Topic: Xbox One vs PS4

[Pugnate]

So I can't afford either console in the slightest. Have run into some problems unfortunately.

That being said, it is nice to dream...

Check out the video reviews:

Xbox One:

http://www.ign.com/videos/2013/11/27/xbox-one-review

PS4:

http://www.ign.com/videos/2013/11/21/ps4-video-review

Were I able to go for one at this stage.... ahhh so tough...

They both look so fabulous for different reasons. I wish the Xbox One was a little more powerful so it could match the PS4 on games. In that case the Xbox One would be the clear winner. Of the two consoles, Xbox One feels a bit more next gen.

Though the PS4 withe the Vita bundle is a winner too.

[W7RE]

I got an Xbox One. It's fun. I could give an overview of the system, but you can get that at so many places it would probably be redundant. Yes, the PS4 is more powerful, but playing with my friends and playing the MS exclusives are worth it to me to play a slightly worse looking game. (we're at the point of diminishing returns now that "slightly worse" really is only slightly IMO.)

Dead Rising 3 is a fucking blast! I've logged like 25 hours since Friday. I've barely touched Killer Instinct because I'm trying to get the challenge to beat DR3 on both normal and Nightmare modes during the first week. I will probably make it for Normal mode, but not for Nightmare. (Nightmare will be a speed run, and I'll already be leveled up from normal, but still, I don't know)
Battlefield 4, I'll get as soon as I have the money to get another game
Ryse still looks fun if not a bit simple, but at 5-6 hours I'd rather wait until it drops in price some.
Peggle 2 should be out soon, I'll probably get that (will be $12)
I will be getting Titanfall.

Some people have faulty disc drives, loud fans, or loud power bricks. Mine is perfectly fine, and I can't hear it. I do have a PC and a mini fridge near it though, so whatever noise it makes, is not as loud as those. Some people dislike the new bumpers on the controller. I can see why, and they could be better, but I haven't had any issues with them not working when I need them to.

[Cobra951]

My greatest concern is not technical, but related to the aggressive F2P strategies barging into full-price titles.  Because of this alone, the PS4 is looking like the better bet to me right now.  I'm determined to wait a year, till next holiday season, before making a decision.  So if Microsoft packpedal on this as well as they did earlier on the DRM, it will be back to nitpicking to make a choice.  I'd rather it be Sony.  For one, I skipped the PS3 entirely, and I'm genuinely curious about their ecosystem and unique properties.  For another, it really is more powerful.  I've never been one for very much online play, so I'm not too concerned that XBL is better than PSN in this regard, though I will definitely keep an eye on how well Sony ramps up their connected infrastructure.  Another concern is the push toward other media on consoles, and here too, Sony is looking better--meaning less of that crap.

Edit:  Oh, and Kinect.  Kinect is a huge minus.  I don't think I can make it work from a couple of feet away, and I don't like the whole idea of it to begin with.  This will of course temper my decision as well.

[idolminds]

Its going to be a couple years before I can afford one, but I'm looking forward to the PS4 more. Sonys systems seems to get more games relevant to my tastes than MS. MS also is really pushing the online connected stuff and that all means jack shit to me so a lot of that systems "features" are worthless.

[Quemaqua]

After the 360, there's no way I'd ever touch another Xbox product again without shitloads of spare money and no real investment. I may someday buy a PS4 when the PS3 goes belly up. I have no intention of buying either at this point, and no ability anyway.

[K-man]

Right now next-gen for me is a Wii U/3DS XL, but if you held a gun to my head and made me choose I'd pick a PS4.

The PS4 is probably where the exclusives I'll want to play will end up.  It is also where any potential demon's/dark souls exclusives will end up.

[Pugnate]

(we're at the point of diminishing returns now that "slightly worse" really is only slightly IMO.)

First of all, congratulations on your purchase. I am not trying to put you down because if I could afford it, I'd go for the new Xbox because it has that next gen feel to it. That being said, PS4 is playing games smoother at 1080p vs Xbox's laggy 720p, from what I understand. Anyway... you are right about one thing... it doesn't really matter in the end. If you have the Xbox One, that's the console you have and are experience the same quality as other Xbox owners, so why does it matter I suppose.

