Category: PS4

PS4 Error Code CE-34878-0 – Continued

Please refer to previous post about this topic.

It has happened again with Tomb Raider (Definitive Edition) on my PS4 (Pro), also at the same place when I was about 83% completed (Shipwreck Beach).

This time I was able to launch the game but when I clicked “Continue” and selected the related “Save”, it would not load and the above error code was displayed.

I had another Save on the drive and it loaded OK.

I re-read the suggested fixes but the only solution was to delete that particular “Save” and start again or use the old “Save”- but the old one was 100% complete.

During my investigations, I looked at the price of the game on X Box and was pleasantly surprised to see that it was on special at AUD $6-23 (marked down from the usual AUD$25).

You can’t even buy a glass of beer at this price, so I bought it on Xbox. I have started replaying it and, as I can remember where everything is, I am progressing very quickly. After a short time I am at 45% (start of Shanty Town) with all maps up to Shanty Town 100% complete. It won’t be long until I get up to the point where the errors occurred on PS4 (Shipwreck Beach) and I will add to this post at that time.

Although the game has had bugs in the past, they have been reported on PS, Xbox and PC. Therefore the problem is probably not the PS4.  I have never had any problems with any other game on PS4. Also I was careful to check for updates both for the game and PS4 before I started. There was an update for the game.

This time I got the parachute fall first time (see previous post) but I had to have half a dozen goes at the “Hall of Ascension” Tomb.

FINISHED

I have now finished the game. The only glitch was at the escape from the Solarii Fortress where Lara jumps onto the helicopter. The game froze but a reboot of the Xbox solved the problem.

The secret is to find the treasure maps for each section and it helps when you can remember where things are.

Be sure to return to the Tomb of the Lost Adventurer in the Coastal Forest map well before you get to the point of no return. There is a wall in a cave that can only be blown open with the grenade launcher and you will also need the shotgun to get all the stuff. Behind this wall is another cave that has large amounts of ammo and weapons upgrade parts. I recommend you do this when you get the grenade launcher (and shotgun). You will then be able to upgrade weapons and replenish ammunition before the final fights.

P.S.

This is a great game. Don’t be put off by the problems – which are not confined to the PlayStation.

It is a game that I have no problems with replaying. In fact I enjoy it more knowing where everything is.

X Box One vs PS4

I have now upgraded both my consoles to the X Box One X and the PS4 Pro.

I have a large screen 4K HDR tv and comparing the latest 4K / HDR games on each console, I can’t see any difference despite the fact that the X Box One X is the more powerful machine.

My opinion remains unchanged, if you want to play on line with your friends, select the console they are using (see post 25/Mar 2015 “Update X Box One and PS4”).

The biggest difference between the consoles is that the X Box One X (and S) will play 4k Blu Ray discs and the PS4 Pro won’t. This is probably less of an issue if you have fast internet, but it remains relevant  for people like me with very limited speed/bandwidth.

SHADOW OF THE TOMB RAIDER

I am currently playing “Shadow of the Tomb Raider” on X Box One X and it is a great game, in my opinion the best Lara Croft game so far. There are more puzzles than  previous Tomb raider games. As well as raiding tombs, Lara has to solve heaps of other challenges and puzzles and not only fight the baddies but also survive attacks by wild animals and deadly piranhas and killer eels.  Also when you finish, a “New Game Plus” option is unlocked so that you retain your skills, weapons upgrades etc, if you want to play it again, which I definitely will. (“The Last of Us” also has a similar option).

One of the best features is the ability to fine tune difficulty levels to suit all skills. Instead of having to set the overall game at Hard/Normal /Easy you can set say “Combat” at hard and “Puzzles” at normal and “Exploration” at easy or any other combination.

It is available on X Box, Play Station and PC and well worth the price.

X BOX ONE S

In my previous post, I  forgot to mention how the X Box One S performs with 4K games.    

The short answer is that it performs very well. As well as playing 4K HDR Blu Ray discs, it also plays 4K/HDR games. As far as I can see, I can’t notice any difference between it and the PS4 Pro – although there probably is.

