Well, my dad works at Nintendo and~: Console Wars Horseshit Megathread

[Maledict]

Whether they can tell the difference doesn't really matter. The message going out is that the PS4 is better and cheaper. Exactly what that means matters less than the fact you pay less, get more and get all that PS4 exclusive content which seems to be being advertised absolutely non-stop in the UK.

Simple message that Microsoft seem to be struggling to counter.

[Miasma]

Destroying competitors who have better and cheaper products is one of Microsoft's specialties so while I think the PS4 will win this generation you can never count Microsoft out.

[schild]

EVERYONE WHO CARES ABOUT THIS IS A BAD PERSON

[Jeff Kelly]

For someone that basically ranted all day that 'something really really apocalyptic for games journalism happend but I won't/can't tell you' he has made quite a fuss over the interwebs. Gamer nerds all over the internet are hacking away at their keyboards starting a million threads about what this guy could possibly mean. Current pet theory is that Sony somehow shuts down game journalism with the release of the PS4.

I on the other hand had to actually google this guy because I had never heard his name before. Why is it always guys from third rate internet 'game sites' no one has ever heard of that have their psychotic breaks all over twitter and reddit?

[Margalis]

Oh yeah the current thing that gamers are arguing over is a NeoGAF topic where some "industry insiders" basically said that the Xbone version of the new Call of Duty runs at 720p while the PS4's version runs at 1080p. Scandal!

The "industry insiders" at NeoGAF are hilarious.

I mean, let's take someone like myself. I currently have a development kit for a certain system sitting right next to me. I have all the relevant documentation for the system, including a bunch of super sekret infoz about it. If I wanted info on the other consoles I could just become a developer for them and get it, or ask somebody I know.

I know of a lot of secret stuff - game projects that were cancelled, game projects that have yet to be announced. Everybody who works in the game industry has a lot of secret info, about their own employer and other employers as well. You interview a guy and he tells you about a project that isn't going to be announced for another year. An old co-worker of yours gets a new job and tells you about what he's working on. So these "industry insiders" with essentially zero actual information must be like friends of friends of friends of a guy who works in the mail room. That's the level of information they possess - lower than that of anyone who works in the industry.
---

Now as far as 1080 vs 720 - higher resolution is higher and that's strictly better. People used to say that the human eye couldn't distinguish between 30 and 60 FPS, that they eye couldn't distinguish between 24-bit color and 32, or that you couldn't tell the difference between AV and S-VHS cables on an SNES. Now they say that at X distance on Y-sized screen you can't tell the difference between 720 and 1080 - bullshit. These claims are always bullshit.

The human eye and brain are pretty fucking good at seeing stuff.

I'm willing to bet that in a blind test 90% of people wouldn't be able to tell the difference between 720p and 1080p unless there was some weird anti aliasing that only occured due to up/down scaling.

If you sat someone down to examine the two and asked which was 720 and which was 1080 many would fail, but if you let them play both for a while and the asked which looked better I suspect most people would guess the 1080 one.

The 240hz thing is funny. People used to seriously say that you couldn't tell the difference between 30 and 60 hz - even though that is easily proven false. Not only is that false but you can definitely tell the difference between 60 and 120 as well. Can a person tell the difference between 120 and 240? I've never tried myself but I wouldn't be surprised. (Note: not talking about 120/240 auto motion smoothing crap, which is a different beast from just higher refresh rates)

[jakonovski]

Are you trying to tell us that this gen will be even more terrible than we think? 

[Fabricated]

I thought you couldn't even use the 120/240hz mode for games due to input lag?

[Fabricated]

More GAF shit, only you don't have to read GAF to see it since he didn't get "mod approval"!

http://doddscientifics.com/2013/10/28/xbox-one-os-and-xbox-live-issues-bouncing-about-as-we-approach-launch/

Hey devs: This is why you should abandon NeoGAF and never post there. I'm not saying post here even; make your own private forum if you want to talk shop and motherfuck your bosses or the beancounters or something.

[jakonovski]

Well I don't know, the way the industry wants the consumer to buy everything sight unseen and often with outright misrepresentation of the product, is not making me sympathetic.

[Margalis]

I thought you couldn't even use the 120/240hz mode for games due to input lag?

The 120/240 mode on a TV introduces lag and it works by interpolating frames, which gives things a video / soap opera look. It also gives some people headaches.

A tv that refreshes at 120 or 240 needs the underlying source to also refresh at that rate to be meaningful. No tv signal or game does that right now.

[Yegolev]

edit: actually the really sad part is that there are legions of supposed games journos who know all this stuff but are hamstrung by NDAs because they can't think of any other way to survive than being an extension of corporate marketing strategy.

Do you mean "supposed legions" or "supposed games journos" ?

I'm likely to wait as well.  I don't know what's a new exclusive that I have to have, plus the backlog (I'm still playing PS2 games), and plus I think Gran Turismo 6 is PS3.  Also plus, I've only played one game on my WiiU and I sort of want to make use of it.

Just FYI on televisions: I've been playing Demon's Souls on a 120Hz television and I don't have any lag issues.  Of course, it's not a first-gen 120Hz television.  Also, everyone can easily tell the difference between 60Hz and 120Hz.

