Xbox One Vs PS4: Which Do You Prefer a Year In?

foobarbazqux said:

Looks like Diablo is popular around here so I'll play devil's advocate. I think D3 is a boring button masher, although I've only played the PC version. Quite frankly, I hate the game. I also hated the controls since it's so much constant clicking. I wasn't sure what was going to break first, my mouse button or my index finger. I'd imagine that playing it with a controller would be a much better experience.

Ironically, I really like Hyrule Warriors even though that's also somewhat of a button masher so what do I know.

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Don't judge the console port off of the PC version. I bought the PC version, hated it, and never wanted to touch it again. My girlfriend said "Hey, that Diablo game, can we play it on the TV?"

So off I went to buy it again, for the PS4. And it's a completely different game, so much better than D3 was for the PC. Still not in the same league as D2, but "good enough".

thejadedmonkey said:

Don't judge the console port off of the PC version. I bought the PC version, hated it, and never wanted to touch it again. My girlfriend said "Hey, that Diablo game, can we play it on the TV?"

So off I went to buy it again, for the PS4. And it's a completely different game, so much better than D3 was for the PC. Still not in the same league as D2, but "good enough".

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Couldn't agree more. Had D3 on my mac the day it came out, played it a lot for 2 months and never touched it again.

Bought it on the Xbox One when it came out and it is an amazing game. Love it!!!!

thejadedmonkey said:

Don't judge the console port off of the PC version. I bought the PC version, hated it, and never wanted to touch it again. My girlfriend said "Hey, that Diablo game, can we play it on the TV?"

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Do you hate the PC version just as much when using a Xbox controller? Just wondering.

I use a Xbox controller for some games on the PC... Some times it's relaxing just to lean back on the office chair or lay back on couch and game on my PC.

erayser said:

Do you hate the PC version just as much when using a Xbox controller? Just wondering.

I use a Xbox controller for some games on the PC... Some times it's relaxing just to lean back on the office chair or lay back on couch and game on my PC.

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I never played the PC version with a controller.

thejadedmonkey said:

I never played the PC version with a controller.

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So what did you hate about the PC version besides the controller vs kb&m?

EDIT: Just realized PC version doesn't support a controller. I understand why people would hate the PC version now.

Ugh. Diablo 3. What an utter disappointment that was. Nothing in comparison to the brilliance of Diablo 1 + 2. I doubt I'll ever forgive Blizzard for what they did to that franchise.

erayser said:

So what did you hate about the PC version besides the controller vs kb&m?

EDIT: Just realized PC version doesn't support a controller. I understand why people would hate the PC version now.

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It's more like they were totally different games. I actually prefer the keyboard and mouse as it gives you better control, but the game on the PC was just terrible. It was balanced for the auction house, so the loot sucked, it would stutter (even with an SSD!), it was the type of game you beat once and never picked up again - even to roll another class.

2 years of bug fixes, loot 2.0, and the removal of the auction house may have fixed my issues with the PC game, but at this point I've moved to gaming on my couch with my girl, and have no desire to reinstall the PC game. The PS4 game was good "out of the box", which is what I expect from AAA games. Not "good after 2 years of bug fixes".

thejadedmonkey said:

Don't judge the console port off of the PC version. I bought the PC version, hated it, and never wanted to touch it again. My girlfriend said "Hey, that Diablo game, can we play it on the TV?"

So off I went to buy it again, for the PS4. And it's a completely different game, so much better than D3 was for the PC. Still not in the same league as D2, but "good enough".

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Perhaps I wrote the console version off too soon then. I assumed it was the PC version but with a controller. That alone would have made it a much better game for me and I usually prefer keyboard/mouse over controllers. Maybe I'll try it out one day but I still found the overall game kind of boring regardless of the control setup.

Taustin Powers said:

Tim Schafer just announced that hd remasters of Grim Fandango and Day Of The Tentacle (!!) as well as both episodes of Broken Age are coming to PS4 next year.

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I'm pretty keen for the Day of the Tentacle remake! Loved that game when I was young.

ReanimationN said:

I'm pretty keen for the Day of the Tentacle remake! Loved that game when I was young.

