PlayStation 4

2/20/14 I'm really pleased with the performance of the PS4 so far. I was really worried about the infamous blue-light of death I've heard many people talk about, but I've used the PS4 multiple times in the few hours I've had it, and it always responds well. I hope it continues to do so. The mechanics are great, but I've yet to experience the gaming greatness. I don't have any games for it so far. The only thing I've done so far is link my Amazon Video to it, but I intend on getting some games soon. My main interests are in Assassin's Creed Four and Battlefield Four. The latter is particularly exciting for me. I'm going to get PS Plus so I can play the multiplayer. The 64-man madness is something I've been anticipating for a while, and it is simply too good an opportunity to pass up. However, I am going to attempt to be patient and wait a little longer to get BF4 since I understand there are a lot of updates needed to make the game a better experience. So, I plan on getting started on Assassin's Creed in the meantime. I understand people are upset with the dearth supply of games, but it's been only three months since the launch. Building a diverse shelf will take some time, but I'm not really worried about it. Some great games are just around the corner. Watch Dogs is a game I anticipate when June arrives. Another game I'm really looking forward to is Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor. It does not have a release date yet, so I cannot honestly say this will come out any time soon. However, the AI for the game sounds fantastically challenging. Murdered Soul Suspect, Evolve, and Final Fantasy XV are all games I also really want to try. Another tentative yet awesome announcement is Red Dead Redemption 2 (or RDR three to those who've played Red Dead Revolver). I just recently learned it is being made, but I imagine it won't be released for another year. Anyway, these are just a few of my personal in-the-waiting favorites. I'm sure the PS4 will definitely grow a diverse selection of games. In the end, I am really looking forward to testing the PS4's full power. It's going to be an exciting new chapter for Playstation. I can't help but express my bias by giving this a five-star rating. I really enjoyed the Xbox 360, and I'm sure the Xbox One is also a great product. Yet, I wanted to stick to a platform I'm really familiar with, and the Playstation has been my life-long companion. 2/22/14 I've ordered Assassin's Creed Four and I anticipate it will arrive very soon. I've still only been able to use PS4 for simple things like Amazon Video and Crackle, but it's still handling well. It remains problem free, and I've explored most of the console's features. I like the continued use of the main task bar. I'm used to the theme-oriented backgrounds made available on the PS3, so the lack of customization and personalization is somewhat depressing. However, even if this isn't changed in the future, I'll be fine with it (although I suspect some changes will be made). I should mention to prospective buyers that you cannot add music from an MP3 player or CD to the PS4. I find this to be a significant loss. I had thought this sort of thing would transfer over to PS4 since it would reinforce the versatility of Playstation consoles, but I am hopeful this will change. According to an article on Eurogamer.net, this will likely be modified in the not-so distant future. I imagine other sort of personalizing features and apps will be added to the PS4 over time. If these are things you look for in a gaming console, you may not want to buy it right now. The lack of UI customization is linked to Sony's primary efforts to create a platform oriented primarily for gaming, so we'll see what will become of the UI in the future. This is probably the most notable deficiency I've noticed for the PS4, but I still think the quality of the PS4 UI at this time is really good, even if it isn't entirely optimized. Overall, I am still very pleased with the PS4. I anticipate it will be a permanent item on my TV stand. 3/01/14 I got Assassin's Creed Four a few days ago, and I love it. The look and feel of it on the PS4 is nothing short of fantastic. The processing power of the Playstation Four really pulls out the minute graphic details and creates a smooth image. I really don't have much else to say until I've played it a bit more. I also decided to get BF4 given the price reduction and the player appreciation for the entire month of February. It is also runs well on the PS4 and looks absolutely stunning. Check out my review on it if you wish. The PS4 is still running well and I am extremely pleased with it. This is all really have to say for now.

