Sony Playstation 4 - Does Greatness Await?
Sony's Playstation 4 will be the first next-gen console to reach Singapore, when it goes on sale tomorrow. But is it a worthy successor to the PS3? And does it offer enough to make it a day one purchase? We find out.
Overview
At E3, six months ago, it looked like Sony already had this console war won and done with. Thanks to Microsoft's baffling decision to commit seppuku with the Xbox One by announcing a high launch price, restrictive always online DRM policies, a block on lending and trading in used games, and a focus on social content and media streaming that gamers just weren't very interested in, Sony's more powerful, more affordable, game-focused Playstation 4 seemed like the natural console choice.
The Xbox One has recovered somewhat, with Microsoft reversing most of its controversial decisions, but Microsoft's original intent has left a bad taste in the mouth of many gamers (one of our own writers is adamant about switching to Playstation for this console generation), and it doesn't help that, in Singapore at least, the Playstation 4 goes on sale tomorrow, while the latest update we've received from Microsoft regarding the Xbox One's release is "sometime later next year".
But does the Playstation 4 have enough going for it to make it a day one purchase? First, let's take a look at some of its key features:-
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PS4 Console Design
While the Playstation 3 was a rotund beast, complete with a belly that absolutely refused to slide into the slim media console under your TV, the Playstation 4 is slim, svelte and low-profile. It looks like Sony skipped its usual product cycle of bulky first generation console, followed by a Slim version a few years later, and thankfully went straight for the Slim model this time round.
The squarish, angled design has a vaguely retro aesthetic, almost like a NES updated for 2013, and looks quite attractive in both flat and standing positions. Mostly matte black in color, a panel of glossy black plastic adds a touch of class and doubles up as the removable hard drive cover. In the divide between the glossy and matte areas, a strip of light acts as a notification light: turn the PS4 on and it will glow blue, before changing to a steady white while the console is running. The strip turns amber when the PS4 is in Standby mode (a low-power sleep mode which stays connected to the Internet and can charge controllers that are plugged in) and pulses white during the shutdown process.
The strip of lighting across the PS4's top looks stylish and also acts as a notification light.
Included in the box with the PS4 is one Dualshock 4 controller, a PS4 headset (consisting of one earphone and one microphone), a 2m micro-USB cable, which, unlike the PS3's abysmally short included cable, is thankfully long enough to play games with while charging the controller, an HDMI cable, and a power cable. Like the PS3 (and unlike the Xbox One), there's no power brick required for the PS4, which keeps everything neat and tidy. Do note that the PS Camera peripheral is not included in the box, and is sold separately for S$87.90.
Finally, an included HDMI cable!
The entire console weighs about 2.4kg, making it about half the weight of an original PS3, and actually slightly lighter than the roughly 3kg PS3 Slim.
Ports & Connectivity
On the front panel, an almost invisible slot load Blu-ray drive, as well as two USB 3.0 ports are hidden in the recess between the upper and lower sections. The power button and disc eject button can also be found here.
The front of the machine is very tidy, with the slot load Blu-ray drive as well as two USB 3.0 ports hidden in the recess between the top and bottom sections.
On the back of the machine, Sony has gone strictly digital, with just the single HDMI port as your sole video output option. Video output formats include 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p, and yes, 4K as well - which shouldn't be a surprise considering Sony's big push for its own 4K TVs. On the rear of the machine, you'll also find an Optical Audio port for connecting to a speaker setup, a proprietary port for connecting Sony's PS Camera peripheral, an RJ-45 Ethernet port for connecting to the internet, the power port, and an array of cooling vents.
The entire rear side is covered in cooling vents. This is also the first Playstation to ditch all analog connectors.
Rather frustratingly, especially for a next-gen console that is expected to last at least the next five years, the PS4 doesn't support the Wireless 802.11ac standard, instead utilizing the older 802.11b/g/n network, and even then 5GHz bands are not supported! So you're stuck with 2.4 GHz speeds. This makes a wired connection almost mandatory, as downloading games or even large update files over wireless can be extremely sluggish.
