Xbox Series X/S & Playstation 5 (PS5) Thread. Next-Gen 2020

[MattyP]

By some luck I guess managed to snag myself a PS5 recently. Not had a proper session on it yet but had a quick blast on Astrobot and Returnal. Impressed so far! Love the adaptive triggers and the 3D audio in Returnal is great. Not sure about the looks and size of the thing though... Looks more like an art piece than a games console. Looking forward to seeing how well implemented the triggers are in driving games. Next GT should be interesting when it arrives.

Looking forward to exploring it further when I get some of the housey things done and probably this evening as the weather is glorious up here at the moment.

[fog]

Microsoft just about to start their 'E3 Conference'.

While I don't have a new XBox I am interested in what they have to show. From memory, I can't remember them showing much at all since the XBox Series preview show so they should have a lot of good, new stuff to show here.

We haven't seen anything of Fable for about a year so looking forward to seeing some gameplay from that, and of course the long-delayed Halo.

[MattyP]

Well another Forza Horizon set in Mexico as predicted. I was really hoping for one set in Asia this time - perhaps Japan or even China. Oh well. It's on GamePass. Interesting to see what they add although I'm nearly at franchise fatigue with Forza at the moment.

Stuck Drive club on the other day and it was like a breath of fresh air. Probably my second fav racer after PGR4.

[Rhythm]

Well another Forza Horizon set in Mexico as predicted. I was really hoping for one set in Asia this time - perhaps Japan or even China. Oh well. It's on GamePass. Interesting to see what they add although I'm nearly at franchise fatigue with Forza at the moment.

Stuck Drive club on the other day and it was like a breath of fresh air. Probably my second fav racer after PGR4.

The fact that Sony shuttered Evolution before allowing them to do a 60fps HDR update to DriveClub for PS4 Pro is a serious annoyance of mine. It's a bloody superb racing game, totally underrated.

Forza Horizon 5... I played 3 and 4 but found them way too sterile. Not arcadey enough to be pure fun, not simmy enough for real thrills, and ridiculously underbaked from a graphics PoV.

[MattyP]

Well another Forza Horizon set in Mexico as predicted. I was really hoping for one set in Asia this time - perhaps Japan or even China. Oh well. It's on GamePass. Interesting to see what they add although I'm nearly at franchise fatigue with Forza at the moment.

Stuck Drive club on the other day and it was like a breath of fresh air. Probably my second fav racer after PGR4.

The fact that Sony shuttered Evolution before allowing them to do a 60fps HDR update to DriveClub for PS4 Pro is a serious annoyance of mine. It's a bloody superb racing game, totally underrated.

Forza Horizon 5... I played 3 and 4 but found them way too sterile. Not arcadey enough to be pure fun, not simmy enough for real thrills, and ridiculously underbaked from a graphics PoV.

And me! DC would have been glorious at 60fps .

I'm seriously getting franchise fatigue with Forza at the moment. FH - every game is similar but manages to add more (annoying) crap into it. Loved the setting of 4 but too many damn icons and seemingly no single player structure to the game. Just lots events all thrown at you all the time. Then on a wheelspin bonus I got a pair of pink hotpants and a new horn sound for my car!? Really. Has it descended into this? Didn't think they could do much more to make it any cheesier. So my car has a funny horn and I now wear pink hotpants in the game! Anyhow looking forward to giving 5 a go... its on GamePass so no additional investment other than a bit of time I guess.

The Forzas could really do with starting to support VR on the PC. The main FM line would be great with VR. Perhaps they might on the next release they did with Flight Sim so there is hope... Think if GT7 releases with support for PSVR and PSVR2 MS might be forced to implement it on PC.

Speaking of which no news of the next iteration of the main Forza Motorsport game from MS yet... Probably holding it back to go head to head with Sony and GT7 perhaps. Who knows.

I like DriveClub because of its purity and focus. Great locations. Car and road. Drive. Thats it. No fluff. Some would say its sterile but thats the way I like my driving games. Less bling laser focused and clean UIs. Why I prefer GT over Forza Motorsport most of the time.

[Misfit]

Re the Xbox event, I haven't looked into much of what they have announced yet, but I did see one comment that 27 of the 30 titles they showed will be on Game Pass!

That strikes me as quite amazing.

FH5 - Looks like they added a few new modes like expedition and events lab, the latter looking like it could be a lot of fun. And the graphics seem pretty impressive this time too...

[MattyP]

Re the Xbox event, I haven't looked into much of what they have announced yet, but I did see one comment that 27 of the 30 titles they showed will be on Game Pass!

