Shoulder buttons
Triggers
Light bar
USB port
it. Standing it up on it’s rather narrow edge can be risky without a stand, while lying it flat means it may wobble is pressure is exerted on the left side, thanks to rather odd bottom support placement. Turning it on reveals, after a short setup process, a rather slick user interface. There will doubtlessly be updates, both for the system and the games you play. These however, are handled neatly in the background. You can even keep gaming while a system update is downloading, and the unit can be set to download and charge controllers while in standby mode. This means great time savings and less interruptions to gaming, and is one of our favourite aspects of the new Sony monster. In addition, various functions - like popping back to the UI to check messages or tally trophies - can be done without interrupting gaming. The game simply pauses while you nip out to do your thing. There are numerous other features and abilities that
we have not touched on here but, suffice to say that the PlayStation 4 is a rather impressive piece of hardware overall. Its power shows through game performance, and its user-friendly nature makes it a joy to play with. It should be noted that playing online now comes with a cost; while Xbox Live has always charged users for their service, Sony is only now attaching a price to PSN gaming. But with free games added in to the mix, the cost is somewhat mitigated... and is not all that high to begin with. How it fares against the Xbox One in terms of the South African market remains to be seen, and is something we’ll look at when the Microsoft console arrives during the course of 2014. For now, though, South Africans can rest assured that they have access to a powerful new gaming platform in the form of the remarkable PlayStation 4. The future of console gaming just keeps looking brighter and brighter, thanks to innovative new products like this. g
gladget39
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