#skeptiscism

Jean-Paul Sartre (Nausea)

The PS4 launched last week & the XBO just came out a couple days ago & already the reviews are coming in; Predictably the PS4’s are mixed to positive while the XBO is mixed to negative. With my philosophy “there’s a pro & con to everything”, both have positives that make either worth it & both have negatives that make you forget about buying either. But biased/unbiased fan reviews & other critics’ reviews aside, what are “my” thoughts? Well mainly the technical issues of both the XBO & PS4 are putting me off on both. We have the PS4’s overheating that causes the “Blue/Red Light of Death” which blinks when it encounters an error while the XBO has hardware problems (faulty hardrives or the disc won’t be read & a “grinding” noise). Both also suffer from not having a lot of launch titles (but understandable because both systems were just launched & are still brand new) but there WILL be more games in the future. So why am I not going to get either until some time in 2014? First let’s go to the console that Sony fanboys (or other anti-XBO & pro-PS4/Wii-U for that matter) LOVE to hate: Microsoft’s XBox One. When it was first shown, it was CRITICALLY PANNED for its restricting DRM & always-on Internet connection & other. Fortunately Microsoft has confirmed to remove all of that but they refused to let go of the new Kinect, which you don’t HAVE to have connected to the console. The price was always a concern since, because of the Kinect 2.0, it’s a hundred bucks higher than the PS4. I also heard that it’s harder to navigate the system without the Kinect, making it less user-friendly. However for the positives, the new Kinect, from what I heard, is a HUGE improvement over the previous Kinect (for some reason it worked kinda fine for me but not precisely perfect, mind you). The design I never liked & a lot of people despised the design for looking out-dated, but on the bright side, as a friend told me, it looks like it’s going for practicality rather than style. The major positive that I think got critical acclaim was the controller; I LOVED how the controller looked but I was afraid to say it (much) to avoid the anti-XBO/pro-PS4 fanboys from flaming me nonstop for saying at least ONE positive about the console. Anyway, the D-Pad on the XBO controller is a huge improvement from what I heard, along with a lot of other things. But even when I lean towards the XBO more than the PS4, there’s always a bunch of negatives that make the XBO not worth the money. I mean it’s not as user-friendly without the Kinect 2.0, it’s basically built around the new Kinect, faulty hardware that doesn’t load games & takes forever to install games, Green Screen of Death (aka the disc “grinding”), & even the thought of DRM (hopefully gone forever) gave people the impression that it should & gladly tank worse than the Virtual Boy & the Jaguar put together. HOWEVER Kinect being optional, excellent controller, practical design, DDR function, & even better HD graphics than the 360 (including future games exclusive to the console) might actually make this worth the money. But since it came out, only time will tell if the console will end up getting better (if you remember, the 360 had problems too but since they’re fixed, it has greatly improved & I love my 360). But is it perfect or is it terrible? Neither by a long shot. Now onto the extremely hyped but most likely over-hyped PlayStation 4. I heard a LOT of great things about it at E3 & EVERYONE was praising it nonstop left & right. They said it was VERY user-friendly & it focused on gaming. However I was skeptical since it sounded too good to be true. The one thing that really puts me off is over-hyping. Yes I’m guilty of over-hyping over a game but the thing is I don’t over-hype over a console. I was even more skeptical about said hype when, during an E3 live demo of “Assassin’s Creed IV”, the PS4 crashed. Live. At the Sony conference (compared to the Microsoft one where I don’t think any of the games crashed but I could be wrong). However I can’t deny the system is great. Controller’s pretty good, although I heard a couple negatives about it (I heard the start or options button is improperly placed & you’ll accidentally hit it more than a few times). Graphics on the PS4 are extremely beautiful & crisp at 1080p (some say the XBO is still at 720p but it just came out & I’m sure it can handle 1080p with ease but time will tell). The console itself also doesn’t look that impressive, since it’s