The PS5 and Xbox Series X/S thread

I waiting till 2021 for sure now.

So are a lot of people who've pre-ordered, by the looks of things…

My plan hasn't changed - I'll take my chances walking into Saturn on either launch day or pay day (24/11). If they have one to take, great. If not, I won't be massively disappointed.

You should ring around if they don't have one.

Hidden amongst all the good will Microsoft has built up these last few weeks is a dirty little secret.

They're launching a console with no games. If you haven't owned any consoles in the last 7 years then fair enough, this is a brilliant line-up. But for everyone else… 450 quid is a lot of money for faster load times.

The launch line-up:

Assassins Creed Valhalla (Smart Delivery)
Borderlands 3 (Smart Delivery)
Bright Memory 1.0 (Smart Delivery)
Cuisine Royale (Smart Delivery)
Dead by Daylight (Xbox Game Pass + Smart Delivery)
Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition
Dirt 5 (Smart Delivery)
Enlisted
Evergate
The Falconeer (Smart Delivery)
Fortnite
Forza Horizon 4 (Xbox Game Pass + Smart Delivery)
Gears 5 (Xbox Game Pass + Smart Delivery)
Gears Tactics (Xbox Game Pass + Smart Delivery)
Grounded (Xbox Game Pass + Smart Delivery)
King Oddball (Smart Delivery)
Maneater (Smart Delivery)
Manifold Garden (Smart Delivery)
NBA 2K21
Observer: System Redux
Ori and the Will of the Wisps (Xbox Game Pass + Smart Delivery)
Planet Coaster (Smart Delivery)
Sea of Thieves (Xbox Game Pass + Smart Delivery)
Tetris Effect: Connected (Xbox Game Pass + Smart Delivery)
The Touryst (Xbox Game Pass + Smart Delivery)
War Thunder (Smart Delivery)
Warhammer: Chaosbane Slayer Edition
Watch Dogs: Legion (Smart Delivery)
WRC 9 FIA World Rally Championship (Smart Delivery)
Yakuza: Like a Dragon (Smart Delivery)
Yes, Your Grace (Smart Delivery)

I don't know why this is seen as a perfectly normal, acceptable practice for PCs, but for a console it's an inevitable disaster. I bought a new PC for far more than I'll be spending on the Series X, with no new games - just marginal upgrades to the performance and resolution of the ones I already owned.

Maybe this was a problem back in the day, but Microsoft's commitment to extensive backwards compatibility (and to a lesser extent, Sony's support for PS4 on PS5) means that you're not leaving everything you already own behind.

And since Game Pass will give me access to a bunch of stuff I missed out on across three previous generations, "new" doesn't need to be new new.

Hey it's your money. It's just such a huge expectation shift – is the average consumer on-board with this?

I can't remember a new console ever launching without a game.

I also think it's odd to say that this list (of the optimised games at launch) is only interesting if "haven't owned any consoles in the last 7 years" – I've owned a PS4 since close to launch, and the only one of these I've played was Sea of Thieves on PC.

I can't remember a new console ever launching without a game.

If you'll forgive the Microsoft talking points, it's launching with almost a thousand games in its library. Nobody is going to be lacking stuff to play on this machine.

Bit confused here… there's at least three games on that list that are new (Ass Creed, Watch Dogs, Yakuza). Not saying that makes what they're doing right, but they're definitely new games. Nintendo's done the 'one game, two versions' thing before, both times with Zelda titles (Twilight Princess and Breath of the Wild). No-one really complained then. Is the point then that it's not launching with any new Microsoft games?

Not being facetious, and I genuinely get your point… I hadn't actually even realised until you said it.

There are quite a few games in that list I’ve not heard of, are genuinely none of them new?

Like Mart says, Ass Creed and Yakuza are new and I’ll be playing the hell out of both of those. My son will be all over Tetris Effect Connected. And Gears Tactics is new to console (and surprisingly good).

I don’t see the issue here. Honestly I don’t.

Is the point then that it's not launching with any new Microsoft games?

Just realised the words 'first party exclusive' should be in here. It's definitely the first time I've seen a console not launch with titles you can't get anywhere else (as in, on rival machines). So that's a new approach, I guess.

There are several titles on there that are Xbox exclusive - as long as you don’t count PC. Even Sony are now releasing their first-party exclusives on PC, so it’s not exactly an unusual situation.

Okay, maybe 'next-gen' was a better word than new.

4(?) of the games on that list are coming to Xbox One. Everything else has been on Xbox One for years.

There's not exactly a Mario 64 moment. There isn't even a Kameo moment.

Okay, maybe 'next-gen' was a better word than new.

That's fair enough. It's definitely a stand out concern.

It also, however, highlights the plateau that we've got in terms of what next-gen actually means at this point. Primarily, and as I said god knows how far back, it's just shinier and less loading. On the PS5 side, you're talking platform- and controller-specific features like haptic feedback that I guarantee won't get used by 99% of titles on the system because that's how these things always go. There's nothing actually revolutionary that any platform is offering to make upgrading worth the effort.

