PS 4 for 8 year old

aayush

Hi All
Can someone advise what is the best one re the above as wish to surprise my son for xmas
EG GB size as not know much about PS4 thus not want to taken for ride by the stores

esuhl

I don't know much about this, but my mate is buying one for his 7/8 year old son.

He went for the 1TB version rather than the 500GB one. This seems to be a good consensus from what I've heard.

Then there are"slim" versions (which are just a slightly smaller version of the original PS4), and "pro" versions, which support 4K screens.

There are some other minor differences -- but strangely there doesn't seem to be an overall consensus as to whether the slim or pro versions are "better overall" (apart from the fact that the pro supports 4K).

So... my guess would be a 1TB PS4 Slim would be the way to go... unless any experts want to wade in...?

iammumtoone

Don't have a PS but I have brought other games consoles for my 10 year old.

I always buy the lowest GB version as generally the cost is a lot less.

My reasoning is, he is not a hard core gamer, for a start he has a time limit he is allowed on per day so I don't see how he would need a higher spec one.

I also buy all his games on disc so he doesn't use up download space. The discs seem to be around the same price as downloads (unless there is an offer on). The amount I may have spent extra on discs v downloads doesn't come close to the extra money for the higher GB version.

DigForVictory

Other than don't, but buy the same value of Lego instead?
Toys the 7/8 year old will play with, will not learn bad language from (ahem other than parents etc building alongside) or dubious ethics (can you cheat at Lego?) or be at risk from on-line predators? Also keeps its value for decades & doesn't stress the developing brain in ways as yet uncertain.

If this turns out to be completely the wrong idea, you can review at the next birthday, but in the short term, why rush to get new tech when the Lego buddies are so much easier to keep tabs on?

GunJack

iammumtoone wrote: »

Don't have a PS but I have brought other games consoles for my 10 year old.

I always buy the lowest GB version as generally the cost is a lot less.

My reasoning is, he is not a hard core gamer, for a start he has a time limit he is allowed on per day so I don't see how he would need a higher spec one.

I also buy all his games on disc so he doesn't use up download space. The discs seem to be around the same price as downloads (unless there is an offer on). The amount I may have spent extra on discs v downloads doesn't come close to the extra money for the higher GB version.

Even if you buy the games on disk, they are still installed onto the hard drive, and wil still need to download updates to those games. A 500GB could well be false economy in the long run..

chrisw

GunJack wrote: »

Even if you buy the games on disk, they are still installed onto the hard drive, and wil still need to download updates to those games. A 500GB could well be false economy in the long run..

I’d agree with that. My son doesn’t have all that many games but soon filled up 500gb so we had to buy him an additional hard drive.

As with all technology, each new game that comes out increases in size, so get the largest capacity at the start you can afford.

iammumtoone

GunJack wrote: »

Even if you buy the games on disk, they are still installed onto the hard drive, and wil still need to download updates to those games. A 500GB could well be false economy in the long run..

Yes I dont understand how that works, is it the updates and game saves that go to the hard drive? The whole game can't as you can't play the game without putting the disc in.

GunJack

iammumtoone wrote: »

Yes I dont understand how that works, is it the updates and game saves that go to the hard drive? The whole game can't as you can't play the game without putting the disc in.

Yes, you can, as the first time you put the disk in it will install to the internal hdd....after that, you don't need the cd/dvd to play it

iammumtoone

GunJack wrote: »

Yes, you can, as the first time you put the disk in it will install to the internal hdd....after that, you don't need the cd/dvd to play it

On what consoles? We are bit behind it doesn't do this on my sons xbox 360. He now has xbox one (500GB) no games on discs yet he is saving for some. I didn't know this had changed if I had you are right I would have gone for the higher spec.

Is there a way to set it to play via disc only? Looks like he may need external storage then at some point.

onomatopoeia99

DigForVictory wrote: »

Toys the 7/8 year old will play with, will not learn bad language from

I have a PS4 and have not experienced any bad language on it. I'm a grown up so know the full gamut of profanities in more than one language

There is no obligation with these things to play online with other people.

marcarm

GunJack wrote: »

Yes, you can, as the first time you put the disk in it will install to the internal hdd....after that, you don't need the cd/dvd to play it

Sorry this is wrong, you DO need the disc to play the game, otherwise everyone would buy the game, install it and then sell the game but still be able to play it.

The game installs some of the data from the disc to the drive, meaning load times and the game itself runs faster as it is not needing to access the disc all the time.

Upgrading the HDD is easy to do, and the PS4 now can use an external HDD for data. I put a 2tb HDD in mine for about £50.

Game saves can be backed up to the cloud if you have PS+, and data can be deleted from the HDD if it is getting full, this can be reinstalled at a later date and then the save can be downloaded from the cloud again, meaning he will not lose everything.

But you will need to insert the disc to be able to play any game installed on the HDD, unless it was purchased from the store, in which case the whole game is stored on the HDD, but this means that it cannot be exchanged or sold if/when he gets bored of it.