Is this the least exciting 'new' video game gen?

[erac | 78]

It was rather disappointing to get a big price bump for only a small improvement in graphics. I'll probably get a used PS5 eventually, to play FF16, but Horizon 2 and a few others are going to be on PS4 too so not much of a rush for them.

[zeppelin03 | 314]

I really like the new consoles.  They address frustrations I had with the last gen.  Mainly storage speeds.  I was immediately impressed by ray tracing playing Call of Duty and Cyberpunk 2077 on PC. Now that consoles have it the technology can expand.  

Unfortunately the games aren't there yet. With how many millions it costs to develop I get why everything is cross gen.  So far Ratchet & Clank is the only game that just wouldn't work on last gen.  It's a fantastic and beautiful game by the way.

[Californication | 1,490]

Glad I bought a PCE instead of a PS5.

[fox | 1,708]

Being a jaded hipster retro gamer is so cliche’

I’m still pretty excited.  Big exclusive titles, indie stuff I never heard of, and classics getting a big overhaul.  Feels like there is always something cool coming out to jump into.  Everything looks and runs way better than they did like a decade ago.

[Estil | 1,282]

6 hours ago, Californication said:

Glad I bought a PCE instead of a PS5.

PCE?  And you can't get trophies on that...whatever that is...

[Gloves | 12,004]

I don't think so. There's always the potential for exciting new games and that's what it's all about. Sometimes it's the indie diamond in the rough, others it's a really well polished AAA title, I'm always open to new experiences. 

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

21 minutes ago, fox said:

Being a jaded hipster retro gamer is so cliche’

I’m still pretty excited.  Big exclusive titles, indie stuff I never heard of, and classics getting a big overhaul.  Feels like there is always something cool coming out to jump into.  Everything looks and runs way better than they did like a decade ago.

I feel like the games have just been so underwhelming thus far. Even Ratchet, which is touted as a true next gen experience, has been shown to be totally doable on older consoles.

That being said, the SSD makes an unbelievable difference in getting to your games quicker. That combined with Quick Resume makes the Series X feel much, much zippier. It's to the point where I am pacing the room waiting for my old Xbox One X to boot up whenever I have to use it.

[Gloves | 12,004]

3 minutes ago, DoctorEncore said:

I feel like the games have just been so underwhelming thus far. Even Ratchet, which is touted as a true next gen experience, has been shown to be totally doable on older consoles.

That being said, the SSD makes an unbelievable difference in getting to your games quicker. That combined with Quick Resume makes the Series X feel much, much zippier. It's to the point where I am pacing the room waiting for my old Xbox One X to boot up whenever I have to use it.

That's the biggest point though tbh, it's not going to ever be about direct graphics upgrades again, it'll be about more at once, and more quickly, at higher resolutions, with less FPS drop. 

Frankly I'll be glad to see the conversation move away from how many hairs there are in Kratos' beard and over to how many dudes he can take down at once. 

[zeppelin03 | 314]

8 minutes ago, Gloves said:

That's the biggest point though tbh, it's not going to ever be about direct graphics upgrades again, it'll be about more at once, and more quickly, at higher resolutions, with less FPS drop. 

I'm happy this is the shift we are seeing. 4k is plenty for a while. Let's get more detail in that time, maybe more npcs in a city, more enemies on screen at once, rays traced.  60 fps as standard would be great.  There are much better uses of the power than trying to get to 8k or even native 4k for every title.

15 minutes ago, DoctorEncore said:

I feel like the games have just been so underwhelming thus far. Even Ratchet, which is touted as a true next gen experience, has been shown to be totally doable on older consoles.

That being said, the SSD makes an unbelievable difference in getting to your games quicker. That combined with Quick Resume makes the Series X feel much, much zippier. It's to the point where I am pacing the room waiting for my old Xbox One X to boot up whenever I have to use it.

I must have missed that R&C could have ran on a PS4. The only thing I've seen was a Digital Foundry interview with the devs where they explain why a PS5 made the game possible.  

Adding loading screens for the transitions in that game really would have broken the experience in my opinion. 

[Gloves | 12,004]

Seriously - no loading screens! I've been a pc gamer for a long time and have always seen the huge difference a good pc makes over consoles with loading speeds. Dark Souls was INSANE when it released, hiding loading behind elevator rides and ladders very cleverly; not the first to do so, but the one to do it best first, it was seamless. 

We take stuff like that for granted today, but go play PS1/PS2, even simple games, it's day and night. Some games on early disc systems are nigh on unplayable compared to their alternatives, like Chrono Trigger. Ever played that on PS1? It's a nightmare! 

[zeppelin03 | 314]

14 minutes ago, Gloves said:

Seriously - no loading screens! I've been a pc gamer for a long time and have always seen the huge difference a good pc makes over consoles with loading speeds. Dark Souls was INSANE when it released, hiding loading behind elevator rides and ladders very cleverly; not the first to do so, but the one to do it best first, it was seamless. 

