Topic: The PS4 breakdown - has it been the best console ever? Discussion and Banter. Everyone Welcome.

@roe ahhhh man cant believe I missed you on my list. Sorry bro. Thanks for joining in anyway mate and I agree with everything you have written especially PS Now. I rinsed it on a one month sub and just had to renew its too good for people like us who play a lot of games. Seeing Dead Cells being added today is a great bonus!

@Ralizah Tetris effect in VR is overrated but still a must play. There's a level with a tribal dance track and a group of tribes people in a circle underneath you. It's absolutely amazing. I found there to be a lot of pixelisation in Tetris effect on the headset though and as an avid tetris player get sucked in anyway, the game is almost the same on a TV. Statik and Astrobot on the other hand are outstanding experiences which can't be replicated on a TV. Also Batman VR when you look in the mirror is scary and empowering all at the same time.

@Wesker It's a coincidence you have mentioned last gens SP games and the lack of variation this gen. I went right off 3rd person action adventures at some point. Yakuza Zero, HZD, Spiderman and finally Death Stranding are great but I needed loads of space between each one. I'm currently playing Watch Dogs 2 and although it has some novel ideas - none of core mechanics keep you engaged, it's all been done better before. I've dropped God of War and the Witcher 3 off the top of my head simply because I'd played a recent 3rd person game and couldn't be bothered.

@LN78 I loved the Megadrive - Shining force, streets of Rage, Sonic and you can play them all on the sonic mega collection on PS4! When Sonic Mania released I was excited, possibly the biggest incoming release for me att but it didn't scratch the itch. The reality is I know Sonic 1 and 2 like the back of my hand and its all nostalgia.

Streets of Rage 4 is a beast, if you haven't already make sure to pick it up. You won't be disappointed. Its a remake and sequel done exactly right.

I can't say the PS4 is the BEST console of all time due to the fact it had a pretty slow start and didn't really pick up in terms of solid console selling exclusives until probably 2015. It's a great console, but it ain't no SNES

Unpopular opinion:
Genesis > SNES

@Ralizah it's an unpopular opinion for a very good reason.

@Ralizah I can see why some people hold that opinion, even if I don’t agree. Genesis definitely had some gems and Streets of Rage 2 is one of my favourite games of all time. Plus what other console could you pay to make it look like a toilet?

@Kidfried lol Nintendo fanboy.

@nessisonett "Plus what other console could you pay to make it look like a toilet?"

????

@LN78 I think the Genesis has a greater diversity of high-quality software than the SNES did. SNES has a few good Square JRPGs and the usual Nintendo fare (most of which I'm mixed on; I just don't like Super Mario World, even after 100%ing it recently, so sue me ), but, outside of that, the library isn't really terribly memorable. The Genesis, on the other hand, was swamped with weird hidden gems.

Also, I tend to prefer the Genesis versions of games when there are two bespoke versions on either console. So, Aladdin Genesis > Aladdin SNES. Shadowrun Genesis > Shadowrun SNES. CV Bloodlines > Super CV IV. Contra Hard Corps > Contra III.

Genesis had the best shmups, beat-em-ups, and first-person shooters that gen, too.

The one area it's weak in is JRPGs, but even then, it had the fantastic Phantasy Star games, Shining Force games, etc.

So, it's a matter of one system having a smaller number of BIG titles versus the other having a larger number of diverse titles.

@Ralizah Lmao never mind, got confused with the abomination that was Atari Jaguar CD, the tower of power was pretty awful though.

@themcnoisy yeah buddy, I tried but couldn’t be bothered with Spiderman, Watch Dogs 2, Witcher 3 or God of War. Horizon Zero Dawn though was the exception. Despite my fatigue with the genre, that game was different enough to be able to rope me in. I’m really looking forward to the sequel on PS5.

SCV IV over Bloodlines but not by much. Genesis had Out Run though, the best arcade game ever made. And PS4 has all of them!

Shout out for the Sega Saturn!

