Next-Gen Consoles/Games

[OCG]

Awesome Unboxing of Awesome game:

This is good too:

[MrBadGuy]

Meh, I've never gone for a console at launch in my life, regardless of hype, I prefer to wait things out.

So, Ad and BadGuy, with Ones, eh? How do you guys find them?

I like it a lot so far, the games aren't amazing but that will change quite soon I expect with titles such as Titanfall and Halo.

The controller is just incredible, it's absolutely a simple progression from the excellent 360 controller.

The Kinect has impressed me so far, from signing me and my mate into our separate gamertags just by seeing our faces, to following me around the room on Skype, to making it really simple to load certain apps and features with a voice command. I understand why they bundled it with every console.

Still getting used to the UI, I was a big fan of the 3rd 360 dashboard, and this is a little bit more messy at the moment, but I'm sure it will get sorted with updates soon.

And finally I don't know why anyone was complaining about the design of the actual box, I think it fits in well under my TV, elegant in it's simplicity. Although I don't look forward to transporting it home for christmas..

[Master]

Hm, so Kinect works pretty well, eh? And enhances your experience by simplifying tasks due to being able to recognise voice commands? Nice.

I've not really spent time with Xbox controllers, so I'll take your word for it when you say they've improved on the controller front.

Hm, I looked at the UI, it seems similar to that on Windows 8 and Windows Phone, it'd be fitting given that they seem to want to use that interface everywhere, hopefully they can improve its efficiency then.

It's a pretty big box indeed, though I'm not sure about its weight, is that the issue you have with taking it home?
Also, I've been hearing a lot about disc drive issues with the console, I'm assuming neither of you have had the misfortune of coming across such issues.

[MrBadGuy]

I only have digital games, but when I heard about the drive issue, I loaded a blu ray and it worked fine.
The problem I have with taking it home is really just the size, and finding somewhere to put it where it can't get damaged. I think it weighs less than the original ps3 though so I've had worse in terms of weight.

[Master]

I see, so it's just basically the size, weight isn't an issue at all.
You've only played download only games, eh? What's the sizing like? I read up that the Xbox One's HDD can't be replaced under warranty, and that it uses its own file system, so I think you're limited to what it has.

[MrBadGuy]

So far I have CoD and Forza, which are around 40GB and 30GB respectively. I'm sure I'll be using an external HDD as well when they release that functionality, otherwise it could get very restrictive.

[Master]

Oh my, so that's 70GB out of 500GB already used up? Blimey, I can see why an External HDD would be prudent.

[OCG]

So far I have CoD and Forza, which are around 40GB and 30GB respectively. I'm sure I'll be using an external HDD as well when they release that functionality, otherwise it could get very restrictive.

OMG, thats large.

[MrBadGuy]

Killzone Shadow Fall is now 40GB, but it used to be 290GB before optimisation.

[Master]

290 GB? That's over half the Hard Drive!?
Makes one wonder if they thought through the whole installing wholly onto the drive factor.

[MrBadGuy]

Well, they did reduce it to 40GB before release, and a dual layer blu-ray is 50GB I think, so that should be the biggest file size we see for retail games.

It may be worthwhile for anyone buying a PS4 to upgrade the hard drive to at least a TB, I'd be doing that if I had any money left over after buying the console. And if I didn't have to pay or stupid things like bills and food

[Master]

Yes, I can imagine, hehe.
Hm, do you feel that the content in the game seems to justify its total size? Or does it seem a little too big even with all those assets?

[MrBadGuy]

I think it's justified, higher quality textures and things like that are a big factor in larger file size, and I'm totally fine with that. I want my next-gen games to look as pretty as they possibly can, even if it means having to invest in more hard drive space to accommodate more than a few games, that's just the price of moving forward in terms of what a game can do, and as disc space becomes cheaper, games will use more of it.

Besides, I think the digital version of The Last of Us (as an example) was around a 30GB, so it's not changing much from that. The only difference being, there's no option to just stream off a disc anymore.

[Master]

I see, so the content justifies the size, fair enough. I'd hate for it to be where the games were clearly bloated and wasting disc space for no reason.

[MrBadGuy]

I'd say the bigger problem with the file size is downloading speed, of course both Xbox and Playstation allow play after only a portion has been downloaded, and it only took me about half an hour before I could play my first game, but I have a pretty fast connection. I suppose those with slower download speeds can opt for disc versions, but I don't envy anyone still using discs.

[Master]

Hm, I see, though that makes me wonder, how long would it take to install from a disc then?
So many curiosities with this new generation.

[Adsolution]

I completely share all of MrBadGuy's thoughts on the console so far.

290 GB? That's over half the Hard Drive!?

I'm not educated on Killzone's situation, but if I were to guess just from hearing what BadGuy said, the 290 gigabyte version is probably how large it became during development, before all unused assets, developer tools and project files (PSDs for textures, MAXs/MAs for models, DAW sessions for music, etc) were removed. Project files of those kinds especially often take up 4-5 times the size of the exported/compiled results, and as such, you'll end up with one hefty load to optimise, in this case, usually trimming down the retail release to like 15% of what was there originally. Obviously the trimming doesn't affect the game's quality whatsoever, as players would not have any use for project files, nor would you want them having any!

[technology4617]

(I'm back...)

On the subject of Kinect, I think it just depends on the person and what they care more about: the perfection of the basics (performance) or "innovation" (Kinect). Honestly, in my opinion, both can just fuck each other in the ass, since I care about games the most out of all aspects, the performance difference between the two is negligible, and, in my opinion, Kinect is another stupid marketing gimmick that will continue to not benefit anyone, just like Sony's SIXAXIS technology for the PS3 controllers. I'm still on the fence as to which console I would get, since I want to wait to see what the game library will be like in the future, but currently the Xbox One is boasting the superior library, though for now I'll just stick with a PC.

However, if we're not talking about games, then I would probably choose the PS4, simply due to the higher performance level, rather than Kinect. This is my own opinion, though, and I understand why some prefer the Xbox One's features to the PS4's hardware, even if I don't agree.

[MrBadGuy]

in my opinion, Kinect is another stupid marketing gimmick that will continue to not benefit anyone

That's fair enough man, but I'll give you an example. Today I was watching Planet Earth on Netflix and my phone started ringing, I don't usually remember where I leave my Xbox controller and it would have been turned off at this point anyway. So I simply say "Xbox, pause". Done. I call that a benefit.

Also when I say "Xbox on" my Xbox and my tv turn on instantaneously. Such awesomeness is welcome in my home.

[Rayfist]

I watched all the cutscenes today for Dead Rising 3 on Xbox One, and man, some things shocked me, but some utterly disappointed me. Now if I had that game I'd love to do a written review on it, but it's Xbox One only. Makes me sad. XD