Next Gen Consoles - Don't Get One

 As some of you may have heard, there are brand-new consoles out there for us to spend our money on. Recently released where both the Xbox One, colloquially named the “X-bone,” and the PlayStation 4, called the PS4.  Since both consoles were released this past November, we’ve had plenty of time to take a look at which is better. However, I’m here to tell you that you shouldn’t buy a next-gen console, at least not yet. Let’s start by talking about the consoles themselves. Since the systems have similar hardware stats, let’s focus on the differences.

The Consoles

 Both systems hardware capabilities include Blu-Ray players (FINALLY, XBOX!), game DVR, 8GB of RAM, 500GB hard drive space, 8 core processors, cloud storage, play while downloading, remote download, multiple account access, no required internet connection, no used game fee,  and no digital game sharing.

Features that both systems offer are almost identical as well: no backwards compatibility (this is a big deal so I’ll emphasize it), there is no backwards compatibility. They do offer game chat, rechargeable wireless controllers, motion sensing controllers, voice commands, online subscription services, USB ports, Live streaming, Web browsing/connection, HDMI output, and neither unit is regionally locked. For the majority of gamers, these are the things that matter.

Most of the online features between the two consoles are different. However, there is one thing that they both share: online play must be done through subscribing to their online networks, PlayStation Plus and Xbox Live Gold.

Let’s talk about differences (edited list from IGN):

Feature	PS4	Xbox One
Price	$400	$500
Game DVR	Yes, PS+ subscription not required	Yes, XBL subscription Required
RAM	DDR5	DDR3
GPU	AMD Radeon – 1152 Shaders	AMD  Radeon – 768 Shaders
Peak GPU Shader Throughput	1.84 TeraFLOPS/s	1.31 TeraFLOPS/s
External Storage	None	Yes, USB
Removable Hard Drive	Yes	No
Mandatory Game Installs	No	Yes
USB 3.0	2 Ports	3 Ports
A/V	HDMI Output	HDMI Input/Output
IR	No	IR Out
Power Supply	Internal	Power Brick

Online Apps and Features:

Feature	PS4	Xbox One
Netflix	Free App	XBL Gold Required
Amazon Instant Video	Free App	XBL Gold Required
Redbox Instant	Free App	XBL Gold Required
Hulu Plus	Free App	XBL Gold Required
Twitch	Free App	XBL Gold Required
CrunchyRoll	Free App	No
Skype	Possible	XBL Gold Required
Game DVR	Free App	XBL Gold Required
Streaming Game Video	Free App	Via Twitch App
IGN App	Free App	No
Web Browser	Yes	IE
ESPN	No	XBL Gold Required
NFL App	No	XBL Gold Required

Look at all that! When you break it down, it’s hard to choose which console to buy. The features are pretty comparable… what one has, the other doesn’t. One might have better games, but worse gamers; the other might have better online features but require you to pay for it. It’s all difficult enough to choose which to buy… in the end, I don’t think you should buy either of them.

That’s right, don’t buy either of them, and here’s why:

Backwards Compatibility

As I’ve already mentioned above, neither station is featuring backwards compatibility. This probably won’t hold true forever, as it didn’t with their predecessors, but for now, this is not a reason for you to buy this console. When my friend’s little brother told me he spent his X-mas money on an XBone because his old 360 was “dying” I laughed and said “Bad reason, since you can’t play your games on the new console.” Why he even tried to convince me of that is a strange thing in itself… but whatever. If he’d simply said “because I wanted it” I would have been more okay with his decision.

Ultimately, we want to be able to play our game libraries on our new consoles and get new life out of the games. For now, however, we’re stuck playing both consoles… for people with other responsibilities than gaming, this can make life difficult.

Console companies usually offer a feature to digitally play previous games which takes both hard drive space and emulation software. Since someone is building these programs, that usually means you have to pay for it. How many of you like to buy your games twice? As I said, this is not a good reason to buy a next-gen console, so don’t do it.

