Playstation 4 Owners Thread

[professorhat]

Logged in and updated everything earlier today figuring it would be less busy, leaving this evening for getting on with trying things out. Both Killzone and Assassin's Creed look amazing - Killzone edging out the win on the graphics front. After several hours of toying with these, we tried out the Playroom (I have the Playstation Camera), playing Air Hockey for a while which was good fun. Finally, we tried the Playstation Store again about 1am and found we could finally download Resogun and Contrast (the two free PS Plus games) - just a quick blast on each showed they're going to provide some good entertainment considering they cost £1.67 each, and that's assuming they were the only reason you took out PS Plus membership!

All in all, I'm very impressed with the PS4 at launch, and I know it's only going to get better as Sony address some of the shortcomings that have been identified. First and foremost though, I'm looking forward now to a full weekend of next-gen gaming!
How was your first day?

 

[mr malarky]

Got about two hours only in on KillZone, its a very good technical showcase for the graphics potential of the system, very impressive for a launch title!

Game play could be criticised if I was being harsh, but you can't argue with how it looks, amazingly sharp and clear visuals, fantastic lighting effects and draw distances that all look stunning on the ZT.

Excellent sound as well.

The controller is definitely better than the old PS3 one, though I still found myself putting my left thumb in the wrong place and wondering why there wasn't a stick there! (Too used to the 360 controller). Will get used to that in time.

Will have a go at getting onto PSN this afternoon, have all day tomorrow to get stuck into COD as the misses is at work all day.

Overall, very impressed so far.

 

[carter]

I'm all loged in now and ps+ games downloaded however I haven't tried them yet intact I haven't tried assassins either,the boys were up at 7 and got FIFA on.

would be good to hear how well the camera stuff works as I haven't got this yet but will probably pick it up before christmas,I went for a second remote instead.

i did hook my vita up via remote play and that worked smoothly but I was only navigating the menu,will be interested to see how it's used as a second screen for games like the wii u.

will report more later if I can ever prise the remotes out of the boys hands ;-)

 

[manicm]

Ok I know this is primarily a gaming machine, but what's the blu-ray playback like?

 

[professorhat]

We'll probably watch a movie this evening, so I'll play it through this rather than my Blu-ray player and feedback.

 

[carter]

Will be giving worlds end a spin later so will report back then

 

[manicm]

thx!

 

[carter]

just finished the first bluray (worlds end) and would say the picture was as good as my bdp350 and my ps3 not sure if it looked better or not having not seen the film before but it looked very good.

sound was amazing and probably better than the ps3 will be watching hp5 tomorrow with the kids so will probably have a better idea on pq and sound.

 

[fr0g]

Assuming picture and sound is going via HDMI, then picture and sound will be the same as any other blue ray player when playing blue ray disks.

 

[altruistic.lemon]

Is that based on the Ashley dictum or do you actually know something about the technology?

 

[bigboss]

I agree with fr0g based on my personal experiences, AV forums & few other reviews of blu ray players in general, and explanation from few experts.

 

[altruistic.lemon]

If it's true I'm glad hear it since have bought a PS3 for Blue Ray as it was cheaper than the specialist players on offer.

 

[carter]

Yep, was hdmi to amp to projector and sound was also hdmi to amp to power amps.

think this disk was a master audio sound track not sure how I got it set for decoding at the minute if it's on the ps4 or the amp,on my ps3 I think it did it in the amp that could of made the difference to the sound but to be fair I couldn't fault the ps3 or bdp350 sound

As far as the picture goes with bluray this is the reason I've never changed my bdp as other players I've looked at I can't tell much difference they all look good to me.

 

[fr0g]

Is that based on the Ashley dictum or do you actually know something about the technology?

I can read. And I have a reasonable understanding of science. Most of what Ashley says, I disagree with to be honest, but whichever bluray player you use, and whichever cable, the bits that hit the receiver, or the TV are the same and in the same order, unless something is broken. A £40 Tesco Bluray player will look and sound identical to a Cambridge or an Oppo at 10-20 times the price...You are paying for build quality, features and possibly upscaling...and of course, analogue playback if you're using it for stereo.

I have been using PS3 for BR duties since the beginning. I briefly flirted with a 5 star reviewed Panasonic (before I had started to actually think about how it works), and the PS3 won hands down for speed, ease of use, compatibility, and versitility. The picture and sound, was identical, which as I now realise, is as it should be.

The only possible negative is fan noise, which on my original fat PS3 was quite noticeable.

Assuming it isn't worse on the PS4, then it will be a fine BR player.

I always found PS3 upscaling pretty good too in the case of DVDs.

 

[carter]

Is that based on the Ashley dictum or do you actually know something about the technology?

I can read. And I have a reasonable understanding of science. Most of what Ashley says, I disagree with to be honest, but whichever bluray player you use, and whichever cable, the bits that hit the receiver, or the TV are the same and in the same order, unless something is broken. A £40 Tesco Bluray player will look and sound identical to a Cambridge or an Oppo at 10-20 times the price...You are paying for build quality, features and possibly upscaling...and of course, analogue playback if you're using it for stereo.