And yet it's happening anyway because, hey, it's been a while so why not. Considering great games are great regardless (I'll take Baba Is You over Call of Duty 20 any day), the fact that we're at the 'shitloads of older games, just better' stage isn't really that surprising. Just wait and see how they try to frame it next time round…

Are we turning into Dok?

[howdareyou.gif]

I think aniki hit the nail on the head by comparing it to a PC upgrade.

Yes I could play Assassin's Creed: Hairy Men and Yakuza: Yet Another One on my Xbox One X this Christmas, but I've decided to buy a Series X and play them at a higher resolution and double the framerate. I'm very much OK with this decision. If I played on PC more than I do, I'd probably be looking at the new Nvidia cards instead for pretty much the same money and the same result, but I'm all about the comfy sofa these days.

Nothing at launch ever uses anything like the full potential of the new machines anyway. It's always slightly shinier versions of stuff you're already playing. The good stuff comes a couple of years down the line.

Cross-generation has been pretty common for the last few cycles anyway – especially with AAA budgets ballooning, publishers want to maximise the possible audience and if that means a slightly shinier version for the handful of early adopters (which, with the broad adoption of third-party engines, is less of a hurdle than it used to be), then that's the approach they'll take.

It is slightly disappointing that Microsoft haven't got any big-ticket items to really sell the machine; but then again, their pitch this generation seems to be all about GamePass anyway, which has the built-in promise of getting all those first-party exclusives at no additional cost on day one anyway.

It wouldn't surprise me if they're trying to pitch the Series X/S as something of an investment: Maybe you don't have a 4K TV yet, maybe all the must-have exclusives aren't going to be out for months — but when they are, you'll be ready. Until then, here's three generations of stuff to tide you over, all looking better than it ever did before.

I have this annoying compulsion to buy the Series S when it comes out. Despite the fact that I barely play videogames any more. I look at that list and all I would play is Gears Tactics and Borderlands 3, maybe the two rally games. There is no way it makes sense to buy one…

But I haven't owned an X-box since the 360, so that means there are probably dozens of games I could play on it right? A huge library of games I'll never get round to playing is like good value isn't it?

Even better, subscribe to Game Pass and you’ll instantly gain a massive backlog that you have no hope of ever getting through. You can get all that guilt for minimal outlay.

The first PS5 hands-on are out, and everyone has fallen in love with the controller.

Very excited to have some proper haptics for a change.

Very excited to have some proper haptics for a change.

Pity no fucker's gonna use it.

Yep, it's the PS3's SixAxis controls or the PS4's touchpad all over again. You'll get one or two launch titles that use it in a perfunctory fashion then everything else will just pretend it doesn't exist.

It's easy to see why that happens from a development perspective. The combination of cost (in time and manpower) to learn the tools, come up with an idea that uses the functionality and then create it against the value of that (since nothing like that is going to be the thing that makes your game sell millions) and the fact that only one quarter of your audience (assuming you're on PS/Xb/Nintendo/PC) is going to even experience the results just doesn't balance out.

PS4 had so many things that no-one ever took advantage of, not just the touchpad. The backend tools for things like scheduling events in a title with alerts for people who owned the game, providing external links to things like game info or online manuals, even just atmospheric music/visuals when people are looking at the game on the home menu, stuff like that. How many times have you highlighted a game, pushed down and see the words 'Check back soon!' appear? For me, tonnes. That's because the dev just didn't bother to do anything with that space, since it's time and effort that can be spent elsewhere.

Even the stupidest things that take no time at all never get used. Why do you think no-one but Nintendo puts amiibo functionality in their games? Because despite the effort to make it work being minimal, getting through all the hoops needed to get permission to do it makes it not worth the bother (been there, did it for Conga Master Party on Switch).

You'd think people would have learned by now but, based on how much everyone's gushing over the pack-in Astro game for PS5, apparently not. It does seem like Xbox has got the right idea for once, since they've ignored all the gimmicks and just gone for vaguely practical stuff (faster loading, fast boot-up/resume, a capture button on the controller at long last). That said, people do love a gimmick… idiot magpies that they are. Sigh.

Y'all having bad days?

I always love an overly excited controller overview on a new bit of tech.

"The per finger haptic wobbling can make it feel exactly like you're moshing your hands around in a bucket of walnuts!!11!!!111!!!!!! #gamechanger"

Y'all having bad days?

MPH doing nothing to disavow the general consensus that he is the whitest man alive with his Texan slang usage there.

Bone white.

I always love an overly excited controller overview on a new bit of tech.

"The per finger haptic wobbling can make it feel exactly like you're moshing your hands around in a bucket of walnuts!!11!!!111!!!!!! #gamechanger"

If I want to mosh my hands around in a bucket of walnuts, I'll use my walnut bucket, thanks. It's what I bought it for.

I did see Giant Bomb - usually trustworthy, hype-proof stalwarts - getting pretty excited about how good the controller is.

