I picked up my PS4 on Saturday and for the most part, I've been enjoying the experience. Resogun is a lot of fun and the new controller is a nice improvement over the DS3.

Had no problem updating and despite some issues with the store, eventually I was able to download everything I wanted with speeds much faster than anything I experienced on the PS3.

There are some things that are baffling. Lessons that should have been learned, but weren't.

I think most people in this community know that I preferred the xbox 360 over the PS3. I owned both and I had great experiences on both, but there were simple things that made the experience better on the 360. With the PS4, Sony had a chance to address those issues. To make the experiences around the games better. In some ways they have and in others, they are still not on par with the 360.

I'm finding the best thing about the PS4 is the UI in terms of speed. It's fast and getting from one place to another is not an issue at all. The problems become apparent when you are forced to take steps that you shouldn't have to. Steps that you don't even have to on the 360.

On the xbox 360, when an achievement pops, you press the guide button and it opens a window to show you exactly what it is. On the PS4, the notification pops and if you want to find out what it is, you have to leave the game, go to trophies, possibly wait for it to sync, find the game and then find the achievement. That's if you even remember what it was called. That should not happen. It's not user friendly in any way. It was done correctly on the 360 all those years ago.

Messaging has the same issues. When a message pops, I should be able to press a single button, like on the 360 and open that message right there. I shouldn't have to leave the game, go to the message center, find the message and reply from there. I like the way messages in the message center are handled, but usability is still lacking. Another aspect that is still inferior to the eight year old 360. It just doesn't make sense.

Despite the PS3 having a ton of options that could be confusing and hard to find, they were there. Options for blu ray playback, audio and video options, and every other thing you could imagine. The PS4 seems to have taken a massive step back. Not only is there no bluetooth support, but there doesn't seem to be an easy way to direct audio and chat where you want it to go. The PS3 let you send game and chat audio to different devices and it was a great system. Despite bluetooth chat quality being terrible compared to the 360, it was great that you could find a solution that worked for you. Now you have this absolutely horrendous ear plug that Sony should be ashamed of. It's uncomfortable, it doesn't sit in your ear and it sounds terrible.

In audio options, you can choose the primary output. HDMI or optical. On the PS3, this was a switch. It would output to one or the other. Here both stay on. What exactly is the point of making it an option if both are going to output? I'm using headphones that come from an optical source. The whole point of that option is to turn off one output.

Organization is another huge problem. There is none. The top menu is fine. It has the things you need to get to and it's fast. The new XMB they have is a mess. Icons are just thrown on there haphazardly. I don't want playroom, I can't figure out a way to get rid of it and I have to look at it every time I turn the console on. Why are games and media options not separated? Right now I have four icons for games, on demand, and then Sony music and Sony video are separate icons in that row. Even the PS3 XMB handled that organization better.

We now have this share button on the controller. I think it's great. Simple things were left out for reasons that I don't understand. Pressing the share buttons allows you to view the screenshots and videos you have. However, you can't delete them from there. You have to leave that menu, go to the top menu, go to settings, then data management and delete them from that menu. Why? Did no one at sony think it would be a good idea to let you delete items directly from the sharing app?

Sony made a big deal about being able to charge the controllers while the system is off. This again was a half step. It only charges the controllers in standby mode. The 360 didn't have a standby feature. It simply outputting power to the usb ports even when the system was completely off. Why the PS4 can't do this is beyond me. I don't leave my console in standby mode and I probably never will.

I don't regret buying the console. I like having all current machines so I don't have to worry about missing out on a game. It just seems underwhelming. They had a fresh start. A chance to address all these usability issues, but they didn't do anything. Many of the same problems from the PS3 exist here. They don't seem quite as bad because the OS itself is so much faster, but they are still there.

If you had told me this was the new OS for the PS3, I would have believed it. It's faster and more responsive, but too many of the little things make it feel like it's stuck in the past.

If I'm wrong about these things and there are ways to open messages/trophies directly, or even to delete the playroom, I would love to know.

Why don't you leave your console in standby mode? That is what it is meant for.

so 7.5 / 10?

So one step forward then?

But yeah, I am really worried about organization of content. Especially if Hard drive management is gonna be a huge thing this time around.

I'm paranoid about the text you get then you hold the PS button down. They made a point to mention not unplugging it from power. I don't want a random power outage or fuse blowing to mess up the system.

haha, I guess so.

Scores don't really make sense to me.

Also no customization of the front end background? This has to be patched in and I don't know why it wasnt there in the first place. This and the no customization of the bottom xmb bar are my only real problems with the ui so far, and they're small problems at that.

