Crater
2701
For some reason, I’m really excited about the PS TV, but a couple of things worry me:
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Memory card pricing for Vita (and thus the PS TV) is still redonkulous - $100 for a 64GB card? I would consider 16GB to be the lowest usable storage space, but even that’s another $30.
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There are a lot of good Vita games missing from the list of supported games: Uncharted: Vita Something Something, Gravity Rush, Soul Sacrifice, Tearaway, etc.
I really like the concept, but it’s not a good replacement for a Vita.
Those are some major omissions from the supported games list. I wonder how Vita games are going to look on modern widescreen TVs? I imagine the largest market for this will be those that own a PS4, do not own a Vita, and want to take advantage of PS4 streaming to a secondary TV in their household. If someone wanted a Vita replacement they are best served by waiting until Holiday discounts and picking up a Vita bundle for $150-$175.
-Todd
Yea, it’s a PS4 screen-sharing box with some added features. For that, it’s neat.
Editer
2704
I have to wonder about the market for the PS TV when you can get a used PS3 from Gamestop with five games for $159, or a used Xbox 360 with one game for $99. At $139 for a usable configuration (assuming you don’t already have a PS3/Dualshock), it seems an odd fit.
I mean, compared to a Fire TV, it’s a better option if you want to game and do some TV stuff too and gaming is primary.
But I’m not feeling the open niche for this device.
I can definitely see the value for a family with one large high end TV and then some smaller TVs, allowing the PS4 to be streamed to one of the other TVs when the main TV is in use.
red_guy
2706
A full list of currently compatible games for the pan-European region, which should include Australia, is here:
Details about release in Australia, such as the price, aren’t in there.
Compared to the US lists, some titles are missing - Final Fantasy X/X-2, for instance.
Of the PSP / Vita games I own, about three quarters is supported. Everybody’s Golf (Vita), Danganronpa, FF X and Disgaea 3 are notable omissions.
I can see plenty of value for me, without owning a PS4. I can get hooked on a game while commuting, then play at home on a big screen with a better controller. If all else fails, I’ll just spend a hundred hours playing through Persona 4 Golden again.
One thing I hope they’ll add is a Netflix application. With Netflix being rolled out in more and more European countries, it makes no sense that only NA has Netflix on Vita.
Nesrie
2707
Fire TV isn’t a very good game device. I mean the handful of android games work okay on it, but not only is Amazon’s App store grossly limited to what GooglePlay to offer, but I find a lot of these games don’t seem to be as entertaining on the screen as they are sitting in a physicians office killing some time. I’ve been leaning towards a PS4 for some time, but there isn’t a single game I feel I really want from it yet. As a cord cutter though, I am frequently trying out different devices to fill various media niches. I haven’t decided yet, but it does sound like if I do get a PS4, this device could go to another TV instead and still be useful.
RickH
2708
Sony has consistently demanded special feature support from its early first-party titles. As a result, stuff like back-touchpad controls or camera support (looking at you Tearaway) will render a game unplayable. But those games are likely to be patched or re-released on PS4, I think I have already heard of a PS4 Tearaway port.
I really like the idea of a cheap room-extender for the PS4 that can also run its own video apps, so any Vita game support is gravy.
Anyone know if that new TV machine will support multiple accounts better than the Vita?
That’s a nice deal for a used system. I had no idea. Of course one of the five games with the PS3 is Madden '09. That’s pretty worthless.
The 360 deal is better. It’s $129 and includes six games and the games are better. It has Madden '13, for example.
So if I got a system is 20 gigs enough? I wouldn’t be a heavy user. I’d really just like to play a handful of games.
Most games on the 360 don’t require a HD install, but it makes the system run a lot quieter if you do one. You still have to have the disc in to play, but it streams a lot quieter from the HD than the disc. At 20 gigs you could barely have two games installed at once, and that’s assuming you don’t bother with any digital downloads. I would recommend strongly against it, but if you’re absolutely trying to save money, and don’t care about how noisy things are, and don’t fill it up with Rock Band songs, it could work.
