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2 Years into Next Gen Consoles

We're now 2 years into next gen, which is really current gen now, and it really has been pretty underwhelming.

I don't normally watch or read IGN's content, but I did stumble across this video and generally, I agree with most of their comments and criticisms:

We really are firmly in cross-gen still. As someone who's been gaming on a current gen console since April, I can say I bought it about a year to soon. My general recommendation to people is if you're gaming on a PlayStation 4/PlayStation 4 Slim/Xbox One/Xbox One S, you should upgrade as the performance difference will be night and day. If you're gaming on a PlayStation 4 Pro/Xbox One X, you can comfortably wait still.
 

Law Hero

There is a head on a pole behind you
My Demon's Soulstation 5 was a pretty terrible investment, all things considered.

I actually regret getting it on launch because the whole reason I wanted it was to play Demon's Souls with an active community again, but since no one could get PS5s, the game was even less lively than PS3 Demon's Souls. After that, my PS5 pretty much just became a PS4pro. It's primarily used to play PS4 games and that's it.

Even today, new games are still cross gen and not taking full advantage of current hardware. Very disappointed in GoW: Ragnarok for not being PS5 exclusive too (among other things).
 

Revy

★ 19 Years of Jade ★
God of War was better when Kratos was angry. Everything is a HEROIC BRUTALITY instead of a FATALITY.
God of War was better when it wasn't ashamed of itself and trying to be mature.
I liked it when Kratos was pissed off all the time like someone just shat in his Frosted Flakes then killed, used or both everyone in his path. I can understand that there’s a 1000 year difference between GoW 3 & 2018 so I can see why Kratos isn’t in tip-top fighting shape as young Kratos in his prime would absolutely fuck up 98% people alone with certain exceptions like Baldur (Kratos wouldn't have figured his weakness) & maybe Thor & Odin (Kratos did kill the Titans, Hercules, Ares & Zeus though).
 

Law Hero

There is a head on a pole behind you
I liked it when Kratos was pissed off all the time like someone just shat in his Frosted Flakes then killed, used or both everyone in his path. I can understand that there’s a 1000 year difference between GoW 3 & 2018 so I can see why Kratos isn’t in tip-top fighting shape as young Kratos in his prime would absolutely fuck up 98% people alone with certain exceptions like Baldur (Kratos wouldn't have figured his weakness) & maybe Thor & Odin (Kratos did kill the Titans, Hercules, Ares & Zeus though).
How are you going to make a game(s) in a franchise about a guy who kills mythological figures/heroes and takes their iconic gear for himself, then place it in a mythology with some of the most famous weapons in all of myth, and not allow the player to take and use a single one? It boggles the mind.
 

Revy

★ 19 Years of Jade ★
Anyways I decided to skip this generation & went to PC. There isn't a PS5 or XSX game I would want beside God of War Ragnorok & High On Life but every Xbox exclusive will be on PC anyways & PlayStation has started their PC initiative & a few of their exclusives are now on Steam anyways. Also I got tired of wasting money on buying early into the generation when a better version is going to be released in the first 5 years anyways like the Xbox One & Xbox One X are so drastically different in terms of speed & power that it's night & day & I don't want to get an Xbox Series X just for Microsoft to release the Xbox Series XR or Xbox Series XX or some bullshit a few years later & have a shitty base Xbox Series X.
 
My Demon's Soulstation 5 was a pretty terrible investment, all things considered.

I actually regret getting it on launch because the whole reason I wanted it was to play Demon's Souls with an active community again, but since no one could get PS5s, the game was even less lively than PS3 Demon's Souls. After that, my PS5 pretty much just became a PS4pro. It's primarily used to play PS4 games and that's it.

Even today, new games are still cross gen and not taking full advantage of current hardware. Very disappointed in GoW: Ragnarok for not being PS5 exclusive too (among other things).
Yeah. I bought an Xbox Series X last April, and it's a solid hardware upgrade don't get me wrong, but of the 8 Optimized for Xbox Series games I own, only one has a significant enough performance increase to be truly note worthy (Diablo II: Resurrected, as it lacks a 60 FPS mode on last gen hardware). All the others play great on my Xbox One X. I don't regret buying my Series X, but I certainly bought it far, far too soon.

I'm hoping now that the current generation consoles are becoming more easily obtainable and the business world is moving on from the pandemic, that we can see more and more games take proper advantage of the hardware, that the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One line of consoles are "retired," and that we leave cross-gen behind through 2023.
 
Anyways I decided to skip this generation & went to PC. There isn't a PS5 or XSX game I would want beside God of War Ragnorok & High On Life but every Xbox exclusive will be on PC anyways & PlayStation has started their PC initiative & a few of their exclusives are now on Steam anyways. Also I got tired of wasting money on buying early into the generation when a better version is going to be released in the first 5 years anyways like the Xbox One & Xbox One X are so drastically different in terms of speed & power that it's night & day & I don't want to get an Xbox Series X just for Microsoft to release the Xbox Series XR or Xbox Series XX or some bullshit a few years later & have a shitty base Xbox Series X.
PC gaming is always the premium route, and with first party titles from both Sony and Microsoft on PC now, the only reason to go console is simply because you like gaming in your living room.

For mid gen hardware consoles, Digital Foundry is skeptical that it's going to happen this time. They're actually not convinced we'll be seeing "slim" versions of the current generation any time soon. It has to do with the cost per transistor, which has not come down at all. Thus, no slim models. For a mid-gen refresh, with the economy the way it is, and the lack of a mid-gen selling feature (it was native 4K with the PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox One X), they don't see the viability of it at all right now. Especially since the cost would need to increase to compensate and the current generation consoles are already quite expensive and even going up in price (PlayStation 5 increased in cost in almost all global regions but the US, and Spencer has dropped hints that Xbox Series may rise in cost too).
 