The Xbox One is ending up with a lot more exclusives also? Titan Fall comes to mind.

[Xessive]

If I had to choose I'd go with the PS4. Simply because it has (will have) the exclusives I care about and also because it look sexier than the massive, 80's VCR styled Xbox One.

Specs are not all that different really. The difference between the two is negligible. What will define superiority in this generation will be the software and services.

Also why I would go with the PS4. I have had nothing but trouble with Microsoft during the past generation, which was the reason why I never picked up an Xbox 360.

[W7RE]

Edit:  Oh, and Kinect.  Kinect is a huge minus.  I don't think I can make it work from a couple of feet away, and I don't like the whole idea of it to begin with.  This will of course temper my decision as well.

My kinect is 3 feet (90cm) from my face. Gestures don't seem to work, but I haven't needed to use them yet at all. It recognizes my face and logs me in. Voice commands + controller covers all the UI navigation.

As for exclusives: Titanfall, Dead Rising 3, Halo. That right there is more than what I'm interested in on PS4. Sony did have a better variety of exclusives on the PS3, but I'm mostly into shooters, so I preferred the Xbox lineup.

For the graphics/power comparison, yes, you can tell a difference in 720p vs 1080p. What I meant though, is that once I'm in the game and playing, it doesn't make much difference usually. Though I would prefer 1080p and less bells and whistles. Maybe slightly less polys in the characters. There's tons of places to cut performance corners without dropping the resolution. Resolution is the easy thing to chance if you're doing cross-platform stuff, but what about Ryse? The character models are ridiculously high poly, and the game runs at 900p.

[Cobra951]

The early games always suffer technically because of the new, unfamiliar hardware.  Even if the systems are more PC-like and standard than ever, a lot of tricks and optimizations are over the devs' heads right now.  I'm sure it will work out like any other gen: after a couple of years, everything will be flowing lot more smoothly at the target resolutions.  1080p on a native 1080 screen is best, of course.  I have no problem with 720p, though.  That alone won't decide anything.

[Pugnate]

The early games always suffer technically because of the new, unfamiliar hardware.

Agreed, but then both consoles should be suffering. It seems that the crossplaform titles look sharper and run smoother on the PS4. From what I've read, and I could be wrong, the PS4 will always have an advantage over the Xbox One, because it is just a case of stronger hardware on the PS4, rather than untapped potential on the Xbox One. Both have hardware this time that is easier to code for...

My kinect is 3 feet (90cm) from my face. Gestures don't seem to work, but I haven't needed to use them yet at all. It recognizes my face and logs me in. Voice commands + controller covers all the UI navigation.

I never used the original Kinect. Is this an improvement?

The Kinect stuff I saw on the Xbox One review was amazing! Lots of bugs though. My wife, who isn't into this stuff by any means... saw both video reviews with me and said the Xbox One reminded her of an Apple product in the sense that it had a lot more flash.

As much as I dislike Apple, too bad Xbox One isn't an Apple product, otherwise it would have been spit-shined.

I have no problem with 720p, though.  That alone won't decide anything.

Yeah the importance of that will vary from consumer to consumer. For some people it isn't a big deal.

[Pugnate]

If I had to choose I'd go with the PS4. Simply because it has (will have) the exclusives I care about and also because it look sexier than the massive, 80's VCR styled Xbox One.

haha yes it looks a bit ugly. I am guessing that with the past hardware issues, MS didn't want to risk an overheated product by improving the form. They took no risks.

Does it look better in real life W7RE? Post some pics!

[Cobra951]

Agreed, but then both consoles should be suffering. It seems that the crossplaform titles look sharper and run smoother on the PS4. From what I've read, and I could be wrong, the PS4 will always have an advantage over the Xbox One, because it is just a case of stronger hardware on the PS4, rather than untapped potential on the Xbox One. Both have hardware this time that is easier to code for...

