I saw a thread about the PS4 but I don't see an Xbox One thread or a thread comparing the two, so here goes.

So today I was talking with my roommates and we made a preliminary decision to buy one of the cool new consoles that are coming out now. Now, from the initial research I have done, the internet has some very strong opinions (good lord, the comment sections) that seem independent from actual fact and more about which company they arbitrarily support. So this leaves my friends and I -extremely casual gamers, very confused on the pros and cons of each.

The differences between the two, from what I can gather are as follows:

Different gaming exclusives (god I wish everyone made games that work everywhere). From what I've seen the Xbox One games seem to be "better" than their PS4 counterparts. I'm mainly looking at Titanfall, Forza Motorsport, and Ryse: Son of Rome. The big ones for PS4 seem to be Infamous and Killzone. But apparently one of the best game makers, Naughty Dog, is exclusive with PS4 so that is also a big plus for Sony.

Hardware is different but everywhere I seem to go gives me a different answer. Research has led me to this conclusion: that PS4 has the edge in hardware, but this is coming from someone with next to no technical knowledge so I could be misinterpreting this entirely. All the numbers as far as CPU, RAM, GPU seem to be a little bit bigger for the PS4. Some places have also reported that PS4 will have native 1080p resolution for all of its games while Xbox One will not - it will have 720p. This is where there are conflicting reports - some places say that it will be upscaled to 1080 so there is no difference, some places say that 720p is only for some games and later on once developers understand the Xbox One better all games will be 1080. So a bit of confusion there.

Kinect seems to be a bit better than the PS Eye from what I've read in terms of motion capture and seems to make better use of the voice commands. I have also read that Xbox One will overlay with the normal cable so you can control it with your voice and run the TV exclusively through the Xbox which is pretty cool.

The only other big factor seems to be the price which gives a big edge to the Playstation as it is $100 less than the Xbox One although if you include the Eye it's only about 40$ better (the Xbox One comes with the Kinect). Since we're dividing it up amongst 4 people and this will last for at least two years until we graduate price isn't a huge deal but it's still a factor.

Help us please, we want to play some games!

 

TBH, the PS4 looks better in terms of price/hardware. However atm Sony's multiplayer is shit, although considering they are going to start charging for it I expect an improvement. I'd say go PS4, although I'm probably gonna get an Xbone simply because thats what all my friends are getting :/

 

That's the only real way to judge consoles, which one has the games you want to play.
The hardware is close enough that trying to declare one a winner or loser is just wasted effort.

 

The whole exclusives thing, especially at launch, is pretty misleading. Most console launches suck, either because the games have been rushed to line up with the release or because they're designed to show off tech rather than fun. Most of the launch titles this time around are multiform anyway.

The big exception to this right now is Titanfall, which MS seems to have secured console life rights to. Somehow. If you're a multiplayer guru and tend to enjoy the greased lightning feel of COD then guess what - you'll likely be able to play on either system. The PS4 will offer up Killzone, which is a lot weightier and not to everyone's taste. Xboxone will probably have Halo and, now, Titanfall.

I'm actually not picking either up at launch. I want to see what crap devs release over the next year before jumping into the ring.

 

Here's the difference

$400-800 plus accessories plus full digital games starting from $1 to $60 plus mods
$400 plus PS plus plus full digital games starting from $5 to $60 plus premium services that are otherwise free/cheaper on the PC plus a share button plus 1080p 30 fps
$500 plus Xbox live plus digital games starting from $5 to $60 plus many more premium services that are otherwise free/cheaper on the PC plus a useless underutilized peripheral plus 720 30 fps plus 'the cloud'

Understandably, if you don't want to take the time to configure your games (I would say 'and install them to your harddrive' but you'll be doing this now with the PS4/XB1 anyway) and would like a game system that just plays a disc you insert (wait nevermind, you actually always have to go through an OS now on the PS4/XB1 anyway)- then you should get the PS4 because it's cheaper and more powerful. If you actually want to play one of the exclusives on the XB1 you might want to get it, but I'd advise waiting until it inevitably drops in price, because there are so few games for it already.

If you have even an ounce of sense and don't mind spending a few minutes to 'configure your games' and aren't technologically inept... stick with the PC as always. Granted, there's ocassionally a good gem on a console, but it's becoming rarer and rarer these days.

 

There is a real difference between upscaled and native 1080p, but unless you're looking for it you probably won't notice. The most likely thing you'll run into are games that run slightly better on the PS4.

Judge it based on price, games, and the controller, which from my perspective the PS4 has the Bone beat in every way, but I am by no means unbiased.

As far as the Xbone's exclusives go: Dead Rising 3 looks like it MIGHT be okay, Ryse looks like a piece of shit compared to any modern action game, Titanfall looks like a pretty cool shooter if you like those (which I don't), Forza is Forza, you know what you're getting into.

