Be Excellent To Each Other

Oh for sure, but the current incarnation of the Dualshock is good enough (i.e. it's not the fucking abomination that the PS3s controller was) that it doesn't balance out all the other reasons I'm not currently interested in an Xbox of any kind.

Xbox One was a shambling mess out of the gates and I only got involved with Xbox when the X came out. It’s been a fun purchase over the last year or so since it came out.

In terms of exclusives, I could almost justify the purchase price alone for myself for playing Below which is probably the most memorable game I’ve played this year and which really got under my skin for days and probably weeks. I was looking it up online, finding secrets and just wandering it’s haunted world soaking up the thick atmosphere. What an amazing game.

Halo 5 proved to be brilliant in coop and remains the best coop experiences I’ve had this gen. The MCC was immense value too and Halo 2 in coop on Legendary was the second best coop experience of this gen. Releasing Halo: Reach for free was great.

In fact, in terms of bang for your buck, the real reason to buy an Xbox was Xbox Games Pass. All of the above could be played for the price of a single pound. It was the golden time of value for money that you won’t see again.

One of them plays all the games I already own, so if all else is equal, that's an excellent tie-break.

The Xbox is my Sea of Thieves machine so I'll more than likely be going for the new Xbox.

But of course, that won't be happening for a good few years.

Same. I'm unlikely to leave the green team.

Not that I'll buy a Xbox Series One X1X 360 until about 2022 anyway.

The PlayStation is my default choice, so barring any bizarre choices on Sony’s part that’s what I’ll end up with.

PSVR and hopefully more FROM software exclusives will mean Sony has my axe.

I honestly think this will be the first generation where I don’t have either.

I think that'll be the case for me too. I've certainly used my Xbox One a fair bit, but I'm not really playing anything that's pushing the technology much. I've managed to talk myself out of getting a PS4 and VR setup, so I can't see me getting a PS5 either.

Neither will be a day 1 for me, but I expect i'll get one after everything calms down and there are some games I want to play on one of them. I won't be getting both.

New Xbox to run PC, board, 360, PlayStation, sexy bedroom and Switch games confirmed!

You heard it here first, folks!

Pffft like I don’t also have PS3, GameCube, Wii, Xbox mark 1, Dreamcast, and various other games in boxes up the shed.

I was excited right up until you got to the shed bit. I hope it's weather proof. I still have nightmares about a YouTube video I watched several years ago where someone's game collection was destroyed in a leaky shed.

Sheds and lofts. Enemies of retro collectors.

Friend of YouTubers looking for restoration videos

It's a shed with delusions of grandeur. Halfway to being a summerhouse. It's fine.

Depends on a few things for me.

1. Sony need to improve their os. It's very dated. They also need better app availability. I can't even watch catch-up TV conclusively with my PS4.

2. Performance. If it's like it is now? Gosh, my 1x kicks the snot out of the PS4 pro.

3. OBS, price. Ideally I'd like both but if this thing is say, £600? And the Sony costs around the same? Then this for pre gen games. I have far more on the Xbox than the ps. I also do all of my online gaming on the Xbox and have a 13 month live sub. I've not got a PS4 one and tbh I doubt I will.

Also, hopefully not to upset any one but I won't either, and I pretty much bought my PS4 just for the exclusives and it sees no other action. Whereas my Xbox feels like home. That may be more down to me using my 1x and now it's twin for substitute PC stuff. And media, which again imo it's better at. I also prefer the GUI. Microsoft definitely behave that nailed. There's no other reason why one Xbox one should have sold at launch. But, Microsoft hit back with the 1x and they hit really hard.

Even now ages after it launched it still defies gaming physics. Like, running games better than I could have ever dreamed of at resolution that would have been a joke beforehand.

I remember the videos from rh cocky lot on YouTube when it launched. "Hey watch me build a 4k gaming rig for $450 that beats the 1x at 4k" only to find that a $450 pc couldn't even run games at any sort of 4k at all on the very lowest settings. It was a slide show that made the 1x actually look like a complete bargain and nothings changed. RDR2 is supposed to defy physics also.

Fuck me. Can you actually believe I'm actually sat here completely brown nosing a console.

Wow.

So in short maybe just this, as rumour has it the cheaper option will be a reboot of the 1x for the same price ($350).

Which just goes to show what an amazing console the 1x is. I think the part that made it for me the most? It's actually been embraced and just gets better every time I use it, with all of the big titles now being enhanced for it.

Xbox Series X rumoured to cost $500 dollars and will be released in November, alongside a lower powered Xbox Series S which is confirmed to cost $300/£250. I'm not convinced Sony will be able to match that price.

