If you have big hands you may need to use your index fingers in more of a claw shape than you are used to, but it shouldn’t affect your experience too much. Talking of clickiness, the left and right bumpers on the new controller are also a bit more digital in feel now and they work off a new hinge system, meaning they can no longer be pressed towards the centre of the controller. The “clickiness” of said D-pad makes it inferior to recent offerings from Sony and Nintendo in my opinion, but most anything would have been an improvement over last time. The offset analogue sticks and general button layout stays the same, but gone is the awful disc-based directional pad, replaced with a retro style plus shape. The Xbox One pad makes several small adjustments to what was already a winning design in the Xbox 360 controller. This shot looks better because it was taken from the actual PS4.īoth fresh controllers, understandably crucial to the console experience, feel amazing in the hands. At least it did when I tried it on my 3rd generation iPad. There is one final control option, Smartglass, which requires a compatible phone or tablet and a free app download but works much more smoothly than it ever did on the Xbox 360. You can also use gestures to control the dashboard, and Kinect does a good job of recognising your hand movements, but the lengthy and weird push-pull movements required to select things usually makes a controller preferable. People familiar with the tile based layout of Windows 8 will recognise the sometimes obtuse logic behind where some things are, buried under several menus and sub-menus. The console encourages you to try using your voice to go straight to whatever game or app you want to get to, which is just as well because navigating the Xbox One dashboard with a controller means some things take an unnecessarily long time to reach. It’s both a little creepy and very, very cool, as is the ability of Kinect to recognise multiple faces in the room and automatically sign people in. As long as you play by its rules, Kinect is surprisingly adept at recognising voice commands, even with Australian accents in full swing. When it comes to UI, the PS4 has the edge in simplicity while the Xbox One is perhaps a little faster to get where you need to go, as long as you are willing to train yourself to talk to the new Kinect in a very specific way. Microsoft’s new product packaging in general is superior in showiness to Sony’s, and for some reason Xbox One game cases hold the disc on the left hand side, but there isn’t much more to say about that. The difference in functionality is stark, though, as the Kinect has a much wider field of view, better display resolution and smoother voice recognition capabilities than the much smaller and lighter PS Camera. Every Xbox One of course comes with Microsoft’s new generation of Kinect sensor, whereas for about the price of a new game you can pick up the optional Playstation Camera for your PS4 if you want to. In the case of the Xbox One, the console will just flat-out not work without downloading that patch. The PS4 is much smaller than the Xbox One and doesn’t need a power brick (in fact it works fine with my existing PS3 cables) but runs noticeably louder than the beefy new Xbox, which seems to be made up of 50% cooling vents and emits so little sound that it makes the humming PS4 sound like an angry freight train by comparison.īoth consoles require at least a one-time internet connection and a half-gig patch download to unlock their full functionality. Not only the console and the included Kinect sensor but the power brick and even the HDMI cable all boast a similar matte-gloss embellishment. While the PS4 certainly wears it proudly, Microsoft’s new console seems obsessed with the style. Note that most of these photos were taken very late at night with a combination of caffeine, minimal sleep and of course excitement, so they are a little on the awful side if you look at them too closely.īoth consoles, for some reason that can only be described as bizarre, have decided to go for the same half-matte half-gloss finish for their initial models. I’ve divided things into sub-headings for easy reference. At the time of writing I have had just over a week with the Playstation 4 and a fortnight with the Xbox One, meaning I am just about ready to talk about what has and hasn’t impressed me about the brand new consoles. The next generation of gaming is now well and truly here, with the Playstation 4 and the Xbox One joining the 3DS, PS Vita and Wii U in one big dysfunctional gaming family. Awww, look at them just co-existing harmoniously…
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