Which console? Xbox one or PS4

motorguy

Xbox are introducing backwards compatability on the One with 360 games. In your position, that would probably be the deal breaker for me

http://www.xbox.com/en-us/xbox-one/backward-compatibility

One thing i would say is get the 1TB XBox One - 500GB fills up surprisingly quickly.

For the record, i've a PS4, XBox One, and an Alienware 13 gaming laptop

AndyBSG

I've got both machines and have to say that if i'm perfectly honest there really isn't much to choose between them.

Last gen I also had both machines and found that each one was very different so there were definitely good reasons to own one over the other but this gen it's very hard to choose between them so i'll list some bullet points.

- The X-Box is quieter but there is a new PS4 coming out which is much more efficient

- Both have stupidly small internal HDD's so i'd recommend buying the model with the smallest HDD and accepting that you'll need to upgrade it and it's much simpler to do this with a PS4(replacing the X Box one invalidates the warranty)

- The X-Box is a much bigger and heavier console and lays flat. The PS4 can lay flat or vertical

- The PS4 is the more powerful machine. Exactly how much of a difference that makes is debatable as most 3rd part titles will just be ported over to each console so differences so far seem to be negligible

- The PS4 does seem to have a lot more games that run at 60fps with 1080p while the X-Box seems to settle on 780p or 900p. Whether this is because it really can't run at full 1080p with 60fps or will change once developers are more familiar with utilising the hardware properly remains to be seen

- The controllers for both consoles are much better than last gen but it mainly comes down to personal preference. Battery life on both is poor but I find with a charging dock and a spare controller I never get caught out with both controllers being flat.

- X Box does now have free backward compatibility which is a bonus but, in all honesty, I rarely spend time playing last gen games as it seems a backward step.

Overall, if I had to give up one of the two consoles i'd probably stick with the PS4 and bin the X-Box as the PS4 just seems a better machine for gaming and I don't really use the Kinect on the X-Box which is the major advantage it has.

DCFC79

To add extra storage to either console you can add a portable hard drive, obviously depends if you like having a hard drive plugged in or have the space for 1.

d70cw6

pc master race reporting in!

techno12

I'd go for a PS4.

It's not really any more expensive than the XBox One (eg was £269.99 including the new Batman at Zavvi the other day).

It's substantially more powerful, has a great controller with cool features (speaker, light, touchpad) - though the battery life isn't the best so needs to be recharged every 8hrs of play or so. I just use my mobile's charger overnight.

Also, it's hammering the XBox One sales-wise, and the opinion on neogaf (fanboys galore on there!) is that PS4 has 'won' this generation.

Of course, it's mainly down to the exclusives, so if you prefer what's on Xbox One then go for that.

PenguinJim

techno12 wrote: »

[The PS4 is] not really any more expensive than the XBox One (eg was £269.99 including the new Batman at Zavvi the other day).

Welcome to MoneySavingExpert! I can see you're new here, so let me share a moneysaving tip that I can see you have yet to discover!

Let's say there is a mobile phone + contract, call it Contract A, that costs £50 to start, and £35/month over 24 months.

Then there's another Contract B, which offers the same mobile phone, and almost exactly the same monthly inclusions (the difference is negligible), and costs £100 to start and £25/month over 24 months.

Now, I can see that you think Contract A is much cheaper. But when we plan our finances at MSE, what we do is look at the total cost, not simply the cost of the very first payment.

So Contract A will cost £890, and Contract B will cost £700. As you can see, while you thought Contract A was cheaper, it did end up costing over 25% more in total!

We can apply this style of moneysaving, using a rather unfashionable mathematical process known as "addition", to many purchases. For example, as was described in several posts in this thread which you seemed to skip, a console that is £50 more expensive but where all the games cost £5-10 less and the annual subscription is £5-10 cheaper will quickly become a cheaper option - for example, if you buy eight games a year, you will likely break even in the first year, and enjoy cheaper years for however long you keep the console after that.

(Coincidentally enough, this is why PCs are much cheaper for gaming. Larger initial down-payment results in a massively reduced total cost over the first 2-3 years. Simple MSE logic shows that this is the best financial choice, just as we apply it to loans, mortgages, pensions, investments etc.)

