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Ask Slashdot: Xbox One Or PlayStation 4?
An anonymous reader writes: I'm looking at getting the kids a new gaming console for Christmas this year. I'm stuck trying to decide between getting an Xbox One or a PlayStation 4. I'm really wary on the PlayStation because of the 5 PS2s with broken optical drives sitting in my garage; none lasted more than two years. On the other hand, I'm also wary of buying a Microsoft product; I'm a Linux user for life after getting tired of their crappy operating system. I've also considered getting a gaming PC, whether Linux or Windows, but it's more expensive and game reviews show most are not as good as a dedicated game console. The kids want Fallout 4, and I want Star Wars Battlefront and any version of Gran Turismo. We currently have a Nintendo Wii and a crappy gaming PC with some Steam games. So, which gaming console should I get that will last a long time?
This has no place on Slashdot. At all. Period.
Seriously, ask your kids. You seem to have plenty of negatives in the direction of both consoles, but you should ask your kids so that they can be able to use the device which better matches with their own social circles, since that doesn't seem to be a factor on your part of your decision.
Also I agree with the First Poster. This doesn't belong on an Ask Slashdot.
And build your own PC. Replace outdated components every few years. Seriously, the 8th generation was underpowered at launch.
Extremetech had a decent article about this a couple of days ago (currently at 1013 comments and rising)
Link
Full disclosure: I have no kind of attachment to extremetech, other than enjoying their articles which appear to be rather more insightful than most of the tech press out there
I'm a dreamer, the world is my playpen. But hey, I'm a serious person, I can't dream all the time.
You seem to be leaning towards PS4 since you want Gran Turismo (they are Sony exclusive). It is a great system and Battlefront has some extras on it that you can't get on Xbox. Fallout also runs a little bit smoother on PS4, but you can't get Fallout 3 on it (Xbox One can play it now with backwards compatibility). I own all of the major systems and don't have a dog in this fight.
For playing games, or running a tehrrust operation?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
First off, the PS4 is not the PS2. Second, the Xbox 1 is not Windows.
Both consoles are functional and reliable. I use my PS4 more than my XB1, but that's just because I like the Dark Souls series.
Really, you can't go wrong either way.
Although I've always had both Sony and Microsoft consoles in the past, the his generation I'm firmly behind the Xbox as I think it's exclusives are better personally. I also feel that gaming in general has gone slightly crazy this generation, with the whole industry obsessing over frame rate and resolution rather than concentrating on decent games, which are now few and far between.
If you're dead set on Gran Turismo, then you have no choice but a PS4, although I don't think there's a GT game available. There are three Forza games for the Xbox, which I think are decent alternatives.
Whatever you buy, remember to enjoy playing games, don't get upset because a game might not run 1080p. I look forward to the next generation when manufacturers are going to have to dig themselves out of the hole they're digging for themselves right now when games won't run anywhere near 4K. Good luck guys!
No brainer. Kinect is the future.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
A set of consoles that plays the latest Gran Turismo, the latest Halo, and the latest Super Smash Bros. is going to cost you $1100 anyway. Yet despite this, and despite the lack of mods that extend games' replay value, certain console fans love to trumpet how much cheaper their preferred product is than a gaming PC.
Well, for one thing get over your anti-microsoft rant. Microsoft has been far better of a evil corporate overlord than sony has for the last decade.
Win 7 feels like a linux desktop just as much as enlightenment.
Xbox 360s ran forever. Some crapped out but not nearly the failure rate of sony.
On top of that xbox live ran fairly smoothly for all the years i've used it. (it sucks that absolutely everything requires a subscription... but thats the model now)
Xbox one, the hardware just isn't impressive, but I imagine that MS will support it for at least 3 years with games, multiplayer and updated netflix/amazon applications.
Sony will most likely ban you and brick the unit.
don't get upset because a game might not run 1080p
Especially when "this game runs at 576p" whiners ignore that sub-1080p games on a given platform are more likely to use sophisticated lighting than "give me 1080p or give me death" games, and the human visual system draws more information from light and shadow than from edge detail.
sony-boycott here due to numerous problems but since you mention linux I'll e.g. "otherOS", thus it's got to be the (rrod...) xbox.
sag
I went through a similar analysis recently. I had no particular loyalty or bias to any one platform, though I began to lean towards the XBox because of Forza 6, which is the type of game that most interested me. After looking at capabilities, I settled on building a PC for about $1000. That's a lot more money than either console, but you get way more power and an upgrade path that will likely keep up for the next five or more years. The ability of the games on the PC is just better than either console, and I can swap in a better GPU at any time to keep it up there.
Project Cars, DiRT Rally and Assetto Corsa tick the boxes regarding my interest in Forza 6, so not having that on the PC was taken out of the equation.
It does mean running Windows, which as a Mac guy for day to day work is a bit hard to get used to - so many things suck it's a joke, but as a game-launching platform it's adequate. Once in the game, the OS is irrelevant. Steam is fine as a storefront and launcher as well. There might come a time when having Linux as the launcher is also workable, but right now it lags behind in terms of graphics support (e.g. many games require DirectX11) so Windows is a necessary evil.
How should children under 16 go about "earning it"? Their house and yard chores already pay for their rent and food. Not every child on the block can have a paper route or run a lawn care service.
Once in the game, the OS is irrelevant.
Unless the drivers are decidedly inferior on one operating system compared to the other, as demonstrated in Slashdot stories from July and October of this year.
Get them a Dreamcast, N64, Saturn, 3DO or Jaguar or any other old skool console. Dreamcast is awesome though event though I'm a die hard Jag fan.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
Get them a Dreamcast, N64, Saturn, 3DO or Jaguar
You said "Jaguar". Both the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4 have a 64-bit AMD Jaguar CPU. DO THE MATH.
More seriously: Why is AMD reusing previous game console names for its technology code names lately? Jaguar was an Atari console, and GCN was the official abbreviation for GameCube.
Yes, but you carry a cell phone on you that has a mic and gps, so someone can hear and know where you are all all times.
The consoles are, basically, the same. There are a few exclusives on each but the major franchises play the same on both. The biggest consideration when picking between the two is to get the one most of their friends use, so they can play online with them (and they will, even if you swear now you will never buy PSN/Gold).
