Playstation 4

[TheMightyEthan]

Yeah, I was more amused by watching the room decor and everything change.

[TheFlyingGerbil]

at 2.52 there is a sound that's exactly like the xbox sound? I don't know if it's from the music but it's the only time you hear it is when they turn the PS4 on. Weird.

[Thursday Next]

Possibly the sound PS4 makes when being turned on? Seems shorter than the Xbox sound.

 

Edit: Yeah, at the end they do the startup sounds for PS1,2,3 along with the symbols, and then when 4 appears the same sound plays.

Edited October 22, 2013 by Thursday Next

[TheMightyEthan]

Yeah, I don't think that's the Xbox sound.

[TCP]

No doubt a clue that the Xbox One and the PS4 are just different tiers of the same device. IMAGINE THE FANBOYS REACTION!! 

[Strangelove]

In case youre interested, PS4 Killzone and BF4 bundles are available at Amazon.com.

[CorgiShinobi]

They've been around for a while, but like all PS4 anything, if you didn't get a pre-order a long time ago, you're probably going to have to find one at a brick-and-mortar outlet.

 

However, lately pre-orders for the PS4 have been facing cancellation at certain retailers because, 1) If you had the Watch Dogs Bundle, you don't have a PS4 at Target, and a few others, or 2) At Best Buy, anyone who wants to try to pay off their pre-order, the process requires them to scan the item again and essentially give you a new pre-order. With the PS4, there are no more Launch Edition SKUs. So basically, wait to pay it off.

 

On the flip side, Amazon handled this perfectly and swapped the Watch Dog bundle with a Launch Edition bundle. I cancelled my Launch Edition, they probably have a few laying around from others to give out.

Edited October 22, 2013 by Atomsk88

[TheMightyEthan]

They've been around for a while, but like all PS4 anything, if you didn't get a pre-order a long time ago, you're probably going to have to find one at a brick-and-mortar outlet.

No, Amazon's been showing the consoles as unavailable for awhile, but today the BF4 and Killzone bundles came available again, for release delivery. They both very quickly went back out of stock though.

[TCP]

However, lately pre-orders for the PS4 have been facing cancellation at certain retailers because, 1) If you had the Watch Dogs Bundle, you don't have a PS4 at Target, and a few others, or 2) At Best Buy, anyone who wants to try to pay off their pre-order, the process requires them to scan the item again and essentially give you a new pre-order. With the PS4, there are no more Launch Edition SKUs. So basically, wait to pay it off.

This has been my big fear, and hence why I have a bunch of cash sitting in my dresser and not at EB Games. I'm sure EB Games has it together enough to not fuck this up but I don't trust that some stoner employee won't fuck my preorder up. If I don't get a PS4 on launch day, I'll die of a broken heart

[TheMightyEthan]

Plus, why would you ever pay it off early anyway (at a store that lets you do it gradually)?  You might as well hang on to the money instead of them.

[Thursday Next]

I'm terrible at saving money. Unless it is put beyond my reach (i.e. in my pension) I just spend it, so paying stuff off along the way is actually quite handy.

 

I got a £45 Amazon voucher for completing a survey for Thompson Compumark (we use their TM search stuff) didn't think they'd actually pay up, but hey, not bad for 15 minutes of multiple choice checkboxes. So I redeemed it against my Amazon purchase of the Killzone / camera / controller bundle. (Which, incidentally Amazon have not charged me any more for).

 

Boo, they just updated the price.

Edited October 23, 2013 by Thursday Next

[TheFlyingGerbil]

The PS4 will have a pretty major day one download. Do you think it's a bit of a bummer to have to download 300mb the second you turn your new console on?

 

I could sort of understand that some advanced functionality was not ready when the hardware was being manufactured, e.g the voice commands, but enabling online play and especially something as basic as DVD and blu ray playback kind of boggles my mind. Also for it to activate party chat? How was that not the first thing they made functional after all the fuss about it on PS3?