I have been using PS3 for BR duties since the beginning. I briefly flirted with a 5 star reviewed Panasonic (before I had started to actually think about how it works), and the PS3 won hands down for speed, ease of use, compatibility, and versitility. The picture and sound, was identical, which as I now realise, is as it should be.

The only possible negative is fan noise, which on my original fat PS3 was quite noticeable.

Assuming it isn't worse on the PS4, then it will be a fine BR player.

I always found PS3 upscaling pretty good too in the case of DVDs.

good points as far as other functions the ps4 is defenatly quieter than the ps3(well my existing gen 1 issue) that I suppose is no surprise as it's brand new and my ps3 is well used, but thinking back I think my ps3 always made some noise and the ps4 is silent with games and bluray so far.

load times are quicker than my Bdp and my ps3 wich has never really been a problem for me as I don't mind waiting a couple of extra seconds for a disk to load but the ps4 was pretty much instant last night

not sure I will continue to use my ps4 or my bdp in the future as play and pause is always better than circle and square but I will use it for the next couple of weeks just to get a feel for it.

 

[professorhat]

We'll probably watch a movie this evening, so I'll play it through this rather than my Blu-ray player and feedback.

Sorry, too much game playing going on so far to watch Blu-rays! Sure I will at some point and then I'll feedback (and yes, I'm well aware of the discussions going on about all Blu-ray players being identical, but I'll feedback to those that are interested).

 

[carter]

We'll probably watch a movie this evening, so I'll play it through this rather than my Blu-ray player and feedback.

Sorry, too much game playing going on so far to watch Blu-rays! Sure I will at some point and then I'll feedback (and yes, I'm well aware of the discussions going on about all Blu-ray players being identical, but I'll feedback to those that are interested).

did you play resogun yet,great little game put it on for a quick 5 minute go and an hour later I was still playing.

its got an old school feel to it and very cool with the suround sound on then the voice starts talking to you from the remote.

 

[professorhat]

Yes, had a quick blast of it on Friday night along with Contrast, but haven't played since - didn't get as much time as I would have liked to play at the weekend (the curse of being older now!) and am hooked on Assassin's Creed IV at the moment - I suspect I will go back to it once I've grown tired of pirating!

 

[manicm]

Thanks, I have time anyway, on my side the PS4 will be released on 15th Dec, and the XB1 is not even being advertised yet.

 

[professorhat]

For anyone that's realised their Amazon Prime membership gives them access to stream movies, TV shows etc. today - remember to download the PS4 Amazon app - sign in with your Amazon account and you have access to thousnads of HD movies and TV shows through this. It works really well - have added a load of stuff to my watch list!

 

[DandyCobalt]

My 14 year old son wants to buy a PS4 with money saved up from birthdays/Xmas etc.

He already has a PS3 (the newer slim quieter one).

He only plays games on it. (Battlefield 4, Assassins Creed etc). No blu-ray/streaming etc.

I'm reluctant to let him buy a PS4 (as he also needs my TV to use it, I have the controlling vote).

What would the advantages be of the PS4 vs the PS3 for what he does with it?

Would a PS4 just encourage him to spend more time about 2 feet from a tv screen shouting into a mike/headset and annoying the rest of the family?

 

[professorhat]

What would the advantages be of the PS4 vs the PS3 for what he does with it?

1. It would play newer games with better graphics. This includes some titles that will only come out on PS4 - not many at the moment, but the number will increase. The bigge coming up is InFamous: Second Son which is a PS4 exclusive.

2. The controller is better on the PS4.

3. If you have a PS Plus subscription (£39.99 per year), you'd also get extra free games every month for the PS4 as well as for the PS3 - and they're generally pretty good games too, not just filler.

4. Does he have a PS Vita? If so, he can remote play his PS4 on the Vita i.e. he wouldn't take up use of the TV when doing this as it displays on the PS Vita screen. It really works as well.

Would a PS4 just encourage him to spend more time about 2 feet from a tv screen shouting into a mike/headset and annoying the rest of the family?

Almost definitely, although unless he already has the PS Plus subscription as mentioned above, he wouldn't be able to play online (though see note above on getting free games with PS Plus).

 

[mr malarky]

For anyone that's realised their Amazon Prime membership gives them access to stream movies, TV shows etc. today - remember to download the PS4 Amazon app - sign in with your Amazon account and you have access to thousnads of HD movies and TV shows through this. It works really well - have added a load of stuff to my watch list!

I have amazon prime and have had the emails about the streaming service but haven't had chance to check it out yet - do you have to pay for movies or is all the content free to view?

 

[professorhat]

Not all, but there is a lot which is free (most of what I looked at was, though bizarrely the first and third of Nolan's Batman trilogy, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight Rises were free, whilst the second movie, The Dark Knight wasn't!).

It tells you when you browse through whether the cost is £0.00 for Prime - if that's there it's free.

 

[rocketrazor]

does it stream in 1080p with Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound? Its been one of the main reasons I don't stream anything, the sound.

Ta