Playstation 4 - Two Years On

A good read, thanks!

I was lucky enough to get my PS4 as a birthday present last year (thanks Funder ), but I think if I hadn't have then I most likely would have bought one in the last 12 months as there have definitely been some great bundles offered, especially recently.

I haven't spent all that much time on it though (mainly due to circumstance rather than anything else), but the time I have had on it I have thoroughly enjoyed myself.

I wouldn't say it's anything totally groundbreaking though, and in some ways I'd even say there have been backwards steps. Some features that I've been used to on PS3 and Xbox 360 just aren't there. There are several things I'd like to see added or improved upon, such as folders for games and apps (like on PS3), and most of all I want game installs, DLC items and updates all separated so that we have the ability to delete selected content. At the moment it's either delete and lose EVERYTHING you've ever downloaded for that particular game, or you end up losing all your storage capacity on those massive installs because you don't want to also lose the additional 20Gb of downloaded content. This, IMO, really needs addressing. I can delete any game install on 360 and still keep my updates and DLC on the HDD, why can't I do this now on current gen?

My other gripe is the ridiculous amount of patches and updates now as compared to last gen - I'm sick of games being only half finished now or broken and buggy messes. I'd much rather wait longer for a release than have to download 5Gb day one patches. Unfortunately I only see this getting worse in the future, not better.

Overall though, I'm very happy with my PS4, and I do think that Sony's exclusives are much better than Microsoft's, and they appeal to me a lot more. Remote Play is also another cool feature I really like, although admittedly I haven't used that nearly as much as I initially thought I would!

I'll look forward to seeing where the console goes over the next couple of years, and I'm really hoping Sony will implement a few of the things I mentioned before. I like the simplicity of the UI though as compared to the awful X1 dashboard, so hopefully they don't change that too much.

To anyone who's yet to own a PS4 I'd definitely recommend one, and especially at the moment while you can pick up some great bundles with 4 or 5 games for quite cheap I'm pretty sure you won't regret it!

I have always been a Sony supporter even though I spent more time on the 360 just to be around my friends. It took about 4-5 years and we all saw how crappy Micro$oft is. I came to PS3 very late in its life but have not looked back. I love the PS4 and will never purchase another M$ product.

Sony won the console war and I couldn't be happier. I still think Nintendo wins the handheld war though. I tried a Vita and just wasn't terribly impressed. I might give it another shot though and try a different game.

I'm very happy with my PS4, glad I jumped ship from X360. This console is definitely "for the players". I don't care for the "lack" of AAA exclusives, I think the exclusive list is a lot better for me than the one from Microsoft. Loving all those exclusive small games, from Octodad to Flower and from Luftrausers to Murasaki Baby.

Having missed the PS3 era, I don't mind the remasters, even though by now I have a PS3 as well (gift from a friend who wasn't using his anymore).

Not enough! Still littered with crap all over the dash, still obsessively trying to force social media crap on me and the internet connectivity is a complete joke. All things we complain about, and still Sony ignore us.

Well it certainly does everything I've asked of it, not had any problems. I only wanted a console, i don't care for all the other stuff it tries to do. Playing it through the Vita is truly awesome though, particularly as we only have the one TV!

I've been loving it! Was so undecided as to whether or not to get it at first and I've ended up falling in love with it! It's pretty much what the 360 was for me last gen! :D
I have all 3 current gen systems and imo, it's definitely by FAR the best of the bunch. Besides certain exclusives, the Wii U doesn't get much use from me and the Xbox One is absolutely RIDDLED with problems right now! Seriously, I didn't think they could possibly make the Dashboard any worse than they did with the new update. :(
Don't get me wrong: I really want MS to pull it out of the bag as I loved the 360 as mentioned before.
It's kinda the same thing for its games as the Wii U: if you don't like a handful of exclusives, then you can get most of the other titles and MANY more on the PS4. Sure, not every game on the system is amazing but the more choice you have, the more likely you are to find a game for you. :)
The PS4 is not perfect, by any means: I've had a fair few issues over the year that I've owned it where the game will crash and I get booted out to the menu but each new update seems to have reduced that possibility.
I also don't like how the console sounds like it's gonna take off at any moment when playing certain games (Everybody's Gone to the Rapture was probably the worst for that of the ones I played, amazing game, though!)
Finally: the community feature they added in the last major update...no search option, really? Unless your community is in the Top 100, good luck having anyone who isn't already friends with you find it. It means there'll be loads of communities for really cool things that'll never get seen. :(
Really looking forward to 2016! No Man's Sky is by far my most anticipated, though I'm also looking forward to Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X (I think that's what the next one'll be called), that game series became a firm favourite of mine this year. :)
And of course PlayStation VR! :D