Hardware Issues

On launch, Xbox 360 featured as much as a 30% failure rate. One article states that as many as 68 out of 100 consoles coming out of manufacturing were nonfunctional. For the PlayStation 3, this article shows failure rate was much less, about 10%, which is still more risky than I want to deal with. What this tells me pretty clearly is that all the hardware kinks won’t get worked out for the first couple of years. I hope that these companies have a better plan going into this generation of consoles but I wouldn’t expect it. Any one of you that has worked for a corporation can tell me how forward-thinking they are… and it’s not very much. Really… why buy this console now?

Cost

On launch, game consoles are EXPENSIVE. I’m not saying that consoles are more expensive now than they used to be, since that’s not true, for the most part. Most consoles that have gained wide popularity have hovered around the $400 mark, with the exception of the Wii and the Gamecube, both cheaper options than the hard-hitters these days. Today’s money is one thing to spend $400 dollars on a console, but back 10 years ago would have meant something different. For the most part, these consoles have had costs that have risen along with inflation. Unfortunately, our wages have not. According to a few different articles, the median annual income since 2000 has fallen by 7%, not increased like is typical over a decade.

Since the recession in 2008, there has been both a sharp decline in wages, and an increase in inflation. Depending on whom you ask, our inflation is between 4 and 14 percent. Even the low end of that spectrum is considered high.  Prices for consoles typically show their first drop around Christmas time of the year following launch. This is not something that’s really all that easy to figure out though. On one hand, XBone and PS4 consoles have already said they won’t have any price cuts until 2015. So unless you want to sell one of your children, I’d avoid getting one of these consoles right away.

Game Library

From where I’m sitting, the best reason not to get a new console on launch is that the game libraries are typically atrocious. Meaning you don’t want to get stuck with only one game for the next 6 months, unless you’re one of those gamers that only sticks with one or two games a year, even though you’re probably not.

Regardless, let’s look at the games available on each system so far (taken from IGN):

Italics are console exclusives – released nowhere else

PS4	Both	Xbox One
DC Universe Online	Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag	Crimson Dragon
Warframe	Battlefield 4	Dead Rising 3
Don't Starve	Call of Duty: Ghosts	Forza 5
FinalFantasy XIV: Realm Reborn	EA sports UFC	Killer Instinct
Killzone Shadow Fall	FIFA 14	Lococycle
Infamous Second Son	Just Dance 2014	Powerstar Golf
Knack	Madden 25	Ryse: Son of Rome
Tekken Revolution	Need For Speed: Rivals	Titanfall
The Playroom	NBA 2k14	Zoo Tycoon
Blacklight: Retribution	NBA Live 14	Zumba Fitness World Party
Resogun	Peggle 2
The Pinball Arcade	Plants vs Zombies Garden Warfare
Flower	Thief
	Skylanders Swapforce

Have you read any of the reviews for these games? I’ve read a couple, and they suffer from typical AAA game problems. Some of them missed the mark entirely, others just some of the time. The point is that these game libraries aren’t exactly spectacular. As much as I enjoy Zumba Fitness World Party, I don’t think I want to be playing it for 6 months. Additionally, how many of these games are exclusive to those consoles? The majority of these games on that are found on multiple platforms are playable on PC, a good argument for becoming a PC gamer.

Conclusion

Since this is already rather long, I’ll have a short conclusion. These consoles are pretty similar in most characteristics… make the decision which one you’d rather have, and then wait to buy it. At the very least, I will probably wait 2 years to purchase either of these consoles. In this time, it should be more clear which technology is better, which console has the better games, and which one is  going to be more gamer-friendly. If it weren’t for Titanfall, I’d say pick up a PS4, so we’ll wait and see if that game ends up being any good.

Until next time, enjoy the games you have, and beat the ones you haven’t beaten yet… since you probably don’t beat games anymore.

- Jack

Tuesday Games!

E3 or the Electronic Entertainment Expo, was back in June. What stole the show then was information regarding the release of Microsoft's and Sony's newest consoles, the Xbox One and the Playstation 4, respectively. Because of the notoriously bad presentation of the Xbox One, these "next gen" consoles stole the show... but what about that games they showed there? Let's take some time to go over a few of the games that really caught my eye. These are the games I'm most looking forward to for the next generation of consoles.

