The last few years have seen an incredible growth in the popularity of game consoles. We see that in addition to the established console users, many people are converting every day from the “good old” PC to a gaming console.
Now this happens for several reasons. The main reason is that many great games are now exclusive to one console or another, providing a better multiplayer experience, and after all, a mental dissociation between working on a computer and playing separately, comfortable on your couch with your friends or family. .
Last year we were presented with great promises of next generation gaming experience. But did he deliver?
Well, let’s go over one of the top gaming consoles, Sony PlayStation 4 and see for ourselves.
Compared to the PS3, the PS4 is a pure gaming console, with better hardware, a slim design, and new controllers to satisfy even the most demanding needs.
Design
The PS4 is slim (only 12.01 × 10.8 × 2.09 inches), sharp, light, with clean lines, and is available in two colors, glossy white and jet black.
On the back you can find an HDMI port, Ethernet port, digital optical audio port (no more analog audio or video outputs) and finally the AUX port for the PlayStation Camera peripheral.
On the front, the PS4 has a slot-loading Blu-ray drive and on the right we find two USB 3.0 ports. A line divides the console integrating the power and eject buttons.
The console ventilation is well done and generates little to no noise.
Overall, the PS4 is attractive, beautiful in shape, not too big, built with quality materials, and fits nicely into a modern type of furniture.
Performance
Inside, we found Sony using a similar setup to Microsoft. With an octa-core AMD Jaguar x86 CPU, backed by 8GB of GDDR5 RAM and a Radeon GPU with 1.84 TFLOPS, the PS4 is very powerful and, importantly, easy for developers to use.
Additionally, the console includes a 500 GB hard drive for additional storage that can be upgraded.
The PS4 is capable of running 4K videos or photos, but we don’t expect it to run games at this resolution.
Thanks to these specs, we found the PS4 to be generally quiet, occasionally getting louder (especially when loading game discs), getting hot at times, but not above common sense, games ran smoothly, graphics were excellent, so we had no complaints in this department.
controllers
It seems that Sony heard all the cries from gamers about the DualShock 3 and decided to make a better and better controller.
And so we witnessed the birth of DualShock 4.
The dimensions of the controller are 6.4×2.0×3.9in, it weighs 7.4oz (slightly more than its predecessor), and its design is quite similar to the DualShock 3. But make no mistake, DS4 is far from DS3.
The new controller is much more comfortable, regardless of hand size, and is much more precise. Based on the order of the players synchronized with the console, the controller will emit a different foreground color for each player and the peripheral camera will follow the movement of the controller accurately.
The dual joysticks are much more precise and having a more concave shape really helped keep the thumbs from slipping. The major new addition, aside from the light bar mentioned above, is the speaker, a new Share button, and a trackpad.
The touchpad is comfortable to touch, responsive, smooth, and basically works like the touchpad you see on laptops. (Note: We hope that developers will make more frequent use of this feature as it is a great addition.)
The DS4 also has a 3.5mm jack so you can plug any headset directly into the controller.
We’ve seen many people say that the DualShock 4 is the best controller Sony has ever made and we agree that using the DS4 was a delight.
Note: PS4 supports control voice input. You can use a microphone or a camera to enable this feature.
Software
If any of you own a Sony TV, you’ll see the striking similarity between the interface on the TV and the interface on the PS4. PS4 seems to have moved away from the look and feel of PS3 and while it retains the speed of the predecessor’s interface, the new one is much more flexible.
The main features of the new interface are simplicity, flexibility and ease of use.
Booting up the PS4 is almost instant (on cold it takes about 15 seconds) and then we’re presented with an easy-to-navigate layout comprising of a three-tier menu.
The main menu is made up of the games you have installed and some other additional applications, the top menu is a notification bar (alerts, messages, trophies) and at the bottom, the options and updates.
Note: The PlayStation 4 Orbis operating system does not require an Internet connection to function, but being connected to the Internet provides more features.
A new addition to the PS4 (April update) is the automatic connection with a PS Vita. It means that even if you turn off the TV, you can still play on PS Vita thanks to a direct WiFi link.
In addition to the PS Vita, you can also connect smartphones or tablets that can also act as second screen devices.
One of the strengths of PS4 is Social Networks. By opening the What’s New page, you can keep track of your friends’ activities, social media, see who’s online, and generally have a better experience when trying to play social media-focused games.
Another nice enhanced feature is the PlayStation Store. The store is easy to navigate, you can easily find the games you want, and if your download stops due to a sudden power outage, you are presented with a resume option.
IF you used the old PS3 interface, the PS4 interface will feel much more intuitive, simpler (no more PS3 confusion), and easier to use.
What about the games?
All games must be installed on the console storage before they can be played, although a portion of the game can be played before it finishes installing.
Since the PS4 is over a year old, many games have been created exclusively for this platform. Games like Resogun, Assassin’s Creed 4 or Infamous Second Son played smoothly on PS4, the graphics were good, but more recent games like The Order 1886 have really shown what the PS4 GPU can offer.
The gameplay feels great in most games thanks to the awesome controller, the graphics are really good, but even if they provide a great gaming experience, Sony has strong competition with Microsoft.
What we hope is to see more developers push the limits of the PS4 and show us what this little console is really capable of.
As a conclusion, we say that Sony PlayStation 4 is a really great “purebred” game console, with great performance, offering great game titles and worth every penny.
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