Really like my PS4. I absolutely love the perpetual recording thing. It had some problems at first (like sometimes you press the button to save the last 15 minutes only to discover that it wasn't recording for some reason), but ocassionally it got fixed. I know X1 have the same, but IMO 15 minutes is much better than just 5 minutes. Kinda related to this - the addition of Share Factory was amazing. Now I can quickly make a montage of highlights, instead of keeping an entire 5-10 minute clip.
This recording feature was a huge change for this generation for me, finally I can save all those funny moments that are happening during my game time, and then show them to my friends or watch it myself for the laughs.

Share play is kinda fun too. Ability to play local-only games online is priceless, and sometimes it's funny to watch my brother play a game like good ol' times, even though he's not in the same room.

Rest mode along with suspend feature are neat, especially for games that take ages to load... If I'm taking a short break, I can always just suspend the console and continue right away when I'm ready. That's very neat.

The lack of exclusives doesn't bother me that much to be honest. Not that X1 has more exclusives and I prefer PS4 exclusives over X1 ones, and there are more to come next year.

I won't go as far as to say that either side won or lost the "console war" but they both have done some things right and some things wrong. I know people make a big deal out of the resolution on games, so much so that it sounds like that's the determining factor on whether they'll enjoy it or not, but I personally couldn't care less what the resolution is since that number isn't what determines if I enjoy a game and if I cared about resolution as much as some people seem to I'd just be playing on a PC.

I also never really understood the emphasis so many people are making on the PlayStation 4 outselling Xbox One since if they did a little research they'd see that for each console generation where there has been both a PlayStation and an Xbox the PlayStation has ultimately always outsold the Xbox.

I'm still hoping that one day Sony will allow us to turn off the controller light since it's really pointless for the most part. I know that one of its uses is to indicate which controller is player 1 and which is player 2 but people have managed to figure it out just fine for over 30 years.

BardinAeducan said:I also never really understood the emphasis so many people are making on the PlayStation 4 outselling Xbox One since if they did a little research they'd see that for each console generation where there has been both a PlayStation and an Xbox the PlayStation has ultimately always outsold the Xbox.That's only been two generations, so far, and it hasn't been exactly fair =). The Duke released 18 months after the PS2, which also happens to be the best selling console of all time. The 360 came damn close to topping the PS3, and considering all of the advantages that the PS3 had when it came to world wide brand recognition and sheer number of high profile exclusives, the fact that it was close, says something.

That's not really a trend of dominance. This generation is looking to solidify this as a trend, but we've seen huge come backs before. The Xbox One COULD still outsell the PS4, and if there's anybody equipped to go head to head with Shu, it's Phil Spencer.

God, it's a good time to be alive! Those two are both so great

I don't think it will happen, but not because the Xbox One won't be able to recover, but because I think we're going to have a shorter console cycle this time. I think this generation is going to get down to six years, and then we're going to hit a four year cycle not unlike the phone cycle. Like replacing your phone every two years, people will replace their consoles every four.

That's a dangerous move for Xbox, however. If they are still significantly down when they announce their next console, that could really stunt the brand.

ExtremePhobia said:That's only been two generations, so far, and it hasn't been exactly fair =). The Duke released 18 months after the PS2, which also happens to be the best selling console of all time. The 360 came damn close to topping the PS3, and considering all of the advantages that the PS3 had when it came to world wide brand recognition and sheer number of high profile exclusives, the fact that it was close, says something.

That's not really a trend of dominance. This generation is looking to solidify this as a trend, but we've seen huge come backs before. The Xbox One COULD still outsell the PS4, and if there's anybody equipped to go head to head with Shu, it's Phil Spencer.

God, it's a good time to be alive! Those two are both so great

I don't think it will happen, but not because the Xbox One won't be able to recover, but because I think we're going to have a shorter console cycle this time. I think this generation is going to get down to six years, and then we're going to hit a four year cycle not unlike the phone cycle. Like replacing your phone every two years, people will replace their consoles every four.

