Forums » Smalltalk » Gamer folks, need opinions

Uuugh.

This has kept me up for the last hour. I need hardcore help.

I am looking to buy my third gaming console. I already own a Wii U(and an ancient PS2!), but now that I have a steady paycheck, I'm looking into purchasing either a PlayStation 4 or an Xbox One( S? )

But to be perfectly honest, I'm not sure what the pros & cons of either system entail.

I primarily want these games too:
-TES Skyrim
-Assassins Creed 2, Revelations, Brotherhood, Rogue
-Darksouls2
-Kingdom Hearts 3 if it actually is made????

I have a steam account, so I could get a few these on there, but my laptop isn't made for intense gaming! And it's getting older anyway. That is why I am considering getting one of the two mentioned systems.

So yes, anyone with experience for one or both of those consoles is highly appreciated. What do you have, why do you like it, and is it worth me looking into?

Also...can I still enjoy these games if I don't have an Xbox Live gold subscription...? Is the Playstation Network easy to use like the Nintendo Network? I'm still not entirely sure on those points.

I don't have those systems, but I think I can still offer advice.

Of those games, which ones are top priority? Why don't you sort those by priority and then which systems they play on. Obviously if one console completely dominates the top of that list, it should help you with your decision.

There are a couple of things to consider.

- Do you have friends you want to play online with, and if so which platform do they predominantly use?
- Are there any games from the older consoles that you're interested in playing? Xbox One has expanding backwards compatibility but PS4 doesn't.

For both systems, you need a subscription in order to access online features like multiplayer. Xbox Live Gold is $84.90 per 12 months, whereas Playstation Plus is $$69.95 per 12 months.

So depending on what's important to you, you can make a decision on which you'd prefer. Both play basically the same games, there's very little difference. I think it's all about personal preference.

In the long haul though, I want to recommend considering upgrading to a new gaming PC instead. The initial costs will be higher than a console's, but there are considerable pros to having a PC for gaming.

- You can usually get games much more cheaply on PC than you can on consoles. Steam sales is just one massive example. I own 150 games in my Steam library and I've only paid full price for maybe 5 or 6 titles over the past 10 years or so.
- When you add up console costs, accessories, the online subscriptions and the higher prices on games, you will end up spending more money on consoles than on a PC when we look at a 5 year picture.
- Components can be replaced to bring a PC rig back up to mandatory specifications to play next gen games. Whereas you need to buy an entirely new console a couple of years from now if you want the newest game, with a PC you can just swap one or two pieces of hardware and you're good to go, no fuss.
- There is no subscription necessary to play online, which saves a lot of money in the long haul.

The pro for consoles is that their hardware is static and their games are optimized for the same hardware, therefore you will get more consistent performance on consoles. On PC you have to play with settings in games to get optimized results (although I hardly find that a bother). You can also swap games for consoles at gaming stores (i.e. selling a use game and buying a used game whenever you like) whereas on PC you own the game basically forever.

I hope this was helpful!

If you're set on getting a console, and Skyrim is among your list of wants you might want to consider an XBox One. As a Playstation 4 owner myself, it breaks my heart to sell Sony out to Microsoft (not really, but I'm trying to be dramatic here), but XBox has mod support and PS4 is never likely to see the day due to Sony's iron gauntlet.

Kingdom Hearts is likely to be a Playstation exclusive, so you'll probably miss out there, but overall a lot of the games are multi-platform so no problem there. If you don't mind the lack of mod support (for Skyrim, that's practically criminal), then you might want to go with Playstation.

Played both consoles, love them both. PS4 is my favourite of the two simply because it has more of the quirky games I love on it.

Yes! You've both been super helpful! :B

To address the points Sanne makes up front, because I can:

-Yyyyyyyeeeeeesno? I've noticed over the years that my game preferences vary wildly from the majority of my friends, for the most part; and when our gaming preferences do come together, it's most often single player games or Nintendo-based ones! Super Smash Bros, Pokémon, newer Monster Hunter titles, &c. Even then, I'm not playing online very often. Monster Hunter is probably the only game I consistently play online, and even then I've been on a couple of months hiatus from it.

On that front I'm not worried or concerned about playing online with friends. I enjoy doing so, but it's not the primary reason I play video games. That is all for me, the Coppster.

-Backwards compatibility: I racked my brain on this little bit last night, but I didn't do a lot of research. But I mostly did was look at the games I really wanted to play to see if they were on the previous generation of consoles and the current ones--as Katia suggested, I've already prioritized the above game list! Any games from previous titles would include anything from the PS2 era(Spyro, KH, Portal Runner, Katamari, &c), so more research is needed there. My PS2 functions fine despite age, but unless I making a History of Gaming room, I probably don't need 50 console systems in my house!


On the subject of a gaming computers: I am very much aware of the overall savings in owning & maintaining one. And some point I really do want one! Aside from getting my life in order since I've moved back to Texas, the only thing currently stopping me from looking into building one is the fact that I don't have a place to put it in this house. Since I'm living with my grandparents, I think it's going to be a little inconvenient for them if I try to slap one down somewhere in our limited counter or table space. Even my room is lacking in surface area to set something up on. So, for the time being it's not really on my list of things to do this year(which is nearly over, hah!)

