Gen 4 Console (PS4/X1) Discussion - Minus sales data and grand standing
 

I know we already have a console thread, but it is over ran by sales data and market reports. Since I do not own stock in either company these numbers dont mean anything to me (or I suspect many others).

I have purchased both for my son but only plan on giving him one for Christmas. I lean heavily on the opinions of FOFC when it comes to all things video game and computer related.

So in this thread I'd like to discuss specific features that everyone likes about each console, along with a little supporting commentary. I'm hoping to avoid "X1 has a better controller" and instead hope to hear "the PS4 controller seems to allow more tactile control of the sticks and is more ergonomic for my medium sized hands"

I use that example to illustrate (hopefully clearly) what Id like to see this thread remain.

Everyone is free to contribute and all feedback is appreciated, except I really don't care about "who is winning" or other such non sense. Both companies are making mad $$$ selling consoles and the CEOs and division directors of both are making more coin than I, so therefor I say both are winning.

So with 1 week to go what say ye, FOFC?

Give the boy the X1 or give the boy the PS4..or throw them both away and take him trout fishing (actually doing that too in March...):thumbsup:

I'm still of the opinion that it's just too early. You'll be paying a premium price that will drop next year or where you can pay the same price and get a better SKU (larger HD, better pack-in games or accessories, etc).

The early console exclusive games, while they seem cool at first and some may even remain in your favorite for the generation (SSBM!), most will look like B and C level games instead of the A+ and A games you fill your shelf with later.

However, there's also no substitute for "being the first on the block" to own one.

I haven't looked: how's the resale market? I think there was a lot of speculation this gen and a lot of disappointed resalers as we've seen a lot more "{console} is available now" messages and I really haven't seen much in the media about "OVERPRICED RESALE CONSOLES!" and those typical shock stories.

SI

Yeah, we are also going to wait until next year when there is either a price drop or a more clear answer to either which one is better, or which has the better games.

It sounds like they will be pretty similar in ability like this generation was. I think the choice, for a child, will come down to what type of games he likes to play (and which exclusives line up with that), what system his friends are getting and if you think that independent games will be a big deal to him. On the latter point it seemed that the opinion is the PS4 will have more indie games on it.

The biggest difference for us was Kinect - my kids loved the Kinect games on the 360, and I use it for workouts, so we went with the ONE. Your kids may have different preferences. I don't think you'll go wrong either way.

Of course my son also wants a Wii U to upgrade from our Wii, as he loves all the Mario games, and those are getting cheap (Toys R Us via Newegg had the Skylanders Swap Force edition for $220 on Monday).

This and exclusives are the two biggest choices you'll make. If your kid likes Kinect, hard to go wrong with the X1. If you're looking long-term, I think most would agree that the PS4 is going to have an edge in exclusives and indie games. I can't imagine that a kid is going to care about many of the media options (i.e. TV integration on the X1) and I also doubt that he'll care about the minor differences in graphics between the two consoles, so neither of those should likely be considered.

Also, I think your son already has a 360, correct? May not be a big thing, but all of your Xbox Live info (friends/achievements/etc.) automatically move over to the Xbox One.

And to expand a bit on what gstelmack said, they have made the Kinect more than just a way to play a few games, just about everything can be voice controlled now. So if you feed your cable/satellite into the Xbox One, you can use voice controls to change channels, etc. FIOS has even started streaming straight to the Xbox, so you don't even need a receiver.

Not much between the XB1 and PS4 in my opinion, I've got both incoming to th e family this Christmas (PS4 for my youngest son, XB1 as a 'family' item*).

I've tested they both work in order to ensure we avoid issues on Xmas day (worth doing as new consoles tend to have roughly a 1% failure rate on average) and both had fairly painless setups and were quiet when running. The PS-4 has a nicer setup with regards to its power setup (XB1 still has a 'brick', PS-4 just has a lead) ... from the little flick around I did I think the XB1 interface will be nice (in my eyes) than the PS4 one.

That being said I'm AMAZED that Microsoft haven't automated the transferring of an Xbox360 account to XB1 - ie. pick up the existance of the 360 on wireless and just allow the user to import the accounts from it (my kids and their friends all have accounts on our 360).