That's a dangerous move for Xbox, however. If they are still significantly down when they announce their next console, that could really stunt the brand.That's very true and I definitely should have been more clear as I meant more that so many people seem to be acting like it's never happened before.

I agree, Phil Spencer has done a great job getting Xbox turned in the right direction, a whole lot better than Mattrick could have ever done. I also think with both systems having some sort of backwards compatibility I think it'll boost the sales of both consoles to some extent but it'll just depend on the game selection and how it's done. Xbox will be adding more titles every month and you don't have to buy them again. PlayStation's version on the other hand, well who knows really, given their PS Now service and the fact they're having to add an emulator to the PS1/PS2 games they're bringing to the PS4 as well as adding trophies, they'll probably make people pay for them again even if they own them already.

I know it won't happen but I really wish that for the next console generation Microsoft and Sony would sit down with each other and agree to put the same hardware in their systems. That would just be better for everyone I think since if a dev can program for one then they can program for the other without any odd intricacies making it harder to do so.

I think you're right about the console generations getting shorter, I think it depends on what position the Xbox is in at the time too as to whether or not it'll hurt them, they've come a long way in 2 years and they're still making changes and improvements that people are asking for which is helping their position.

Anyways, sorry for the rambling. I have both systems and enjoy both, PlayStation has always had more games I want to play but I still usually end up using my Xbox more for some reason. Maybe one day they'll just make a system together and put an end to this "console war" nonsense, at least then I could have all the games I want on a single system

PS4 is great, I just want them to get rid of all the social junk that no one needs. I noticed that dumb "Who to follow" thing is back, and of course, they won't give us the option to remove it. My block list is filling up with people who set their accounts to broadcast to all "Friends of Friends".

Seems about the same for me, though its now got a shed load of "Sharing features" that I couldn't really care about. The main features I want are yet to be added, hopefully they will add them soon.

Just picked up a PS4 on Black Friday. The lack of AAA exclusives tempted me to go for the Xbone (Halo and Gears of War), however the superiority of the PS4's hardware and Sony's track record of delivering numerous quality exclusive titles for each of its consoles convinced me to go with the PS4. Very excited to play Until Dawn and The Order (despite its mixed reviews), as well as the remastered versions of some PS3 titles I missed out on (Uncharted/Last of Us).

Now that we have themes and avatars (finally!!!), the PS4 is perfection. How cool is it that you have access from your PS4 to your PS3 avatars? Sweeeet!

On the games front, the lack of AAA has been a bit disappointing, but many of them have a lot of content and/or high replay value, so while I may not be playing as many games per year as in the previous generation, I'm spending more time with the games I buy and enjoying it (and saving money!!)

It's such a superior experience to the Xbox1. The UI is no contest, Gold is inferior to Plus, and just the 'feel' of the console and online community pales to the PS4.

I moved over from the X360 about a year ago and have zero regrets. It's a console that is definitely geared towards gaming first, unlike the X1. I would really like to see a simpler dashboard or one you can customize better at the very least. I would also like to see less of the social media crap.

A_Tennis_Giraffe said:A good read, thanks!

I was lucky enough to get my PS4 as a birthday present last year (thanks Funder ), Clearly an awesome guy

A_Tennis_Giraffe said:There are several things I'd like to see added or improved upon, such as folders for games and apps (like on PS3), and most of all I want game installs, DLC items and updates all separated so that we have the ability to delete selected content.This is something I really would like implemented so I can delete my installed game and keep my DLC and updates, rubbish internet makes this a real problem.
Other than that the PS4 has been great, hopefully next year (year 3) and beyond will be where we start seeing this Gen really kick it up.

Funderballs_007 said:A_Tennis_Giraffe said:There are several things I'd like to see added or improved upon, such as folders for games and apps (like on PS3), and most of all I want game installs, DLC items and updates all separated so that we have the ability to delete selected content.This is something I really would like implemented so I can delete my installed game and keep my DLC and updates, rubbish internet makes this a real problem.
Other than that the PS4 has been great, hopefully next year (year 3) and beyond will be where we start seeing this Gen really kick it up.I didn't even really think about this until I saw your reply to him but they really do need to let us have the ability to manage the storage more than what they do now. That's such a basic function that really should have been in there from day 1.

Support External HDD's Sony!!! Then You will be untouchable. All of your competitors let you use an external, Nintendo/Microsoft/Steam all let you.