I'll see myself out.

(Seriously though, one of my favourites of all time. And PS4 is still better)

I think one thing we can all agree on is that it’s bloody difficult to work out what’s the ‘best’ console, we all have different answers!

The PS4 for quality of hd game play, built in game video/image capture and share, and store function has made the PS4 the overall top Sony console.

However from 2012 to 2015 the PS3 was the best Sony console experience for me. That was with a smooth running 120 GB original slim. For me it turned my tv into a smart tv when smart tv's were entering the market.

During those years the PS3 youtube plug in worked great, the browser worked well enough for basic searches, video, image, and mp3 and 4 downloaded to the hdd was available, my music cd's could quickly be recorded onto the hdd, and i could play Fallout 3/New Vegas, The Saboteur, 3 Bioshock games, and GTA 5 online without Plus. Also PSONE game discs are playable. My copies of RE Nemesis and Dino Crysis 2 work well played on on my, still working, PS3 slim.

Well by 2015 the PS3 browser was dying causing loss of some pc like function, but the youtube app and netflix worked well.

Then for xmas 2015 i purchased my first PS4 for $300 bundled with the Uncharted trilogy . I also purchased Fallout 4 that day. Found the PS4, Fallout 4, and gallery capture quit awesome. The brower worked much better than i expected. However the added media player and external hdd are features that should have been there at release.

Cheers for the shout @themcnoisy, Its a great community to be part of!!
For me, ps4 is right up there with the ps2 as my favourite console ever. The ps2 came out at a time of my life where I had free time and huge number of folk to play games with. Nights playing pes3 and 5, tekken tag, tiger Woods, hitman and gta san andreas (just taking turn about shots at missions) are irreplaceable. However the ps4 has truly rekindled my love of gaming when I had fallen out of the hobby. Witcher 3 was the first rpg I had played since ff7 on ps1 and combined with last of us and gtav (last gen experiences I know, the irony isn't lost on me) really opened my eyes to what gaming could be. I have never looked back! I have tried lots of different genres and as a middle aged dad gamer with a full time job, even managed to brave soulsborne games. Bloodborne may be one of my favourite games ever. I suppose if I was to be hypercritical of this gen it would be the tendency towards cookie cutter open worlds. I think the last of us 2 has shown how effective a well created wide linear game can be and for all the times I found enjoyment in the open worlds of games like horizon zero dawn and ac odyssey, there are times when I think many of these experiences would be better as more focussed linear games. I'll be there for the ps5, though maybe not at launch. The ps4 is still an absolute beast of a machine. I have yet to see anything from next gen that looks the way tlou2 does!

I really like the PS4. I didn't realise until quite recently, but the PS3/360 gen was quite awful. The birth of so many things like paid online and microtransactions and then the descent of so many time-honoured series like FF and RE, plus the absence of other things like single-player DQ. Japanese games seemed to largely go down the pan and endless brown, grimdark, militaristic western games flooded us. To me the PS4 gen is where both Japanese games made a comeback and western games moved to a higher level with stuff like TW3 and GoT. I also think games from last gen have aged horribly and are hard to go back to, like when I recently tried to go back and at ME1. Games from previous gens hold up much more. Though I'm sure current gen games like TLOU2, FFVIIR, and Death Stranding wil hild up well next gen.

Does any other console have Knack? Oh, what's that? PS4 has Knack 2 as well! Booyah baby! Double touchdown!

@TheFrenchiestFry It's easy to look back and think the snes is the best, try playing those games for a month and you will be despairing to play something else. I love SMW, Mario Kart, SSF2, Final Fight, Actraiser et al. But we have variants and better ones at that of the various genres on PS4. In fact you can play both Final Fights and SSF2 on PS4. Something to bear in mind.

@Wesker Service games, as much as we hate on them here - have a big audience and I too have a penchant for Rocket League which is in my top 5 games ever. I love it! It's also rewarding as you have all the nuances of gaming with other people so AI isn't an issue.

