The Glade 4.0

My brother, a good friend, and I all live in different parts of the country now, so we're each going to get one of the next gen consoles so we can "hang out" together via multiplayer/coop gaming from time to time. They're both very, very casual gamers at best (they both enjoy games, but neither of them even owns a last-gen console), so it's on me to pick the system. They're obviously not going to care much about the tech specs, and they don't have any established preferences about the various exclusives, but is one system better than the other when it comes to multiplayer/coop play - either in terms of the tech or the community/culture? Any notable differences in the media apps, Blu-Ray performance, and other non-gaming features that I should be aware of? I believe they both allow you to access Netflix, etc. without having to pay for a PSN/XBL subscription, right?

Thanks in advance!

PS4 just added SharePlay so at the moment I'd say go with that.

I almost never pick up a remote control anymore. Talking to my X-Box is truly proof that I live in futuretimes.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

I haven't jumped into the current console fray, and I know that PS now charges for online play just like Xbox, so I'm assuming their system is much more robust, but in previous generations Xbox was the online king. Create a party, chat while you jump in and out of any game, basically "hang out" all night without having to wade through a bunch of convoluted crap. Could even watch netflix movies together. Was definitely the best. Maybe someone who's had experience with both platforms this generation can provide an update.

Wow, really? Like, watch the same stream as opposed to trying to coordinate by saying, "Ok, everyone hit play on their own system...NOW!" That's awesome!

Yeah, it was awesome, had like a "MST3K" mode where your avatar was in silhouette and could do fun stuff. Unfortunately, even though it was reportely "unexpectedly popular", it was killed in one of the 360 code updates and has not returned.

http://kotaku.com/5866245/say-goodbye-to-netflixs-party-mode-on-the-xbox-360

PS4 SharePlay lets you share your screen with anyone, and lets you "hand over" your controller(s) depending on your PSPlus status. For example, a friend could be watching you get your *** beat on a Dragon Age boss over and over. Eventually you get mad. You transfer your control to him over the internets(!1!) and he beats the boss for you just like he might if he was sitting next to you.

Xbone does not currently have an equivalent feature.

http://faq.en.playstation.com/app/answe ... w-it-works

Nice! SharePlay sounds great. I'm amazed they were able to work out the licensing issues for something like that. I bet the game companies hated the idea.

Yeah, unfortunately it doesn't look like Sony had the power to make them comply. Right now, COD advanced warfare uses the "spoiler filter" to avoid sharing across the entire game, effectively blocking sharing for the title. So devs have the option of just turning off shareplay entirely.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/480544/call-of-duty-advanced-warfare-reportedly-blocks-ps4-share-play/

Yeah. It's up to the developer to allow it or not. The functionality is meant to let companies keep spoiler-type scenes from being broadcast, but jerks like COD abuse it.

This functionality was a bad idea during the Microsoft pitch. Why is it suddenly a good idea now that Sony implemented it?

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Why is being able to share your screen and controller a bad thing in this context? When it was in a Microsoft pitch that also came with their always-on, 24-hour window DRM checks. RD is specifically asking about online capability, the requirement of needing to be online should not be part of the conversation.

Sorry, but that seems like hypocrisy to me, Lenas.

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Khross you're comparing apples and hammers. This is not game library sharing that Microsoft originally pitched and required always-on DRM for. This is giving someone temporary access to control the game running on your machine as you transmit a feed back to them.

Actually, streaming content and playing together across vast distances with only one copy was part of the Microsoft pitch. It got drowned out by all the noise Sony generated.

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Part of it, yes. But the DRM existed because you would be able to share entire games through your digital library.

Kaffis - what don't you like about the Bone?

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The Dude abides.

There's little I don't like about the X-Box One. Well, I'm a little disappointed that some of the early features got shouted down and capitulated on; game sharing could've been pretty cool, etc. And I wish Microsoft would push useful and interesting use of the Kinect 2.0 better -- especially on exclusives. The way it's used in Alien: Isolation sounds pretty awesome, for instance, and that's not even an exclusive. But that ship's sailed now that they've released a Kinect-less SKU.

