PS4 / Xbox One console war

[Cuilan]

17 second cold boot? That's so fucking bad .. D:

It's a major improvement over the 360 though. My 360 takes like 1 whole minute to go from power-on to functional dashboard.

[Cuilan]

The launch special last night was really boring....

But what really caught my attention were the real life size comparisons posted over the past days. Of course it was never a secret that the XBone would be a lot larger, but this just looks ridiculous. And don't forget that the PS4 got an internal PSU, while the XBone needs an EXTERNAL one! (pics courtesy of german website pc games)

I think it actually looks pretty good when they're stacked on top of each other like that. If the Xbox One didn't have such a large vent at the top, I'd strongly consider keeping them stacked like that when I eventually get both.

As for their sizes, I've seen both up close in person, and I wouldn't say the Xbox One is huge. Rather, I'd say the PS4 is surprisingly small. The Xbox One looks to be about the same overall size as the original 360 and the original PS3, both of which I've owned for over 6 years, so I think I've probably gotten used to it.

[broken harbour]

I had the chance to play a PS4 yesterday, While it's smaller size is nice, jeebus is the design hideous. Both MS and Sony have this thing for half glossy, half matte finished consoles this go around... damn.... not really a fan of either asthetically.

The new controller is.... odd actually, after 18 years of basically the same controller, the new one is a bit of a shock, it's a definite improvement, especially the triggers, but the d-pad is as useless as ever. Sony here's a tip: Buy a used model 2 saturn controller, that's what a D-pad should be. Reverse engineer that please. To be fair, I didn't spend enough time with it to review the controller, but man, I've been using the same design for nearly 20 years, and now it's all differenty!

[Friendly]

the d-pad is as useless as ever.

Nonsense. I have tested it myself. While it's not quite as good as PS Vita's, it is a very good d-pad and a huge improvement over the old one, which I never liked and which was always my main complaint about dualshock. Yes, Saturn's d-pad would be godly, but DS4's d-pad still is quite excellent.

[moh]

Somewhere there has been some gaming content buried between all the adverts.

for a second I thought you were talking about this thread.

[charlie chong]

how can a system be greatness when it has no games ??

[trap15]

PS3 has no games. [no typo]

[KAI]

it is a very good d-pad and a huge improvement over the old one, which I never liked and which was always my main complaint about dualshock

The DS2 d-pad is perfect for fightans and shmups.

[Friendly]

it is a very good d-pad and a huge improvement over the old one, which I never liked and which was always my main complaint about dualshock

The DS2 d-pad is perfect for fightans and shmups.

It's very precise, no doubt (nothing like the mushy 360 d-pad), but it simply doesn't feel comfortable. The new d-pad seems like it's both, precise and ergonomic.

[system11]

PS3 has no games. [no typo]

The Wii-U has stolen that meme.

Today noticed news that AC4 has shipped at .. 900P, to be addressed in a patch 'soon' after launch. I wonder if this is 'soon enough that it will be there before Christmas' or the Sega Of America version of 'soon' which can mean years.

I don't recall a generation where games were coming out quite so broken. Battlefield on all platforms is apparently horribly broken too. All very rushed.

As for d-pads, Saturn nailed it. Is there a patent on that still?

[system11]

17 second cold boot? That's so fucking bad .. D:

It's a major improvement over the 360 though. My 360 takes like 1 whole minute to go from power-on to functional dashboard.

I remember when it used to be really fast... Slower with every dash update it seems, ESPECIALLY when they released the 'lol many tiled adverts' update.

Are people really complaining about 17 seconds?

[Ed Oscuro]

"It takes (just) 13 seconds to shout an Xbox One into life"
Wow! So fast, you'd swear they had an SSD in that thing.

A short while ago you yourself wrote "Just a friendly reminder from me to everybody out there: Don't be gullible!"
Xbone does not take only 13 seconds to do a cold start. That's the time it takes to boot from the "low-powered standby mode" (Microsoft lingo), in which Xbone actually consumes 14 watts of power (=35 EUR worth of electricity a year if you are in Europe). So far reports indicate that an actual cold boot takes around 17 seconds. That's still nice, but not some kind of magic.

THE POINT

YOUR HEAD

15 METERS VERTICAL CLEARANCE

thank you come again

(also jesus I don't think my 360 takes that long to boot...I wonder how quick the PS4, and the PS1 for that matter, are by comparison.)