As far as 'games go' I expect it'll be much of a muchness, game sites will get all kinds of excited about little differences between them - but your average user won't see much difference) ... obviously if one system has an exclusive you're excited about get that one.

*Bear in mind we get all the latest consoles because of my job its kinda compulsory.

btw Wii U - if you/your kids love Nintendo games then grab one, but third-party support on it appears to be waning big time .... that being said some of the Nintendo stuff does look all kinds of awesome ;)

I think both have some great positives and I have both. If I had to pick just one it would be xbox because my kid loves the kinect games. The other issue is most of my online friends are sticking with xbox for online sports games.

THat's not even that necessary. Nintendo consoles always have some of the best games made by Nintendo in any generation - even something like Gamecube had that.

I think that security is a reason it isn't completely automatic. Since there can be a financial component to an account, they want you to know more than just the screen name to be able to move that account to a new device.

The big difference here from the 360 to the ONE seemed to be the need for actual ACCOUNTS. I already had an email address for my daughter, had to create one for my son, then use them both to get signed in.

My wife and I just entered our email addresses / passwords and everything came over.

Thanks for the feedback and please keep it coming.
In my sepcific case, son is 13.
Huge Sports Game
FPS fan but picky. (loves CoD BO, BO2, and Ghosts hated MW3 hated homefront loved..uhh another one I cant remember.)I occasionally play FPS gmes wth him just to give him a confidence boost :D
Likes driving games, Forza and GT would be definites either way.
Never got into RPG stuff.


I was actually lenaing towards the PS4...but I think hed prefer the X1

Is he a baseball fan? That would push me towards ps4 for the mlb:show.

FPS fan might push me towards xbox particularly if he is a fan of halo series.

Here's the problem that I think is prevalent in regards to getting a kid a console this early in the generation. I'm not sure there's that many consoles that are being purchased for kids this holiday season. I think most of the purchasing is being made for 'big' kids (i.e. all of us idiots on this board). The reason that's a problem is that there's a whole lot of kids who aren't sure yet what console their friends will get. Also, they're not sure when that will happen either (i.e. 3 months or over a year).

I don't envy your position because I'm not sure that any of the things that are being discussed here are going to help you much in your decision. What his friends purchase (especially since he likes FPS online) is going to be the biggest factor and I bet he has a whole lot of friends who:

a) parents bought them a system and they don't know what they're getting
b) parents aren't in a financial position yet to purchase a new system

Allow me to inject a little Wii U into the discussion

For me, the Playstation's line of controllers have always felt more comfortable in my hands than the XBox's. I'm going to get a PS4 at some point for greater access to RPGs, and Quantic Dream's games, which has produced two of my favorite PS3 titles in Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls, is producing a PS4 exclusive. (Yeah I know there's PC versions of those games, but it's much more comfortable playing on console for me).

I'm also not impressed with what I'm hearing about Fable: Legends (sounds like they're trying to make it quasi-MMO) and the Fable series is one of the few exclusives I enjoyed on the XBox side.

He was pretty late getting into video games as a whole (10 before he really showed any interest) as a result he kinda chased his friends to XBox if that make sense.

A) I have had no less than 5 parents actually call and ask what we were getting him becaus their kids want what he has.
B) ehh not so much. Dont want to derail but within his circle of friends a $6-700 Christmas present isnt uncommon. Plus they are 13-15 year olds...the bigger questin is if they want a video game console or an ATV etc.

I think at this point I am leaning towards keeping both and just letting it play out and see which gets the more attention.

Ive intentionally kept receipts for, never intended on reselling for profit. If either had been a super ho ticket I might have sold one at cost as a Christmas wish/good deed..but tat doenst seem to be the case with either choice either.

+1


Last Gen I bought a 360 because online NCAA leagues I wanted to join were on 360, but I eventually bought a PS3 because the Playstation's exclusives are 1000% better for my gaming tastes.


At this point I'm not planning on buying a next gen console, but if I ever do it will almost certainly be a PS4, because of MLB: The Show and Naughty Dog.

Disclosure, I am a very light console gamer.

I am likely going to be getting the Xbox One, mostly due to the cool factor around what it does with the Kinect outside of games and the UI in general. So yes, leaning towards the One for very much non-gaming reasons, the marketing appears to have worked on me. Beyond that I hate the PS controller, small and jagged is what comes to mind.