Dualshock 4 Controller
As with the Dualshock 2 and 3, Sony has, for the most part, stuck to the same design as its original Dualshock controller, adding only a few subtle tweaks and improvements to the new Dualshock 4. Gamers who grumbled about the small size of the original controller will be pleased to know that the Dualshock 4 has increased in both size and weight, and now feels more solid in hand, with its larger, more substantial handles. The analog thumb sticks are also positioned slightly further apart, and sport ergonomic concaves in the middle of the sticks that you can rest your thumbs in. Best of all, Sony seems to have taken a cue from the Xbox controller, and reshaped the L2 and R2 buttons with much larger, concave trigger shapes, with far greater travel distance, resulting in a more satisfying FPS experience.
The L2 and R2 buttons are larger, with further travel, and now have a concave trigger shape.
The Dualshock 4 also adopts the multi-colored lighting of the PS3's PS Move peripheral, with the front of player one's controller glowing blue, and each subsequent connected player lighting up a different color. Like the lighting on the console itself, the Dualshock 4's lighting also serves as a notification light, turning amber while it is charging. A minor but interesting change on the Dualshock 4 is that it uses a micro-USB cable, rather than the mini-USB used on the Dualshock 3. This should be good news for most Android smartphone owners, as it is likely to be the same cable you use to charge your phone with - handy if you ever misplace the cable that came with your PS4.
The lighting on the Dualshock 4 is used by the PS Camera peripheral to more accurately track movement. It also serves as a notification light to identify each player.
The 'Start' and 'Select' buttons have been replaced with 'Options' and 'Share' respectively, the first of which behaves much as 'Start' used to, while the latter enables easy uploading of game footage from the PS4 to your preferred social network. The buttons have also been redesigned, pushed to the side to make way for the new central touchpad, and have lost their familiar triangle and rectangle shapes, replaced instead with smaller oblong designs. They're also more flush with the controller surface, which can actually make pausing mid-game a bit tricky - honestly, we found it easier to just hit the PS button to pause the game.
A nice new feature on the Dualshock 4 is the built-in speaker and 3.5mm audio jack. The speaker adds a little bit of extra immersion for games like Killzone Shadow Fall, where picking up an audio log will play it right from the controller, while the 3.5mm audio jack will be a welcome addition for anyone who likes to play games at full volume without disturbing others - just plug your preferred headphones right into the controller, go to the PS4's audio menu, and set 'all audio' to output through the controller.
You can plug any standard 3.5mm jack headphones into the Dualshock 4.
The biggest change to the Dualshock 4 is the large clickable touchpad found in the middle of the controller. Right now, it's not the most useful addition, as it's clear that game developers haven't really figured out what to do with it yet. For example, in Killzone Shadow Fall it can be used to select different options for your OWL drone, but this could just as easily have been accomplished with the D-Pad as up, down, left, and right are your only commands. In Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag, it can be used as a trackpad to navigate the map menu, but it's a bit clumsy and slow to respond, and we found it easier to just use the thumbstick to move around the map.
The clickable trackpad has a smooth finish, and feels similar to the rear touchpad on Sony's PS Vita.
After just a few hours with the Dualshock 4, we can appreciate Sony's continuing efforts to improve an already great controller, and almost all of the Dualshock 4's subtle improvements are much welcomed. The jury is still out on the usefulness of the touchpad, but maybe some game developer will think of a killer way to incorporate it into their game.Our only point of concern is that battery life on the Dualshock 4 seems a bit lacking. From a full charge, the controller lasted only about nine hours before it needed to be recharged, which is significantly shorter than the 30 or so hours the Dualshock 3 was capable of. On the plus side, it's much easier to keep your controller charged up now, as you can finally charge it in the default Standby mode, and the included micro-USB cable is also long enough that you don't have to sit right next to the console to play while it's connected.
