So I’ve decided to take a up a quick response to my counter part. Their article, entitled: “Xbox One vs. PS4 : Out of the box experience in 2017” has some things in it I felt like nitpicking or bringing light to. The piece can be found at https://abortretryfailshow.wordpress.com/2017/10/

Now, without further ado, Let me begin. ( There was some ado)

I can’t say I’m a fanboy of either console myself. I used to be an avid fan of the Xbox brand and still have strong feelings towards the Xbox 360 and original Xbox, but that’s died off in recent years. For the most part I just have the Xbone because that’s what my connections all have. I waited a short bit to get into the 8th generation myself. I found little reason to hop on board the hype train.

I agree with the sentiment that both machines are really just low range PC’s. Gone are the days where consoles could make gaming computers quake in their boots. I remember 7th gen and how far ahead those systems were to comparably priced equipment at the time. It was pride I felt in owning such a powerful piece of equipment. I think that’s why the systems now are so lackluster. They just feel like attempts from an industry that has given up on innovation and experimentation.

That being said, I’d like to address the matter at hand with my cohorts pickings at the Xbox. I don’t really have a leg to stand on when it comes to addressing the pros and cons of the PS4, but I’ve been using the Xbone for around 3 years now with varying frequency.

I think a lot of the qualms that came up from the VS we just had stem from what makes the article unique; the delay in entering the generation. It brings up some interesting things about how far the consoles have come. Specifically when it comes to the Xbox, how much its still tied down by its creators original plans.

Ya’ll remember E3 2013? What a sh*tshow right? Well the always online and nothing but digital attitude is something I believe is still to blame for why getting this 3rd Xbox up and running can be seen as a chore.

The 2 companies came rolling out with very different ideologies on how gaming should now work. You’ve got the classic Sony burn of “Let’s just really drop the bomb on our competition and embarass them”. This goes back to their first foray into gaming. The number 299 comes to mind. With Microsoft you had their hack of a brand leader Don Mattrick spouting “TV TV TV DIGITAL FUTURE TV! SOME GAMES? YOU WANT GAMES!? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? ENTERTAINMENT!!!”. This came alongside their dreadful choice to incorporate a peripheral nobody wanted in the Kinect (notice how no one ever talked about the Playstation alternative) and then the worst blow to themselves of all with their choice to say if you don’t have internet then you can toss yourself.

Now if they’d followed through with their initial plans I’m under the assumption they’d be the console to have as it would have opened the doors for better sharing of games than even physical copies, but now were just saddled with the downsides of a system that clearly had a lot of things implemented in its code that are now just dormant echoes.

The fact that games auto-install is a sore feeling for me but I’ve come to be used to it. That was the way they wanted it and I think it was just too much for Microsoft to completely kill the plans they had for their machine. Now, its not all bad. What wasn’t mentioned in the piece I’m responding to is that with many games you don’t have to wait for the install of the base game to complete before you can play. Xbox games are segmented. Once the installation gets to a certain point you get a notification stating you can fire it up. Your experience is limited during this pseudo-installed state, but its there.

Now with the updates, I again have to agree with the sour disposition my colleague felt. This has been a staple of Xbox in some form or another since the 360, but its definitely gotten worse. For whatever reason the OS designers think its a great idea to paralyze a users system while its downloading important updates. But, you come to expect that from the same company that designed Windows. Its one of those things that have no way around it. All I can say is at least the games can install in the background. You really should be able to use the base revision of any software you get before updates hit, even if that would mean some fragmentation in the user base. Always-online probably had its hand played here too.

With the issue laid on the table about Blu-Ray I’m not surprised at all. Its likely down to a licensing issue with Sony because..ya know..Blu-Ray. That and there may still be some remnants of the anti-monopoly lawsuit taken against Microsoft a good few years back regarding the installation of Windows Media Player on all versions of Windows. The lawsuit basically made it so that WMP could not be pre-installed on Windows K and Windows M platforms. These were revisions for the countries that specifically wanted to opt out of the apparent corporate juggernaut that was Microsoft. (I have obviously over-simplified this.) Still, an inconvenience is an inconvenience.

Shutdown.exe:

In closing, I mostly agree with the prior article on our fine page. The Xbox has shown itself to be a pain for anyone getting an older revision of the machine. Its hampered by its dark past and will only get worse from here. I say mostly however because there’s a way this could all have been avoided….

Cheers, All!