Is the PS4 still a viable console?

One of my close friends decided that she's no longer enjoying games so she offered to sell it to me for really cheap (100$). I love gaming but since I switched to Mac a few years ago my choices have been very limited. I've been mostly playing indie games that are available on Mac. So I've been thinking about her offer.

The price sounds amazing but I'm not sure if it's still worth it considering the PS5 has been out for a good few years now. What do you guys think? Should I take it off her hands or should I save for a PS5 or an Xbox instead?

My main monitor is 1080p 75Hz by the way (Acer KG221Q). So buying a new generation console would mean that I might have to upgrade my monitor as well.

Edit to add: A new PS5 would cost 7 times as much in my country. That's also another thing to consider.

Leafeytea,

I don't know that looking at games as a release is necessarily a great vantage point, but they can certainly be seen as a haven for fun if you approach them with an open mind.

For me it was more of a switch from how I played vs what I played. I got into online MMOs some years ago and (like a lot of things I do in my life...) I threw myself into them for a while like a loony. I found I was investing far too much time and energy organizing events, raids, builds, spreadsheets, people, personalities, drama, ugh. It was like going to work for heaven's sake! 😂

Eventually I got burned out and stopped completely. When COVID hit, of course going out wasn't an option so I got back into playing more again but realized that I could still have fun without the whole hardcore approach. I became, for lack of a better description, part of the "filthy casuals" lol - something I have never for a minute regretted. My time is my own, I chase what I like, meet others in game, and just plain have fun now.

PelicanPersuader,
@PelicanPersuader@beehaw.org avatar

Oh yeah, all the time. I've never finished Skyrim because it feels so overwhelming. No Man's Sky presents a similar kind of challenge for me, though that one also pings my danger sense really hard - I have this weird fear of deep water and space. Places where I can't see what's on the other side and might come after me. That's why I'll never play Subnautica.

Steinsprut,
@Steinsprut@szmer.info avatar

Who says you need to upgrade monitor for PS5? It supports 1080p 60 Hz perfectly fine, in fact most games run around 1080p when in Performance mode, and those that render higher res will give you free supersampling on that monitor.

PS4 and Xbox One were outdated and underpowered already on release, I wouldn't bother with them when you can play the same games on PS5 usually with better performance and/or graphics

bbbhltz,
@bbbhltz@beehaw.org avatar

I still buy games for my PS4 and I am a very casual gamer who never plays online.

Picked up SF6 this month and it is awesome.

TowardsTheFuture,

Up until before FFXVI launched? Probably. Now they’re for sure moving away from PS4 though. You can still get recent games on it but going forward I wouldn’t expect much.

LucyLastic,

The Doom 1.0 demo, at the time, fitted on one and a half HD 3.5" floppy disks and was absolutely mindblowing. It really felt like taking a look into the future of virtual reality and showed what the peak technology of the time (silky smooth on a 486 DX2 with a PCI graphics card ... there was one at school I had access to, lol) was capable of!

Not a game, but the State of the Art demo for the Amiga was similarly mindblowing ... a full music video on one SH floppy disk :-)

WonkoTheSane,

There’s obviously a huge backlog of games. So if you’re a patient gamer then you could absolutely be happy with it for awhile. But the age of crossover games seems to be over as publishers are fully embracing PS5/SeriesX

PenguinTD,

Just save for PS5/Xbox, I recommend PS5 cause their exclusives atm actually are quality works(with good track records.)

But like with anything else, you should just check what games you actually like and want to play, then pick the more cost efficient approach. :)

phi1997,

Go for it. If money's a major concern, there are many PS4 demos you can't play on PS5 and there are still only so many PS5 games that aren't on PS4

Dee_Imaginarium,
@Dee_Imaginarium@beehaw.org avatar

I'm still rocking my PS4 Pro and haven't felt the need to upgrade to the PS5 yet. Plenty of good games on there and a lot of the new ones still release to PS4 too. There's cool exclusives on PS5 but not $500 cool exclusives imo. Well, closer to $600 after purchasing the game. So I'll continue to wait to upgrade. I'd say go for it because you can have a lot of fun on the PS4 still.

exohuman,
@exohuman@kbin.social avatar

The backlog of the PS4 is one of the single best backlogs of any system. It will take you years to work through that backlog and the games will be cheaper too since they aren’t new releases anymore. If I were you, I would take her up on the offer and buy the PS4. The PS five will be where the new games go, but those same new games will have a large price tag.

Gigahertz5061,
@Gigahertz5061@kbin.social avatar

I bought a PS4 in October of last year. It's been one of my favorite purchases in recent memory because there are so many games out for it, and if money is tight you can get a lot of the greatest hits of the platform for cheap!

realitista,

If you want to game and only have a Mac, I think the $100 will be money well spent. There are tons of great PS4 games and many great ones still being released every day. There are a very few PS5 games that are exclusive but most are released on both platforms.

If you can stand knowing that you aren't on the very latest thing and just enjoy playing games, a last gen console is a great option for 90% of the experience for often half the price (ps4 versions of the same games tend to be much cheaper too).

OctoFloofy,
@OctoFloofy@kbin.social avatar

For only 100 bucks definitely yes. Its still a good console and has lots of games. If you want a PS5 you can still upgrade later but at least get to enjoy more games now.

Notamoosen,
@Notamoosen@kbin.social avatar

Try not to look at it as getting a $100 of technology, but rather if you'd get $100 dollars of entertainment out of it.

stevecrox,
@stevecrox@kbin.social avatar

Just to add.

Look at any hobby in your life and break out the money spent vs the enjoyment you got out of it.

For example the Cinema costs me £10 and a film is 2 hours long, meaning my fun time costs £5 per hour.

A £100 console would have to provide me 20 hours entertainment for it to be comparable to going to the cinema.

These days any PS4 game will have 10-40 hours content, but buying them costs money. Popping on CEX website the most expensive PS4 games are £12. Assuning you only get 10 hours of fun from a game...

The question you should ask yourself is are there 3 games on the PS4 you are interested in playing?

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