Speaking of God of War, and on a complete aside: How did Kratos survive from God of War 3? I never played it, but didn't it end with him dying? Athena stabs him or something and he dies laughing?
 

Revy

★ 19 Years of Jade ★
How are you going to make a game(s) in a franchise about a guy who kills mythological figures/heroes and takes their iconic gear for himself, then place it in a mythology with some of the most famous weapons in all of myth, and not allow the player to take and use a single one? It boggles the mind.
The OG God of War had the coolest mythical weapons & tools like the Nemean Cestus from Heracles, Claws of Hades, Nemesis Whip from Hephaestus & all the bows he got like Typhon's Bane & Bow of Apollo. Then all the items like the head of Medusa.
 

Law Hero

There is a head on a pole behind you
Speaking of God of War, and on a complete aside: How did Kratos survive from God of War 3? I never played it, but didn't it end with him dying? Athena stabs him or something and he dies laughing?
I think it was "explained" in some side comic back in 2018, but it is never elaborated on in-game.
 

Law Hero

There is a head on a pole behind you
The OG God of War had the coolest mythical weapons & tools like the Nemean Cestus from Heracles, Claws of Hades, Nemesis Whip from Hephaestus & all the bows he got like Typhon's Bane & Bow of Apollo. Then all the items like the head of Medusa.
The head of Helios is one of my favorites. I love how it screams every time you use it. The blade of Olympus was also really really cool. Additionally, I also much prefer the magic resource management aspect of OG GoW compared to the mobile game runic cooldown in the new ones.
 

Swindle

Philanthropist & Asshole
How are you going to make a game(s) in a franchise about a guy who kills mythological figures/heroes and takes their iconic gear for himself, then place it in a mythology with some of the most famous weapons in all of myth, and not allow the player to take and use a single one? It boggles the mind.
STOP MAKING SENSE
 

Gooberking

FGC Cannon Fodder
High end gamers are going to want high end consoles and/or a PC and the back support with improved performance in many games is a tangible benefit, so there really isn't such a thing as too soon for many of those people. For a lot of other people that really just want to play platformers or something, the Series S is pretty low cost entry with a lot of the benefits though it's going to be a situation good fit.

I bought a Series S about year ago, and an X pretty recently. I really don't have an interest in what PS5 has going on and it's far less discrete than the MS systems. Ironically out of the S and X I kind of prefer the S overall so far. At least in the context of it covering the most distance between what I was unhappy with in last gen, and what I like about current gen. I haven't really had anything high end I've wanted to play that needs the X, so I might feel different in that case and over time as it ages. The S is also so small that it almost feels portable. I took it a vacation and it's pretty easy to cart around. So far it's a lot easier for me to justify the cost of a Series S than the X.

There are some things I think are really valuable about this gen despite how much cross gen gaming still exists. What SSD does for load times cannot be understated. On the MS side, quick resume is awesome. The far broader acceptance for 60 fps to be the norm bottom line is a long time in coming. For me those were the things I was most frustrated by with last gen for quite some time. My PS4 pro was gathering dust for over a year while I stuck with PC because I just wasn't willing to play with the limitations of last gen. I ended up buying a lot of the Sony games on PC that a already had on console but was unhappy playing on. Because they are caring about frame rates and load times, I finally feel like consoles are delivering the kind of performance that makes me willing to play on them.

I do like my mouse and keyboard, and having photo mode images on my PC so I'll probably keep prioritizing my pc in a lot of cases
 

Marlow

Premium Supporter
Premium Supporter
Having another child has kind of taken the decision out of my hands. I'd like a PS5 or new Xbox, but I don't have time to game anyways, so buying a new console would be pointless. I'm planning on saving up and just going PC in a couple years, once I finish off my basement and get an office.
 
@Gooberking While I don't have one myself, I'm very impressed with the Xbox Series S and what it offers for it's price point. Generally speaking, it does deliver on what it offers, and I know I'd be happy with one myself.

The current generation was sold on: 1) fast, modern processors to hold higher frame rates, 2) fast load times with an SSD, 3) ray tracing.

The Xbox Series S does all of those (though in fairness, the 3rd point is rarer and more selective). It also has Quick Resume, as you mentioned, and Auto HDR and FPS Boost for supported games. It has all the next-gen bells and whistles.

I know many, many people who have a Series S since it's been the most available current generation console, and they all love it. The biggest complaint I hear is the smaller amount of storage size, and occassionally the lack of a disk drive. I never hear anyone complain about performance or even graphics with it.
 
@Gooberking While I don't have one myself, I'm very impressed with the Xbox Series S and what it offers for it's price point. Generally speaking, it does deliver on what it offers, and I know I'd be happy with one myself.

The current generation was sold on: 1) fast, modern processors to hold higher frame rates, 2) fast load times with an SSD, 3) ray tracing.

The Xbox Series S does all of those (though in fairness, the 3rd point is rarer and more selective). It also has Quick Resume, as you mentioned, and Auto HDR and FPS Boost for supported games. It has all the next-gen bells and whistles.

I know many, many people who have a Series S since it's been the most available current generation console, and they all love it. The biggest complaint I hear is the smaller amount of storage size, and occassionally the lack of a disk drive. I never hear anyone complain about performance or even graphics with it.
Interestingly, I just saw there's a "Holiday Edition" Xbox Series S. Aside from some festive box art, the only difference between it and a normal Xbox Series S is the price. Here in Canada the console is normally $379.99, this "holiday edition" is $299.95-$309.99, depending on the retailer. That's a fantastic price.