Master PS4 update 4.0
Get your gaming organised in glorious HDR-o-vision
STEp 1 LIKE IN PRISON, FILING IS ESSENTIAL
If there’s one thing we all hate, it’s clutter. Homescreen icons for games all over the show; your purchases, apps and installs mixed together in Library; crumbs of your lunchtime sarnie littering Mr. Jenkins’ chest cavity… Maybe that last one’s just me. Whatever the mess, update 4.0 can solve it.
Folders have finally arrived on PS4, meaning you can organise your games into customisable categories for ease of access. The last time the Doc got this excited about stationery, there was a national shortage of glue. Scroll to a game, press Options, then tick Add To Folder next to titles you’d like to group together. Pick a name for the folder, and voila – you’re sorted. Be warned: you can’t add games into more than one folder, so if you were looking to put Surgeon Simulator in ‘Fave Games’ and ‘Inspiration’, you’re outta luck. Hypothetically.
STEp 2 GO ALL CARTE BLANCHE ON THE MENU
Now that the homescreen’s looking tidy, it’s time to streamline your in-game menu fiddling. 4.0 includes the ability to build your own Quick Menu, so you can hand-select the shortcuts you use most. Press and hold the PlayStation home button on your DualShock 4 to bring up the menu – which now appears on the left to leave gameplay unobstructed – scroll down to Customise, and hit Menu Items. Then, it’s just a matter of picking the tools you’re curious about (my fave part of the surgical process).
Streamer? Plonk the Broadcast shortcut in your sidebar. The sharing type? Add Share Play to your Quick Menu, if you must cuddle up around the controller. High-functioning sociopath? That’s more like it! Have the Online Status shortcut ready to enable an Appear Offline message when other humans become boring.
STEp 3 GET A UI AS GORGEOUS AS YOUR GAMES
Much like Doc PlayStation ‘awaking’ from her nightly hypersleep, everything will look pretty automatically in update 4.0. That’s down to the HDR (high dynamic range) visuals that come included: everyone with a PS4 gets brighter colours, blacker blacks and more detail per pixel – provided your TV supports it. No need to worry if you haven’t gone Pro, then (I’ve got away with it for my entire career).
To give your home screen that extra bit of sparkle, go into Settings>Themes>Select Themes>Particle, and spots of light will dance across everything you see. And if that doesn’t work, come and see me – I’ll hook you up. Finally, add a background to your User Profile by selecting the ‘…’ symbol, then Change Cover Image, and choose one of your in-game screenshots. Line it up in the box, click OK, and you’re done.