XBox One AND PS4 Discussion

[pk500]

Another reason why I'm gravitating toward the PS4: Creating more content opportunities to plant my kids in front of a screen is the LAST thing I want my console to do.

The kids do that enough already, thank you, even though they're very active in school and youth sports and other activities. I want more time for them to participate in more sports and more activities, not more hours staring into a plate of glass flashing images, video and pictures.

[pk500]

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

Thanks for the advice, Terry. That's my suspicion, too. I really want to get some solid time with an Xbone in someone's house -- not a Tjung sample at a kiosk -- to see whether it fits for me and our kids at all.

I'm also alarmed by the apparent regression in XBL ease of use and functionality reported by some of you cats.

[Teal]

Another reason why I'm gravitating toward the PS4: Creating more content opportunities to plant my kids in front of a screen is the LAST thing I want my console to do.

They do that enough already, thank you, even though they're very active in school and youth sports and other activities. I want more time for them to participate in more sports and more activities, not more hours staring into a plate of glass flashing images, video and pictures.

That's actually why I'm NOT gravitating toward a PS4. Our gaming system is in the hub of the home; I know you have a basement area to game in and all that, but I don't, and I wouldn't anyway, because I don't want our kids unattended in a cave somewhere! lol That said, having the entertainment hub be MORE than just games is actually a detractor to planting mine in front of a screen. If I put a game console in another room, we would never see them again...lol

[pk500]

That's actually why I'm NOT gravitating toward a PS4. Our gaming system is in the hub of the home; I know you have a basement area to game in and all that, but I don't, and I wouldn't anyway, because I don't want our kids unattended in a cave somewhere! lol That said, having the entertainment hub be MORE than just games is actually a detractor to planting mine in front of a screen. If I put a game console in another room, we would never see them again...lol

Our kids are given a finite amount of time to play games and watch TV every weekend. When the jig is up, it's up. No Xbox time during the school week. And only sports or documentary TV during the school week once homework and other activities are done.

[webdanzer]

To me, it still sounds like something MS could fix/adjust over time, but Penny Arcade went more into the party/friends experience on the One today.

I’ve been sick for a full week, so I’ve had a lot of time to “investigate” what is going on with the Xbox One.

The last time they made an entirely new user interface for their ostensible “gaming hardware,” they did it in what might be called The Shakespeare Way. That is to say, they did it with full awareness of a bifurcated audience. No matter what they did at the ground floor - the base OS experience, which changed several times - you could always press the Xbox symbol on the controller and be calgonned into a realm oriented entirely toward the enthusiast. That’s what I’m used to seeing when I hit the gem, what most people are, and what happens now is that pressing it crams you into their terrifying multitasking funhouse mirror.

This funhouse mirror is incredibly scary. You feel like you’re suspended over the operating system somehow. The machine’s real trick is its Hydra thing, all these crazy necks with screen faces all over the place, and it would be tremendously empowering if you were at the reins of it. Except right now it’s mostly just a Hydra, it’s not your Hydra. It’s just in there flipping out, and you don’t know why.

Ambiguities of the form “Xbox, On/Xbox, Turn Off” are all over the place, in every shape. Before, you could start a party very quickly from the same menu cluster that talked about Friends. Now, it’s a Snap that clings to the right side of your screen. Before, when a menu item showed a specific state, like Party Chat, that meant this state was active. Now, when it shows a state - like Mute Everyone - that doesn’t mean everyone is muted. If means that if you select it and push a button, then everyone will be muted. You can press B on this Snap to send it away, but other Snap panes don’t work like that. And so on, and so on.

The App model of thinking about basic features like Friends or Parties has f***ed usability profoundly. Before, friends were almost… ambient? You could condense them right out of the air. Now, the friends “app” might not even load. A less eloquent, less professional interlocutor than myself would simply end a post like this with the truncation “smh.”


http://penny-arcade.com/2013/12/02/wind ... pportunity

[Murph]

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

http://youtu.be/yJd2nx-V67A

Kinda looks like Sony's Hot Shots Golf, which I'm looking forward to once it comes to PS4. I prefer my golf more arcade and less sim (Tiger).

[Leebo33]

I'm also alarmed by the apparent regression in XBL ease of use and functionality reported by some of you cats.

I'm alarmed as well. I'd like to start reading some positive things to get me excited for December 25th. Right now it seems like Santa spent $800-850 (cost of the system, a year of XBL, couple extra controllers, a couple games, and tax) to Skype, curse the TV and profile setups, and do fitness programs free for a year. This really wasn't the reaction I was expecting here at DSP. Luckily, I haven't opened anything yet.

[TCrouch]

And the weird part is, I completely expected to be the opposite. I didn't even have a PS4 preordered, I was so much in the "I have been an XBox user for the past 2 generations, my PS3 barely got touched" camp.

