XBox One AND PS4 Discussion

[Danimal]

Thanks everyone fro the impressions. 100 pages! Don't think there was a DSP thread this long.

I'm going to go ahead and pull the trigger on one of these. Leaning PS4 right now, just because I only want a system for games, not anything else. But I also get a feeling that maybe XBO is onto something. Maybe the future is just not one gaming device but a device for all your entertainment.

I can sell my current XB and games have enough left over to spend under 100 for a PS4. Under 200 for a XBO. Such a hard decision!

This is coming from someone who thought I would be saying the exact opposite but if I had to choose one now I would get the PS4. I think a year from now we will see the XB1 is delivering more innovative games and apps. I don't think you're going to see a huge gap in the look of the games as some people are saying.

[pk500]

Interesting read and comparison:

http://www.theverge.com/2013/11/29/5127 ... ook-better

The difference in graphics between the PS4 and Xbone is more pronounced than I thought in the AC4 screenshots. I also know that's a VERY small sample size -- sort of like my penis.

[Diablo25]

Interesting read and comparison:

http://www.theverge.com/2013/11/29/5127 ... ook-better

The difference in graphics between the PS4 and Xbone is more pronounced than I thought in the AC4 screenshots. I also know that's a VERY small sample size -- sort of like my penis.

I'm not making any final judgements on things until both consoles have pumped out more games. I see little difference graphically in the PS4 and One (right now). I look at KillZone on the PS4 and think "Holy Sh#t, how can that get better?" Then I look at Forza 5 or Ryse on the XB1 and think "Holy Sh#t, how can that get better?" I have played both and its just too close. Every comparison video I have seen I've struggled to see any differences. The only real difference I have seen, if any has been in colors. Perhaps we will see some graphical jumps in the next 6 months to a year but for now...for me...its a draw - and that is perfectly fine in my eyes. I will say that I am excited about the PS4. Its nice to see they didn't screw up their console like last gen. They have evened the playing field. Microsoft did a ton of things right last gen and they seem to have transitioned nicely with a successful model. Should be a fun ride this gen.

[DivotMaker]

Thanks everyone fro the impressions. 100 pages! Don't think there was a DSP thread this long.

I'm going to go ahead and pull the trigger on one of these. Leaning PS4 right now, just because I only want a system for games, not anything else. But I also get a feeling that maybe XBO is onto something. Maybe the future is just not one gaming device but a device for all your entertainment.

I can sell my current XB and games have enough left over to spend under 100 for a PS4. Under 200 for a XBO. Such a hard decision!

TW13 was over 100 pages long....

[Spooky]

Interesting read and comparison:

http://www.theverge.com/2013/11/29/5127 ... ook-better

The difference in graphics between the PS4 and Xbone is more pronounced than I thought in the AC4 screenshots. I also know that's a VERY small sample size -- sort of like my penis.

I'm not making any final judgements on things until both consoles have pumped out more games. I see little difference graphically in the PS4 and One (right now). I look at KillZone on the PS4 and think "Holy Sh#t, how can that get better?" Then I look at Forza 5 or Ryse on the XB1 and think "Holy Sh#t, how can that get better?" I have played both and its just too close. Every comparison video I have seen I've struggled to see any differences. The only real difference I have seen, if any has been in colors. Perhaps we will see some graphical jumps in the next 6 months to a year but for now...for me...its a draw - and that is perfectly fine in my eyes. I will say that I am excited about the PS4. Its nice to see they didn't screw up their console like last gen. They have evened the playing field. Microsoft did a ton of things right last gen and they seem to have transitioned nicely with a successful model. Should be a fun ride this gen.

I hope this doesn't come across as defensive since I only own the XB1, but I would actually think that the cross-platform games will just get closer and closer in quality rather than the opposite.

Seems to be that this first batch of games were released in a serious time crunch with developers still getting used to both systems. Ubisoft put out a patch to get AC4 running at 1080p on the PS4 post release right? Perhaps if Devs had more time they could get the XB1 looking the same too. And then once they have more and more experience with each system and figure out the tricks to optimization I think we might see this be less of a gap than at launch. Just a thought...

[Rodster]

Seems to be that this first batch of games were released in a serious time crunch with developers still getting used to both systems. Ubisoft put out a patch to get AC4 running at 1080p on the PS4 post release right? Perhaps if Devs had more time they could get the XB1 looking the same too. And then once they have more and more experience with each system and figure out the tricks to optimization I think we might see this be less of a gap than at launch. Just a thought...

I can't say if this is a factor in the difference between versions but I wouldn't be surprised if some of those multi-platform games had already started development way before MS tweaked the hardware to bring it closer to the PS4.