From what I've read, the PS4 may be as much as 50% faster (~1.8 TF vs ~1.2 TF).  That will make a difference, no doubt.  But both systems should be able to pull the load (60 fps @1080p, with good detail) even if one has an easier time doing it than the other.  It's a question of proper optimization.  Sony had the harder time with this last gen.  Now it's Microsoft's turn to play catch-up.

I never used the original Kinect. Is this an improvement?

That would be an improvement for sure, but the recommendation in the manual is still like a minimum of 4 feet.  I have 2 ft max to the wall behind my screen.  If it needs to be further, I'd have to place it off to the side, at an angle toward me.  Not exactly ideal, if it works that way at all.

[Cools!]

I never bought consoles at launch so no exception this time. I'll wait to see which console has the better games. Can't say I'm excited about all the social crap both systems now have.

[W7RE]

Does it look better in real life W7RE? Post some pics!

All I have for a camera is a crappy feature phone. Also the room I'm in has bad lighting (one light at the other end of the room). but here you go anyway (click for full size):


You see the base of the monitor it's hooked up to, the Kinect in front of the monitor's base (facing the camera), the Xbox One, and the Xbox 360, and my tangle of wires.

I never used the original Kinect. Is this an improvement?

No idea, I never used the original Kinect either, lol. I was never interested in the original Kinect so I never got one. If there had been a less expensive version of the Xbox One with no Kinect, I would have bought that. I chose Xbox One over PS4 for other reasons, but the Kinect functionality works surprisingly well. Like I said, gestures don't work so well (when I put my hand out, palm toward the Kinect, to use it as a cursor, it's jittery and difficult to control), but I have no idea if that's because of how close I am to it. the menu navigation is all designed for controller or voice though, so gesture isn't even used that much. Mostly the camera part is used to sign me in. It sees my face, recognizes me, and signs me in.

I actually don't have proper batteries or a cord for my controller, so I've been using my phone's charging cable. So I just had this experience trying to use my Xbox without a controller:

I say "xbox on" to turn it on, it starts up from sleep mode in about 10 seconds, sees my faces and signs me in, and says, "Hi Mitch!" I see I have 6 friends online and say "xbox go to friends" and it takes me to my friends activity feed. I say "xbox select" to enter navigation mode (for navigating stuff that doesn't have preset voice commands) and say "feed 1" to see a video it says a friend uploaded 3 minutes ago. It's just a clip of him killing one guy in Battlefield 4. It looks like it automatically got recorded when he ranked up. I say "xbox home" to go back to the home screen, and then "play disc" to go to The Hobbit blu-ray, which was already in the drive. (notice I didn't have to say "xbox play disc". It as still listening from the previous command.) Now I have to plug my controller in, because there's zero DVD/BR navigation with gesture or voice. Doh! Also it doesn't automatically resume from where you left off, which I think the Xbox 360 does. I also can't control volume of Tv power with the Xbox because I'm using a monitor that doesn't have a remote, thus has no way to receive IR signals.

I never bought consoles at launch so no exception this time. I'll wait to see which console has the better games. Can't say I'm excited about all the social crap both systems now have.

This is only the second console I've bought at launch. The other was the Nintendo 64. I'm glad I didn't get the Xbox 360 at launch, and have been lucky that my early-ish model system is still going. the only system I have had break and become unusable though, was my original Playstation. The tabs that hold the disc from the center all broke off one by one and now discs just won't stay stable enough for it to read them.

Funny thing, with all the social stuff, the Xbox One doesn't show notifications when your friends log on. I miss it, because I have 2 friends that I typically join a party with as soon as more than one of us is online, and the notifications are what alert us to each other's presence. Parties are also weird and are treated like game lobbies. First, joining a party doesn't put you in voice chat. Each player has to manually join voice chat. Then when one player chooses to start a game, it brings the whole party with him instead of letting him invite everyone or individual people. Actually, as I was typing this, I got invited to a party by a friend. The party UI says "Battlefield 4 party" at the top, and won't let me join voice chat. I think I heard somewhere that it puts you in game chat while playing some multiplayer games in a party, and that may be what it's doing, and why I can't join chat. Basically the party system seems as if it was designed under the assumption that you would never join a party with someone unless you're about to play a game with them.

