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PS5 and Xbox Series closing in on three years of use
Curious to hear what the people of tildes think.
As we close in on 3 years of use with these newer consoles, what are every one’s thoughts? Has “next gen” been what you thought it’d really be or are you kinda just feeling whelmed?
I have a PS5 and I use it every now and then for pretty much the first party games. PC is my main platform but as I think back, I’ve been pretty happy with my PS5 and the games to come so far. I also really enjoy the UI (although custom backgrounds would be great).
I don’t know how the Xbox side is so I’d love to hear your thoughts to!
Thanks for taking the time to read.
It's weird that we're already so far into this (PS/Xbox) generation. Time is definitely going by way too fast. Feels like they came out last year at the latest. For the Switch though: SIX years and 4 months? That's a tough pill to swallow.
For the games released on PS5 and Series X so far, it's not been anything too crazy that couldn't run on a PS4 yet, but the crazy stuff always comes out the latter half of the generation as they squeeze more out of the hardware. I definitely think all the "killer apps" of the PS4 were the games released 2017 and later.
The big thing that makes this generation a genuine and noticeable step up (which frankly blows the PS3 to PS4 transition out of the water) is the move to SSDs. It can't be overstated how big of a deal it is to me how much faster load times are, especially for native ports of games that used to have slow load times. The other big thing is backwards compatibility on both big consoles, but not only that, backwards compatibility that makes games run better than they did on the original hardware. Patches that add 4K and/or 60FPS support, lovely. Those two features alone make this gen actually amazing, even if you only consider the XB1/PS4 catalogue and ignore the new stuff.
Unlike Merry, I have seen both the Xbox Series X and PS5 in stock at multiple retailers (such as Target and Costco) for the past year or so. The scalping and chip shortage situation really sucked, but at least it's over.
As a primarily PC player, I mostly use my PS5 for first party games (or to play my backwards compatible games I own on PS4). I agree that the lack of themes is a huge step down; on both the PS3 and PS4 they were a huge deal.
Overall, this generation has a ton of potential, by the end of it we'll likely look back on it fondly. Years later the rocky start with scalping and the chip shortage will probably be overshadowed by the good games and features they have.
Great point that I forgot to make in my response. I still have my PS3 set up for the occasional nostalgia trip, but I shoved my PS4 in the closet because it's redundant now. It's pretty amazing replaying prev-gen games with improved quality and load times. Honestly I still play mostly PS4 games on it, which may account for my not thinking the graphical jump was so big.
Yeah, I'm baffled why Sony gutted all the fun customization stuff. They used to sell themes, not sure how profitable that was but it seems weird to just axe it. And I can't stand all the ads in the UI now.
I've got all the consoles still, but yeah all I need are my PS2, PS3, and PS5. And truth be told I could ditch the PS2 since I have a launch era PS3 that is backwards-compatible, but damn man, I have such memories from that console that I am just not yet ready to remove it from pride of place.
Personally I would hold on to the PS2 as a backup just in case. As you may or may not know, launch PS3s are notorious for breaking down, and it's not easy to replace them or repair them. Which is a real shame beacause having all three PlayStations in one would have been the dream man. I think Sony thought it was too good to be true as well, because they never tried it again.
I just wish they put more time in to get even older games on there. Maybe it's just me, but Xbox seems to have a larger library of backwards compatible games available. I've been playing original Xbox games on my Series X and it's super cool.
Maybe I don't quite understand it, but it seems like you need a PS+ Premium subscription to get the PS2/PS3 and PSP games on PS5? And that they are streaming only?
Here's the breakdown:
PS4 is full backwards compatibility. The PS1, 2, 3, and PSP games are only on PS+ Premium, you can't buy any separately. Only the PS3 games are stuck on streaming; everything else can be installed and played locally.
Yes, that is the case. Xbox really went out of their way to get as many games backwards compatible as they legally and technologically could.