The Order: 1886

This game caught my eye because it takes place in a Victorian Era England and features knights fighting Demons. There are so many ways that this is cool. First, the Victorian Era has a type of character and ambiance that is very appealing to a lot of people. It's even spawned it's own separate subculture, but notably it's a very gothic setting that appeals to a lot of people. There already exists other fictional universes that feature both gothic themes and supernatural themes quite heavily. In this case, the main characters appear to be normal humans, but with a twist. If you watch the trailer and listen, one of the men is called "Galahad." So this story isn't just about humans vs demons, it's a King Arthur story. Could be pretty awesome. The game is being developed by Ready at Dawn. It will be released on the Playstion 4.

Dying Light

From the brilliant minds that brought us Dead Island, Techland has revealed that Dying Light is their next big project. They showed the above video at E3 and the reception seems to have been pretty decent. This game is being described as a mixture of Dead Island and Mirror's Edge. For some people, these two references mean nothing, so let me explain: Dead Island is a first-person action-adventure game where the goal is to get off an island invested by different kinds of zombies. You can customize weapons along the way, use firearms, and level-up a character. It gets pretty great when you can swing a huge electric hammer at a zombie's head. Mirror's Edge is a first-person action-adventure game that features Parkour as the main mode of travel. It's set in a dystopian future where you play a courier for the resistance movement. Since you don't really have any guns in the game, it's important to evade capture and bullets. I admit that I'm a sucker for zombie games, I've owned quite a few in the time that they've been popular. Indeed, I'm not even tired of them yet, they just seem to be getting better. Dying Light will be released on both consoles.

Warframe

Warframe looks like it could be something quite different than we've seen recently. Based on the trailer, it looks like it could be start of a great new franchise. The studio in charge of this one isn't one I've heard of, Digital Extremes. However, the founder of this company was one of the guys who gave us the Unreal series, so I'm not going to judge early. From what I can tell, it's a far-future action game that features at least 2 different factions. One is highly militarized while the other appears to be some ancient technological species with far superior weapons and armaments. I don't know if you've gathered, but I love sci-fi. This will be released for the Playstation 4.

Star Wars: Battlefront

Battlefront was a franchise of Star Wars games deeply loved by many, myself included. I remember fondly rushing up the Jedi Temple doing my best to execute order 66. Or, my personal favorite, destroying as many droids as possible with my clone trooper trying to hold the line during the battle of Kashyyyk. It has been 10 years since a new one of these games has been released thanks, in part, to developers closing and the rights to the game shifting hands. Finally, EA has announced that they have DICE working on the next installment of this series. DICE is responsible for bringing us Battlefield 1942, so I'm fairly sure this game is in capable hands. Battlefront is a first-person shooter similar to the Battlefield or the Call of Duty franchises but set in the Star Wars universe. Really looking forward to hearing more about this one! It will probably be released on all major systems.

Titanfall

I'm really excited about this game. Probably the most excited about all of them. This is a new franchise being developed by a company called Respawn Entertainment. This company was founded by the two guys who brought us the original Call of Duty from the company Infinity Ward. For those of you unfamiliar, this was the company that made the good call of duties up until Modern Warfare 2. Titanfall is going to be a mech-based game that reminds me a lot of how I imagine the Battletech series should have been. I liked the Mechwarrior games, but this is a new take on all that. You can enter and exit mechs at will. Particularly pleasing to me is the idea that even infantry can be deadly, and the battlefield isn't dominated by just mechs. The game play looks phenomenal, and the level of action outpaces most of their competitors. As a debut game, this certainly has my attention. It will be released on the Xbox 360 and Xbox One.

I skipped a bunch of pretty good games that were revealed at E3. Honorable mention games are: Arma 3, Batman: Arkham Origins, DayZ Standalone, Splinter Cell: Blacklist, Dead Rising 3, and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

-Jack