PS4 / Xbox One... Reviews in Progress

I've got a buddy that might be interested in one from ya depending on price...ill go talk to him and find out

 

Speaking of... I've got an extra Playstation Pulse 3D Headset for the PS5. These are almost as hard to come by as the PS5 itself. Still trying to figure out what I want to do with it. I could sell it for a profit to pay for my other one or I can keep it and if one starts getting low on battery life I can just switch over to the other one.

 

Okay... since I started this thread back in 2013 to compare the PS4 to the Xbox One it has morphed into a catchall for all types of discussions.

This time I don't have the luxury of comparing the PS5 to the Xbox so I can only speak on my experience with the PS5 so far.

Pros: It is blindingly fast with the new SSD storage. The new Tempest Audio system (if you have the Pulse 3D headsets) is amazing. Games like Destiny 2 which were upgraded to take advantage of the new system turn into a completely different game. It now comes with all the controls that the PC version has had for two years now. The FOV slider is a game changer along with the 60fps for PvE and 120fps for PvP. It's not even the same game anymore. I can't wait to see what developers do with the new capabilities of the new hardware. The controller is amazing with the new haptic feedback (but there is a con with that, that I will mention later). But it is a huge step forward to how you actually "feel" the game. The "rumble" age is over.

Cons: The new menu setup is confusing as fuck. Eventually it will make sense but just trying to set up a party? I'm still lost at what I'm really supposed to be doing. It has it's good points but it is more confusing than it needs to be. The size of the PS5 is huge. And some might call it ugly and I don't think I would disagree. I don't mind the look but it is definitely a departure from what they have done in the past. I would NOT lay the console on it's side even though they provide a stand so you can do just that. But the way the cooling fan is set up (it is huge btw), it is meant to be set in the upright position. That may not work for some. My main issue comes back to the controller. The controller is leaps and bounds over any previous factory controller I've ever used. But why in the ACTUAL FUCK Sony refuses to create an Elite controller like Xbox does is beyond me???? The thumb stick tension is way too loose for what I'm used to so I'm not a fan of that at all. There will eventually be third party controllers come out with back button mapping for the face buttons. But it shouldn't have to be that way. Xbox makes one from the factory like that. Why can't Sony? It makes no sense whatsoever.

But at this time, the fact remains that you will be lucky to get your hands on either system. I honestly don't think there will be much difference in either one other than a few exclusive titles. So I figure it will boil down to what it boiled down to during the last console generation. You're going to buy the system that your friends play on. I don't think you can go wrong with either one (if you can get your hands on one)

 

Finally scored a PS5 at Best Buy (and the local one, not one 100+ miles away)! Well, as long as they actually come through on it, anyway. Pickup next Wednesday.

 

Make sure when you get it, you download the 61.80GB version of Destiny 2. If you download the other version you will be playing the PS4 version. The UI is not very intuitive at first and I still have trouble with creating parties or joining groups after joining a party. So it will take a while to learn. There are many things that you will have to change in settings to get Destiny 2 to run at its best. Some are in game and some are buried in the menu system itself.

I still have the extra set of headphones if you can't find any.

 

One thing that I've noticed since I've gotten the PS5 is the load times are ungodly fast. For games like Destiny 2, there are two versions you can play. You can still play the PS4 version (why would you?) or you can play the PS5 version that runs at a solid 60fps in PvE and 120fps in PvP. Add to that you can adjust the FOV for a much more wide open view. I have three games loaded on the PS5. Destiny 2, Gran Turismo Sport, and The Division 2. I can tell you for certain, once you go to 60fps (or even 120fps), playing any game that doesn't support those frame rates is brutal to play. I've been playing quite a bit of The Division 2 since there is a lull in Destiny 2 right now and the difference is night and day coming from Destiny. 30fps is down right horrible and there are no plans to upgrade The Division to the PS5 or Xbox Series X to run at 60fps. I never noticed just how much difference it makes but it almost makes playing The Division unplayable due to the low frame rate. One thing I will say is the load times are almost non existent which is a good thing. But the ability to actually see the low frame rate sucks. Graphics look the same but the textures load in faster so that is nice. But 30fps???? Horrible.

 

Just want to give another shout out to Best Buy. I was able to get my PS5, a couple of hard-to-get Ryzen CPU's, and my daughter just scored a PS5. BUT, hers came along with a little drama that could have lost them a customer.

First, their method is a bit wacky since they do pickup only, and you may have to select a store that is not local to you. I guess each store gets a certain quantity. I typically stick to one <50 miles away and actually got mine locally, but my daughter selected Branson, MO, about 90 miles from us. A bit further than I wanted to drive, but it's a really nice drive through a NF, so not a big deal. They give you a date when it should be ready to pickup when you order, which is about a week out. That date was initially Friday, the 26th.

