Console Gaming: Current & Future Holiday Purchases

I haven't actually bought anything for myself this Xmas.

Although I've mostly tried to avoid buying too many gaming related presents for my kids, I've got them; Skylanders Trap Team for the PS4, Smash Bros /w Mario Amiibo package for WiiU. I also picked them up a Gameboy Micro each, along with a bunch of decent games and a link cable.
 
I just stuck a 2TB 2.5" USB 3 drive on the back of my XBOX. Tucks round the back nicely so you can't see it in my cabinet and the XBOX handles its addition very easily.

I need to do this soon, I am already deleting things (I blame EA access).
 
I need to do this soon, I am already deleting things (I blame EA access).
Same here... I blame about everything, and in fact I already have removed some games I have on disc format, 'cos they are easier to reinstall -my connection speed is 6MB, so you get the idea-. I don't know... I want movies, games, music... the Xbox One has improved a lot in its multimedia capabilities and I ran out of space already. In that sense I miss the X360, the HD has 250GB and I own more than a hundred games -many of them are arcade games tho-, movies, music, etc, and the hard drive still has 11GB free to install some extra stuff.
 
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I just stuck a 2TB 2.5" USB 3 drive on the back of my XBOX. Tucks round the back nicely so you can't see it in my cabinet and the XBOX handles its addition very easily.
Wait. It's that easy? Can I do that on ps4? I have a 2TB usb3 HDD just sitting there mostly unused...
 
Not a "console" but I intend to get an Alienware Alpha, the lowest version should do it for me.
Imo the reviews are not fair to the product by any mean attacking the way the product is marketed is one thing though not seeing that it offers an unprecedented amount of hardware for a PC sold at that price.
It is tough to assembled something better that would come close in form factor, power consumption and look.
I guess it suffers from the hate of both PC and consoles fans.
 
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Wait. It's that easy? Can I do that on ps4? I have a 2TB usb3 HDD just sitting there mostly unused...

No, Sony do not currently allow you to install games to an external HDD, nor have they committed to support this in future. But if your 2Tb HDD is a 11mm (or thinner) 2.5" HDD then you can install it in the PS4. I upgraded the stock 5400rpm 500mb HDD to a 7200rpm 1Tb HDD on day 1 - it literally takes a few minutes.

Of course you'll have to download/install everything again. Some form of backup/transfer solution is due in an upcoming firmware release and if I understand this correctly, this should let you connect a 2.5" HDD in a caddy, copy across everything from the internal drive to the USB connected drive, so that when you install it in the PS4, everything is ready to go.
 
No big purchases for us this Christmas but we bought a new iPad Mini in January, a new iMac in July, a new 4K TV in August. Although I have just bought PS Vita cradle! I've never even seen these in the UK and had to order mine, via Amazon UK, from Canada.

It arrived today :)
 
Wait. It's that easy? Can I do that on ps4? I have a 2TB usb3 HDD just sitting there mostly unused...
For XBOX One and with the firmware update that adds external drive support it is that easy. First time you use plug in a new drive it ask to format, warns that it can be only used on XBOX Ones, and if you agree to that it then tells you all the apps on the hard drive are fully portable to another XBOX one and you have to the choice to run all off of it.

When looking at the Games/Apps app (effectively the file explorer) the circle defaults to telling you the total amount of available space left, then selecting each individual drive it will tell you how much is left for that drive. Moving apps will queue them up and they will move across in sequence, though you can alter the sequence of the queue manually. The only interruption is that if there is a game that is pending an update you'll have to finish the update before moving it (a couple of disk games had updates that I hadn't got round to moving finishing the update by putting the disk in).
 
Not a "console" but I intend to get an Alienware Alpha, the lowest version should do it for me.
Imo the reviews are not fair to the product by any mean attacking the way the product is marketed is one thing though not seeing that it offers an unprecedented amount of hardware for a PC sold at that price.
It is tough to assembled something better that would present that would come close in form factor, power consumption and look.
I guess it suffers from the hate of both PC and consoles fans.

Unprecedented amount of hardware? Well not really. A dual core CPU, that will struggle in modern games, four gigs of RAM and a 750Ti with 2GB. that's not really that much. It has a nice form factor and it's ok to play most of the recent games, but it's not a very good product imo and I think it will be obsolete too soon. The quad core models with more GPU memory would be nice.
 