RickH
2712
On either platform, if you sign up for Plus/Live and take advantage of the free games (or the frequent digital sales), 20gig will fill up quickly.
If you restrict yourself to disc-based games, 20 gigs is plenty for a 360. That will allow you to install the handful of recent games that require a hard drive and store game saves. 360s also support USB drives up to 32gig, if you have some lying around (but these DO NOT count as hard drives for games that require hard drives, such as NFS Rivals). Third-party hard drives are common now, and I’ve bought them for a slim and an original (320gig for $50, the newest “official” 360 hard drive is 500 gig for ~$100) with no hiccups or problems (although they may lack the partition that lets them play original Xbox games).
It’s a little different for the PS3, because a lot of games on this platform require installation to the hard drive (likely due to BluRay’s slow access time). For that, I found 60gb filled up pretty fast, and that was before I signed up for PS+. Expansion for the PS3 is as easy as installing an off-the-shelf 2.5" hard drive, though. You might even have one lying around after a laptop upgrade. If you do slap a new drive in, be careful with the mounting screws, I found the metal on these to be very soft and deformable.
More realistically, most of the 20 gig systems are, I think, going to be the old, RROD prone ones. I’d pick up one of the $100 and look at adding another few games (You can get 2-3 for the $30 price difference), and also get more drive space. Probably a better long term investment.
The PS3 bundle has a 40 meg drive? Is that good enough? I really just want to play Red Dead Redemption and a few other games. Is there a reason to go 360 over PS3? I guess Halo games.
RickH
2715
Only a subset of the original-release PS3s had 20gb drives, and those had the full PS2 hardware in them, so they are likely not what would be offered in a package deal.
As of today, here’s what I think are the pros and cons of the systems:
PS3
plus: Solid first-party games, built in WiFi on all models, generally reliable hardware, user-replacable hard drive, good video quality for streaming & DVD/BluRays, pretty much the only game in town for jRPG enthusiasts
con: Early third party games were sometimes poorly ported (ex: Bayonetta), most games require a time-consuming HD install, Sixaxis/Dualshock 3 controllers haven’t aged well & don’t have replacable batteries, downloads from PSN are notoriously slow, interface can be a bit clunky (why do I still have to manually install a game after downloading it?).
360
plus: Biggest game library of its generation, excellent controller, HD installs optional, Kinect easily ignored
con: most first-party games are shooters, Fable or Kinect; early hardware was unreliable and lacked built-in WiFi (Slim model fixed these issues); amount of ads in the console interface may be annoying; MS tends to have high accessory prices
olaf
2716
I got a PS4 to play Shadow of Mordor. Installed the game Tuesday night and played nightly since then with no apparent issues, haven’t used the PS4 for anything else though I did install the Amazon Prime app.
Saturday morning, the console started beeping at me (it was not in use, I had been using Standby Mode to ‘turn it off’). I turned it on and it was in Safe Mode…thinking there was just a power blip or something I hit restart and it did the same shit, 3 beeps, then back to Safe Mode. I looked at the options and really didn’t see anything that sounded like it would help me…but I chose update software or whatever that option is. It failed during the update (even though it was already up to date). I hit restart a few more times and eventually it booted up ok.
Today it started fine but during Shadow of Mordor it crashed once, just rebooted out of the blue.
Googling did not really shed any light on this aside from the fact that there might be a hardware problem of some kind. Have any of you seen behavior like this? Should I just open a support ticket with Sony?
Editer
2717
All of that is abnormal. I’d just return the PS4 to where you got it and swap it for a new one.
Might be faster to get the store you bought it at to do an exchange for you. If that’s not an option Sony support is your best bet.
Olaf: my PS4 did all that you described, to the letter. That was a couple of months ago. It has worked fine since then (fingers crossed), so I’m hoping it was just a weird anomaly.
Mine also did some beeping for some time. I’m very strapped for time during business hours, and it seemed to still work, so I let it be. Has been silent for a month now…
