Happy Birthday Playstation 4

Can you believe it’s been one whole year since Greatness Arrived? I still remember how on the day before the launch of the Playstation 4 that morning I was content knowing I wouldn’t be getting one for a few months, but by 3pm that day I had secured funds and would be pushing my luck to get one at midnight from Tesco.

So a full year later how are we feeling about the PS4? The general consensus based on sales alone is that we all seem to like it. It’s been the best selling console month on month since January of this year and has seen multiplatform titles chart and sell better than on other consoles. It certainly helped that the public perception of the Xbox One suffered from disastrous press conferences in the pre launch months, and Sony wowing the a packed conference hall at E3 2013.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kn-PpUCbeJs

From that very E3 I was along with a general consensus of gamer’s had made my mind up which route I’d be heading down with my next console.

Personally I’ve been having an excellent year of gaming with my Playstation 4. Many many highs, but there are a few little lows. With that I’d like to start things off with the bad times that I’ve experienced with my console so far, this part is relatively short as personally I’ve not experienced half the stresses that other PS4 owners have experienced.

I found that on a couple of occasions after launch day my PS4 would start up with no sound. The way to resolve the issue would be just shutting it down and starting it up again. It’s not a frequent issue and touch wood I genuinely can’t remember the last time it happened, perhaps not at all in 2014. But I’ll always remember when one of my friends who was going to pick up an Xbox One wanted to see the PS4 in action, I started it up and the no sound issue happened. Slightly frustrating as it didn’t really help sell the console to people initially. Although I don’t think he had ever considered picking a PS4 up in the first place…

 

Since those early launch day issues I’ve not had any problems hit until the recent 2.0 and 2.1 OS updates. Now I didn’t have any of the problems putting the console into sleep mode. Oh no, my problem is one much more infuriating and is still currently an issue as this is typed up and published. I cannot upload any of my footage from the console directly to Youtube. I’ve seen various methods of forgetting the sync on the Youtube account, re-signing in etc etc. Nope, Nothing.

I believe it may well be that we decided to set our Youtube channel up via secondary email address (Hotmail, not Gmail) as I’ve again read people have had issues when trying to connect the console to Youtube with any other type of account. If anyone has any tips, please help!

I’m fully aware that PSN has been a bit of a disaster for people with games like DriveClub and Destiny, but again personally I’ve not experienced any issues when trying to get online with the games that I own (Granted I don’t own Driveclub or Destiny). Heck I don’t know how but I legitimately can say I didn’t experience any issues when trying to get games of Battlefield 4 online which I know a lot of PS4 and XboxOne gamer’s had.

As for the positives, where to start.

I have fallen completely in love with the Dualshock 4. It is such a ridiculously comfy controller. But other than being comfy to use, I love how developers have opted to use the features it can provide in it’s games where possible. I remember when playing Killzone for the first time and seeing the light bar change colour as my health was going. And the first time I picked up an audio collectible I actually jumped as it scared me. I wasn’t expecting it. Carrying on progressing through the level and having the sound effects on the TV not interrupted by the audio log was pretty awesome. And the use of the touch pad to control to tell the OWL that accompanies you was genius.

And since then the list of games I’ve purchased that use is has impressed me. Watch_Dogs using it for mobile phone calls, Shadow of Mordor during the loading screens giving us more details of the story. But the best examples of it I’ve seen so far have been on Infamous Second Son and Grand Theft Auto 5.

Infamous allowing you to use the DS4 as a spray can when tagging Seattle is amazing and as you progress through the game playing as either the hero or anti-hero the light bar turning bluer or redder depending on which way your moral spectrum was heading.

As for GTA the use of the mobile phone through the speakers again is welcome, and I like that the light bar changes colour depending on which character you are using. But perhaps one of the coolest features is the quick change of view using the touch pad. Seamlessly switching views with the tap of the touch pad is awesome. Oh and of course the flashing red and blue light bar when you have a wanted level is a nice touch.

The install times for games have been amazing. I’ve read from sites and heard first hand from Will how when installing games on Xbox One there are times where he has to leave the console for a while, when waiting on a game to install. Something I’ve not encountered. Ok… GTA took a little longer than most games, but it was still relatively quick. NBA, Thief, Watch_Dogs have all been playable within seconds so far when inserting the disc for the first time.

The share button is one of the biggest highlights for me in my first year with the PS4. I’ve taken so many screenshots of games whether they are jaw dropping moments in the game storywise or graphically or just boobies from the games I’ve played (Perv I know)

And the ability to have the console continuously recording, with just a press of the share button to ‘save clip’ and saving the last 15 minutes. A quick double tap of the record button and we’re off again.

I didn’t think I’d want this ability in a console, but now between this and my Wii U I love the option to snap a screenshot of a game and keep it. I do wish that the screens and footage captured on the PS4 were accessible on the PS website, much like the WiiU has Miiverse to post to. But then I’m also a little critical that the Wii U won’t allow me to keep my pics on the hard drive.

Unfortunately I’ve not been able to pick up all the games I would have liked in year one missing out on some sleeper hits such as Wolfenstein and Sniper Elite 3 and missing the bigger hits that are just releasing such as Alien and Far Cry 4. But I’ve been very happy with the games I have picked up so far. NBA 2k14/15 being unbelievable visually, Watch_dogs & Infamous to dip my toes into sandbox games while waiting for the king of them all GTA5. My FPS fix was met with Battlefield & Killzone. When I did sub to PSN, I made sure to pick up the free games they were offering monthly to boost my collection up more. And one of my gaming highlights this year came from an exclusive demo out of all things. The demo for P.T which was later revealed to be a teaser demo for a new entry to the Silent Hill franchise was one of the scariest yet interesting things I’d played this year.

The very best thing for me though has to be how noticeable the leap is graphically from last generation to this generation. The first game I got to experience on my PS4 was Killzone Shadow Fall. The opening sequence blew my mind. it looked absolutely gorgeous. Now I know the game itself didn’t do too favorably with reviewers, but in terms of showcasing just what the console can do it was excellent. And reviews be damned I actually enjoyed the game and the multiplayer was very good fun.

All in all my first year has been a blast. Minus the annoyance of Youtube uploads being somewhat difficult to master. The use of the DS4, the ability to screenshot and keep footage so easily and the games have made my decision to get a cheap wedding ring in order to fund the PS4 completely justifiable. With only more games to come and developers pushing the hardware to the limit things can only get better for the PS4 and the masses that picked it as their primary console.

It’s more clear now than ever that this is indeed ‘#4TheGamers’. Happy Birthday PS4, here’s to many more.

– Murr