I do feel like Live made a bit of a shuffle backwards. I wouldn't call it a full step. But it's not quite as intuitively easy sometimes to work out party formation and such. 3rd party apps' voice control is very hit or miss. The Netflix app used to be almost entirely controllable via Kinect voice commands (primarily using "X-Box, select" and then dictating the on-screen prompts like "More" or "Select 2"); I used to only need to pick up a controller for Netflix to enter searches on the on-screen keyboard. A couple months ago, Netflix updated their app, and now you can't voice command it for ****.

Navigating the core OS with voice works very well, though. The one thing it's not good at is picking up commands if somebody else is also talking. So if you're having a conversation with a friend, you need to either pick up that controller or orchestrate pauses in the conversation to switch to TV, or whatever.

Also, if you do go X-Box, I highly recommend purchasing digitally. I have no idea why my friend gets discs; the only benefit there is less downloading -- it still installs on the hard drive -- and then you have to swap discs to switch games. **** that noise.

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Well, if you get discs, don't you get trade-in value at Gamestop? I'd say that's a pretty compelling reason.

Anybody mind telling me what they like/don't like about their new gen consoles? I think I can probably pass one through committee this Christmas, but am curious all'y'all's opinions.

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The Dude abides.

I don't usually do the trade-in thing to begin with. I'm a hoarder.

I will say I've gotten a lot of fun time in with Killer Instinct, and I've been enjoying playing Destiny mostly casually with some friends. Destiny's available on previous gen, but it's nowhere near as nice-looking.

My brother gets a lot of mileage out of Forza 4 whenever he comes over.

Those are the three most played games at my house, but I'm not an Assassin's Creed or Call of Duty or Battlefield guy. I've got a small, but nice selection of indie-ish Live games, and Titanfall was a lot of fun though I've mostly replaced it with Destiny for my shooter fix since I'm not big into competitive multiplayer FPS anymore.

I'm thinking I might play through the co-op campaigns of the Halo series again now that the Halo collection dropped, too. The updates look attractive, and the gameplay was pretty solid.

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

When multi-player games like that are available on both generations, are players segregated by generation, or will XBox 360 players be matched with XBox One players? Either way, is it the same deal on PS3/PS4?

I'm unsure in this case. Previously (switching from PS2 -> PS3, and X-Box to X-Box 360), they were segregated.

I know that with Destiny, though, the *accounts* are fluid enough that my friend who played through the game on the 360 could log in on my XB1 and play for a bit with his own character, and then go back home and pick back up on his 360.

Whether or not we could join the same game from different systems, though, I'm not sure, I've not had the opportunity to try. Nor do I know whether the same holds true crossing the Microsoft/Sony line, or with the PS3 and PS4.

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Cross platform play is not common at all. It isn't enabled in Destiny because Bungie didn't want players with more powerful hardware to have an advantage.

With the release of Windows 10, cross platform play may become more common between PC and Xbone. We'll see.

As far as I know, nothing is capable of bridging the brand gap of Sony / Microsoft.

I'll be amazed if this happens, they investigated this when the original xbox released, and in any game that required precision input, console gamers got destroyed. It's not a technology issue, but the disparate input methods that keep it from happening.



Source:
http://gizmodo.com/5593116/were-pc-gamers-too-good-for-microsofts-cross-platform-gaming-project

Sure, but those advantages become irrelevant in many game styles. For example, Skulls of the Shogun (January 2013) is a turn based tactics game that supports cross-platform play and saves. The tech is here, the question is whether or not developers will use it.

Also, considering that cross platform (physically, same OS on phones 'n Bones) is going to be one of Windows 10's big selling points, I'm sure that MS will try and incentivize the feature.