XBox One AND PS4 Discussion

[Rodster]

Microsoft conducting Xbox One digital pricing experiment with Ryse sale
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/micros ... 0-6417801/
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Microsoft has said it will begin experimenting with its digital pricing on Xbox One.

In response to user requests for cheaper digital games, Ryse: Son of Rome will be reduced to $39.99 between February 18 and 24, with an additional sale on the game's DLC starting on February 25.

"That’s far better than the used price at GameStop and others! Go digital," said Xbox studio manager Mike Ybarra on Twitter.

[Leebo33]

"That’s far better than the used price at GameStop and others! Go digital," said Xbox studio manager Mike Ybarra on Twitter.

But still more than the $32 you can pay on eBay and where you can also probably resell it after playing the 8 hour game over a long weekend for a total cost of $5.

[wco81]

MGS will be 720p/60fps on X1, 1080p/60fps on PS4.

[MizzouRah]

MGS will be 720p/60fps on X1, 1080p/60fps on PS4.

Does that really mean anything? I'm being honest here.. can you really tell a difference? I guess it matters on big TV's or something?

We have a 32" HDTV in our bedroom that is 720p and a 52" HDTV in the living room that is 1080p and both look amazing.. but I can't see much difference.

[Diablo25]

MGS will be 720p/60fps on X1, 1080p/60fps on PS4.

Does that really mean anything? I'm being honest here.. can you really tell a difference? I guess it matters on big TV's or something?

We have a 32" HDTV in our bedroom that is 720p and a 52" HDTV in the living room that is 1080p and both look amazing.. but I can't see much difference.

Agreed.

[TCrouch]

Can definitely, definitely tell a difference.

It's resolution.

You have the perfect scenario NOT to be able to tell a difference, honestly. A larger TV will make every pixel larger, giving it more of a blocky appearance, while a smaller TV will mask the lower res as well.

It's not something that will bother most people, and it honestly depends on how far away you sit from each TV, as well. But it's like taking a computer game and going from 1280x720 and then going to 1920x1080 (which are the actual resolutions of 720p and 1080p). It's very noticeable. The TV and how far away you sit from it will determine HOW noticeable it is.

[MERACE]

http://www.polygon.com/2014/2/17/541946 ... ct-pack-in

I agree with most of what it is written in the opinion article above.

My wife would go crazy trying to use Kinect to control our TV. The scales are tipping to the PS4 for my future next-gen console purchase.


-MERACE

[TCrouch]

And now Thief will run in 900p on XB1, but 1080p on PS4.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/thief- ... 0-6417818/

The thing about resolution is that it is really up to developers to iron some of that out. Ryse, for example, ran at 900p but is still one of the most gorgeous games ever. Why? Because they took the time to add in antialiasing and a lot of things that can "hide" a resolution drop. With enough texture filtering and AA, a game in 1600x900 will look every bit as good as a 1920x1080 on a typical HDTV unless you get 2 feet away from the screen.

If Eidos took the time to go through and mask the resolution drop, I doubt there will be a discernible difference between the PS4 and XB1 versions. But as we've seen with the early gen cross-platform titles, nobody did that to start with. They just build it for the XB1 capability, then increase the res on the PS4 since they have some extra processing power. I think as time passes, people will get smarter about masking that, and it will always be a preference--I think XB1 has better color saturation and a deeper range of tone, while the PS4 games have had the same slightly-washed-out look that PS3 games had, but with crisper visual clarity and texture work with the increased res.

But the hate-everything-XB1 crowd will always have more and more ammo to throw at the console with stories like this popping up. I like both of the consoles, and most of my gaming time that isn't on PC has been spent on the PS4 when possible. But games like Dead Rising 3, Forza, Ryse, and now Titanfall didn't make me go "I wish this was on PS4, it would be so much better!!!!", either.

[DivotMaker]

http://www.polygon.com/2014/2/17/541946 ... ct-pack-in

I agree with most of what it is written in the opinion article above.

My wife would go crazy trying to use Kinect to control our TV. The scales are tipping to the PS4 for my future next-gen console purchase.


-MERACE

Can't argue with the article. My wife hated the One for about 2 weeks until she finally let me show her how to use it properly. I expect the One to improve and my Family room TV is only 42" due to being in a $10K entertainment center we bought 15 years ago. I will be getting a PS4 when the games I want to play show up and that machine will be in my office to go with my 46" desktop TV....

[Brando70]

Good post about resolutions, Terry. I agree, it's just one factor among many in how something looks. Right now, I have my PS4 on an older Panny plasma that is not 1080p. But it's also a 42-inch TV, and at that size the difference is not easy to tell, plus the picture looks a lot better than many 1080p LED TVs I've seen.

At the same time, though, when all other graphical things are about equal, higher resolution is more desirable, especially on bigger TVs.

