EVERYBODY NEEDS A PS4 AND HERE IS WHY...

 The next generation of consoles is finally upon us. It's an event that happens once every eight years at best, and with it comes a host of improvements designed to make everyone's gaming and home entertainment experience a lot better. After hundreds of press conferences, articles, reviews and tech demonstrations, many of you might be left a little overwhelmed with just what Sony's PlayStation 4 is actually bringing to the table this time around. Fear not however, because we've compiled all the key features you should know about and what they actually mean for your experience. If you're on the fence about getting a new console, here are the things you should consider.

Better Graphics

For good reason, the question on everyone's mind is if the next generation of hardware actually brings meaningful visual differences to the table when it comes to the games to be released. Without getting into the technical details of the hardware (hint: it's better), what you should know is that the hardware improvements make it possible to create better looking games, and also easier for developers to do so. The PlayStation 3 was notoriously difficult to develop for, and this meant that for games to look good it required a lot of optimization, and a lot more time and money from development studios.If you've seen some of the launch titles on the PS4 and you aren't completely blown away yet, keep in mind that graphics improve over the lifetime of a console. A lot of use suffer from a sort of selective memory when it comes to video game graphics, and the best way to demonstrate this is to take a look at what the launch titles for the PlayStation 3 looked like back in 2006. Kotaku has a great article that features screenshots of all the launch titles, and once you see them you'll immediately recognize how far we've come since then. Whatever the new PS4 games look like now, expect that same level of improvement over the life of this new console, and keep that in mind.
One of the most tangible benefits you'll see right away is that the PS4 plays games at a native resolution of 1080p. Believe it or not, most of the games you've been playing on your PS3 this whole time were actually running at 720p or lower, and were upscaled to fit your HDTV's 1080p resolution. This will mean a much clearer image, more legible text, and a much crisper overall experience for owners of the new console.

Ease Of Use

Everything about the way you interact with the PS4 has been redesigned to make your experience faster and more seamless. Back when the PS3 first launched, the word 'iPhone' wasn't even in anyone's vocabulary. We were all using dumbphones and BlackBerrys, The Departed was just released in theatres, and Facebook was just a cute little upstart biting at the heels of the unstoppable Myspace. Consoles were for playing video games, and if they did anything else you were already lucky. This couldn't be farther from the truth this time around. The PS4 let's you pause a game at any point, switch tasks and start watching Netflix or browsing the web, and then return right where you left off. The console is quicker to start, more responsive to use, and playing games happens almost immediately. If you buy a physical disk, the game can will start to install the minute you put the disc in the tray, and you can start playing within tens of seconds. If you've opted for a digital download you'll be afforded similar luxuries, allowing you to start playing the game mere minutes after you've started the download, and long before the entire game has finished downloading.
Best of all, you can walk over to your friends house, log in to your PSN account on their PS4, start downloading any game from your game library, and again, start playing wtihin minutes.

The Controller

Sony has made perhaps the biggest strides of all this time around when it comes to their completely overhauled Dualshock 4 controller. Game critics have held no punches in the past when it came to the shortcomings of the PS3 controller, and how it fared against the more ergonomically favorable Xbox 360 controller. This is far from the case this time around. The similarities between the Dualshock 3 and 4 controllers end squarely at the appearance. It's more comfortable in the hand, the analog sticks are better positioned and the triggers feel more like triggers. It's one of those things you'll have to get your hands on to truly grasp, but for now take solace in the fact that this controller has made fans of the previous iteration's biggest detractors.

Availability

If you opted out of pre-ordering a PS4 and you still want to get your hands on one you might be in for a bit of a wait. All of the launch-day consoles are mostly gone at this point, leaving would-be owners at the hands of eBay-flippers for the next few weeks. Amazon has already let people know that they will not be able to guarantee pre-Christmas delivery on any newly placed orders. If you want to pay a reasonable price for the new console, you might be looking at early next year. If you planned to gift a PS4 for the holidays this year, you should probably start making other plans, unless you want to fork over some cash to an eBay seller.

Closing Thoughts

We'll leave it to game critics and fans to debate over whether the PS4 or Xbox One is the victor this time around. We'll also leave it to them to decide whether this release is more of an iteration or an evolution. At the end of the day, the PlayStation 4 brings a host of much needed improvements that users will both notice and appreciate, and if playing modern games is something you want to take part in you're going to want to take the plunge at some point.