also a black box like the XBO (more of a rhombus shape but a rhombus is a square with slanted sides that are the same length. Thank you, Geometry class) with some other differences. Also it’s a hundred bucks cheaper than the XBO. However the MAJOR issue I have is, aside from being over-hyped, the “Red/Blue Light of Death”. If you remember, Microsoft had this problem with the 360 when it first came out with the “Red Ring of Death”. Fortunately the problem is fixed but it seems ironic that Sony’s having this problem with the overheating creating this “Light of Death”. Even the PS3 had technical problems upon launch & they were fixed over time. I contemplated getting the PS4 because it focuses on gaming, graphics are better (or so I heard), more user-friendly, not restricting in any sense. But I’m also put off by the technical problems & even the (probably) lackluster security. If you remember, Sony was hacked & their service was down for a few days to a week if I remember. I dunno about Microsoft’s security but I don’t think they had this problem. The reason the PS4 kept overheating in contrast to the XBO is because of the fans; the XBO has HUGE fans to prevent it from overheating (which was the problem for the 360 at first before Microsoft fixed the problem for good) & as of this post I’ve heard NO overheating problems for the XBO because of the cooling system. As for the PS4, the fans are a bit smaller than the XBO’s & that might explain why. Fortunately Sony will fix those problems over time. But in short, my main issue is that it’s over-hyped too much & the Blue/Red Light of Death is keeping me from getting a PS4 whenever I lean towards it from the XBO. Of course another major beef I have with both consoles are their fanboys (& fangirls too). To me, both the XBO & PS4 are video game consoles designed to play video games despite the other features they have on them. But the fanboys seem to treat either console like it’s the Ultimate Holy Grail (or the best thing to ever hit the world) while the other like it’s the Demonic Spawn of Satan (or the worst thing of all time) while blindly ignoring the pros & cons of both consoles. Yes, I’m aware of Microsoft wanting to put DRM on the console & I understand why (they want to increase security & prevent pirating but unfortunately at the cost of treating everyone like a criminal & thank goodness the restrictions are gone). And yes I know of the PS4’s critical acclaim at E3. But so far at launch, both consoles are getting mixed reactions (either positive or negative as I mentioned earlier) due to the technical issues that WILL eventually get fixed. People like a few I know on Facebook HATE the fanboys on both sides because they know that the PS4 & the XBO are simply video game consoles (of course that doesn’t mean they can’t criticize either). For me, I say people should get what they want & simply enjoy it (if only it were that simple since people LOVE to fight over which is better & which is the worst thing ever 24/7) & I think NOBODY is “stupid” or “awesome” because you got this console or that. Of course one major negative I have with BOTH the XBO & PS4 is that they’re not backwards compatible (compared to the PS3 & 360 that are backwards compatible with some of the original XBox & PS2 games). People through a crap-storm on the XBO & PS4 because neither were backwards compatible. Hopefully if demand is high, there will be HD remakes for the XBO & PS4 of loved-titles (hope there’ll be a KOTOR HD version on XBO & PS4!). I have no plans on getting either console for Christmas because of the faulty negatives & other negative features, but I do plan on getting either eventually for their positives. The games that are coming out that I’m REALLY looking forward to is Dragon Age: Inquisition, Star Wars Battlefront 3 (yes I know it’s simply called “Battlefront” but I’m still gonna call it “Battlefront 3” anyway), & The Crew. I’m sure there will be other fantastic games that’ll come by next year or even in a couple or few years. But for now, since they came out, I’ll sit this one out till 2014 or wait until the problems are fixed. Besides I heard both consoles are the same despite hardware differences anyway so, I think, the pros & cons are equal for both. As for the Wii-U....sadly I have no opinion on it due to a complete lack of information on the pros & cons. Besides, it's NOT the consoles' fault for being fragile & faulty; it's the POOR MANAGEMENT of the CORPORATIONS that make the consoles.

René Descartes