[Zeppo]

My experience with the voice commands does not jibe with Kichera's account. At this stage, it almost never mis-hears me or fails to hear me. Surely there's been a bit of a learning curve, but nowadays I Snap TV all the time with no problem. I use it to change channels a lot, and in many cases it's much much easier to say "Xbox watch Fox Sports One" to watch an FA Cup match than it would be for me to use the remote and hunt and peck and strain my brain trying to discover/remember what channel FS1 is. With the Olympics, I've been jumping from NBC Sports to NBC to msnbc with speed and ease thanks to Kinect.

I do use the controller or remote to actually navigate once I've said "Xbox go to friends. Friends," or to change volume on my TV or to check out what's on my DVR etc, so it's not like the Kinect makes the controller or the remote moot by any means. But I do use it a lot and it saves me a fair amount of time on a regular basis. I will say the hand gesture overlay does come up from time to time unexpectedly and is a bit annoying but not too much. Luckily Kinect can't control my cable box's DVR functions so it never accidentally ffw or pauses or anything. Oftentimes I will put the controller down and accidentally depress a trigger, and the same overlay comes up, so it's not just the hand gestures. Considering the Kinect IR can't control my DVR functions, I do wish I could just eliminate that overlay.

And I'll reiterate how handy and frankly cool it is that I can turn my Xbox and TV on or off with a simple, single voice command. Again, it almost never mis-hears me or fails to hear me, so it's proven very useful for me.

What I do think is that MS should've eaten the cost and put the price at $400 with the Kinect, but that's a different argument than Kuchera is making.

[Aristo]

I'll take the resolution hit to play Forza, Ryse, Titanfall, Halo 5, and a bunch of other quality exclusives coming on the XBO. BF4, NBA 2K14, Tomb Raider, and ACIV look amazing in the XBO right now.

So yeah, if you own both consoles, get the one where the game looks the best. But if I were choosing, I'd take the console with the games I want to play. And I don't buy $400 consoles to play indie games.

I will say that Microsoft has already made it likely that multiplayform multiplayer games will likely be PS4 centric. I will buy NHL15 on the One, but I expect the PS4 to be the platform with more players. So that is a big factor, too.

If I gave a crap about resolution, I wouldn't be a console gamer. Gameplay matters, and that requires games. I'm sure Sony will fix that eventually.

[Aristo]

If Microsoft goes Kinectless, they ought to ship it with the mix the Kinect uses. That is the difference maker. Honestly, I keep the camera covered because it is just easier. If I get a game that needs to see me, or work out, I can slide the cover off. But for 99% of the time, I don't need the camera. I use the voice commands every single day.

[J_Cauthen]

That's a well written article Mark. Thanks for linking it!

My rational mind tells me that the PS4 is the more powerful gaming machine and doesn't force-feed motion control on me right away. Twice now I've had a PS4 in my cart at Amazon.com. I couldn't click the "Proceed to Checkout" button because my subconscious reminds me that there's not really a PS4 game that I'm just dying to play right now. I'm interested in NBA 2K14, but not as a game that I'd like to have to christen a new console with. Battlefield 4, COD Ghosts, Assassin's Creed IV, and and FIFA 14 all look great, but they're not games that I would play for much longer than a test drive. Until DriveClub, or MLB 14 The Show, or The Golf Club is released for the PS4, I feel like it the PS4 would just be collecting dust.

Then I think about the fact that if I bought an XBox One, Forza 5 and PowerStar Golf (yes, a silly arcade golf game, I know - I know ) would be day one purchases and games that I know I'd start playing with a fervor right away. The only thing holding me back from making an XB1 purchase is the fact that it won't support my Fanatec GT2 wheel. Forza 5 would be fun for a while with the controller, but then I'd want to go online and race without being a nemesis to everyone around me. I need my GT2 wheel for that. I'd have bought the XB1 on launch day if the XB1 had support for my GT2. There's still a chance that Cronus Max (recently changed to "Controller Max") will add support for current-gen Fanatec and Logitech wheels for the XB1, via their controller adapter. They've been working on it for almost two months now and are still confident they can make it happen.

Eventually, I know I'll have both of them, but right now I feel like I'm being held hostage by Controller Max, Evolution Studios, HB Studios, and SCE, as to making my first next-gen console purchase. To illustrate the fickleness of my decision. If Controller Max comes out tomorrow and announces the latest firmware to their controller adapter now fully supports current gen Fanatec wheels, I'd buy an XB1 - Kinect or no Kinect - right away... well, right after I ordered my Controller Max for $49.99

[10spro]

From my personally experience, the Kinect has been just an oddity sitting pretty in front of my 55' LCD. I can command it to shut it off, go to games, settings etc but it will not start at all when I say 'Xbox On'. There's still no TV guide integration with any of the cable companies here in Canada so I use mostly my Harmony controller or the Xbone controller itself. I do like the games selection more and while the PS4 still offers better resolution, I am one of those that are quite satisfied with the current picture offered in Xbone.