[Cobra951]

I'm glad I didn't get the Xbox 360 at launch, and have been lucky that my early-ish model system is still going.

Especially there in that small heat-retaining cubbyhole.  It's almost a miracle. 

Thanks for all the details on using the new system.  That was better than all the write-ups I've read so far.  I can't say I'm not tempted, but it's just not happening anytime soon.  As I said before, the Kinect is a negative.  Have you considered trying it off to the side, further away?  This is my idea on how to make it work in a PC-like environment, with the monitor right in your face.  But of course, I don't know if it would actually work that way at all.

[W7RE]

Especially there in that small heat-retaining cubbyhole.  It's almost a miracle. 

Thanks for all the details on using the new system.  That was better than all the write-ups I've read so far.  I can't say I'm not tempted, but it's just not happening anytime soon.  As I said before, the Kinect is a negative.  Have you considered trying it off to the side, further away?  This is my idea on how to make it work in a PC-like environment, with the monitor right in your face.  But of course, I don't know if it would actually work that way at all.

You can't really tell because of the picture quality, but that shelf unit is open on the back, so gets decent enough airflow. Also I'm in the laundry room, which is poorly insulated and sits at around 60 degrees on warmer winter days. Though I guess it does also get hotter in here during the summer, but I run a window mounted air conditioner then. It helps that I'm comfortable at a cooler temperature. Too far above 70 and I want to turn on the A/C.

As for placement of the Kinect, I had though about putting it on top of the monitor with a mount or something, which would give it almost another foot. I could mount it to the wall behind, but then it wouldn't be angled toward me like it is now. To the right is my tiny desk, which is against a wall to the right. To the left of the setup is a clothes dryer with a mini fridge stacked on top of it. If the fridge wasn't there, I could mount it to the wall behind the dryer and have 6 feet of distance between it and me. I obviously don't have even close to the ideal setup, and had my doubts about Kinect working. Luckily there's very little focus on gesture on the system level. I'd have to try out the Kinect Sports Rivals demo if I wanted to actually test out Kinect fully. Battlefield 4 uses it for leaning, as well as looking around inside a vehicle. I will hopefully be picking that up soon and can see how those work.

[Pugnate]

That's brilliant stuff. Totally envious. Thanks for sharing that. Glad you are having fun.

Any stuff in particular that really blew you away?

[W7RE]

Any stuff in particular that really blew you away?

The responsiveness of the voice commands in general. I thought it would be really bad.
The number of zombies in Dead Rising 3. It's really crazy.

[W7RE]

So I just had a fun experience trying to get a party to work properly. I usually just join a party and party chat with 1 other person and let him invite the party to Dead Rising 3. Doing this always works and we never have problems.

A friend was playing Battlefield 4 and invited me to a party. Neither of us could join party chat. He had to shut down Battlefield before starting the party to get it to work.

Then we had 3 people all on the dashboard, with no games running in the background. we all joined the same party and turned on party chat. One person started up Battlefield 4 and was still able to chat with us. Myself and the 3rd person tried to start up a coop game of Dead Rising 3, but I never got the invite, no matter how many times it was sent. At some point when the other guy sent the invite, it said "a game of Battlefield has been found for your party". This is while trying to send a game invite from Dead Rising 3. We ended up using Skype instead, and the 2 of us that wanted to play DR3 joined a party (but couldn't join party chat because we were in a Skype call). That sort of worked, but then we could hear DR3 game chat as well, and couldn't find a way to turn it off.


I really hope they just change things closer to how they worked on the 360. It was great being able to chat with people regardless of what they were doing.

[Pugnate]

You say that you are impressed by how many zombies are on screen on Dead Rising 3. How many is it exactly? It is exciting what the new gen. of technology can manage.

[W7RE]

You say that you are impressed by how many zombies are on screen on Dead Rising 3. How many is it exactly? It is exciting what the new gen. of technology can manage.