Why dont you use standby mode?

@schreiberty: Blown fuses are the real concern for me personally. On occasion my dad turns on the rice cooker, rotisserie, blender and a few other appliances and fuses have blown. PS3 has lost power a few times and it goes through that whole recovery process.

Just doesn't seem like it's worth taking the risk.

Yeah, I would have liked the ability to use your own screenshots as backgrounds. I can get over that because it's not a usability problem.

The craziest thing: Forced HDCP on all video output. (to be removed in the next firmware update or two)

What the hell were they thinking? Even in Japan there's a ton of streaming going on that people love to watch, the kind of streaming that actually makes a shit-ton of sales, official respectable "here's a bunch of online celebrities from this community, the world of music, etc trying this game for 72+ hours, lets see how far they get" streams. Were they thinking Twitch, Ustream and figuring out some way to do it comfortably for NicoVideo (the VITA has it) would do the trick?

Hopefully, that is the answer.

(Customization is coming. It screams of "lets focus on making things work for gaming", which has been admitted to being a thing by Yoshida himself)

As a 360 owner who's switching to the PS4 this gen (I should be receiving mine on Wednesday), I appreciate your input. This was well written. I will likely have similar grumblings, by the sounds of it. Hopefully Sony will get on some of these issues and fix them, although they don't seem especially quick to resolve usability problems.

How is the whole downloading/installing experience? I remember being disappointed that the PS3 had to download, then install a game, and both processes seemed painfully slow compared to the 360.

I'd love to hear your take on some of the positives of the system, too, unless most of your impressions are generally negative.

Can you manage the computer you use daily? Is the one you made that post on having problems? You should be be fine using consoles.

A Dirty PC Secret: Hard drives are just as likely if not more likely to fail than fill up.

The negatives are easy to talk about because they stand out so much. Especially as someone who is used to the ease of all this little things on the 360. If I were coming from the PS3, I don't think I would be bothered at all because this system is much faster than the old one. It would seem like nothing but improvements all around. I'm just feeling it a bit more because I expected parity when it comes to these things. It's just not there. Yet.

As far as I can tell, if a game has no patches, it will download and there is no install. I downloaded Resogun. It was a single file and it was ready to play as soon as it was done. I'm not sure if it installs in the background and doesnt tell you, but it's handled differently as compared to games with patches. There is definitely no downloading phase followed by an installing phase. Unless there is a patch.

Contrast had a patch. The system makes a point to tell you that you are downloading two separate files. It seems a bit unnecessary to the end user, but you are made aware of it. Games with patches do need an installation, but I'm pretty sure that it is simply installing the patch.

It's definitely better than the PS3 which required those obscene installations. This system doesn't do that. I don't know what is included in these patches so I can't say for sure, but it is still nowhere near as fast as a 360 title update process and you will still see an installation phase. It just depends on the game and whether or not there is a patch. This might also be something we are seeing at launch. I'm sure with time, the updated versions of the game will come with the patch already included. It doesn't make much sense to download a game and a patch when you are downloading it for the first time. Should just be including as the current version as a single file. Then there would be no need to have the patch installation.

First and most important positive and the thing that I am most impressed with is the overall speed of the system. It's quick. Pressing the PS button immediately brings you out of whatever you are doing. Navigating through menus, and settings is all very fast. You get the occasional hiccups when the system is trying to pull something that is server side, but that's to be expected. I'm sure those things will get better with time.

The controller is a fantastic improvement. Quality issues aside, it's better than the DS3 in every way. I'm not sure what that means because I personally hated the DS3. The analogs are better, the triggers are better and it's larger. I have large man hands and this does feel much better. I played a good amount of resogun and my hands were cramping up a bit, but I think that might just be me. My fingers near the bottom of the handles still don't feel comfortable after extended periods of time. I definitely prefer it over the DS3, but not over the 360 controller. Still like those analogs and triggers over the DS4.

Overall I am positive on the system as a whole. It's lacking some features that I would have liked and it's not as user friendly as the 360, but it's a definite improvement over the PS3. In almost every way.

Edit : My friend just sent me a message on the system and I just remembered another thing I really like. Messages are now handled like conversations. Like you would have on your phone. They are all organized by friends in the message center and it's not just sending individual messages back and forth. It makes sense and works well thanks to the ability to quickly tap out and send messages. R2 as enter is such a little thing but it feels great. It's not a substitute for the entire system being more user friendly, but it works well.

@koolaid: I've had a 300gb hard drive in my pc for three years now and I havnt had any problem with storage. My secret: delete things.

