Tweet
Update: We've produced a short Q+A answering some of the questions about this article, specifically the accuracy of our captures.The wait is, at last, finally over. Having followed a year-long trail of technical titbits on the Xbox One and PS4's silicon and circuitry, the debate over which platform "should in theory" come out top can now be met with some concrete results from actual software. This is courtesy of an exhaustive three-day bout of capturing both next-gen versions of Battlefield 4 - plus PC for good measure - in DICE's home city of Stockholm. Through this, an early triple-format Face Off preview of this year's most ambitious multi-platform FPS is now finally possible, with a set of initial results that may (or may not) surprise.
First up, a few crucial points on our test methodology. It's worth noting that these captures are taken from Xbox One and PS4 development kits, as used by the game-makers themselves to ensure the game runs within the parameters of the retail hardware released this November. Also, the code is what DICE claims to be in a near-finalised state, where only very minor tweaks will be implemented over and above what we're seeing here. Day one patches will no doubt be in the pipeline, but clearly this is a build in which confidence has been placed; Electronic Arts' reps put up no boundaries between us and each version of the game, leaving us entirely to our devices. But we have to stress that we will be re-testing on production next-gen console hardware, with any day one patches installed.
Read more…
More...