So it's been just over a week now, since both the Playstation 4 and Xbox One consoles have been released from Sony and Microsoft and received into our hearts. As a professional crazy person, I made it my mission to procure one of each of these new pieces of hardware and two big dips into the wallet later someone will finally love me, right? Right?! Of course I jest, but in all seriousness, don't live like me. I'm a cautionary tale. A cautionary tale with a new Xbox and Playstation 4, but a cautionary tale nonetheless. Yet the question remains on everyone's lips. Which one is better? Well friends, in this post I hope to at least partially answer this question. Though it might be bigger than you or I, assuredly there is someone out there who is struggling to decide which console to drop their hard earned cash on this holiday season and as resident crazy person I'd like to make it my duty to help as best I can.

I can start by saying that my experience thus far with each console has been a pleasant one. That is to say that both work as intended out of the box. Functions that I have been looking forward to on either console like quiet background downloads and cached installs make this generation's particularly large-sized games like Killzone Shadow Fall (which clocks in at around a 45 gb install) fairly hassle free. For example, after cramming Killzone into my Playstation 4 for the first time, there was a short wait period as the console launched the application, then the game booted up. There was no progress bar inching by at a snails pace and virtually no wait times. Just Boom! Video games! What's more is that Killzone has no logo builds on its start up. There's just a quick animation of a computer looking face and then once again, Boom ! Video games! This is not to say that Killzone is a tremendous game by any stretch, but this definitely doesn't hurt its case at all.

As someone who had limited experience with the Kinect on the Xbox 360, it was no small surprise to me that the Kinect bundled with the Xbox One actually works. Voice controls to navigate the UI, jump in and out of applications and Bing things on the internet is entirely functional and requires little to no frustration after a short set up when you first turn on your Xbox One. Motion control is still hit and miss sometimes, although I do prefer the "press David Duchovny's face to watch X-Files on Netflix" rather than hover over an icon to make something go. It feels entirely more tangible and responsive. I have had no experience with the Playstation Camera thus far so I cannot speak to the functionality of that peripheral.

In terms of System Level features, The Xbox One is concerned with making itself the one entertainment device at the centre of your home theatre set up. There is an HDMI in port so you can pass your cable box through and yell things like "XBOX WATCH TV" and watch TV through your Xbox. What a time to be alive! Features like the one guide (a snappier cable/satelite guide to navigate channels with your voice) are not available in Canada yet, so I have no experience with it. Both systems offer record functions that allow you to capture the last few minutes of gameplay and push them to social media outlets. The Playstation's gameplay recorder seems a touch more robust with a more fleshed out editing service and more places to send your videos after you've recorded them. Xbox only allows you to capture gameplay thus halting anyones' plans of recording clips of live television or what have you. I have not spent huge amounts of time with either of these features, as right out of the gate I have been more concerned with the gameplay experiences that the console offer, but as I look at features like this further I hope to make further posts.

In terms of the games that either console offer, I will be writing more detailed posts about the games that I have played so far. The games that I have picked up immediately are the Killer Instinct Ultimate bundle, Dead Rising 3 and Ryse on the Xbox One and Killzone Shadowfall and Lego Marvel on the Playstation 4. A discerning reader might recognize that one of the games for the Playstation 4 is not an exclusive, which might make my point that right away the Xbox One has a more varied and overall better launch line up of games. If you're looking at which system can provide you a better gameplay experience right away, I might be inclined to suggest the Xbox one. There are better quality exclusives on day one and it seems like it might be a little while before we get anything especially worth while on the Playstation 4, with Infamous landing in March. However, if you're not interested in Forza, Ryse or Dead Rising, then theres no incentive to picking up an Xbox One over a Playstation 4.

So when it comes down to it, which console is better? Well that's not really up for me to decide...This is an entirely subjective question and the answer will be different for every person. If you're someone who watches a lot of TV and think it would be keen to be able to watch an episode of something while you wait for a minimum download level to be reached and want to control something by yelling at it and don't have kids, then go with an Xbox. If you want to open something up and get right into video games and are more interested in recording and sharing your experiences and don't have an expensive recording system, then go with a Playstation. When it comes down to it, look at what's coming out - which exclusives will you like better down the line? Find out which one your friends are going to get and buy accordingly. Finally if your an insane person like myself, maybe take the plunge and buy both. That way you'll be covered for exclusives to come out on either system.

Of course when talking about the purchase of something that costs a couple hundred dollars, there's no easy answer, and Sony and Microsoft have made the decision even harder by putting out two completely competent, functional machines each of which that offer a lot of promise for things to come. Like I said, my experiences with either system has been exceptional and more than anything I am excited for these systems to only get better in the coming years.