In all the years I’ve been covering video games, I’ve had one constant tester in my life; my son Matt. I could always count on him to pop in the latest game and take it for a spin. He told me the good, the bad, the truly sucky, and more often than not declared he needed further testing and had to take it to a friend’s house.
I’ve noticed in the last few years he’s settled into a routine. Certain games – like multiplayer – need to be played on the Xbox 360, while others are better on the PS3. Of course some games are available for only one console so that pretty much dictates where they’re played. Since he still enjoys gaming in his downtime, I thought it only fitting to ask for his thoughts on the new PlayStation 4, Sony’s new gaming console.
Let me set the scene. I was at work Tuesday evening — working until 11pm — when my mother called me with great news! She wanted to let me know she had brought home the new PS4 with eight games; however I couldn’t’t play any because I was at work. It was as if she was torturing me on purpose. She said she’d wait for me.
When I got home that night I immediately took everything she had brought home and with a big smile on my face, hooked everything up for her.
At that moment I decided I needed to play every game given to her that night so I could see how the PS4 compared to PS3 and Xbox 360. After all, it’s been seven years since PS3 came out.
I hooked it up and got everything connected very easily but then ran into a problem. Where was the power button? I ran my entire hand over the console before bing – a noise associated with the startup of the system filled the air and it came to life. To this day I still don’t know what I touched. Not thrilled with the new positioning.
I started with Battlefield 4, a fictional war game set in present day. I was blown away by this game. Get it? The graphics were so crisp and clear. The noises made me feel as if I really was the character gearing up to go to war. Everything this game offers is fantastic. Battlefield is known for its game content in which the entire world is destroyable. No matter what you shoot it will blow up. This along with the sound of the game made for one incredible experience.
At this point I took a break and focused my attention on the console itself. The new controller is by far the best controller they have made so far. All of the buttons work cleanly and everything feels like it’s in the right place. The previous controller felt cheap – as if it would break any second. The new one is wider and it has a little more weight to it. This may be because they introduced a touch pad for extra entertainment during gaming.
I am not a fan of the startup menu. It seems very cluttered and there’s no way for you to control what you want and where you want it. The most previous game you have played shows up in front while everything gets pushed back. Finding the settings proved difficult for my mother who wanted to change her email address.
I really am a fan of gaming consoles. I’ve been a huge Xbox fan for most of my life. I have that in my bedroom and the PS3 is in the family room since we use the Blu-ray player for DVD’s. PS4 is a vast improvement for Sony over the PS3 and quite frankly over the 360 as well. I look forward to trying that out too!
So there you have it – one gamer’s first impressions. Overall I have to say I like the new controller, it makes it easier for me to use. Sony said a million consoles were purchased in the first 24 hours it was on the market and it’s on track to become one of the company’s most successful product launches. There are reports of a few defective units that Sony is looking into but overall, we’re quite impressed with the new console and looking forward to the gaming companies learning how to create content for the new hardware.
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