Support NeoGAF

[Son Of Sparda]

Before anyone asks I keep my PS4 in a clean environment and clean my console regularly. Also, the temperature of my room is cool (even cold) so no problems there either.

=====

Okay, so I started playing AC: Unity on PS4 for the first time a while ago and I had the latest update applied and everything. I had played through it for a few hours (few sessions) and I had seen many bugs and performance issues but those were somewhat tolerable.

Now, after giving PS4 a 6-7 hours rest - as in turned off (my last gaming session was AC:U as well) I fired it up to play Unity a little bit more. Game booted up nicely, everything was working perfectly until (almost immediately after the game finished loading my save) I ran into a crowded area and framerate started to dip. I thought it was like any other frame drops but then the game completely froze! Since the sound was still playing I thought I give it a little bit of time and after 7-8 seconds the game came back to life. Thought it was another bug so started moving around but the same thing happened again.

I said screw it, tried to close the game but the PS4 would just go to a blue screen when I choose the option. Press the PS button which sent me back to the game which was working again. Didn't want to risk it so I tried the close application option once more but the same result. Tried to go through settings in dashboard but PS4 wouldn't respond to that either (more blue screen).

Choose the rest option from quick menu but this time PS4 froze on a blue screen. Tried to shut it down with the power button and got few beeps but nothing changed. So I was forced to take out the power cord from the back of PS4. Waited half a minute before putting the cord back in.

Tried to power the PS4 on but as soon as it turned on it got shut off again! Pulled the cord out and put it back on again after a minute and tried once more. This time PS4 turned on but a blue screen appeared and then some broken whit noise covered upper part of it and then the screen turned to black (PS4 was still on though).

I was panicking so hard at this point but decided to wait and see what happens and after 15-20 seconds the check HDD screen came on and after it was done PS4 turned on normally.

Immediately deleted AC:U and then rushed through a couple of tracks in Driveclub to see if everything was working fine. The game played perfectly. Again shut down PS4 for 10 minutes and powered it back on to see if everything is okay and played DMC4SE for a around 10 minutes and thankfully had no problems.

Yeah, so that's what happened GAF. Now thankfully my PS4 survived but honestly I thought console games get certify for these kind of things! How the hell can a game that got through certification do this PS4 especially after getting so many damn patches?! Come on, Sony & Ubi.

So, fair warning to anyone who might be interested in AC: Unity. It might break your PS4.

 

[Hjod]

I played through it just fine.

How loud are your fans? Might want to check the cooling paste on your PS4, Unity is really hard on the CPU with all the NPCs in the game.

 

[jonno394]

Might be an issue with your cpu overheating rather than the game itself.

Edit - see above. Could be the thermal paste on cpu

 

[Son Of Sparda]

I played through it just fine.

How loud are your fans? Might want to check the cooling paste on your PS4, Unity is really hard on the CPU with all the NPCs in the game.

Not very loud. Played through tons of games including some really demanding ones just fine (U4, Witcher 3, RotTR, Bloodborne, Until Dawn etc).

Also, played through Syndicate without any problems. AC:U is the first time that I'm experiencing something like that.

 

[NurseRedHeart]

You probably didn't need to delete the game though

 

[TheYanger]

Not very loud. Played through tons of games including some really demanding ones (like U4, Witcher 3, RotTR, Bloodborne, Until Dawn etc) just fine.

Also, played through Syndicate without any problems. AC:U is the first time that I'm experiencing something like that.

Unity is miles more demanding than Syndicate. I played Unity after Syndicate and was SHOCKED at how hard they went in it. For all its little bugs and shit, it's one of the most impressive games of the gen still.

 

[Greddleok]

It sounds like you think your ps4 is made of spiders webs and magic.

 

[xrnzaaas]

Your PS4 might just be dying.

I remember I was scared when people were sharing stories about PS4's Doom. Yeah, the fans were loud when I was playing it, but I finished the whole thing without any crashes.

 

[matrix-cat]

AC Unity was a profoundly broken game on console. I haven't played it since shortly after launch, so I don't know if it was eventually patched to be somewhat competent, but when I sold my copy after a few major patches it was still running at like 20FPS. My PS4's fans were never louder than when I was idling in the pause menu in AC Unity; I was lucky enough to have a pretty quiet early PS4, but it sounded like a jet engine in Unity's menus.

 

[Corleth the Fey]

I've had at least 3 or 4 super hard crashes like you suggest on my PS4 since I got it at launch, with various games. It's still chugging along fine. I don't think your PS4 was in any danger of dying.

The more PC like nature and the sheer sophistication of consoles, their software and discreet parts today make such 'bombs' feel much more crazy.

 

[Lucreto]

When I played Unity it was causing my PS4's fan to keep speeding up in menus. It's the first game to do this and don't think my PS4 was the same after.

 

[Son Of Sparda]

You probably didn't need to delete the game though

Not playing that again. It wasn't that good to begin with so I'm not gonna risk it.

It sounds like you think your ps4 is made of spiders webs and magic.

Ummmm.... what?

