no, they're not. Top end PCs cost a lot more and perform a lot better, it's that simple. As consoles improve, PCs can be and often are custom built so there's no build up to release so they just don't have the hype. I hate to sound like a PC snob but they are simply better.

Every other demo looks like the actual thing, Microsoft are heading up poop creek without a paddle, at least there's an always on camera so we can all watch and laugh



I suggest anyone still deciding on an Xbox One reads 1984. If you've already read it, read it again.

If anything the next generation looks very similar to this. Xbox Live will still be better, it's still got more content, the controller is still better, the Kinnect and voice control is still cool and the TV integration looks very good as well.

The always-on camera isn't beaming your picture back to MS all the time either. It's more for the voice input and things like head tracking in games. Let people turn it off and you have to disable loads of features in games and it all gets messy. But if you want to see it as a spy service and imagine a Microsoft employee sat watching you 24/7 then go ahead.

As for PCs, as mentioned these consoles are entirely PC hardware. They just have an OS overlayed on top. Of course you can make a more powerful PC, but you then don't get the efficiency of the console ecosystem where everything is in one place, nor do you get the tightness of the social features on the consoles. Sure you can get into a clan on a shooting game, but then if you wanted to know whether that friend is playing FIFA, COD or SimCity when you get in from the pub, you'd have to get their contact details etc. On console everything is right there.

"The controller is better", that's just subjective, seems like you are clutching at straws a bit there saddened. I have found out more info on the xbox stats, The memory used is DDR 3 as opposed to PS4's DDR 5 and the graphics processor has half as much power as the PS4's. I was tilting towards the PS4 before now i'm going to reserve one.

You have to realise that Saddened does have that fanboy trait of stating opinion on a subjective matter as indisputable fact. Unless they show a particular propensity to fall apart, controllers are pretty much always down to personal preference.

We're all fanboys at heart, I'm just brave enough to admit my bias. Of course they are down to personal preference, in the same way as someone could find Jo Brand (PS4 controller) as attractive as Beyonce (Xbox One controller)



Whilst we are talking indisputable fact, where do the claims the PS4 is twice as powerful as the Xbox One graphically come from? Every expert commentary I've read has said it's even closer than this gen as they are primarily very similar machines and that it'll be nigh on impossible to tell the difference.

Yeah, we all have a certain bias. There are vastly differing degrees, though, and sometimes just plain blind followers.

And surely with comparative size the XBox controller would be the Jo Brand?





No idea about twice as powerful, but quite a few comparisons do seem to think the PS4 will have the edge. By how much seems to depend upon this eSRAM buffer, whatever that is. In terms of raw horsepower, it does seem like the PS4 is in front (and using more expensive guts, which makes the cheaper price all the better).

[url=http://www.trustedreviews.com/opinions/xbox-one-vs-sony-ps4This might tell you more.[/url

[url=http://www.trustedreviews.com/opinions/why-the-ps4-will-be-much-more-powerful-than-the-xbox-oneAnd here they concentrate just on the graphics hardware.[/url

The thing is, apart from first party/exclusive games I don't think it's ever really going to matter. Developers are always likely to work at around the 'inferior' machine's level to make sure their games run properly on both, as we've seen in this generation, so I don't think we're ever going to see huge differences in direct comparisons of the same game on different platforms.

bloody windows 8

"That’s Not All, Either…
The Xbox One’s problems don’t end with memory. Although both consoles feature AMD-made GPUs, the PS4’s is significantly more powerful.

A tear-down from Wired magazine reveals that the Sony PS4’s GPU has 50 per cent more shader cores than the Xbox One – 1,152 against 768"
I did misinterparate that as twice as powerefull, it is in fact half as much again as powerfull as the xbox graphics card. Undisputable is the fact that the PS4 has the faster hardware, has a straight forward used game policy and is 80 quid cheaper. Some people might want to get an xbox because they like to stick with something familiar and that's a valid reason, the xbox won't be a bad machine but there is no argument that the Ps4 is a much better machine and deal.

Just like the PS3 is technically superior to the Xbox 360. It's what's on the consoles that makes the difference. Xbox Live as a service is just incredible, they've spent fortunes on servers and it works and works beautifully. The OS, the content, the TV, music and video integration, the social aspects are all superb on the Xbox.

Oh and Microsoft were only kidding when they said they were going to make it really locked down

They've now changed it so the Xbox One no longer needs to connect to the internet every 24 hours in order to play games. They've also removed the policies on used games so you can trade and play games just like on the 360. As long as you have the disc you can play it offline anywhere, the regional locking is gone too. To make it even better you can also play games you've downloaded from Xbox Live when offline too. Lovely stuff

[url=http://news.xbox.com/2013/06/updateXbox 180[/url

Had to happen to be honest, and now it's back to choosing which games you prefer, and not certain policies deciding that for a lot of people

Maybe I'm being ignorant here. But I've met tens of people that had PS3s/Xboxs, the main reason they all bought them was timing and price. Xbox coming out first meant everybody had one, they were generally quite cheap and they had different models, from the standard to the elite, making them more accessible. I have both consoles and your almost-ejaculation over Live is embarrassing. I think it's quite sluggish and I get no more joy from it than I do from the features on my PS3. I've found online play marginally better on Live, but I like the PS Store and have never had any issues with it. Also, I used to have both of them next to each other but the Xbox couldn't pick up the Wifi (the signal strength was shocking), whilst my PS3 was fine and the signal strength was better.