That strikes me as quite amazing.

FH5 - Looks like they added a few new modes like expedition and events lab, the latter looking like it could be a lot of fun. And the graphics seem pretty impressive this time too...

GamePass is insane value for money. They are integrating Xbox into TVs too (probably steaming app). It's certainly interesting times. Like the fact MS have parity on the PC. So I'll get all the first party titles too! Part of the reason just decided to have a PC and PS5 combo. Win/win.

[venusian]

Wanty want wanty.

Happiliy can havey have have.

Excited.

[MattyP]

What is everyone playing on their new consoles? After the amazement that was Astrobot's playground not much has impressed me with the console at the moment Returnal is an interesting concept but lack of checkpoints frustrating at times. Ratchet and Clank is impressive but feels old in gameplay.

Not sure what I'm expecting really....

What are you looking forward too?

[Misfit]

What is everyone playing on their new consoles? After the amazement that was Astrobot's playground not much has impressed me with the console at the moment Returnal is an interesting concept but lack of checkpoints frustrating at times. Ratchet and Clank is impressive but feels old in gameplay.

My son has stolen my Series X temporarily, we got given the wrong Fifa and it won't work on his One X (there is a series X version and a series One version. The latter works on both and you can only cross-play on the latter and not between version even though the code base is the same, so the Series X version could switch to One mode. it's all very confusing and I'm sure pissing off a lot of kids/parents if they play in large groups).

So I put the PS5 in the living room until he gets a version for the One. It usually lives in the playroom with the One X and I barely go in there so haven't touched it since release day when I played some Astro.

Initial thoughts were where do I put it, the X hides nicely in the bookcase, this is just a big ugly lump by the TV!

Anyway, played some more Astro and it is a delight and controller showcase, a quick go on the latest spider man was that's nice and shiny and then I got a bit lost. Didn't fancy anything I've accumulated from PS+, won't pay full whack for Returnal and never got into Ratchet and Clank, so not splashing on that.

I think I'm a bit bored with 3D world epics and ultimately really miss the dip in and try something odd on Game Pass. I don't have much game time, so it is perfect.

So I appreciate the PS5 is a wonder and has some first-party stuff coming that will excite a lot of people, but the Xbox has Forza H5 coming, game pass and hides from the bosses view much better, so the sooner I swap back the better!

[WiteWulf]

Anyone stuck an M.2 SSD in their PS5? I just got one of these (https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B093DNV47J) and the PS5 immediately complained that it was only getting ~3100MB/s read speeds from it, and that that may affect game play. I'm considering sending back as it's not even getting close to the advertised spec of 6100MB/s.

While there are plenty of articles stating that the PS5 works just fine at those speeds, I'm concerned the unit may be faulty and fail fully at a later date.

Any advice?

[WiteWulf]

Well, at the suggestion of folk on another forum, I formatted it and ran the speed test a couple more times and the subsequent times it ran at >6000MB/s. It seems that the speed tests can sometimes be a bit low immediately after the first format of the device. Go figure ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Vargol]

Well, at the suggestion of folk on another forum, I formatted it and ran the speed test a couple more times and the subsequent times it ran at >6000MB/s. It seems that the speed tests can sometimes be a bit low immediately after the first format of the device. Go figure ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Weird its the first I've head about that, it didn't happen to me but I only fitted a 1TB SSD.

[WiteWulf]

2TB was relatively cheap on Black Friday so I grabbed it. Cost less than than the 1TB SATA SSD I put in the PS4 a few years back

[MattyP]

So we are nearly two years into this generation of consoles how is everyone finding them? Impressed? What are the standouts so far?

Currently have a PC and a PS5. The PS5 hardly gets used these days and when I do decide to have a quick go it ends up patching etc. Think the last memorable game I played on there that was a PS5 exclusive was Astro.

Funny enough been using my 360 and the PC on GamePass most of the time these days..for me the essence of console gaming is the 360 boots quick and super quick updates (if any these days). Just spent a fair few hours tonight playing PGR, Gears and Space Giraffe. Not had a fun gaming session like this for a bit.

So for me so far this generation of consoles has been well a bit meh really. Just seeing what Sony have in store for PSVR 2 and what the next Nintendo machine turns out like. I was considering picking up a Switch at some point but waiting for either a new machine or a new Mario to come along.

GamePass seems to be where I've spent most of my gaming time so far this gen. So many games on there I've played and enjoyed many of which I'd probably never have tried.

So how has everyone else been getting on? Standouts so far? Anything you are particularly looking forward to?