The Dualshock 4 is more substantial than the Dualshock 3, with longer, rounder handles and a wider overall form factor.
Operating System
The PS4 gets a new operating system, rather boringly named the Playstation Dynamic Menu (it's certainly got nothing on the old XMediaBar). The new OS prominently features a row of square icons, horizontally listing: What's New, TV & Video, Live from PlayStation, Internet Browser, Video Unlimited, Music Unlimited, and Library, which shows any games you've installed, in order of how recently you played them. Selecting an icon shows additional information below it, for example What's New lists news and updates from PSN. Compared to the XMediaBar, the new UI is certainly simpler to navigate, but we do worry that, with no way to organize or sort your list of games, and with every game that gets installed appearing here, it could end up quickly getting very cluttered.
Every game gets installed into the horizontal Playstation Dynamic Menu. Hovering over a game will show you extra information about it.
Press up on the controller and you'll get to the rest of the PS4's menu options, which is a lot more reminiscent of XMediaBar, if only due to its complicated hierarchy of menus, sub-menus and other options, some of which are pretty vague and may or may not appear again in other menus. For example, the Friends Menu lists two separate options for Friend Request and Name Requests, both of which also appear again in the Notifications Menu. You' can probably eventually find what you want in this maze of, admittedly, quite comprehensive menus, but it might take you a while to get to there.
The PS3's often confusing array of menus and sub menus makes a return on the PS4.
Some of the apps preloaded onto the PS4 at launch are a little lackluster too. For example, the browser app's user interface is a little awkward to use and doesn't support flash either. On the plus side, if you are forced to use it, it's not too bad, and certainly a step up over the old PS3 browser. Just for fun, we ran our smartphone and tablet browser benchmark, Sunspider Javascript 1.0.1 on it, and it recorded a score of 1018.2ms, which is a little bit worse than the average high-end smartphone, but quite respectable overall.
Gaming Performance
Whenever a word like 'next-generation' is used to describe something, there's a natural expectation that that product will be significantly better than what came before it. In the case of next-generation consoles, that means better games. On paper at least, the PS4 looks like it has the potential to deliver. Sony has scrapped the complicated Cell-based architecture used on the PS3, opting instead for an AMD-built 8-core x86 APU clocked at 1.6GHz, with a custom-built AMD GPU based on AMD's Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture, clocked at 800MHz with 18 Compute Units and 1152 stream processors. Sony claims that this makes the PS4 about ten times more powerful than the PS3, and its GPU is also notably more powerful than the one found in the Xbox One.
So far, head-to-head comparisons of multi-platform titles certainly favor the PS4. For example, Battlefield 4 is rendered at a resolution of 1600 x 900 pixels on the PS4, but only 1280 x 720 pixels on the Xbox One, while Call of Duty: Ghosts will run at 1080p resolution on both systems, but only natively on the PS4, with the Xbox One version upscaled from 720p.
As for exclusive titles, Killzone Shadow Fall is probably the only noteworthy launch title for the PS4. Compared to Killzone 3, a 2011 PS3 title, Shadow Fall has more impressive lighting, environment and particle effects and is capable of rendering a much larger, more detailed game area. Having said that, character and gun models, as well as buildings, trees and other environment models don't look significantly improved, and it's actually hard to see much difference between the two. The difference is even less obvious when comparing it to a 2013 PS3 title like The Last of Us, which featured excellent lighting effects. For now at least, the biggest visual difference between the two consoles will definitely be the upgrade from 720p to 1080p as the native resolution of choice.
Killzone Shadow Fall: More lens flare than a J.J. Abrams movie!
2011's Killzone 3. Less lens flare, but still a great looking game.
Finally, it's worth noting that, while the PS4 may be ten times more powerful than the PS3, its specs make it roughly equivalent to a mid-range gaming PC, with a GPU similar to a Radeon HD 7870. So while Killzone Shadow Fall looks pretty good, anyone with PC gaming experience is likely to be unimpressed. Shadow Fall probably most closely resembles a mid or high-end PC running the 2011 game, Crysis 2, with its high definition texture pack installed, and compared to Crysis 3 at maximum settings on a PC, it really doesn't look as good in comparison.