**UPDATE AT THE BOTTOM** I've waited 4 months before writing my review on the PS4. The reason for this is because I wanted to see how it would improve with updates during the 4 months. I bought a PS3 about a year after they were released and a PS2 about a year after it was released. Since I've loved the playstation since my very first PS1, I decided I had nothing to lose and after a few months of the PS4 being released, I got one. Let me start this by saying I used the crap out of my PS3. I gave up cable because I had a my whole media library streaming to my PS3 along with Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime. It was one box for anything I wanted to watch or any game I wanted to play and it worked beautifully. An ultimate home theater entertainment solution. I loved it and so did my wife. The PS3 is the best console I own. That being said, so far the truth about the PS4 is it is glorified hardware for nice looking games and has the functionality to be able to download apps such as netflix, hulu, redbox, amazon prime, etc. Unfortunately the functionality ends there. As always on playstations, the web browser is garbage and if you do want to try watching anything from your media library from plex, the browser cuts off parts of the screen when you click on the fullscreen button and it's just a pain in the neck to even get to the plex site and do it this way. I've read several times that Sony "might" put give the PS4 media server functionality with dlna streaming, but after 4 months of owning the PS4, I feel as though I've paid a lot of money to lose functionality in order to gain nothing but glorified hardware that does not even support 3D. So if I were to buy a 3D TV, I would either need to connect both my PS3 and PS4 up to it or buy a 3D blue ray player. Don't get me wrong.The games on this thing look Phenomenal. I've yet to have problems with the grips on the controller. I've read 5 star review after 5 star review of this console to convince me that my purchase of this console is justified. However, I only game at night when my family is in bed so my daughter isn't distracted by the controller, and I don't have to pause every few minutes, so needless to say, unless I want to watch something on Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime, I barely turn the thing on. After giving it some thought, I decided to see if I could get a direct answer from Sony Support. Here's how our chat conversation went: Me: Yes. I purchased a PS4 back in March of this year, discovering that it did not have DLNA capabilities, 3d support, and it was not able to play media from an external storage device. I feel like I've paid for glorified hardware with less features than the PS3 had. Since I can't find a clear answer online just that "updates may change this in the future", I thought I would ask the company that sells the console if any of these things are changing for sure. Sony: I do apologize all inconveniences it may caused you, let me do my best to assist you. Me: not a big deal. I'd just like to know if any of these capabilities will definitely or will definitely not be added in the future. Sony: those options may come in the future, sorry for that. You may keep checking our website or our blog: http://blog.us.playstation.com/ Me: but there's really not a definite yes or no answer right? I just wanted to verify that nothing is set in stone as of right now. Sony: Not right now. Sony: Is there anything else I can assist you with today? Me: that will be all. thank you. So until I have a concrete answer, I'm plugging my PS3 back in and stuffing this thing in the closet until either a game comes out on PS4 that I really want to play that's unavailable on PS3, or an update finally comes out that makes the functionality of the PS4 exceed the functionality of the PS3, or my PS3 finally dies on me. If you used the media server functionality on the PS3, you'll find that this system leaves much to be desired. If you're a hardcore gamer and that's all you want to do on the PS4, then the PS4 is for you. ______________________________________________________________ **UPDATE** The PS4 now has a Plex app. If you don't know what Plex is, and you like to stream movies, music, and pictures from your computer to any phone, computer, tablet, etc anywhere you are, google Plex Media Server and get enlightened. Now that the Plex app is available, I have no reason to whine. I've added the additional 2 stars, and I now think this is the perfect Gaming/media system. the Rubber has worn off the joysticks on my controller, but there are covers and replacements that amazon sells, plus they should be covered under warranty. Not a deal breaker. But now that the Plex app has been added, I use my PS4 for everything.

