Is now a good time to buy a PS4?

Hey guys:

I've been an Xbox-only player for 12 years now. I haven't owned any Nintendo or PlayStation since I bought my Xbox 360 back in 2007. I love my Xbox and can see myself buying a Scarlett if it includes and improves on all the features of the Xbox One, but most importantly, if it increases the number and quality of its exclusives.

Exclusives are what's making me open this thread, since for some weeks now I've been thinking about buying a PS4. I've been wanting to play all of the PS4's great exclusives (Spider-Man, TLoU, GoW, Uncharted Collection, Horizon Zero Dawn, the upcoming FF7 Remake, etc.), and I've been seeing some great deals on my local stores. I'm only planning to use the PS4 to play the exclusives, all other games that are multiplatform, I will play on my Xbox since I just hate the PS controllers, they feel really uncomfortable in my hands.

However, I've been hesitant to do it because of the following reasons:

• PS5 will presumably be launching less than a year and a half from now, but I have no idea if it will have backwards compatibility. Also its price and initial performance are complete mysteries.
• There's many PS3 games I want to play. PS Now seems like a good way to do so, but I've heard some negative reviews about the service in the past, and have no idea if it's better now and if Sony plans to continue and improve this service on the PS5.

Having said all that, does anybody recommend buying a PS4 right now? Would it be wiser to just wait how it all flushes out and save my money for next-gen?

All comments are welcome!

Cheers,

I would say definitely if you haven't played the exclusives. Going for the pro is optimal. If you are looking to get the most out of the exclusives the pro enhancements really up the fidelity and it will probably allow you to postpone buying a ps5 for longer. My launch ps4 died and I grabbed one and couldn't be happier with how good stuff looks. I will say the load times are atrocious on the stock hd especially for third party games. The Division sometimes takes 5 minutes to load up, but if you are going for exclusives that really isn't that big of a deal.

If you waited this long, I would keep waiting some more. In 14 months PS5 will out and is bvery likley to have a way to play the games you mentioned. Moreover it not like you can buy a PS4 Pro cheap, it is about $390 with tax. Why spend $400 on a soon to be replaced console.

Your first mistake was staying with XBox 360 for 12 f$#kin years.

I’m mainly an Xbox guy, but I’ve had a PS3 and PS4.

It’s a great time to get a PS4 as soon they’ll have Yakuza 0-6 all on one platform!

Off the top of my head, these are fantastic games:

- The Last of Us

- Uncharted 1-3

- Yakuza 0-6

- God of War 2018

- Ico/Shadow of the Colossus

- MGS4 (can you play this on Playstation Anywhere?)...MGS2,3, Peacewalker, Ground Zeroes, and V are all available on Xbox One. MGS1 is best played on Playstation Classic, I guess?

Spider-man is also very, very good.

Some games folks love that I’m not so keen on:

- Until Dawn

- Uncharted 4

- Horizon Zero Dawn

Oh, and I don’t know if launch PS4s are out there on the cheap, but they do HDR (not 4k). That was enough for me to pass on the upgrade. It didn’t seem like a big enough step like Xbox One X.

Sony confirmed PS5 will be backwards compatible with at least PS4. So i say wait it out and see how much a PS5 is going for and weigh your options. If its $400 i would say tossing in about $100 to get a PS5 over a base PS4 would be worth it.

And it looks like Sony is putting more effort into PS Now, adding the option of downloading PS4 games rather then stream them. but if your main interest is PS3 games it is still cloud based gaming, with all the downsides that brings with it. You can always give it a go on PC now or later and see how you like it, there is a 7 day free trial. Its hard to beat the 800+ games it has when they have some of there $100 for a year deals going on for it. Just not sure about how nice it plays with a 360/one controller if those are your only options.

My first thought was that it's worth to play some of the great games on there, but thinking it through with it only being a handful I think a strong case to wait can be made. I always go with the "If it's worth to you then it's worth it" mentality. If you see it for a great deal like you said I would pick it up because it sounds more like you will want the next gen xbox more and will probably get that when the new consoles come out and not mess with the ps5 anytime soon.

Just buy it. It's going to be a while before PS5 is worth it. Honestly, PS4 looks so good to me I don't know if I would notice a big difference between it and a PS5 unless I have a $2000 TV. Like, how many individual hairs of Kratos's beard do we need to render?

Buy it, the summer sale is going on. Days gone, Judgment and persona 5 are on really good discounts digitally and and discounted in most physical stores. Everything else that is really good is on sales right now basically, some for around $10.

@wollywoo: Every. Last. Fucking. Hair.

You don’t fuck around with beards.

PS4 is great with a ton of awesome games. But the PS5 point is an interesting one to bring up. If it wasn't backwards compatible, 100% buy a PS4 now.

Maybe wait for a sale if you are planning on getting a PS5 at launch.

I got a PS4 last year and I'd wait for Black Friday if I were you. I was able to get a PS4 with Spider-man for 199.

I, like you, picked it up to play some exclusives I've missed since I primarily play on Xbox and Nintendo. Overall, I'd say it's been a mixed bag with many of it feeling overhyped. I personally would watch videos for the first 3 Uncharteds and try picking it up with 4. I forced myself through the first two and have regretted picking up that entire series ahead of time. Uncharted 1 is downright bad.

Spider-man looks great but the story could be better and combat isn't great. The side missions are way too sparse and most of the game is tons of samey filler quests. It was fun but far from the best superhero game I've ever played.

Horizon Zero Dawn was a big disappointment for me. Again, it looks good, but I hated the combat and inventory management. So much collecting. The story isn't bad but not anything to write home about. And my god the facial animations are some of the worst I've seen in a game of this magnitude. The characters all look like they've received botox injections. The machine monsters idea was intriguing but I fell off that fast. The longneck things are lame as shit and just walking climbable towers. I doubt I'll play the sequel if I ever get a PS5.

God of War was the best PS4 game I've played, but I wouldn't put it up as my top game of the generation. Not sure it even cracks my top 10. Cool story but felt like they pulled a lot of stuff back for future sequels and instead trickled bits along. Very methodical and the fast travel system is way too strict. Story good, not great. Looks great though and combat overall fun.

Infamous Second Son I recently played and it was fun. Short (thankfully) but not something I would say is a must play. I honestly don't remember much from it story or gameplay wise. Just a game that exists. If you can find it cheap it's fun enough to play.

My favorite game I played on the platform was God of War 3 HD. I would definitely recommend picking that one up. It's quick, combat is fun, and story hits on many different points. Easily raced through this one over like a weekend and is easily my most recommended game I've played on Playstation.

From my experience, feels like a lot of the "great playstation exclusives" is a bit more internet hyping themselves up from the playstation hype of this overall generation.

As long as it's a PS4 Pro then yah it's a great time to nab one.

Unlike the XB1 which really almost lives and dies by the awesomeness of Game Pass, the PS4 has a lot of great exclusives that you can't play anywhere else. They are constantly on sale with bundled games so yah, go for it and enjoy the back catalog.