Gifting a Gaming Console for Christmas? Update It First! | Dramel Notes

If the price drops on current-gen consoles like the PS4 and Xbox One caused you to buy one as a Christmas gift, you’re going to make someone very happy this holiday season!

What you might not know, however, is that hours of potential boredom might occur on Christmas day if you don’t take care of some logistics first.

Modern video game consoles are updated over the Internet, mostly to fix bugs and add new features. Because of this, your child won’t be able to just plug in their new Xbox One and start playing — it will first need to update, and this could take quite a while on Christmas when thousands of other families are doing the same thing.

Aside from console updates, games need to be updated too, and these can be a few gigabytes or more. It would be a shame to wait hours before seeing what’s new in Black Ops III because of a mountain of updates.

The age of your kids determines what you should do here. If your child is an older “gamer” and feels that the experience of setting up a new console is part of the charm, leave it be and let them deal with the updates.

Younger kids, however, won’t want to wait, so it’s a good idea to take the system out of the box, plug it in, and get it online so that you can apply the latest updates before you give it to them. Make sure to put in the discs for any new games so they update too!

Looking to do more preparation for your gifts? See how you can easily upgrade the PS4’s hard drive to get more space.

Will you update your gifted consoles early, or do your kids like doing it? Let us know your plans below!

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8+ Great Gift Ideas for PlayStation 4 Owners | Dramel Notes

The PlayStation 4 is one of three current-gen games consoles topping the gift lists of people of all ages. The others being the Xbox One and Wii U. However, it’s not good enough just to own a PlayStation 4; you need games galore, awesome accessories, and an online subscription to go with the console itself.

Which is why we here at MakeUseOf have put together this short gift guide for PlayStation 4 owners everywhere. Whether you’re looking to buy something for yourself, a friend, or a family member, the gifts on this list should elicit a smile.

A PlayStation Plus Membership

A PlayStation Plus membership is pretty much essential for all PS4 owners. Without it, they cannot play multiplayer games online, which is a huge part of the appeal of most titles released nowadays. A 12-month subscription will set you back around $50, which may seem a lot, but is actually remarkable value for money.

As well as enabling access to the online multiplayer elements of games, a PlayStation Plus membership also buys the right to download free games every month. Sony offers at least two PS4 games for free to all PS Plus subscribers each month, and taken together their value far exceeds the price paid for an annual subscription.

An Extra PS4 Controller

While online multiplayer is definitely where it’s at these days, there’s still a place for offline multiplayer gaming. After all, the feeling of trouncing someone sitting next to you on a sofa is difficult to beat, and impossible to replicate over the Internet.

It’s for this reason that an extra controller is a great gift idea for all PlayStation 4 owners, especially if you know they only own one controller at the moment. Even better would be buying them an extra controller AND inviting yourself over for a weekend of nonstop gaming.

A Good PS4 Headset

At one time headsets were only really used by PC gamers intent on blocking out the outside world as they fragged their frenemies in online shooters. However, gamers of all persuasions now use headsets to talk to their teammates while, well, fragging their frenemies in online shooters.

The PlayStation 4 headset we have linked to here is far from the only one available. However, as it’s an official Sony product with extremely good reviews, it’s the one we would recommend people buy as a gift. There are cheaper alternatives, and more expensive options, but this one achieves wonders at a mid-range price point.

The PS4 Universal Media Remote

The PlayStation 4 Universal Media Remote by PDP allows PS4 owners to navigate and control their console without having to use the controller. This makes it a worthy purchase for any PlayStation 4 owner who watches a lot of Blu-rays or who uses their games console to watch Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime Instant Video.

It should be noted that while the PlayStation 4 Universal Media Remote is an officially licensed product, it isn’t actually made by Sony. This has led to some complaints that its not fully compatible with all of the receivers and apps it should be compatible with. Still, it sure beats using a controller.

The PlayStation 4 Camera

The PlayStation 4 Camera isn’t an essential purchase, but it’s a nice accessory to buy the PS4 owner who has everything. Once installed it sits quietly under your TV watching and listening (if and when you want it to). However, this isn’t so the NSA (National Security Agency) can spy on you. Thankfully.

Not only does the PlayStation 4 Camera allow you to play games which make use of the hardware, such as Just Dance 2015, it also allows you to interact with on-screen aliens through The Playroom. It also provides a simple way of streaming games via Twitch or YouTube Gaming.

Some PlayStation 4 Thumb Grips

Buying a PS4-related gift for someone doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. One of the cheapest ideas is a set of thumb grips designed to sit on top of the analog sticks on the controller. These should cost less than $5, but could make a huge difference to a dedicated gamer.

While the DualShock 4 controller that ships as standard with the PlayStation 4 is excellent, some people find the analog sticks a little slippy. These thumb grips remedy that problem, potentially turning an average player into a great player, especially in games such as Call of Duty where moving quickly and aiming accurately are all-important.

PSN Vouchers

If none of the above has quite taken your fancy then vouchers to spend on PlayStation Network (PSN) are the obvious solution. These work in the same way as any other gift card, needing to be activated before they can be used to buy PS4 games, downloadable content (DLC), and themes.

You can also buy individual game vouchers which entitle the recipient to download a particular title. These are ideal for people who know exactly which games they want but who would rather just download a digital copy rather than have a disc taking up precious shelf space.

Games Galore

There are a host of fantastic PlayStation 4 games available, with more being released all the time. Some are exclusive to the PS4, while others are available on other platforms too. Regardless, if you pick well, these games can provide hours of entertainment.