I wonder if because they are streaming PS3 games means they have big server racks old PS3s having to stream because emulationis too difficult for them
I would assume they've got something like that; servers built with chips based off of the ones they put in the PS3 running a customized OS that would allow them to virtualize storage and whatnot.
On the other hand, Sony has spent a lot of time and money building good software emulators in the past, and I'd say they're actually pretty good at it. They got a basic PS2 emulator running on the PS3 and from what I have heard the PS1 emulator on the PSP was pretty impressive in regards to the accuracy it achieved on such limited hardware. It's certainly not out of question that they would run software emulation on their servers.
Appreciate the breakdown. Definitely prefer the Xbox model of making the games available for purchase. The streaming requirement is obviously an exception, but locking games you can play natively on console behind a subscription is pretty lame…
It amazes me that Microsoft wants to spend twice was Elon Musk spent on Twitter to buy Activision for a vainglorious push against Sony when Nintendo is selling a six year old system which had two year old hardware when it was new…. Real blood in the water.
Really Microsoft should be coming out with a Super Steam Deck and Sony should be kicking itself for not refreshing the excellent PS Vita because, retrospectively, phones and Apple proved to be a paper tiger. Granted there is a lot of money in exploitative games like Love Nikki and Fate/Grand Order but phone games are addictive and not fun, and high end handhelds fit well into today’s lifestyles.
I managed to snag a PS5 soon after launch in 2020 and I love it. In terms of graphical fidelity it doesn't feel like a huge leap from the PS4, though I really appreciate 120Hz 4K support. The killer features are really the blazing-fast SSD (and the internal M.2 slot, I upgraded mine with a 4TB drive), and the great controller haptics. I also really like the remote play feature... I can wake the console from my smartphone and play on my laptop while I'm on vacation. I'm not doing anything super twitchy or competitive, but it's more than playable for my needs. I also grabbed a PS VR2, which is really incredible. It's my first VR headset so I don't have a lot to compare it to, but I think it's great.
I don't know anything about the Xbox world and I do minimal PC gaming. The PS5 gets a lot of use in my house and I'm totally satisfied with it.
Maybe if you had a PS4 pro it wasn't a big improvement, but compared to the base model it was a huge improvement. A lot of the PS4 games were looking really smeary because games had to be rendered at lower resolution to get all the effects running on it. Loading times in particular were really bad, especially if you hadn't upgraded to an SSD; it made the harder fights in God Of War really painful because every time you would retry it would take forever to reload.
It was particularly noticeable if you had a PC at the time because a graphics card that could do PS4 level graphics were either very cheap or pretty outdated, and everyone was already using SSDs.
Of course the PS5 is already behind the curve on PCs today, so I can see how you might not see them as terribly different. The pricing on new PC GPUs are so inflated right now we might not see too many overly-taxing games on PS5 for a while.
Agreed. I went from base PS4 to PS5. I thought the improvement was insane. 4K graphics, ray tracing, Usain Bolt fast load times... I love it. It's worth every penny.
I really like the new Dualsense controller. It's the first time that I've ever felt that the Playstation controller was anywhere near as good as what Xbox has to offer, and this generation the two are neck and neck on that front.
I'm mostly a PC gamer but I have loved the xbox controller forever. The PS5 controller, in my opinion, is the single biggest improvement between the various console generations. It really is spectacular and the cool stuff the games can do with the haptic triggers are just unreal.
I have a soft spot for the Dualshock 4 but man I can’t use anything else since my Dualsense. The haptics and triggers are just that good.
I got a mod kit to add 2 back buttons to it, and it’s damn near the perfect controller now. Love this thing.
Edit to add: I exclusively play on PC and still prefer Sony controllers. They aren’t as plug-and-play, but they are vastly superior hardware IMO and Steam mostly handled the plug-and-play part for devs who can’t be bothered to support Xinput.
Care to elaborate on the mods you’ve done?
I've seen these: https://a.co/d/eGsRCGQ talked about before.
Sure, it was pretty simple.