I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
Get the PS4... It's the faster machine, can run games at a higher resolution, and has a bunch of exclusives purely by dint of the developers not being able to make it work fast enough on the Xbox. There's something like 100 more games available for it.
The PS2 controller connectors on the console seem a bit touchy, we managed to break one - but the drives on both of ours have continued to work for about as long.
#DeleteChrome
I'm really wary on the PlayStation because of the 5 PS2s with broken optical drives sitting in my garage; none lasted more than two years.
There was actually a defect found, and due to a class action suit you could have gotten some or all of those 5 PS2s repaired free of charge (regardless of warranty status or even if you bought it third hand).
I bought for $20 a used PS2 in exactly this condition, knowing about the waived fee repair. There even were answers to the scripted questions the Sony rep would ask online so that you could streamline getting the repair approved (boiled down to saying "it says disc read error" "still says disc read error" and "nope, still the same error"). IIRC I didn't even have to pay for shipping...
Yes, but you carry a cell phone on you that has a mic and gps, so someone can hear and know where you are all all times.
An electrostatic bag can take care of all of that, or a nice thick pair of corduroys will at least cover the walking and talking part.
The cesspool just got a check and balance.
If you only care about graphics, get a PS4. Of the two, it is simply the most powerful console (though a mid-end PC or better will easily beat it. However as we have seen with Ubisoft games and more recently, Arkham Knight, PC game ports are more likely to be unoptimized and buggy if not outright broken.) PS4 is the most popular console at the moment and will probably have the superior ports of multiplatform games. It also has some great exclusives like Uncharted, Gran Turismo, Infamous, and LittleBigPlanet.
If you don't mind the Microsoft Ecosystem (you said about considering a Windows gaming PC), The Xbox has some very interesting features. While the graphics are technically subpar vs the PS4, most people won't really notice. The backwards compatibility means you can pick up cheap 360 games (which are on the supported games list) in addition to more recent games. The best feature is that if you get a cheap Windows 10 PC, you can use the Xbox app to stream games from the XBone to your PC, which if you have a family, you don't have to monopolize the TV if you want to play games. The Xbox doesn't have as many great exclusives this time around (though it does have Halo, Gears Of War, and Forza Racing), but it will still get all the multiplatform games, is cheaper and the current bundles (especially the Gears Of War / Ori / Rare Replay bundle) are great for the price. Plus the MS store and various retailers are giving really good deals with buy a bundle and get free games.
However, if you just want to stay with Steam, you can also try the Steamlink with the Steam Controller and stream your games to the TV
Slow Down Cowboy! It's been 1 hour, 47 minutes since you last successfully posted a comment
Buy an SNES or an NES or really any other cartridge based system and browse the used game stores for really cheap games. Actually, it'd be best to focus on precisely the games themselves because you want to know you can get the games you want before hand. Although if you're like me, you already have an NES, SNES, etc. So, the real point is get them out, hook them up, and actually play them.
The real truth is, instead of focusing so much on getting a new system or new games, how about focusing on playing the old games you liked with your kids? It wouldn't even have to be SNES or whatever. Truth is, like a lot of gamers, I have a ridiculous amount of games. The old "rush" of getting a new game, playing the hell out of it, and then basically forgetting it has left me with tons of games I've never really truly enjoyed. Back before I had the money, I had only a handful of games and played them to death, obviously figuratively, less because they were so super awesome and most because there weren't a lot of options.
To me, that's the real shame with the current state of gaming. It's nothing wrong with the market or anything. It's just that people, like me, don't devote enough of ourselves to the games we play. That's what makes a game or a book or a movie good much more than anything else. The raw content is only as good as the reflections you put upon it yourself and incorporate it in your life. To that end, you'd do more to play those games with your kids because, presumably, your kids are the most important reflection in your life.
So, buying a new game system or not is not what matters. What matters is playing with your kids.
I just purchased a 1TB Xbox One a few weeks ago. I typically purchase most major consoles per generation (although I'd tend to buy for Xbox if it wasn't exclusive), but wasn't impressed enough with any of the new generation until Fallout 4 pushed me over the edge. Here's why:
* I'm an Xbox gold member, and they recently started offering me free Xbox One games, so I already had a library building up
* Xbox 360 compatibility means I may be able to ditch my 360 sooner
* I prefer the Xbox style controller
That's pretty much it. I've also been purchasing all my games digitally, which means never having to swap discs ever again, although it meant a week straight of downloading on my poor DSL connection. I'm guessing once I fill the internal drive up, I'll then have to start actively managing the remaining space, so there's that downside, but I really like going disc-less so far. I never traded or sold used games, so this is a win for me. My understanding is that you can purchase all games digitally on both platforms. If your kids like to swap / borrow games with friends, then perhaps discs would be better for you.
I'll eventually get a PS4 so I can play some of the exclusive JRPGs that always seem to land there, but for the time being, I'm fine with the Xbox One. The two consoles are, to be honest, *very* similar in specs, with the slight edge going to PS4 - so slight, in fact, you generally need side-by-side comparisons to tell the difference.
MS has the better online experience, from what I've seen (considering I don't have a PS4 yet, it's been a limited view), and for $60 a year you get a number of free games every month, though I understand PS has something similar. More than likely your credentials and credit cards will be safer with MS, as they seem to have a better handle on network security, as demonstrated by repeated Sony breaches, but hopefully they've learned their lesson.
Overall advice: get the one you like, especially if it has an exclusive you really want. Most games will be available for both. I think your kids will be happy either way. If you really dislike MS that much, maybe go for PS4. But really... it's sort of a toss-up.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
Go with "which platform has more of your friends using it" and "which controller do you prefer".
The irony with this generation of the console wars is that the fanboy bitterness is greater than ever, but the differences between the rival platforms have never been smaller. Yes, there are some minor spec differences, but for the most part, you need a magnifying glass to spot them. And single-platform exclusives are in decline; the cost of making games these days means that most games are multiplatform.
My first preference would be to recommend "just get a gaming PC", but I'm guessing that's not an option for one reason or another, or that you already have one, but want a console to go with it.
