And that hardcore PC gamer is me. So, the obvious question is why would I do it when I have a high spec gaming PC? (see specs)
Answer: Pester Power!
One of my friends is also a hardcore gamer who likes to play online with his friends, some of which I know. However, he's got a PlayStation 4 and of course so do they. He's really wanted me to join them too and has been bugging me to get a PS4 for a good 6 months now. Unfortunately it's a cool £300 or so with the game (Rainbow Six Siege) so I was somewhat reluctant to spend that money to say the least, even though I did want to join them, but the other day I caved in and pulled the trigger after some of his mates joined in the pestering, lol and it arrived last Friday (5th) from Amazon. See, Pester Power works for big kids as well as little kids, lol.
After I got it, I realized that I'm gonna have to shell out for a PlayStation Plus subscription too to play R6 online. Nice. BTW, I spent a little extra and got the official Sony vertical stand like you see in the picture below, which was well worth it.
Ah well, at least I've already got the headset and just need to get a
cheap adapter to make it work with the PS4, which arrives tomorrow.
So, I've been playing around with the PS4, created a PSN account, setting it up, getting used to it and playing R6 in single player mode for some practice (more on that later).
What do I think of it? Well, my
Glacier White PS4 (it's actually a light grey) feels like a media centre PC operating in a walled garden which can only be operated with the controller. Besides the stiff prices in the PlayStation store, it feels quite nice to use and it's the later 1200 series chassis too, so it runs nice and quietly, if rather warm while gaming. The controller feels really nice in the hands, too. It's surprising what the IGP in the PS4 can do, credit to AMD. These things have come a long way.
Note that I got the 500GB model over the 1TB model as I wanted the white colour and I don't plan on having loads of games on the PS4 anyway, just the ones I play with my friends. Anyway, I can uninstall the old games I no longer need or just upgrade the HDD to a 2TB one some time later, like my friend has just done.
R6 is interesting. First time I've played it, can see why it's so rated and look forward to playing with my mates online. I don't like the non-regenerating health system though and having to restart a failed mission ("situation" in R6 terms) from the beginning.
The console limitations are quite apparent of course with the lack of framerate (seems to be just 30fps in R6) no graphics adjustments and a monitor refresh of only 60Hz with no option to change it. Still, it plays ok and there was none of the usual setup and troubleshooting faffing that one goes through with a PC game when first started, which is really convenient and quite a plus for a console. Just one inevitable 3GB update first when I inserted the disc and that was it, good to go.
The one thing that bugs me and it's a biggie, is the mouse look with a controller. The view pans round at a fixed speed rather than move proportionally like with a mouse. I can't even find a way to adjust the sensitivity in the game.
This is a serious limitation, screwing up my ability to play a shooter properly since I can't aim accurately and I'm an old hand at these types of games, especially the fast and twitchy Unreal Tournament series. I therefore spend the whole time just fighting to control the aim with this thing instead of just playing the game and keep dying too easily instead of nailing that baddie, even on the easy setting.
It's something I've noticed before which has always put me off a console or using a controller with the PC. The joystick movement control on the other hand is much better than the 4 directions of the WASD keys one uses with a PC, giving fine-grained control over movement due to the smooth, continuous, 360 change of direction it allows. Still, I seem to have managed to work around the mouse look limitation somewhat in R6 in the couple of hours I've been playing it, but I still don't like it. I just hope that with enough practice that I can play it reasonably well and not get too frustrated.
Now, I'm a PC enthusiast, so of course I got curious and want to compare the console version of R6 with the PC version. I had a look on Steam and saw that they've got yet another sale on where the
Gold Edition is currently only £36.84 instead of the usual £54.99 until the 12th. Couple of minutes later I'd bought it and it's just finished downloading, all 17GB of it. Gonna give it a go and let you know how it compares. I'm gonna love that mouse look with my PC...
One thing that's not clear to me yet is whether PC players can play online with console players in this game and if they can, I'm gonna sell the PS4 disc, but keep the console for future games.
Best darn 150 bucks I spent.