I grabbed the kit from a company called eXtremeRate. They sell on Amazon. The kit consists of 2 back buttons, a little brain to program the actions, and a replacement back shell for the controller.
The process essentially involves opening up the Dualsense, connecting the mod kit brain to the main PCB, and then closing it back up with the new back shell that has a hole for the buttons go through.
All-in-all it took me about an hour to mod my first one with no prior experience tinkering with these things.
Here’s a crappy pic of what the back buttons look like.
As everyone else has said, SSDs and haptic feedback on the controller have been amazing additions for the Playstation. Truly game-changing and help with immersion.
Unfortunately, it feels like the PS5 is just a PS4 Pro, Pro. The reason for this is that they are still kneecapping games in order to release them on PS4.
God Of War Ragnarok was awesome, Demon's Souls was great, and Ratchet and Clank was good fun. Other than that... Just feels like I'm playing PS4 games on a better PS4. You can see which games they made with PS4 in mind because they include things like elevators and narrow rock formations that totally aren't hidden loading screens.
Once they start dropping more AAA playstation 5 exclusives, then I think we will see what this console can really do.
Its hilarious how the issues that have been plaguing PC gamers for decades (subpar games being released on PC because they need to come out on consoles too) are actually affecting console gamers now too
I have console and PC, and I agree that current gen console gamers are experiencing the classic PC gamer problem.
I think it's happening for similar reasons too. PC gamers aren't prioritized because they're a pretty small share of the overall game market due to higher barrier to entry. Likewise, too many people are still using the PS4. The availability of PS5, as well as the cost, have kept the PS4 popular.
Ironically, the best thing they could do to increase the number of gamers on PC and PS5 is to release high quality exclusives. Which is exactly what they don't want to do for fear of missing out on potential profits.
Actually I think PC gamers are holding things backwards too at this point.
PC hardware has the capacity to be much stronger but like you said it comes at a higher entry point. But it used to be that people were sort of forced to upgrade their PCs every couple years or fall behind. Now things progress more slowly, and most of the really popular miltiplayer games cater to lower spec PCs because there's so many people with laptops etc out there they can include. Much more than the # of people still playing on a PS4 or XB1.
I hear so many people asking about laptops that are good for gaming now. Not too long ago a "gaming laptop" was either unthinkable or required absolute monsters that would crush you if you put them on your lap.
Personally I think the slowing down of the graphics arms race has been a very good thing.
Yeah, the thing is, you can play a ton of games on one.
The most popular games out there aren't pushing cutting edge graphics. It's stuff like League of Legends, Minecraft. Look at Counter-Strike: Global Offensive -- the new "Counter-Strike 2" update seems like it is meant to make the game cleaner and run better on lower end PCs more than anything. And that's a PC-only game.
Sort of, but I do miss a "can your PC run Crysis" of this generation. Pushing the envelope also means innovation.
True, According to steam, the most common graphics card is still the GeForce GTX 1650
Yup... and #3 is the GTX 1060. I have a GTX 980 (which is around the same level as that - faster card but with less VRAM than the 6GB 1060 variant).
What's worth noting is that the 1060 came out 7 years ago. The GTX 980 came out 9 years ago. Admittedly it was a higher end card then but it still does 90% of what I want my PC to do.
Honestly, I found Horizon Forbidden West is notably better looking than Horizon Zero Dawn. The environments are so much more complex that it honestly kind of hurts my brain to look at sometimes. Even though it was released on PS4 it's still notably more complex and rich. The extra haptics on the DualSense was also really nice in it.
When it comes to controllers I've had a private joke for a long time that controller design keeps trending back to the Saturn 3D control pad, with it's magnetic joystick and it's long-travel resistive shoulder buttons.
I think that this is the weirdest console generation for me. Prior console releases, I was generally excited at the prospect of owning each system, but nowadays I don't even think about it or bother.