I recorded a couple 5 minute clips using the Xbox One's Game DVR. The zombie density gets cranked up during chapter 7, but there's a bit to go through to get back to free roam in that chapter, so I recorded in chapter 6, which is still impressive in areas. The density you see near the end of the second video is about what it looks like for most of chapter 7. It becomes less about bobbing and weaving past the big packs, and more about wading through the crowd and trying to stay alive.

First video (with some Roller Hawg action): https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=ABCD7B191EB1381E%21131
Second video: https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=ABCD7B191EB1381E%21132


Hopefully Skydrive works for everyone. I'd have to upload twice to host it anywhere else. (The XB1 can only upload to Skydrive)

[W7RE]

Had a couple cool moments in BF4, decided to upload them.

#1: https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=ABCD7B191EB1381E%21133
#2: https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=ABCD7B191EB1381E%21134

[W7RE]

I just had an interesting issue.

I've been playing all day with a micro USB cable (all week actually), and got a party invite. Of course it was while BF4 was running so chat wouldn't work. I shut down BF4, joined party chat, then relaunched BF4. Not sure if that has anything to do with it. I decided the headphone cord was twisted, and unplugged it to untwist it. When I plugged it back in, the headset didn't work. I unplugged the controller and plugged it back in, and then it wouldn't work either. Multiple system restarts, swapping cables, borrowing batteries, and attempting to re-sync the controller, and nothing was working.

Then I shut the system down, unplugged it from the wall, plugged it back in and started it up, and the controller worked again with no sync needed. Weird. (I could have probably set the system to not use sleep mode, but that menu can only be navigated with the controller)

[Cobra951]

Had a couple cool moments in BF4, decided to upload them.

#1: https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=ABCD7B191EB1381E%21133
#2: https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=ABCD7B191EB1381E%21134

Nice slide show.  I'm going to guess it's H.264-encoded 720p or 1080p.  No can do on my ancient box.  H.264 at 480p--works.  Xvid at 720p--works.  H.264 at 720p and up--fuck me.

[W7RE]

Nice slide show.  I'm going to guess it's H.264-encoded 720p or 1080p.  No can do on my ancient box.  H.264 at 480p--works.  Xvid at 720p--works.  H.264 at 720p and up--fuck me.

Your PC must be even more ancient than mine. I was just lamenting about how I just bought Rise of the Triad 2013 and Shadow Warrior 2013 and they both run pretty poorly on my system.

Yea, I'm guessing h.264. They're 720p 30fps .mp4 files. My PC can handle playing them, but my connection can't handle streaming them, at least not from Skydrive. I have to let them buffer.

[Cobra951]

Yes, my PC is truly a historical artifact.  Last upgraded in 2005.  I'm lucky is still works so well for what I use it, except that damn codec.  It really does require a lot of horsepower.  People don't realize it because it's pretty much rolled into the hardware now, and they never notice it.

That issue you had is troubling.  Keep us posted on any other such weirdness.

[W7RE]

Batteries suck intensely.  I avoid them whenever possible.  Are wired controllers even possible with the new gen?

Playstation 4:

• A built-in, non-removable, rechargeable battery.
• Comes with a cord that makes the controller wired; transmits data and power across the cable. (I don't know if this cord is proprietary)

Xbox One:

• Uses 2 AA batteries. There's also an official battery pack.
• The Play And Charge Kit has a battery pack and a micro USB cord. The cord transmits data and power to the controller.

I prefer the Xbox One method, just because I don't want to tether myself to the console if my batteries die. The system should have come with a Play And Charge kit though, to maintain parity with the PS4 controller. All you get in the box is 2 AA Duracells. PS4 has a rechargeable battery and a cord in the box with it.



The battery cover on the Xbox One controller will annoy me slightly, only because of how quickly and easily you could swap the battery packs on the Xbox 360. You could just snap it off and snap a new one on. With my charging dock on my desk, swapping the battery out took like 3 seconds tops. The One has a battery cover, even when using a battery pack.

[Cobra951]

Interesting.  Built-in non-replaceable battery is shitty design.  Batteries die, permanently, and much sooner than the rest of whatever they're powering (assuming careful use).  I'm sorry to hear that about the new DS controller.  But at least the cord is included.  MS makes you buy a kit, and I'm sure that's not cheap.  They have the higher price already, and this only makes the full disparity in cost even worse.