AC Unity was a profoundly broken game on console. I haven't played it since shortly after launch, so I don't know if it was eventually patched to be somewhat competent, but when I sold my copy after a few major patches it was still running at like 20FPS. My PS4's fans were never louder than when I was idling in the pause menu in AC Unity; I was lucky enough to have a pretty quiet early PS4, but it sounded like a jet engine in Unity's menus.

Yeah this!

My PS4 is usually very quite but when I was browsing through the club menu in AC:U I thought the fans would explode at any second. That was so weird. Don't know what was causing that.

 

[AzureSkies]

A similar situation happened to me recently with Dead Rising's PS4 port. After managing to finally get my PS4 working again, I proceeded to a throw a ton of hours into the game and haven't had any issues since.

You're definitely overreacting, OP.

 

[Son Of Sparda]

A similar situation happened to me recently with Dead Rising's PS4 port. After managing to finally get my PS4 working again, I proceeded to a throw a ton of hours into the game and haven't had any issues since.

You're definitely overreacting, OP.

Maybe I am.

But this shouldn't be "normal" right? I mean I've played tons of other games on PS4 and never had this problem before so this was really shocking and a little bit scary (considering how expensive PS4 is here in middle east).

 

[ResidentDante]

Your PS4 might just be dying.

I remember I was scared when people were sharing stories about PS4's Doom. Yeah, the fans were loud when I was playing it, but I finished the whole thing without any crashes.

Same here, Doom made the PS4 sound like a Boeing 747 at take-off.

 

[CorrisD]

I've had a couple hard crashes where I've had to unplug it otherwise it just sits there and freaks out for a bit, never actually killed it self.

You were probably fine just unplugging it once and waiting rather than freaking out after it turned itself off after you plugged it back in the first time. And you'd most likely be just fine playing the game again, some times software crashes.

 

[Garou]

I expected the OP to end with "And then I put my hand on the PS4 and said Requiescat in Pace".

 

[Son Of Sparda]

I've had a couple hard crashes where I've had to unplug it otherwise it just sits there and freaks out for a bit, never actually killed it self.

You were probably fine just unplugging it once and waiting rather than freaking out after it turned itself off after you plugged it back in the first time. And you'd most likely be just fine playing the game again, some times software crashes.

Honestly, this sounds reasonable but I guess I'm too afraid to try it again.

I expected the OP to end with "And then I put my hand on the PS4 and said Requiescat in Pace".

Hahahaha.

 

[Conduit]

So, fair warning to anyone who might be interested in AC: Unity. It might break your PS4.

Well, many of us played this game 2 years ago. Playing this game i didn't noticed nothing that PS4 will break.

 

[Hjod]

My PS4 is usually very quite but when I was browsing through the club menu in AC:U I thought the fans would explode at any second. That was so weird. Don't know what was causing that.

Sounds like your PS4 is getting to warm, there is no other game on PS4 that's so demanding for the cpu like Unity is. So I would check the cooling paste on the cpu and clean the fan.

 

[FallenGrace]

Post patch Unity ran really smoothly for me. Got the platinum with no bugs or anything. I suspect I was just lucky on that front but it does run the PS4 hard I wonder if it was overheating yours op? Do you have the Witcher or Uncharted 4? They pushed my PS4 pretty hard heat wise too. If those do it it may be as some others say your PS4 could be on it's way out.

 

[Son Of Sparda]

Sounds like your PS4 is getting to warm, there is no other game on PS4 that's so demanding for the cpu like Unity is. So I would check the cooling paste on the cpu and clean the fan.

Thanks for the suggestion. Even though I know how to apply cooling paste on CPU (has done it for PCs many time) I'm not too keen on messing around with PS4's CPU just for this one game.

I might do this if I notice any other title making fans go loud though.

Post patch Unity ran really smoothly for me. Got the platinum with no bugs or anything. I suspect I was just lucky on that front but it does run the PS4 hard I wonder if it was overheating yours op? Do you have the Witcher or Uncharted 4? They pushed my PS4 pretty hard heat wise too. If those do it it may be as some others say your PS4 could be on it's way out.

Have and finished both. No problems. I even played Witcher 3 again quite recently.

I think I have to clarify something. The fans weren't loud in Unity. They were loud in its menu. When the actual game was running PS4 was pretty quite as usual.

 

[FallenGrace]

Ah ok, no idea then. Hope it's not serious.

 

[Son Of Sparda]

Ah ok, no idea then. Hope it's not serious.

Thanks man.

 

[Xypher]

I had to remove the power cord a couple of times as my ps4 hard froze when trying to start yakuza ishin, it froze on the boot up screen, and nothing would work normally anymore, when I pressed the menu screen I could hear the home menu music playing, but the screen kept displaying the boot up screen of the game, tried letting it load for multiple minutes, but nothing happened, so I had to unplug it. The thing that the ps4 first turns on and then off again always happened to me when I unplugged the power cord when it was in use, but after it turns off there, I can usually start it normally right after. I don't think your ps4 is dying in any way to be honest. That first happened to me more than a year ago, and my launch ps4 is still working normally outside of still having trouble launching yakuza ishin for some reason.

 

[Genio88]

Make History