All that said, I couldn't tell you which console has which exclusives, if a PS exclusive comes out down the road that I want, then I'll likely pick up a PS4 as well.

I don't do a lot of online FPS multiplayer or really any online gaming, so although the "other stuff" the XB1 does is interesting, it's really the exclusive games that the PS4 will have that have me pretty firmly in that camp whenever I do end up purchasing (tax time?)

To be fair, the controller has changed quite a bit. I think your description is pretty accurate after playing with the PS4 controller and then going back to the PS3 controller. The PS3 controller isn't that good all of a sudden.

For the last generation, I'd have said there are both pros and cons to waiting. Somebody waiting to get a PS3 lost backwards compatibility. Maybe they cared, maybe they didn't, but that was a discrete example of a feature they lost in waiting for the library and a price drop.

OTOH, those who waited on an Xbox 360 got more reliable hardware and, eventually, HDMI support. So there's an argument to be made in favor of waiting, especially in these latter days where consoles have so many more moving parts than those which used silicon-based media did.

Honestly, though, where I come down on the whole now-or-later debate really comes down to two things:

1) Are there games I'd want to play (either right now or between now and when I'd eventually buy in) that I would otherwise have to wait on? Basically, how am I valuing the entertainment time I'd get from that extra six months, 12 months, whatever?

2) Is the $50, or $100, or $200, I'd save on the hardware (depending on just how LONG I held out) sufficient recompense for the potential enjoyment time I sacrificed?

Until very recently Xbox 360 was still $299 for the comparable SKU in the hierarchy. Historically speaking, that's pretty unusual. Typically by this point in the console's lifespan, you see the hardware available for $150 or so. Maybe less, depending on the market position of the system.

Sony and Nintendo's last-gen machines have both shed around 50% of their original MSRP. That's more typical. So the question is, is that the new normal, or just Microsoft capitalizing on their market position to recoup as much of their previous losses as they can?

Does the ESPN app work well on either console? I thought it was garbage on the 360 and would love to get it working on a new console.

Not much to really add.. if you think you'll get use out of the kinect and integrating your TV, XB1. If you are just a pure gamer, PS4.

I'm getting an XB1 at some point after Christmas, we use the kinect heavily.. especially when my younger daughter's friends and/or relatives are over. I don't have the patience for baseball games on the console, although I'll play my brother in 2k baseball when he swings by. In fact, besides hockey and NCAA football, I don't really even play it that much. So the kids weighed in what they wanted and that sealed the deal.

I really thought about the PS4 a lot this time around though.. I honestly don't think you could go wrong with either.

If you can let him pick between the two though.. that's probably the easiest option. :)

Picked up my XB1 today.. loving it thus far. The voice commands work fairly well once you get the hang of how to say certain things.

FIFA 14 is unreal, wow it's much tighter and obviously gorgeous.

Yeah - I've said that once I can find a PS4 I'll pick it up and pickup FIFA 14. The Ignite engine actually makes a significant difference in gameplay IMO.

Well we ended up keeping both.
Honestly regret that choice....just a stupid amount of money to sink into entertainment...then again I'm getting ready to spend three times the amount for 5 hours of entertainment in a week so....yeah..enjoy son.

I had a review in the other thread. Honestly, you simply can't go wrong with either. Both have great games. Both will have massive exclusives. Both have feature sets that can be awesome or useless depending on your wishes and needs. (for example I'm excited about sitting on the back porch and playing MLB on the Vita this summer, but if you don't own a Vita, that is useless to you)

As of now, I do not regret my purchases, but the game I'm addicted to I could have had on the 360. I've played far more NBA2K14 than any other game. Killzone and Call of Duty Ghosts have been played a little. Forza and Dead Rising for the One have been played. But the game I keep coming back to is a :"my player" career in NBA2K. I think it's because I watch very little NBA anymore and this is giving me a basketball fix. I also hate controlling everything in sports games now. Give me my guy and let me control him and nothing else.