We take stuff like that for granted today, but go play PS1/PS2, even simple games, it's day and night. Some games on early disc systems are nigh on unplayable compared to their alternatives, like Chrono Trigger. Ever played that on PS1? It's a nightmare! 

When I got an SSD 10 years ago it changed gaming for me.  I barely had time to spin the mace on the Skyrim loading screen.  

[Californication | 1,490]

No more load times? Load times are a great reminder it's time to take another drink.

[Nintegageo | 582]

Actually the load times and GoW Ragnarok are the main reasons that am excited Re: this gen atm. I own Red Dead 2 though haven't done a playthrough cause planning to play it with PS5. It's a 100G game! What the shit is that??

[Tanooki | 4,975]

On 9/10/2021 at 8:20 PM, a3quit4s said:

I think we are really getting close to what is possible on a console at this point.  

All the commentary back and forward aside, that last part, truth.  The console makers are stuck.  They know it too.  They have a serious issue because console buyers have a pretty hard cap of where the vast majority of buyers will NOT pay for a game and especially a game console.  Because of those budget limits, they can only loss lead so much on what to lose per system to hope to make it back with game sales/licensee fees from those games.  We're now where you're having these $500 systems knowing $600 a majority would break on and ignore, and the howling over most other than the die hard devout over the $70 game (still with DLC on top of that even) that it's causing a hard wall to develop.  Given the diminishing returns of what a console and visually do, etc they just can't afford the graphics processors you can stuff into a PC, even one that's 1-2 generations back, as the consoles get even older stuff to stay on budget.  When you hit this space where you can buy/design a PC with a 2gen back video card on it for a little more than the decked out console...is it worth it anymore?  Also those $70 games are still $60 on steam too, often less, not including the endless sales on top of that.

I think it's partly also why the Switch is so damn attractive.  Most games are not $60, they're less, usually the $30-50 range.  Yeah it tops out like PS3 and a bit more level, ...and?  It's a handheld, tv docking is a perk, and it costs $200-300 depending on the model.  Maybe we'll find that MS and Sony say screw it and change, maybe they'll ape Nintendo again and do a docking handheld?  Maybe they'll try and buck reality and ride it until it's pointless? MS seems to have partly cratered, they're shoving their IP even on Windows(Steam) and even Sony is pondering it to make more money.  This isn't a doom story for consoles that get old, but I think change is due, perhaps overdue.

[Nintegageo | 582]

@Tanooki perhaps we just solved why Nintendo is always using old tech. They're pacing their generations

[Tanooki | 4,975]

13 minutes ago, Nintegageo said:

@Tanooki perhaps we just solved why Nintendo is always using old tech. They're pacing their generations

Well yeah if you want to look on the overly positive side sure.   Realistically, they're penny pinchers rooted well back in the early 1980s living, dying, but the old motto of Gunpei Yokoi -- "withered technology" the path to success.  They don't ever use anything new.  They always fall back to something somewhat to moderately old.  It saves a lot of money, keeps the budget down, also allows developer familiarity so they can come in swinging far easier on development than having to learn something from scratch.  The rare time they didn't go with something too ancient (N64 and GC) one was a dead end against optical, the other that core got beaten to death used in the Wii and WiU one last time.  They deserve all the credit in the world for what they've done over time, Game Boy of all things using that even then dated LCD and z80 chip to pull off what they did for so so long.

[Alder | 243]

On 9/10/2021 at 10:09 PM, a3quit4s said:

I fucking hate games that have new game + or whatever the game decides to call it. I beat your game and my reward is to play it all over again? I don’t believe that is a selling point nor should you get credit for incorporating it. It’s lazy. It almost worse than all the good shit in the game not being available until the endgame. 

There may be some modern incarnations of this that I'd dislike, but I've appreciated it almost every time I've seen it in a game. I thought Dark Souls did it really well - more powerful enemies, but you carry over your stats and items, so the early game is easy (fun to mow down everything) but the end game is hard. Even going back to the NES, I liked playing the 2nd quest in LoZ. I wish LttP had done the same thing.

The only example of this I can think of that I dislike is Ghosts 'n Goblins, because it's literally just "lol just kidding, do it again" to actually beat the game. Also.. I think Dead Cells is all about this concept of restarting the game, carrying over your progress. I think I could get into that, but I played it for a few hours and it rubbed me the wrong way.

The latest game I played through that had a new game + was Cat Quest. I enjoyed it, but had no desire to play it again, mainly because of how easy and tedious the majority of the game was.

[Brickman | 4,109]

1 hour ago, Tanooki said:

All the commentary back and forward aside, that last part, truth.  The console makers are stuck.  They know it too.  They have a serious issue because console buyers have a pretty hard cap of where the vast majority of buyers will NOT pay for a game and especially a game console.  Because of those budget limits, they can only loss lead so much on what to lose per system to hope to make it back with game sales/licensee fees from those games.  We're now where you're having these $500 systems knowing $600 a majority would break on and ignore, and the howling over most other than the die hard devout over the $70 game (still with DLC on top of that even) that it's causing a hard wall to develop.  Given the diminishing returns of what a console and visually do, etc they just can't afford the graphics processors you can stuff into a PC, even one that's 1-2 generations back, as the consoles get even older stuff to stay on budget.  When you hit this space where you can buy/design a PC with a 2gen back video card on it for a little more than the decked out console...is it worth it anymore?  Also those $70 games are still $60 on steam too, often less, not including the endless sales on top of that.