I'm not trying to make an excuse, I'm just trying to lay down the foundation for why I haven't gone ahead and started on one even though I've had an interest. I'm making pretty decent money, so I could probably go ahead and research into how one is built and get it done. It's just hard to stick down a computer when you have no spot to put it! Ahem. :B

OK, my awkward rambling is over.

Edit: To Herald, The Xbox has mod capabilities? It really does? I had no flipping idea.

And a part of me really hopes that Kingdom hearts three happens to also come to the Wii U or the NX, but I'm not exactly banking on it. That's just a wish as a Wii U owner. It's sitting next to my wish that more assassins creed games would come to that system. Why did they only give us 3 and 4...?

The Skyrim mod functionality is due to be released later to coincide with the enhanced edition. They had to drop the planned support on PS4 because Sony wanted to dictate the sort of mods allowed. With a wealth of mods already available for the PC, getting them transferred to the XBox is almost no effort at all since they used the same basic code. You can expect a cornucopia of new toys to go with the game out of the box!

Don't sweat about the Wii U just yet. There's still the new Zelda game which is looking incredible.

Oh awesome! looks like I have something to look forward to if I go with Xbox.

And yeeees, I snagged one of those one dollar reserve cards from my place of work the other day for Breath of the Wild. I'm super excited for that!

As a non-gamer gamer, I think what you might most want to consider is just your own personal preference.

I don't game online. In fact, I specifically avoid it. There is only one person that I do any sort of online multiplayer with, and she now sits next to me when we do it, instead of across the country.

I will say that I have had a similar experience to what you've got several years ago, when I was moving past my own PS2 and into the next gens of the era. My choices came down to games and familiarity. XBox controllers were unwieldy and uncomfortable for me. The rabid XBox fanboys made me feel punchy. And the games (at the time, I don't know about now) just didn't really stack up. The exclusives for XBox weren't nearly as good as the exclusives for PS3, which included stuff like God of War.

As a point to consider, the list you made should contain only games actively out that interest you.

The problem I have run into is the hype-machine that is the advertising side of games. I literally cannot get excited about upcoming games, because of the likelihood of then being complete garbage.

Prime example: no man's sky. I own an Xbox, and I'm pissed off for the PlayStation community over that one.

Or this whole modable skyrim sounds good on paper, but I have no idea how the actual implementation or execution of it will be. It could be a bigger pain in the ass then it's worth.

Am I still getting it? Yes, but because I enjoyed it without the mods, and want the pretty HD remastering.

With the exception of Kingdom Hearts 3(since it's not out), the games I listed are all the ones I've really wanted to play, but I couldn't because I didn't have the hardware--which is the point of this topic. So that's already covered.

The possibility of modding Skyrim on xbox would just be a side bonus, in the long run.

I'd like to point out here that PS4 is also jumping on the MOD bandwagon, but I have little interest in modding games so my knowledge on the subject isn't the best. There's a few recent articles floating about on Skyrim modding if you search for it.

What I do know, is that with PS4 you can access certain online features and, for me, I can game without the need for a monthly subscription to PS Plus. I'm currently even playing the Neverwinter MMO for free, and it has trophy/achievements.
Xbox on the other hand, as far as I'm aware, requires an Xbox live account to do basically everything on the console? Someone correct me if I'm wrong!

What I would also do is look up all of the console specific games, and see what you're likely to be gutted about if you couldn't play. For example; Zero Horizon Dawn, the Uncharted series, quite a few Final Fantasy games... etcetera are all PS4 exclusive. Likewise, Fable Legends, Forza and Halo are all Xbox exclusive.
As a PS user through and through I was always exceptionally gutted that I could never play the Fable games, as they're amazing. And I was really upset about Rise of the Tomb Raider being a timed exclusive to Xbox. But in the long run, I think the Playstation 4 is saving me money, from not forcing a monthly subscription fee on me, and a lot of their own exclusives made those problems seem insignificant!


And... I guess some console owners would disagree with me here, but the bottom line is, compare controllers and see which you like the handle of the most. I've grown up with playstation so of course I prefer the PS controllers. But I think even if I didn't grow up with the console, I'd pick it for the controller since the Xbox's is just too chunky/ un-symmetrical for me.

Hope this helps!

I have to back up the controller argument too. I have bear paws for hands, so the PlayStation controllers feel cramped... But if you already owned a PS2, I understand the controllers didn't change much.

I will say that Xbox live is required for online gaming. I don't mind it though. I got used to paying for it on the 360. The justification for me is that it allows better regulation and maintenance of the service. That's just my perception of it anyway.

The membership also provides several free games a month. Two Xbox one titles and at least one 360 title. Kind of hit or miss on the titles, but I have gotten some decent ones. There's also discounts and sales too. So basically the PlayStation plus benefits, as I understand it.

They did make it so you can share your live access with other profiles on your Xbox too. So like I have gold, and my wife can still play online on my Xbox with her own profile.

I think Sony is also at what? 3 major hacks of their network to xbox's one? Part of me also secretly believes Microsoft has people on staff to counter hack people. I mean it's microsoft.

lol sorry can't help much because I'm a PC fan. But I'd probably suggest Sony only because of a bias against a Microsoft platform other than PC.