I started by buying a Nintendo Switch. I was a big Nintendo fan, owning and loving my Wii U. But the Switch was just... Okay. It was too small for my hands and I constantly had my hands tingling from the nerves being pressed into. Then they came out with better versions and a dockless version, and I just didn't bother with it anymore. In the end, I gave all my games and the system to my nephews, which I have never done before with a Nintendo system. I think since Iwata died, that Nintendo has just been different in a way that doesn't really gel with me. I like weird and quirky Nintendo the most.
I own an Xbox Series X now and it is basically my Gamepass machine. The only games that I have bought are used games from older systems for backwards compatibility. Otherwise, I don't use it. I also don't keep my Gamepass subscription going each and every month. I subscribe for one month, cancel it, and then when I end up wanting to play again, I will do that again. That way I don't pay for time I don't use.
I have never seen a PS5 in stores. It feels like it released last year.
The Steam Deck is the best thing to come out fore this generation. I genuinely enjoy it, but I don't think of it as being part of any gaming generations, but rather a continuation of PC gaming. It is the best product to come out for PC gamers in a long time.
This has been the least engaged I have ever been with a console generation. I'm primarily a PC gamer but would usually rotate between new console and upgrading my PC.
With Microsoft putting out everything on PC I have completely ignored the Xbox.
My goal with the PS5 was to wait for a big sale over black Friday with a bunch of games instead of my usual buying it at launch. No regrets so far as I continue to wait. No game laughed so far has made me want to get the PS5 and the knowledge that Sony is finally releasing games (albeit much later) on PC means I may never get a PS5.
It's definitely a weird generation. With the continued pushed into digital and better internet around the world we are getting closer to a place where consoles make less and less sense. That makes me sad, as my childhood is filled with couch coop memories.
Couch co-op is definitely a relic and that's a travesty. I think there's going to be a market for consoles for a while though. I mean anecdotally I don't want to play my vidya game at a desk. I sit at one all day for my job. At the end of the day I want to recline back on my big comfy couch holding a comfy controller. I also don't want to participate in the PC gaming GPU rat race, constantly thinking about FPS and config tweaks and compatibility issues. I just want to play games, and consoles let me do that.
Yeah I don't think the PC will replace console gaming for you but cloud gaming probably will eventually. Hook your controller up to your TV, download an app and stream the game you want. No need to buy a new console or GPU.
I can get this to a certain extent but it gets overblown. I haven't gamed on console since the PS3 (outside of my Switch which I have for big Nintendo releases) and pretty much game on PC exclusively.
The upfront cost is greater definitely than buying a console, my PC cost me £900 back in early 2020 and that's not even including the dual 27" 144Hz monitors I bought as well.
But aside from that I put it all together myself (something I enjoy doing), installed Windows 10, plugged it into my ethernet port and after installing everything I need through Ninite I'm off.
I don't worry about FPS, I wouldn't even know what I was doing tweaking my BIOS so I don't, and compatibility issues have never been a thing I've even given a second thought to (probably different on Mac or Linus I imagine).
I also have a Steam Link (which I got for I think £5 through a sale on Steam) hooked up to my TV so I can play my PC on my TV in the living room exactly like a standard games console with an Xbox controller. I don't tend to play anything that I need lightning fast reflexes on since there is a small latency streaming the PC to my TV but I managed to play Dark Souls 3 on it no problem.
I've been a lifelong PC gamer. The only consoles I owned before the Series X were all Nintendo (N64, Gameboy, GameCube, DS, Wii, etc). I spent more time PC gaming during and after the WiiU era. In 2020, I was looking to finally upgrade my aging R9 Fury GPU. Then the next gen console specs were released, and I couldn't justify spending the same amount of money on one GPU upgrade as a whole decked out console. I chose the Series X because I had no existing library which made Gamepass an unbeatable value. I was lucky enough to preorder it directly through Microsoft. It wasn't delivered until late December 2020, but my decision was immediately validated by the subsequent GPU shortage and skyrocketing prices.
Initial Impressions
I loved the Series X right away, but it was mostly because of Gamepass. I was a bit burnt out on gaming at the time and Gamepass completely rekindled my passion for it. I tried so many new games that I never would have touched otherwise. Forza Horizon 4 in particular was a ton of fun. The Gamepass backlog also meant that I wasn't too bothered by the lack of exciting next gen titles.
