August 28, 20169 yr Let's here the arguments. I want to get an undated console for my boys (currently XBOX360). All they do is play games and really all they care about at the moment is playing Star Wars Battlefront. I understand that there are hardcore XBOX and PS4 fans, but let's try and leave "brand loyalty" out of this. FWIW...since we already have an XBOX360, the games we already have will play on the XBOX One. However, I have never owned a Sony product so I am kinda leaning toward the PS4 just for that reason. John
August 28, 20169 yr I had an X360 but got a PS4 a couple of months ago just because I wanted a change, but I don't think there's much to choose between them tbh... Sent from my LG-H815 using Tapatalk
August 28, 20169 yr PC +1. The ultimate gaming machine is a fully loaded PC rather than a console which is full of trade-offs Sent from my LG-D852 using Tapatalk
August 28, 20169 yr Agreed, but sometimes the trade offs are worth it for convenience... Sent from my LG-H815 using Tapatalk
August 28, 20169 yr Agreed, but sometimes the trade offs are worth it for convenience... Sent from my LG-H815 using Tapatalk Ahh. The epitomy of consumerism Sent from my LG-D852 using Tapatalk
August 28, 20169 yr Both are very nice consoles. It all depends if you play online or with friends. For what it's worth, Amazon has the XBox One S 500GB Halo collection on sale for $270 right now: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01GW3GY3K .
August 28, 20169 yr Author Single player only. And to be clear...my boys are 5 and 6 years old. Consoles make daddy's job very easy! That being said, I am already in the process of providing my 6 year old with his own computer station (desk, Lenovo T420 that I had laying around, 22" monitor, etc.). He is totally hooked on Day of the Tentacle (a boy after my own heart!). FYI for anyone who is not aware...a remastered version of DOTT was released. John
August 29, 20169 yr Other than Brand Loyality, XboxOne is making a lot of its older Xbox360 Games backwards compatible with the XboxOne and you can often download them for free of the Xbox Market. As well if you've ever purchased any Xbox360 Games Digitally you can get them for free on the XboxOne as they become compatible. Run low on space with an XboxOne, just plugin an External Drive and walla you have more space. Other than that honestly its all about what games you consider you have to have because they both have a small library of Exclusives you can only get on each console respectively.
August 30, 20169 yr PC PC and steam or better yet unraid and steam os vm. For the record I have use steamy one time but own like 30 games. What can I say " I'm a shut up and take my money."
August 30, 20169 yr What do their friends have? Go with what the majority has (or their best friends) because your kids will likely want to play with their friends
August 31, 20169 yr PC No! Oldskool Nintendo SNES or SEGA Megadrive or Neo-Geo! PC has emulators for those.
August 31, 20169 yr Throwing in another option as it looks like the Playstation streaming service Playstation Now is available on Windows machines. All you need is a Dual Shock 4 controller in addition to a compatible windows machine.
August 31, 20169 yr Throwing in another option as it looks like the Playstation streaming service Playstation Now is available on Windows machines. All you need is a Dual Shock 4 controller in addition to a compatible windows machine. Or a compatible TV, like my Sony Android TV which has Playstation Now built in
September 7, 20169 yr Author Long story short... Bought an XBOX ONE (since we already had a bunch of games which a few were BC). Played it for 3 days without issue and then it went goofy. Both controllers would randomly move (i.e. I would go all the way to the right in the menus and it would come back all the way to the left). I would like to say this was a controller issue but BOTH did the same thing. I played with it for about 3 hours, got frustrated, returned it and got a PS4. Honestly, I wasn't really impressed with the XO. Account management/usage just seemed 'off'. In parallel, I bought a GTX 950 and currently testing in a VM. If all goes well (i.e. the 950 drives Star Wars Battlefront well enough), I'll use Launchbox as a frontend for PC games and return the PS4. That being said, is there a PC game frontend that mimics consoles (look and feel)? I want to put something in front of my boys that is at least somewhat familiar. John
September 7, 20169 yr Long story short... Bought an XBOX ONE (since we already had a bunch of games which a few were BC). Played it for 3 days without issue and then it went goofy. Both controllers would randomly move (i.e. I would go all the way to the right in the menus and it would come back all the way to the left). I would like to say this was a controller issue but BOTH did the same thing. I played with it for about 3 hours, got frustrated, returned it and got a PS4. Honestly, I wasn't really impressed with the XO. Account management/usage just seemed 'off'. In parallel, I bought a GTX 950 and currently testing in a VM. If all goes well (i.e. the 950 drives Star Wars Battlefront well enough), I'll use Launchbox as a frontend for PC games and return the PS4. That being said, is there a PC game frontend that mimics consoles (look and feel)? I want to put something in front of my boys that is at least somewhat familiar. John Steam / SteamOS has a full screen sort of console/kiosk mode which can be driven by a controller. Importantly you can use the Xbox360 controllers with Steam meaning you would be giving the boys a familiar controller and a console interface. http://steamunpowered.eu/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Steam-Big-Picture-Mode.jpg You can even have Steam running on your main computer / unRAID machine (with GPU pass through) and just stick a dumb NUC (running SteamOS of Windows - with obvious pros and cons) or similar connected to the TV in the room the boys use the most (connected to a wired network) and the games will play (stream) across the network. Easy Peasy. In addition, doing it this way means you can add titles to your Steam Acc on the PC/VM and configure / tune them etc before the boys play it and when you're ready they will see it in the library to play.