 

It makes me glad I'm not going to pick one up for a few years when it will all be settled down.

[TheMightyEthan]

300 MB is major?

[TheFlyingGerbil]

it is for core functionality that in my mind makes it major. millions of people trying to download it at once will make it a hassle, sitting there watching it install when you want to be playing with your shiny new toy will take the sheen of it.

[Mister Jack]

Won't it download in the background?

[Hot Heart]

 

The update activates DVD and Blu-ray playback, online multiplayer, remote play, PlayStation Vita second-screen support and play-as-you-download.

 

Sounds like a firmware update, so probably not.

[TCP]

Saying it's major is a little much. The Wii U had a 1.5 GB patch on launch day, considering Sony's online infrastructure is years ahead of Nintendo's I think it'll be fine. Sony's been doing day one digital downloads for GIANT (in size and you know, popularity) games like GTA V and The Last of Us for awhile now, I think they'll be prepared.

[Hot Heart]

Well, in terms of major, I'm a little concerned that it doesn't have basic functionality like DVD/BD playback out of the box...

[TheMightyEthan]

Yeah, that's weird.

[TheFlyingGerbil]

Saying it's major is a little much. The Wii U had a 1.5 GB patch on launch day, considering Sony's online infrastructure is years ahead of Nintendo's I think it'll be fine. Sony's been doing day one digital downloads for GIANT (in size and you know, popularity) games like GTA V and The Last of Us for awhile now, I think they'll be prepared.

 

major was referring to the functionality it was adding which quite frankly, reading the list of features I can't think what it actually will be able to do before the update apart from turn on and tell you you need to connect to the internet to stop it from being an expensive paperweight. but either way I have certainly  had some pretty torturous 30mb PS3 downloads, so I wouldn't look forward to a 300mb one that everyone is trying to get at once.

 

and since you bring the wii u update up... remember how everyone hated that and said it ruined the day one experience? exactly. I don't want this becoming standard feature of new console releases. It just makes me feel like the consoles are rushed to market and while software can be updated later, how do you know the hardware has been properly optimised and tested? definitely the hardware and software haven't been married as closely as they could have been.

 

I was happy when being an early adopter just meant paying a premium and taking a risk on backing the right horse, I am not prepared to take a risk on the console itself not being up to scratch.

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

Considering the update isn't that big I'm betting a lot of it is simply unlocking all of these features and making sure that they're up to date. If you get a PS4 early you're going to be locked out of stuff and that's probably what Sony wants.

[deanb]

The DVD/Blu-Ray stuff doesn't amaze me too much, even to date you've still got to manually get the updates to play various media files on your PS3. Welcome to the world of licensing. And 300MB isn't that huge either, current firmware updates for PS3 are about 150MB last I looked and as noted already it's drastically lower than Wii U update.

 

Out of the box it'll play your games. If you want to play Killzone on MP you'll need internet anyway, so requiring a download to play online isn't a huge biggy.

 

At least it's not like Xbox One which has to strip out "functionality" because they'd plastered all the DRM stuff into it already. 

[TheMightyEthan]

The day one patch can be downloaded in the background while playing (singleplayer) games.  So it's not even going to stop you from using it.

[TheFlyingGerbil]

That's cool - I'd probably be messing about in the options rather than playing games for the first (few) hour(s), but it's nice to know you won't have to stare at a bar filling up when you turn it on.

[Mister Jack]

So here's where the DS4 stands right now: as a Dinput device it's perfectly functional.  When games require Microsoft's own Xinput API is when it runs into some issues.  I tried it with four games to start.  I played Binding of Isaac with a keyboard mapper, Portal 2, Castle Crashers, and Rogue Legacy.  For Binding of Isaac, which requires a keyboard mapping program no matter what controller you use, it worked like a charm.  Every button on the DS4 could be mapped to any key I wanted with no wizardy required on my part.  It recognized the analog sticks with no issues as well.