Now if its a chore to get to the data to manage it, then thats a problem.

That is CRAZY and sounds like a big pain in the ass.

Some of us like to have games readily on hand for playing at the drop of a hat. Downloading 35 GB just so I can play ten minutes of a game then not touch it for months again is dumb. If I have everything on my HDD ready to go I can do that. I've got 145 steam games installed right now still with little under half my 1TB HDD left.

Thank goodness the system is peppy. I mean, obviously it would be, but I'm so sick of how bogged down and slow my 360 feels these days.

I messed around with a DS4 in a store over the weekend, and I think I might be with you in that it's a massive improvement over the DS3, but it may not be as good as the 360 controller in some ways. I have three small-ish issues with the DS4: The edge of the triggers should be rounded, in my opinion, the triggers could use a little bit more resistance, and I prefer the asymmetrical analog layout of the Xbox controllers. That said, the more I had my hands on the DS4, the more I liked it, and I personally love the touch pad, and the fact that it is an extra button is nice.

Sounds like the core problems are largely things that can be addressed through system updates. This system will be around for a while, so let's hope that with updates it can be stellar all around.

Should have went with PC. or ios.

@aquablak: yeah. I'm disappointed that they didn't address all those little things, but at the end of the day, they are little things.

Sony doesn't exactly have a great track record when it comes to updates, but I'm hoping this time will be different.

I'm glad I have it. There will be great games for it and while it may not get as much use as my xbox one, it's still a must have.

Yeah, there's definitely room for a lot of UI improvement. That's the thing about launch though, stuff is bound to change. I agree almost 100% on your points about organization. I want to just have the things that I want on the main page, it doesn't make sense for things to be moved as they're used. I think it makes sense to have the last one or two things you did show up first but I'd rather it sort alphabetically from then on.

I've also tried to delete Playroom but it still shows up for me. I want to get rid of it too.

As someone who was only 360 up until a few months ago, there are some little touches I like about the PS4 so far:

The media bar that is presented at start up doesn't have any ads in it. To be fair, the "what's new" section does, but you have to drop down into that on purpose to see them.

That same media bar organizes things by what has been most recently used; if you were playing Resogun the last time you shut it down, then the system assumes you'll probably want to play it again; I like this better than large divided sections of the XMB.

It's really quiet. Like I said, these are little touches, but going from a 360 that was loud enough I had to turn the TV up sometimes, the PS4 is sooo nice.

For small negatives:

Message cleanup seems...janky? Feels like sometimes I delete a message, and the alert saying it's there still shows up, or I'll accept a friend request, and then the request still shows up. I like to get my gmail inbox as close to zero as possible every morning though, so I may be more into that "a place for everything and everything in it's place" than the average bear.

For as fast as the system is, and as infrequently as I checked achievements on the 360, PS4's still just cumbersome enough that I have a moment of hesitation trying to decide if I want to pop out of the game, into the trophy section, select the game, and then look at whatever the trophy was. Like @syed117 said; if anyone knows a way to shortcut that, I would love to know.

@spraynardtatum: I would be more than happy with three or four main icons on the XMB. It doesn't really need more than that.

Last played - icon for the last game played

Library - all games (remove network requirement)

Media - all streaming including Sony music and video

What's new or activity feed - all friends activity and Sony updates from the store.

Put everything in headers like those and that's pretty much all the organization they need. That way it's still kept simple and quick but still maintains structure.

Sounds good to me. Sounds more like the PS3 bar but I'll take it. They could make it slick.

I also really like that there are no ads unless you go to a drop down menu. REALLY like that.

I could not agree with you more. In all honesty, when I whipped my unit out of its box I was beside myself with how hot it actually looks in person. Made even better when turned on, that gorgeous blue light glowing down the centre as the console quietly hummed along on my table. The controller is awesome, and like the console itself, looks much better in person. Then after going through initial setup I hit the user interface and my jaw dropped.

"Who the fuck designed this thing?"

It's usable, but poorly designed and very unorganized. I just sat there looking at it for 15 minutes, wondering what went through the minds of the people who worked on it. Sony nailed the hardware, but the UI kills me. I was expecting a refinement to the XMB, improve its organization and navigation while restyling the way it looks, not turning the whole thing upside down.

I guess I just expect a successor to improve on features while offering the same or more. PS4 offers less than PS3 did at launch. So yeah, a step or two back.

Sony is still a hardware company and Microsoft is still a software company in a lot of ways. Take heart that in exchange for this relatively minor quibbles you're more than likely getting a more solid and powerful machine in exchange.