Early thoughts on the PS4

So, a few days ago, we upgraded from a PS3 to a PS4. It’s a very slick design and reminds of Johnny Five’s feet, so there’s that! It does seem to be much faster and supports downloading more than one thing at once, in the sense that you can download something while you stream. I got The Last of Us as my bundled game, which is somewhat disappointing (see this link for more), but I also picked up Watch_Dogs (which I already owned but had only played about a third of), Sleeping Dogs (also owned, but new version has DLC), and Infamous: Second Son. I’ve been playing Second Son for the most part; it has the same feel as the first two games, but it’s a different hero, with different powers, with a more developed backstory. Cole eventually grew on me, but he was kind of a blank slate; Deslin Rowe definitely has more to him.

The touchpad on the controller is kind of gimmicky, but so far it’s kinda fun. There are bits in Second Son where you have to spray paint a wall, so you turn the controller sideways and use it like a spray can. I will say the controller seems to drain faster on Bluetooth mode, but you can put the PS4 in rest mode and it will charge your stuff while it’s off. You can also have more than one app open; I can have Hulu running, play a game, save and quit out of the game, and pick up Hulu right where I left off.

I can’t really comment on the graphics yet — Second Son seems to look a lot like Infamous 1 and 2, albeit crisper and, as I said earlier, faster. I’m looking forward to playing a few games, like Uncharted 4, the new Assassin’s Creed, and Arkham Knight on the PS4, which I would have either not been able to play (Uncharted 4) or had to play on the PC (the others); the latter wouldn’t have been bad, but I’m glad I don’t have to use my clunky PC controller. I do think it’s a solid machine, and we’ll have to see what happens as I get an opportunity to play it.

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