If you want to split hairs, then the PS4 tends to be better than the XB1 for running multiplatform games, but the XB1 currently has a very slightly better lineup of exclusives. The only real "stand out" exclusive on the PS4 right now is Bloodborne, which, judging from your post, isn't really what you're after (though it is an excellent game). That said, Japanese developers favour Sony platforms and if you like Japanese RPGs and the like, the PS4 is already slightly ahead in that category and its lead will grow. But the XB1 has clearly had a better holiday season for exclusives; Forza 6, Halo 5, Rise of the Tomb Raider and Gears of War Remastered, vs just the Uncharted Collection on the PS4.
Funny thing is, the exclusives tend to more or less balance each other out anyway. Gears of War vs Killzone. Halo vs Uncharted. Forza vs Gran Turismo. Though I will say that Forza has been much, much better than Gran Turismo for several iterations now.
As for non-gaming functions, the features are more or less parallel now. Both consoles have been patched with DNLA support, though the PS4's interface for it is rather better. That said, the XB1 can act as a throughput device for your cable-box, if you are short of HDMI ports on your TV. So it's kind of even there as well.
tl;dr version - it doesn't really matter. Neither is quite as good as a decent gaming PC, but both are fine in their own right. Which platform gives you a larger friends-list and which controller you prefer are the biggest factors.
Agree with comments above concerning home rolled gaming PC as best option, however the answer to the X-Box One vs. Play Station 4 question that was asked is clearly X-Box One, for the following reasons: 1. Best exclusive titles (i.e. Forza, Halo). 2. New version of Kinect works amazingly well. 3. Better home media center integration/functionality (can control everything through voice and gestures). 4. Supporting a US company vs. Japanese (yes, I know both are made in China).
For an RPG like fallout 4, I'd say children should be at least 12-14 yrs old to grasp the full meaning of it. I remember my 10-12 yr old nephew playing GTA 3 back in the days, an he didn't get the whole open world / mission aspect of it.
True, but the Forza Motorsport games are excellent and are only available on XBox. So, I'd call that one a draw.
Yeah. Go away. This is a technical place.
In the same situation I ended up going for the PS4. All in all they seemed pretty similar but the PS4 seemed marginally better performance wise. It's smaller size was also a factor for me.
The swinger though was probably Morpheus/Playstation VR. Obviously it's not out yet, but I've been waiting for decent VR since I was a kid (ie for over two decades) so the possibility of it coming to a home console holds a lot of excitement. Whether I end up getting it depends on reviews etc but, with all other thing being relatively equal between the consoles, keeping that option open down the road was a factor.
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
If you're building a Windows gaming PC, bite the bullet and install Windows 10. You're going to need DirectX 12 support eventually, so you might as well install it now than get forced to upgrade to Windows 10 later.
Don't buy a console like you would buy a PC.
Consoles are not general purposes machines, they are appliances to play games. So you should focus on the game experience rather than the back end (hardware and OS). Sure, the back end has an influence but it is just a mean to an end. In your case, it's easy : Gran Turismo is a Playstation exclusive, and the other two are multi-platform, so that's PS4.
As for reliability, just because the PS2 had a notoriously failure-prone optical drive means nothing about the PS4. It's like not buying a WiiU because of the problems in the cartridge loading mechanism of the NES. As for the XBox, the 360 had the infamous RROD problem. In the end, noone is perfect and it doesn't seem that the track record of either manufacturer justifies choosing one over the other.
Get them an Xbox One and spring for a copy of Rare Replay. They'll have fun for months.
If you were just talking about older teenagers, I might say a PS4. But, the Xbox One has growing backwards compatibility and more and more games for kids. A PS4 might have slightly better graphics, but really you don't notice the difference while playing and, if graphics mattered THAT much, you'd be getting a PC instead of a console anyway. But, the Xbox One is much better for media AND offers backwards compatibility with a growing number of 360 titles. I have a seven year old and the Xbox One is great for both of us. We also run the TV through the HDMI passthrough, so you can actually watch TV WHILE playing a game or whatever else...just snapping the windows side by side.
I personally went for a PS4 as an "upgrade" to my PS3, but if looking at blankly recommending either, I'd still say PS4 at this point:
(cue people calling me a shrill)
* Larger game library (currently)
* minutely better HW specs
* upcoming VR headset (H1'16)
There are a few exclusive on XBox that people would be interested in (HALO?), though on the topic of exclusives it is a matter of checking out what games you want to play. The XBox-unique Kinect is dead in the water currently, as are the Playstation's PS-Move things.
A different thing to look at, though, is what do your friends/your children's friends play on - there is something to be said for being able to play with others, especially people you know, and the social features and multiplayer gaming on the 2 platforms are mutually exclusive (XBox support cross-play with MS' gaming platform on Windows, and Sony allows full cross-play with Windows/Mac/Linux games where applicable).
Finally, if you weren't looking at specific games limited to the current gen, I'd say to get a second-hand XBox360 or (and?) PS3 - they are plenty entertaining.
If this is for the kids, then they need to make the choice. Mostly because online play tends to only work in console. So if all their friends have an Xbox one and they have a PS4, then they can't play games together.
If you want any kind of technical considerations or the like the PS4 is faster than the Xbone because of details with hardware design so it will end up rendering things at a higher resolution and so on. Also the controllers feel very different in the hands, and some people have a strong preference. I like the Xbone controllers much better and they are what I use with my PC (I have a PS4 controller as well).
Really though what matters is choosing the one that has the games you want, and that plays with the people you want to play with. The rest is secondary.
The kids want Fallout 4
Why am I not surprised that on Slashdot all the comments are just about the technical merits or whether the kids will grasp the game play of Fallout 4? The game is rated M. That's like an NC-17 movie.
The fact that there exist games where the Xbox One can do 1080p/60 does not mean that in all cases it can. There are several games that render at 1080p on PS4, but 720p or 900p on Xbox, e.g. Assassin's Creed IV, Batman Arkham Knight, CoD, Destiny, Diablo III, Dragon Age Inquisition, Far Cry 4, Just Cause 3, Lords of the Fallen, Metro: Redux, Shadow of Mordor, Pro Evo Soccer 2015, Project Cars, Shadow Warrior, Star Wars Battle Front*, The Evil Within, Thief, Tom Raider: Definitive Edition, Watch Dogs*
* These games don't do 1080p on PS4 either, but are still higher resolution on the PS4 than on the Xbox.