Apparently the PS4 is not that great in this metric either: link

[Cuilan]

The DS2 d-pad is perfect for fightans and shmups.

Maybe if you've lost all sensation in your thumb or wear a padded glove.

[Friendly]

The DS2 d-pad is perfect for fightans and shmups.

Maybe if you've lost all sensation in your thumb or wear a padded glove.

Exactly. I've actually put a cover like this on my dualshock d-pad: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2pcs-D-Pad-Di ... 0971783507 (the cross-shaped one).

[Friendly]

Sarcasm and the internet, it just doesn't mix well at times. I thought you were serious. Anyway, the fact that this isn't for a cold boot makes it even worse.

[charlie chong]

next gen systems with no next gen games.
if i wanted to play current gen games with prettier graphics i would of bought a pc 2 years ago..oh wait i did

[system11]

next gen systems with no next gen games.
if i wanted to play current gen games with prettier graphics i would of bought a pc 2 years ago..oh wait i did

Yeah but people who want to play console games on consoles don't care about PCs. I don't know why anyone keeps bringing it up.

[steveovig]

I think I just want one of these because it's the new thing. Looking at the line-up, there is literally nothing that interests me. The only thing I like is the shiny graphics, I guess. I'm sure my enthusiasm will pass in a week since I can't afford one anytime soon. I'm sure the console will turn out well though. I could care less about the Xbone though. I love how Nintendo got criticized for the past year for having no games but the PS4 doesn't have much to offer that other consoles don't have. You can get the same experience on a PS3 but with worse looking visuals.

[MOSQUITO FIGHTER]

Yeah, the only benefit I'm seeing so far on the new systems is being able to have more players multiplayer. Not too enticing. I am a little interested in Resogun though.

[system11]

Well ultimately if you've ever liked multiplatform games you'll have to upgrade to one of the two new ones. I wanted Black Flag having never cared about AC games before - pirates. If I'm going to play a game I want the best console version, so...

[BryanM]

Whew, this Phantasy Star 4 thread has really gotten off track..

[system11]

Whew, this Phantasy Star 4 thread has really gotten off track..

Phantasy Star 4 being re-released in the west is more believable than PSO2 ever arriving.

[BryanM]

t'eh, and just yesterday it felt like they had an english beta and that awesome "patch that deletes yer harddrive" PR stunt.

SEGA really does seem to take whatever actions possible to intentionally kill itself.

"Why r u guys upset that they own Atlus now?" said One Guy on the internet. The internet is full of some strange people.

[Lord Satori]

I hate it when people say "[system name] has no games!" Fucking wait!

[Ganelon]

Bizarrely, I'd rather have spent $400 on the canned PSIV Sega Ages 2500 remake than for the PS4 system.

Anybody get their PS4 yet? Apparently, if you want to avoid the HDMI issue, make sure there aren't any pins sticking up on the HDMI connector.

[replayme]

Regardless of how well the MS/Sony systems are faring, there'll be more (quality) games worth playing after the consoles' respective 1 year lifecycle, than the Wii U after its own 1 year period of being on the shelves. And that's all that matters.

In MS's defence, they have Crimson Dragon coming out on launch day, and that is the one game (across both formats) I am interested in.

But across the 1 year, we have Watch Dogs, MGS and FF XV coming out. Those are the best versions of games coming out on consoles that make the new systems a reasonable investment as a day one purchase.

The Wii U (after 1 year) still only has about 1 or 2 games I would want to pick up for it. Rayman Legends (which I'm just going to pick up for my Vita), and at a stretch by some considerable distance, Zelda HD (which I'll just pick up for Gamecube). Everything else is just filler, which therefore makes the Wii U the least attractive console in terms of value.

Sure, the great Nintendo exclusives are coming (Mario 3D world etc), but these will be coming after the Wii U has been on the shelves for over a year. The PS4/XBone will also suffer from this problem (maybe), but at least they have sufficient third party support to make users not experience a drought and be turned off by the lack of quality games in the process.

