I have been using my X Box One for a few months now and frankly, I think that it has a lot of issues that need urgent attention.
It has nice graphics and the voice control works OK, but the graphics are not that much better than the 360 and the novelty of voice control has, at least as far as I am concerned, worn off.
These are a list of the things that I find most disappointing in order from most disappointing to less disappointing:
1. No voice messages
2. Game install times – it takes forever to install the disk to the Hard Drive and I have problems with freezing during the install. (See Also 3 & 6)
3. Having no choice about installing the game to the Hard Drive (See also 2 & 6)
4. Not working as a media extender for Windows Media Centre
5. Not playing videos on external drives
6. Small Hard Drive and no ability to attach an external drive to store games. My drive is already almost half full and this means that I will soon have to start deleting stuff (See No 2 and 3)
7. Not being able to access files (pictures videos) on computers on my home network
At this time there are many annoyances both big and small that tend to sour the Xbox One experience and I am so glad that I kept my 360.
I had intended to delay purchase of a PS4 until the PS4 supported 3D Blu-ray. However in view the issues with the Xbox One, I decided to buy a PS4 now to compare the 2 consoles.
I bought 2 games for the PS4 – Tomb Raider Definitive Edition that I have also played on X Box One and Killzone Shadowfall (because it was bundled in a deal at EB Games).
Now that I have been using the PS4 for about 2 weeks this is my opinion of both the new consoles.
Controllers:
As I have mentioned in previous posts, one of the main reasons I have favoured the X Box is because I liked the X Box Controller better than the PS3 controller.
PS3 controller dislikes for me are:
- Small size;
- No triggers;
- No removable battery; and
- Needs to be recharged frequently via USB cable to console.
The PS4 controller is much improved in regard to size and you could probably now say it has triggers (sort of). But the PS4 controller still has the problem of no removable batteries so that it has to be connected via USB cable to the console to recharge and I have found that re-charging seems to be needed more frequently than the Xbox One / 360.
Verdict – Improved but still not as good as X Box (but for me no longer a deal breaker)
ITEMS LISTED ABOVE FOR XBOX ONE COMPARED TO PS4
Item 1 Voice messages
I don’t have a head set for the PS4 and I don’t have a subscription to Play Station Plus. However, from what I can see it is similar to X Box One in that it has in game chat but no voice messages.
Item No 2 – Game Install Times. PS4 WINS hands down. Games install very quickly and this is in marked contrast to the X Box One.
Item No 3 – Compulsory install to Hard Drive. The PS4 is the same as the X Box One but this is greatly mitigated by the very quick install times.
Item 4 – Media Extender. The PS3 did have DLNA but I can’t see this on PS4.
Item 5 – Video on External Drives. I plugged 2 USB drives into the PS4, one formatted as FAT32 and the other as NTFS. It did not see either drive.
Item 6 – Hard Drive size. PS4 has the same size hard Drive as X Box One but the big difference in favour of PS4 is that, unlike the X Box One, the PS4 uses a standard SATA Hard Drive and you can self-install a bigger drive. There are plenty of “How To” guides on line. More importantly, it does not void the warranty and Sony has a place to download the recovery software if you swap in a bigger drive http://us.playstation.com/support/systemupdates/ps4/new-install/
On the other hand the PS4, like X Box One does not yet support attached external drives.
Item 7 – Access to Home Network attached computers. From what I can see, the PS4 lacks this function as well. The Xbox one interacts with the iPad App and no doubt the PS4 does similar things but I want to be able to stream pictures, video, and music from my computer over my home network – just like X Box 360 and PS3.
GAME PLAY
Comparing Laura Croft Tomb Raider Definitive Edition on both consoles, the video quality, load times (apart from initial install) and general game play seem to me to be all but identical.
INITIAL SET UP
The PS4 was easier to set up and the initial update was smaller. But this is not important as you only do it once and the X Box One has a Kinect that adds to the set up.
X Box Live vs. PlayStation Plus
You now need to pay for on line gaming on both consoles but as I do not have PlayStation Plus I can’t really comment. Also, for obvious reasons, it is hard to get an unbiased opinion on line. I will assume that they are about equal.
CONCLUSION
This is my opinion only and it does not take into account the new non gaming things that the XBox One in particular can do (most of which don’t work in Australia in any case).
Both XBox One and PS4 need a number of updates to equal the functionality of the Xbox 360 and PS3.
However if you only want to play video games, at this stage, I am slightly in favour of the PS4 but not enough to make me switch my X Box Live subscription or pay for both.
It is just far too early to make any drastic decisions and whether or not I decide to pay for PlayStation Plus and / or continue to pay for X Box Live will depend on what updates are provided and how fast they are implemented.
If you are buying your very first console to play games only, and you do not have friends that are using a particular console that you might want to play with on line, and you don’t to want to wait to see what happens with updates/ improvements, I have to say that the PS4 seems a little bit better. (Note – this is based on the much slower initial game install times on X Box One. If XBox fixes this, then I would say they are about even.)
In other words, pick the console that your friends are using.Otherwise stick with your existing Xbox 360 or your PS3, particularly if you already have an Xbox Live / PlayStation Plus subscription and / or most of your friends remain on the old consoles.
Kinect
Finally, I should mention that at first I always used the Kinect voice commands but after a few weeks this became less frequent and about he only one I now use is “snap / unsnap” and I don’t use this very much. The only other regular use of Kinect I make is the automatic face recognition to sign into X Box Live. A cheaper XBox One without Kinect would not make much difference to the gaming experience but would make it price competitive with PS4. If games eventually come out that really require a Kinect, then you could buy one as an optional extra.