1080p Patches for PS4 - Do they help or hurt Xbox One?

Its been speculated that MSFT has had a hand in asking developers to not release games in 1080p 60hz for PS4 during the review phase.  I believe COD Ghosts and Assassins Creed 4 are used as examples.

The question is does it really help.  I'd say it doesn't.  Here's why.

I play a game for a few minutes then update it to the 1080p remix/patch, and then all the sudden I have a side by side comparison of 1080p vs 720p upscaled to 1080p.  And all the animated gifs in the world wouldn't be as demonstrative of the difference then running it thru the same audio hardware and display. 

To me I was shocked at the difference.  I thought I wouldn't be able to tell 1080p vs 720p upscaled to 1080p, boy was I wrong. 

On my 60" vizio the differences are clear.  Literally clear, the 1080p picture is just crisper and pops, where the 720p upscaled is kind of fuzzy. 

I wouldn't be writing this blog without that patch.  The gifs and youtube videos don't show the fidelity difference based on size and compression.  When you have it on a 60" tv in your face its clear.  The 1080p picture is noticeably clearer.   It's almost like you get a comparison of how much more performance you get with a PS4 on these third party launch games.

I got to say maybe they scored a few reviews where reviewers were claiming little differences in picture because the patches hadn't come out yet, but they showed the people the difference for themselves in a way a review couldn't because of the limitations of the medium. 

Its almost like holding a TF201 vs a TF700 a reviewer can say how clean the text is,  you can get close ups of the icons, but until you actually see it you understand the difference.  Its a small difference where the resolution becomes a non issue and you just see the data displayed without jagged lines, or in the case of the PS4 vs Xbox One you see the sharp clarity in detailed pictures vs a bit of a fuzziness/smoothing effect over everything especially roof details, foliage, etc.. 

PS Vita Push -- at Best Buy for 169

Sony is pushing the vita and PS4 synergistically with great use of "home cloud" based gaikai streaming aka "remote play".  The PS4 will render its games then stream it to the Vita which the user can play on the go or while the TV is in use, for example on Sundays.

This has reinvigorated the ~20 month old system which has been called by the NYT the best portable gaming system for adults.

Sony has also pushed back the release of the PS4 in Japan till 2014 and instead has released the PS Vita TV in Japan.  It is likely that this will make its way here.  Overall with price drops (NOW ON SALE AT BEST BUY FOR 169, YES I'M YELLING!) and interesting streaming options (which are NOT just limited to in-home wifi) Sony is making an interesting case for the Vita and I'd imagine will move quite a few units in the upcoming months.

Many PS4 and XBOX One games going for 49

Between Amazon and Wal-Mart you can procure almost every launch title for $49 a savings of approximately $11.  Wal-Mart also has Skylanders Swap Force Starter set for half off including for the PS4. 

These deals appear to be amongst the best for next gen gaming this black friday. 

Amazon $49:

• Call of Duty: Ghosts - PlayStation 4 
• Knack (PlayStation 4) (this game is underrated-- quite fun especially with kids)
• LEGO Marvel Super Heroes - PlayStation 4(incredible how well rated this game is)
• FIFA 14 - PlayStation 4
• Madden NFL 25 - PlayStation 4 (I've heard this is a bit unimpressive)

Wal-Mart $49:

• Assassins Creed 4 (the 1080p patch is quite noticeable, I didn't think it would be)
• KillZone Shadow Fall (very good, just played through it, nice story, good albeit hard environmental puzzles, interesting use of tech with OWL etc)
• Need For Speed Rivals (I haven't played this yet but I've heard its the best in series) 
• Skylander's Swap Force (PS4) 37.50 
• Battlefield 4  (haven't played all the way through but super smooth on the PS4, and very intense)

Asus Book T100 s on sale.

I've been noticing the new Baytrail Intel powered quad core Asus built windows 8 keyboard docking 2GB tablet has had some nice deals going for it.  I'll post here and try to get a review up to see if this beautiful piece of hardware has the unfortunate ASUS stutter that the T201 T300 T700 have had.

Sam's club has the 64gb version for 349.
Microsoft has a version for 299 from 11/28 to 12/02

New XBOX One Confirmed

Manufacturing sources in China have leaked and it has been confirmed a new version of the Xbox One is likely to hit the assembly lines early 2014.   This new version will likely cost the same, still include a kinect but upgrade the Xbox One internals to remove the memory bottleneck.  

I think the easiest way to see this realized is a straight upgrade of the system memory from DDR3 to GDDR5, though it might be a jump in ESRAM (less likely).

Wal-Mart Black Friday PS4 Times Released

Dualshocker has released the times additional Black Friday Advertised in Stock PS4s will be released:

"All the PS4 delivered had the USA code, which corresponds to Black Friday, and there are four different USA codes, corresponding to 8 PM, 10 PM (on Thanksgiving), Midnight and 6 AM [On Black Friday]"

Fix PS4 No Signal. Broken PS4

Check out your HDMI ports carefully there can be bits of metal that protrude into the HDMI cable which will strip pins and result in a "No Signal" on your TV. Source: http://kotaku.com/good-news-about-our-once-broken-ps4-1464813671