[TCrouch]

I've been saying it for a while now, so I won't continue to beat that horse. But yes, it's VERY noticeable. Will it stay that way? Tough to say. Ryse looks fabulous, so if developers put the time in, they can do it. I'm just betting it's a lot easier to get games looking better on the PS4 with the extra horsepower. It makes sense--code a game for both platforms, then go in at the end and turn on AF and AA for the PS4 version. That's exactly what happened with AC4, and it's a huge difference. The trees and foliage are all shimmery on the XB1, but barely noticeable on the PS4 at all.

And on top of that, the XB1 has me completely pissed off at this sign in and controller procedure. My brother and I tried to sit down to play some XB1 games, and just getting him signed in and figuring out who had what controller was difficult. I'd press my guide button--it goes to his Home. He presses his, it goes to his Home. We swap controllers, we'd both go to his home. I'd stand up and walk away, it would see me and I'd go back to my home now. He walked in front of me and I get "controller has been disconnected"...so I have to turn it back on. Seriously? What happened to simply logging in, choosing a controller (or making offline profiles for my kids)? Now I have to set up full XBL accounts just to play with, or create some "Rockjaw McG(1)" guest profile, rather than something with their name. Controllers disconnect, can't tell who's home screen is who--knowing something is screwed up when we go to play Madden and it says I'm logged in at the top, but it says my favorite team is the Niners. Then the controller color is wrong...instead of blue, I'm red. I hit play, and it shows my options as Pro, and not All-Pro like we do in vs. We can't simply switch controllers, because now it "re-synchs" the same crap to us. It's infuriating.

He actually was going to pick up an XB1 until he sat there playing with me from Thursday to yesterday. By Saturday night, it was the laughing "oh yeah, I'm going to rush right out and buy one of these!" comments.

On the flip side, I turn on the PS4, turn on a controller, it says "who's using this?" Me! An offline profile for him, and we're playing without any issues. XB1 is fine for solo play by myself, but as a "party" machine, it was a f*cking nightmare. It's a massive step backwards from what I used to have in my home with my 360s. We'd log in, we could easily tell which controller was ours, etc. XB1 goes the Windows approach and tries to oversimplify things for no reason, taking control away from users. Screw that.

[Teal]

There has not been one thing on this thread that has made me reconsider my stance to wait and see. If anything, this thread has saved me a lot of money and potential headache. I've never been an 'early adopter', and I had the feeling going in that this generation would give even less of a reason to do so; it has played out that way. In a year, around this time, we will revisit and see where everything is. I'm still leaning toward the One, simply because it has the potential to be more and do more, and we, as a family, want that. I seriously think I'm over the 'just having a gaming machine' thing now, as I find myself playing less and less. As long as I have the opportunity to play online with people I know, I'll have a machine, but that just accentuates my desire for the online experience to be rock-solid, and dependable, and MS has a proven track record in that arena.

But the machine, it sounds like, has some issues that need to be ironed out. I think the brilliance and potential is there, just not without the early kinks. So I'm thankful for this thread to show me that my hestitancy to dive into the next generation wasn't unfounded. We'll be getting the kids the Disney Infinity stuff for Christmas, and my oldest boy is getting Rocksmith 2014 and a new guitar, so there's no hurry whatsoever to dump the current gen.

The graphics discussion has been interesting, but if I put everything together (Ryse is 'one of best looking games I've ever seen' (Terry) yet other games on the One take a hit vs the PS4), what I see is going to be a software fix as we go along...and not necessarily a hardware deficiency, although it is there on paper. And again, I've always been console monogamous, so it will matter little to me when I do make a purchase.

BUT this thread has been invaluable to my current stance of staying out of it all...for now, at least. I fell victim to the new car smell and preordered an XB1 from Amazon...and have been nothing but happy that I cancelled it before launch day. All of that stuff will, I'm sure, get smoothed out over time, and when it does, I'll plunk down the cheddar. But I'll play BF4 with the 360'ers, continue to find loot and treasure in AC4, and enjoy what we have now. I'm still very pleased to be a 360 owner...

[TCrouch]

Yep, nothing that will make you go "I gotta have one!" unless you had that to start with.

And that's what I was trying to say--Ryse is absolutely gorgeous. But it was an exclusive, so all of their time went into making it that way. With developers who will create a game on multiple platforms at once, will they take that time? It's definitely not that the XB1 can't do it...Ryse is proof that it can. The question is whether any developers will take the time to do so.