But the closer it got, the more I read that made me think the PS4 would be at LEAST a viable platform for me, as well. And post-launch of both systems, I have zero problems with the PS4 so far, other than the clunky way they update games and the weird notifications from "Upload failed" that I get from time to time.

But from setup to PSN configuration, to creating profiles for my kids to *GASP!* creating sub accounts on my PSN+ account, not requiring me to buy 4 separate XBox Live Golds for my kids (since they conveniently ditched the $99 XBox Live Family account, barely mentioning it in some small print. That was nice of them. "Look at this favor we did you! We converted your family accounts to individual gold accounts!...now you will pay us $240 a year instead of $99. Isn't that GREAT?!?!"). On PSN I can create those subaccounts off of my primary, as long as they're under 18. How novel.

It seems like every decision Microsoft has made with the XBox One has been aimed at...not me. It's like they're trying to straddle the line between the gamer and the casual gamer who wants to control everything with one console. The problem is, the control is clunky as s*** on the system right now. They'll probably iron it out, but I wonder how many gamers they'll alienate and lose between now and then? I know I went from "if I ever buy games, it's on XBox unless it's a Playstation Exclusive", to "Hmm, maybe it's worth checking out the PS4 as a good alternative", to "holy crap, every game I buy is now PS4 unless it's an XBox Exclusive" in the span of a few weeks.

Considering I'm a pretty tolerant dude when it comes to gaming, that's a concerning sequence of events in my opinion. I can enjoy almost any game I buy, and I wanted to feel like the XBox One was a worthwhile upgrade over my 360. But as it stands, my PS4 is a massive upgrade over anything I had before, and feels like it does "next gen-y" things like the Twitch stream and whatnot. My Xbox One does next gen-y things like show me on camera, yelling at the damn thing because I can't figure out who's using what controller or how to simply get to MY home screen. Or attempting to memorize the dozens of voice commands because they force you to. They create an interface that's so f*cking clunky with a controller that it's your only choice.

Let's not even get into XBL and friends and achievements that somehow cause the OS to stutter and get this delayed, "stuck-on-the-screen-for-2-minutes" achievement notice while trying to play multiplayer same-couch football. We had to press the guide button just to go to achievements to clear the damned thing. Or where before, I could quickly press the guide button and navigate to friends to see what people are doing in the overlay...? Nope, now I gotta go home, jump to friends...jump to friends AGAIN because they show me some worthless feed of everything people have done (I don't care if Rob changed 3 games, watched a movie, and then switched to TV...I just care who's online at the time, right now. That should be the default, not some feed of the past 30 minutes on my friends list activity). It's dead on that Penny Arcade said they throw you in the middle of this multitasking nightmare. I don't give a sh*t about ANY of that. I want to play my games, stream movies from XBox Video when I choose to rent them there, and see what my friends are doing. The rest of this just pisses me off more each time I turn the box on.

Meanwhile, my PS4 just sits right next to it. Smaller, prettier, and seems to wink at me with that blinking f*cking light on top. It's like it already knows something I'm struggling to come to grips with.

[Pete1210]

But from setup to PSN configuration, to creating profiles for my kids to *GASP!* creating sub accounts on my PSN+ account, not requiring me to buy 4 separate XBox Live Golds for my kids (since they conveniently ditched the $99 XBox Live Family account, barely mentioning it in some small print. That was nice of them. "Look at this favor we did you! We converted your family accounts to individual gold accounts!...now you will pay us $240 a year instead of $99. Isn't that GREAT?!?!"). On PSN I can create those subaccounts off of my primary, as long as they're under 18. How novel.

Sub accounts for family members are free on Xbox One. They each get their own friends list and can game on xbox live. Only need to pay for one live subscription.

[TCrouch]

Then that needed to be explained more in their communications to me, or I completely missed it. I got some emails from them saying "we converted your family accounts to individual accounts! Yay!"

With no explanation of how to link them within my main account. I saw an "add to family" option in the UI for the XB1 as I fumbled around from window to window, and I'm assuming that's what this will do, then?

So I no longer pay for the family at all? Just my live account, and anybody I add will be able to be gold under my sub? At least that's one b*tch rant I can take back, if true.

[Inuyasha]

Good Feedback Guys. Pushes me even more towards PS4. And that's hard for me typing that since I was a big XBOX and XBOX360 gamer.

PK pretty much nailed it on the head with his posts. I too just want a machine where I can sit down on the couch and play games. Simplicity is where it's at with me too.

I'm sure MS will fix all the bugs right now XBONE is experiencing, but I'm starting to wonder if they screwed the gaming side of things trying to make their console a 'do it all' machine. I guess when they went into this thing they thought Sony wouldn't show up this round and they can steer the market at their whim and people will just take it.