[Xessive]

It sucks about the non-replaceable batteries of the PS4 DS controller, however my PS3 controller, which I got in 2008 is still working great and storing a pretty good charge. I haven't felt any need tor eplace the controllers just yet. I'm not too distraught by the PS4's controller design choice but still, having a battery option would be great.

[K-man]

I've replaced a battery in a ps3 controller.  I bought a launch DS after they settled the lawsuit.  Left it alone for a few months last year while i was playing xbox or something.  went back to ps3 and it wouldn't hold a charge.  the battery had bulged out.  I robbed the one from my sixaxis and it works fine.  I destroyed the sixaxis attempting to put it back together, though.

it wasn't a big deal to replace it, but putting the controller back together correctly can be a PITA.  It's not user-friendly in the slightest.

[Pugnate]

I never found a problem with PS3 controller battery life. Preferred it over Xbox. One of the few people who prefers the controller as well.

[Quemaqua]

I've never had an issue with either of my PS3 controllers. I prefer the design as well, by a considerable margin.

[gpw11]

Yeah, honestly I think the Dual Shock 3 is the best controller design out of any I've used.  Well, the Dual Shock in general.

[beo]

my other half got a me a ps4 for christmas. the new controller is great - i wasn't big on the dual shock - always preferred the 360's pad by a wide margin, but this is a huge improvement.

[Pugnate]

Interesting.  Built-in non-replaceable battery is shitty design.  Batteries die, permanently, and much sooner than the rest of whatever they're powering (assuming careful use).  I'm sorry to hear that about the new DS controller.  But at least the cord is included.  MS makes you buy a kit, and I'm sure that's not cheap.  They have the higher price already, and this only makes the full disparity in cost even worse.

In principle, I agree with you. But when I compare my PS3 controllers to my Xbox controllers, I realize that I have spent far more over time on batteries for the 360 controller than the price of a second PS3 controller. What's more, the PS3 controllers were still fantastic when I sold them. In fact, K-Man's experience is the first I've read about where a PS3 controller battery has died.

[Pugnate]

my other half got a me a ps4 for christmas. the new controller is great - i wasn't big on the dual shock - always preferred the 360's pad by a wide margin, but this is a huge improvement.

I just had the pleasure of playing the PS4 at my friend's house on the weekend. Great system. I love the controllers -- they seem even better to hold. I also love the little speakers on each controller. Cool stuff.

[W7RE]

After talking to a few people I decided that my Xbox One analog sticks were looser than they should be. The left one especially. It wobbles freely to an extent, like it's had heavy usage over a long period of time. I can lift it (opposite motion to clicking it in) freely a few mm, and just shaking the controller I can hear the sticks knocking around. This is not low tension, this is looseness in a way that doesn't seem right. The sticks have been this way since I got the system, so I've never been sure if this is how they're supposed to be.

I filed an exchange request with MS, and they'll replace it for free. The problem is they required me to send mine in first, and they'll send a replacement after they get it. This means I'm without a controller and can't play any of my games, which really sucks. I mailed it to them Friday, the 17th. They received it on Tuesday, the 21st, and I haven't heard anything from them yet. The service order says allow up to 10 days from the time they receive it. So that means I'm looking at up to a month without a controller.

[Cobra951]

That bullshit belongs in the dark days of waiting 6-8 weeks for delivery.  Can't you get another one in the interim?  It's not like it will go to waste.  Controllers do wear out, and it's nice to have at least 2 of them.

[W7RE]

That bullshit belongs in the dark days of waiting 6-8 weeks for delivery.  Can't you get another one in the interim?  It's not like it will go to waste.  Controllers do wear out, and it's nice to have at least 2 of them.

The controllers are $60 and I have $7.56 in my checking account.

I saved for months to get the money for the system. I don't have a job so money is always scarce, and dropping $60 for another controller doesn't make much sense when I'm probably never going to play with 2 players on the same system.