Picked it up last night from Best Buy. fairly painless and I was on the road heading home by 12:06.
Looks
Smaller than I thought it would be and more quality feeling. It looks and feels like an improved slim/revision model right out of the gate. Really like it and I'd say it's their best looking hardware yet. It's also dead effing silent.
USB
2 on the front, none in the back which sucks for me because now my surround headphones are sticking out the front all ugly like.
Controller
Good, but not quite as great as they say it is. It is weightier than the DS3, but not by much (or enough). The plastic it is made out of feels really cheap, almost like it was actually a 3rd party knock-off controller.
The sticks are great, massively better than the DS3. Tight feeling tension, great ergonomics, slightly more space. As good as the 360, possibly even a bit better. Triggers and shoulders are massively better than the DS3, but still feel placed a little "off" and less perfect than on 360.
Overall though it does feel really good in the hand. Really comfy and you just sort of forget it's there. (until you go to through ammo and reach down instead of up accidentally pressing the PShome button.).
The Share and options buttons suck ass though. Odd placement and to flush to easily hit. I almost have to look at it to press them.
Overall it's really nice (it just feels a bit cheap) and I really like it. Other than the sticks though I wouldn't say it's better than the 360 controller, but it's probably nearly as good.
GUI
Better than the PS3 xmb, but still pretty uninspired overall. a horizontal bar of games/apps/crap etc... pressing down opens up a hodge podge of additional shit for that item (dlc, tips, etc...) that is kind of a mess layout wise.
Press up to get to a horizontal bar of ugly miss-matched icons for profile, settings, PStore, Friends list etc...
It isn't outright bad, and I think it is more interesting than the PS3, but it looks and runs like a rough draft designed by committee, not an actual released, cohesive UI.
It has minor hitches, loading issues, pop up, it stutters etc... and this is just a simple interface. Nothing to bad, but it shouldn't be there at all.
I haven't tried to customize it yet so it may be improved. It also plays soothing new age noise with a liquidy animated background.
Updates
Had to connect and download an update right out of the box. I have to say that the update downloaded probably 5 times faster than I've seen PSN move before roughly 4-5 megs per second compared to the PS3/Vitas 1 per second.
However it still had to unpack it after it downloaded and reboot the system. Then it had to apply the update then reboot the system again etc... So it looks like their hellacious update system hasn't improved.
Game installs
Jesus Christ. It takes a minute or 3 after you first put in a new game before it installs enough to even open a thumbnail of it. Then it gives you a notice saying you can start to play, but shit isn't done yet message.
I put in BF4 and after a few minutes I could get to a menu that would let me play the Sp, but it took another 20 minutes or so before it had installed enough that I could play the MP.
Killzone and Ass Creed were the same way.
Not bad I guess, but slower than I had pictured it being.
PSNstore
Ugly and doesn't run very smooth. It's a fucking store UI so why does it chug, skip, not load pics/thumnails etc... Pretty rough. More so than the dashboard.
It also doesn't show you your PS+ info. Weird.
Not nearly as bad as it is on PS3 though, but the Vita runs it smoother. Go figure.
Share Button
I can press it to share pics and Videos I recorded of gameplay! YAY! Err... yeah, but how the fuck do I find and view my own recordings?
Remote Play
So far so fucking awesome. Runs like butter. I played through the first level of BF4's Sp completely on the Vita and it was good. Smooth, responsive, looks good, sounds good, connects/disconnects fairly quick.
I haven't tested it out of the house yet though. I couldn't turn the PS4 on from the Vita from work today for some reason. Probably a setting.
Sound
Not sure what is up, but it doesn't sound as good as it should. It's set up correctly running discrete 5.1 over fiber-optic DD and DTS work fine. It just doesn't transition smooth, but that could also be the game (I've only really tested it with BF4 so far)
Issues
BF 4 has crashed to the XMB many, many times already. More than the 360 version did in 2 weeks in a single day. It throws an entire error code screen with a "report to Sony" button like it was a PC crash. Might just be that game though and not a system issue.
Overall
I like it. It looks good. Controller is pretty great. Evenwith its hitches the OS?UI is improved.
I'm really digging it so far and pretty positive overall about it.
