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My thoughts on the PS4 as a first-time owner in 2026.
This is going to be a bit of a long rambling post, but if you're interested in the perspective of someone new to the PS ecosystem go ahead.
My whole life has been on Xbox and Nintendo, but I wouldn't consider myself a fanboy by any stretch of the word. The Series X is a great machine with no games and I've barely touched by switch since 2018 (certainly won't be buying Switch 2). Back in December I had a little extra cash and wanted to splurge on something gaming-related as it had been a while since I played anything great. I found myself at my local retro game store and thinking of all the great games I missed out on while I was in high school with an Xbox One, picked up a PS4 for $140 along with God of War and Horizon Zero Dawn. I've had about 4 months with the system and wanted to share my thoughts with other people that might still be on the 8th gen console.
Design - I opted for the slim model as it can fit right under my TV and doesn't have a glossy fingerprint magnet section on it. I'm incredibly impressed that such a machine can fit in a package like this, especially when about 1/3 of its footprint is just a disc drive. Still looks sleek and modern 10 years later. If anything, I don't love how far apart the USB ports are (and that there are only 2 of them) but this is a great console to look at.
Controller - this thing fits amazingly in my hands. The triggers especially sit exactly where you want them to and offer the perfect amount of resistance. The face buttons are among some of the best I've used and feel more responsive than the clickier Xbox ones. I thought the touchpad would be a massive gimmick and it kind of is, but in many ways it feels more natural to press than a small "select" type button. Same goes for the light bar - it's a gimmick for sure but it's kind of cool to see your controller visibly react to what's going on in-game. The D-pad is amazing for games where it can be used for movement, but in most modern games where it acts as a sort of quick-select it's a little less responsive than I'd like. Now for the part that anyone coming to PS from another console gets stuck on - the sticks. They feel pretty great and the convex style with a bump around the edge stops your fingers from slipping better than essentially any other design I've tried. But why is the left stick down there? For anything that isn't a first-person shooter your left and right hand have to be at weirdly different angles. I'm not sure if this will ever feel natural to me. What also hasn't been great is having to bring a micro-USB cable back into my life but it's 2013 tech so I can't really complain about that.
System Interface - the main PS4 dashboard is clean, easy to navigate, and puts my games and apps front and center, unlike the Xbox dashboard that fills a third of my home screen with ads and another third with dead space. The main menu still runs great in 2026, unlike the Xbox One, which has received all the same updates to its menu that the Series consoles have, making it frustratingly slow these days. (and also made the Series X feel like less of a new generation and more of an iterative upgrade). The store is quite slow, but every other part of the core user experience feels perfectly functional.
Graphics/Performance - it's no secret that the 8th to 9th gen jump in graphical quality is quite possibly the smallest in several decades. I find ray-tracing and 4K to not significantly enhance my experience when playing games, and on the Series X I always opt for a 60fps performance mode if a game offers it. The biggest "revolution" that came with this generation of consoles was the switch from HDDs to SSDs, and boy do I miss that when going back to the PS4 (or Xbox One!) That being said, most games on this system look great to this day. I've mostly focused on first-party titles as I've never been able to play these games before, and Sony's studios squeezed so much out of this console it's insane. The Last of Us Part II in particular made my jaw drop multiple times out of disbelief that it runs so well on 2013 hardware. God of War, Horizon, and Spider-Man also deliver convincing realistic worlds in ways that few other games in the 2010s did.
Trophies - I've always liked achievement hunting, but having so many games at 30-50% from 10 years ago on my Xbox profile stopped me from seriously getting into it. With a fresh PSN profile I've managed to get 8 platinums already. While I do prefer the gamerscore system (trophy levels are so dumb lol), the conditions for getting a platinum make me much more likely to experience more of a game than trying to get 100% achievements that might include paid DLC or a multiplayer mode. Sony totally knocked this out of the park and I see why the trophy hunting community is so much more active these days than the achievement hunting one.
Final Thoughts - it's a little bit weird to go back and experience a console after its heyday but well before it becomes retro, but this might be the best time to get into the PS4 if you haven't already. Systems and games are cheap - I haven't paid more than $20 for anything so far and if digital games are more your thing the store is still functional and should be for years to come. But man, i totally understand now why Sony won the 8th gen so hard and is absolutely crushing the Series X right now. So many little things on the PS4 just work in much more intuitive ways than on the Xbox. From the initial system startup to installing games from the disc, so much of this system feels like it was designed by people that actually play video games. I wasn't old enough in 2013 to follow the Xbox One launch failure, all I knew was that as a kid with a Wii who was jealous of everyone with a 360 that I wanted the new Xbox. The PS4 just plays games, and it plays them damn well. I highly doubt that a next-gen Xbox is coming, and I think I'll be ready to hop on for the PS6.