I first started coming to Slashdot because this site had some good articles about video games. I might not be an expert sysadmin, I'm a little bit fuzzy about the difference between Vi and Emacs, but I know a thing or two about the video games. Given all that we currently know about both consoles, I'd recommend the PS4. Most multiplatform releases are available on the PS4, and there are a number of upcoming impressive exclusives on the PS4 that aren't available on the Xbox One. In terms of hardware, the two consoles are roughly equal. Last gen, I would have recommended the 360 over the PS3, but this time the PS4 clearly has the edge.
Of course, if we broaden our options beyond the PS4 and XBONE, I'd recommend the Wii U. Triple-A games are a load of bullshit these days. I despise the money grubbing behaviors in the AAA industry. I hate seeing games released in a broken state, with large portions of the core experience carved out as DLC in order to nickle and dime the customer. Nintendo, on the other hand, releases games that are extremely high-quality and then releases DLC in the form of mini-expansions, which is what DLC should have been all along. So if you really like games and don't like bullshit, pick up a Wii U or 3DS instead of a PS4 or XBONE.
Gamertag: WyleType
If you already have steam and some games, why on earth would you want to downgrade into a console ? You can build your own "steam machine" for under 500$ and it will have twice the horsepower of any console. For 25$ on Amazon you can but some xbox 360 controllers. Steam living room mode makes it look like a console except you are not locked into that platform. Steam now has native support ofr Kodi and can all be controlled from a remote or joystick. Unless there is some console exclusive game you have to have, I cant think of a single reason to buy either. just google "build a steam machine" for ideas and then involve the kids in the buying choices and building process. They will appreciate their home build console and dad time more then anything you can buy.
So installing a rootkit is OK but listening to you is not. Got it!
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
Get the PS4... It's the faster machine
Well, sorta. The GPU is better on the PS4, the processor isn't. And the processor is weak on both but they all have equivalent low overhead technologies as Mantle, DirectX 12 and Vulcan. The PS4 got quicker RAM.
The PS4 indeed run many titles at higher resolution or frame-rate, it's supposed to not be as visible though. The PS4 also seem to out-sell the Xbox One 2:1 but here in Sweden at-least I often get the impression Xbox is the stronger brand? Maybe not?
Personally I would vote for the PC:
In Fallout 4 an i3 (two core) work just as well as an eight-core FX8000-series processor from AMD, the PS4 and Xbox One processors are AMD ones with eight cores but clocked about half as much as the FX-8320 and such.
Nvidia claim better graphics than both with the GTX 950.
An i3 + GTX 950 + controller doesn't cost much money. IT MAY HAVE THE FRIENDS ISSUE THOUGH.
The rest (HDD, case, PSU, possibly RAM) he already seem to have so depending on how one build it won't cost much and be at-least as good. Beyond that the PC can of course become better.
As for the OS get Windows 10 and be done with it. Obviously the Linux titles doesn't run as well on SteamOS 2 as the same games do on Windows 10 so that's that. Also with Windows 10 said to be the last Windows or something (will it?) getting a non-OEM version even if one purchase one seem like a decent option considering how long it will last (XP lasted for ~15 years so ..)
Time and time again, with each console generation, the answer is the same: what games do you (or in this case your kids) want to play? Buy the console that has them.
I agree that picking a console on price is foolish, especially when so many good PC games are cheap or free.
But if your kid wants to play Gran Turismo, or Super Smash Bros., or Madden NFL 16, then you need to get a console and no PC gaming system is an acceptable substitute.
The notion of a console "that will last" is laughable. The manufacturers make money off the assumption that you will buy one, and replace it in 2-3 years with the new generation of the same. High fault rates might not be engineered in, but longevity most certainly isn't either.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
When shopping for any new gaming console, NEVER pick the hardware first. Since this is for some kids, figure out which games the kids are going to want to play. If any of them are exclusive to one console or the other, then your decision has been made for you. If Gears of War or Halo is on the list, your getting an XBox. If Gran Turismo or Ultra Street Fighter IV are on the list of games that they want to play, get the PS4.
If the games that they want are multi-platform, then the next things to consider are which controller is better in the opinion of the players, and what platform their friends play on (if online competitive play is a drawing point for the kids).
END COMMUICATION
Microsoft products are forbidden in my house, I dont trust Sony either but at least they didnt try to sneak a constantly monitored microphone into my living room.
I think that both platforms have their own reasons for owning one. I bought both PS2 and Xbox when they came out and the thing that really pissed me off was that a game like Battlefront that had a really good LAN game option would not join the game if it was started on different consoles. Seriously, the most petty way to say 'fuck you' to console owners.
Consoles are pretty much the same but intentionally "uncompatible". If they were compatible then the argument really would be which one provided a better gaming experience as opposed to game availability. It would be about the games as opposed to the consoles.
I don't use the MS console any more only because anything you can do on their console you can do on a PC better. Xbox, a good console in it's own right, is still a piece of hardware that will be useless at the end of its service life, as will the Playstation.
That said, Sony has been more willing to entertain a linux installation than Microsoft has on their currently deployed hardware so if you want to experiment with Linux the Sony box is probably the best choice, that would be about the only reason though.
As to the hardware, both the PS2 and Xbox still work and will probably end up being linux boxes of some description if I get time or interest to do it.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
Just get a PC, PS4, and XBone -- that way everyone is happy, and you can properly evaluate which one was the better investment down the road.
Note: PC kick console's asses to the curb and back. Consoles barely do 1080p @ 60 Hz, PC gaming is doing 4K at 120+ Hz. There are tons of Budget PC Gaming Rigs
The problem isn't fundamental to the Linux kernel, the problem is because the device drivers for Nvidia and AMD video cards on Linux are inferior to the ones on Windows, and the implementation of the OpenGL API on Linux isn't as efficient as the one on Windows, and game development companies put more effort into optimizing their games for Windows because most of their customers run Windows.
But the result is as you described, and that won't change soon.
In days past, the software vendors promised lower prices when we, as users, wouldn't pirate. This was always the justification for many price hikes ("oh, damn, pirates, the legit people gotta pay because we lost a billion sales last year".)