As far as the PS4's exclusives go: inFamous looks fan-fucking-tastic in pretty well every way (and will absolutely be a day one purchase when the end of March rolls around), Naughty Dog games are Naughty Dog games, Killzone is a generic shooter that's really fucking pretty but not super interesting beyond that, and then there's Resogun, which is a downloadable game that's free on plus right now and extremely fun. Like, holy shit, I cannot put into words how fun and pretty Resogun is.

Also: PS+ is a really fucking good service that pays for itself multiple times over every year through its free games (which are going to continue going forward.) If you're attached to the Playstation ecosystem at all and you don't have PS+, you're missing out. FEDIT: I can't say I've ever seen the appeal of XBL, personally, but it looks like they're trying to clone PS+ in a sense.

 

Currently, my 360 library is about 60 games or so, and my ps3 is 5 games. But, I may be getting the ps4 instead. XB1 seems too gimmicky to me, though the only game I really care about (Dark Souls 2) isn't even being released on gen 8 consoles. I'll probably be getting whatever console has the best RPGs to begin with, but not including whatever crap square enix shoves at us.

 

Both consoles will likely get the WRPGs unless one or the other really tanks. JRPGs will stick to handhelds and the PS4 as usual.

 

I'm just going to wait this one out. All my games are on the 360, but I'm going to wait till all the kinks are worked out on these and figure out where to go from there. But more than likely I'll work towards just using Steam. If they want me to buy something new every 4-5 years it might as well be newer components to a PC.

 

For what it's worth, the previous gen was actually about 7 years, and the current gen systems aren't going to die off immediately.

Well, the PS3 won't. Can't speak for the 360, but I imagine there'll still be multiplatform content there.

 

My first 36o was a red ringer :/ So this gen hasn't lasted super long for me.

 

Do you have a 360? Titanfull is a "exclusive" - coming out on 360 and PC as well and Forza 5 has Half as many cars as Forza4 with half as many tracks.

Xbone is harder to develop for and has a GPU around 40% less powerful than the PS4. Slight overclock (8%?) on CPU for XB. As far as RAM the Xbox has 32 mb of really fast ram and 8092 mb of slow ram. The PS4 has 8096 mb of fast ram.

There is a difference between 720p and 1080p regardless of the up-scaler. While developers will get better at using the Xbox this does not mean that all games will be 1080p. There is a trade of in effects and quality vs resolution. Developers of cross platform games could choose to have the effects and quality the same as the PS4 but run it in a smaller resolution

Kinect is better than the eye. The pass through and overlay features are cool if you watch TV via a cable box instead of a tuner/set top box integrated into the TV.

I think that the Kinect, Snap, and overlay features are interesting for the Xbox the fact that they come at the expense of it being a considerably weaker system with a higher price makes me lean towards a PS4.

Also if you dont want to use batteries in your controllers add in the cost of play and charge kits (25$ each) to the Xbox.

The PS4 is a more powerful game machine.

 

The PS2 only went out of production earlier this year, so yeah, I think the PS3 will be around for quite awhile, especially since it's a bluray player, and not everyone is willing to jump to the newest council. But, to be fair, the PS3 was $600 on release which caused a lot of people to not buy it right away, and the PS4's price seems very reasonable especially since it's the more powerful console and has had better marketing so far.

 

For what it's worth, the Cell was a weird monstrosity and bluray players cost $1000 at the time, but yeah, the PS4 is downright reasonable in comparison. That and it seems like the two companies have switched their tune over the course of the generation. Sony is really chill and human right now, doing everything they reasonably can to please their consumer base, while Microsoft is very...smug and corporate, especially in comparison. It's weird.

[imgur]OGmf21P[/imgur]
Read bottom to top. That's actually Shu's twitter.

 

You heathen, why are you even wondering, Playstation is obviously the one true religion.
Why? Because Killzone and Infamous, that's fucking why.

Fuck Killzone haters, Killzone 2 was the best game since the discovery of sex. Killzone 3, while a dissapointment regarding the plot, did step up the gameplay a couple notches.
As awesome as Infamous: Second Son seems, I just don't know if I want to play a game without Cole as the protagonist. (I totally will, I'll just bitch and moan about it).

Go buy the PS4, it's already been released. You're wasting time.

 

There's a neon power now. NEON. It's just as colorful and amazing as it sounds.

 

There are so few games that are console exclusive these days that determining which one you buy based on which titles in its catalog will be exclusive is absolutely pointless. It doesn't help that trying to determine which console will have more exclusive titles is an exercise in futility.

Which is why more people should be hooking a (HT)PC up to their television. It costs roughly the same, is mad more powerful, and has all the games. What's not to love?

 

What do people think about the Steambox? Will it be a viable alternative?

 

I'd say not at the moment. It's still a prototype, isn't it?

There's lots of things that look good on paper, but where execution fails. AFAIK, Steam is promising a lot of stuff - new OS, different machines running on different hardware by different manufacturers, entirely new type of controls. Some might like it, some not. I'll reserve judgement for now.

There's also the issue of having Steam in both PC and Console, which is kinda redundant. If I have the choice to buy a different console, which also gets me exclusives not available for PC, why would I chose Steambox?