Gamer's Outpost Press (archived)

by Gunther Barbosa

PC vs Consoles is always a popular topic among gamers. With the release of the next-gen gaming consoles PS4 and Xbox One and recent announcement of Valve’s Steam Machines, it looks like the PC vs Console debate will grow more and won’t die down any time soon.

In a report by Cinema Blend, The CyberpowerPC Steam Machine looks like it will be a threat to living-room gaming supremacy held by Sony and Microsoft as, by looking at its specs, it is significantly more powerful than the next-gen consoles at almost the same price.

Here’s a comparison between the next-gen consoles and the CyberpowerPC Steam Machine:

CPU
The Xbox One and PS4 both have Jaguar APU technology provided by AMD. Both systems also house octo-core processors. The PS4’s core clock speed is 1.6ghz with a max OC range of 2.75ghz per core. The Xbox One’s core processing speed is 1.75ghz according to Microsoft.

By comparison, the CyberpowerPC Steam Machine has an A6-6400K 3.90 GHz CPU from AMD. Compared to the tablet-style Jaguar APUs in the Xbox One and PS4, overclocked, the A6-6400K has more brute-force performance per core, even though the PS4 and Xbox One have more cores. Essentially, this could mean the A6-6400K could be out-classed with games that take advantage of multi-threaded design configurations, but those games are far and few between.

GPU
While the APUs for the Xbox One and PS4 have the CPU and GPU sharing a die, they’re still clocked differently enough to stand against the comparison of what will be featured in the OEM Steam Machines. The Xbox One’s GPU was upgraded by 53mhz just before going into production, allowing for an 853mhz core clock speed of the GPU with 12 compute units. The PS4 has an 800mhz core clock speed with 18 compute units. The PS4 has some custom design work done on the GPU which allows the GPU to out muscle the Xbox One by a theoretical performance rate of up to 50%.

The CyberpowerPC Steam Machine has a Radeon R9 270 with 2GB GDDR5 VRAM. According to Cinema Blend, The Xbox One’s GPU is about equivalent to an underclocked 7770, which by comparison, would mean the R9 270 outdoes the Xbox One in memory bandwidth by about 150% and a pixel rate of more than 100%. With the PS4’s GPU capabilities closer to a Radeon HD 7870, that would mean the R9 270 is potentially 17% faster when it comes to memory bandwidth and 11% more powerful when it comes to pixel computations according to Hardware Compare. Of course, the R9 270 can scale with overclocking, enabling it to outperform the PS4 over the long haul with proper cooling.

RAM
Xbox One is using 8GB of DDR3 RAM, and 32MB of ESRAM. The 8GB of DDR3 however is divided with the OS requirements, which takes up 3GB, bringing the usable amount down to 5GB. The PS4 also has 8GB but it shares it’s GDDR5 memory between the GPU and CPU on the APU. There is continual debate about the PS4’s OS RAM requirements but most suggest it, too, is limited to 5GB of usable RAM.

By comparison, the CyberpowerPC Steam Machine comes with 8GB of DDR3 dual-channel 1600mhz memory with overclocking capabilities. While we don’t have a stable footprint on the SteamOS’ RAM requirements, it’s suggested that you have at least 4GB of RAM installed, which would mean that it’s likely to use up about 1GB, similar to Windows 7. In essence, SteamOS has a smaller RAM requirement overhead than the home consoles and has scalable speeds.

Price
The CyberpowerPC Steam Machine is $499. The Xbox One is $499. The PS4 is $399. Even at $100 more than the PS4, the specs of the Steam Machine are obviously more powerful given their scalability; and given the open-source Linux OS, you can add whatever apps you want, for free. There is also no fee for playing online unlike the consoles.

The CyperpowerPC Steam Machine beats the PS4 and Xbox One in specs and price, especially comparing what you’re getting in the package for the same price as Microsoft’s offering and for $100 more than Sony’s offerings.

Who do you think is the winner of the PC vs Consoles debate? Sound off in the comments below and tell us your views on PC vs Consoles!

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by Dave Scarborough

The Silent Hills teaser is packed with mysteries that fans are still having trouble wrapping their petrified little heads around, but at least there’s one enigma that has been cleared up.

Speaking about the game during a Japanese language Konami video (while also scaring the crap out of several people volunteering to play the demo), Hideo Kojima went on to shed light on the meaning behind 7780s – the name of the fake developer originally thought to be making the game.

It turns out that 7780 translates into a postcode, the location of which is the Shizuoka region of Japan. The name roughly translates as Quiet Hills and the region’s name has become a nickname for Silent Hill in its native country. Add an ‘s’ on the end and you have Silent Hills.

We’re sure there’s plenty more secrets tucked away in the P.T. demo. In fact, we’re still not entirely sure the correct sequence of events in the final puzzle. Nevertheless, Silent Hills has quickly become the most talked about game in the world right now.

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by Dean Howard

During PS4’s announcement at E3 last year, Sony talked of a ground breaking concept that will radically change the way we play video games forever. At the time so many information and rumors were in circulation that it wasn’t very clear which direction Sony was going with its next generation powerhouse. Since then a lot has come to light with one particular announcement at this years Gamescom14 having the potential of putting money in your pocket for a change.

