PS4 vs Xbox One, some help selecting please!

[lparsons21]

Ok a few days ago I broke out my fat PS3 that had been sitting there doing nothing. After a lengthy update and redownloading all my digital games I was good to go. Connected to a PS3 3D display and I have a couple 3D games to play.

But now I'm thinking that PS3 is a bit loud and fairly slow in most operations, so I'm thinking something new to add to the gaming experience. I've never owned an Xbox of any sort but I see some pretty good reviews, but most note a bit of a lack in some games and that it isn't as powerful as the PS4.

If some here have both, how about some feedback and recommendations.

Some info to help.
I love tech crap!! But the reality of gaming for me is that at 71 my hand eye coordination isn't what it used to be! Just a fact of life. So I tend to play fairly easy casual games to their end, while playing more complex games tends to be more of play till I can't stand it anymore and move on.

I'm subscribed to Sony's PlayStation sub product which gets me some free games and would expand to cover both my current PS3 and a PS4 (with some different games) if I bought one. I would probably get the Xbox subscription service if I end up with an Xbox.

 

[king3pj]

I have and like both systems and at least 90% of the games are available on either console. You are right in that many games that are 1080p on PS4 are 900p on Xbox One because the PS4 has a little more power but that's a pretty small difference.

If you already have a PS Plus subscription for your PS3 you may already have some digital PS4 games in your library. Like you said, the same account works for both PS3 and PS4. The Xbox One is available for $50 less though. Really, they are very similar machines and you will probably enjoy whichever you choose.

 

[lparsons21]

Thanks for the feedback. I just skip/read through the PS4 & Xbox One threads. Interesting.
A couple Xbox One questions???
1. I thought I read that you could hook up an external HD to it. What does it do for you? ie;extend the drive space, or archive
2. With PSN if you get the free games each month and then delete them, you can redownload for free even outside the 'free' month, is that the same for Xbox Gold??
3. I think I read on teh Xbox Gold site/forums that you could join today without even owning an Xbox One and then download this months freebies when you get one, did I read right??

The Xbox One deal I'm looking at is the Assasin's Creed bundle w/o Kinect since its on sale and I doubt I would ever actually use the Kinect.

 

[lparsons21]

Oh yeah, while the PSN deal shows the PS4 games I could download it doesn't carry over. IOW, you have to get them downloaded during the 'free' month.

 

[king3pj]

With both services you can "purchase" the free games from their website as long as you have a subscription. It doesn't matter if you actually own the system yet. Once you add the games to your cart and checkout they will be available for you to download and play at a later date. On both PS4 and Xbox One if you don't "purchase" the free games in the month they are free you lose out on them. You just need to remember to go to the website once a month and get them.

With both systems you can delete games to make more room on your hard drive and download them again later. Once they are tied to your account you can download them as many times as you want as long as you are signed in.

The Xbox One supports external USB hard drives to expand storage space but you cannot replace the internal drive. The PS4 does not support external hard drives but you can replace the internal one. It's supported by Sony and you only need to remove one screw to do it. No special software or tools required. You just pop in a laptop hard drive in the size you want, boot up, and it will format the drive. I put a 1TB drive in mine as soon as I got it.

 

[lparsons21]

Thanks! I'll be sure to mark the PS4 games for this month tomorrow at PSN.

 

[king3pj]

Oh yeah, while the PSN deal shows the PS4 games I could download it doesn't carry over. IOW, you have to get them downloaded during the 'free' month.

You don't have to download them during the free month. You just have to tie the game to your account in the free month by purchasing it for free. Once it's tied to your account you can download it whenever you want.

 

[yourbeliefs]

Not to derail but have you considered just getting more into PC gaming? You can build a PC that is more powerful than a One/PS4, and there is NO competition when it comes to number of games. It's like comparing the population of Guam to the population of China. It's also MUCH cheaper long term, as sales from Humble Bundle, Steam, GoG, and GMG are much better than what you're bound to find for consoles.

 

[lparsons21]

You aren't derailing at all. I have considered PC Gaming though I'm not leaning that way. I realize you can do more with PC games because of the various inputs (keyboard/mouse/trackpad/dedicated controllers) than you can do on a console. And I used to game on a computer in the past, starting with the Atari 400 many years ago. But all that makes for more complication in game play imo. Quite frankly I regret getting rid of my Atari 400/800 with the huge number of great games I had for it. But at 71 and not the best hand-eye coordination, I would probably find many of those games daunting these days. I would be better served with the old one joystick with one button approach of those years!

Just for the hell of it, I got the Steam engine and one of their free games installed on my Yoga 2 Pro. While it wasn't fond of the QHD screen resolution, it played better than I thought it would on that relatively light hardware.

My leaning is towards getting a PS4 because I am used to the PS line a bit more and other than the upfront hardware cost, the ongoing cost would be the same to play both of them as the 'free' games from the subscription service would more than suffice, supplemented occasionally by cheaper simpler games. The Xbox One is alluring because I could put it in the main TV room and use the HDMI pass(?)/feedthrough(?) and not need another HDMI port on my AVR, and play with it on the 73" DLP set. Another thing is that it is different in UI outside of the games, that kind of feeds whatever 'geek' is left in me.

The PS3 is connected to a PS3 3D display in my tech room and there are a very few 3D games for it, including one pretty old one that I didn't know did 3D.

 

[Zookster]

I actually went through a similar process last November, trying to decide between Xbox One and PS4, coming from the PS side as an older gamer (47). It came down to the fact that I already owned a DS4 controller, which I was more comfortable using after trying an Xbox One controller in a store display; my PS Plus membership was still good for another year; I owned a Vita for remote play; and I had over two dozen PS4 games already collected between PS Plus freebies and cross-buys with PS3/Vita games I already owned. Even with the great Xbox One offers at the time, it just didn't add up when I took into account my other start up expenses to switch systems (Gold membership, extra controller, etc.).