Unprecedented amount of hardware? Well not really. A dual core CPU, that will struggle in modern games, four gigs of RAM and a 750Ti with 2GB. that's not really that much. It has a nice form factor and it's ok to play most of the recent games, but it's not a very good product imo and I think it will be obsolete too soon. The quad core models with more GPU memory would be nice.
Well trying to find any pre assembled PC that comes close ;)
More powerful models are imo not worth it, the premium associated with them is too high. For a gamers wanting high performances others Alienware models (like Area51) or self assembled PC might prove more attractive.
That Alienware is more of a glorified HTPC than a high end gaming gig in redux in a manner of speaking. It is fine for me but like every products it is not for everybody. It is especially tempting to me as I can buy it in US and the change in Euros makes it a steal (even-though change used to be better) ~470 Euros.
I'm confident it will play games well enough for the length of that generation of console, especially with directx12 launch ahead.

EDIT
The Alpha also has extra value for 360 owners like me, whereas it won't play my 360 games at least I can use the peripherals. I will have 3 pads and a guitar "for free".
 
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I can see that causing major problems in the future, we have now entered the era of the 50gb game.

Yeah, I'll definitely upgrade to a 2Tb drive within a couple of years.

I have 390Gb left but would happily delete Killzone Shadow Fall (40Gb and I have it on disc), BF4 (40Gb and I have it on disc), The Last of Us (42Gb and I have it on disc), WATCH_DOGS (22Gb), Shadow of Mordor (30Gb and I have it on disc) and - when I finish it - Far Cry 4 (27Gb and I have it on disc).

I've deliberately bought some by games on disc for speedy removal and re-installation :)

Every generation I've bought more games than the last. I had maybe 20 full priced games on PS1, double that on PS2, double that on PS3 so I fear for my PS4's HDD size ;)
 
Well trying to find any pre assembled PC that comes close ;)
More powerful models are imo not worth it, the premium associated with them is too high. For a gamers wanting high performances others Alienware models (like Area51) or self assembled PC might prove more attractive.
That Alienware is more of a glorified HTPC than a high end gaming gig in redux in a manner of speaking. It is fine for me but like every products it is not for everybody. It is especially tempting to me as I can buy it in US and the change in Euros makes it a steal (even-though change used to be better) ~470 Euros.
I'm confident it will play games well enough for the length of that generation of console, especially with directx12 launch ahead.

EDIT
The Alpha also has extra value for 360 owners like me, whereas it won't play my 360 games at least I can use the peripherals. I will have 3 pads and a guitar "for free".

I am sure we can build one for you? ;) That form factor is rather hard to hit though, I did a mini-Itx not long ago and it still sits around the size of three stacks of A4 paper.
 
For XBOX One and with the firmware update that adds external drive support it is that easy. First time you use plug in a new drive it ask to format, warns that it can be only used on XBOX Ones, and if you agree to that it then tells you all the apps on the hard drive are fully portable to another XBOX one and you have to the choice to run all off of it.

Can you explain a bit more? Did you already fill up your built-in HDD and then attach the USB one and move all your stuff to the external drive? If so, why? Does it have trouble reading both the built-in drive and the external and switching back and forth if something is installed on one and you switch to something installed on the other? Would it be better to get the external drive from Day 1 and install everything on that, or is it okay to fill up the built-in drive keep everything there and then just add the external down the road?
 
Once attached the drive appears to be treated exactly the same as the internal drive, the only difference is that it and its contents are portable to another XBOX. I hadn't yet filled the internal drive, but as I'm downloading all the free Gold games (even though I haven't, yet, had time to play them all) and the number of full retail games I appear to be buying It wasn't going to be long. For now I've just moved a bunch of the older titles that I've not played for a while to the external and left the more frequently used stuff where it is. Wouldn't say its necessary to get one straight off as the process is easy enough to move stuff from one to the other and queue it all up to move.
 
Can you install directly to external drive on X1 or you always need to install first on internal then move it? If it can install directly, then how does it work?
 
Can you install directly to external drive on X1 or you always need to install first on internal then move it? If it can install directly, then how does it work?

Yes you can install directly to the external drive.

As for the security aspects, if it's installed from a physical disc then the physical disc will need to be in the optical drive slot when playing. That's how the old archaic systems worked and this works the same way.

If it's installed from digital download, then it works just like the digital download does on the internal drive -- the account who bought the game can play it anywhere and any secondary accounts can play it on the primary console.
 
But how the system handled the storages for game installation? Using steam, you choose the games storage globally. On Android (the old version) you install the game and move it later after installation. On PC direct install, you are prompted to choose the folder for installation.
 
But how the system handled the storages for game installation? Using steam, you choose the games storage globally. On Android (the old version) you install the game and move it later after installation. On PC direct install, you are prompted to choose the folder for installation.

There are videos of this feature when it was first released back in June. Search for it if you want to see the interface at the time of release. There are plenty of options available.
 
I dont know what Sony was thinking b removing the back up/restore feature from the PS4 without adding the option to use an external HDD.
My HDD is a also close to being completely filled up yet if I replace my HDD with something bigger I will have to download all my things and add all my accounts from the beginning
 
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