PlayStation 4 v Xbox One, who will win?

Twenty years ago, when 3D gaming was in its infancy, competing console manufacturers had no qualms about committing infanticide to gain a competitive edge. By the late 90s three Japanese manufacturers; Sony, Nintendo and Sega were the remaining survivors, the Yakuza’s of the now multi-billion dollar gaming industry.  But the good times hit an abrupt end in the early 2000s when Microsoft shocked the gaming community by joining the console wars with the unveiling of their mighty secret weapon, Xbox…

War games

…Since its inception in 2001, Xbox drove Sega to extinction and nearly buried Nintendo, leaving the defiant PlayStation still standing, like sworn enemies they've been slugging out it ever since. This battle between East and West is synonymous with the arms race of the Cold War, only difference is now the challenge is to develop the meanest gaming consoles instead of weapons of mass destruction.  The rivalry has seen the CPUs of these ‘toys’ become so advanced they could easily launch any of the Cold War nuclear missiles. Last week at Gamescom 2013 in Germany, Sony and Microsoft announced the release dates of yet more powerful consoles, the Xbox One and PS4 respectively. So which of these incredible machines will win this round?

Inside PlayStation 4

PS4 will have an 8-core AMD Jaguar and an AMD Radeon GPU with 1.152 shaders. Its disc tray takes both Blu-ray and DVD. It will run on an impressive 8GB of RAM and have a whopping 500GB hard drive plus cloud saving capabilities. It can emit Ethernet, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1 frequencies. The ports take USB 3.0 HDMI flash drives and joysticks have been upgraded to a Dualshock 4, Eye†, Move ‡. Its second screen can either be a PS Vita, tablets or smartphones with PS4 apps. Unfortunately it is backwards compatible with selected PS3 games but its power supply will be internal.

Uncovering Xbox One

Xbox One will also have an 8-core AMD Jaguar but its AMD Radeon GPU has 768 shaders. You can pop in Blu-rays and DVDs and its ports, memory, storage and internet capabilities are exactly the same as its rival. It does have Ethernet and Wi-Fi but no Bluetooth connectivity. SmartGlass app for tablets and smartphones can serve as a second screen. It’s not backwards compatible with any Xbox games which is a big disappointment and it will use a bulky external power brick.

Verdict

At $399 (about R4K) PS4 is merely $100 cheaper than Xbox One. PS4 will launch globally in November while Xbox One is delayed until 2014, so what? Remember, PS3 launched before the Xbox 360 but many units were recalled due to malfunctioning Blu-ray lasers. So until they’re official launch dates, nobody can confidently say which is more superior because it looks like they’re evenly matched. Moreover, the fact that Microsoft named their 3^rd generation console Xbox One could be a cheeky hint that their only getting started. This war is going to be ugly.

Book Review: A Disruptive Invention

Author:  Peter W. Shackle

Genre:  Sci/fi – Thriller

Publisher: Amazon.com

Rating: 4 reading glasses

For decades, scientists have been hitting dead ends trying to discover the holy grail of physics; the elusive fifth force, a mysterious energy which causes an electric current to repel gravity. 

Every scientist who has tried hunting the force has failed, that’s until electrical engineer John Sykes accidently discovers the force in his home lab while trying to create a fancy metal detector.

Needing someone in his field to confirm his claim, John uses the opportunity to invite work colleague and secret crush, Judy Chen over to his flat for a practical demonstration of the anti-gravity coils. Unfortunately for John, the sexy Chinese scientist he has been ogling since college insists on inviting Professor Tony Shepard who ran their physics lab in college to the ‘date’.  John relents, and on that fateful day, his two friends confirm the discovery of the fifth force.

After practical demonstrations of the anitcoil technology, the trio manage to convince venture capitalists to invest millions of dollars into their new company Electrolev.  They quit their day jobs, rent a  warehouse building in California, hire more staff and delve into more advanced research which leads to the construction of a completely silent, wingless, rotor less saucer shaped vehicle called a LeviStar capable of near space flight. When they test the LeviStar outdoors for the first time and the Californian public glimpses it, the media reports it as a UFO sighting. The story takes a dramatic turn when these newspaper reports raise the eyebrows of industrial spies.