I will say that unless you are planning to primarily use your PS4 for gaming, I would look elsewhere. It still leaves a lot to be desired in terms of its multimedia capabilities. For example, it doesn't play audio CDs or allow DLNA media streaming, and it doesn't allow for use of first, second, or third-party remote control devices. The DS4 controller (which has a poor battery life) is the only way to control blu-ray, Netflix, and other streamed video functions, which takes some getting used to. Thankfully, I still have my PS3 connected to my living room TV system, so I continue to use the PS3 for all my non-gaming media activities. I only ever turn my PS4 on for a specific game I am playing.

 

[lparsons21]

Thanks for the feedback!

My PS3 is almost solely used for gaming even though when I originally got it, I bought it for the BluRay playback. If you remember the days of the HDDVD vs BluRay wars, the PS3 was the best BluRay player out there, arguably it still may be but the BD players have come a long way since then.

Regardless of which way I go, the media stuff isn't all important to me as my Tivo Roamio does all of that I need.

I think it is time to head over to BestBuy and fiddle around with the two systems a bit.

 

[Zookster]

My PS3 is almost solely used for gaming even though when I originally got it, I bought it for the BluRay playback. If you remember the days of the HDDVD vs BluRay wars, the PS3 was the best BluRay player out there, arguably it still may be but the BD players have come a long way since then.

Same here! I hadn't even played a home video game (not even computer games really) since the Atari 2600 days when I got my PS3 in November 2007 as a blu-ray player (the PS3 bundle included blu-ray movies, not games in those days!) I bought the blu-ray remote that goes with it at the same time, and it still works like a champ. I can't believe the PS4 still doesn't offer a similar accessory.

 

[lparsons21]

I just knew I shouldn't have driven over to BestBuy!!

Played with both the Xbox One and PS4 and found a lot to like about both. Ended up leaving the store with the Xbox One w/o Kinect Assasin's Creed bundle and got a $20 discount on Xbox Live Gold. As with the PS3, bringing it up and getting the 2 games from XLG plus the 2 Assisin's Creed games is taking up most of the afternoon. But it is doing it without me futzing around, which is always a good thing. The only thing that irritated me with all of this was that the Xbox Live Gold website gave the impression that one of the Rayan games for free was part of it, but it isn't. That expired at the end of March.

My plan is to connect it to the 73" DLP TV and replace the current BluRay player. Since my Harmony One can do some controls on the XB1 switching to it will be a no brainer.

 

[lparsons21]

Same here! I hadn't even played a home video game (not even computer games really) since the Atari 2600 days when I got my PS3 in November 2007 as a blu-ray player (the PS3 bundle included blu-ray movies, not games in those days!) I bought the blu-ray remote that goes with it at the same time, and it still works like a champ. I can't believe the PS4 still doesn't offer a similar accessory.

While Sony doesn't, there is one:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/insigni...on-4/8703001.p?id=1219362856100&skuId=8703001

 

[lparsons21]

Things just got better!!

I said they had dropped Rayman Legends from the free Xbox Live Gold for April. But the website showed that it was supposed to be part of the deal for this month. And when I went to the Store on the Xbox, it also showed it was supposed to be free and part of the Live Gold deal.

So I started a chat with MS. The CSR told me to order it even if it wanted to charge and she would take care of it. So I ordered it, it showed up in my queue and indicated the charge. Also got the email from MS billing indicating the charge. The CSR said 'no worries'. A bit later she came back and said that her 'cliff notes' also indicated it should be free, but that she found out it wasn't. BUT, she reversed the charge! So I got the $40 game for free.

Remember I said the PS3 was very slow at downloading? Well, the Xbox One isn't any kind of speed demon either!!

 

[Zookster]

Glad to hear about your good experience with the MS CSR. I hear nothing but complaints these days about Sony's CSRs, though in the PS3's early days, my dealings with them always went to my favor without hassle.

You mention Xbox One downloading compared to PS3. In light of my earlier post about the PS4 being a bad streaming device, I went ahead and watched the last two episodes of "Powers" on PS4, as I had been playing a game on the PS4 just prior. And OMG! accessing the episodes and loading and playing them on the PS4 was a much smoother experience than on the PS3. Instead of accessing them through the overly cumbersome PS3 store, I clicked on my 'notification' of the new episode to launch it. Couldn't have been easier.

 

[lparsons21]

Well, turns out not all was as well done as I thought!! When I went to bed last night I saw that the charge had been made and reversed. I though great!! But the game was still downloading.

This morning things were different, and not in a great way, but OK I suppose. The game was fully installed but would not play bitching about the wrong user profile. A quick chat this AM confirmed that when they reversed the charge, they killed the game access too. And that was the way it would be. I'm not thrilled at that, but the reality is that the game really wasn't free for this month so I guess I can't complain, or at least no more than a minor grumble now and then!!

If I decide to get the game, I'll get it elsewhere for substantially less than the $40 MS wants for it.

Moved the Xbox One to the AV rack at the big screen. Everything works well except the Harmony One won't control it without either getting a Kinect or an IR Blaster, seems that the IR sensor on the Xbox One is very tight. I may get a Kinect at some point, used ones go for around the $70 mark which is about 1/2 what a new one is.

 

[Zookster]

I suggest keeping an eye out for XBL sales. I know the Rayman games (including Legends) have been heavily discounted on the PSN periodically and I'm sure XBL is no different.

 

[lparsons21]

I got both of the Rayman games for my PS3, but not from the same place.

Legends was $40 @PSN, but $20 on Amazon
Origins was $20 @PSN, but higher on Amazon

So I have Origins as a digital download and the disk for Legends.