I only own currently 3 PS4 games and I am really looking forward to PS Now. Once the Show comes out, I am sure that Sony will be selling out even more units.

[Leebo33]

If Microsoft goes Kinectless, they ought to ship it with the mix the Kinect uses. That is the difference maker. Honestly, I keep the camera covered because it is just easier. If I get a game that needs to see me, or work out, I can slide the cover off. But for 99% of the time, I don't need the camera. I use the voice commands every single day.

Sorry if you've mentioned it Aristo, but why do you cover the camera? What is easier about it rather than just letting it be?

[Leebo33]

I'll take the resolution hit to play Forza, Ryse, Titanfall, Halo 5, and a bunch of other quality exclusives coming on the XBO.

When is Halo 5 coming out? 2015? If you are going to expand the time horizon that far won't PS4 have some decent exclusives in MLB The Show, Uncharted 4, Drive Club, The Order, and Infamous? I get that you prefer the XBO exclusives but it's not like PS4-only owners are going to be stuck only playing Indie games in 2014.

[TCrouch]

I'm never really sure where that camera data is going. I'm assuming that's Aristo's reason for covering. I turn mine straight up at the ceiling, honestly. I don't trust MS or this administration.

And yeah...the PS4 will certainly have its own exclusives, just like the XB1. That's the reason I got both. Infamous is in what, about a month? That's the first big one that I know of for PS4.

[dbdynsty25]

I'll take the resolution hit to play Forza, Ryse, Titanfall, Halo 5, and a bunch of other quality exclusives coming on the XBO.

When is Halo 5 coming out? 2015? If you are going to expand the time horizon that far won't PS4 have some decent exclusives in MLB The Show, Uncharted 4, Drive Club, The Order, and Infamous? I get that you prefer the XBO exclusives but it's not like PS4-only owners are going to be stuck only playing Indie games in 2014.

LOL. He's hardcore...he probably gets it before the rest of us.

[Leebo33]

I'm never really sure where that camera data is going. I'm assuming that's Aristo's reason for covering. I turn mine straight up at the ceiling, honestly. I don't trust MS or this administration.

But the administration or MS could still hear/record what you are saying, right? From a privacy standpoint I'd be more worried about what the administration could hear rather than them seeing me sitting around in my underwear.

[Aristo]

I'll take the resolution hit to play Forza, Ryse, Titanfall, Halo 5, and a bunch of other quality exclusives coming on the XBO.

When is Halo 5 coming out? 2015? If you are going to expand the time horizon that far won't PS4 have some decent exclusives in MLB The Show, Uncharted 4, Drive Club, The Order, and Infamous? I get that you prefer the XBO exclusives but it's not like PS4-only owners are going to be stuck only playing Indie games in 2014.

LOL. He's hardcore...he probably gets it before the rest of us.

I wish I could be as cool as you.

[Aristo]

If Microsoft goes Kinectless, they ought to ship it with the mix the Kinect uses. That is the difference maker. Honestly, I keep the camera covered because it is just easier. If I get a game that needs to see me, or work out, I can slide the cover off. But for 99% of the time, I don't need the camera. I use the voice commands every single day.

Sorry if you've mentioned it Aristo, but why do you cover the camera? What is easier about it rather than just letting it be?

I was tired of it always having everyone signed in, so when my daughter is playing ACIV, my activity says I am playing ACIV, and such. I really don't use gestures ever. The mount I use came with a cover, so I just put it on to see how long it would take before I really cared. As it is, I just manually sign in and leave it at that. Now we don't have the random notifications that the Xbox saw my daughter or wife walk into the room while I watch TV or play a game.

But the Kinect still hears everything, and it still turns all of my equipment off and on, and lets me use voice command with my Tivo. I think Microsoft would have been better off to double down on the voice stuff, which probably could have just been included in the console itself.

[Danimal]

I'm a little sick of the resolution thing myself. Do we need to have an article every time this happens. Haven't we figured it out by now that the PS4 runs at 1080p and the XB1 will not BFD. Right now Ryse is the best looking game on either console. I'm not saying people shouldn't care, but geesh every f***in game needs a story?

That article on Kinect nails it IMO, just one of a number of mistakes made. Microsoft, like Sony did with the PS3 thought their s*** didn't stink. Hard lessons to learn when millions are at stake. It just seems to me people are more eager to s*** on them for their issues.

[Inuyasha]

Other than The Show, anything of interest coming out in the next month or so? I'm not keeping up with this thing anymore. I just see the same launch games out there for sale when I visit the video game section at BB. I'm not interested in Indie games either.

[Danimal]

Other than The Show, anything of interest coming out in the next month or so? I'm not keeping up with this thing anymore. I just see the same launch games out there for sale when I visit the video game section at BB. I'm not interested in Indie games either.

The Show is a may release, next games up in MARCH are Titan Fall and Infamous.