I purchased a launch edition of both the Xbox One and the PS4, and find them both to be great consoles. This review is for those trying to decide between the two. After two weeks with the PS4 and a week with the Xbox, I love them both. There are pros and cons to each console. The positive for the PS4 is that it is the finished product. You can clearly see what Sony wanted to do and they executed on it. If you had a PS3 and enjoyed it then you’ll probably love the PS4. It is a game console first and foremost. They’ve made the interface much more user friendly, they’ve sped it up exponentially, and really made it a joy to use. The controller has been much improved to the point I now prefer the PS controller over the Xbox controller, which wasn’t the case last generation. The console itself is sleek and really can disappear on the entertainment system because it is so small and quiet. Also, as a service, PS+ beats Xbox Live hands down, giving away free games with the system the day of launch with the promise of more to come. All that said, the Xbox One has gotten more use than the PS4 to this point. Microsoft went for the full entertainment experience over trying to box itself into simply being a gaming console. With the HDMI input my cable box is connected to my Xbox and it gets turned on every time I walk into the living room. It is set to turn on my receiver and my television for me when I say “Xbox On”. It is a very forward looking system, but while you can see exactly what Sony envisioned when you get the PS4, Microsoft is more about the potential of what is to come. The ideas are exciting, but the execution isn’t fully realized. The idea of controlling my television experience with the Xbox is great, and at times it works great, but things like stations that sound alike when translated by a computer can hinder the user experience. Also, all the channels on my cable network aren’t currently appearing on the Xbox. For instance I have young children that watch Sprout and currently that doesn’t appear on the Xbox One Guide in my area. Another hindrance is the lack of ability to control what is on the DVR, so you’ll still end up having to use that remote from time to time. Still while saying that to have your 5 year old be able to walk in a room, say “Xbox On”, “Watch TV”, and be able to watch his cartoons without me fearing what will happen if he gets hold of the remote is great. The wife and kids love using it even with its current drawbacks. The snap feature is great, and being able to play a game while having a sporting event snapped over to the side was a great experience I wasn’t expecting to have. Just like the drawbacks I mentioned with the Xbox, the Playstation has a few things you should be aware of… When I got the system, I got download happy, wanting to get all my stuff set up. I had multiple things downloading in the background, I expected the system to be smart enough to properly manage the resources to make things continue to run smooth. Well, that wasn’t the case. Not sure if they’ve patched this at this point because I’ve just avoided doing it since, but while playing games with a bunch of things downloading in the background things got clunky real quick. Now I set up my downloads and let them go over night while the system is in Standby mode rather than downloading things while using the system. It would’ve been nice if the system would pause a download if it interfered with current activities, which even my 360 would give a message that a download has stopped when a game I was playing would access the internet or something, but this is a minor gripe to me that hasn’t drastically impacted my experience. In my opinion the choice comes down to what you want out of a console and what games you like the most. Sony made a great console, but it won’t reinvent your entertainment center it will just add to it, which is perfectly fine. If you don’t like the idea of talking to do things, then the user interface is actually better on the PS4, because it is much easier to navigate with a controller than the Xbox One. If you love role playing games then the future looks to be on PS4 with games like Infamous, Uncharted, and even Last of Us somewhere down the line exclusive on Playstation. If first person shooters are your thing, then Microsoft is the future with Titanfall, Halo, and a new IP that will turn into this generation’s version of Gears of War.

Another BETA TESTER! When will I learn to stop buying electronics on launch day! (Remember the Xbox ring of death? Yeah, so do I. About 2 of them to be exact!) Nothing but a blue pulsing light on mine too! My choices are : 1. Total return to Amazon. 2. Exchange with Amazon although no know date of replacement since they are out of stock. 3. Over 2 hour call wait time to Sony to have it fixed/replaced/who knows, with no eta. They do estimate that I will receive the return box in about a week or so... 4. Buy an Xbox and see if that works! Guess I will sleep on it! Sony should step up and make this good though to those that hang in there! Edited 7/23/14 I decided to let Sony send me a return box and go through their fix / exchange program. The reason I went this way was because this system was obviously sold out and I wanted one! The only way to guarantee that I would have one was to sent it to Sony. Amazon could not tell when they would be able to replace it and could not guarantee that I would be able to purchase one when they received their next shipment due to not knowing how many units would be shipped to them vs. how many orders they have to fulfill! The return process went smoothly, the only part that sucked was the long hold time to finally talk with a live operator! Sony offered nothing except an apology. No free game, no play station live subscription. Now, I was not expecting any of this, because I did not pay for any of this. I just thought it would be cool for Sony to offer some sort of consolation to their faithful customers who stood in line, waited a very long time, pre paid for their units, just to get a useless box of plastic that they could not enjoy on opening day! (Sony, why do you think your customers pre pay, or wait in miserable long lines, and go through all the B.S. Anyway? I will give you a hint, it's because we love your product, many of us are very faithful customers replacing our playstion 3's with this just so we can play on the day it releases! To get a useless plastic box that does not work, kind of makes your heart sink a little!) Anyway, replacement received within a week, and so far, so good! No problems to report! It is a very good product and I would recommend it to anyone! To answer some of my replies, 1. The percentage of Sony's error rate means nothing when you are the owner of a defective unit! No matter what that unit may be, a playstation, a car, a house... If you are the one in that "small" percentage of defective units, knowing that the manufacturer expected that, and is even ok with that because it is in the "accepted" percentage of defective units does not make your situation any better, actually it kind of pisses you off! I could care less if Sony is happy that their percentage of defective units is within the market norm! All I care about is the fact that I have waited for, and paid for, and was excited to play with my new playstation, until I got it out of the box just to figure out, hey, this thing is broken!!! 