Yeah, I remember hearing this too. Getting rid of the light isn't going to fix battery problems, it's very minimal gains.
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What Were The Most Useless Features Of This Console Generation?
- Thread starter Video Games Are Dumb
- Start date
Maybe not annoying per se, but useless for me. I don't think I've ever shared a video, though I have pressed it quite a few times by mistake, heh.
I don't mind the speaker. Some games make good use of it.
The light bar never bothered me but I've never used it.
I don't think I've ever looked at the social stuff in my PS4. I do like that I see what my friends are playing when they're online so I can quickly join their game if possible. But not everything else. Thankfully it doesn't clutter the UI because it's below the fold so I don't see it unless I scroll down.
I would say:
1) Second screen tech (though, this is not exclusive to video games)
2) Smart downloads (start play before download is venue) almost never workds
3) Auto-update on Xbox One - I swear half the time its too stupid to move downloads to my external and just downloads nothing till I manually free up space
4) Picture in Picture on the Xbox One. When the console was new I was so fucking jazzed about the second bar to the right and watching games or keeping up with scores while watching TV, but it was killed quickly.
5) Console Streaming TV services. Sony made I think one TV show (Powers) and Xbox made a documentary. It was a dumb idea to do tons of original device-locked content... looking at you Apple+
1) Second screen tech (though, this is not exclusive to video games)
2) Smart downloads (start play before download is venue) almost never workds
3) Auto-update on Xbox One - I swear half the time its too stupid to move downloads to my external and just downloads nothing till I manually free up space
4) Picture in Picture on the Xbox One. When the console was new I was so fucking jazzed about the second bar to the right and watching games or keeping up with scores while watching TV, but it was killed quickly.
5) Console Streaming TV services. Sony made I think one TV show (Powers) and Xbox made a documentary. It was a dumb idea to do tons of original device-locked content... looking at you Apple+
The rear touchpad on the Vita was super cool in theory, but it was barely ever properly used. Felt like a prototype for the touchpad on the DS4, which I actually love.
Xbox Clubs was weird, it was like they were trying to emulate Discord, but worse.
I will always defend the DS4 speaker though, when games actually use it, it can be pretty cool and immersive. For example: the shaking batteries sound and audio logs in TLoU remaster, the bowstring and focus sounds in Horizon: Zero Dawn, and the Scanner sounds in Alien: Isolation.
Xbox Clubs was weird, it was like they were trying to emulate Discord, but worse.
I will always defend the DS4 speaker though, when games actually use it, it can be pretty cool and immersive. For example: the shaking batteries sound and audio logs in TLoU remaster, the bowstring and focus sounds in Horizon: Zero Dawn, and the Scanner sounds in Alien: Isolation.
Oh yeah, Vita back touch is a good one. Sounded so good on paper, I thought it was going to be great in Little Deviants (bad) and Tearaway (pretty good), but it was just a waste. A real R2/L2 would've been so much better in its place.
Yeah, like a lot of other aspects of Xbox One's initial pitch, Kinect for Xbox One just came along far too early and shouldn't have been forced on people. It was maybe overkill for the simple audio use that I tended to prefer it for, but I do hope digital assistant integration works its way into games in a way that isn't so convoluted.
--- USELESS ---
PS4:
- Light bar
- Speakers
- Touchpad
- Touchpad button
- PSLive streaming
- whats new
Xbox:
- Kinect
- IR out
- HDMI in
- Kinect port
- Voice controls
- whats new
- Mixer
- smart glass
- triggers vibration
--- NICE ADDITIONS ---
PS4
- Audio jack
- Share button
- expandable hdd
- rest mode
- quick menu
Xbox
- Audio jack
- LFG
- expandable hdd
- rest mode
- family sharing
- left menu
PS4:
- Light bar
- Speakers
- Touchpad
- Touchpad button
- PSLive streaming
- whats new
Xbox:
- Kinect
- IR out
- HDMI in
- Kinect port
- Voice controls
- whats new
- Mixer
- smart glass
- triggers vibration
--- NICE ADDITIONS ---
PS4
- Audio jack
- Share button
- expandable hdd
- rest mode
- quick menu
Xbox
- Audio jack
- LFG
- expandable hdd
- rest mode
- family sharing
- left menu
Last edited:
I love HD Rumble. I especially like the subtle uses some games use it for like even just the robots landing in Into The Breach. But other games went crazy like Golf Story and made it sound like an actual gold ball landing.