[pk500]

I'm sure MS will fix all the bugs right now XBONE is experiencing, but I'm starting to wonder if they screwed the gaming side of things trying to make their console a 'do it all' machine. I guess when they went into this thing they thought Sony wouldn't show up this round and they can steer the market at their whim and people will just take it.

Absolutely. Hubris seems to be an underlying theme of the launch of the last two generations of consoles.

We had market leader Sony trying to slam its core-cell chip and technology down reluctant developers' throats in 2006 with the PS3. Now we have Microsoft trying to shove its "Xbone is the epicenter of your living room" ethos down gamers' throats with the Xbox One.

Sounds like the ghost of Don Mattrick lives in the software of the Xbone, unfortunately. Patches hopefully will smooth the interface and overall experience.

[Pete1210]

Good Feedback Guys. Pushes me even more towards PS4. And that's hard for me typing that since I was a big XBOX and XBOX360 gamer.

PK pretty much nailed it on the head with his posts. I too just want a machine where I can sit down on the couch and play games. Simplicity is where it's at with me too.

As far as playing games, XB1 is just as simple as the 360. Put in disc and game launches.

The only difference is the mandatory installs, but that's on both systems.

Where it can get more complicated is learning where and how to access all the other features, but they can be ignored.

[Diablo25]

Good Feedback Guys. Pushes me even more towards PS4. And that's hard for me typing that since I was a big XBOX and XBOX360 gamer.

PK pretty much nailed it on the head with his posts. I too just want a machine where I can sit down on the couch and play games. Simplicity is where it's at with me too.

As far as playing games, XB1 is just as simple as the 360. Put in disc and game launches.

The only difference is the mandatory installs, but that's on both systems.

Where it can get more complicated is learning where and how to access all the other features, but they can be ignored.

Yeah, there is some good and some bad with the XB1 UI but it'll get ironed out. If we remember, the 360's interface had those blades, etc. and a lot of functionality was added over the years. That will happen with the One. The PS4's UI is pretty simple in a good way. Both of the systems will evolve with the times so it's going to be interesting to watch/experience. Loving them both right now.

PS4 The Show = THIS is the game I want on the PS4. It's going to be awesome.

[Danimal]

Then that needed to be explained more in their communications to me, or I completely missed it. I got some emails from them saying "we converted your family accounts to individual accounts! Yay!"

With no explanation of how to link them within my main account. I saw an "add to family" option in the UI for the XB1 as I fumbled around from window to window, and I'm assuming that's what this will do, then?

So I no longer pay for the family at all? Just my live account, and anybody I add will be able to be gold under my sub? At least that's one b*tch rant I can take back, if true.

He beat me to it but yeah accounts are free as far as I can tell, you just need an email for them. I added my wife and 2 kids. You need to create a new profile then add them to your family with the option you mentioned. It randomly assigns them an XBL name.My wife's was pretty funny.

[pk500]

As far as playing games, XB1 is just as simple as the 360. Put in disc and game launches.

The only difference is the mandatory installs, but that's on both systems.

Where it can get more complicated is learning where and how to access all the other features, but they can be ignored.

Not sure I want to pay an extra 100 bones for features that may be shut off. Far from any kind of decision, but all interesting brain food to chew.

[Diablo25]

I must say I am enjoying watching other people stream their gameplay on the Twitch app on the XB1 and PS4. Just watched some dude playing FIFA 14 who is awesome. I am currently watching some German guy playing MLB The Show 13 on the PS3 .

[Diablo25]

As far as playing games, XB1 is just as simple as the 360. Put in disc and game launches.

The only difference is the mandatory installs, but that's on both systems.

Where it can get more complicated is learning where and how to access all the other features, but they can be ignored.

Not sure I want to pay an extra 100 bones for features that may be shut off. Far from any kind of decision, but all interesting brain food to chew.

No evidence whatsoever to back this thought up but I get the feeling MS is going to release a "Kinectless" XB1 for $399 in qtr 1 2014. Just a feeling.

I navigate around the XB1 menus no problem with just the controller. No need to use the voice stuff all the time. I still use my Comcast remote often when watching tv. The voice stuff is too convenient not to use though.

[webdanzer]

The only difference is the mandatory installs, but that's on both systems.

