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All right, I'm a 5+ year veteran XBOX 360 user. It's the centerpiece of my entertainment stack

muppetmuppet
in Video Games
But I'm not sure I'm very happy about the things I've been hearing about the XBOX One. Primarily I'm not very happy about the integrated and mandatory Kinect, not just for the privacy concerns, mostly for the extra hundred bucks and the surety that the thing just isn't going to fucking work properly in my small and dark TV nook.

BUT.. I don't know a whole lot about Playstation except that I bought a PS3, didn't really like it, and sold it on CL at a loss 3 months later.. :( I appreciated the ad-free dashboard, but found the PS Store clunky and counterintuitive compared to the "new" XBOX dashboard and unified app interface, especially for streaming media. Netflix/Hulu/Amazon Video all work and look about the same and I'm comfortable with them... never tried them on PS3.

Which do I upgrade to? I'm leaning toward PS4 just to save $100... but that interface... that controller... meh.

Comments

  • Linkigi(Link-ee-jee)Linkigi(Link-ee-jee)
    You know this already, but don't expect very much good advice here in a stronghold of the Glorious PC Master Race. For instance, I haven't been paying enough attention to the consoles to warrant anything close to an opinion. In fact, I lean towards "run cables from your PC" or "wait until Steam game streaming works and get a cheap set-top box."
  • muppetmuppet
    edited January 2014
    When I find an HTPC solution that's "casual-proof" I'll be all over it, probably, but right now I still insist that such a beast doesn't exist.

    I've never encountered an issue with my XBOX that wasn't fixed by power cycling it or replacing the core hardware for $200 (once in 6.. something years), either. Tech support isn't on the list of things I want to spend more than 10 minutes a year on for my living room component stack.
    Post edited by muppet on
  • HMTKSteveHMTKSteve
    Which systems has exclusives you want?
    Do you do any online gaming?

    I have a PS4 but don't use it that much due to a lack of games. The controller is a vast improvement over the PS3 but if you are used to the Xbox controller configuration it can take some time to adjust.

    You do not have to pay for PS+ if you don't care about online gaming. With that said the free games is a nice bonus and it certainly rewards a total Sony household. Unlike Xbox you can use all the media apps without paying a monthly fee.
  • ApsupApsup
    Why not keep using 360? I don't think next gen systems bring anything new to the media consumption other than games and the games are not here yet, so I don't see any reason to rush on to buy next gen console just for the sake of having one. Just wait a year or two and look again if one console seems more appealing than the other at that point.
  • muppetmuppet
    I intend to keep on using 360 for awhile, but not for years. The interface is already slowing down as feature-creep and poor optimization march along as usual with every update and patch.
  • ChurbaChurba
    Kinect isn't mandatory anymore. And the privacy concerns about that were ludicrous nonsense that was essentially Reddit making shit up whole cloth in the first place.

    Basically at this point, look at the games. Figure out which ones you want now, and which ones you'll want that are coming out or likely coming out for it in the future, and go with the one that has the greatest number of them.
  • ApsupApsup
    Churba said:

    Kinect isn't mandatory anymore. And the privacy concerns about that were ludicrous nonsense that was essentially Reddit making shit up whole cloth in the first place.

    It's not mandatory, but I think that there are no kinectless versions of Xbox 1 being sold, so even if you don't want to use it you have to pay for it.

  • ColdguyColdguy
    How hard is it to install a card to a computer and then connect the HDMI wires to your TV? We are in an age where people will build the computer FOR YOU if you buy directly from those places. Seriously it is not that hard to get an HTPC.
  • muppetmuppet
    ...

    *sigh*

    It's not HARD to build an HTPC. It's ANNOYING to deal with the technical glitches and fuckery that ALWAYS occur at the boundaries between one manufacturer's hardware/software and another's. HTPCs are not mission critical devices in the way that, humorously enough, XBOX 360s definitely are.
  • HMTKSteveHMTKSteve
    As someone with kids I understand Muppets desire NOT to go HTPC. In a family situation you don't want the core item in the home theater to be more complex than a TV remote nor do you want the 'over the phone' troubleshooting to be more complex than,"try power cycling it."
  • ChurbaChurba
    edited January 2014
    Apsup said:

    Churba said:

    Kinect isn't mandatory anymore. And the privacy concerns about that were ludicrous nonsense that was essentially Reddit making shit up whole cloth in the first place.

