and well organized second row. On this row you’ll find the store default entrance, your friends, message and settings tabs. This is organized very much like the XMB but overall feels cleaner and more polished. This I like. The mess below it I’m lukewarm on.
Hardware and Controller design
It’s official. Angles are in this season. Pictures didn’t capture how awesome the console looks. It’s beautiful. The design is functional with all ports being pretty easy to access, yet blending into the design. The power and eject buttons might appear invisible at first which can be a pain I imagine if you’re looking for them. Aesthetically speaking though it’s an excellent design. The little things add up too. We’ve all seen the famous blue light, yet Sony pulls a trick out of their sleeve with the lights. Blue is only the “I’m getting ready to play games for you” light. When fully ready to go the light is white. In Standby it’s a mellow and reassuring amber instead of a harsh red most often seen for “standby” in electronics. In a completely dark room the white light is very obvious but with even just a TV on none of the lights do anything to distract. The noise level appears about the same as the PS3 slim on it’s best day. In other words not like an airplane taking off like the first PS3s.
The controller is subtly different. Buttons feel responsive. The sticks, like everyone has been saying, are vastly improved. They’re more precise and comfortable. There’s a small change in the angle you hold it from what I can tell. I found myself with only my index finger over the bumper/trigger area. On earlier PS controllers my inclination was to also have my middle finger floating around up there. My gut told me “Oh no, it’s no longer natural to have both fingers up there” but my brain reassured me that I pretty much never actually used both fingers at the same time and my index was more than sufficient (and I can use both without issue, it’s just that my middle finger isn’t just hovering up there like a jackass all the time). Gameplay has backed my brain on this argument and to be honest the DualShock 4 is hands down a superior design. The touchpad is flawlessly integrated and easily reached by my somewhat small hands (they’re small for a guy who stands 6′).
Features
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Play as you download
I wish I had good news on this front. Two games (Warframe and Contrast) told me they were ready to install before being fully downloaded. Nope. I tried and it got stuck on an install screen for waaaaaay longer than it should have. I never got to play anything without it being fully downloaded. The store was experiencing a lot of difficulties at this time which may have contributed but the bottom line is that this was not a thing for me.
Controller specific functions
The news is better here.
Light Bar
The light bar everyone was terrified would cause heavy glare is mostly a non factor. My absurdly large TV saw only a small amount and only when there was nothing going on except darkness and loading screens AND I was pointing the light right at it. Unless you’re using the camera with it, the inclination for most players is to not elevate your controller in front of your face and point it at the screen. And even if you do use the camera, you’re pointing it at the bottom or top of your TV. From a person who has used the Move setup a good deal I wasn’t particularly worried though as that glowing orb is much brighter and isn’t a significant factor. The use of the color changing ability here was mostly limited but impressive. By default the controller uses the same colors as the console. However, it seems to almost invert the PS4s color (white while starting, blue when ready). I charged the controller while the PS4 was in standby (which is awesome by the way, like the Xboxes of olde), the lightbar is the same amber color. Nice touch Sony. I may have been delirious from being tired, however it appeared that Flower subtly added color to the light based on which level you were playing. I’ll check again later to confirm that. Also of note is that the controller just uses a micro USB charger so I was able to bypass the short cord they gave me and use one from a cell phone closer to the couch while playing.
Speaker/Streamed audio
The built in speaker is a nice touch. I jumped about ten feet the first time I was given instructions through the controller playing Res0gun. Needless to say I went into the controller settings and turned the speaker down. So yeah, speaker (and headphone) volume can be adjusted which is nice. Speaking of headphones, the mono earpiece in the box is actually well made with good sound quality. I changed the settings to play ALL AUDIO through the headphones when in use. All audio gets streamed to the controller which might be nice if you’re playing in bed next to a loved one. While good, there is an occasional noticeable crackle. I at first chalked it up to in the box headphones. However, I tried the ones for the Vita (Sony says that the mic will work from that set and they’re much nicer than the PS4 mono one) and the crackle was still there. I swapped in the Vita headphones to listen to a Blu-Ray and apart from the somewhat rare crackle the audio was fantastic.