While it’s always a good idea to buy the specific titles requested by the recipient, some games are absolute must-haves. With that in mind, we have hand-picked a small selection of both multi-platform and PlayStation-only games guaranteed to appeal across the board.

The best multi-platform games available for the PlayStation 4 include Grand Theft Auto V, Fallout 4, Tomb Raider, Project CARS, and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Grand Theft Auto V in particular is a must-have game for anyone with a PS4, as long as they’re aged over 18.

The best PlayStation exclusives include Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection, The Last of Us Remastered, Bloodborne, Tearaway Unfolded, and Journey. Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection is especially good value, including three full-sized games in one epic compilation.

What PS4 Gift Are You Buying?

That concludes our list of great gifts for PlayStation 4 owners. We think it offers a nice mix of accessories and games that will appeal to PS4 owners of all ages. However, the comments section is down below just waiting for your input, so please leave us some feedback.

If you own a PS4 yourself then feel free to add your own gift ideas to the list. Or, if you found this article useful in helping you decide what to buy the PlayStation 4 owner in your life then please let us know which gift idea you chose in the end. Your comment could help future readers.

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How to Make Your PlayStation 4 or Xbox One Faster (By Adding an SSD) | Dramel Notes

Sony and Microsoft chose not to ship the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles with solid-state drives. They went with slower mechanical drives to keep costs down, but you can speed up load times for your console games by adding a solid-state drive to your PS4 or Xbox One.

Modern console games are generally installed to and loaded from the hard drive, not just from discs. Using a faster solid-state drive will decrease load times in games. This is the one upgrade you can perform on a game console.

You could also use this trick to add a larger mechanical hard drive and get more storage than the 500 GB drive that came with your console, if you prefer.

PlayStation 4

PlayStation 4 consoles don’t support external hard drives, so you can’t just plug an external SSD into your console. However, the PlayStation 4 allows you to access to a drive bay, where you can remove the internal drive and then replace it. You could take out the mechanical hard drive that came with your PS4, and install a faster solid-state drive — or an even larger mechanical hard drive, if you prefer.

Sony provides official instructions for replacing your PS4’s hard drive. Your new drive must be a 2.5-inch internal drive, 9.5mm or slimmer in size, and use the SATA specification. As long as you choose a drive that matches those specifications, it should work just fine in your PS4. Do some research and buy a solid internal SSD — it’d be the same kind of SSD you’d purchase if you were upgrading a computer with an SSD.

You can only have one hard drive installed at a time in your PS4, so you might want to purchase a fairly large SSD.

Sony’s guide will walk you through backing up the data currently on your console to a removable drive, accessing the PlayStation 4’s hard drive bay, installing the drive, and then reinstalling the PS4 system software on your new drive and restoring the backup.

Xbox One

Microsoft’s Xbox One doesn’t allow you to open it and replace its internal drive. However, the Xbox One does support external hard drives you can connect over USB. Buy a speedy external SSD that uses the USB 3.0 specification, plug it into your Xbox One, and you can install games on that drive. Games will load faster from a sufficiently fast external drive than they would from the internal mechanical drive.

You’ll need a drive that supports USB 3.0 and is at least 256 GB in size, or the Xbox One won’t allow you to install games to it. You should also seek out a solid-state drive that uses USB 3.0 for the fastest performance — you might want to look up benchmarks of external drives before you buy them. Cheap USB 3.0 external drives might actually be quite slow, despite being labelled with “USB 3.0”. The Xbox One offers three USB 3.0 ports, so you could have up to three external drives connected.

Plug an external drive into your Xbox One and you’ll be prompted to format it and use it for games and apps. You can also access this option from Settings > All settings > System > Storage > Format for games & apps.

You can move games between drives without reinstalling them. Highlight a game in My games & apps, press the Menu button, and select Manage game. You can then move it between your connected storage devices – for example, between an internal drive and an external drive. Microsoft’s website provides information on using an external drive with your Xbox One.

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Games on Nintendo’s Wii U typically aren’t installed to the internal storage, unless you download them digitally and don’t play them from discs. However, you can also connect external drives to your Wii U to increase the storage capacity and potentially speed up load times if the game is loading data from the drive. Nintendo’s website explains what you need to know about adding external drives to your Wii U.

Image Credit: BagoGames on Flickr, Jon Fingas on Flickr, Marco Verch on Wikimedia Commons

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How to Remap Your Xbox One Controller Buttons | Dramel Notes

Unlike with past consoles, now Xbox One users can remap the buttons on their controller, allowing them to create the gaming experience that works for them.

However, changing the buttons on the controller isn’t as easy as going to the Settings app. Nope, Microsoft decided to make things a little more difficult. Don’t worry, though, because the process isn’t too painful.

First, you’ll need to download an app called Xbox Accessories. The easiest way to do it is to just search for “Xbox Accessories” using the console’s built-in search function. You can also browse the apps on the Store and get it that way.

Once you have the app installed, you may need to connect your controller to the console using a micro-USB cable to update it before you can make any changes.

From there, you can click Configure, and then make all kinds of changes. For example, you can swap triggers so the left trigger will be on the right and vice versa. You can also invert the sticks, which means that you inverted players won’t need to do it in the settings for every game.

Of course, there’s also the option to remap each button. So if you wanted the A button to be Left Bumper, you could do that.

This app is not just for the new Elite controller, though there are additional options for it, since it comes with the additional triggers on the back. Regardless of which controller you have, you can tweak it to your needs with the Xbox Accessories app.

What changes are you going to make to your Xbox One controller, if any? Share your thoughts in the comments!

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