PS4 "Share Play" Impressions: Here, Have a Laggy Internet Controller

When Sony Announced the New "Share Play" Feature for PlayStation 4 Owners 2 Months Ago, it was One of the Most Unexpected and Interesting Potential Uses for its Cloud-Based Gaming Infrastructure that we'd Heard of. The Promise: a "Virtual Couch" that Lets Remote Players Join your Games as if they were Sitting right There with You. That Means the Ability to Take Part in Competitive or Cooperative Multiplayer, Even in Games Not Designed for Online Play, or just the Freedom to "Borrow" a Friend's System and Screen to Briefly Try Out a Single-Player Title. With the Launch of the PS4's Firmware Version 2.00 this Week, the "Share Play" Promise has Become a Reality for Millions of PS4 Owners with PLAYSTATION Plus. After Tinkering with the New Feature for the Better Part of an Afternoon, we Found "Share Play" on the PlayStation 4 to be Far from Unusable but also, Far from the Seamless Experience of actually Playing with a Friend in the Same Room. Setting Up a "Share Play" Session is a Bit of an Onerous Process.


First, Both Players Have to Join a Chat Party. Then One Player has to Start the "Share Play" Session though the Party Menu. The "Guest" then has to Connect to that "Share Play" Session. After All that, the Host has to Virtually "Hand a Controller" to the "Guest" through Another Party Screen Menu and the "Guest" has to Accept the Controller. The System Menus do their Best to Walk Both Sides through this Process but, it still Requires a Lot of Coordination and Juggling between Various Screens. What's More, When the Host is Navigating through System Menus, the "Guest" is Stuck Staring at a Blue Screen Telling them to Wait for the Host to Start a Game. Chat Functionality is also Limited When the "Share Play" Host is Navigating Menus, Meaning Skype Might be a Better Solution for Consistent Communication. Once Things are Set Up, the Experience is Pretty Intuitive — the Host System Acts as if the "Guest" had Simply Connected a Controller from Miles Away, while the "Guest's" System Displays Video and Audio Streamed from the Host's Machine. The Main Limitation, as it Always Seems to be with these Kind of Streaming Game Solutions, is Lag. While the Host Gets a Perfect, Locally Run Experience, there was a Small but, Noticeable Delay between the "Guest's" Button Presses and the On-Screen Reaction in our Tests, Ranging from Roughly 1-5th to 1-3rd of a Second.


The Sensation is Similar to What Many Players Find When Streaming Games from PLAYSTATION Now's Huge Server Farms, which is actually a Point in "Share Play's" Favor. How Important this Delay Ends Up Being for the "Guest", Depends Largely on the Kind of Game you're Playing. On a Game like The Evil Within, which has a Sort of Loose, Languorous Control Scheme already, Playing Remotely Wasn't Really that Different from Playing Locally. In a Game like Towerfall: Ascenscion, though, the Hosting Player was at a Huge Advantage in Multiplayer, as the "Guest" Struggled to Time Precise Moves like Wall Jumps against the Slight Input Delay. To be Fair, that Delay Got Much More Manageable When the Guest Machine Switched from a Wireless Connection to One Hard-Wired to the Router. With a Hard-Line Connection Setup, the "Guest" Player was Able to Hold his Own in Sportsfriends Battles and Participate in a Multiplayer Spelunky Run without Too Much Trouble. Even in this Ideal Setup, though, the "Guest" still Had to Make Unnatural Adjustments for the Lag. One Other Drawback Worth Mentioning is, the 1-Hour Time Limit for Each "Share Play" Session, which Requires you to Restart the Sharing Session after 60 Minutes. If you were Hoping to Hop from Game to Game while your Friend Stepped Away from the Controller or Binge for Hours on your Friend's Remote System, Too Bad; Every Game had to be Selected by the Host.


There's No Limit to How Many Times you Can Restart a Session, though, so this is a Pretty Minor Inconvenience, especially Considering that, the "Guest" System Doesn't Even Have to Own the Game in Question. We also Ran into an Odd Problem Sharing Gameplay on New Action-Puzzle Game, Pix the Cat, which Threw Up an Error Saying, Sharing was "Blocked in your Region". That's a Bit Odd, Considering the Fact that, Sony has Said in the Past that, the Service should Work with "All Released PS4 Games". Despite the Slight Bandwidth and Setup Headaches, "Share Play" is a Nice, Unexpected Addition to the Bevy of Features already Offered to PLAYSTATION Plus Subscribers on the PS4. If you Simply Can't Find a Local Friend to Join you for Some Couch Co-op or you Want to Try Out the Hot New Game that your Friend in Another State just Picked Up, there are Worse Solutions.




Info Source:

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/26-essential-facts-on-ps4s-2-0-update-masamune/1100-6423203