Voice commands
After seeing this in action I have to believe that it wasn’t just something thrown in after people started asking about. That’s because it’s quite impressive for an out of the box feature Sony barely bothered to mention. I at first had a struggle since I had no clue what to say to my PlayStation. We had a brief but awkward beginning to our conversation but after some quick internet research I knew how to get started. First, let me say I did not but the camera. Voice commands work with a microphone in the controller such as the mono headphone/mic in the box (best option) or even the Vita headphones (good option). To begin, you must let the PlayStation know its services are required. You must, in your best “however the fu** you wanna say it” voice say “PlayStation.” Seriously. It doesn’t matter how you say it. I tried a few different tones, etc. and it always knew it was needed with one exception we’ll get to in a minute. Once this is done a menu bar appears on the bottom with some common commands like “Home” or “Power.” Home is obvious, Power brings you to the Power settings. The Power settings brings up an interesting use. Once at that scree, valid voice commands are shown in flashing blue. I don’t mean that menu bar I mentioned. The actual features of the console, if voice command is recognized, are highlighted so there’s no question if they work or not. “Enter Standby Mode” (the hardest command to get to work, my guess is three words is asking a little much) for instance is a default listing. Just need to say it. I won’t get into too many of the options here as they’re limited use currently but I would like to talk some more about the potential of this feature.
One of the things I’ve heard as a major “drawback” to the PS4 voice commands is that, in absence of a camera you’re holding the controller anyway. So why would anyone use voice commands? Oh crap, they’re right. Except “Nuh uh!” I placed the controller back on my entertainment center with the mic plugged in. Of note is that I took zero effort to aim the mic toward the couch or optimize. Literally, I walked over and just set the whole thing down and walked back to the couch. Then I started playing around with voice commands. At a distance of about 7 or 8 feet, with no regard to where the mic was, and in normal speaking volume…..
It recognized EVERYTHING. “Playstation”….”Res0Gun.” Right over to the tab for that game. Since the voice menu is still up. “Warframe.” Right over to that tab. “Library.” Right over to there, etc. etc. “Res0gun” in particular struck me as particularly exciting. The reason being that it’s not even close to a real word. That means the software is dissecting things very well. I’d like to add that this feature uses no “voice training” either. In fact, the only time it stopped working precisely as you’d want it to was when I whispered at it from the longer distance. Ok…I get that.
The Vita headphones worked similarly but didn’t seem to be quite as sensitive. I didn’t do the distance test with them but I did need to be a little more deliberate. Note that they were still perfectly usable, just not as kickass as the in the box mic.
The only disappointment with voice commands was that movies (Blu-Ray and Netflix tested) do not offer voice commands. As that would be the only use I would actually implement it’s a shame. “Playstation”…”Pause.” Oh well. Maybe soon.
Second Screen Experiences
Actual second screen
This could be great. I don’t know. It’s pretty limited at the moment. Warframe uses a slightly niftier version of it’s Nexus app with the second screen (see below for that). If you’re typing, you can use the second screen to input the text into the field. This does mean either one handing the controller or putting it down to pick up a phone or Vita but it is much faster typing on a touch screen phone than the pop up keyboard we’re all used to. I heard rumors you could use it to control movies. I couldn’t get it to do anything other than use the PS button which isn’t much benefit at all.
Apps
Sony is embracing the world of phones here. The PlayStation app was recently released and it’s….”meh.” It allows for the second screen which could turn out to be great but otherwise it’s a clone of Sony’s PlayStation websites. You can message through it which is nice and it allows you to receive notifications and invites and the like which is pretty neat. However, the “store” portion of the app is just a link to the site and opens in your default browser. Big whoop Sony. Of note is that, if you’re on your home network, loading the app will turn on your PS4. Sounds cool right? The issue is that the app is for ALL things PlayStation so if I just wanted to check a message without turning on a console it’s tough shit for me since it’s going to turn on my PS4 regardless of whether I intended to link to it. You can easily turn it off again but why have it boot up in the first place unless I ask it to? Weird.
