Mini-Fridge or Minas Tirith
I generally come from the dark, dank corner of the room where the spiders and moths live. Where the PC gamers live. But before you turn away or give me chance to tell you about my amazing rig, I wanted to take a moment to congratulate you, console gamers. You, who like indoor bowling with your grandparents and sitting on the sofa slightly too far away, choosing comfort over efficiency. Wireless controllers, imagine! Yes, I could go on all day, but I’ve been spying on you, console gamers. Or should I say your overlords, Microsoft and Sony. The new generation of consoles have been announced, we have prices for one of them, and the comment wars about who’s controller looks better are already well underway. But – the golden question – which one is better?
Or, actually, what I’m more interested in is ‘how’ better. Back in 2013 I bought an Xbox One. Or at least my mum did. I was very excited to play it on Christmas day, plugging it into my grandma’s old password locked 1:1 TV from the 90s, sat atop my wardrobe so I could see it from my cabin bed. Battlefield 4, Watchdogs, Forza 5; my tiny 13-year-old brain was overloaded with hype. We weren’t the most well-off, but I was very lucky, coming from a family of gamers. My dad bought our first Xbox (original) when I was 4, I had a Nintendo DS at 6 (god bless my 15-year-old Nintendogs). PS2, PS3, PSP and, by far the best, the Xbox 360. So naturally I was mind-blown that there was a system coming out that was to SURPASS the legendary 360. How powerful could this thing be? The games were even bigger, even harder and even nerdier. This, my friends, is why I am sceptical about hype.
The Xbox One was likely the worst console/gaming system I ever owned. It was almost single-handedly the cause for my transition to PC gaming, as its awful load times, necessity to download from disk and what can only be described as pathetic hard-drive space was not nearly worth the £400 odd that I (my mum) paid for it. My scepticism has taken many turns, but I think I am finally ready to turn my eyes back to the console market and, as much as I have thoroughly enjoyed the mini-fridge memes, I have to say that I am impressed by what we have seen so far.
The Xbox Series X might possibly be the worst named gaming system ever to be released, but where they have shirked on marketing, their design shines through. The Xbox One (we shall call it the Xbone from now on) was too bulky, not very sleek and its fans were comparable to that of a jet engine aircraft. This time, however, Microsoft have produced us an adorable little mini-fridge power-pole cube-thingy that looks very modern, compact and will fit perfectly next to any smooth smart TV or fancy coffee table. I should also mention the Series X’s little bro, the Series S. Even smaller, even sleeker, and even more affordable. This is apparently due to the lack of a disk drive which is the most expensive part of a console system – something I hadn’t realised until very recently, but that makes more sense the more I think about it. While the Series X will take up more space and will likely appeal to classic fans with the disk functionality working hand-in-hand with backwards compatibility, the Series S offers a more modern take, by default shipping in posh white and enhancing the look of your minimalistic living room.
Obviously, the downside to this system is the inability to play games on disk that you already own and moving your entire library to digital. While this might seem annoying or risky for some, it saves physical space in your home, time installing and materials such as packaging. From a PC gamer’s perspective, this is all lovely stuff, as less clutter means a more ergonomic system, and we are plagued by large, noisy systems with keyboards and mice and speakers etc. Something so compact and functional could well bridge the gap.
Sony keep the PlayStation 5 simple by name, which is lovely and easy to speak, without feeling as though you are stepping out of an episode of Red Dwarf. But this is where the console does a complete u-turn. It looks like a WIFI router. Or the pope’s hat. Or Minis Tirith, which is perhaps my favourite comparison. There is a lot of debate about which console looks nicer, but I can almost unequivocally state that the PS5 looks like it would better suit being a book-end backdrop in a student sci-fi film. The controller also looks very futuristic, but while the Xbox’s look modern and classy, I can’t help but feel Sony have tried too hard with this, and it looks tacky.
We don’t know much about the specs of either console, only that they have both said they are the most powerful option, which can’t be true, but I am eager to see how they perform. Advertising campaigns promise ‘shorter load times’ and ‘higher frame rates’ and all the other corporate buzzwords that the general public thrive off of, but this doesn’t actually mean anything. In fact, ‘higher frame rates’ can only really mean up from 30 to 60, because (citation needed) the human brain can’t actually register any higher than. This does excite me though. Will we finally be getting solid FPS and load times on casual systems? If so, this could be revolutionary in the race between affordable gaming and high-spec tech.
I think, ultimately, it will depend on exclusive games. We have seen that Rockstar are, once again, revamping GTA V, and will be charging full price for it. But beyond that, what games are you looking forward to? Cyberpunk 2077 is finally seeing its long-awaited release this year, Halo Infinite is on the horizon and…(Skryim 2) The Elder Scrolls VI? Interesting.
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