Guess what? Consoles have a 0% piracy rate. Are prices lower? Nope. In fact, when see a friend of mine buy a game on a console, he has to pay hundreds of bucks for DLC, stuff that should be in the original game.
So, no piracy, but in order to play a decent game, it takes a number of Benjamins for games that used to cost $70 or so, and the entire content could be obtained by opening the box?
We were lied to. For this reason, I don't give a rat's ass about consoles, nor the fact they have to be always on. Hell with that. There are far better places to spend cash, and even a shitty PC + Steam or GOG will provide far more entertainment value for far less. No, you may not have the prime titles... but in reality, who cares, unless one just -has- to blow the cash to be the top of the heap shoving all the other dweebs out of the way for the latest iteration of Call of Duty.
Keep your consoles. There is far better entertainment bang for buck out there.
I guess no one explained how multinational corporations work. Sony BMG is a completely separate entity from Sony Computer Entertainment. They do not share people or policies. They have as much in common as they do with Starbucks. If Starbucks served you a bad coffee, would you boycott the Playstation? Because that's basically what you are advocating.
-- Will program for bandwidth
This in no way answers the original question. However if you have a particular grievance against windows and a love of Unix like systems, it is worth noting that the Xbox One OS is based on Windows, whilst the PS4 OS is based on FreeBSD.
Of the two, I'd recommend the PS4.
Here's my reasoning:
1)- Sony is not very evil right now. Sony supports the gaming industry. Even most of their evil is in part dedicated to the continuance of the business practice of many smaller studios.
2)- Microsoft is at peak evil right now. Microsoft tried to kill off the revenue streams of all the local mom-and-pop stores (and of course, Gamestop), they tried to have an always on camera be required, they tried to eliminate disks, they tried to make the Xbone dial in every day to ensure it wasn't being used in an unauthorized manner. They also have just a shit ton of ads. Just so many fucking ads.
3)- The PS4 is more powerful than the Xbone and has sold a shit lot more units (so many that Microsoft stopped reporting consoles sold). To a lot of people this doesn't make sense- you may not care if something is slightly more or less powerful, and you may not care about graphics, and you may not be concerned about who ELSE is playing which console. But in the console world, this has HUGE ramifications, because it controls what gets ported, what is the core product, etc. If the more powerful console is the most powerful, it means that games will be designed for it (or PC) and ported over as an afterthought, losing stuff in translation. It's not about who is better, or how many pixels you get to pix- it's about the games being designed and tested on the primary gaming machine, which is without question the PS4.
4)- Better hook to the Japanese developers. Microsoft doesn't have much presence in Japan, and treated them as an aftermarket, which means that the J developers give them the cold shoulder- the products will appear on the PS4 and be very well supported.
But let me say this: for powerful games, the PC is the way to go. For portable games, a tablet or a powerful phone is the way to go. For unique games, a Wii U or portable Nintendo is the way to go. The PS4 and the Xbone are both fighting over the "I'm your blu-ray and I play PC ports plus a few system specific titles". In that niche, I think PS4 does it right, and Xbone takes it on the chin. If Microsoft can go two console generations without trying to "embrace, extend, extinguish" all of console gaming, maybe I'll give them a second chance. But Halo isn't worth giving up the host of system specific titles that PS4 has, and Halo isn't worth giving up all of console gaming to Microsoft's ecosystem.
But do consider the Wii U. The games it has are not that common, but they are truly excellent.
Depends on your kids. Personally, I got the XBox One primarily because of Kinect; I wanted something that would encourage physical activity along with playing, rather than just sitting on a couch. Unfortunately, my kids are probably too young for anything other than Nintendo (4 and 7) - Xbone games are really aimed at older people. So they basically just watch Netflix on it. A nice thing I've set up is facial recognition (which works extremely well) so they can't watch Netflix unless the XBox first sees my face.
Also, I am a Windows 10 guy (which I know just lost me 100% cred on this site), so the integration between XBone and Windows 10 is nice. I know others will bag that it's based on Windows but personally, I use Windows - like a lot - so I can actually (theoretically - I don't actually do it) play my Xbox games on my PC and sync the same accounts, photos, etc. without effort. That's nice.
I still have the PS2 that I bought as an accessory for my Logitech G25 wheel for GT4 a few years ago and it still works fine last I checked (though some games are "sensitive" and take a little extra voodoo to load). But I thought everything since the PS3 loads everything from the internal HDD now.
Which platform-only games do you want to play? It's a console. It's not about the uberhertz or septapixels, it's about the games. Which games do you want to play?
Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion.
My Android STB has 8 cores, plays 4k content decently well. My wife's Christmas present is going to be a Bluetooth NES controller so we can play the games we grew up with.
Ha ha, Microsoft is the lesser of the two evils? Try to do at least a cursory check of history before making such asinine statements. Microsoft got started by Bill Gates stealing CP/M (overly simplified but enough for this thread), grew by literally putting competitors applications on a treadmill and randomly crashing them to make MS apps look slightly better than the ones their kernel intentionally crashed and starved, and used strong arm tactics to force leading competitors out of business. That behavior lead to over a well over a dozen anti trust cases in the US and EU, and hundreds successful damages suits by companies that were unfortunately put out of business waiting for their court dates.
Microsoft has broken network protocols, broken open network services, broken ISO standards so badly they had to amend their own to the standard, sold garbage APIs to competitors who made better products than them, lied in court, lied to consumers, and really only cares about executive wealth. Their morality is lower than that of Standard Oil in the good ole days of David D, and that is very goddamn low.
Sony's root kit deal was small potatoes compared to MS who's execs get hard every time they hear the tree magic words "Extend", "Extinguish" and "Exterminate". Before you try it, no they have not changed a bit as Windows 10 proves very well.
I have never owned an XBox, and will never own one. I have owned PS2, PS3, and PS4 and will continue down that path. While some of that is a personal boycott against MS, at least as much relates to the durability of the PlayStation. I know plenty of people that have had XBoxes break from normal to heavy use. I have never seen a PlayStation break down from being used, and ours gets abused regularly. The PS4 is on regularly, but I still have my PS2 and PS3 and both still work like new.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
And the PS4 can't do 1080p/60fps a lot of cases either. in the end choose the one with the controller you prefer and the exclusives you prefer. Either console is excellent for graphics wise. choosing based purely on specs or power is moronic when it comes to consoles, if graphics and power was the primary concern you should not be looking at a console in the first place.