Well, it's a very minor point that only matters during day 1 of a new game, but you can start playing PS4 games much faster than you can Xbox One titles:

How Long Until You Can First Play A Game On PS4 And Xbox OneP
...
Assassin's Creed IV:
Xbox One (offline, no update): 5 minutes 50 seconds
Xbox One (with update, fastest connection): 7 minutes 2 seconds
Xbox One (with update, 10Mbps connection): 10 minutes 32 seconds
PS4: 42 seconds

The rest of these were tested on our office Wi-Fi which is around 9-11Mbps. It may have been faster on a wired connection, but you can compare your own connection speed here. These are our results:

Need For Speed Rivals:
XBO: 09:25 (including update)
PS4: 00:32

Just Dance 2014:
XBO: 08:48 (including update)
PS4: 00:45

NBA Live 14:
XBO: 16:26 (including update)
PS4: 00:35

FIFA 14:
XBO: 16:06 (including update)
PS4: 00:34

Madden 25:
XBO: 9:38 (including update)
PS4: 00:38


http://kotaku.com/installing-xbox-one-g ... 1471191836

[TheTruth]

Besides the controller snafus, friends list not readily at your fingertips, and the occasional voice frustrations I am loving my XBOX One experience and glad I didn't wait. Do hope they patch the ability to mute the TV volume when you have it snapped on the right. Crazy that they thought it was better to mix the two sound streams, IMO.

And I didn't think I would use the game clip stuff much, but I really like looking at everyone's clips.

[webdanzer]

Kinda looks like Sony's Hot Shots Golf, which I'm looking forward to once it comes to PS4. I prefer my golf more arcade and less sim (Tiger).

There's been no HSG for PS4 announcement yet, though, right?

I love HSG. Hopefully if it comes out we can get some tournaments going. Back in the day I ran an 'honor system' HSG tourney with guys here and over at OS. Was a blast!!!

[TheTruth]

Then that needed to be explained more in their communications to me, or I completely missed it. I got some emails from them saying "we converted your family accounts to individual accounts! Yay!"

With no explanation of how to link them within my main account. I saw an "add to family" option in the UI for the XB1 as I fumbled around from window to window, and I'm assuming that's what this will do, then?

So I no longer pay for the family at all? Just my live account, and anybody I add will be able to be gold under my sub? At least that's one b*tch rant I can take back, if true.

He beat me to it but yeah accounts are free as far as I can tell, you just need an email for them. I added my wife and 2 kids. You need to create a new profile then add them to your family with the option you mentioned. It randomly assigns them an XBL name.My wife's was pretty funny.

You can also transfer each of their current live accounts to their own individual MS account. Just create the new account first and do the gamertag transfer to the new email address. Then add the new accounts to the family sharing on the xbox one. Doesn't the family sharing apply to only one console?

[Spooky]

It's really too bad the XB1 seems to be failing in so many areas. I'm still enjoying it and have had very little to gripe about. I guess I'm literally in that sweet spot of a user group right now. My kid is too young to even know what TV is, my wife has not watched TV when I'm not around since I met her, I have zero friends that come over to play games on the same console, I have no need for extra accounts, I'm a rare TV watcher myself so the ease of being able to tell it to go to a channel by it's name ("HBO, NBC, TBS, etc...") is a blessing, 30 seconds of recorded gameplay clips is about all I care to sit through, etc, etc...

I think, as most of you do, that MS was simply too over-ambitious with their concept and apparently someone at the top made the call to go ahead and launch even though most rings seem half-baked. It's always a gamble but one I see everyday in my industry. The ideas are sound but the integration and application of these ideas needed maybe another year to become more fully realized. But, on the other hand it is very hard to get things that are this ambitious right before getting the mass publics feedback. Sucks that we essentially become beta-testers, but sometimes that's reality.

I'm not sure if I'm even trying to defend MS here, more than just appreciate whet they tried to do and hope that we get the necessary attention over the next year to 18 months to address most of these quirks. For right now I am having no issues playing games, using Skype and watching TV or Netflix through it.

At this point I have zero regrets about my decision to go with XB1 exclusively, but I do feel bummed that so many others are disappointed.

[dbdynsty25]

At this point I have zero regrets about my decision to go with XB1 exclusively, but I do feel bummed that so many others are disappointed.

I'm not sure disappointment is the right word. I fully expected this to be the case, and I stated it many times prior to both systems launching and everyone wanted to argue with me about it. There's just no way you can be so damn ambitious and be completely successful. As you mentioned, it's just a fact of the electronic/software industry these days. Ship it and patch it. People were so hard up for a new system that they knew they could make that happen. I know the limitations and have accepted them to keep the wife happy...sometimes, a 500 dollar investment is worth a little interface headache. At least I have the "other" system as well...and it works just fine for exactly what I want it to...gaming. The XB1 will get it smoothed out eventually...but you're right, it's a beta test. To be fair, there are some beta things about the PS4 as well (installs/updates/etc as Terry mentioned).

[Inuyasha]

Just F'n Great.......PS4 SOLD OUT EVERYWHERE! I guess I can wait until after XMAS. Not going to pay over retail for it that's for sure.

Sounds like the ghost of Don Mattrick lives in the software of the Xbone, unfortunately.

Nice. I had the same thought when I was reading your posts before, but couldn't think of the guys' name.