After hours of intensive play GameCentral gives a definitive review of the PlayStation 4′s new gamepad and how it stacks up against the Xbox.
We have used the PlayStation 4 controller many times before: at E3, Gamescom, and other preview events. But never for more than about 15 minutes at a time, which is nowhere near long enough to to get a real feel for how the controller handles in a normal gaming environment.
But recently we were offered the chance to review Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag several weeks before its release, and although we can’t talk about the game until the embargo lifts we can discuss the fact that we were playing it on a retail PlayStation 4.
There’s been some minor controversy that in many cases, such as at the recent Eurogamer Expo event in London, Sony has been using PCs to demo their PlayStation 4 games and not real consoles. This is actually very common in the industry, before a new console is released, but it is embarrassing when they crash and suddenly there are Windows error messages everywhere.
That didn’t happen when we were playing Assassin’s Creed IV, in fact the whole experience went by completely smoothly, with no crashes and not even any obvious bugs in the game. That may seem like small reason to celebrate but these were new consoles hot off the assembly line and we, and the eight or so other journos, had them running the same game for 17 hours straight, two days in a row.
Beyond that though there’s relatively little we can tell you about the console itself. It wasn’t online so although we were free to fiddle with the dashboard there wasn’t much for it to do. The XMB interface of the PlayStation 3 is no longer being used but the replacement doesn’t seem too different, with a horizontal line of five major options: What’s New, Game, Live from PS, Internet Browser, and Downloads.
Obviously most of these only do something if the console’s online but if you push up on the controller you get a longer list of more specific options: Store, Notifications, Friends, Messages, Partners, Profile, Trophies, Settings, and Power. It’s always exciting to see a new console in the raw for the first time but in truth we didn’t really learn anything new from the experience. The controller though was a different matter…
For many people the question of the PlayStation 4′s controller is the most important factor in deciding whether or not to get the new console or opt for the Xbox One. After all a console’s line-up of games can be improved at any time but it’s much harder, and much riskier, to change the controller design. Many complain that the current DualShock 3 is not well suited to first person shooters, and that its design and control stick placement is outdated and in need of a complete overhaul. But as you can tell simply from looking at a photo that’s not what’s happened here.
The DualShock 4 has undergone a substantial redesign though, perhaps the most significant in its history. The most unequivocal improvement is to the left and right triggers at the back, which are longer and more contoured – so that your fingers sit on them much more comfortably and with no danger of sliding off.
The touch pad on the front also seems a very positive change at this point. Although pressing it in like a physical button is a bit springy it’s useful to have such a large non-action button in easy reach. It was used to access a map in Assassin’s Creed IV, and once activated you could pinch and zoom the view via the touch pad – just as you would with any touchscreen device.
The Share and Options button either side of the touchpad are simply renamed Start and Select buttons, but we still would’ve preferred if they were a little bigger and easier to press in a hurry. The Options button was used to access the main menu in Assassin’s Creed and we suspect it will be put to similar use in most other games.
There is one very obvious flaw in the DualShock 4′s set of new features though and that’s the light bar at the back. Although it can be changed colour to indicate low batteries or in-game functions (such as low health in Killzone: Shadow Fall) Sony insist that it cannot be turned off altogether. This creates a very obvious problem in playing in a darkened room: you can see the light bar shining back on the TV.
The bar is large and extremely bright, which can be very distracting when you notice it – especially during non-interactive cut scenes. Given its negligible functionality in most games it seems bizarre that Sony won’t let you just switch it off, although hopefully they’ll see sense and the option can be patched in soon after launch.
In terms of the face buttons there was no obvious change but the controller itself is a significantly heavier device than the DualShock 3, which has been criticised as feeling too lightweight and insubstantial. The DualShock 4 feels like an immediately more substantial device, but we do have concerns about the design of the larger forward grips.
The grips are now quite chunky and budge outwards slightly in the middle, in what we found a mildly unpleasant manner. We wouldn’t go as far as to say it’s uncomfortable, but it certainly doesn’t seem as ergonomic as the Xbox 360 controller, and it seems Sony has overcompensated for those with bigger hands that have complained about the DualShock 3.
After essentially two days of non-stop play our hands (which we’d say were strictly average in size) didn’t feel sore in any way but neither did the DualShock 4 seem to melt into our hands in quite the same way the Xbox one does. That may simply be unfamiliarity though, and perhaps after further weeks and months we’ll forget it was ever an issue.
The same may also be true about the analogue sticks, but at the moment we feel they remain inferior to the Xbox. They’re certainly a lot tighter and more precise than the DualShock 3 though, with a noticeably smaller dead zone. But we’re not immediate fans of the redesigned top of the sticks, which is now slightly concave and surrounded by a thick outer ring.
Again, it’s not that they’re uncomfortable but they’re clearly trying to mimic the Xbox 360 controller and it doesn’t work quite as well given the two sticks are closer together on a DualShock. And that’s the real problem: the DualShock 4 is the best controller Sony has ever made but it’s not the complete redesign that many have been calling for.
The DualShock has been a bodge ever since the very early days when Sony saw the Nintendo 64′s controller and quickly added two analogue sticks to a design that was never originally meant to house them. No doubt Sony considers the DualShock design to be so iconic they have to keep it but we feel this is a mistake. The controller should be 100 per cent about functionality, but that never seems to be Sony’s thinking.
Instead they’re continually tinkering and improving a design that probably should have been abandoned and started again from scratch a decade ago. We haven’t yet played the Xbox One controller for as long as we have the DualShock 4, so we can’t speak too much of that, but for now we’d still say the Xbox 360 gamepad is still better than the DualShock 4 – even if there’s now less in it than before.
No comments:
Post a Comment