And for Assassin's Creed 4--even on PS4, it wasn't as good as it looks now until a few days after launch. They released a patch on PS4 that cranked up the filtering and "a new anti-aliasing technique" post-launch. Chances are stuff like that comes to the 360 later, but who knows. Open world games are vastly different than the linear, by-the-numbers-path games like Ryse, too. There's a reason CoD Ghosts looks so much better than BF4. They have to render a much smaller area in most cases.

You will be in a good place revisiting this in a year, I'm sure, Teal. I'll store this quote away to see if I'm wrong or right, but my gut tells me that the games will be CLOSER than they are currently...but the PS4 will always have an edge. You won't have extra horsepower to play with and NOT have an edge. That edge will likely always be in the filtering and antialiasing department, though. Not in lighting, effects, character models, etc.

[pk500]

I'm still leaning toward the One, simply because it has the potential to be more and do more, and we, as a family, want that. I seriously think I'm over the 'just having a gaming machine' thing now, as I find myself playing less and less. As long as I have the opportunity to play online with people I know, I'll have a machine, but that just accentuates my desire for the online experience to be rock-solid, and dependable, and MS has a proven track record in that arena.

I'm in the same ship as you, as I've never been an early adopter of console hardware.

But I'm in a different dinghy in that I'm leaning toward the PS4 when I purchase sometime in 2014. I want a gaming machine that can stream Netflix and other services. I don't care about talking to my TV. I don't care about motion games -- I want to sit on my ass to play games after being on my feet all damn day, working from a standing desk and chasing our kids all around the county at school and sporting events. I don't care about Snap. When I'm gaming, I'm gaming. I'm not watching TV.

As I approach 50, I've gravitated toward simplicity. I want devices that do one thing and do it REALLY well rather than a Swiss Army knife that tries to be everything and ends up doing some things decent and some things poorly. Also, I feel overwhelmed by content on all devices. So the last thing I want is yet another device that bombards me with content from a variety of angles.

My attitude is morphing, always subject to change. And the pull of gaming with you cats on XBL still is strong. But the PS4 intrigues me in ways I never imagined since I never had any interest in a PS3, and I liked the original Xbox better than the PS2 I owned.

[dbdynsty25]

Yep, nothing that will make you go "I gotta have one!" unless you had that to start with.

And that's what I was trying to say--Ryse is absolutely gorgeous. But it was an exclusive, so all of their time went into making it that way. With developers who will create a game on multiple platforms at once, will they take that time? It's definitely not that the XB1 can't do it...Ryse is proof that it can. The question is whether any developers will take the time to do so.

I know you and Spooky (and others) think the gap will shrink but given what I know about PC architecture, I really think the differences will get bigger as we go...not sure why they would get closer. If cross-platform games already look better, as developers get used to the Xbox they are getting used to the PS4 as well. I just think you'll get a lot more bells and whistles enabled and higher framerates because of the significant GPU and Ram headroom. You hit the nail on the head with Ryse and of course Forza...single games, being developed for a single system...of course they look awesome! There just isn't that same LOVE for the cross platform games from the third party developers.

[dbdynsty25]

My attitude is morphing, always subject to change. And the pull of gaming with you cats on XBL still is strong. But the PS4 intrigues me in ways I never imagined since I never had any interest in a PS3, and I liked the original Xbox better than the PS2 I owned.

There will be plenty of us gaming on the PS4 and now that they actually have a party system on it...the draw will likely be the same. This generation is surly going to be split amongst the DSP crowd, that's for sure. We know that already.

[TCrouch]

Scott, I'm with ya. I just think developers tend to code for the lowest common denominator, power-wise. So they'll code this engine and base game that works on everything, then turn on bells and whistles. I don't think that will go much further than better AA/AF on the vast majority of games, I bet. Just comes down to the bottom line--how many man hours do they spend re-tooling an engine for the PS4, rather than just turning on stuff that will make it look better with a couple of keystrokes?

PK--you would go absolutely BATSH*T CRAZY dealing with the XB1 if all you want to do is sit down and play a game. I'm pretty tolerant, but I actually have my XB1 disconnected right now. I went to move it and just found no reason to plug it back in after moving the box itself yesterday afternoon. I played PS4 the rest of the night lol

[dbdynsty25]

Scott, I'm with ya. I just think developers tend to code for the lowest common denominator, power-wise. So they'll code this engine and base game that works on everything, then turn on bells and whistles. I don't think that will go much further than better AA/AF on the vast majority of games, I bet. Just comes down to the bottom line--how many man hours do they spend re-tooling an engine for the PS4, rather than just turning on stuff that will make it look better with a couple of keystrokes?