Maybe you should give Cities and The Witness a go if you haven't already. They are proper palette cleansers.

@Arugula CPC 464? Crikey mate what a terrible computer so far behind the times even then. You must surely mean the CPC 6128 with green screen monitor and disc drive (was it disc or disk?).

Rik Dangerous, Dizzy, Elite, Emlyn Hughes football.

But I struggle to play them even more than my mini consoles these days. Also I personally knew Mike Singleton who made Lords of midnight who sadly passed away when he was working for codemasters Amazing bloke and going to the pub with him was crazy, he knew about everything.

@NoCode23 I would have to say the brown and blurry graphics from last gen really wore thin. Due to the extended gen, I personally couldn't wait to move on. Although GTA V and TLOU released at the very end of the gen - until that point we had iterative experiences which went backwards after the mid way point.

@R1spam middle aged dads ftw. Im in the same boat and gaming is helping pay for my mortgage in a roundabout way. I'm a huge fan of PES - funny you mentioned 3 and 5 when 4 was my favourite back then. Worth giving Pes 18 a bash if you haven't already, it's really slick. Unlike 19 and 20 which have degressed.

@Matroska great point, last gens games are playable but look like crap. Killzone 3 is possibly the best looking game on PS3 and that looks really dated. I think as the consoles weren't designed primarily for 1080p (we had old school TVs even that short time ago) it told.

@Arugula that was an attempt at a joke. I had the 6128.

MY PS4, can't live without it. If the house was on fire I'd grab the external SSD drive, run downstairs chased by the dog and snatch the PS4 on the way out.
No worries since the Ghost of Tsushima is already in the machine and Destiny 2 is digital.

@themcnoisy Well I'm not talking specifically in the remasters of older games department. I'm just saying the general library of the SNES was pretty freaking legendary and I think the only consoles to ever meet it in terms of sheer variety and diversity are the PS2 and original DS, although the Switch is certainly impressive

TL;DR - PS4 and this generation has been around 4/10 for me

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Been a while since I was here, but you’re damn right I’m a hero, haha.
Have to say I have been hugely disappointed by the PS4, and this generation as a whole. So many games are now just interactive movies with bare minimum gameplay tacked on. Walking from A to B to watch a cutscene then walking from B to C as people talk to then watch another cutscene is not gameplay. It started last gen (hello Last Of Us) and has gotten more and more common.
There’s also been too few new, surprising or even genuinely good experiences in gaming this gen. I’m struggling to think of more than ten games I would recommend to anybody from all three consoles, with only two PlayStation exclusive.

I realise many of you won’t share my opinions on this, but as someone who has been gaming for three decades now it’s disheartening to see my love for the medium fading away more and more each year because there’s just nothing good coming out. Even my beloved Nintendo have really fallen short, bar a couple of games while my true love SEGA have faltered too often too.

Thankfully there have been some games that have stood out through the masses of mediocrity. Doom, Rez HD, Sonic Mania, NieR Automata, Resogun, Zelda: Breath Of the Wild, Mario Odyseey, Overwatch (at times!), Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and the remakes of Resident Evil and Final Fantasy VII.
As you’ve no doubt worked out from those picks though, the majority have been old games given a new life. How can that be? With all the money, all the talented people, all the ideas in games today, how can the best games be reimaginings of classics.

Maybe it’s my age (36), maybe it’s just me, but this generation and all three consoles have been well below what they should have been. Sadly next gen already looks like more of the same and I honestly feel it’s getting closer and closer to me not even bothering gaming anymore.

To end on a positive note though (I don’t mean to be a downer) I too have enjoyed my conversations, and arguments, with the users on here. Too many are too fanboyish for my liking - hence why I’ve been gone for a good few years - but I always enjoyed reading others opinions and having mine challenged.

Hope you all enjoy the last few months of PS4 and whatever consoles you go onto next. Hopefully something catches my eye, hopefully even something new.