Also I found that the X Box has more information and adjustments in the settings. In fact, it was the X Box that alerted me to the fact that the Denon AVX 2000 would not pass through the HDR signal.

On the X Box One S go to – Settings / Display and sound /Video output / Advanced Video Settings /4K TV Details and it shows on a table what is happening with the 4K settings. Be sure to set the Display to “TV Resolution 4K” and under “Advanced video settings” set it to “TV Connection Auto Detect” and tick all of the boxes on the right. When the X Box was connected via HDMI to the AV receiver, the HDR box was disabled but connecting to the TV fixed this (with a Optical Digital cable used to deliver the sound to the AVX2000). Don’t forget to go into Audio Output (in the “Display and sound” X Box settings) and turn off HDMI audio output and select either Dolby or DTS for the Optical sound out.

At this stage, I probably won’t upgrade to the X Box One X.

PS 4 Random Disc Ejection

I have been having an annoying problem with my PS4. Without warning and, both while it is on and being used and also when it is turned off, it will eject the game disc. Then when the disc ejects it won’t go back in until the console is turned off then back on.

Needless to say this is more than annoying particularly when it ejects in the middle of a challenging part of a game.

It is the original 500GB model and is out of warranty. So I could either pay for it to be repaired or buy the new “Slim” model. I don’t want to upgrade to the PS4 Pro as I don’t have a 4K / HDR TV.

Before spending any money, I decided to look on line for an easy repair.

This YouTube video describes 2 things that I was able to do and it seems to have fixed the problem (Touch Wood !)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nF7awGOi7os

I don’t know if “tightening the screw” would work by itself as I did both before turning it back on. Try the screw first to see if this works as the rubber foot can be a bit difficult to put back.

With the screw, be aware that it is down below what looks like air vents and can be a little hard to see and access. Shine a light on it and you will see it.

Also with the little rubber foot, I took it out and then re-inserted it. It comes out very easily as shown,  but is a lot harder to put back in. I used a little screw driver to push it back in starting at the front and working back. On the YouTube video it looks like he just leaves it out.

So thank you very much YouTuber MightyMrMustache – you saved me the cost of a repair.

 

I have always had both a PlayStation and an X Box. The original X Box 360 was the one that I had problems with previously and this time around it is the PS4. (Although nothing as bad as “the red ring of death”on the first 360.)

Another issue with the PS4 is that I find the wireless controller has to be charged much more frequently than the controller for the X Box One. This is not a big deal as you can have it plugged in while playing a game. However the supplied charging cable is short and I have to use the much longer cable that comes with the X Box One if I want to sit back on my chair and play while charging. Thankfully both consoles use the same standard USB plugs/sockets.

X Box One and PS4

I have been using my X Box One for a few months now and frankly, I think that it has a lot of issues that need urgent attention.

It has nice graphics and the voice control works OK, but the graphics are not that much better than the 360 and the novelty of voice control has, at least as far as I am concerned, worn off.

These are a list of the things that I find most disappointing in order from most disappointing to less disappointing:

1. No voice messages

2. Game install times – it takes forever to install the disk to the Hard Drive and I have problems with freezing during the install. (See Also 3 & 6)

3. Having no choice about installing the game to the Hard Drive (See also 2 & 6)

4. Not working as a media extender for Windows Media Centre

5. Not playing videos on external drives

6. Small Hard Drive and no ability to attach an external drive to store games. My drive is already almost half full and this means that I will soon have to start deleting stuff (See No 2 and 3)

7. Not being able to access files (pictures videos) on computers on my home network

At this time there are many annoyances both big and small that tend to sour the Xbox One experience and I am so glad that I kept my 360.

I had intended to delay purchase of a PS4 until the PS4 supported 3D Blu-ray. However in view the issues with the Xbox One, I decided to buy a PS4 now to compare the 2 consoles.

I bought 2 games for the PS4 – Tomb Raider Definitive Edition that I have also played on X Box One and Killzone Shadowfall (because it was bundled in a deal at EB Games).

Now that I have been using the PS4 for about 2 weeks this is my opinion of both the new consoles.

Controllers:

As I have mentioned in previous posts, one of the main reasons I have favoured the X Box is because I liked the X Box Controller better than the PS3 controller.