Buying video games can be an expensive habit with most AAA games costing as much as $60 dollars. Sony have been working with developers and publishers to make games much more affordable by providing top notch digital services like PlayStation Plus and the recent PlayStation Now. These services will allow players to rent or even play games for free at a subscription cost as low as $50 dollars for the entire year.

Now we have been closely watching the success of broadcasters on TwitchTV and seen many passionate gamers who can now afford to broadcast their video games full-time to hundreds and thousands of loyal fans on a daily basis. What makes Twitch great is that not only can these broadcasters set up a subscription fee on their channels, they can also set up donations which is where most serious dedicated broadcaster make their major income.

Money and Power to The Player

Now with the recent Shareplay 2.0 Update announcement coming to PS4 this fall. Sony could potential provide a similar sort of opportunity to those who share their streams with others gamers in return for a fee. The potential to expand Shareplay into an income stream for gamers who invest in popular games early could be a lucrative venture for both Sony and Players alike. Especially with socially connected games like DriveClub and Destiny on their way. Sony could expand the share play functionality to more than one streaming console at a time, doubling or even tripling their earning potential. This way those who wish to rather play the latest PS4 games than buy it, could enjoy sharing this experience at a cost much less than they would pay for the full game. Kind of like a virtual online arcade.

What do you think of this idea? Let us know in the comments below.

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by Chris Morris

Wave goodbye to motion controls.

Microsoft’s motion-tracking Kinect 2.0 sensor was supposed to be what differentiated the Xbox One from the competition. It was more than just a way to talk directly to your console: it was a tool designed to transform the game machine into a social and media hub, the tip of the spear in Microsoft’s fight to take over your living room. More than anything, it was supposed to be way, way better than the first Kinect.

Today, though, it seems little more than an afterthought.

The decision to decouple Kinect from the Xbox One in May was surprising only in that it took the company a good year to do so. We certainly saw this coming: the company spent most of 2013 backtracking on its initial plan that the Xbox One couldn’t exist without Kinect. That simply wasn’t the case.

Unbundling Kinect also made sense on paper, allowing Microsoft to lower the price of the system to better compete with the PlayStation 4. But since that move, the company has had very little to say about its once heralded accessory. And while Kinect is still very much available, the ongoing silence has many people wondering if Microsoft is essentially walking away from the device.

At its recent press conference before the Gamescom show in Germany, for instance, Kinect wasn’t mentioned at all. At E3 2014 in June, it was mentioned in a quick announcement about a new Dance Central game, but otherwise flew under the radar.

Microsoft, not surprisingly, has downplayed talks that it’s de-emphasizing Kinect.

“That wasn’t, in any way, to make any editorial statement about the future of Kinect,” Phil Harrison, corporate VP at Microsoft, told IGN after the Gamescom press event. “It’s just that these were the games we wanted to highlight in our briefing. The games that we focused on in our briefing were the blockbusters and exclusives for this holiday, 2014.”

Harrison’s follow-up comment, though, was more telling.

“We let the developers choose [whether they want to use Kinect],” he said. “It’s one of the tools that they have in their tool belt for taking advantage of the Xbox One, and we hope they continue to do so.”

Punting the decision to use Kinect over to publishers is a graceful way for Microsoft to take a hands-off approach to its fate. That’s because developers have no real incentive to use the controller, given that creating a Kinect-less game gives game makers 10 percent more graphical processing power to tap into. The development system update that followed the Kinect decoupling, in fact, let game maker Bungie increase the resolution of the Xbox One version of Destiny.

Even Microsoft’s most notable in-house Kinect developer, legendary game company Rare, is stepping away.

Four years ago, Rare studio head Scott Henson, announced the company’s allegiance for the peripheral, saying “Kinect will be the main focus for Rare going forwards as it’s a very rich canvas. This is just the beginning of an experience that will touch millions of people.”

At Gamescom, though, Xbox studio head Phil Spencer, in discussing what’s next for Rare, downplayed the relationship.

“I don’t want the Rare brand to mean Kinect Sports,” he said.

Kinect hasn’t been completely buried. In a prominent television campaign, actor Aaron Paul showcases its features (inadvertently turning on existing Xbox Ones around the country).

However, when that ad comes to the all-important price screen, the $399 non-Kinect version of the Xbox One is shown, presumably the version people will seek out at retail.

And Kinect games? There are only a handful in the pipeline right now: Disney’s Fantasia and Dance Central Spotlight from Harmonix, Shape Up and Just Dance 2015 from Ubisoft, Fruit Ninja Kinect 2 from Halfbrick Studios, and the clever puzzle-platformer Fru from indie outfit Thought Games.

That’s a pretty meager crop, and at least one major publisher isn’t exactly gearing up for more.

“It depends which hat I put on,” said Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot, when asked about his thoughts about Microsoft downplaying Kinect at E3 this year. “When I put on the casual hat, it’s not good, for sure. We have less families with a camera. So it’s more difficult for [Ubisoft] to do content for families. [However,] when I put my gamer hat on, it makes sense.”

Without a significant slate of upcoming games to help promote it, Kinect in its current form seems destined for the bargain bin. It might not be dead yet, but it isn’t moving much.

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