Dan

If they came with Tim Horton's gift cards, I'd have joined this club 16 months ago.

chess

Amazingly well integrated.

I love that the controls are right there in the "Quick Menu", including volume control. And no issues balancing Spotify, party chat and game sound.

And I'm really impressed with Spotify's content as well. Will probably download the app on my phone as well.

xmiyux

I have subscribed to Spotify on my phone for months now and absolutely love it. So worth the money.

chess

Playing Star Wars themes while playing Warframe. Seems appropriate for space ninjas.

Decker

You get six months free then pay a discounted rate ($7.99/mo) on Sprint. At least I did when I signed up just before New Year's).

Dan

First impressions:
- UI is silky smooth. Puts the competition to shame; it's night and day.
- System setup and update was a breeze.
- UI is confusing, though. At least at first. I'm sure I'll get the hang of it.
- The Order: 1886 on a 2.35:1 screen is glorious.
- That opening in The Last of Us, though... Almost brought on some tears. I swear I thought

- Too many unintentional similarities between TLoU and TO:1886. One particular one being a moment very early in both games where the playable character steps aside and says, "Ladies first!" as they're about to enter somewhere kind of dangerous. Silly.
- Install times were so fast. Again, I knew the competition was bad here, but side by side, there's no comparison.
- I'm afraid to crack open Bloodborne.
- Spotify integration seems great, although I haven't really dove in. I plan to play more TLoU listening to nothing but GY!BE this week, so we'll see how that goes.
- Headphone controls are nicely done. Sound quality is good.
- The Share and Options buttons feel weird on my fingers. Like they're not actually there. It's an odd feeling.
- I forgot how much I dislike Square, Triangle, X, and O as button names. It's mainly because I'm terrible at remembering where they are, which is entirely my own fault I guess. I struggled with it on PS, PS2, and PS3, so I blame myself for not being able to figure it out by now.
- I might replace the thumb sticks, but I don't know if I'll bother. If I do, I won't fuck it up like 'mallet, though. I'll probably just wait to see how well they last for me.
- The always-on light on the controller isn't bad at all. I set it to medium brightness. I noticed it turn green in TLoU. Weird.

Overall... totally happy. Just getting used to adjusting for my own quirks, as anyone else would.

But seriously, I'm afraid to start Bloodborne. From the thread here (and elsewhere), it sounds hard as shit. I'm up for the challenge, but... I might just accept my fate as a filthy casual if I can't get the hang of it.

mattysemo247

First of all, congrats on the system purchase. I'm envious that this is your first experience with The Last of Us, on PS4 no less. Still one of my favorite video game experiences ever. Make sure you sign up for PS+ soon. You can still grab the free March games if you do it soon enough. And before you think about swapping out thumb sticks, give these a shot. They are cheap and work great. I have a pair on every controller I own except the XB1.

http://www.amazon.com/Grip--Analog-S...4+stick+covers

chess

I can't speak to the competition, but I find everything about the UI to be incredibly fast and intuitive. The only thing missing at this point is folders for friends list.

Like Matty, I envy you playing Last of Us for the first time. It's an astoundingly good game that in some ways changed my expectations for storytelling in games. Winter, in particular, was a gamechanger for giving narrative through gameplay. You'll see.

Again, can't speak to the competition, but it's been a nice feature.

And I'm afraid to buy it, but I think I eventually will.

Headset sound through the controller is my favorite feature this generation, by far, and I'm utterly floored by how good Spotify is and how smoothly it's integrated into the PS4. I was in a party chat last night and was able to navigate Spotify in-game and adjust the sound levels of the game, party chat and Spotify on the fly with almost no learning curve whatsoever. It's simply amazing.

Just what you're used to. I'm guessing "X" is especially problematic, but you'll adapt in no time.

I replaced mine and have it down to a science, including a small tweak to make sure the sticks are nice and tight. I also used Grip-Its, and they are really good, but you'll have to replace them every now and then.

And to be fair to mallet, I took his apart and put it back together a few times, and he didn't do anything obviously wrong. I can only guess that it was either static electricity or maybe something was simply defective. I'm definitely happier with the Bone sticks than I was with the Grip Its FWIW.

RichC2

I'm a casual and I've been blasting my way through Bloodborne without too much issue, it's difficult but hardly as bad as people make it out to be. The game makes more sense the longer you've been gaming though, the setup is so similar to old NES / SNES games (like Blast Master, Castlevania: Simon's Quest, Zelda, Metroid where you get minimal instruction upfront and just have to figure things out on your own), that I imagine it's a bit dumbfounding to new age gamers who never got to experience that.

The light changes color in TLoU depending on how close to death you are, if it's red that means heal up buttercup.

chess

And a few pro-tips:

1. For swapping controllers when battery gets low, if you turn a new controller on and select your profile, the one you had on will automatically turn off. I used to navigate the menus to manually turn the controller off before I knew this.

2. If you only have one controller, almost any standard micro-USB charger tucked under your seat is a handy emergency power source so you don't have to run a cable across the room from your PS4.

3. Share controls are customizable, and I prefer that the quick press of the share button take a screen shot rather than start recording video. The default is press to start video, hold for screenshot, and I flip that. Much better.

4. If you get PS+, make sure to always check the monthly PS3 and PS Vita games for "cross-buy". In March, we technically got 4 PS4 games because Ollie Ollie 2 and Counter Spy were both cross buy from other platforms. Easy to miss if you don't know.

