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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.
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.
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.
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.
This. My gaming friends and I are not hard-core gamers, so we went with consoles. A couple of them have been on Xbox Live since the original Xbox first came out, so we went with 360s years ago and are now moving to XbOnes.
If you are going with a gaming setup to play solo, look at what supports the most games you are interested in (since there are exclusives on PC, Xbox, and Playstation). If you are gaming with friends, see what they're getting.
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.
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.
>Guess what? Consoles have a 0% piracy rate.
Certain torrent sites would disagree with this statement:
http://thepiratebay.gd/browse/...
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
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.