That's ridiculous. First, I don't know of ANY 720p games where they are 1080p on the PS4. The situation you often get is that the games are 900P on the Xbox One, but with a higher and more stable framerate than the PS4. If you can tell the difference between 1080p and 900p, I salute you...because I can't and I game on a 50 inch tv from about 10 feet away.
There are more than 100 games available for both consoles. As far as exclusives, they both have them.
The Xbox One will allow you to watch TV in a window snapped beside your game. It's a better media server. There's a negligible difference in gameplay that you may or may not notice....probably not. It also offers backwards compatibility with Xbox 360 games.
The PS4... ok media server... no TV... PS2 not PS3 compatibility...
In the end, it boils down to what you want to do with it and whose exclusives you like the most. The Xbox One will also stream games to any Windows 10 device if you like doing that. I just streamed Gears of War 3 for Xbox 360 for the last couple of hours from the Xbox One in the den to my computer in my bedroom. I bought a separate Xbox One controller for that, but you can use the same one if you want. You just have to repair it every time you switch from one to the other
I disagree. First, You're going to spend more on a gaming PC than you will a console to get a benefit over consoles. Games are tailored to the hardware in consoles. With PCs, there isn't that amount of fine tuning.
But, the biggest point is that you lose out on console exclusives. I have a Skylake i5 and a 7970 to play PC games on and an Xbox One to play console games on. Things like Sunset Overdrive (probably the best Xbox One exclusive so far for someone like me) didn't come out on PC. You also get free games every month with Games with Gold... or the PS equivalent. Then there's the social aspects..
So, there are several reasons that, if you're looking for a console, you should get a console.
There are two choices, and you have a difficult time choosing? WOW!!!!! Do you need you'r choices to be spoonfed by a nurse or something. THERE ARE TWO CHOICES. Ask you'r kid's, if you (by any chance) haven't noticed what they like the best.
Now get off my lawn!
it's faster, better exclusives, and they've sold much more than xbones - so there will be a far bigger used games market and more of the kid's friends will have compatible games/accessoires. plus playstation plus is pretty awesome. the only reason to get the xbox is when you have lots of friends with one
How did you get up to $1100 for including the best version of smash bros?
"Best" is subjective, and a lot of people associate that with Melee. But I was referring to Super Smash Bros. For which is the latest with the most characters.
Dont worry, they dont want you using that drive anyways, download everything to get rid of the scumbags that would dare to buy or sell a used game.
Real patriots buy everything new and in download form that is easily controlled with DRM.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
None. Nor can "I want all the exclusives" work unless you're willing to buy used previous-generation consoles as well, as not all games have been rereleased in Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Store, or Virtual Console. Some games even get pulled from these stores after a while, such as BPS's Yoshi's Cookie. So perhaps a better metric to incorporate access to exclusives is number of worthwhile exclusives per dollar of hardware cost. And among current platforms, PC exclusives on GOG and Steam tend to come out ahead.
Actually no, I can't find a single title where the Xbox can do a higher resolution or frame rate than the PS4. And that's not surprising - again, the PS4 has more powerful hardware.
Someone can be standing outside your window listening all night too, but they are not. The difference with XBOX is that they *are* listening, not that they *can* listen.
while(1) attack(People.Sandy);
Well said I could not have said it any better. I don't have any Microsoft products preferring Linux instead and for some they may be quite surprised to find that there are thousands of games that will run under Linux, some free some you pay for.
I have an original PS3 which still works and on occasion I do play PS2 games. I will be getting a PS4 within the next two months (looking for the right bundle) and hopefully the PS2 emulation on the PS4 will let me load and play my PS2 games however to me that is a nice and desirable feature but not an overriding factor in my decision to get a PS4.
As for choosing a PS4 or an XBox1 or even both that is a personal choice it really boils down to the type of first party games that you like and if one console plays third party games better then the other, although that is subjective.
There ain't no such thing as proprietary standards only proprietary formats. Standards are by definition open.
I run Fedora 23 and this is what I get:
> emacs
:-)
bash: emacs: command not found
> vi
~
~
~
and so on
I guess vi is the go here. Now let's start another 1980's flame war.
There ain't no such thing as proprietary standards only proprietary formats. Standards are by definition open.
Me niether. http://uk.ign.com/wikis/xbox-o...
Remember kids: What's right isn't as important as what's profitable.
Early model PS2's have drives that can flake out with Disc Read Errors after some years. However, the 50001 FAT model series (the one with integrated IR) are built like tanks, and about as heavy especially if you have the PS2 HDD in it. I never had a slim so can't compare them to FAT PS2's.
So, there are several reasons that, if you're looking for a console, you should get a console.
But he also wrote:
I've also considered getting a gaming PC, whether Linux or Windows
then again:
but it's more expensive and game reviews show most are not as good as a dedicated game console.
The later could be argued.
First, You're going to spend more on a gaming PC than you will a console to get a benefit over consoles.
i3 6100 - $125
B150 motherboard - $65
2x4 GB DDR4 - $43
GTX 950 - $150
That's about as cheap as something console like could go if one had some old computer around. $383, add $50 for a controller and you're at 433. I don't know what a console cost in the US but it's likely not all that much cheaper.
If you demand "a benefit" and mean performance then you will of course have to pay even more, but there's benefits of both.
Games are tailored to the hardware in consoles. With PCs, there isn't that amount of fine tuning.
I agree, I assume part of the performance difference is the more efficient low-level access available as-well - something the PC have got now too.
But, the biggest point is that you lose out on console exclusives.
Can't the multi-platform titles be enough then? PC would be better for many titles too, less likely to play CS:GO, LoL / Dota2, Civilization V. There's likely a bunch of smaller titles too.
Also the PC is likely the best one to get access to all the old console-exclusives and it's backwards- and forwards compatible (that may happen with the others too now when they more or less are PCs too) meaning you've got access to lots and lots of games.
