A PS4 Thread: Because You Had to Play "Knack"

that is incredible

it's like if mike kelley designed a video game

bet that looks amazing in 4k

I'm vaguely fascinated by this company (see also: the Skylight Freerange games) because I honestly can't tell whether they're trying as hard as they can or not trying at all.

So can anyone give me some used PS4 guidance? It's been around a while now, so what's a good price? And is there a specific model with specific requirements I should be searching for, or are they all more or less the same specs (aside from the new Pro)? Does hard drive size (500GB vs 1TB) really matter? Anything else I should be looking for? I know some people hunt for consoles with an earlier build so they can hack them, but I don't think I need that (unless that's really the way to go in 2018).

i've only had my trust old PS4 that i bought new, so I'm no help on where to get a good used one, or durability/reliability.

i don't have a Pro, but it only seems worth getting if: you have a very nice display/speakers to take advantage of it, and/or you care about enhanced graphics/framerates. personally, i don't have nice equipment, and whenever they do the A/B test on Pro vs old PS4 on certain games, i can barely tell the difference. my eyesight is awful, however. so basically if you want to pause FIFA and enter camera mode and zoom in on a lone glistening sweaty hair in that mysterious zone behind the kneecap and view if from every angle and watch the sweat glisten in the digital sun as purely as possible, you should probably get a Pro. BUT also, i'd guess that used Pros tend to be in better operating shape than used older models. and also maybe the fancy displays/speakers that really take advantage of the Pro's capabilities will become more commonplace over the lifetime of the PS4. so i don't know. follow your heart!

on the hard drive question, i have a 500GB model and exclusively download games, and i've rarely had a problem. 500 GB is enough to download 15-20 games, give or take, and that's about the amount that i like to have on hand at any given moment. and if you have a game that you've purchased/downloaded and want to delete to save space, you can always just re-download it later if you want to play it again, it doesn't take long and isn't much of a hassle. and of course, if you're not lazy like me and occasionally buy physical copies of games, you don't need to worry about the hard drive question at all.

just my two cents, and ymmv!

as always sorry for typos and mysterious missing sentence fragments

500 GB is enough to download 15-20 games, give or take,

and there's a lot of give or take there. there are a ton of good indie games that are only 1-10 GB, so if you lean toward those you'll be able to store 50+ games on a 500 GB HD. then again, a lot of modern bloated AAA titles (like AssCreed, God of War, etc) clock in around 40-50 GB, typically.

feel like i'm constantly butting up against the limits of the 500gb hd, deleting stuff i'd prefer not to so i can fit in something new. i don't know your habits, but if i had to buy again would 100% get the 1tb.

I've no idea what pricing looks like, but I'd be hesitant to get a used one without at least a short warranty, unless you're buying it off a dependable friend.

I've got a spare SSD around and I'm tempted to do the upgrade to get a little speed boost, although backing up and reinstalling has made me hold off.

anecdotally, I had to delete a game this week in order to get updates running smoothly again

games on the ps4 are really cheap compared to e.g. switch, like even the biggest AAA games are like $15 if you're not jumping on them at release, so I'd stay away from used and avoid the risk. but I dunno. I got a pro 1tb a few months ago.

it's not hard at all to buy a 2TB hard drive and stick one in if you want to later, but yeah, i wouldn't go less than 500GB. most physical games now require a full install which could be 50gb+
when I got my PS4 I planned ahead and bought a particular external USB drive with 2TB and stuck it in right away
and yeah, PS4 games are dirt cheap especially if you're coming late like this, you're gonna love PS+ sales

also second just biting the bullet and getting a new system. and go pro because why not

i like to go semi-pro and then work my way up to pro through hard work and dedication

Ha. I wouldn't go pro because I don't have a 4K TV and that seems to be the greatest distinction.

In graphics-intensive games it can keep up better, iirc

it also has minor technical tweaks across the board, but nothing that striking. just a little bit more future-proof imo

Good to hear the advice about hard drive size. But what am I looking out for in new v. used? What could go wrong with a used PS4, as opposed to a used anything? Places likes Amazon, or even Swappa, seem to have pretty solid guarantees and/or vetting. I mean, should I be more cautious buying a used PS4 than I would be buying a used phone?

I'm in the same boat Josh. I'm inclined towards the Slim, first because I assume it uses less electricity and second because it's cheaper and third I don't care that much about 60FPS or whatever. (I mean, whatever framerate or resolution or whatever you're playing on, you're going to get used to it after playing enough to the point that it's merely normal instead of WAU.)

even if you don't have a 4K tv you'll get better frame rates/performance across the board with Pro
but yeah honestly it doesn't matter much, since all games have to run on the OG PS4 at at acceptable rate regardless

i kind of want to trade in my ps4 and games and put the money towards a switch. i've lost pretty much any appetite i used to have for games revolving around killing people. the main loss would be being able to play blu-rays.

i'm not actually going to do this.

the big mystery to me is why the PS4 Pro doesn't have 4k blu-ray capability

probably they weren't making drives that'd work in a console at scale when they decided to release the thing but it's so insanely dumb. sony makes well-rated drives that are relatively cheap that do that! but their console upgrade, where one of the specific reasons for release was 4k games.. nope

Apparently the PS4 Pro inexplicably does not play blu-ray, despite the console being introduced for better image quality and despite Sony being the first to embrace the fucking blu-ray format. Makes no sense to me, and it's another strike against a Pro.

xpost!

Twinsies!

