Xbox One Console Thread

[Ferine]

So which one do you guys think will eventually be the one to own?

Based on current trajectory, the PS4 for me.

When all the details about the Xbox One started to come out I was genuinely opposed to a lot of it, but now they've stripped most of that out. As such I've transitioned from negativity to indifference. Without the controversy it's a pretty boring proposition, headlining features and games I'm not all that interested in as its primary concern seems to be chasing established success; in a sound bite, a console from the company that created a dedicated Halo studio.

Now it would be fair to say that the PS4 isn't inherently any more exciting than the Xbox One, but my indifference to the latter hinges on the existence of the former: all the things I like about Microsoft's machine, Sony's seemingly either matches or betters. So it isn't that I view the Xbox One as bad so much as redundant when there's a cheaper, and ostensibly improved, model available.

Of course the real differentiator is software. We all know that the vast majority of games will be multi-format — with almost every third-party 'exclusive' being timed — but based on past experience I feel I can rely on Sony's studios to provide me with a consistent, varied catalogue of exclusives in a similar way that there's a silent guarantee to buying Nintendo hardware. For my money Microsoft simply don't have the promise to compare to the SCE Worldwide Studios: Forza isn't for me, Halo 4 was a disappointment, it doesn't seem like Rare will ever sneak out another Nuts & Bolts and I don't even know what's going on with Lionhead.

As I said, this is all based on current trajectory. Maybe all the launch PS4s will melt. Maybe Microsoft will suddenly invest in a bunch of curio titles reminiscent of the PS1 era. I can't tell the future, just take a stab at where it seems to be headed.

[Hello Goaty ♥]

Its definately going to come down to PR and Marketing.

And.. so far we have seen a few things.

With the Xbox and Xbox 360 Microsoft totally flooded the market with Advertising of all sorts and Sponsorship.

- Fairly similar to when Sony used to push the Playstation on TV a lot, with their " LOG " adverts and such.

Its all about putting your Brandname about everywhere.

But Im not sure why it backfired with Dreamcast?

Gawd knows how much that cost Sega!

[NEG]

Any more bad stuff to mention?

It looks like a 80s VCR

[Hello Goaty ♥]

It looks like a 80s VCR

do you think so?

[footle]

Maybe savaged is not the word but ive definitely read a lot saying its the 2nd best out of the ds4 and itself. Its good news on the CPU, but the GPU is still sadly a lot worse. But yeah, more mhz the better.

This, by the way, is the full extent of the discussion.

Which is a shame because we've got two different approaches here:

- slightly faster clocked CPU/GPU with a lower latency ram & bigger local cache;

- lower clocked CPU/GPU with more GPU resources than is strictly needed for graphics in an attempt to go all in on GPU compute, and more ram bandwidth.

It'll be interesting to see which one, if either, compensates best in the short and long term for the choice of a weak AMD CPU architecture.

[Boozy The Clown]

http://news.xbox.com/2013/09/games-ryse-combat-vidoc

Stuff about Ryse.

[footle]

This, by the way, is the full extent of the discussion.

Which is a shame because we've got two different approaches here:

- slightly faster clocked CPU/GPU with a lower latency ram & bigger local cache;

- lower clocked CPU/GPU with more GPU resources than is strictly needed for graphics in an attempt to go all in on GPU compute, and more ram bandwidth.

It'll be interesting to see which one, if either, compensates best in the short and long term for the choice of a weak AMD CPU architecture.

Engadget's comment section is great though.

- a 9% boost in frequency won't do anything.

- a 9% boost in frequency will mean all xbones will fail due to overheating within a year.

I wonder how much this engineering decision has been made for MS in a panic over the last few months? I could imagine that the lower yield rumours are true with the caveat that they're having to discard more than they expected because they've had to make the decision to run both the CPU and GPU at higher frequencies (as opposed to lower yield simply because of the size of the chip).

[Boozy The Clown]

[Super Craig]

Engadget's comment section is great though.

- a 9% boost in frequency won't do anything.

- a 9% boost in frequency will mean all xbones will fail due to overheating within a year.

I wonder how much this engineering decision has been made for MS in a panic over the last few months? I could imagine that the lower yield rumours are true with the caveat that they're having to discard more than they expected because they've had to make the decision to run both the CPU and GPU at higher frequencies (as opposed to lower yield simply because of the size of the chip).

Isn't it only an extra 150 MHz? Surely all the chips they make would be able to manage that?