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I never played that or Grim Fandango so I'm PUMPED AS HELL that it's coming to Vita/PS4. Same for Majoras Mask and the 3DS remake. 2015 looks like it's going to be a catchup year for me.

Dagless said:

I never played that or Grim Fandango so I'm PUMPED AS HELL that it's coming to Vita/PS4. Same for Majoras Mask and the 3DS remake. 2015 looks like it's going to be a catchup year for me.

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Day of the Tentacle is great. There were so many original ideas and inventive mechanics found in it. Some of the puzzles were absolute killers too, definitely give it a look. Majora's Mask is my personal favourite Zelda title, I'll be getting the remake on day one. I just hope they don't mess with it too much, or dumb it down to make it work on the 3DS.

Own both.

I'm not convinced visually from a graphic performance point of view one if any better than the other. The XBOX is just a more complete eco system and more complete platform. I think to MS's credit they have listened to their customers concerns or voices, I'm sure the PS4 fanboys will say in desperation - but its constantly evolving. You get the free game downloads via gold, lots of nice new features are appearing, the console is well put together and silent (maybe a tad big is the only negative comment) - but the big (no pun) difference is i find myself wanting to play the XBOX more. So as of now i own more than twice the number of games on that platform vs the Sony. I really don't recall the last time i used the 4 and when looking for new games - its XBOX.

AFEPPL said:

Own both.

I'm not convinced visually from a graphic performance point of view one if any better than the other. The XBOX is just a more complete eco system and more complete platform. I think to MS's credit they have listened to their customers concerns or voices, I'm sure the PS4 fanboys will say in desperation - but its constantly evolving. You get the free game downloads via gold, lots of nice new features are appearing, the console is well put together and silent (maybe a tad big is the only negative comment) - but the big (no pun) difference is i find myself wanting to play the XBOX more. So as of now i own more than twice the number of games on that platform vs the Sony. I really don't recall the last time i used the 4 and when looking for new games - its XBOX.

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We own both too... I've been a little disappointed on exclusives for the PS4. Hopefully that will change starting next year when we get Uncharted 4. I've been using the XB1 more lately mainly for sports streaming. Most of my gaming is on my gaming rig. However, I like the PS4 a lot more because of Remote Play. I have both XB1 and PS4 hooked up to the TV in my office. Sometimes I have sports on, and my kid wants to play games... or he is just too loud in my office. Remope play allows him to play his games through the PS4 on his PS Vita or play on his own TV in his room through his Playstation TV module. Because of Remote play, I buy multi-plat games for the PS4 over the XB1. This way I can play games or stream sports on the XB1... and my kids can still play the PS4 remotely on a handheld PS Vita or any TV in our house with the Playstation TV module.

Both XB1 and PS4 exclusives since launch have been sorely lacking if you ask me.

For me, it boils down to just a few must play titles:

XB1: Halo:MCC and Sunset Overdrive
PS4: Last of Us Remastered and Infamous: Second Son

Right now XB1 seems better since those must plays are more recent, but for me, better exclusives will shift heavily in PS4's favor once Bloodborne comes along.

AFEPPL said:

Own both.

I'm not convinced visually from a graphic performance point of view one if any better than the other. The XBOX is just a more complete eco system and more complete platform. I think to MS's credit they have listened to their customers concerns or voices, I'm sure the PS4 fanboys will say in desperation - but its constantly evolving. You get the free game downloads via gold, lots of nice new features are appearing, the console is well put together and silent (maybe a tad big is the only negative comment) - but the big (no pun) difference is i find myself wanting to play the XBOX more. So as of now i own more than twice the number of games on that platform vs the Sony. I really don't recall the last time i used the 4 and when looking for new games - its XBOX.

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That's all fine, but the Xbox is underpowered. Microsoft had to keep the price competitive for the console and Kinect combined. The way they did this was by using less powerful hardware. They did this because they were more interested in promoting Microsoft's "living room" strategy than in serving the gamer audience. It was a decision emblematic of the bad old Microsoft rather than the new face of the company. They're now stuck with that decision for the next five years or so in a market where they couldn't really afford any slip ups.