    It's not mandatory, but I think that there are no kinectless versions of Xbox 1 being sold, so even if you don't want to use it you have to pay for it.
    True, but the second version of the kinect actually works really well, far and away better than the 1.0 version, and it provides some cool shit in a bunch of games. So, since the privacy concerns were fictional from the start, I don't see why you wouldn't use it at least a bit.

    Post edited by Churba on
  • muppetmuppet
    I have 6 feet between my TV and the forward edge of my couch.. that's mostly why. :)

    Even with the new wider angle optics, that's not enough room except for a glitchy 1P experience.
  • ChurbaChurba
    muppet said:

    I have 6 feet between my TV and the forward edge of my couch.. that's mostly why. :)

    Even with the new wider angle optics, that's not enough room except for a glitchy 1P experience.

    Nah man, you'd be surprised - Mate of mine lives in an inner-city-ish place, he's got about that same distance between TV and couch, and his kinect 2 works a treat. I mean, it may be different at your place for some other reason, but you need rather less space now, unless you're playing some big flailing game like Just Dance or something.
  • MATATATMATATAT
    Oh man, no offense but you need to do some more research. You sound like you're running off of information several months old. But here's my two cents. In my experience the PS4 controller is far better than the Xbox One controller. They seem to have taken a step back when designing that thing. It's not as solid feeling as the Xbox 360 controller, the sticks are looser and the triggers feel strange. It's still usable but truth be told I would rather use a 360 controller. I have about 6 feet between my couch and the TV with the kinect sitting in front of it. Works fine. I don't use it for games but it recognizes me and understands voice commands most of the time. The TV stuff is actually really awesome. I thought it was real gimmicky before I actually tried it. PS4 seems okay so far, there's not enough shit on it to get a good impression of it. PS+ is leagues better than Xbox Live in terms of justification, not sure how the online servers have improved. My experience with PS3 online has been marginal at best. Go with HTPC if you think it meets your needs well enough. My PC is close enough that if I want to do some gaming or watch a video I can hook up a HDMI cable and use it from the couch but I'd rather sit at my desk most of the time. I've been playing mostly non console style games on my PC and going back to consoles for those controller games. But either way works for me.
  • johndisjohndis
    There's no real point in buying either now if you're on the fence, ain't no damned games. PS usually has more interesting + better exclusives tho IMO. Also I'm going to issue a generalized lol at htpcs.
  • MattMatt
    muppet said:

    ...

    *sigh*

    It's not HARD to build an HTPC. It's ANNOYING to deal with the technical glitches and fuckery that ALWAYS occur at the boundaries between one manufacturer's hardware/software and another's. HTPCs are not mission critical devices in the way that, humorously enough, XBOX 360s definitely are.

    I really, really don't want to agree with muppet here because I would never ever trade in my HTPC for a console, but you DO inevitably get issues. If you've got a house full of people who can't be trusted to handle them, well, maybe it's a dealbreaker.

    Had some people over last week and we wanted to play Samurai Gunn. Played it several times before w/ no issue, but now it wants to stutter and run at half frame rate. Oh boy! Nothing else running, no obvious fix, time or a reboot while everyone sits around. BUT WAIT there's a windows update with this reboot! Yay 5 min of twiddling while everyone silently things "this is why I don't game on PC."

    Same thing happened shortly after moving in when some friends wanted to play Monaco. My HTPC motherboard has always had 1 non-functional USB slot. Didn't realize it until I had the whole thing set up and really not worth shipping the board back. In re-setting up the HTPC after the move, I accidentally plugged the 360 wireless receiver into the busted slot. Oh boy, now we get to scratch our heads as to why the controllers aren't connecting, and the receiver claims it is an unknown device that needs a driver update.

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