[macosx]

Project Spark is the one for me. Looks like a next gen Disney toybox mode

[angel]

Engadget's comment section is great though.

- a 9% boost in frequency won't do anything.

- a 9% boost in frequency will mean all xbones will fail due to overheating within a year.

I wonder how much this engineering decision has been made for MS in a panic over the last few months? I could imagine that the lower yield rumours are true with the caveat that they're having to discard more than they expected because they've had to make the decision to run both the CPU and GPU at higher frequencies (as opposed to lower yield simply because of the size of the chip).

Well these cheap ass jaguar cpus go up to 2ghz apparantly, so MS were probably just making sure their final retail units cooled well enough to handle the bump up. There's so much we dont know here yet, i wonder if either console have a "free" upscaling of the output like the 360 did. I was mainly a 360 gamer for about 7 years, and loved that im always running in 1080p. Now the new consoles are running half the games at 720p again, whats going on there?

[footle]

Isn't it only an extra 150 MHz? Surely all the chips they make would be able to manage that?

Depends. It might be they wanted to be able to sell the chips that would only scale to 1.6GHz. Bear in mind that the likes of intel, AMD, nvidia normally sell very similar processors at different frequencies, with those sold at a lower frequency being sold at that frequency because they've proven unstable at higher.

@angel: the fact the underlying jaguar architecture has been designed to scale up to 2ghz has very little to do with what that architecture can sensibly run at, to a tight price and stability target, as part of a custom Soc.

[jonamok]

Good news (I guess) that the release hardware will be a little quicker.

But, seriously, not sure there's ever been a console release as continously ridiculous as this. It feels like watching a reality show on some shit Sky channel where every little advance, or slip, or faux pas is played out for the masses. Compared to how Sony is (thus far) serenely going about its business, the ongoing Bone shenanigans are naff, crass and a little bit cringeworthy (but morbidly fascinating all the same).

If the Kardashians made a console...

[NecroMorrius]

Sometimes I feel like Rllmuk is Simon Cowell, leering at the nervous consoles as they stumble onstage. Every little personality quirk is quickly extrapolated and spun into a full-length dance routine for next week, while every miniscule falter is seized upon and used to crowbar a simplistic failstate narrative into the proceedings. Occasionally a mental angry Dad blusters on stage to point a finger at Simon Cowell and we all have a good laugh.

Nintendo is Amanda Holden

[macosx]

"I genuinely believe that I didn't enjoy Moz's post.

I didn't enjoy it... I loved it!"

Xbone might be the Susan Boyle in that in actual performance might exceed first impressions...

[NecroMorrius]

"I dreamed a dream of always online"

[Broker]

Well these cheap ass jaguar cpus go up to 2ghz apparantly, so MS were probably just making sure their final retail units cooled well enough to handle the bump up. There's so much we dont know here yet, i wonder if either console have a "free" upscaling of the output like the 360 did. I was mainly a 360 gamer for about 7 years, and loved that im always running in 1080p. Now the new consoles are running half the games at 720p again, whats going on there?

I don't know what free up scaling is but very few current gen games run at 1080p properly, and most of them seem to be PS3 games?

[footle]

I don't know what free up scaling is but very few current gen games run at 1080p properly, and most of them seem to be PS3 games?

Microsoft put a scaler chip in the console, rather than let the TV do it. That's all.

[angel]

I don't know what free up scaling is but very few current gen games run at 1080p properly, and most of them seem to be PS3 games?

As above, and certain games are written around it..Halo 3, Reach, the CODS etc all run sub 720p but the box can scale the image to 1080p better than a TV set, for no overheads. So your PS3 runs most games in 720p, your 360 runs everything in 1080p.

My ideal scenario would be a free upscaler again, make the games at 720p so theyre nice and smooth, then scale em up.

[footle]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-xbox-one-cpu-speed-increased-in-production-hardware

Some more pictures and numbers that we won't understand, but will use to confirm our prejudices anyway.

[Skeeez]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-xbox-one-cpu-speed-increased-in-production-hardware

Some more pictures and numbers that we won't understand, but will use to confirm our prejudices anyway.

Blocked at my work. Can somone post the article text please?

[Bobbi Champagne Jr]

Going more off forum stuff, that german gameshow, neogaf etc. Ive seen complaints that the shoulder bumpers need a firm press and arent that responsive. The dpad isnt supposed to be great either, its low-set and sharp edged. Its much smaller than the ds4 and can feel cramped apparantly.

Just some stuff ive read, may be off base.