PK--you would go absolutely BATSH*T CRAZY dealing with the XB1 if all you want to do is sit down and play a game. I'm pretty tolerant, but I actually have my XB1 disconnected right now. I went to move it and just found no reason to plug it back in after moving the box itself yesterday afternoon. I played PS4 the rest of the night lol

Yeah, I think the XB1 dashboard is a mitigated disaster when it comes to design and flow, but there's something to be said for me coming home and the wife figured out how to turn it on, put in a DVD and play it without any info from me. She couldn't do that the first time I hooked up the PS3 last generation, so they did SOMETHING right from a usability point of view.

As for graphics, I'd venture a guess that they program for the faster one and scale down (like they do on the PC).

[wco81]

What happens with the signing on thing if you unplug the Kinect?

[dbdynsty25]

What happens with the signing on thing if you unplug the Kinect?

You have to do it all manually like you do on the 360 now.

[TCrouch]

That's a good question. I turned off auto-sign in stuff for Kinect, but with no way to tell it what controller you're using, I don't know how it would know. WIth the little "green ring" stuff gone, I thought it had a sensor in the controller. But if Kinect isn't doing it, then maybe it's just like a TV remote, which is why the "walk in front of me to break the connection" stuff happens? It's just clunky as all hell, but I'll reconnect it without the Kinect tonight to see.

[greggsand]

Interesting read and comparison:

http://www.theverge.com/2013/11/29/5127 ... ook-better

The difference in graphics between the PS4 and Xbone is more pronounced than I thought in the AC4 screenshots. I also know that's a VERY small sample size -- sort of like my penis.

My takeaway from that was all the next-gen games need more polish.

[Teal]

Interesting read and comparison:

http://www.theverge.com/2013/11/29/5127 ... ook-better

The difference in graphics between the PS4 and Xbone is more pronounced than I thought in the AC4 screenshots. I also know that's a VERY small sample size -- sort of like my penis.

My takeaway from that was all the next-gen games need more polish.

My takeaway from that was PK is more honest than I really need him to be...

[TCrouch]

Did anybody else get Ryse? I'm wanting to try some of that 2-player co-op gladiator stuff, as even solo it was kind of fun. It would have probably reviewed better if it was nothing but those scenarios over and over lol

But considering the grind it takes in solo mode to acquire new gear, I'm hoping co-op payouts are better. Did anybody get it, or was it only me?

[Teal]

Did anybody else get Ryse? I'm wanting to try some of that 2-player co-op gladiator stuff, as even solo it was kind of fun. It would have probably reviewed better if it was nothing but those scenarios over and over lol

But considering the grind it takes in solo mode to acquire new gear, I'm hoping co-op payouts are better. Did anybody get it, or was it only me?

It would have been my first game purchase, had I gotten a system. I love the idea, and the historical period.

[TheTruth]

Having a pretty good time with Powerstar Golf. Bagged my first Eagle today.

http://youtu.be/yJd2nx-V67A

[Spooky]

Having a pretty good time with Powerstar Golf. Bagged my first Eagle today.

https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=A ... deo%2c.mp4

I own it but haven't put much time into it yet. I like what I've played though.

So - was that clip automatically saved or did you initiate the recording?

I asked this earlier but not sure I got a response - does the PS4 version of games automatically save video clips from game highlights like the XB1 does (i.e. leveling up in BF4)?

[TheTruth]

Having a pretty good time with Powerstar Golf. Bagged my first Eagle today.

https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=A ... deo%2c.mp4

I own it but haven't put much time into it yet. I like what I've played though.

So - was that clip automatically saved or did you initiate the recording?

I asked this earlier but not sure I got a response - does the PS4 version of games automatically save video clips from game highlights like the XB1 does (i.e. leveling up in BF4)?

It recorded own it's own, but I've tried the Xbox "record that" command and it only recorded 1 second clips when I tried it with BF4. I thought it was supposed to record the last 60 seconds.

Terry, I feel your pain with the controller thing. It is beyond frustrating. Have now set up both boys with separate MS accounts and added them under family sharing. I guess it helped some, but still got a controller disconnected message. Another way for MS to drive people to sign up for accounts?? Hope this gets ironed out soon.

[Spooky]

Having a pretty good time with Powerstar Golf. Bagged my first Eagle today.

https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=A ... deo%2c.mp4

I own it but haven't put much time into it yet. I like what I've played though.

So - was that clip automatically saved or did you initiate the recording?

I asked this earlier but not sure I got a response - does the PS4 version of games automatically save video clips from game highlights like the XB1 does (i.e. leveling up in BF4)?

It recorded own it's own, but I've tried the Xbox "record that" command and it only recorded 1 second clips when I tried it with BF4. I thought it was supposed to record the last 60 seconds.

It should record the last 30 seconds when you use that command.