I had forgotten how nice it was to simply pick up a controller and start gaming. The Xbox controller is comfortable and has my favorite d-pad design of all controllers I've used. The trigger haptics are cool, but Forza was the only game that used them well in my experience.
The SSD is nice like many others have mentioned, but I was already accustomed to fast loading times. I believe I bought my first 128 gb SATA SSD for $90 in 2013. That was truly a mind blowing moment I'll never forget. Quick Resume was easily the feature I was most impressed with. The fact that it even works through power cycles seems like black magic, and PC didn't have anything comparable yet.
Current Impressions
Unfortunately for the Series X, most of my gaming is done on the Steam Deck now. It is a complete PC and portable gaming handheld in one convenient package. The Steam Deck provides the best of both PC and console-like gaming. My Series X is now only used for more demanding titles and some multiplayer games.
I am an outlier I think, but the haptics on the PS5 controller have not changed the way I game or helped with the immersion. It's cool for sure and I'm all for cool stuff to continue being implemented, but if it went away or changed I would not be upset.
The SSD on the other hand is a much needed upgrade, but again I am not blown away by the performance in real world usage.
I primarily play on PC, but I've enjoyed my PS5 for the few games I've played on it. Feels much more on parity with what I expect from my PC than the PS4.
SSD is def the stand out update for these consoles. Going back to old consoles it’s just near painful.
Especially allowing us to finally easily upgrade
I upgraded my PS4 Pro to an SSD literally before I even turned it on. There's a bay in the back, all I needed was a screwdriver and some time to download and install the PS4 OS image.
Maybe that's why this generation has failed to impress me. I've already got the most important benefit in my PS4 Pro!
I’ve used them nearly exclusively to play last gen games at 4K60. Is that a bad thing? Not really, the games I’m playing are great, they look great, and 1-2 second loading times actually do make an incredible difference. Finally got to truly enjoy a lot of games that just ran like ass on my Xbox One S and PS4 Slim.
I was already wowed by a lot of the graphics of those games, now I just get to play them 4K with smooth frame rates.
There’s so much to play too, and so many good games where bleeding edge graphics aren’t a part of the equation anyway so it’s hard to say I’m dissatisfied.
It has been an awkward generation though as far as nothing extraordinary has come out that was brand new.
Got an Xbox S though a half off Verizon deal, would probably still be rocking the One if it wasn’t for that, I don’t really see that much of a difference, especially since a lot of the games I use with game pass I could play on a pc or a phone or the same console with or without Cloud Streaming.
I don't own a Series X anymore but I did up to some months ago and Game Pass + Quick Resume made it a pretty sweet machine to have.
I ended up selling it for a gaming PC because of mods+cheaper games and because every Xbox exclusive is on PC too, so I'd say it's only really worth it if you're looking to save some money or want all the convenience a console gives.
Not sure if my interests has changed, or “next gen” consoles are unappealing nowadays.
Last console I was excited to play was PS3.
I got a PS4 because it was cheap on a sale, and I don’t think I spent 100 hours on it.
Though I’m a handheld person anyway, and I would pick a PC if I had to be attached to be a monitor/TV. Or just play handhelds.
Having a decently sized backlog and starting to agree with “Old games are better”, with some newer Steam/PC games.
I left PS4 gaming to go to PC some 2 or 3 years ago. It's not like my PS4 is just collecting dust (I still play MLB on it), but the vast majority of my gaming is done in Linux now. Here's my question:
How does the sale cycle on Playstation compare to Steam? On Steam, you can pretty much expect 70%+ of games to have a sale at least once a year; some games 2 or 3 times. Once in a while, sale prices are way below full price (60 to 80% discounted). What's it like in the Playstation store?