[jakonovski]

I mean people who are supposed to be games journalists (but act more like PR people). Was that bad English? Sometimes Finnish grammar worms its way into my English.

[Yegolev]

Perfectly fine English, which is vague enough to allow my word jokes.

[Falconeer]

And now IGN is on it

[UnSub]

Sessler used to be on the G4 video game review shows. Not sure what the fuck he is on about, but I don't really give two shits about his opinion anyway.

I'll always remember Sessler for saying how he didn't understand how TV ratings worked, and blaming his exit from G4 on stations being too focused on ratings and not how great the show was.

[Yegolev]

[calapine]

Infinity Ward confirms: CoD Ghost is 720p on XBox one and 1080p on PS4.



I am greatly enjoying the drama. 

[jakonovski]

PS4 seems to have this incredibly weird feature where you can only listen to music through their subscription service. No MP3 support or anything. The more think about our entertainment overlords, the more evident it becomes that if they achieve a customer friendly experience, it's at worst by accident and at best by trial and error. Their own ideas are not suited for home use.

[UnSub]

PS4 seems to have this incredibly weird feature where you can only listen to music through their subscription service. No MP3 support or anything. The more think about our entertainment overlords, the more evident it becomes that if they achieve a customer friendly experience, it's at worst by accident and at best by trial and error. Their own ideas are not suited for home use.

Sony works in silos and whoever is high up on the Movie / Songs totem pole has pulled rank on the PS4 silo. Or so I guess.

[Rendakor]

Do people commonly listen to music on their game consoles?

[jakonovski]

I know custom soundtracks and background music are a thing, but I don't know how many people do it.

[Ingmar]

Uh, it goes beyond music. There's no DLNA support, which means no streaming content from a PC to your PS4. Movies, whatever.

[Fabricated]

Supposedly one of the top PS division dudes from Japan answered people requesting DLNA support on twitter that they'll look into it and consider it. Who knows. I never used my PS3 like that but kind of a stupid thing to not have.

[Rendakor]

I've never done any of that either, but my PS3 and PC are hooked up to the same TV so it's not something I need. Regardless, removing features in a next gen system is a stupid move.

[Quinton]

Uh, it goes beyond music. There's no DLNA support, which means no streaming content from a PC to your PS4. Movies, whatever.

Which is obnoxious, but the PS3 was so particular about containers and codecs I gave up on trying to stream content to it, eventually just using a PC.  Having to transcode or re-container everything was just a mess.

Shortsighted nonetheless.  Sony's content arm has resulted in a lot of braindamage in their consumer electronics over the years.

[Margalis]

I think these features are relevant to like 0.1% of people.

I don't understand why I'd stream media to a PS4. The PS4 isn't an output device, what does streaming a movie to the PS4 accomplish? To actually watch the movie you need a display, so why not stream directly to the display or just watch on your PC?

[Ingmar]

Watching on your PC isn't much of a family solution, and the reason you stream to the console is because the console and the PC are connected to your network while the TV generally isn't. Newer TVs have wireless and apps built in, so that's an option if you have one, but a lot of people do not.

[Quinton]

Ideally I'd like less junk in the living room.  The PS3 does great with dvd, bluray, netflix, and amazon video -- but that doesn't cover *all* media I might want to watch on the TV.  My TV does have some internet/streaming crap, but it's all horrible clunky samsung junk that I want nothing to do with -- all I want the TV to do is reliably display video from the console or PC.

[KallDrexx]

There's a video comparison between the graphics between PS4 and XO for Battlefield 4 if anyone wants to see for themselves.  Note that the ps4 is running only at 900p while the XO is at 720p.

[jakonovski]

Terrible comparison video, but I can't see any difference except there's more jaggies and flickers on the Xbone.

[CaptainNapkin]

720 vs 1080 or whatever? Take your console money, upgrade your PC, plug that baby into your TV/projector/large screen display device of choice and laugh at the graphics/performance of the new gen consoles. Find a closet to hide in and weep for 5 minutes over the 1 or 2 good titles that never make it to PC in the next 8 years, then come out and give the finger to MS and Sony while sipping some Pappy Van Winkle with the money you saved from not buying both consoles.

If I actually scrolled back through this thread I'm sure I'd find I didn't just say anything that hasn't already been said many times over.

[Falconeer]

This is a slightly better comparison video. Blue line is PS4 framerate, Green line is Xbox1.

[Miasma]

Why is the (so we're calling it the XO now?) so much darker in both videos?

[Trouble]

Uh, it goes beyond music. There's no DLNA support, which means no streaming content from a PC to your PS4. Movies, whatever.

Which is obnoxious, but the PS3 was so particular about containers and codecs I gave up on trying to stream content to it, eventually just using a PC.  Having to transcode or re-container everything was just a mess.

Shortsighted nonetheless.  Sony's content arm has resulted in a lot of braindamage in their consumer electronics over the years.

PS3 media server is how I streamed *everything* to my TV. DLNA sucks complete ass, essentially works at random around 30% of the time. I'd pay for a PS3 simply to get something that PS3 media server works on. If that shit doesn't work on PS4....well then PS3 will be my media box.

[Margalis]

Why is the (so we're calling it the XO now?) so much darker in both videos?

Difference in configuration and full/limited range HDMI output.