2. There was no flashing of metal blocking the HDMI port. The plug fit in perfectly fine. It just did not work! Trust me, I had a bunch of friends over that night to game with me, it just didn't work! We even used the "old" playstation 3's cables. Both power and HDMI. They worked fine with the 3, but did nothing for the 4... 3. Sony was aware of the problem on launch day! The "tech" that helped me even went on to say that his day sucked because of all the customers calling with defective units loosing it when he could not help them fix the problem and was only able to send a replacement unit after Sony received their unit first! 4. I understand that Microsoft's X-Box and the red ring of death was not the same problem as Sony and their blue line of death! It was just used as an example as to what problem can and do happen to the people that stick their neck out and buy on the release day essentially becoming "beta testers" just by making that purchase! (If you read the inter webs the day the Sony playstation 4 was released, a lot of web sites were doing the same thing, comparing two different but similar launches of two separate products by rival companies... To all that read my review, thank you. I was very upset the night the playstation 4 was launched. To those that replied to my review, I also thank you for taking the time to reply! And I hope you understand what I meant when I wrote my review by explaining it here in my follow up! To anyone out there thinking about buying a Sony Playstation 4... Go for it! After a bumpy start, I now have a machine that works , just fine! No hang ups whatsoever. The games are fun, and the controllers much more comfortable! I can not wait to see what the programmers come up with for the playstation 4! There is a cool "second screen" type of app for it on the Android store, and it's free! A lot of very good things are headed this way for owners of the playstation 4! Thank you, Christopher

Received my pre-ordered (6/28) on 11/15 and it was DOA with the "usual" blinking blue light. I didn't give up though, so I searched the net for answers and found how to get into the Safe Mode screen (start unit and hold power button until it beeps 3 times). By forcing a re-initialization of the unit it finally booted up. I downloaded and installed the system update to V1.50. The update process was very rough. It rebooted a few times in which it hung and needed more Safe Mode actions to finally reboot and install the update (it's a bit fuzzy now so I cannot recall what I did in what order to make it work). Finally I had it all up and running and I was about to create my PSN account (I'm an Xbox360 convert) when the unit emitted slightly distorted audio and the screen flickered somewhat. A few seconds later the unit shut itself off and would not come back on. I let it sit for an hour or so and was able to boot it again and I tried the PSN account creation again - with the same result. The next time (after another cool-down) I skipped the PSN stuff and went to play a game (AC4: Black Flag). Worked fine although I was surprised that the graphics were pretty much what I knew from XBox360 (yes, it was running in 1080p). After playing for about 20, maybe 25 minutes, the audio sounded slightly distorted, the screen flickered and - you guessed it - the unit shut off. I repeated this behavior over the weekend and it is absolutely consistent. Whenever I start my completely cooled down unit, I get about 25 minutes of activity out of the unit (it happens even in the main menu without gaming) before it shuts off (no red light as others have reported) and then it needs a cooldown of about an hour before it would come back on (would stay in blue blinking light mode and not access Safe Mode if restarted while still hot). The emitted air before shutdown is not all that hot so I assume there is a bad thermal connection somewhere that causes a chip to severely overheat. amazon would not provide an exchange option for me at this time in contrary to what others have reported and I do not feel like wasting hours on the Sony hotline to get my unit repaired within weeks. I am leaning towards returning it to amazon at this point or to take my chances and open the unit to see if I can fix the heat problems myself.... UPDATE: Inspired by others telling me to insist on a replacement, I called Customer Support for the second time. This time, I received a better response. I was told that they will issue a replacement order but it would be uncertain when they'd be able to complete it as they are out of stock. They will email me when they can actually do the replacement by which I will have to ship the unit back. That's at least a little bit of light at the end of this tunnel. We will see in a week if Sony can actually get these units repaired quickly by which I could still decide to go the Sony repair-route or I just wait for amazon to ship the replacement. The rep said it should take bout 7 business days but she could not promise. UPDATE2: I've received my replacement from Amazon and could finally enjoy the PS4 as it was meant to be. Everything worked great this time, no hangs no freezes and no weird safe mode reboots. V1.51 looks good and installed w/o hitch. I've also seen some if the great graphic capabilities this console has when I played Killzone. Black Flag is fun but not optimized for the new consoles. It really looked like a smoother Xbox360. Not so when playing Killzone. Now we need some intelligent games for this great console and we should be good for a few years. Just to be safe, I will opt for the extended warranty Sony offers. I am still not very confident the PS4 is equipped with long lasting hardware. Better safe than sorry.