If you need any more moneysaving advice, techno12, we'll be delighted to help!

Edit:

techno12 wrote: »

[The PS4 is] substantially more powerful

It's a noticeable improvement over the last generation, that's for sure. Quick comparison pic of GTAV on PS3 and PS4.

sekrapa

Its been a very long time since I used a PC for games, going back to Medal of Honor: Allied Assault days, when I built my own PC.

The only problem I have with PC games is that you may need to purchase new equipment down the line to play the games, ie the latest graphics card, more memory etc, whereas a console will always be the same, so a PS4 game will play on all PS4 machines with no additional upgrades.

I do like the idea of just putting in the game disc and playing the game with no install - but apparently that is not the case with this generation of consoles.

I really want the games box downstairs on the main TV, as the only chance I get to play is when everyone has gone to bed, so the main TV is the only spare one to use, the computer being in my daughters room.

It would need to go in a TV corner unit, thats the reason why I was looking at consoles rather than a PC. They seem to have come on a long way since my PC days, so now its a 3 horse race.

Oh my head hurts in deciding what to do. I will probably now wait until either Fallout 4 or Start Wars comes out before making a final decision.

DCFC79

You buy which 1 your comfortable with, you can get the Xbox Live subscription cheap these days, it was £19 the other day.

As you have an Xbox 360 im guessing you have a gold subscription so id download the free Xbox One games for this month and the following months until you decide which 1 you want. Cant complain with free games, some might be suitable for the kids.

PenguinJim

sekrapa wrote: »

Its been a very long time since I used a PC for games, going back to Medal of Honor: Allied Assault days, when I built my own PC.

The only problem I have with PC games is that you may need to purchase new equipment down the line to play the games, ie the latest graphics card, more memory etc, whereas a console will always be the same, so a PS4 game will play on all PS4 machines with no additional upgrades.

Wow! In that case you'll be pleased to hear that instead of continuing to double in performance and requirements every few years, 3D performance and its requisite hardware has been reaching its plateau over the last ten years. For example, if you bought a 8800GTS in 2006 (a mid-range graphics card released between the 360 and the PS3 launches), it still would have been able to run the 2013 release of Tomb Raider at medium settings up to 60FPS. (It targeted 30FPS on 360/PS3. Long story short: it missed.)

If you bear in mind the slightly-odd in-order triple-core CPU setup of the 360 and the !!!!wittedly-designed PS3, you can see that, as developers learned their way around these architectures, games significantly improved in performance on those consoles over nine years (although they never caught up to the level of a mid-range graphics card of a similar age).

Now bear in mind that the Xbox One and the PS4 are precisely x86-64 machines. There's nothing to learn about how to develop for them. They have already reached their peak performance - there's no unused potential left in the hardware. Unlike last-gen, there's nowhere for the new consoles to go but where they are right now. (In theory, "Windows 10" on One will improve its performance. In practice, it'll still be ~PS4 levels and it still won't improve over time.)

So if you're worried about paying for hardware upgrades around 2020 due to unsatisfactory/unchanging game performance compared with today, then that requirement removes the Xbox One and the PS4 from your shortlist! And, with their one-year warranties, you'll likely be buying new One/PS4 hardware in a few years anyway - just without any performance benefit. If you choose to get a new graphics card, it can enhance your entire PC catalogue, and can mostly be funded by selling your old one - a replacement PS4 will just cost money and you're not likely to get much for your old broken one! (PC component warranties tend to vary between 3 and 10 years.)

Take a looksee at some ITX cases and ideas here. Note that there are ITX versions of both the GTX 960 and GTX 970 (I'd suggest Nvidia for graphics due to the lower power requirements/heat, and the GTX 960 should be ideal for you.).

Of course, despite what you've said is important to you, you might still want a console. Buying something, especially a hobby item, doesn't have to make perfect logical sense. We're not robots!

PenguinJim

Oh! Sorry, I forget this is a relatively new development in mainstream gaming, but you could always stream to your TV. For example, Steam Link. Then you wouldn't need a PC anywhere near your corner unit. It could go under the sofa, or in your workshop, or in your Tuscany holiday villa, for example.