[Ganelon]

Well, the HDMI problem (known now as the blue pulse of death) seems to be epidemic, with quite a few verified Amazon occurrences dragging down ratings: http://www.amazon.com/PlayStation-4-Lau ... 00BGA9WK2/

With a shocking ~50% defective rate on Amazon, it's not looking like a trivial problem as Sony originally claimed. Moreover, there are now reports of a red line of death as well, which is a separate issue and also widespread. Some folks are claiming that the PS4 units made in Hongfujin Yantai, China, are responsible for all or most of the problematic units. Lots of examples: http://videogamesandnews.com/ps4s-red-line-death-true/

The situation isn't looking good, and I sure hope my incoming system from Amazon isn't broken.

[Ed Oscuro]

the new systems [are] a reasonable investment as a day one purchase.

Even if you don't find $10 Xbox 360s (which is unreasonable to expect, of course) the new consoles are a very expensive form of entertainment compared with the ever-growing stable of free (legal) and less expensive alternatives out there. For me, the success of consoles reduces the rationale for the "day one purchase" every year. Until there is something in consoles that actually transforms your engagement with games (make money! Hook in with real virtual reality!) the "reasonable investment" is getting hammered by the growing worldwide backlog.

I also really doubt that even playing fast and loose with my notion of "preferences" in entertainment is going to overcome my preference for things to pay for themselves in the future.

Of course it is nice to be on the cutting edge of technology, but let's not fool ourselves into believing that the last-gen systems (there's a first) didn't look stunning on release, that the Xbox / PS2 / DC generation didn't look stunning on release, and on and on, all the way back to the Magnavox Odyssey, VCS, Pong consoles, Spacewar! and Tennis For Two.

[system11]

Well, the HDMI problem (known now as the blue pulse of death) seems to be epidemic, with quite a few verified Amazon occurrences dragging down ratings: http://www.amazon.com/PlayStation-4-Lau ... 00BGA9WK2/

With a shocking ~50% defective rate on Amazon, it's not looking like a trivial problem as Sony originally claimed. Moreover, there are now reports of a red line of death as well, which is a separate issue and also widespread. Some folks are claiming that the PS4 units made in Hongfujin Yantai, China, are responsible for all or most of the problematic units. Lots of examples: http://videogamesandnews.com/ps4s-red-line-death-true/

The situation isn't looking good, and I sure hope my incoming system from Amazon isn't broken.

You do realise that every person who has a faulty console will leave a comment or come online and make forum posts, but only a minority of people with working units will do the same?

When people don't think about the wider picture and then claim it's "epidemic" it just fuels the hyperbole. Sony are saying it's 0.4% so far, they're the ones who know how many are in the field and how many returns they've had, not Amazon comments and not Twitter/Facebook posts. Aditionally, I don't have my console yet. I don't think you have one either? We could both go on Amazon right now and post a story about how out machine arrived and caught fire, and burned the cat. You can't believe the numbers because there's no correlation between ratings and actually having bought a product. You know there are loads of Xbone fanboys out there bashing in 1* reviews to make it seem worse, just as PS4 fanboys will sieze on any fault reported more than a couple of times and do the same in a weeks time. Most of the 5* reviews will be fake too.

Welcome to social media.

[Ganelon]

You do realise that every person who has a faulty console will leave a comment or come online and make forum posts, but only a minority of people with working units will do the same?

That would be a valid argument were it not for the fact that other devices that Amazon has sold in the past consistently have excellent ratings from the very start. Case in point, Sony's own Vita had plenty of positive reviews and nonexistent 1-star ratings at the start. There's no reason for the complaint-to-praise ratio to astronomically surge with the PS4.

As for the 0.4%, Sony mentioned that number days before the system was even released. How would it know exactly how many are defective? For all we know, that number was referring to the few units shipped at that time compared to the total units produced. And since almost nobody in the public had received any units then, that would've been an accurate but extremely misleading number. Now, all those produced units are finally being put to the test. Basically, we don't know how this number was calculated.

Finally, all of the reviews I'm referring to are Amazon-verified purchases and given the official logo as such. In case you aren't aware, you can only be verified if you purchase the product directly from Amazon. Sure, Joe Xboxfan can list his fake review but it won't be Amazon-verified. All of these 1-star complaints are verified purchases. Yeah, maybe 1-2 reviews are from Xbox fans hoping to mess with the PS4 and turn the system over but again, refer to my first point on historical reviews.

This issue may not affect 50% of consoles but it is significant compared to other reliable devices. Currently, it's only certain that Amazon is affected. We'll see in the next few days whether it applies elsewhere as well. I'll update with my personal experience when my Amazon-sourced PS4 arrives.