5. Headsets: you have tons of cheap options among the standard 3.5mm headsets out there. Pretty much anything not made for Xbox or iPhone will work flawlessly (Android, Blackberry, Windows phone, WiiU, Vita, 3DS etc). I use a Turtle Beach headset that's WiiU branded and can be found in the $20 range. It plugs right into controller and works flawlessly with inline volume and mute functions.

mattysemo247

Many of us from here have this headset

http://www.amazon.com/PlayStation-Go...ds=ps4+headset

I also have two Turtle Beach headsets and the Gold headset blows them away in sound quality and comfort. They have been on sale many times for $50 - $60, so just keep an eye out. You can also download the app from the PS store and they have specific settings for different games (Infamous, TLOU, Killzone, etc.)

That's news to me as well. Guess I can start doing this going forward instead of sitting there with my controller plugged in.

chuckd21

I'm a year plus into the PS4 and I still confuse Circle and Square. I probably spent five more hours in Shadow of Mordor because I kept screwing those two up.

joeblow69

Will the mic from cellphone earbuds word as well?

I thought the PS4 came with some kind of earbud/mic thing, but I was scouring through the box today and couldn't find it (must of lost it). And I can't find a similar thing made by Sony on Amazon. What was that thing anyway?

RichC2

Basically just an ear bud + mic like you get with a phone.

Dan

I appreciate all the tips/feedback guys. I could have gone through all the pages of this thread, but I don't have the patience, so thanks!

I like love my KEF M500's for gaming. Plain old stereo, but top-notch sound quality and comfort. It came with two cables - with and without a mic - but I have yet to try the mic cable on the PS4; it didn't work on the XO. Since the cable is "made for Apple devices" I think I'm outta luck. I'll pick up a headset when I feel ready to dive into some MP action, but not yet.

RichC2, thanks for the info on Bloodborne. I'm less worried now, as I grew up on those games you mentioned. Dumb question, is there an in-game map? Plus, when it comes to hard games... I beat Volgarr so.... *crickets*

Chess, you're absolutely right about the X button specifically. EVERY DAMN TIME I'm prompted to press X, I press Square first. I'll get used to it. Do you have a link handy for the thumb sticks? As well as tips on your tweak to improve them?

TLoU... I kind of know what to expect, but so far, I'm enjoying it a lot. My wife enjoyed watching me play, which... that just doesn't happen, so

I'm going to use the same MicroUSB cable for my XO and PS4.

Chess, I totally agree about the share button being backwards. Great tip, and I'm going to fix that tonight.

Oh, and I'm enjoying The Order, for what it's worth. But I'm glad my wife bought me that one.

I'll add a few of you tonight, if I remember, but for those who feel like adding me first, I'm Apple_berry (yup, I'm one of the "just picked a dumb name when I signed up on PS3, and hate that Sony won't let me change it" people. I could start a fresh account, but I really don't want to do that. So I'm stuck with that name.)

That too! When one of those two is prompted on screen, my thumb doesn't know where to go, so it ends up just mashing all four at the same time.

Michael Corvin

I've been playing Back to the Future and Jurassic Park with my daughter(10). Typically she only plays on the 360 so I was expecting some button confusion. She had it down in about 10 minutes. Like you, it took me much longer.

RichC2

Naw no in-game map. You can find some online, but frankly after you run around for a little bit you'll have the areas pretty much memorized. It isn't some Elder Scroll style massive game, it's large but every area is extremely well designed to wrap back onto itself.

Dan

Awesome. Thanks. When I dive in, I'll start asking more questions in the Bloodborne thread.

Supermallet

While it's not necessary to have a surround sound headset, I cannot stress enough how absolutely awesome it is.

fumanstan

I'm such a sucker for Batman, I want one

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2015/...ht-ps4-bundle/

chess

I can't get to ebay at work, but if you search "xbox one thumbsticks 4x" on ebay, you'll find the vendor. 4x is quantity, so if you want 2 or 8, 2x or 8x. They shipped from China, and I got them on the east coast in a week or so. I've also previously linked auctions from them here before...see if I can find one.

The xbone sticks are an almost perfect fit, but they will jiggle just the tiniest bit if you don't fill some space on the male end of the DS4 that goes into the female end of the thumbstick. It's basically shaped like a rectangle, and a couple mm strip of electrical tape placed over the top and over the short sides of the rectangle will make it snug and also make it sit just the tiniest bit higher/better inside the controller shell. If you cut across the width of a standard roll of electrical tape, it should be the perfect length.

Doubt that makes sense...draw a vertical rectangle, and that's the shape of the male end from above. Tape goes over the top and down the vertical sides. Stick will slide on very snugly...might take some pressure to slide on, but it won't jiggle once it's on.

Will add you on PSN.

chuckd21

Missed opportunity to bring back the...

Dan

It all makes sense to me. Thanks!

Gooter

OMG, that is awesome! I love the steel grey color. I hope they sell the controller separately.

chess

NP. And FWIW, the DS4 with Xbone sticks is bar none my favorite controller of all time. It's really a great cheap mod that should last for the life of the controller. Credit to MS for those sticks, because they're phenomenal.

That Arkham console. And the $400 bundle with the game is going to sell gangbusters IMO.

I'm surprised that custom faceplates or faceplate skins bundled with games hasn't become more of a thing.