Topic: The everything Xbox thread

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@ThanosReXXX Nah, I think my metaphor is better. The OPTIONS that come with the two are more or less identical. That's the dilemma MS is facing. That's why people call them "the PC twins", PS4 and X1. The hardware itself is virtually identical in every way (except one looks nice and the other looks like an Eraser made of recycled milk bottles spray painted black, but hey...) The difference is literally the places they can take you that the other can't. I.E. the games they can run.

There's a few key differences in hardware:
-The controller (we agree on X being superior. Forget the Ponies!)
-The X1 has ultra BD player. Big miss for Sony, but I'm not sure it's a huge selling point.
-X1 has the Dolby Atmos (for all 3000 people that spent kilobucks on Atmos, plus are interested in games, plus aren't playing on PC.) (Atmos Headphone as a $15 plugin is pretty nice though! I like that feature! More natural than Windows Sonic, and PS has no built in virtual surround.) HOWEVER, PS and Switch both support standard USB audio, so you can plug ANY DAC into it that supports USB audio. XBox does NOT, so you're stuck with optical/hdmi out. So for audio I give it an even tie.

And....that's about it.

So PS4 can take you to a lot of very desirable exclusive destinations X1 can't. X1 can go to some ok but not amazing places PS4 can't. Though X1 can take you to the past if you're so inclined, while PS4 can't. Or at least select locations in the past. I'm beyond thrilled at my return to Assassin's Creed and Jade Empire, so I'm biased. But if I could pick ONLY one? Too many games I'd miss not having a PS. Even if it's "A box to play Mari...err....Ratchet on." I wouldn't really miss many games not having an X. However I love playing multi-plats on the X more.

Point is, the naysayers absolutely have a strong point. Two almost identical machines, details aside, one goes more places.....it's kind of an easy pick. Unless time travel to the past is your jam. As a digital ecosystem, I do think, long term, X is superior. For NOW. Who knows what they break later.

"Lets not focus on the cars"
This is the XBox thread. If it didn't focus on cars, what would there be to focus on? We can use a Kalashnikov vs. S&W analogy I guess? I kid, I kid....

I'm guessing you have pretty different tastes in gaming than most of the Nintendo market that crosses over with the Sony market well. Fantasy/Fictional adventures be it RPG or acton adventure are the nom du jour in both circles with a secondary taste for Japanese content. PS exclusives are loaded with that concept. XBox exclusives do tend to be shooting/racing related. And moreover, seem to be fairly generic when it comes to shooters. Halo had strong identity, but so much of the rest is "a good time" but nothing special. Long story short, I have some familiarity, and that's been part of the MS Game Studios culture since the late 90's unfortunately. But the X-Box (0) DID have a lot of that other content. They lost their way. Funny thing is you're not much of an online competitive player which is the one more unique proposition MS seems to focus on.

For MS fans, unlike a certain supervillain's Sony kryptonite, it's not about not being able to forgive MS, it's just about MS not offering anything that excites them so far. Put another way, I bought the 1X because I wanted a PC-like environment without messing with keyboards and parts failures. The 1X does give me something unique that PS does not give me. But if I I already had a PS4 Slim and wasn't looking at Pro or X, would S really be appealing at all? I'm no Sony "fan". I have no nostalgia for them at all (PS3 was my first Playstation, and I bought it largely to fill the role the 1X now fills as I shifted from PC, and it was bad enough at 3rd party I bought a 360), I hate their controllers with a burning passion, I gravely dislike their UIs, and they stole my credit card causing massive stress and problem. No fanboyism here. But their consoles are robust, reliable machines, that play a lot of games I like and can't get elsewhere, and there are places they do things better and places they do things worse than XBox.

MS on the other hand builds well designed but poorly made controllers that fall apart if you look at them funny, and the RROD, they created Windows 8, and force me to reboot on 10, while removing features. I can't say their reputation is stellar either.