Maxed out Crysis 3 on the PC probably has Killzone Shadow Fall beat in terms of graphics.
Is 500GB Enough?
All PS4 games require installation to play - in fact, the installation process starts as soon as you slot the disc in. On the plus side, you can jump into most games straight away and let the rest of the game finish installing in the background. At launch, all PS4s will come with a 500GB hard drive, which may seem like a big jump over the 40GB units that the first PS3s were shipped with, but with games requiring between 20-30GB to install, that space quickly fills up. It's a relatively easy process to pop off the HDD cover and install a standard SATA connector 2.5-inch drive and with HDD prices relatively affordable right now, you might want to consider installing an upgraded capacity drive as soon as you get your new PS4.
You could of course install an SSD, which will speed up installation and loading speeds, but due to a much higher cost per GB, unless you're prepared to pay more for your SSD than you did for your PS4, you're likely to run out of storage space very fast.
To install a new HDD, just slide the glossy HDD cover off the top of your PS4.
Look for the Playstation screw - it has Sony's familiar X, Triangle, Square and Circle markings on it.
Unscrew it and slide out the HDD mount. The PS4 takes any 2.5-inch drive with a standard SATA connector. Just mount your new drive in and you're good to go.
PS Vita Second Screen & Remote Play
One of the major new features Sony has been pushing with the PS4 is its ability to sync up with its PS Vita handheld console, which can be used as a second screen or for remote play. Setting up the process feels a bit more complicated than it needs to be, requiring not just a specific code issued by your PS4 to be entered into your Vita, but also that both Vita and PS4 be logged into the same PSN account. While this is fine at home, it is somewhat annoying having to jump through unnecessary extra hoops if, for example, you want to go to a friend's house and use your Vita as a second controller on his PS4.
The setup process is a bit more complicated than required, but once completed, you can jump straight to this screen every time.
Remote play has many of the same limitations as it does on the Wii U, with limited distance and delay lag being the main downsides. In our testing, the Vita remained smooth within the same room, but started lagging as soon as we relocated to a different room or got about 15m away from the PS4. On the plus side, the PS4's controls translate quite nicely to the Vita, with the rear touchpad nicely mirroring the functionality of the Dualshock 4's touchpad. Overall, remote play works quite well if you don't have access to your main TV for some reason, and those with Vita's collecting dust may find some extra functionality here, but there's certainly no reason to rush out and a buy a Vita to complement your PS4.
If you don't mind the small screen, playing PS4 games on the Vita works surprisingly well. The rear touchpad copies the functionality of the Dualshock 4 touchpad.
Second screen functionality didn't work with Killzone Shadow Fall, and will rely on each developer's willingness to implement it. Even so, we question its overall usefulness, as diverting your eyes from the main screen where all the action is occurring to a tiny secondary screen on your lap seems mostly redundant. On the plus side, if it does turn out to be useful, Sony has released an app for iOS and Android that offers the same second screen functionality on your smartphone or tablet.
Hopefully this won't be too common a sight.
The PS Camera Peripheral
The PS Camera is much smaller than the Kinect and should easily fit under your TV. Unfortunately, there's not much you can do with it right now.
While Kinect has not been an overwhelming success for Microsoft, it's done well enough that Sony has created a similar motion sensing camera for the PS4, which, like the Kinect will also include a microphone to allow for voice commands.
We had limited success voice controlling the PS4. While commands are simple enough, it's never clearly explained what the full list of commands are. Saying “Playstation” will tell the system you're issuing it a command, and you can then launch a game or app by saying, for example, "Killzone, start", but even this took a few attempts, and there were times where nothing happened, or the PS4 mysteriously opened a completely unrelated app - like the browser - which, to us at least, sounds nothing at all like "Killzone".