I own both a PS5 and a rather nice gaming PC, and sadly the game sales on the PSN are pretty pitiful in comparison to the regular deals on Steam, etc. I almost never see the better games (of any era) go on deep sales like that, and instead usually the "good" sales are 30% off, occasionally as high as 50%, but only off original price. Things rarely get priced down, and you only ever see 80% off on smaller titles.
I managed to get a PS5 back in late 2021 by pure luck with Sony's own queue. Got a disk version with two controllers and I've been decently satisfied with it. The new controller with its haptics is amazing. I love the triggers the most in Astro's Playroom and Gran Turismo 7. Other than that, the PS5 doesn't really feel AMAZING to me. Like another commenter mentioned, it feels like a PS4 Pro Pro rather than a whole new console. Most of the games I play on my PS5 are PS4 games so that doesn't really help either lol. Also doesn't help that every new game that comes out also releases on the PS4 so that kind of kneecaps things Another thing that doesn't help is that I've built a gaming PC recently as well so I might end up just selling my PS5 altogether. I mainly play racing games anyways so getting a wheel/pedals for the $500ish I'd get for my PS5 + both controllers might be better for me.
I've got a PS5 and while it is some remarkable hardware, I can pretty safely say I'm whelmed, as I don't actually find myself drawn to that many games on the system. I think Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart is one of the most varied and interesting PS5 titles, that is actually trying to be a PS5 game. Like Wolf said, many games are still being made with PS4 in mind, and that shows in the PS5 releases.
Another issue I have is with big budget titles in general. Because they're so expensive, they try to appeal to as many people as possible, which means more interesting designs, mechanics, or art styles are often scrapped. So many AAA games just look the same to me. Mocap'd characters that look like they could be swapped around freely and some mostly generic writing and mechanics that I've seen better utilized in small budget games.
Overall the games that PS5 would play best don't interest me as much as I hoped they would when I picked it up.
AAA games don't excite me anymore, for the most part. I'd rather see more indie games come to the PS5 so they can benefit from 4K and higher framerates. But at the same time I'm very unlikely to play any PS5 game these days because my Steam Deck is so much more convenient.
The last time videogames impressed me technologically was the PlayStation One for 3D graphics, CD-quality music and sound effects, and World of Warcraft for massive, persistent online world.
I have an Xbox Series S, so not top of the line, but I still fail to see anything wrong with the graphics -- other than lazy developers that don't allow 60fps on the cheaper version of the console.
I've seen the Xbox Series X in action. On console, since 1994, it's all been incremental. Granted, I never played played VR.
I love my XSS. It's a good machine and Game Pass is awesome. But it doesn't feel like another generation. Graphics are better, frame rates are higher, loading times are shorter. It's a nice improvement on the same paradigm, like the new anual version of a beloved car. But it's far from life changing. Late PS3 games looked good enough for me already, after that you get diminishing returns. A new console is just another box to play slightly prettier games on. Which is good, but definitely not exciting.
Maybe that's unavoidable, consoles are like bycicles now: they're basic form was already established, so all you'll get from now on are slight upgrades, or "nice to haves".
I'm way more excited about AI and VR than pretty graphics.
I think execs at Sony and Microsoft really need to tap more into the indie circuit. The current strategy of putting all the eggs in a couple big budget baskets just doesn't build a gaming catalogue fast enough.
Take the budget for one of those games and break it into one hundred pieces, specifically to develop new and original IPs. Reach out to indie Devs across the broad spectrum of genres with tried and tested records and ask them to pitch for a new IP exclusive for the console (let's say PS6 for example).
Aim to gather 1000 pitches and shortlist 100 games to be developed from the new IP budget. 40 positions allocated from strength / unique character of pitch, 40 allocated from strength of studio (track record, market size, audience), and the remaining 20 allocated completely at random from the 1000.
The remaining 900 I anticipate a lot of pitches will straight up suck, but I'm sure there'd be some in there that could be set aside for 2nd wave of IP development. These titles are scheduled to come along after the first wave of 100 and not 100% funded by the studio. Perhaps 50% using profits generated from wave 1.