But, 1X aside, if I look at a 1S and I look at a PS4S.....ignroing the somewhat niche movie player...just for gaming....what major incentives would you tell someone (that doesn't have an old 360 game collection they want to play) a 1S is worth getting for? What would MS tell them? Right now, pre-E3, there's not much they can tell them. (Post E3 may be different. I'm hoping for that Elite v2. But PS4 is getting that $200 Scuf ) I'm also hoping for announcements on vastly expanding Game Pass. Right now it's anemic, and that's being kind. But done right that could be their silver bullet. It's a golden opportunity and they're idiots if they throw it away. A subscription to a big catalog of play any time games would be golden. Heck, $60/mo for access to the ENTIRE XBox library? Or even ALL new (or not new) titles? I'd be in. It'd be cheaper than buying games and I'd try tons of stuff I'd never try otherwise. $10/mo for a few exclusives and some ancient bargain bin games feels uninviting though. Game Pass played right can shoot them to #1, or go the way of The iPaq.

I do think "superior online service" is an overplayed card from the X360 era (as much as RROD is overplayed.) PS4's online service has been perfectly stable after the year 1 hiccups. And due to being more popular tends to have faster matchmaking. And both services seem to inexplicably drop my download speeds for patches to low speeds in single digits while going up to about 250/Mb/s at peak) so it's not like MS offers unlimited bandwidth for transfers while Sony chokes. They both choke for long durations. (We won't talk about Nintendo here.... Wired, wireless, same paltry speeds and frequent disconnects.) I've actually had more random disconnects on XBL than on PSN in For Honor. Maybe the online service, may be Ubisoft, but yeah "best online" is a little outdated, both seem similar now.

Still I'm most excited about Microsoft's E3 this year. Sony's laying low, and Nintendo, we know their hand now (a good one with Pokemon though....way better than "Smash mostly." )

"Besides that, it has the superior controller, much better/more varied AV output, 4K media streaming and game upscaling (vs only HDR support "for select titles" on Sony's base model), more memory, larger capacity hard drive options and let's not forget that the One S is available at a lower price."

Superior controller, yes. More varied AV output? How? 4k upscaling....well...I suppose that can be a plus? I would think anybody with a 4k TV has a decent enough scaler in the TV already, if not an amazing scaler in their receiver or processor. I recall leaving the scaling from my 360/PS3 to my Anchor scaler in my Denon AVR as it did a WAY better job (despite running hot) than the bare consoles. Unlike the 1X (and Pro) I don't think it does supersampling with the 4k rendering, so it's not going to benefit 1080 much, and 4k...I wonder how the output of the scaler compares to a more serious decoder up the chain? IIRC it uses the infamous "checkerboard" scaling. But yeah, I forgot about that, that's a potential plus to 4kTV owners (of course those 4kTV owners may well have PS4 games already after MS wet themselves on the 1 launch, so a Pro may be more practical for them.) 4k media streaming may have value (for the subset that has internet capable of it....which does go back to one thing: The X1 ecosystem still assumes very high end internet connection. PS4 plays a little friendly with poor internet....that's a major point. I'd have never touched an X1 with my old internet, while PS4 was happy enough.) 1S and Slim seem to go for similar pricing around here.

As for you being a hardcore MS fanboy...yeah...you and Gatorboi come to mind when I think of the XBox brand right after the duuuuuudebros. OTOH, I can't forget that Playstation got into consoles to be in consoles (and slap Yamauchi around), even if it became a trojan horse for their media formats, while MS got into consoles to use it as a trojan horse for Windows as an entertainment platform and to cement the chokehold of the DirectX API and Windows development on the industry. It has some pretty ugly origins, and I'm certain they haven't gone anywhere (Windows Store.... this means you.) I.E. I trust Playstation will focus on the games market to focus on the games market. I never know what MS will do as their intent was never games but to use games as a gateway drug for their other platform services. And they currently are using it as a cloud services trojan via their and EA's very concerted moves.

I think the "QTE/Walking Simulator" thing is also overplayed (like "weaker online" and "RROD!") They have some such games. PS3 was plagued by them. But it really hasn't been that way on PS4. Quantic Dream's games are like that, but that's just what the studio does: Interactive novels. Even GoW isn't like that anymore supposedly (I haven't played it yet.) The Order (also haven't played it yet) was their rock bottom on that. Now it's all SoulsBorne again and again.

But, moving away from the XBox Love fest: Yeah, you seriously need to get a Switch. PSXBox are great, but lets face it, Switch is where it's at.

(yeah, I'll have to remember the invite next time I use the console. I've been doing Switch mostly now...I fire up the X for 5 minutes to manage some setup things or test new games I bought, but I'm all about Switch ATM.....finished up DQ:B (finally!) except the final fight (might skip it, it's annoying.), onto South Park and Xenoblade (and Sushi Strikers.)