You can't mention IR and not bring up Labo. It's used in insane ways in those games and I'll be shocked if they don't use the knowledge gained from that for future accessories down the line.
I used the TV button all the time. It was a wonderful QOL feature and you can just ignore if you don't need it. The TVii button on the other hand became useless very fast and it's ridiculous they never removed it from the menu. Miiverse too for that matter. If you shut down a service, remove the button for it!
Seconded. It is just not pleasant to use.
I'll add the camera on the Wii U and that's coming from one of the few posters who has used the video chat feature.
The touchpad button was so useless. I can't think of a single game that didn't just use it as a back/select button.
The touchpad when it was used for gimmicky touch pad stuff. As an extra button or easy access to a map, I loved it.
Have they changed it? The last time I tried it pulled up an annoying share media menu. The Switch and Stadia one-press-screenshot button is how I want it, doesn't take you out of the game no matter if you take a quick screenshot or a video.
DS4 touchpad rules. I can't imagine FFXIV without it. I know the game is on PS3 but no thanks.
Speakers on controllers are awful though. I usually have them turned as low as possible so I can still hear when it's being used but its tinny awful noise won't give me a headache.
Speakers on controllers are awful though. I usually have them turned as low as possible so I can still hear when it's being used but its tinny awful noise won't give me a headache.
Great examples and honestly some of the best of the thread imho.
What's interesting to me is, I think a lot of them will come back and be defining features of the next generation:
1) Second screen tech sounds great but in reality, you want it built into your controller. And regrettably the Wii U was ahead of its time in this respect, I think. I feel this is a feature due a comeback, maybe not directly through controller input but through some enhanced engagement with your phone. XCloud will doubtless see some peripherals which help with this.
2) Smart downloads this gen were subverted by devs who decided not to make them smart. Great example was GTA V - play within 20 minutes, all you see is a loading screen until the rest appears. Again I think next gen will redeem this as genuinely useful.
4) Honestly I was sold on picture-in-picture when they revealed it. Picture in picture looked great until it, you know, didn't work. Stadia appears to be promising the same thing and I'm sure future streaming services will nail it; the use function in the era of streamers and synchronous multiplayer is far too useful for this to become defunct.
5) Console streaming TV was another XBox One centrepiece and I still think there's a genre here waiting for its moment. Microsoft thought it was Quantum Break and a new Halo TV series. I think it's something more akin to Bandersnatch, and I sense we might see new hybrid genres next-gen.
OP
OP
Yes but Evil Within 2 is the exception to damn near almost every rule. Fucking masterpiece.
I liked the lightbar, but I agree the speaker is largely useless.
My reasoning behind the lightbar is simple. I like the visual confirmation that the controller is charging when the console is off being a unique color and not just "red light is on/ red light is off" its stupid, but I really like it.
I charge my controllers when I am not playing, so the console is off when i hook it up. Seeing that confirmation helps me relax that it will be fully charged when I come back.
My reasoning behind the lightbar is simple. I like the visual confirmation that the controller is charging when the console is off being a unique color and not just "red light is on/ red light is off" its stupid, but I really like it.
I charge my controllers when I am not playing, so the console is off when i hook it up. Seeing that confirmation helps me relax that it will be fully charged when I come back.
The DS4 Speaker. Even in games that try to use it, it just sounds annoying to me.
I would say the Lightbar but PSvr happened.
The other Stuff mentioned here falls more under "not used to its potential" than "useless".
I would say the Lightbar but PSvr happened.
The other Stuff mentioned here falls more under "not used to its potential" than "useless".
Quick jump and Inkstorm in Splatoon?
The Prepper in ZombiU?
Affordable Space Adventures' Control Panel?
Perfection...
The TV remote features and never realized TV apps on the other hand:
Clear cut examples of useless!
It was a great feature. Hard disagreed.
The real crime was console devs not embracing gyro aiming.
For me? Pretty much anything that made the Xbox One the "All in one entertainment system". TV functionality, HDMI passthrough, Kinect, BluRay drive, IR blaster and whatever there else was. They were all useless features to me.
An other one would be controller vibration on Xbox One, which was quite annoying, because many of the games that I played didn't even have an option to disable it. The global setting came way too late (2016 I believe), eventhough the Elite controller launched with the setting.