This is worse than it seems. Sony has a natural advantage over Microsoft in that Xbox has always been very strong in North America and comparatively weaker everywhere else (and non-existent in Japan). The Xbox 360 managed sales parity with the PS3 only because it launched a year earlier. Now it is going to be much harder for them. If the Xbox One sells only about half the units the PS4 does, it will be a very expensive failure. Microsoft needs to persuade a lot more more Europeans, Asians and Australiasians to switch to Xbox. That's a difficult ask. Xbox is a very Amerocentric, and somewhat Anglocentric brand. Who knows, they might pull it off, but they certainly dug themselves a hole.

This being said, the only worthwhile reason to buy one over the other at this point are the exclusives.

Agathon said:

That's all fine, but the Xbox is underpowered. Microsoft had to keep the price competitive for the console and Kinect combined. The way they did this was by using less powerful hardware. They did this because they were more interested in promoting Microsoft's "living room" strategy than in serving the gamer audience. It was a decision emblematic of the bad old Microsoft rather than the new face of the company. They're now stuck with that decision for the next five years or so in a market where they couldn't really afford any slip ups.

This is worse than it seems. Sony has a natural advantage over Microsoft in that Xbox has always been very strong in North America and comparatively weaker everywhere else (and non-existent in Japan). The Xbox 360 managed sales parity with the PS3 only because it launched a year earlier. Now it is going to be much harder for them. If the Xbox One sells only about half the units the PS4 does, it will be a very expensive failure. Microsoft needs to persuade a lot more more Europeans, Asians and Australiasians to switch to Xbox. That's a difficult ask. Xbox is a very Amerocentric, and somewhat Anglocentric brand. Who knows, they might pull it off, but they certainly dug themselves a hole.

This being said, the only worthwhile reason to buy one over the other at this point are the exclusives.

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It does kinda go back to regional preference.

I did prefer "USA" type of older-folk games such as Halo and Quake as opposed to "Japanese" type of games like Final Fantasy and Tekken. Hence looking at my PS2 vs XBox games and PS3 vs XBox 360 games, I have a lot more on the US console (though lately with last gen and this one there are a lot more cross platform games available).

I have a PS4 (didn't want to spend an extra $100 at the time) but now I think I would prefer owning/playing Titanfall over Killzone (but KZ is great too). The controller for PS4, though much better than before, still doesn't match the XBOX controller for my hands.

MS did GREAT with the XBox and XB360, they simply ignored their own trend and the mistakes of Sony ($500 & $600 PS3) and Nintendo (ignore the trend and use Carts instead of Discs to thwart piracy) and let Developers and Marketing/Sales "hands" into cooking pot (see Steve Job's "Lost Interview" - he talks about only letting the Users and Designers/Engineers release a product).

The keynote releases this round are extremely memorable. Watching the XBox one with the "required DRM and Kinect" seem so backwards compared to their other consoles. Then watching Sony continue the improvements with the next gen being beautiful, sleeker, and reasonably priced for the next gen and online improvements seem so opposite MS's direction.

MS back-tracked with the DRM but unfortunately was too late with backtracking on the Kinect.

Removing the Kinect and constant monitoring/integration, my understanding, now put the consoles on just about equal par graphically, so now it is about exclusives.

I am glad I waited to buy an XBox One as I really want a Halo designed one this round (the COD one totally rocks).

Underpowered. Hmmmm

You could argue that the PS4 not supporting the 5GHz channel will be limiting in future.. Same as external storage not supported, rather you have to flip out the drive losing the data stored on it. No HDMI in for the PS4 which is pretty lame to say the least. 1.75GHz CPU for the XBOX vs 1.6 for the PS4, 1.5tflops for the XBOX vs 1.8 for the sony. DDR3 vs GDDR5 but the XBOX provides and extra 1GB of that RAM to developers vs the faster sony RAM. Play the same game on both consoles and its pretty impossible to spot any difference - so all the above and the hype (so far) actually counts for nothing...!

So, on balance, while one might be on paper faster in one component or the other, overall they are running the same. I still prefer to turn on and play the XBOX one right now regardless. Its just more polished and slicker.