I buy games consoles to play games and to enjoy games as much as possible. The only boundaries being pushed now are entertainment boundaries rather than gameplay and genre. For all the talk of these new consoles, I'm still to see something that has made my jaw drop in excitement. I bought the last consoles out of necessity, all of my friends had them and I wanted to play COD and Fifa with all of them, but now I'd be buying one purely for single player games, so I'm going to wait it out and see if they truly are worthy of the hype. Personally, I should probably buy a PS2.

You seem to be going the way of the gaming purist. You might be better going proper retro and getting a NeoGeo or a N64.

But what the demos and blockbuster trailers for the new gen can't really show is the AI advancements. This gen is very weak in that regard, the sports, driving and shooting games are only really playable online once you have played a month or so because you've exposed every last facet of the AI's personality and you'd know what it would do, making it utterly boring. The big thing a lot of developers have said about this gen is that the extra power gives them the chance to expand the AI. Have you seen the reveal for Forza 5? They are handling AI in a really clever way there. I'm looking forward to seeing the second release of the EA Sports games on the new gen. The first one will basically be a cost saving port of the current gen version while they work on the next one.

As ever with all this talk and hype it's good to be able to sit back and give it a year. I won't be getting a One unless someone buys me one, until the price comes down.

I can't even bring myself to say "fair play" to MS, as they're only changing it because of Sony's stance. That weasel-like man who hosted the reveal now saying "we listened to candid feedback", bolloccks, you shat your pants realising Sony were basically going to rip off your smug head and crap down your neck

Sony's stance itself was only a cheap PR stunt after they heard what MS were doing. If you read what Sony execs were saying 6 months ago, it seems they were on the same page, particularly on used games and DRM. If you were being slightly less cynical to me you could argue Sony were better at reading public opinion, MS could really have done without this episode as the majority of people now won't acknowledge this has happened and word of mouth will still be that you can't play used games or use it offline. Pretty massive PR fail.

That is welcome news and make's the xbox proposition a lot better, i'm not bothered if it's a climb down the main thing is they've done it. I'm still tilted to the Ps4 due to it's superior hardware and my familiarity with the controller. Never used xbox live so don't know how superior it is to ps3 online, i put a game on and go play online with no problems so apart from when it went down for 3 weeks i've had no problems., but i get the feeling saddened that microsoft could bring any old crap out at any price and you would buy it.

anyone got the new DLC for rugby league live 2, £7 (ish) for 2013 season updates (kits, rosters), I hate myself for buying it but I have.

Mm, there is that too, but i don't buy the 'we listened to what you had to say' BS, they U-Turned because they were going to get destroyed if they didn't. If they REALLY gave a sh*t about what we say, the next thing they would do is tell game devs to STOP LEAVING CONTENT OUT OF THE INITIAL RELEASE SO THEY CAN FOB US OUT OF MORE MONEY!!

Not really, MS has done a really good job with the XBox and Live.

Since the PS3 launch, Sony have always been "open standards" compared to Microsoft and Nintendo being proprietary: standard HDD you can change yourself, standard USB cables to charge your controller, free online, etc.

Without having read tons on it; what exactly are these AI advancements? I can't really grasp what they can do to make AI any better. On a game like FIFA, the AI is notoriously shocking and I don't see any ways around that. You can only manually control one player at a time, are they going to have the rest of your AI controlled team mates doing things other online players do? If it's offline play and it's only the opposition that use this Forza-esque AI, how will they vary the different levels?

IMO the Forza take on AI will be crap and most games trying something like that will also be crap. It adds a minor element of unpredictability that will probably soon become tedious and annoying. Some people don't like playing games online because of the way people play, so they stick to offline play and get a bit of pleasure out of beating the CPU on the highest difficulty, IMO it's just a waste of time and shows they're incapable of bettering the pretty woeful AI as it is.

Well done Microsoft for looking like complete idiots and shooting yourself in the foot. Perfect example of a PR Blunder right there. Needed to get this right on the big stage as they can't make a second first impression as it were...

Make an option of X-Bone minus the completely needless camera and match PS4's price and we might start to take it seriously. What a mess of a console announcement this has been.

Shame Microsoft lost their nerve. Their original stance would have been better in the long run. Instead we are stuck with the same over priced market we have now.

As for Live vs PSN as a service it's a complete walkover for Live. PSN was horrible and clunky in comparison. It should catch up some what with the PS4 due to it being pay to play though.

Agreed regarding the last of us. Just got this game today. I only just traded up from my ps2 so for me it was incredible

Anybody interested in an old school style, rock hard platformer/hack n slash should absolutely take a look at a game called Rogue Legacy that recently came out on Steam.
It's only £12, so not too pricey, and is a roguelike set in a similar vein to the old castlevania games, but with added humour and its tongue firmly set in its cheek. By 'roguelike' I mean you only get one life, and after you die, the castle that you are exploring will reset with new monsters, treasures and a completely new layout.
The general idea is to do as well as possible on the one life you get, collect as much money and find as many items as you can, then once you die (and you will die a LOT) your 'heir' will inherit all of your money and gear which they can use to level up, increase stats/equipment and generally grow stronger, allowing them to get that little bit further into the castle.

I bought it last night and spent almost two hours on it straight off the bat, I died loads of times. It's a very unforgiving game but it is incredibly addictive, the quick deaths and turnover of characters just makes you want to run back in and have one more go at exploring the castle.

Anyone looking for something fun to play that's not too expensive or needing a decent pc to run, I would definitely advise them to check it out. Such a fun game, I can see myself putting a lot of hours into this no problem.