ETA: forgot to add the actual links!

https://www.engadget.com/xbox-series-x- ... 07176.html
https://www.engadget.com/xbox-series-s- ... 45112.html

I'm right in thinking that there's no similar 1080p aimed lower spec version of the PS5 planned, yes? Seems like a smart move from Microsoft

Even if their naming conventions are fucking stupid

The series S sounds appealing but as far as I know, it doesn't have a disc drive.

Not as far as I know. The Series S has been long leaked/rumoured but no mention at all of anything like that from the Sony side so it seems very unlikely at this point. The argument against the existence of something like this is a potential compromise in exclusive games (cross-platform stuff will need to dynamically scale as it always has) as they need to target both specs. If it's just the difference in resolution then that's not a problem, but I suppose it's impossible to say whether other aspects would ever be 'dumbed down' when a game is being developed.

You're right, it doesn't. Apologies, I forgot to add links to back my chat up so I've edited the details into that original post there.

Shit, I also just noticed that the confirmed UK price for the S is £250. That's practically impulse purchase level!

Couple that with Gamepass and I can imagine lots of people jumping on board.

I'm kind of wary of Gamepass. I already get so many free/cheap games from so many sources that I end up playing stuff because it's there in 'the pile' rather than because it's the game I'd genuinely most like to play next. Games are a cheap entertainment media in general and really I should just be ignoring price entirely and picking up whatever genuinely appeals to me the most; Gamepass would just make that problem worse for me. I realise that's entirely a problem of my own creation and, "Oh no, I've got access to too much stuff for cheap," isn't likely to rouse much sympathy, but still.

You have my pass axe

I completely agree.

So do I. When I got a mod cartridge for my DS that could play games off a MicroSD card I didn't really play any games on it after that, I just started playing all of them (if that makes sense).

I agree with all of this. I have lots of consoles that will play lots and lots of games via emulators and such like and most of the time, I'll just switch between them trying out everything. However, I think Gamepass is brilliant. You do have to be regimented in what you download and play but the inclusion of first party titles on day of release and tons of back catalogue stuff makes it difficult to ignore if you're looking at the new Xbox.

And for a predicted £25 a month for game pass ultimate, gold and an Xbox series x on 0% finance, via Xbox all access. That's very difficult to ignore...

Fuck! Yeah, that's a hell of a deal right there. Sony are 100% going to get my money because it's all about their exclusives for me, but in general I think they're in much bigger trouble for this gen giving what MS are putting out there. Surely all the Call of FIFA players are just going to flock to that?

Xbox Series X now confirmed as £450. Also, the financing deal which gets you the console, Gold and Game Pass is £29 a month for two years (vs £21 for the Series S).

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020 ... -in-the-uk
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020 ... x-series-s

I've read somewhere that the financing deal actually works out cheaper than buying it outright. Madness!

That Eurogamer article goes into the maths of it but yeah, it's £17 cheaper to use the financing deal than to buy the console and two years of Gamepass Ultimate separately. It does mention though that there are often cheap deals on Game Pass Ultimateto be had--MS themselves apparently run 50% off deals at times--so you'd be paying up to £100 more if you missed out on that.

I'd decided that I wanted PS5 as my PS4 is in its death throes but I might have to reconsider looking at this. I pay for GamePass already and that's going up to a tenner a month I think. Hmm.

Can't wait. If the rumoured performance is as good as I think this could be an incredible bargain for £450.

I think I will avoid the cheap 2.1 subwoofer though (the S).

Judging from the response I've seen online, this generation is going to see a lot of PS5 owners with a series S in the spare room

Neither. I’m going to get a new PC.

With Game pass?

Unlikely.

No posts on Microsoft buying Bethesda?

I've just caught up with the news story on Eurogamer. Pretty interesting by all accounts. They seem to agree that it probably won't stop games coming out on the PS5 but they'll all be looked at on a case by case basis.

You can almost hear the PlayStation fan boys blood boiling!

Yeah, well the shine has come off Bethesda quite a bit in recent times.

It's a phenomenal amount of money. They must be pretty sure they can make their money back on it.

And ID.

And Alpha Dog Games, Arkane Studios, MachineGames, Roundhouse Studios, Tango Gameworks and ZeniMax Online Studios

Which I've totally heard of

Id

Arkane did Dishonored... That I can tell you.

Weren’t ZeniMax the previous Bethesda owners?

Well, Zenimax is the parent company that owns all these other companies. Microsoft purchased Zenimax and therefore gets companies (inc Bethesda and id and that) under its umbrella and all these games we’ve heard of (Wolfenstein, Dishonoured, Doom, Fallout, Elder Scrolls and so on).