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

[MattyP]

I'm really impressed with the S too. Had mine for a few months now and its perfect for how I game these days. Its now at silly price I mean its not much more than say a SNES was in price back in the nineties and given the tech in it! Feels like what a console should be small, compact, quiet and doesn't dominate the room it sits in. Just like consoles used to be.

I thought I'd miss the drive (and physical media) which is why I was torn between the series S and X however as the S is much cheaper and not really fussed about 4K decided to give it a go and not really looked back. With GamePass and my old digital content I have always found something to play. And everything is so quick and accessible.. its now my go to place to play games - even over the PC - quick resume is great.

I expect at some point it will show its limitations with newer more demanding games however I expect it will be a while before that happens and MS will have an upgrade path in place... something in this form factor with the power of a Series X might be nice (without the physical drive).

As for going digital I've been digital on the PC since 2004 so not much of a transition really. Seems to be plenty of sales on the Xbox store and you can get keys for games in other places. Surprised its taken consoles so long to move over.

[MattyP]

New Xbox Series S are £189.99 at Amazon and Smyth's Toys (the latter with a free month of Game Pass)

I set up my son's Series S last night - it's so small and cute!

Apparently they are £159 if you buy from the warehouse and have Prime... these are being practically given away at the moment.

[Whiteball]

At these prices i'm tempted to get an 's' to run emulation and stuff instead of mucking about with Raspberry Pis.

[Jonesey]

RetroArch stopped working on my Series X for some reason. I just assume it broke with an update? I think you have to join Discord to access Gamr13's installers now.

No idea if Dev mode is affected but that always seemed like a bit of a faff to set up anyway.

[Deckard]

Not a searing indictment -

Sony is allegedly halving its quarterly shipment forecast from two million units, down to a million units. Sony reportedly expects around one and a half million units to ship between this April and March 2024.

By contrast, the original PSVR headset sold over two million headsets in its first year. The PSVR2 starts at £530 but players will also need a PS5 console for it to work with.

[Misfit]

Not a searing indictment -

Sony is allegedly halving its quarterly shipment forecast from two million units, down to a million units. Sony reportedly expects around one and a half million units to ship between this April and March 2024.

By contrast, the original PSVR headset sold over two million headsets in its first year. The PSVR2 starts at £530 but players will also need a PS5 console for it to work with.

Thought I was going to order one, but not bothering at this point.

Haven't turned the PS5 on this year.

[Whiteball]

People saying that when you factor in the original headset, controllers and camera etc prices together the price was actually higher than the new 'all in the box' PSVR2. So better hardware, with new controllers and inside out camera tracking etc and cheaper than the original. Don't know, haven't checked myself.

Personally, too expensive for me even if that is true.

[RiK]

The PSVR2 starts at £530 but players will also need a PS5 console for it to work with.

So the VR headset is going to cost more than the console...

Yeah, that's going to sell loads innit..

Not for me. It's a nice gimmick for a few mins here and there, but I just want to chill on the sofa with the GF, not to have to clear half the room and stand up to play games...

[Deckard]

Not a searing indictment -

Sony is allegedly halving its quarterly shipment forecast from two million units, down to a million units. Sony reportedly expects around one and a half million units to ship between this April and March 2024.

By contrast, the original PSVR headset sold over two million headsets in its first year. The PSVR2 starts at £530 but players will also need a PS5 console for it to work with.

Thought I was going to order one, but not bothering at this point.

Haven't turned the PS5 on this year.

He's gone DECK !

[Deckard]

Some glowing review stuff about the new PSVR2 I see including the brightness of the image and the head tracking but bounced down by THAT wire and the cost for most reviewers and weirdly no exclusive launch games ? WTF ?



"The games selection on the other hand...No Astro. No Beat Saber. No GT7. Not even a pack-in games selection. You can't carry a £530 accessory on a Horizon tech demo."

And not even a bundled free game ? Christ have they been bought by BMW or Apple ?

