Gamer in Asia: why I want to throw my PS4 into the South China Sea

Last month I crumbled to my baser instincts and bought a Playstation 4 (PS4). I knew it was a dumb decision, that it was too expensive, that there was lack of software, and that I could pick one up much more cheaply when I went to America. But who can come between a nerd and his deepest, darkest desires? Logic never stood a chance.

I bought the PS4 with a copy of Infamous: Second Son, which was awesome. Unfortunately I completed the game on the hardest difficulty, achieving 100 percent completion and both endings over a single weekend. After that my PS4 became a paperweight, squatting next to my TV and glowering at me every time I turned on my Playstation 3.

But things began to change recently. The indie scene has begun to pick up, and some cool stuff was finally getting released on the PS4. Great, I thought, as I queued up Octodad,Child of Light, and Transistor for download. This is going to be fun.

It wasn’t.
(See: Infamous: Second Son review: more than playing superhero)

I love digital downloads

I live in China and I travel a lot. I don’t know where I will live next year. For these reasons, I have been a big fan of digital editions. I can’t transport forty boxed games, but I can take an extra suitcase full of (carefully wrapped and vacuum-sealed) consoles with hundreds of gigs of pre-downloaded games within.

Given the Playstation 4’s connectivity, it was the first choice for a lover of digital editions like me: it can get the latest games downloaded automatically and I can even use my phone to buy new games. And of course, by the magic of internet-pixies, I can even leave my PS4 on standby and it will do it all automatically! It was my gaming wet-dream, but it turned into a nightmare.

What the hell is queue?

I don’t know who designed the PS4 downloading system, but they must be a “unique thinker”. Or just lobotomized. The PS4 download screen is a testament on how to do something already perfected completely wrong.

Let’s start at the beginning, with the lack of a queuing system on the PS4. If you have ten downloads going on your system, they are happening simultaneously. That’s great if you have an internet connection like greased lightning, but on my crappy six MBPS, that just doesn’t fly. I would rather play one game now than watch eight games trickle into my PS4