{"id":2352,"date":"2014-01-27T23:34:30","date_gmt":"2014-01-27T13:34:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reckoner.com.au\/?p=2352"},"modified":"2014-02-03T11:17:20","modified_gmt":"2014-02-03T01:17:20","slug":"dispatch-from-the-trenches-xbox-one-vs-playstation-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reckoner.com.au\/features\/dispatch-from-the-trenches-xbox-one-vs-playstation-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Dispatch From the Trenches: Xbox One vs. Playstation 4"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s been just over two months since Australia saw the launch of the next generation of gaming consoles.<\/span> Each camp was surrounded by a thick insulative layer of marketing guff. The fanboy encampments on both sides were busily lobbing tech-spec bombs from their comment-trolling holes.<\/p>\n

At that time, neither marketer nor fanboy really knew exactly<\/em> what we were dealing with. No one had any proper hands-on time with either of them. So now\u2014two months on\u2014we’ve all had a chance to properly experience these new consoles on a daily basis.<\/p>\n

I thought it prudent to take a look again and offer a new, informed opinion.<\/p>\n

\"Xbox<\/div>\n

I owned a PS3 by accident.<\/p>\n

Previous-gen, I was an Xbox 360 person hands-down. It’s where my friends were, it had the titles I played the most and it was a purchase made almost entirely on the basis I was a Halo-loving nut on the original Xbox in my early twenties.<\/p>\n

I did own a PS3 too, but\u00a0it made its way into my living room almost by accident. It ended up arriving as a free bonus for a Sony Bravia TV I purchased at the time. Co-incidentally, around the same time as the post-PS3-launch-sales-slump. Right when they couldn’t understand why a $700-$999 console wasn’t selling.<\/p>\n

Hmm, that is weird.<\/p>\n

I’m glad I had it though; it let me enjoy some awesome exclusive titles like The Last Of Us<\/em> and Journey<\/em>.<\/em> Titles\u00a0that I may not have gotten to without it there. In the end though, it was always second-fiddle to my Xbox 360.<\/p>\n

It was strange then that just before the launch all of my friends were ready to jump ship to the PS4. The Sony marketing wheels had spun and done so well. At the same time, Microsoft’s seemingly never-ending train wreck helped quite substantially, constantly-changing features and not explaining them in a way even their own staff could understand.<\/p>\n

The whole thing reminded me of Dr John Hewson trying to explain the GST applied to a birthday cake for those old enough to remember:<\/p>\n