Due to the snowy weather, they notified us that it was delayed, with no new date. So, we wait, not-so-patiently.

The charge actually hit our card on Wednesday evening, which meant the store has the inventory, and late Thursday we get the notice that it is ready for pickup. Yay!

Friday morning we get a notice that the order has been picked up. Wait, huh? I'm 2 hours away and working all day. WTF? Boo!

So, my wife and daughter get on the phone. They get through to the store, but the store then transfers my wife to some corporate line where she is transferred around and kept on hold forever, and subsequent calls to the store by my daughter go unanswered. Corporate then tries to convince my wife that their processes wouldn't allow this to happen (yeah, right) and basically treats her like she is lying. I've been through the pickup process, and it might be tough, but with some social engineering skills or some inside help, you could get through their checks. After arguing back and forth for a bit, it seems the only way to resolve this is for me to show up at the store in person and deal with the manager. Yay, I get to have a Karen moment. But drive 4 hours just to try to prove that I didn't pick it up and get a refund? Oh hell no.

But wait: My wife pulls a Karen on the corporate guy and tells them we will be bringing the police, because obviously a crime has been committed here and we need to file a report and get to the bottom of it. They did not seem to be prepared for this kind of response and started showing a bit more concern, but still insisted that the only way to get it resolved was in-person at the store. So, now we have a couple of pretty irate parents and a daughter who is absolutely crushed after trying for months, finally getting one, then having it pulled out from under her. And a 4 hour drive ahead of us just to be right back where we were.

About an hour later my wife gets a call from the store manager, who explains that they had a mix-up during pickup, that someone had a similar name and they had scanned the incorrect item, but they still have the PS5. Whether this is a made-up story or not, I don't really care, this is a much better outcome than we were looking at.

We drove up there yesterday morning (awesome drive through the Ozarks) and got there right after they opened. When they realized who we were, it was like some kind of employee drill started and everyone took places. We wanted to grab a charger, which was at the opposite corner of the store, so we left the PS5 at the pickup area. On the way were very nicely greeted by at least 3 different employees as they stood at attention in their store sections. They checked us out back at store pickup, and as we were walking out, the manager and all the assistant managers were all lined up in an arc across the front of the store, and nicely bid us a good day.

Now, I must say that it made me feel a bit uncomfortable -- I'm an introvert, and that's quite a bit more attention than I really care for, and I really just wanted them to make things right. But, obviously the manager was not pleased with the experience her staff was giving a customer and gave them a helmet adjustment. This is how you retain a customer! Honestly, I think their story was bogus and they had some insider hoping to slip one out the back door. But, it doesn't matter now and they did a great job recovering.

Sorry for the long story, glad that drama is over!

 

Wow I love the "Karen" reference lol.

I remember when I was trying to get one, Grasty and I both talked about Best Buy and the way they were handling the "pick up only" (I "think" Target is doing it that way also?). If I would have been able to secure one through Best Buy, I would have driven to Hot Springs or even Texarkana to pick it up even though I sure didn't want to. But neither of us were able to even get one in the cart at Best Buy any time they dropped any new stock. Walmart, to their credit, was seamless. We both were able to get one on the same day at about the same time in the middle of Dec. The original arrival date at my house was Jan. 9th IIRC and his was the 10th. But I got an email within a week from Walmart and it got here a few days later on the 30th. He got his a week later. So kudos to Walmart. I think the main reason it got here sooner was because of the huge Walmart Distribution Center in Searcy (about 90 miles or so from me) but I could be wrong. No matter what, It came well packaged and I ended up buying the three year warranty on it since I've had a disc drive failure on 2 of the 3 PS4 Pros that I've got.

Glad it all got straightened out and your daughter was able to get one. Sounds like that manager has her shit together. I'm really surprised that many are dropping right now with the huge chip shortage going one but maybe they are catching back up?

 

They had quite a few there in Branson waiting for pickup. Chip manufacturing these days is a bit odd, with so many companies going fabless and spinning off their manufacturing. Intel is the only big player I can think of that still runs their own fabs. If Sony/AMD booked enough capacity with the foundries and didn't cancel any due to the "C" situation (which would have been stupid), they are probably mainly just dealing with all the ancillary chips needed.

When I was about done with college, I got a software development job for a small Austin company that built robotic wafer sorters and handlers. The first big project I worked on was a big, important order for TSMC. Even that early in their life, TSMC was regarded as the premier foundry. If you could make them happy, everyone else would follow. The success of that project led to orders from nearly every other Taiwanese manufacturer. I spent a lot of time in Taiwan, lol.