#games
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This is going to be a bit of a long rambling post, but if you're interested in the perspective of someone new to the PS ecosystem go ahead.
My whole life has been on Xbox and Nintendo, but I wouldn't consider myself a fanboy by any stretch of the word. The Series X is a great machine with no games and I've barely touched by switch since 2018 (certainly won't be buying Switch 2). Back in December I had a little extra cash and wanted to splurge on something gaming-related as it had been a while since I played anything great. I found myself at my local retro game store and thinking of all the great games I missed out on while I was in high school with an Xbox One, picked up a PS4 for $140 along with God of War and Horizon Zero Dawn. I've had about 4 months with the system and wanted to share my thoughts with other people that might still be on the 8th gen console.
Design - I opted for the slim model as it can fit right under my TV and doesn't have a glossy fingerprint magnet section on it. I'm incredibly impressed that such a machine can fit in a package like this, especially when about 1/3 of its footprint is just a disc drive. Still looks sleek and modern 10 years later. If anything, I don't love how far apart the USB ports are (and that there are only 2 of them) but this is a great console to look at.
Controller - this thing fits amazingly in my hands. The triggers especially sit exactly where you want them to and offer the perfect amount of resistance. The face buttons are among some of the best I've used and feel more responsive than the clickier Xbox ones. I thought the touchpad would be a massive gimmick and it kind of is, but in many ways it feels more natural to press than a small "select" type button. Same goes for the light bar - it's a gimmick for sure but it's kind of cool to see your controller visibly react to what's going on in-game. The D-pad is amazing for games where it can be used for movement, but in most modern games where it acts as a sort of quick-select it's a little less responsive than I'd like. Now for the part that anyone coming to PS from another console gets stuck on - the sticks. They feel pretty great and the convex style with a bump around the edge stops your fingers from slipping better than essentially any other design I've tried. But why is the left stick down there? For anything that isn't a first-person shooter your left and right hand have to be at weirdly different angles. I'm not sure if this will ever feel natural to me. What also hasn't been great is having to bring a micro-USB cable back into my life but it's 2013 tech so I can't really complain about that.
System Interface - the main PS4 dashboard is clean, easy to navigate, and puts my games and apps front and center, unlike the Xbox dashboard that fills a third of my home screen with ads and another third with dead space. The main menu still runs great in 2026, unlike the Xbox One, which has received all the same updates to its menu that the Series consoles have, making it frustratingly slow these days. (and also made the Series X feel like less of a new generation and more of an iterative upgrade). The store is quite slow, but every other part of the core user experience feels perfectly functional.
Graphics/Performance - it's no secret that the 8th to 9th gen jump in graphical quality is quite possibly the smallest in several decades. I find ray-tracing and 4K to not significantly enhance my experience when playing games, and on the Series X I always opt for a 60fps performance mode if a game offers it. The biggest "revolution" that came with this generation of consoles was the switch from HDDs to SSDs, and boy do I miss that when going back to the PS4 (or Xbox One!) That being said, most games on this system look great to this day. I've mostly focused on first-party titles as I've never been able to play these games before, and Sony's studios squeezed so much out of this console it's insane. The Last of Us Part II in particular made my jaw drop multiple times out of disbelief that it runs so well on 2013 hardware. God of War, Horizon, and Spider-Man also deliver convincing realistic worlds in ways that few other games in the 2010s did.
Trophies - I've always liked achievement hunting, but having so many games at 30-50% from 10 years ago on my Xbox profile stopped me from seriously getting into it. With a fresh PSN profile I've managed to get 8 platinums already. While I do prefer the gamerscore system (trophy levels are so dumb lol), the conditions for getting a platinum make me much more likely to experience more of a game than trying to get 100% achievements that might include paid DLC or a multiplayer mode. Sony totally knocked this out of the park and I see why the trophy hunting community is so much more active these days than the achievement hunting one.
Final Thoughts - it's a little bit weird to go back and experience a console after its heyday but well before it becomes retro, but this might be the best time to get into the PS4 if you haven't already. Systems and games are cheap - I haven't paid more than $20 for anything so far and if digital games are more your thing the store is still functional and should be for years to come. But man, i totally understand now why Sony won the 8th gen so hard and is absolutely crushing the Series X right now. So many little things on the PS4 just work in much more intuitive ways than on the Xbox. From the initial system startup to installing games from the disc, so much of this system feels like it was designed by people that actually play video games. I wasn't old enough in 2013 to follow the Xbox One launch failure, all I knew was that as a kid with a Wii who was jealous of everyone with a 360 that I wanted the new Xbox. The PS4 just plays games, and it plays them damn well. I highly doubt that a next-gen Xbox is coming, and I think I'll be ready to hop on for the PS6.
#games
source
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