The first photos of the actual console in situ make it look like the cheapest, shittiest bit of tech design in quite a while. The shiny black plastic in particular is a bizarre choice.

Oh yeah, it's hideous.

Why does that change the excitement over the controller?

I look at the mantlepiece while moshing my walnuts.

Phwoar:

Yeah, I could see myself buying a new NMS machine after that video.

I haven’t played No Man’s Sky since launch week. It’s going to blow my mind when I go back to it, isn’t it?

I honestly have no idea. I haven't played it since the first update.

I went back and restarted it after one of the updates – definitely after they'd added base building – and I found it completely overwhelming. I am, somewhat foolishly, planning on giving it another shot on the new Xbox (it's on GamePass, seems rude not to), but I'm not sure I ever enjoyed my time with NMS as much as I did in the weeks after it first released.

I built a PC during lockdown and have mainly been playing on that or almost exclusovr Madden 20 on Consoles with friends as we created a league when all stuck at home, so as a result of the above and what a rough year its been just had no interest in the new consoles. The PS5 looks appalling though, saw a photo of it today looming over an Original Xbox. No one should ever have taken up that challenge of making a bigger brick than that.

I haven’t played No Man’s Sky since launch week. It’s going to blow my mind when I go back to it, isn’t it?

It's weird. I also agree with the general sentiment that while it's clearly a better "game" now, just after release there was this weird otherworldly quality to it (literally) and it was quite unlike anything else, however janky it was. Now it's got so many systems and videogame things in it, it does to an extent detract from the simplistic wonder of what it offers. It's better, for sure, but quite how you define "better" is up for debate.

So what are day one purchasers getting with their shiny new consoles?

I’m definitely getting Yakuza: Like A Dragon but then I’m all in on that series anyway. I’m probably going to get the new Ass Creed too but there’s something about it that looks ever so slightly off, so I’m waiting for reviews or at least final previews before taking the plunge.

Both of these are basically just 4K/60FPS versions of the Xbox One games though, I’m not sure when the real next gen arrives but it’s probably not just yet.

Just Yakuza for me, though I'm also keen to try Gears Tactics, and The Falconeer looks interesting

So what are day one purchasers getting with their shiny new consoles?

Absolutely nothing. I'll take the upgrades for the games I own and haven't played yet, plus all of Game Pass and be done with it. Nothing else I'm interested in.

If I manage to find one in stock, I'll be on the PS5 train to begin with, so Miles Morales and Sackboy's Big Adventure are my two biggies. I'm not a Dark Souls fan, never have been.

And I know it's not a proper game, but I'm excited to try Astro's Playroom. The VR game is up there with the best platformers I've ever played, so if they can capture any of that magic I'll be happy.

I'll get Watch Dogs too. The game itself looks a bit dull, but I want to explore London.

So, my plan appears to be set:

• My partner works over the road from a small shopping centre where there's a Saturn (basically a German Dixons). It's out of the way and not an obvious spot for shopping. She's going in there on Tuesday and if they have an Xbox Series X on the shelf, she'll buy it.
• If they don't, we'll try in central Frankfurt at the weekend. There are more places to try, but it's less likely they'll be any since it'll be several days after release and the middle of town is more obvious.
• If that doesn't work, I'll wait until after payday and try during the week off I have at the start of December. I'll have enough cash to splash thanks to bonus month, and there might have been a bit of a restock by then.

If I don't get one by then, that's fine - I'm not going to be disappointed, it'll just mean I'll upgrade later. Guess we'll see.

Got an email from Game yesterday saying my pre-order is being "processed", and should be getting shipped the day before. No idea what time of the day it'll actually get here, but fingers crossed Royal Mail's next day service doesn't drag into the late evening at badly as Amazon's does.

I’m waiting on Amazon. But I pre-ordered/pre-installed my two launch games today, so hopefully the Smart Delivery promises will hold up and they’ll automatically convert to the Series X versions when I set the new machine up.

So, my plan appears to be set:

• My partner works over the road from a small shopping centre where there's a Saturn (basically a German Dixons). It's out of the way and not an obvious spot for shopping. She's going in there on Tuesday and if they have an Xbox Series X on the shelf, she'll buy it.
• If they don't, we'll try in central Frankfurt at the weekend. There are more places to try, but it's less likely they'll be any since it'll be several days after release and the middle of town is more obvious.
• If that doesn't work, I'll wait until after payday and try during the week off I have at the start of December. I'll have enough cash to splash thanks to bonus month, and there might have been a bit of a restock by then.

If I don't get one by then, that's fine - I'm not going to be disappointed, it'll just mean I'll upgrade later. Guess we'll see.

November 10th:

"Okay Germany and Austria are out of stock. We'll have a quick jaunt into France, just to see.

Basically if I can't find one in Schengen, I'll just leave it. No biggie."

:P

This is peak cross-continental martanomics

Already got my train tickets booked in case Istanbul (not Constantinople) has a glut of stock.