Where shall I start? How about with a question?
When is Elder Scrolls Online coming to the Wii U? I want to use my controller like a sword! I'm kidding...I'm actually am a very lazy gamer and sold all my Wii and Wii U stuff because I felt like Nintendo was trying to force me to work out while playing their games. I will cry tears of joy the day Nintendo goes back to the basics and delivers a solid gaming console.
Ok here's the break down:
XBOX ONE vs PS4:
- The XBOX ONE controls are as smooth as butter. My fingers felt like they were ice skating. You know that feeling you get...but can't describe...when everything is just "perfect"? That's the XBOX ONE controller. I can only hope that I can eventually use my XBOX ONE controller to play Elder Scrolls Online on my PC or PS4 as well. It is freakishly perfect.
- Crowns cost more for XBOX ONE players. Why? Probably for the same reason I've seen Destiny on the XBOX store for $99.99. Prices on PSN appear to always seem normal...but on XBOX the prices can get pretty crazy.
- Even though the PS4 has a 50% more powerful GPU...you will not notice it in game. In side by side comparisons with multiple screen shots, and friends looking over the pictures with me...we cannot tell a difference between PS4 and XBOX ONE. Now PC is another story...but the differences are not as great as you might think. Both the PS4 and XBOX ONE versions are highly polished. If you are determined to see a clear difference between the consoles and pc...go to an area with a lot of light...and you will see a small increase in detail on the PC version.
- It is also worth noting that XBOX ONE allows for external storage. Which means for a mere $100 you can have up to 4TB's of solid storage in your external hard drive. With PS4 being restricted to 2TB's (you can always go more but anything over 2TB's internally greatly increases risk for failure)...it is easier to lean towards XBOX ONE for memory reasons
- This is the sole reason I returned the XBOX ONE version and kept my PS4 version of the game...the naming options. On PS4 you are allowed to use almost every alt key code available to name your character. Which means you can use characters that look just like several letters in the alphabet with only very minor unnoticeable alterations. This means the sky is the limit when it comes to possibilities for your characters name on PC and PS4. On XBOX ONE for some reason that I've yet to understand...you cannot use the same alt key codes as on PS4 and PC....instead they give you symbols like #$
@<?> . If a name is taken...I'd at least prefer one that looks similar to it over one with question marks or a @ symbol. No idea what they were thinking. I wish we could all just name our character whatever we wanted since in the end all of the names are linked to one account anyway.
- When it comes to lag and disruptions I expected to see less on the XBOX ONE since XBOX LIVE is on a paper a superior service. However, this is not what happened at all. In major towns both consoles shared in the same amount of lag spikes/frame skips. Neither was superior. At one point I started tallying how many times I noticed frame skips or lag spikes and they literally finished almost dead even over and hour.
In closing...I picked PS4 for better hardware, cheaper crowns, and I was able to create literally any name I wanted. HOWEVER, I did feel like the XBOX ONE had superior performance when it came to how the controls handled. On PS4 I felt like the controls were "good"...but sometimes when I wanted to do something another action would occur that I did not expect. On XBOX ONE it was rare for me to see anything happen other than the command I was expecting. If all you care about is the graphics....then I assure you that you will be fine either way. I'm a perfectionist and my friends and I even took pictures of the amount of grass/bushes on the landscape to see if one had more than the other. The consoles are dead even in terms of graphics even if the PS4 has superior hardware. Now...I'm NOT saying the XBOX ONE will be able to handle the graphics just as smoothly as the PS4...but I am saying that the overall look is equal.
It's also worth noting that the new XBOX ONE standard consoles being released will be 1TB. With the new 1TB console Microsoft has also updated the XBOX ONE controller. I don't know how you could make that controller even more perfect....but apparently they did. I can only hope that PS4 updates its controller soon as well...or at least we see some more 3rd party options for the PS4 controller. Microsoft appears to be on the attack in 2015...and hopefully we will see a response from PS4 in a similar fashion.