Things like Sunset Overdrive (probably the best Xbox One exclusive so far for someone like me) didn't come out on PC.
I don't know what that game is, but I know that there's exclusives for both XB1 and PS4.
You also get free games every month with Games with Gold... or the PS equivalent
They aren't free, you pay for online gaming with the consoles something which is usually free on the PC (or rather paid for by getting the game), if you had signed up to the Humble Monthly Bundle for $12 for November you'd get:
* Saints Row 4
* Legend of Grimrock 2
* Valkyria Chronicles
* Besiege
* Towerfall: Ascension
* Lethal League
* Sanctuary RPG
You could of course purchase any of the normal bundles with known content, like the recent Jumbo bundle 5 which at the top tier for $9 gave you:
* Insurgency
* Men of War: Assault Squad â" Game of the Year Edition
* Abyss Odyssey â" Two Pack
* Blackguards 1
* Blackgurards 2
* Contagion â" Four Pack
* Euro Truck Simulator 2
* Teslagrad
* A Story About My Uncle
* Spintires
* Divinity: Dragon Commander
Beyond that there's lots of sales and if one are willing to wait for a better price the PC copy of a game released for all platforms will be cheaper on the PC than it will be on a gaming console.
Then there's the social aspects
Exist for both and it's all about what you friends use.
Back to his post:
I'm really wary on the PlayStation because of the 5 PS2s with broken optical drives sitting in my garage
Known issue with them. The Gamecube was very picky with what discs it would read instead but I guess the laser may have lived on longer there instead. Discs are kinda annoying anyway, the benefit is of course if you can sell your used games - You can't on Steam - You can however share them within "your family" at least.
I'm a Linux user for life after getting tired of their crappy operating system.
I don't see what's crappy with it. And I've used lots of Linux and BSD too.
I think most kids of recent generations are being cheated.
I got to play with Lincoln logs, all right, but I also got to play with several different Gilbert chemistry sets, including their largest, and including an "inherited" Gilbert U238 atomic energy kit which my dad bought for my older sister in late 1950. I still have (what remains of) it. Nothing like that is available now, and has not been for some time.
I built the digi-comp mechanical computer (and later built my first one out of TTL, definitely due to the influence of that digi-comp. I can still remember a great deal about the 74181 ALU. :) We built quite a number of Heathkits. I still have some of them. My Heathkit transistor tester is still something I use -- it is quick, easy, and usually tells me what I need to know in one step; it often saves me from having to go through a full curve-tracing undertaking. He got all three of us microscopes, a decent (for the day) telescope, taught us how to build cameras, scoop ponds for paramecia and the like, and took us on multiple rock-hunting and nature trips. We went spelunking, picked mushrooms, learned how to identify some geological formations and quite a few plants. The games my sibs and I played with each other and with our parents were poker, go, chess, mahjong, and scrabble. When other kids were screwing around all summer, he enrolled me in an NRI electronics course so I was occupied with something fun that had a little more focus to it. I'd row out to the middle of the river (the Delaware), drop the anchor, and lay back and read for hours out there, taking the occasional jump in the water to cool off. He would quiz me in the evenings. We got music lessons, martial arts lessons, and dance lessons. We listened to, and discussed in depth, every musical genre they could think to present to us. Including comedy. I still worship at the altar of Tom Lehrer to this very day, one of the funniest and definitely one of the smartest comedians to ever play to an audience. Talented otherwise, too.
Most kids now seem to grow up sitting in front of the television, not exactly focused on educational programs, either. Later they graduate to game consoles and smartphones. They think comedy is encompassed by asshole "shock jocks" and the like. They don't even know how to make conversation with each other - in a restaurant, what I typically see is a table full of kids, all with their heads buried in their smartphones, rarely even speaking to one another. I guess they're happy, but I look at them and I see failure in progress.
IMHO, the best thing about recent years in this sense is the easy and inexpensive availability of computers of significant power. Including smartphones, though most don't seem to actually realize what they are holding in their hands. In my community, at least, there aren't very many parents seeing to it that the actual standalone small computers are in the hands of their kids. Deb and I bought full Raspberry Pi setups for all the grandkids for them to experiment with (and it's been loads of fun teaching them how to write assembly language and Python), but according to them, none of their friends are familiar with the pi at all.
But hey, football sure is popular around here... :/
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
That's what I thought when I bought a used PS3, and NO; it's up to the game to decide if it wants to be installed to the HDD (even if it is, it still needs disc in drive).
I even had an extra SSD sitting around which I thought would work quite speedily with a couple games installed.
Case in point: Red Dead Redemption (the entire reason I bought the PS3), needs disc in to play and constantly reads it while you're galloping around (that was a disappointment).
Games can also choose if you're allowed to copy the save files (say to a usb drive to back them up). There's quite a large list of games with locked save files.
This episode with Sheldon isn't even funny anymore.
I have various issues with Sony. Let's just say I dislike them a lot. (I have issue with Microsoft as well, but far less than with Sony.) However, consoles are all about the games, and if you don't have those, it's just an expensive paperweight. That being said, the vast majority of games I want to play between those two consoles are on the PS4, so I'd have to go with that one, even if I despise Sony.
The exclusives you prefer matter. The controller doesn't unless you HATE the other guy's controller AND can't find a third party that does it the way you like. Sony has always had excellent controllers, and the days of Microsoft having shitty controllers only suitable for large handed men ended halfway through the Xbox 1's lifetime.
If you don't have a preference on exclusives, then you look at two things:
1)- Performance. More power is better.
2)- Installed user base. More is better.
You don't look at performance because you are necessarily looking for better performing games, you look at performance because it means you'll get more and better games on that system, and because the developers are more likely to design a game for the more powerful system, and just port it to the other console. This is the same reason you look for installed user base: the bigger one will draw more developers, meaning that your really good game that you actually like is more likely to show up than if it was a niche system.
The PS4 wins on both. Xbone sold so few systems that Microsoft has stopped reporting them, so that's a seriously hardcore loss- if you can't even play by industry standards and report your userbase, you're fucking done.