Game developers have the option of making their own apps or using Sony’s. I didn’t find anyone using Sony’s like I said except for Warframe. This game also has an app called the “Warframe Nexus.” It’s nothing major but it gives alerts to time limited challenge missions and includes a list of rewards and the location of the mission. It’s fast to load and a nice touch to be honest. Just don’t expect to spend much time on it. There’s a mission here? Ok…I’m on it. Like was mentioned above, using the second screen with this game playing brings up basically the same thing (with news and events added in but there weren’t any when I looked). The benefit to the app is that it works when you’re not actually playing.
Remote Play
Best for last. If you read my PS3 Remote Play article you might know how much I was looking forward to this (this is the primary reason I’m Sony not Microsoft). I haven’t gotten the chance to try this outside my home network yet so results are still pending on that. However, in your home network: OH MY FU**ING GOD does it work well. Connecting can take a minute but once it’s connected you get a perfect representation of the PS4. The only “game” that didn’t work with Remote Play was the Playroom which we already knew since it needs the camera and the lightbar on the controller. Controller mapping has a default where the rear touch pad is set to four quadrants (the concept I said long ago was likely). The upper two are set as L2 and R2 and the lower are L3 and R3. You will likely hit these on accident once in a while on the Vita but overall it works very well. The PS3 (at least ICO and Shadow of the Colossus) used the same idea but used the whole touchpad. The PS4 default has some deadzones built in which makes a more precise version of the controls. There’s also a ghost image of the rear of the Vita, the four quadrants and the one you pressed highlighted that pops up to confirm the button press. It sounds intrusive but it’s surprisingly awesome. The developer can choose to remap their controls which I discovered was the case with Warframe. For instance, R1 is meleee attack with R2 being your firearm on the Dual Shock 4. On the Vita, R1 becomes the firearm trigger while down on the D-Pad becomes melee. I went through a few missions before discovering this.
But how did it play? One word: Flawless. Not good enough for you? Flower, Contrast and Res0gun were PERFECT. Other than the feel of the controller there is zero detectable difference in appearance, etc. Warframe was a slightly different story but only because of screen size. My TV is 65″ while the Vita is about 5″. On the TV, I can see enemies from insanely far away. On the Vita, enemies way into the distance are slightly harder to track due to the sheer number of pixels it doesn’t have. I’ll repeat that….slightly harder. I also tried DC Universe Online and that too played just fine. I ran into one instance of Contrast pixelating but it was due to network instability that affected everything in the house. Ready for bonus news: I was able to use the Share feature with the Vita (just not streaming I beleive). ready for more? Online gameplay (Warframe tested) was outstanding. Since I was using headphones I was even privy to a few players chatting during the mission.
In short. EVERYTHING WORKS!
Controversies
The launch wasn’t without hiccups. The store was pretty terrible for the first couple hours. That’s been cleaned up. I still don’t like how it’s organized but it doesn’t boot me out anymore.
There’s been reports of broken consoles. It’s too early to say how significant this is in my opinion. In total I’ve seen about a dozen claims I’d estimate of broken consoles (I’ve seen more, those are legitimate claims). I’ve seen an article claim something like 40% of user feedback on Amazon is broken consoles, with a large number of verified purchasers. That sounds pretty bad and for all I know it is. I do know that complainers are more vocal than someone like me who is playing their system rather than write reviews on it, oh….wait, uh….nevermind. More important than any hardware failure though would be Sony’s reaction to it. I recall a major company having a pretty significant console release issue some years back where a lot of machines turned out to be garbage. This, combined with their “we have tons of confidence in our product” three month warranty had a lot of people crying foul. But….that company set things right and didn’t suffer any long term harm. It’s ok to have mistakes as long as you are willing to fix them. So we’ll see.
Last but least (and most funny) is “wobblegate.” There’s a few articles showing how “unsteady” the PS4 is thanks to the placement of it’s rubber feet. I’ve read a few that suggest this is what will lead to Sony’s bankruptcy and possible disintegration at the hands of Almighty Cthulu. It’s true that the feet are in a weird spot. It’s true that putting weight on the shiny part of the console’s top will make it tilt. It’s likewise true that doing something drastic as, I don’t know…..just letting it sit on the entertainment center instead of pushing down on it while playing….will lead to a condition I like to call “not tilting.” I know, I know…how “next gen” can a system be if you can’t put weight on it while playing? I guess we’ll just have to live with it.
Games reviews….coming soon
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