I'll post more later.
Looks
Smaller than I thought it would be and more quality feeling. It looks and feels like an improved slim/revision model right out of the gate. Really like it and I'd say it's their best looking hardware yet. It's also dead effing silent.
USB
2 on the front, none in the back which sucks for me because now my surround headphones are sticking out the front all ugly like.
Controller
Good, but not quite as great as they say it is. It is weightier than the DS3, but not by much (or enough). The plastic it is made out of feels really cheap, almost like it was actually a 3rd party knock-off controller.
The sticks are great, massively better than the DS3. Tight feeling tension, great ergonomics, slightly more space. As good as the 360, possibly even a bit better. Triggers and shoulders are massively better than the DS3, but still feel placed a little "off" and less perfect than on 360.
Overall though it does feel really good in the hand. Really comfy and you just sort of forget it's there. (until you go to through ammo and reach down instead of up accidentally pressing the PShome button.).
The Share and options buttons suck ass though. Odd placement and to flush to easily hit. I almost have to look at it to press them.
Overall it's really nice (it just feels a bit cheap) and I really like it. Other than the sticks though I wouldn't say it's better than the 360 controller, but it's probably nearly as good.
GUI
Better than the PS3 xmb, but still pretty uninspired overall. a horizontal bar of games/apps/crap etc... pressing down opens up a hodge podge of additional shit for that item (dlc, tips, etc...) that is kind of a mess layout wise.
Press up to get to a horizontal bar of ugly miss-matched icons for profile, settings, PStore, Friends list etc...
It isn't outright bad, and I think it is more interesting than the PS3, but it looks and runs like a rough draft designed by committee, not an actual released, cohesive UI.
It has minor hitches, loading issues, pop up, it stutters etc... and this is just a simple interface. Nothing to bad, but it shouldn't be there at all.
I haven't tried to customize it yet so it may be improved. It also plays soothing new age noise with a liquidy animated background.
Updates
Had to connect and download an update right out of the box. I have to say that the update downloaded probably 5 times faster than I've seen PSN move before roughly 4-5 megs per second compared to the PS3/Vitas 1 per second.
However it still had to unpack it after it downloaded and reboot the system. Then it had to apply the update then reboot the system again etc... So it looks like their hellacious update system hasn't improved.
Game installs
Jesus Christ. It takes a minute or 3 after you first put in a new game before it installs enough to even open a thumbnail of it. Then it gives you a notice saying you can start to play, but shit isn't done yet message.
I put in BF4 and after a few minutes I could get to a menu that would let me play the Sp, but it took another 20 minutes or so before it had installed enough that I could play the MP.
Killzone and Ass Creed were the same way.
Not bad I guess, but slower than I had pictured it being.
PSNstore
Ugly and doesn't run very smooth. It's a fucking store UI so why does it chug, skip, not load pics/thumnails etc... Pretty rough. More so than the dashboard.
It also doesn't show you your PS+ info. Weird.
Not nearly as bad as it is on PS3 though, but the Vita runs it smoother. Go figure.
Share Button
I can press it to share pics and Videos I recorded of gameplay! YAY! Err... yeah, but how the fuck do I find and view my own recordings?
Remote Play
So far so fucking awesome. Runs like butter. I played through the first level of BF4's Sp completely on the Vita and it was good. Smooth, responsive, looks good, sounds good, connects/disconnects fairly quick.
I haven't tested it out of the house yet though. I couldn't turn the PS4 on from the Vita from work today for some reason. Probably a setting.
Sound
Not sure what is up, but it doesn't sound as good as it should. It's set up correctly running discrete 5.1 over fiber-optic DD and DTS work fine. It just doesn't transition smooth, but that could also be the game (I've only really tested it with BF4 so far)
Issues
BF 4 has crashed to the XMB many, many times already. More than the 360 version did in 2 weeks in a single day. It throws an entire error code screen with a "report to Sony" button like it was a PC crash. Might just be that game though and not a system issue.
Overall
I like it. It looks good. Controller is pretty great. Evenwith its hitches the OS?UI is improved.
I'm really digging it so far and pretty positive overall about it.
I'll post more later.
