Still no decision made as to which one of these I should upgrade to, I have read all of the articles for each unit, the side by side stats, the pro's and the con's and I still can't make my damn mind up so I thought I would ask the gamers themselves, i.e you lot. I still have some unanswered questions, the main one for PS4 is, have they finally sorted out a good chat system so that you can talk to your buddies as you play, even if thats on different games or is it still locked to in game chat only, and probably for the Xbox one are they spying on us a little too much, I really don't like the idea of the kinect recording everything that you say, if this is indeed true, not sure. I know that the graphics are great on both and the PS4 is slightly faster in processing power. Any hands on advice would be a great help.
Flack
Just buy both. All it takes is saving 5-10 bucks a week and someone could easily have both consoles in as little as 2 years, which is still plenty of time left in the consoles life span. If you are going to pick just one, I would definitely have to say Xbox One. First and foremost, MS has been the real innovator in the console space the last 2 generations running. High definition games, online gaming, matchmaking, digital distribution through an online store, indie games on a console, achievements, gamer score, movies and TV through a console, cross game chat, and the list goes on and on and on. All were seen first on Xbox and later adopted by Sony, which is actually a very smart strategy for Sony given that they haven't had the financial stability to be able to dump tons of money into R&D for the PS. That trend in continuing with the Xbox One. Skype and HMDI pass-through are just a couple of innovations thus far on the Xbox One that are amazing and no doubt, we will continue to see more as time goes on. The Xbox 360 at the roughly half way point was a 100% completely different console from the one that was launched. I really didn't even like the Xbox 360 when it launched, but by the time it hit the 4th year, it was the best console I had ever owned. I expect the Xbox One will be similar in this regard.
MS made a big mistake last generation in the latter years by losing focus on quality exclusives. Clearly they have learned from that mistake as they have set aside a billion dollars for exclusives on the Xbox One and have already made some great deals. The PS4 may have won 2014 in regards to hardware sales, but the Xbox One really dominated 2014 in regards to games. Yes, Sony is finally going to get some quality exclusives in 2014, but so is MS and MS already has some amazing exclusives you can buy right away, for discounted prices. Sunset Horizon, Titanfall, Forza 5, Forza Horizon 2, Master Chief Collection, etc. Titanfall was just on sale, along with the season pass, for just $12. Sunset Horizon is one of the most unique shooters I have ever played, and while the Master Chief collection has been plagued with problem online, it is finally getting itself worked out and it has all of the single player campaigns, which are amazing. Forza Horizon 2 is EASILY one of the best racers I have ever played. In 2015 you have Halo 5, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Quantum Break, Below, Scalebound, Ori and the Blind Forest, a new Gear of War, Crackdown 3, etc. Not to mention, MS finally has a quality person in charge of Xbox with Phil Spencer. The job he has done thus far is nothing short of brilliant. Miraculous would be another good word to describe the job he has done. I am excited to see what he does next.
If you normally prefer Playstation exclusives over Xbox's or your more concerned with technical specs and graphics than with games then I would say buy a PS4 as it is a bit more powerful and will have the edge in the graphics department on most games. In my opinion, graphics are the least important aspect to a game, at least at this point in the game. The graphics on the Xbox One are more than good enough for me. In fact, I jump back and forth all the time between next gen and last gen consoles and guess what, I still enjoy last generations games just as much as I do this generations games. Most people can't even tell the difference between 1080p and 720p given the quality of their eyesight and the distance they sit away from their HDTV when playing games or watching movies/TV. So they certainly won't notice the small difference between 900p and 1080p. Most Xbox One games will be 1080p, especially since they just freed up more processor power for developers. It will only be really rare games like Witcher 3 that wind up running at 900p. Someone with 20/20 vision would have to sit like 3 feet away from a 50" screen to be able to tell the difference between 1080p and 900p. Its just non issue for me.
And before people start throwing around fanboy comments. I am a multi console gamer. Always have been and always will be. I am also a PC gamer. I actually just built my first gaming PC last year. I believe in playing games and having access to any game that comes to market. I do not believe in pledging my allegiance to individual gaming companies. I understand that the market benefits from competition and I have no ill feelings towards any of the companies (MS, Nintendo or Sony). I hate fanboys and the overall crappy appearance they give gamers and yes that includes elitist PC gamers. Gamers should be united over their love of games, not divided over which hardware they use. All that being said, Xbox has just been a more exciting hardware platform and has really pushed innovation in the console industry more than any other company. I honestly believe if your going to pick a single console, which again I don't think anyone should, that the Xbox One is your best bet.
By the way, I absolutely DESPISE motion controlled gaming, but Kinect 2.0 is absolutely brilliant in regards to what it brings to the console itself. As a gaming peripheral, its still incredibly weak but as a peripheral to the console itself....well, its absolutely brilliant and this is coming from someone that was originally really upset MS was forcing me to buy one. I actually purchased a 2nd Xbox One, the White Sunset Overdrive bundle (which didn't come with a Kinect). It allowed me to jump back and forth between an Xbox One that had a Kinect and an Xbox One that didn't have Kinect. Well, it only took 2 weeks before I had placed an order for a 2nd Kinect. If you do go with Xbox One and you can afford it, buy the full version with Kinect. Skype in particular is absolutely amazing when playing with family and friends. I have a cousin down in Florida that I game with online 3-4 times a week and our game sessions have been VASTLY improved with Skype. Not to mention, all of the other features are amazing as well. In particular, the HDMI pass-through and being able to control which channel you want by saying it. This is great for me as I never remember the stupid channel numbers. Now I can just say the channel, without having to use a remote. It really is brilliant.
Anyways, just my 2 cents. I am sure you will enjoy whichever one you get, but you really should just buy both!
