PlayStation 4 

This review is about the Playstation 4 Slim Model, 500 GB that came with Uncharted 4. I got it on sale for about $230 I believe. Now, I won’t be reviewing the services which are optional, such as Playstation Plus. I also won’t go over the history of the Playstation or it’s current competition with the Switch and the Xbox One. So, lets start the review!

The PS4, when first booted, asks that you create a Playstation Network account, set the privacy settings and numerous other settings, such as power. When I was first given all these options, I wasn’t particularly surprised, having owned a PS3. To newcomers however, all these options might seem overwhelming. After setting everything up, you should be ready to go with whatever game(s) you’ve bought.

That brings me to my next point, game installation. Normally game installation doesn’t take long, but if you have patches, or bought the game digitally, it can potentially take quite a while. At least for me it did when I digitally bought Final Fantasy X/X2 and Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age. I would say it took a little over a day for them to complete the installation. I don’t know why the network speed is so slow, but I had mine hooked up via an ethernet cable and it was still slow. Additionally, digital games often can take up a lot of hard drive space, which brings me to my next point.

If you decided to go on the cheap like I did and bought the system with so little space, you might be a little scared of running out of space quickly. It’s true, you will run out of space rather quick if you buy, say, a game or 2 every month. However, if you buy physically then you shouldn’t have to worry about re-installation taking as long or losing the license to the game if, for whatever reason, the game is taken off the digital store. Plus, you can reportedly install a larger hard drive if you so desire. I haven’t done it because I don’t have the money, so I continue to buy physical copies of games.

As far as making friends and communication goes, on the PS4 it’s rather quite simple. One simply has to find their friend(s) using a search feature and send them a friend request. Additionally, you can be a Close Friend with someone, but as I haven’t used that feature, I don’t know what benefits it confers onto your relationship, other than they can see your real name. Typing messages is simple as well, thanks to word searching. However, due to this ease of use, sometimes one can run into spam messages which might rip you off or potentially put you into a bad situation. I recommend deleting messages from anyone you don’t know right away, as you would if you were using email. Your friends and you can form groups, which brings me onto my next point.

Groups are fun little places where you can find matches with other people, or share advice and generally make friends. I recommend joining a few groups based on whatever game(s) you happen to have, because they also sometimes have notifications concerning news about the game, or tournaments held internally to the group. One word of caution though, if you join many groups, be prepared for lots of notifications when you turn on your PS4, and that can be a bit annoying.

Now onto something else I’d like to touch on, the future of PS4. I believe the PS4’s future looks rather bright, many AAA games are still coming out for it, and one recent one, God of War, has set the stage for AAA games once again. E3 is coming soon, so I’m sure more announcements for the PS4 are sure to follow. I can’t wait for it!

Overall, I find the Playstation experience, as a complete package, to be a solid one. I’ve been a gamer for a long time, since the days of the NES/Famicom, and while I miss the times of when you could just plug in a game and play it, without having to worry about system/game updates, I understand the need to patch the game(particularly fighters and MMOs). Regardless, I think you will find the PS4 to be a great system, and I highly recommend it.

I’m giving it 4 stars and not 5 because of the little issues I’ve faced here and there, and the issues I raised above. If I could give it 4.5 or 4.7 stars out of 5, I think that would be closer to the truth of the rating. Anyways, thanks for reading this review!