This is by far the best video game system ever created!!! Much faster than the PS3, fixed all of the problems that plagued the PS3 and the design is super futuristic!!! Much more reliable than Xbox, allows you to upgrade your own storage!!! it's been 13 years since it was released and I am still playing it!! I've played every system out there and the PS4 is the best to me. Had the PS5 and Xbox Series X and sold both to keep my PS4!!! System is simple and easy to use and set up, controllers are the best, upgradable storage, light and small, and takes way less power than the PS5 and Xbox Series X. Has a large library of great games and still relevant today in 2026!!! Get this system, you will not be disappointed!!!

This is the must-have consumer product of the holiday season. If you don't have it, you gotta get it. Another fantastic console from Sony. Here we are, the 4th generation of the glorious Playstation. And it is better than ever. Playstation Now, Sony's cloud-based gaming service is currently on BETA, but so far, it looks good to me. Games run fine as long as your internet connection is fast enough. In most case, your typical broadband would be sufficient. I have not experienced any issues, and I live in a small town where internet service is lagging behind in terms of speed. The console runs much cooler than the PS3. Its smaller size also mean that you have more options of where to put it. However, I would still make sure that it gets sufficient ventilation and air circulation. There is really not much more to say about the console. Yes, it is powerful. Yes, the graphics are terrific. Yes, the Playstation desktop, dashboard, or main menu, whatever you choose to call it, is intuitive. Certainly much preferred to the competition. The controller charges fast and holds its charge fairly well. Ergonomics are fine, but in a way, I prefer the previous generation controller. You should absolutely subscribe to Playstation Plus. Definitely worth it as there are freebies included. By the way, I am also a subscriber on XBox Gold. PS4 or XBox One? Choose based on exclusives. If you do not have any attachments to the exclusives, pick the PS4. The Playstation Now service is looking better and better every week. My only complaint is that we do not yet have access to the awesome library of PS One and PS2 games. Now, this is not something that would be difficult for Sony to do. They have some of the best engineering minds and the most experienced developers on the planet. If they want to make it happen, it will happen. The indisputable advantage that the Playstation has over its competition is that it has the biggest library of legacy games, going back four generations. I do not want to get into a long discussion of the importance of backwards compatibility. Been there, done that with the PS3. However, the ability to be able to continue to play those older PS1 and PS2 games add value to the console. It also means that any game made for any Playstation system will never be obsolete. That adds value to a customer's game library. I would feel better when I have to pay full-price for games if I knew that I will always be able to play them even when the PS10 comes along!!! Compatibility via the Cloud is probably how this will be handled. It will eventually happen, I am just hoping that it will happen sooner, rather than later. I have discussed this topic with other gamers and the reason may be is that Sony has not yet decided on the pricing for those legacy games. Playstation NOW is still on BETA, but it actually runs just fine as it is. I suspect it may be the pricing scheme that has not been decided yet. Just last night I played "Iron from Ice", an episodic adventure game based on George Martin's "A Game of Thrones". The game played flawlessly. There is something for everybody. And there is more to come when Sony finally makes available PS1 and PS2 games on Playstation Now. I checked the list of games last night and they even have "El Shaddai" on there. That game was not a big seller. If they have that available, think of what they will have in the future. Can you imagine being able to replay classics such as "The Legend of Dragoon", "Final Fantasy X", and Xenogears on your PS4! I hope it happens soon. There is a lot of excitement surrounding this console. It does have a headstart in cloud-based gaming with Playstation NOW and we all know that it can only get better. The consoles are selling out very fast. As soon as you have an opportunity to make a purchase, I recommend that you do so. I suspect that supplies are going to be running low as the holiday season progresses.