PS3 controller dislikes for me are:

  • Small size;
  • No triggers;
  • No removable battery; and
  • Needs to be recharged frequently via USB cable to console.

The PS4 controller is much improved in regard to size and you could probably now say it has triggers (sort of). But the PS4 controller still has the problem of no removable batteries so that it has to be connected via USB cable to the console to recharge and I have found that re-charging seems to be needed more frequently than the Xbox One / 360.

Verdict – Improved but still not as good as X Box (but for me no longer a deal breaker)

ITEMS LISTED ABOVE FOR XBOX ONE COMPARED TO PS4

Item 1 Voice messages

I don’t have a head set for the PS4 and I don’t have a subscription to Play Station Plus. However, from what I can see it is similar to X Box One in that it has in game chat but no voice messages.

Item No 2 – Game Install Times. PS4 WINS hands down. Games install very quickly and this is in marked contrast to the X Box One.

Item No 3 – Compulsory install to Hard Drive. The PS4 is the same as the X Box One but this is greatly mitigated by the very quick install times.

Item 4 – Media Extender. The PS3 did have DLNA but I can’t see this on PS4.

Item 5 – Video on External Drives. I plugged 2 USB drives into the PS4, one formatted as FAT32 and the other as NTFS. It did not see either drive.

Item 6 – Hard Drive size. PS4 has the same size hard Drive as X Box One but the big difference in favour of PS4 is that, unlike the X Box One, the PS4 uses a standard SATA Hard Drive and you can self-install a bigger drive. There are plenty of “How To” guides on line. More importantly, it does not void the warranty and Sony has a place to download the recovery software if you swap in a bigger drive http://us.playstation.com/support/systemupdates/ps4/new-install/

On the other hand the PS4, like X Box One does not yet support attached external drives.

Item 7 – Access to Home Network attached computers. From what I can see, the PS4 lacks this function as well. The Xbox one interacts with the iPad App and no doubt the PS4 does similar things but I want to be able to stream pictures, video, and music from my computer over my home network – just like X Box 360 and PS3.

GAME PLAY

Comparing Laura Croft Tomb Raider Definitive Edition on both consoles, the video quality, load times (apart from initial install) and general game play seem to me to be all but identical.

INITIAL SET UP

The PS4 was easier to set up and the initial update was smaller. But this is not important as you only do it once and the X Box One has a Kinect that adds to the set up.

X Box Live vs. PlayStation Plus

You now need to pay for on line gaming on both consoles but as I do not have PlayStation Plus I can’t really comment. Also, for obvious reasons, it is hard to get an unbiased opinion on line. I will assume that they are about equal.

CONCLUSION

This is my opinion only and it does not take into account the new non gaming things that the XBox One in particular can do (most of which don’t work in Australia in any case).

Both XBox One and PS4 need a number of updates to equal the functionality of the Xbox 360 and PS3.

However if you only want to play video games, at this stage, I am slightly in favour of the PS4 but not enough to make me switch my X Box Live subscription or pay for both.

It is just far too early to make any drastic decisions and whether or not I decide to pay for PlayStation Plus and / or continue to pay for X Box Live will depend on what updates are provided and how fast they are implemented.

If you are buying your very first console to play games only, and you do not have friends that are using a particular console that you might want to play with on line, and you don’t to want to wait to see what happens with updates/ improvements, I have to say that the PS4 seems a little bit better. (Note – this is based on the much slower initial game install times on X Box One. If XBox fixes this, then I would say they are about even.)

In other words, pick the console that your friends are using.Otherwise stick with your existing Xbox 360 or your PS3, particularly if you already have an Xbox Live / PlayStation Plus subscription and / or most of your friends remain on the old consoles.

Kinect

Finally, I should mention that at first I always used the Kinect voice commands but after a few weeks this became less frequent and about he only one I now use is  “snap / unsnap” and I don’t use this very much. The only other regular use of Kinect I make is the automatic face recognition to sign into X Box Live.  A cheaper XBox One without Kinect would not make much difference to the gaming experience but would make it price competitive with PS4. If games eventually come out that really require a Kinect, then you could buy one as an optional extra.