An other one would be controller vibration on Xbox One, which was quite annoying, because many of the games that I played didn't even have an option to disable it. The global setting came way too late (2016 I believe), eventhough the Elite controller launched with the setting.
I think the "Live from Playstation" thing on the dashboard is useless. At least I have never used it. Just go to twitch if I want to watch people stream.
Practically every gimmick on the DS4, and not because they're necessarily bad (except the light bar, that's straight up annoying), but because nobody uses them outside the exclusive every now and then :/
It's leds they pull barely any current. The touchpad is what drains the battery really fast.
Open your controller and disconnect it and your controller will last week's
I personally don't find a speaker on controllers to be particularly useful. It can be a neat effect in some games, but it's kind of a parlor trick and then becomes old. The lightbar is useful for PSVR, and the touchpad is useful for simulating the Vita touchscreen on a PSTV (though not much outside of that, IMO.)
But speaking of Vita, that back touch was just a pain in the ass.
But speaking of Vita, that back touch was just a pain in the ass.
I'd like to note the Xbox One's HDMI passthrough.
Not the absolute worst thing, but certainly less useful than the lightbar in the DS4 for VR tracking/effect lighting.
Not the absolute worst thing, but certainly less useful than the lightbar in the DS4 for VR tracking/effect lighting.
The touch pad as a button is a great map mechanic so I like it.
The speaker is good as well, someone in Dreams made a game about a German trapped in your controller and you have to set him free.
The speaker is good as well, someone in Dreams made a game about a German trapped in your controller and you have to set him free.
People saying the touchpad clearly havent played any point n click adventure games on PS4
Yeah this has got to be the winner, went from mandatory to use the console to not even having the port on the box anymore. Even the optional, much cheaper PS Camera got more use thanks to PSVR, and because of that there are exponentially more games requiring the PS Camera than there are Kinect exclusives
Yeah this has got to be the winner, went from mandatory to use the console to not even having the port on the box anymore. Even the optional, much cheaper PS Camera got more use thanks to PSVR, and because of that there are exponentially more games requiring the PS Camera than there are Kinect exclusives
The gamepad itself is fine, it's the way it's required for certain things that any other controller could handle just fine that's awful. Even the WiiU settings require the thing, if yours breaks you can't move or delete software for instance.
Just the other night I saw a bluelight in my window across from my couch and I couldn't figure out what it was, fucking lightbar!!
Everyone's ragging on the PS4 light bar, worthless piece of shit that it is.
But for me, there's one that's even worse.
The fact that my PS4 has a noticeable delay between when I press the SHARE button and when it actually takes the screenshot.
In games that don't have a photo mode the screenshots never come out right. So I just stopped bothering.
Yes, I have it set to "Easy Screenshots" mode.
And no it's not me, screenshots come out just fine on my PC.
But for me, there's one that's even worse.
The fact that my PS4 has a noticeable delay between when I press the SHARE button and when it actually takes the screenshot.
In games that don't have a photo mode the screenshots never come out right. So I just stopped bothering.
Yes, I have it set to "Easy Screenshots" mode.
And no it's not me, screenshots come out just fine on my PC.
I'm with you. My PS4 screenshot folder has so many images that are just black because of that.
In-home streaming on XB1 and PS4.
Maybe the XB1X is better, but streaming from my S to another device is really laggy and the quality isn't great either.
PS4 worked OK to the Vita, but it still had noticeable lag and the quality was super artifact-y.
I hope next gen can match in-home streaming on a PC with Nvidia's streaming tech. It's the best I've experienced by far. I always play with a controller,but there's no noticeable lag in my setup from PC to my iPad.
Maybe the XB1X is better, but streaming from my S to another device is really laggy and the quality isn't great either.
PS4 worked OK to the Vita, but it still had noticeable lag and the quality was super artifact-y.
I hope next gen can match in-home streaming on a PC with Nvidia's streaming tech. It's the best I've experienced by far. I always play with a controller,but there's no noticeable lag in my setup from PC to my iPad.
Skype on Xbox with Kinect was so awesome, it's a shame it wasn't featured or developed more. Camera in front of TV was a great place to talk to parents/grandparents, tech that followed the speaker around, etc. Really wish they had doubled down on some of that stuff.