September 7, 20169 yr Author Long story short... Bought an XBOX ONE (since we already had a bunch of games which a few were BC). Played it for 3 days without issue and then it went goofy. Both controllers would randomly move (i.e. I would go all the way to the right in the menus and it would come back all the way to the left). I would like to say this was a controller issue but BOTH did the same thing. I played with it for about 3 hours, got frustrated, returned it and got a PS4. Honestly, I wasn't really impressed with the XO. Account management/usage just seemed 'off'. In parallel, I bought a GTX 950 and currently testing in a VM. If all goes well (i.e. the 950 drives Star Wars Battlefront well enough), I'll use Launchbox as a frontend for PC games and return the PS4. That being said, is there a PC game frontend that mimics consoles (look and feel)? I want to put something in front of my boys that is at least somewhat familiar. John Steam / SteamOS has a full screen sort of console/kiosk mode which can be driven by a controller. Importantly you can use the Xbox360 controllers with Steam meaning you would be giving the boys a familiar controller and a console interface. http://steamunpowered.eu/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Steam-Big-Picture-Mode.jpg You can even have Steam running on your main computer / unRAID machine (with GPU pass through) and just stick a dumb NUC (running SteamOS of Windows - with obvious pros and cons) or similar connected to the TV in the room the boys use the most (connected to a wired network) and the games will play (stream) across the network. Easy Peasy. In addition, doing it this way means you can add titles to your Steam Acc on the PC/VM and configure / tune them etc before the boys play it and when you're ready they will see it in the library to play. From the little bit that I played with BPM, it seems that you can still get into some settings. Is there a 'true' kiosk mode that you can turn on? John
September 7, 20169 yr Long story short... Bought an XBOX ONE (since we already had a bunch of games which a few were BC). Played it for 3 days without issue and then it went goofy. Both controllers would randomly move (i.e. I would go all the way to the right in the menus and it would come back all the way to the left). I would like to say this was a controller issue but BOTH did the same thing. I played with it for about 3 hours, got frustrated, returned it and got a PS4. Honestly, I wasn't really impressed with the XO. Account management/usage just seemed 'off'. In parallel, I bought a GTX 950 and currently testing in a VM. If all goes well (i.e. the 950 drives Star Wars Battlefront well enough), I'll use Launchbox as a frontend for PC games and return the PS4. That being said, is there a PC game frontend that mimics consoles (look and feel)? I want to put something in front of my boys that is at least somewhat familiar. John Steam / SteamOS has a full screen sort of console/kiosk mode which can be driven by a controller. Importantly you can use the Xbox360 controllers with Steam meaning you would be giving the boys a familiar controller and a console interface. http://steamunpowered.eu/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Steam-Big-Picture-Mode.jpg You can even have Steam running on your main computer / unRAID machine (with GPU pass through) and just stick a dumb NUC (running SteamOS of Windows - with obvious pros and cons) or similar connected to the TV in the room the boys use the most (connected to a wired network) and the games will play (stream) across the network. Easy Peasy. In addition, doing it this way means you can add titles to your Steam Acc on the PC/VM and configure / tune them etc before the boys play it and when you're ready they will see it in the library to play. From the little bit that I played with BPM, it seems that you can still get into some settings. Is there a 'true' kiosk mode that you can turn on? John I think the closest you are going to get to "true kiosk mode" is by leveraging Steams "Family" set of functions and enabling parental controls (see link below). I believe you can limit what the kids instance / account RC(assuming you're going to setup like that) of Steam does via those controls and pin protect the system. TBH I know it is configurable by area but don't know to what extent this locks down or prevents access to settings. It maybe all about content. I'll leave that to you to investigate. In summary: What I would do is have a master instance of steam on my PC / VM. Unrestricted. Have all games setup. Setup a "client" instance of Steam for the boys. No GPU or processing power just a streaming box. Hook the Xbox360 pads to that. Put it on a wired network (same and dedicated Gigabit switch if possible). Log them into Steam. Link the 2 instances / accounts: http://www.cnet.com/au/how-to/how-to-share-your-steam-gaming-library-with-friends-and-family/ Connect the two Steam instances and test / tune Streaming. Enable BPM on the kids' box. Setup parental controls of the boys' account (hopefully locking down the settings you want): https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=5149-EOPC-9918 Done. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
September 8, 20169 yr Author Awesome reply dani! I really appreciate it. I think I may need to lean more toward Gamestream/Moonlight rather than Steam only because I don't want to lose OpenELEC/LibreELEC. I think there *may* be a way to integrate BPM into OE/LE but I thought it was kinda 'hackish'. Also, do you use wireless 360 controllers? If so, have you had any issues if/when they disconnect while you are in-game? i.e. if I am playing LEGO Jurassic World and using the 360 controller and it loses connection (or battery dies), the controls automatically revert to KB and I am stuck as I do not have a KB/mouse connected. What's worse is if it happens when I am not there (...wife/kids have no idea what to do). Again, teh ultimate purpose is to replace a console. In the situation described above, on a console a quick press of the power button would resolve. John John
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