It plays Blu-Ray, just not 4k Blu-Ray as far as I know

Gotcha.

still - bizarre! maybe there was an extra license fee to playback 4K codecs or something

That was it, yep. It would've cost them more to provide a function they figured most people wouldn't use, and they were skimping on costs. MS were happy to put a 4k BR drive in the Xbox One S though, so it's especially stingy of Sony.

On the other hand, who owns any 4k bluray discs anyway? Those things are still hugely unjustifiably overpriced.

it's a very weird market for sure. depending on the streaming, a 1080p blu-ray looks better than a 4k stream, but I think people see a difference in the newer streaming stuff and assume they'll need a 4k blu-ray

4K disc prices are starting to come down a lot. you can buy It 2017 and Dunkirk this week at Target for $13

I'm a huge fuckin' nerd and have a couple movies in the limited edition steelcases, that came with 4k blu-ray discs, but no way to watch them. I've rewatched the movies via streaming.

Question: is 4k super-relevant? it always seems like you'd need a massive screen and UHD, or whatever the other one is both feel like enhanced viewing experiences without either the data and compression issues or the (to me) meaningless emphasis on pixels = viewing improvement.

For this generation, probably not. I mean, there are few games that are even 1080p/60fps, let alone 4K. But the processing power for HDR and framerates, the likelihood that next generation will embrace it (and PC gaming of course is already there)...

I have to sit pretty close to a 55” 4K screen to notice a big difference between 1080 and 4K on a television. I think it’s one of those things where it sets a new baseline and all other aspects have to elevate to handling a larger image, and therefore get better

like how 3d television was gimmicky but the real feature was the ability to have a faster refresh rate

didn't the 4K standard give up on 3D altogether? thought that was lame, they should've tried to keep it going. maybe after the new Avatar series comes out

but yeah, i totally agree with what you're saying re: refresh rates

I have no idea, there is no reason to do both 4K and 3d at home because you’re wearing foggy-ass goggles

My TV is a 3D one and I've never used the glasses even once

Question: is 4k super-relevant? it always seems like you'd need a massive screen and UHD, or whatever the other one is both feel like enhanced viewing experiences without either the data and compression issues or the (to me) meaningless emphasis on pixels = viewing improvement.

you're on the right track. UHD = 4K + HDR

HDR is an actual improvement and justifies the existence of uhd (not that I would know, having never watched anything hdr). 4k otoh...

A fair and controlled comparison between HD and 4k shows almost no difference for normal TV viewing conditions, and in fact “4k” content often comes from 2k source footage, and almost always has artificial sharpening added to it in mastering — that’s fake sharpening that is (technically speaking) a degradation, but adds perceptual sharpness. The sharpening would look the same if applied to an HD image instead of a 4k image.

So, going to the electronics store and comparing HD and 4k TVs is not an even handed test, because 4k-mastered content and 4k-upscaling have gimmicks built in to create a fake wow-factor that is neither real resolving power nor is it the image that the author (director, cinematographer, etc) intended. I know from first hand experience that this is the case with 4k mastered content, and I would speculate (but don’t know for certain) that it’s also the case with the TV’s themselves: that they add sharpening and other fakery when upscaling HD images to 4k, or perhaps even when just displaying 4k images.

High pixel-density screens are useful for computer monitors and smart phones, because those are screens that you view at a very close distance and concentrate on only a small detail of the screen: you read fine text, or you look at a photo embedded in a webpage, etc. But high pixel-density screens don't have practical application as big screen TVs that are livingroom centerpieces, especially while there are other (actually visible!) attributes of contemporary home theaters that could stand to be improved, including compression artifacts which are much much larger than single pixels

that's from cinematographer Steve Yedlin's website, who's made this video demonstrating the lack of visible improvement from higher than 2k pixel counts, if the above text didn't convince you.

note he's talking specifically about cinema, not computer graphics, it's possible that 4k games on a 4k screen are a real improvement and not just marketing bs

chihuahua - thanks for that v useful answer (i actually forgot i asked the question), and yes, i’m always getting my UHD, HDR and 4K in a mix. i feel a bit weird about describing the methods used to enhance 4k to give tangible viewing differences as “fakery”, as they are meaningful enhancements, more meaningful in many circumstances than 4k as you say.

there is definitely an industry desire to make 4k happen, with lol hueg screens at trade shows, tho broadcasters are v wary as it’s a massive pita both in terms of compression and also getting data out of increasingly cloud based systems (it’s the getting the data out which tends to cost the money) and compression advantages being lost. not to mention production company expenses. according to a couple of people i know waiting to see which way it goes is the cause of the v static broadcast technologies in much of the networks (cbs still have reels of film in some of their workflows ffs!). but deciding to invest in iptv or update serial workflows will depend on whether 4k or HDR becomes the dominant technology.

massive derail sorry.

loving the dark souls remaster as i never played the original and it is clearly superior to its sequels imo. a v v good game indeed.

Had a PS4 Pro in my cart at Costco but chickened out at the last minute. Good price, but I'm leaning toward getting a used 1TB slim at Swappa or something.

OK bit the bullet and got a Slim. But I'm keeping it wrapped up until I see what kind of sales Amazon offers this July.

Did you get new/used? 1 TB?

New Slim at Costco, 1TB. Seemed like the best combination of advice you guys gave. I bought new, I got the terabyte, but I didn't get the pro, because my TV can't handle it, and whatever the processing power of the latest model, it's not anything I will really appreciate, especially for a console on the last third of its life cycle (probably) whose every iteration can handle whatever games exist for it.

Plus was $50 less than the even on-sale Pro.

josh how do u not have the bluest balls

get zelda played and then get that PS4 opened and TLoU absolutely caned

lol

gj Josh welcome

and yes get TLOU for sure

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMyCa35_mOg