No matter how good technology gets, there's always going to be limitations, hiccups, glitches, whatever you wanna call 'em, even in the brave new world of the next generation of consoles. With retailers the world over now offering demo stands for both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, gamers are getting an eyeful of both the good and the bad of what the new consoles have to offer.
Wander into a BestBuy or GameStop and you'll tend to see a crowd of kids gathered around these things, especially with shops and malls starting to get overcrowded for the holiday season. As such, these demo systems are subject to a lot of play and even more sticky fingers. As they're also not the same console that will be actually sold, they're not going to work every time.
Case in point, gamers on Twitter have spotted demo versions of both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One crashing. First up, Twitter user F. Van Derken Derren shared a picture of the Xbox One doing exactly that with the requisite heavy metal fingers. So there's that. See for yourself below.
Whether you think the PlayStation 4 is better or perhaps worse than Microsoft's next-gen toy, it's unfortunately subject to the same possibility of failure, and here's the proof. This picture comes from Twitter user MRCalderon3D.
Crashes are never fun, but the silver lining in this cloud is that this type of crash doesn't freeze the console, so you can still operate the system without having to reboot it.
Microsoft's Xbox One launches on Nov. 22, and will be available in Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain, UK, and the United States for $499.
The new console claims an 8-core x86 processor and Microsoft hopes it will take the place of the family room cable box by letting you watch Blu-ray movies and TV through the console, in a "seamless transition" that lets players switch from playing games to watching shows and/or movies. It will come fully loaded with 8GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive.
A cross-country tour where Microsoft is demoing the system at various locations is already underway, and demo kiosks have begun arriving at certain retailers.
As for Sony, the PlayStation 4 boasts Supercharged PC architecture, X86 CPU, Enhanced PC GPU, and 8GB Unified Memory under the hood. It will support the same PlayStation Plus service as the Vita and PlayStation 3. However, a Plus subscription will be required for online multiplayer games, but not for additional media services like Netflix. Sony has also updated the Dual Shock controllers with a touch screen and improved shoulder triggers, and bundles the console with a headset.
Demo kiosks have already started making their way to various retailers, with more and more rolling out the closer we get to the console's launch date.
The PlayStation 4 is set to release on November 15 in North America and on November 29 in Europe. Day one games available for the system include Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, Battlefield 4, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Killzone Shadow Fall, Madden NFL 25, NBA 2K14, Need for Speed: Rivals, and more. It will retail for $399.
Be sure to keep checking back with Gamenguide for more of the latest updates.