 

You have a much more in depth knowledge about this than I do. The only thing that I was going off of have been the recent news stories about Sony and the PS5 (not sure if Xbox was / is affected by this or not?). I had just read multiple reports over the last month that due to the chip shortage due to high demand, Sony was having trouble producing more consoles and they would be delayed for a time until they were able to start receiving the chips to contiune producing the consoles at a rate that could supply demand. We all knew demand for these units would be high like they always are. But it seems this new generation of consoles was even higher than expected so I can understand the shortage for a period of time. Eventually supply will catch up with demand. When will that be? That I can't answer.

 

Ratchet & Clank is free on the PS4.

https://www.playstation.com/en-us/play-at-home/

 

Never played Ratchet & Clank before.

I did download the demo for Outriders. It's actually pretty good. Story is throw away but I don't really care about the story in games like this. I just care how it plays. It's a third person shooter that has what seems to be a pretty decent RPG system. I'd say it plays similar to Gears of War or The Division but the shooting mechanics aren't nearly as precise. I'd put it closer to Mass Effects shooting system. But the shooting is only half of the game. The other half is the skills that you have at your disposal. That's where the fun really comes in. Four different classes each with their own independent abilities. Each ability is on a short cooldown so you can pretty much use one of the three at any given time. I doubt I'll buy it but it is better than I thought it would be.

 

When I started this thread wayback it was to compare the Xbox One to the PS4. I had both that the time and back then they were similar machines with one trying to be an all around media center and the other concentrating on games. Now that I don't have a new Xbox to compare to the PS5, if anyone has one I'd like to hear your experience with it. I know now that they are fundamentally the same and there is probably little difference between the consoles in a real world scenario. The only thing that I have seen as far as reports go is the PS5 is the most sought after piece of hardware since both launched. I know it's still hard to get either console right now but I was curious if anyone had one and could share their experience with it. Seems that the PS5 has the market right now and it's a bit strange since neither of the consoles have any console specific games as far as I know? I know that Xbox has an unbelievable bargain with "Gamepass" that I wish Sony would try to copy to an extent.

 

Sony opened up a lot of PS4 games that are now free to play for PS5 owners. Unfortunately I didn't find anything I wanted to play that I don't already own. But yeah, I'd like to see more PS5-specific content. Hopefully some of the big PS4 games will get remastered.

AC Valhalla is really nice on the PS5, as is Destiny, but haven't really tried anything else yet. May load up Ghost of Tsushima again.

 

AC Valhalla didn't interest me in the least. Destiny is a completely new game now with the PS5 upgrade (I assume Xbox is the same way?). I'm not sure if Ghost of Tsushima will look or play any different or not? I did reload The Division 2 and as far as I know there are no plans to upgrade to the new hardware. The only difference I can see in The Division is the draw distance is better, load times are much faster, and there is no pop in with the textures as you load into a new area. But it still only runs at 30fps and it's brutal after playing Destiny 2 at 60 and 120 FPS. It's hard to go back and play anything that is 30 FPS now.

 

PS5 Dropping at Walmart.com at 3PM today

 

Suggest making a new PS5 thread. Seems to be a mix here now that a handful of people have gotten their hands on a PS5 but people are still talking about PS4/Xbox One games.

 

That's because there are very few PS5 games out right now. Just a couple and I haven't bought any of them so I can't give an honest impression of how they would look. The only thing that I can compare is Destiny 2 since you can play the PS4 version or the PS5 version on the same console. The PS5 version is night and day difference. One other thing. When I started this back in 13 I actually owned a PS4 and Xbox One. So I could compare them. But I have no intention of buying an new Xbox so I can't compare the difference (if there really is any noticeable difference).

 

Still trying to get my hands on a PS5. Crazy. I think when the PS4 came out I had to wait till March of the following year (after launch)... we are now into June and still can't find one anywhere.

 

Good luck is about all I can say. Read an article about the PS5 and Sony has already conceded to their shareholders that it will most likely be 2022-2023 before they will be able to finally meet the demand for the PS5. The vast majority has to do with chip shortages and the move to not keeping hardware in stock but rather only order as needed. The amount of chip manufacturers has diminished considerably since the 2000's so very few companies manufacture chips anymore. Last year certainly didn't help matters.

The only thing that is left to do is constantly watch when hardware is going to drop from all the major outlets. But that requires you to constantly scour twitter feeds from major retailers or just do what I did. Create a browser with all the tabs open for outlets that may get them in stock. Make sure you have your payment info already saved on each of those outlets and be ready to checkout as soon as they become available. Your only other option after that? Pay a scalper. It sucks but if you really want one you will have to put in the time and effort to get one or you will have to pay a premium from a scalper. Those are the only two ways you will get one for the foreseeable future. They will not be on store shelves for a very long time.