AFEPPL said:

No HDMI in for the PS4 which is pretty lame to say the least

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Is it though? From what I've seen of the HDMI-in on Xbox it adds lag so playing another console through it isn't possible, but is okay for watching video. It seems like an additional thing like I could say how it's lame the Xbox One can't stream to Windows Phone (or another handheld) like the PS4 does . It's just stuff each system was initially designed to do.

Which is why from purely a gaming POV I went for the PS4 over the Xbox One, because that seemed more crafted to gaming and not just another media box. Same reasons why I go for Nintendo hardware - it's just about the games. All you need is one media box in a setup (in my case it's the PS3, that even the PS4 can't match for media capabilities! Before that I had an original Xbox with XBMC installed).

AFEPPL said:

m. Play the same game on both consoles and its pretty impossible to spot any difference - so all the above and the hype (so far) actually counts for nothing...!


.

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I'm many cases this is true, however as someone who has both consoles and occasionally buys the same game for both I can tell you that there can be a difference and it is noticeable. Maybe not so much if you only experience one device in isolation from the other, but when you have access to the same game and both consoles I can certainly spot differences.

I bought Dragon Age Inquisition for both lately so I could play through the game as different characters / classes & gender at the same time.

Whilst the game fundamentally looks the same the 1080p visuals on the PS4 are noticeably sharper than the 900p on the XB1. I notice it the environment and in distant objects. Is it a massive difference / game changing ? No - but it is still very much noticeable.

I recently re-bought Thief on XB1 as it was cheap with gold, despite playing through on PS4 previously and it too is noticeable in resolution not just because of the softer image, but the added aliasing that brings to the visuals when they don't add extra anti-aliasing to compensate, and despite it running at a lower resolution - I did notice and feel the frame rate running slower especially in regards to how the fluidity in the controls felt.

So yes it is noticeable - when there is things to notice (it's not impossible as you claim).

However, when there isn't a resolution difference and both are offering 1080p then it is a different story. SKYLANDERS : swap force & trap team look identical on both systems, Lego games look identical too.

So certainly there are games on both systems that look identical, and there are games that will always play identically - however I would still say when there is a resolution difference, if you have access to both devices / it would still likely be better served up on the PS4 from a visual standpoint.

That being said, exclusives like Sunset Overdrive & Zoo Tycoon are to me visual treats and match any of the gorgeous games on PS4, so I'd still buy both machines if I had to redo so.

MacRumorUser said:

I'm many cases this is true, however as someone who has both consoles and occasionally buys the same game for both I can tell you that there can be a difference and it is noticeable. Maybe not so much if you only experience one device in isolation from the other, but when you have access to the same game and both consoles I can certainly spot differences.

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I know the leap between these is much much wider, but after playing GTAV and Smash Bros Wii U I'm finding it hard going back to 720p games (like Mario Kart 8). Maybe next gen we'll finally get 1080p across the board, across all titles. *sigh* (when everyone will be wanting 4k visuals).

teknikal90 said:

interesting
the general consensus is that most developers are neglecting pc in favour of consoles.

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Maybe in the past? With both Xbox and Playstation being x86 architecture now I can see multiplatform games being available on anything in the future. It'll be so easy to port, you'd be stupid to pass up on such easy extra sales.

AFEPPL said:

No HDMI in for the PS4 which is pretty lame to say the least.

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Howso? I don't think I've seen anyone use that XB1 feature, its just a rubbish and more expensive alternative to using a TV remote.

It means the kids don't need an external amp with lots of HMDIs for all their devices..!

Or even better, they don't need to mess about with cables around the back of the TV.

AFEPPL said:

It means the kids don't need an external amp with lots of HMDIs for all their devices..!

Or even better, they don't need to mess about with cables around the back of the TV.

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I used to love doing that as a kid it's how I learned about various inputs at a young age! Does the Xbox need to be switched on to use the HDMI pass-thru feature?
What are the benefits though? Surround receivers and TVs have multiple HDMI inputs and splitters are only a few £ and don't add any lag.

What I love about my PS3 is that everything (TV, amp, PS3) can be operated by my TV remote control. I don't think it's possible with the PS4, oddly enough.