[Rhythm]

Eesh, Digital Foundry?

Early impressions are indeed great. Given the tech in it and comparing to like technology I'm going to suggest that price is actually way more than fair BUT with no plans to ever make it PC-compatible it's going to flounder. PSVR might have sold great but the market (and people's expectations) have changed since that launch. By insisting it's compatible with PS-only they're going to have difficulties finding developers who'll take full advantage of it.

Hell, they (Sony) can't even convince developers to make full use of the haptic shit in the Dualsense. How on earth are they going to talk devs into leveraging the unique advantages of the PSVR2?

[Misfit]

Some glowing review stuff about the new PSVR2 I see including the brightness of the image and the head tracking but bounced down by THAT wire and the cost for most reviewers and weirdly no exclusive launch games ? WTF ?

I think the fact it is still available to pre-order for delivery on the day of release on the Sony site says it all really.

If people like me, who buy interesting tech on a whim knowing they'll barely use it, can't get enthusiastic it's not a good sign!

It does look good, but for me the wire is significant once you've swung free! And the lack/cost of new AAA games doesn't help.

Surely a demo disk with an Astro game was a minimum requirement as a pack-in as they did with v1.

[WiteWulf]

Aye, all the reviews I’ve read so far have very clearly stated that for the level and quality of tech you’re getting they don’t feel it’s overpriced. That just doesn’t necessarily mean it’s an attractive purchase for people. The price and lack of new games, coupled with Sony’s decision to not provide a backwards compatibility with PSVR, makes it a very hard sell.

According to Giles (on mastodon), Sony are insisting all PSVR2 code is native PS5.

[NorthWay]

5 months have passed, I do a new search aaaaaaand ...nothing. Still nothing in stock. One of the biggest electronics chains in Norway indicates there are 4 shops that have items on the shelf, but they are all placed in more or less backwaters.
I'll sit this one out until a Pro version appears. And is available.

[MattyP]

So how is everyone getting on with this gens hardware?

Amazing that we are now around 2.5 years into this hardware cycle!

Still a bit underwhelmed with it all TBH. Tinkered with a PS5 and a Series X both great machines however found I was just playing old games on both. X had all my back catalogue of digital content from 360/XBO and some of those got a frame boost and performance enhancements.

PS5 I absolutely loved Astobots Playroom - although effectively a glorified demo it was one of the most impressive things on the console. Tried a few exclusives and whilst pretty didn't really do much for me. Returnal was OK and Ratchet And Clank was the same old really. Not sure what I was to expect! Ended up just playing through the back catalogue of PS4 games. Played GT7 when that got released finished the single player on that then it felt like a bit of a drought.

Ended up selling both the above (same price as I paid due to shortages etc at the time) and just using my PC for a while. Eventually picked up a Series S and this pretty much gave me everything the X was doing for me (- disk drive of course!) and been really happy with that.

Funny enough went back to the Switch recently after a few years in readiness for the new Zelda and I've been enjoying that more than anything else. Its the least powerful current onsale console out there but seems to be ticking lots of boxes.

Decided not going to upgrade my PC for the foreseeable (although like VR stuff on that it just about runs most things).

Not bothering with a PS5 again until they get a slim version out and some exclusives I want to play out on it. Not a huge fan of the bulk of the hardware so hoping they can make it much smaller.

So far this gen then... one of a bit meh really. Enjoying the super fast load times (quick resume is great on the Xbox). However in terms of "new things to impress" not been that good really. However maybe its because I'm old and jaded.

The consoles just feel like a PC upgrade really. Although the Dual Sense PS5 controller has lots of potential. Oh and PSVR2 too. Although guessing time will tell how that pans out. They might do a bundle sometime next year with a slim PS5 and PSVR2 might be up for that if the games are there.

Meantime seems the Xbox Series S and Switch seem to be the sweet spot for me for the foreseeable. With a dash of PC gaming where my current setup will run stuff!