Since LeviStars would make aircraft carriers, satellite companies, space shuttles, helicopters and airplanes obsolete, not to mention make its owners billionaires, its civilization shattering implications attracts the attention of the Russian government who has been covertly watching the development of the ‘silent helicopter’.  They send ruthless secret agents to infiltrate the Eloctrolev headquarters to steal as much information about the technology as possible, they successfully complete their mission but not without killing several Electrolev employees in the process.

Suspecting a foreign government could be behind these crimes, and fearing they could use LeviStars against America, the US military steps in and moves the Electrolev team to the Area 51 secret air force base, and invests $1billion in a desperate attempt to develop an advanced prototype before the unknown foreign government beats them to it.

ADI has some complicated science jargon which is confusing if you’re not a physics nerd. And despite many gun wielding police, secret agents and military personnel, about four shots are fired in the entire story making the shootouts disappointing.  However, once the LeviStar conducts its maiden space flight you’ll fly through the book anxious to discover if the craft crashes or stalls in space forever.

 Moreover, the love triangle between Judy, Tony and John becomes painful when Judy is forced to choose between the two. What makes ADI unique from traditional UFO stories is that it’s probably the only flying saucer tale not involving little green aliens, making it an original sci-fi classic.

Album Review: Yeezus

Genre: Rap

Label: Roc-A-Fella, Def Jam

Overall: 2.5 Vinyls

Did you know Kanye West & Kim Kardashian named their baby girl North, to “symbolize” the height of their relationship,  or that he bullet proofed his cars & hired extra security to keep away “weirdos and pshycos” from stalking his family? Kanye West’s private life is one of the hottest trending topics right now, so much so that it’s almost like the media has forgotten he has a new album out.

Yeezus is exactly what you’d expect from someone Obama called a jackass on national television, & if you thought that was enough to humiliate him into humility, think again. Lines like “They see a black man with a white woman at the top floor they gon’ call a kid King Kong” on the albums lead single Black Skinhead would easily tempt critics to call him a black dickhead, but don’t bother yourselves, he calls himself a dick anyway in New Slaves where he proudly confesses “I’d rather be a dick than a swallower.”

Though he doesn’t actually mention Kim’s name, we know exactly who he’s talking about on On Sight when he says “…and I know she like chocolate men/she got more niggas of than Cochrane” on I Am A God Kanye sounds like the attention seeking drama queen his wife is “Hurry up with my damn massage…In a French ass restaurant/hurry up with my damn croissants…”  I’m still waiting to hear Kim admit she wrote that. On Can’t Hold My Liquor ft Justin Vernon and Chief Keef Kanye lashes out at various unidentified women for unknown reasons “when I park my Range Rover/slightly scratch your Corolla/ok I smash your Corolla” (hope she has insurance).

 Yeezus only shines when it comes to the impeccable production quality.  He really pushes the autotune and 808 to limits most producers fantasize of reaching. Guilt Trip ft Kid Cudi is one such example, just the line “…Star Wars fur yeah I’m rocking Chewbacca…” coupled with the synth effects could potentially make this the albums best smash hit. The intro On Sight begins with a brain rattling high pitched frequency which transits into a funky EDM/disco tune that would make any 80s disco king proud. The dungeon themed I Am A God easily outdoes most horrorcore beats out there, there’s also a few Ragga samples scattered randomly throughout the album, but the crown jewel is the 6:00 long Blood on the Leaves. Think orchestra, autotune, piano, trap and one hell of a bass.

Don’t let the provocative song titles fool you into thinking Yeezus tackles spiritual or socio-political issues.  On the contrary, from All Falls Down to this, Kanye clearly doesn’t give a damn about grassroots issues anymore. Was he in a rush to get the album over and done with so he could focus on posing for the paparazzi? Nobody would really blame him though; after all his private life is clearly pulling in more money than his album.