Here's a decent look at it, there's a link to the DS4 at the end.

[DocG]

As above, and certain games are written around it..Halo 3, Reach, the CODS etc all run sub 720p but the box can scale the image to 1080p better than a TV set, for no overheads. So your PS3 runs most games in 720p, your 360 runs everything in 1080p.

You do know upscalers don't magically make images look better, right? A 560p image upscaled to 1080p looks like a blurry 560p image. It doesn't look like a 1080p one. Also, it's not 'no overhead', it introduces some slight latency. Also also, this is functionally identical to the upscaler chip already present in your TV.

Where the Xbox was better than the PS3 was that it allowed the use of nonstandard sub-720p resolutions that couldn't be output to the TV that were upscaled to a standard res that could. Thus devs could trade resolution for frame rate. The PS3 couldn't easily replicate this. The PS4 presumably can, as it needs that tech to scale games to the Vita screen for remote play.

[CarloOos]

I'm really torn on this.

The biggest reason I want to jump straight into the next-gen is for Battlefield 4, and I've had a PS4 on pre-order for a few months now. Although the launch lineup of the One appeals to me more, I was taking solace in the money saved, the gorgeous looking indie games, and the common census that the multiplatform versions will run better.

However after resting on my laurels, I've just been (very) reliably informed that once you play Titanfall there's absolutely no question about it, you just have to go Xbox. Apparently it's a genuine system seller, the best MP since the glory days of CoD4. Big words, and I believe them. Plus what with it getting all the BF4 DLC early (not that big a deal, but y'know), along with Halo 5 and a new Horizon game on the... horizon.

And yet all the forum Battlefield guys are going PS4, and I'm sat here staring at my pre-order which has the console, the game, an extra pad and a years worth of PS+ for less than the price of an Xbox with the game on its own. Decisions.

[NecroMorrius]

Titanfall is coming out on PC and 360, and will probably come out on PS4 before too long. Unless MS stump up ungodly amounts of cash to make it a proper exclusive, which they should.

[NecroMorrius]

Where the Xbox was better than the PS3 was that it allowed the use of nonstandard sub-720p resolutions that couldn't be output to the TV that were upscaled to a standard res that could. Thus devs could trade resolution for frame rate. The PS3 couldn't easily replicate this. The PS4 presumably can, as it needs that tech to scale games to the Vita screen for remote play.

Dummy question - how did the PS3 do remote play if it couldn't do that easily?

[CarloOos]

There's not a single person who stills play games on their PC in any of my social circles, although there were several that used to. I know PC gaming makes a lot of sense and is generally unrivalled in many areas, and I used to adore it, but I do think the forum over-represents it as a proportion of gamers.

Anyway my PC gaming days are over, for various reasons (working from a Macbook Pro being the main one), and playing last-gen ports just feels like you're missing out. Like playing those enormous BF3 maps on 24-player console servers felt like missing out.

It's bound to be a next-gen exclusive for long enough to matter, surely a year or so at least?

[Cyhwuhx]

I'm really torn on this.  

 

The biggest reason I want to jump straight into the next-gen is for Battlefield 4, and I've had a PS4 on pre-order for a few months now.  Although the launch lineup of the One appeals to me more, I was taking solace in the money saved, the gorgeous looking indie games, and the common census that the multiplatform versions will run better.  

 

However after resting on my laurels, I've just been (very) reliably informed that once you play Titanfall there's absolutely no question about it, you just have to go Xbox.  Apparently it's a total system seller, the best MP since the glory days of CoD4.  Big words, and I believe them.  Plus what with it getting all the BF4 DLC early (not that big a deal, but y'know), along with Halo 5 and a new Horizon game on the... horizon.

 

And yet all the forum Battlefield guys are going PS4, and I'm sat here staring at my pre-order which has the console, the game, an extra pad and a years' worth of PS+ for less than the price of an Xbox with the game on its own.  Decisions.

Seems good enough a reason if you have to play Titanfall no matter what.

Do keep in kind it's not a launch title. So just sit back, watch the fanboys slug it out, and pick up whatever tickles your fancy most.

[DocG]

Dummy question - how did the PS3 do remote play if it couldn't do that easily?

Oh yeah. It's possible I'm talking out of my arse. You wouldn't use a scaler chip for remote play; you adjust the entire render pipeline to the right resolution, wouldn't you?

[BarryL85]

I've seen a couple of tweets saying the release date will be announced today GAME UK being one of them.

Who knows if it is legit ! Bit of a random day.