If they want a particular console between the two that is what you should get. If they are indecisive or that won't work for whatever reason, if it's within your budget, I would suggest building a Windows gaming PC. With Big Picture in Steam, and modern video cards outputting HDMI you can use it as a living room device and it will be superior to a console in pretty much every way. You can use any controller you want with it, xbox, dualshock, Steam Controller, etc. and your back catalog of potential games is insanely huge. Graphics of a well built gaming PC will always be superior to console. The modern economics of games has made it such that almost every game you'll want to play will be coming to all three platforms, PC, xBox, and Playstation.
As a personal anecdote, my wife bought me a PS4 just last month for my birthday, because I really wanted to play The Last of Us. Now that I have a PS4, I went searching for console exclusives to play. I'm not finding more than a handful of games worth playing that aren't already on PC as well. And the PS4 is two years old, same as the xBone. Most games worth playing are simply on all three platforms now.
Another huge bonus of PC gaming is access to mods. You don't like the way a particular game mechanic plays, you can often find a mod to change it. I've found this incredibly helpful in increasing my enjoyment of a myriad of games. Since this is for your kids, using and understanding modding might also be a gateway for them to become more engaged with the technology. Many times it's not hard to write at least a simple mod of your own. Having the power to change something in game the way you want could be very interesting to them.
I don't know how old your kids are, but Fallout 4 is a pretty adult game, if they are old enough to play that they can save up the money to buy a ps4 themself.
Sure i used to play games rated above my age, but the worst we had in my day was mortal kombat and at that time i already was well into my teens.
My kids, they really really enjoy all that nintendo stuff. The wii is still getting a lot of playtime, sure they would like a wii u, but i don't have the spare money to spend. They are saving up for a 3 or 2DS themself, but they also still love to play in the normal DS.
Now, since you are a linux guy and you have an aging gaming pc, why not replace it with a steambox, or better build one yourself (just add the steam controller to complete the expirience). A gaming pc on-par gaming with a ps4 is cheaper to build.
On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
Fallout 4 runs in 1080p with 30 FPS on both the PS4 and Xbox One. Again, frivolous claims that the PS4 runs at 1080 and the Xbox runs at 720 - which is never the case. At most, the Xbox One will drop down to 900P but will benefit from more stable or higher frame rates. The PS4 crowd goes crazy if they lose 1080P, so their frame rates suffer.
PC. I wouldn't waste my time with last gen hardware.
Have you ever fallen asleep at the keybhanusdiog?
We do have a Playstation 3, and I got into the habit of buying the games from the Sony web store. That way there's no possibility the disk loading times can slow game play and your kids don't tear the living room apart three times in two hours hunting for the next game disk they want to use.
You do pay higher prices for the games bought that way, though.
Build a gaming PC, set up with a Steam Link and enjoy all the benefits of the PC Master Race. Seriously, read this: https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmas...
According to the censors and sock puppets, the truth is flamebait.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
Owning both, I've found that the technical merits are mostly smoke and mirrors....with the caveat that a few games do run better on the PS4 than the Xbox One, and I tested this out on at least one title (Shadows of Mordor) and noticed that while it plays fine on the X1 it's performance on the PS4 was noticeably smoother. Beyond that.....Xbox One's two main advantages I've found are: you can add an external hard drive and run games from it (huge plus) and it has the Halo and Gears of War franchises if you're into that (which I am). Also, it's got backwards compatibility now (limited, but focusing on titles most people probably have or would want). PS4 however, is a smoother OS, better hardware, has the Uncharted series, and I love the newer Ps4 controllers, which are dramatically better than the old PS3 controllers. Miles of difference on the controllers (for me, anyway). That said, the X1 controllers are actually pretty decent as well. Owning both, what I do is get the "big, serious" games I plan to invest time in on the PS4, (such as Fallout 4, Destiny and CoD:BO3) and everything else I am slightly less serious about on the Xbox 1 since it has the space for it (ironically, I got Batman: Arkham Knight, Mad Max and Star Wars: Battlfront on the X1 and have been playing them to death). All other differences are superficial.
Thought about the wrong game. Meant Star wars: Battlefront.
Seem like all of:
* Battlefield 4
* Battlefield Hardline
* Star wars: Battlefront beta
ran at 720p on the Xbox One at-least on release.
All of them in 60 FPS though.
Watchdogs supposedly ran at 792p too.
It is the case for the Xbox One.
Yeah, I was thinking about doing that for RDR. I ordered it when I ordered the PS3, but paying more then twice what I paid for the disc version seems a bit of a ripoff :)
At 34 years of age, I'm thoroughly enjoying the Wii U. I have a PC as well for the big titles like Fallout 4, Elite: Dangerous and so on, but the Wii is getting a lot of play with games like Pikmin, Bayonetta and Mario Kart, not to mention all the Wii games that work 100% with it. It's also not just for the kids, with games like Mass Effect 3 and Deus Ex: Human Revolution available, and Project Zero coming out soon. Skyward Sword for the Wii is great on it and I'm really looking forward to the new Zelda release next year.
But the problem is that the kids won't appreciate it if they can't play with their PS4 or XBOne owning friends, so it all comes down to what they're expecting from a system.
duh
Yeah, you pay a lot for convenience. And for example on the PS3 you have to subscribe to Sony's "Playstation Plus" service to get game software updates to run on a schedule. If you're not a subscriber - and I am not - then it informs you of a required update the next time you launch the game and you have to wait. That's a real pain, but I'm not willing to pay Sony $60 per year to solve a headache they created to get $60.
But again, my kids want multiplayer so it looks like the next purchase is going to fatten the pockets of some player. Dammit.
That's a real pain, but I'm not willing to pay Sony $60 per year to solve a headache they created to get $60.
To be fair, PS+ also gets you 10GB online storage plus 2 free games per month (some crap, some hidden gems) per platform. The scheduled updates are the least interesting of included benefits.
True. Plus you get access to Sony's show Powers, which I think is not available elsewhere except for purchase.
Actually, while I'm rambling - whenever I am shopping for two products, if they are more or less equivalent I tend to favor the less wealthy company because I think keeping competitors in the market benefits everyone (except shareholders of the wealthier company). My kids were leaning towards the Xbox One, but I'm inclined to go PS4 despite the fact that current holiday specials favor the Xbox One because last year Microsoft had 12 billion US in profit and Sony lost 1 billion US in net income.