 

Next I tried Rogue legacy, which has default controller support.  At first nothing was happening, but when I opened up the settings and set it to recognize Dinput controllers, it worked perfectly, recognizing all the inputs as you would expect it to, even though the prompts were still Xbox based.

 

Castle Crashers, which seems skewed a bit toward the Xbox API, got a little strange.  Technically the controller works fine and you can play the game with no issues, but it reverses the X and O buttons.  It also reversed the square and triangle buttons.  All the other inputs were normal, so I don't know what the deal was with that.

 

Portal 2 didn't work.  Technically it picked up the controller, but the camera kept spinning to the left and I couldn't get it to stop.  I tried plugging in a logitech controller to compare, and the game didn't recognize that one at all.  I'm not sure if this is an issue with the game itself or the specific controllers I was using.  Unfortunately, I don't have a wired 360 controller to test it with.

 

So as a PC controller I'd say it works for the most part, but Xinput games seem to give it trouble.  I am sure that in the near future there will be a driver or wrapper released to fix this issue once there are more dualshock 4s out there in the wild.  For now, though, it's best for indie games and emulators.  If anyone can suggest a program to use with it, I will test it again and post any changes.  I tried x360ce but it doesn't seem to recognize the DS4 yet.  Again, I'm sure there will be an update in the future to fix this.

 

So now that we got that out of the way, how does it feel?  I can say it is an enormous improvement and one of the most comfortable controllers I've ever held.  The longer grips fit nicely in my palms, and the back of the controller feels like it's covered with the same material the sticks are made of.  I'm not sure how to describe it, other than to say that the back of the controller isn't completely smooth to the touch, nor is it glossy.  I'd guess that this is to cut down on slippery sweat, but I'm not a hardware engineer.

 

The touchpad is smooth and feels a little loose, but in a good way.  It has just the right amount of give under your finger and it clicks nicely.  Not much else to say about it since it isn't used for anything at this time.

 

The share and options buttons (which serve as start and select on PC games) are hard and clicky instead of soft and spongy like the buttons on the PS3 controller.  Their placement is something I'm not used to yet, and I've caught myself accidentally clicking the touchpad when I meant to hit options to pause the game.  This is something I'm sure I'll get used to after I've used it for a while, but I imagine I won't be the only one making this mistake when the ps4 launches.  Old habits are hard to break.

 

The face buttons and d-pad feel mostly the same.  There's a slight difference in each but it's so small that I'm not even going to bother trying to describe it.  They feel fine.

 

The sticks.  Oh my.  They're wonderful.  My thumbs fit inside those little raised rings on the edges quite comfortably, and they feel much tighter overall.  They're also much smaller than the DS3 sticks.  They're comparable to the 360 sticks, really, except for the ridges.  I personally like how they feel, but I can only speak for myself.  I doubt they'll ever cut painfully into your thumb or anything.  They're just there to remind you where the center of the stick is.

 

The shoulder buttons are the biggest difference besides the sticks.  It used to be that when I played a PS3 game, I rested my fingers on L1 and R1.  I find myself resting on L2 and R2 by default with this controller because of how comfortable they are.  The concave shape of the triggers gives me a perfect place to rest my fingers, and they feel nice and sturdy when you push them.  None of that weird squishiness you get with the DS3.  The L1 and R1 buttons feel like they've been moved forward a little bit, and there seems to be a slightly wider space in between the 1 and the 2 buttons.  This is bound to ensure you don't go hitting L1 and R1 by accident while using the triggers.  Unless you have giant Truckasaurus hands, the only way you'll be hitting L1 and R1 will be by taking your fingers off of the triggers to do it.

 

So there you have it.  If you like to play emulators and indie games, I can't recommend this highly enough.  If you want it for modern games, I'd say wait a bit until someone makes a driver.  I'll reiterate that if anyone wants to suggest a program besides x360ce for me to use with it, I will do so and let you guys know if the performance changes at all with Xinput games.  As an actual console controller, I'd say we definitely have a winner on our hands.