Unfortunately I can't review the product too much yet since, out of the box, it fails to work. One star is the lowest a review is allowed to go, but my particular unit, while physically existing in my hands, does not work. I will certainly update my rating to reflect my experience with the system once I am actually able to. The system turns on, but does not output a video signal or boot up. The bar of light on top of the system continues to flash blue, but never turns white as it is apparently supposed to once it has started up. Attempts to boot it into "safe mode" to potentially diagnose or fix problems (such as reinstalling the firmware available on Sony's website) do not work as the system immediately turns off after the second beep instead of entering safe mode. That's about it. It beeps, flashes blue, and sits there until you shut it off. I spent two and a half hours on the phone (over two of those hours on hold) attempting to see if they could diagnose or fix the issue, but they concluded the same, that the console was DOA and needed to be "repaired". The relatively untrained customer service representative also made mention of the many calls he had fielded today (no doubt many of them being quite irate) and that almost every customer he had spoken with had experienced a very similar result to my own, and needed their consoles to be "repaired" as well. I was told by the representative that I should expect to receive a box to send my console to Sony "within 7 to 10 business days". I do not know yet how accurate that is, especially since others have been told that the total turnaround to Sony and back should be within that same time frame, but that is what I was told to expect. After the apparently untrained customer service representative made another mention along the lines of "Yeah, I don't think we really checked these before sending these out" (a statement he was obviously not qualified or authorized to make), I was then pitched an extended warranty for my dead console, just in case there are any accidents with it (an offer I of course declined in its current state). I was extremely polite and cordial during the entire conversation, but at no point was even an apology made for my time and inconvenience or any hint of compassion or sympathy from their customer service representative. Several hours later, after I had still yet to receive the confirmation email regarding my "service request", I made another attempt to contact Sony's PlayStation Support. With others online still reporting multi-hour waits on the phone, I decided to try their live chat option (since they apparently do not have an email address or form for their support sections). All subsequent attempts to contact Sony through their "Live Assistance" chat were also very unsuccessful, as every time I was lucky enough to enter the queue, I was eventually dropped out with a "Status: Canceled There are no agents available to chat with you right now. Please try again later." message. I get it. Products fail. Devices don't operate as expected. With a mass market electronic item such as this, there will always be a certain percentage of systems that do not work as intended. However, early indications are that this is certainly higher than normal (even impacting promotional and press systems), and they do not appear to have handled the damage control well within this crucial time period. At this point, I'm currently weighing sending the unit back to Sony versus arranging for it to be returned to Amazon. I do not doubt that this product is well worth the money when it is operating in full capacity, but my console is among many others that simply failed to work right out of the box. Until I am able to adequately review this console in a fully-functional state, there is no way for me to give this product anything more than a single star as a rating. As a fan of games and who hold no allegiance to any particular company or brand, I do find it quite unfortunate that the situation for many, in addition to Sony's handling of the matter thus far, have erased just about all of the consumer goodwill they earned during E3. I currently have, on my coffee table in front of me as I type this, a dead console with a stack of half a dozen launch games, a PlayStation Plus subscription card, a PS4 camera, and two Dualshock 4's. Without any substantive response from Sony through the launch weekend, I feel that I will have no other choice than to return all of them, and maybe pick up the console again in a year or two once these issues have been resolved. For the sake of both Sony and their customers, let's hope that's something that will come sooner rather than later.