Unlike the Kinect, which has an IR component, the PS Camera also requires a minimum level of ambient light to work correctly - even with the assistance of the bright, glowing light on the Dualshock 4. Software support is also rather lacking for the PS Camera. Right now, the only game that takes advantage of it is Sony's own "The Playroom", a collection of silly augmented reality mini-games starring Sony's AR robots that comes preloaded on all PS4s, and is likely to entertain for all of five minutes.
Testing the PS camera, motion control seems accurate enough, but there's not much you can do with it right now as The Playroom does nothing impressive to show off the tech, with most actions involving very simple motions like shaking the controller. Additionally, due to the PS Camera requiring the Dualshock 4 for all motion-control activity, using it felt like a step back to a Nintendo Wii or PS Move rather than the superior hands-free experience of the Kinect.
Perhaps the most worrying aspect of the PS Camera is that it is unclear what its place will be within the PS4's ecosystem, as Sony and its developers don't seem to have invested much effort into it at this time. More concerning is that this is Sony's third attempt at a camera peripheral, following the PS3's PS Eye and PS2's EyeToy peripherals, both of which were released to much fanfare, and then quickly abandoned by Sony. The PS Camera will require dedicated software support as it is highly unlikely to share multi-platform titles with Kinect motion-control titles, due to its reliance on the Dualshock 4 controller. Given Sony's previous track record with camera peripheral support, things don't look too good right now.
Remember this? Because Sony seems to have forgotten it.
Conclusion
Is a game console without games still a game console?
There's lots to like about the Playstation 4: it's low-profile, runs quietly, and has a familiar but much improved controller. But right now, it just doesn't feel all that next-generation. The Playstation 2 and 3 both showed an immediate and obvious jump in power over their predecessors, delivering far superior graphics and gaming experiences, but it's hard to say the same for the Playstation 4. Obviously it's unrealistic to expect the same leap in graphical quality each time a new console is released - diminishing returns will result in smaller upgrades each time - but it doesn't look good when the best looking game on the PS4 looks rather average in comparison to what some PC titles are capable of.
Even if we overlook the graphics (after all, some of the early PS3 games didn't look that amazing either), we should still expect a next-generation gaming experience to deliver in other ways. But with a rather anemic looking list of 23 launch titles, which includes a few outright duds like Tottemo E Mahjong, there's limited options for the PS4 right now. It doesn't help that, as one of the few, perhaps only, Triple A launch titles exclusive to the Playstation 4, Killzone Shadow Fall comes under a lot of scrutiny and unfortunately, it just isn't that impressive. It's basically a repetitive and mediocre, or even under average, FPS shooter, with a familiar format and a linear storyline. For some reason, Guerilla Games also opted to do away with the chaotic warzone feel of Killzone 1, 2 and 3, and instead chose a mostly solo experience. Instead of the handful of enemies and allies on screen in Killzone 3, can you imagine if Shadow Fall gave us hundreds of intelligent AI soldiers on both sides of the battlefield at the same time? (And no, we don't mean standing around aimlessly, Dynasty Warriors style). This, at least, would have demonstrated some of the processing power of the PS4. Instead, we got lens flare - lots and lots of lens flare effect.
And while Sony may have done its best to implement new features and gaming experiences into the PS4, like the Dualshock 4 touchpad, and second screen functionality with the PS Vita or Playstation app via your smartphone, if developers can't find a good way to utilize them, Sony might as well not have bothered at all.
Ultimately, the PS4's potential still remains to be seen, and it will come down to what other developers can do with its hardware. Sony has put itself in a good position to win this console generation, and with more powerful hardware than its competitors and some interesting unique features (for a more indepth console versus console comparison refer to this article), we certainly haven't seen everything the PS4 is capable of yet. Until that happens though, there's little incentive to upgrade, beyond staying relevant.
Perhaps Sony's ongoing tagline for the PS4 is the best descriptor of the current situation. 'Greatness Awaits' it says. That's apt, because, for now at least, we're still waiting.
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