My current ranking of games for next gen:

NBA2K14 (PS4)
Forza (XBox 1)
Dead Rising (XBox 1, cannot tell you how cool smartglass is with this game)
COD Ghosts (PS4)
Resogun (really cool freebie, fun game), PS4)
Killzone (PS4, only played a couple of levels, dissapointed thus far. I really expected better. Maybe it'll pick up when I get back to it. I will beat Dead Rising and Ghosts before I get back to it though. Probably won't play this one much until February or March)

Now, my wife loves the dance game on the 360. Her list would have that at number one with no other title beneath. :)

I can't believe I am saying this, and it might have something to do with the fact that I've only played a couple of games, but I'm actually impressed with how Madden plays on next gen. It has legacy issues, and some things don't work like they should, but they must have put alot of work into how the line interaction works. I wasn't expecting much and so far I'm definitely pleasantly surprised.

Definitely.. it's like a whole new game!

Damn you.. might have to get that and NBA 2k14. ;)

It has improved, and I think the xbox controller went backwards a little. Still like the xbox controller and cannot wait until some third party controllers come out for ps4.

Enjoying it here as well. I've got a QB career going, and my 8-year-old son has a WR career going. I'm enjoying it, but this is his first football game, and he is having a BLAST playing his WR.

Yeah, I've been impressed as well with the XB1 versions of FIFA and Madden. They do seem like different games from the 360 versions.

Yeah - just playing the demo it's like "whoa!"

FIFA and NBA 2K14 are definitely the nice surprises from the release window. Both are a lot of fun and run quite well.

Madden, well, I had a different sort of 'whoa' watching that game. I'm sure some of the modes are manageable in that game, but definitely still a miss.

Have seen both XBox1 and PS4 in use now post-xmas present rush and I have to say 'meh' .... no difference to what I saw on PS-3/360 at all so far tbh (apart from an annoying microphone popping up every couple of minutes on the Xbox1 which appears to have no effect at all when combined with an English accent ;) ).

So far, everything is working well with our XB1. Said "xbox off" last night half asleep on the couch and everything turned off. I'm such a lazy ass.

Said "xbox on" this morning and then "xbox watch espn" - my daughter who awakens on the other couch says "xbox watch disney" and we start to battle.. LOL!

Impressed to say the least right now with it. I've read you can't see what's on the HD, but once it gets full it will tell you?

oh and NBA 2k14 is awesome! started a my career and was drafted by the bucks.. right before my Celtics picked too.. dammit!

I didn't realize the PS4 regressed with 3D until I popped in a 3D movie...now I have a PS3 and PS4 in my living room.

We played Assassin's Creed for a while and my wife and daughter played Lego Marvel for a while and while impressed, I wasn't overwhelmed.

I guess I need to get NBA2k14...haven't played a basketball game game since NBA Live 2001...so I'm assuming things have improved since then? :)

EDIT: Hmmmm, there's is an NBA Live 2014 as well. I'm guessing that's not the right one to get.

Stay FAR FAR FAR away from NBA Live. ;)

I don't typically play the NBA games, but NBA 2k14 on next gen is quite a site to behold!

I had to put my Blu-Ray player back in until the Xbox ONE is upgraded with 3D support. I *think* it's just a software issue for both consoles, and eventually they'll get upgraded with the support, but this was a disappointment for sure.

Both consoles are supposed to be upgraded in the spring to add 3D support.

dola

Downloaded the VidZone app on the PS4 last night. Really nice if you just want to stream music videos for a party. Had it up last night at my house with the pop station running on the TV. Best of all, it's free with occasional commercials.

I am pleased with my PS4.

The voice commands work surprisingly well with the mono earpiece that you plug into the controller.

"Playstation start nba 2k14"

"Call isolation" "Call post up"

"Playstation standby"

Hehehe. Nextgen is pretty cool.

Dola, nba 2k14 is pretty craaazy.

Feel free to add me on psn:

ImmortalKaiser

I actually use the voice commands on basketball for playcalling quite a bit, though I don't even use the earpiece. Works just fine with the controller for me. It's definitely a whole lot easier than calling plays with the controller.

So Madden 25 crashed on my son this morning and rebooted the Xbox ONE. And thanks to their standby features, it actually resumed his game at a point very close to where it crashed and let him finish it off. THAT was cool.

And the obligatory "no, I don't know if the PS4 would have done the same, but it wouldn't surprise me". Just a really cool next-gen feature.