I think it's partly also why the Switch is so damn attractive.  Most games are not $60, they're less, usually the $30-50 range.  Yeah it tops out like PS3 and a bit more level, ...and?  It's a handheld, tv docking is a perk, and it costs $200-300 depending on the model.  Maybe we'll find that MS and Sony say screw it and change, maybe they'll ape Nintendo again and do a docking handheld?  Maybe they'll try and buck reality and ride it until it's pointless? MS seems to have partly cratered, they're shoving their IP even on Windows(Steam) and even Sony is pondering it to make more money.  This isn't a doom story for consoles that get old, but I think change is due, perhaps overdue.

Yep 100% agree. This is exactly what made me move over to the PC and have a switch as a second console.

Once you start doing the numbers you can easily end up saving more by building a PC. The initial cost is high but long term it is better I feel. Plus you have a computer that does heaps of other things.

Also, with Xbox game pass on PC now there’s an even stronger reason to go PC. The free Epic games and the GOG/steam sales are also way better than most of the deals Sony and Xbox do.

Unless there is something really amazing on the PS5, I don’t see myself getting one, or if I do it will be way way further into the lifecycle.

[Tanooki | 4,975]

Yeah basically same here, and in a way my options are a bit more limited, but in another couple months this gaming laptop which is unique kind of, is going to be 7yo.  It can match the PS4 Pro at the same resolution (1080p) and exceed it in performance...PS5 level I've not dared try.  I invested tax, shipping, all coverage 3yrwarranty south of 2K on it, had I left the warranty and fluff out, kept the build the same would have been 1500~.  i7 mid-tier, nvidia 980M 8GB(equals 970 desktop), 16GB of ram, etc...it works.  It's a Sager/Clevo so I can get off the rack replacements down to the shell on it, not your usual solder job.  Had this been a desktop years ago would have been close to 1K.

For perspective, PS4 came out the end of 2013, I got this exactly a year later.  It was $400 when it came out, and my PC destroyed it.  PS4 Pro was 2016 also same price.  If you were a Sony die hard you'd be $800 into it, and the desktop equal of mine would have been just 2-300 more.  Kind of kills the argument of being heavy up front, especially with game prices being cheaper, largely cheaper with the week/month/quarterly sales at 33-75%+ off.  Depending how many games a month you buy that margin vanishes fast.

[Estil | 1,282]

10 minutes ago, Tanooki said:

For perspective, PS4 came out the end of 2013, I got this exactly a year later.  It was $400 when it came out, and my PC destroyed it. 

How in the world does a PC destroy a PS4?  Did it like fall off a table/shelf and landed on and squashed your PS4 or something?  

[zeppelin03 | 314]

I have to agree with @Tanookiand @Shmup. These will likely be my last consoles excluding Nintendo.  Xbox has autoHDR which is now coming to windows 11.  PlayStation seems to be designing their games with PC in mind so the ports have improved very quickly.  I just need studios like Atlus and Vanillaware to do consistent PC ports. 

My 9900k/2080ti system is as good if not better than the next gen offerings.  Once the steam big picture update comes it's going to look like a console too. I get free or cheap games, wait a bit for enhanced ports, and play Breath of the Wild at 4k on Cemu.  What's not to like?

Edit: Nevermind. My wife said she likes consoles more.  

Edited September 12, 2021 by zeppelin03

[Strange | 1,706]

We’re barely into this gen… people are already writing it off?

Weren’t people saying the same thing about Super Mario World on the SNES? That it wasn’t much of an upgrade and underwhelming? I know that’s not the consensus now but I remember NES owners using it as an excuse not to upgrade back in the day.

That said I probably will just go PC for the multiplat stuff and get a PS5 for the Sony exclusives/Nintendo for the Nintendo exclusives.

I love my Switch but I’m with DefaultGen that it’s essentially a port machine. That’s fine because I can play those games right up in my face but I don’t see what’s so revolutionary about it other than the hardware being neat. The Nintendo first party stuff is more of the same that we’ve been getting (which, again, isn’t a bad thing). So I guess in a sense they’re in the same rut. It’s hard to take risks in the modern gaming landscape unfortunately.

[Brickman | 4,109]

2 hours ago, Strange said:

We’re barely into this gen… people are already writing it off?

Totally agree. Way too early to be writing it off. Covid has slowed development a bit so games are taking a bit longer. There’s definitely a handful of mid/big studio games I’m interested in though.

2 hours ago, Strange said:

It’s hard to take risks in the modern gaming landscape unfortunately.

I was thinking the same thing but then I thought to myself that’s not entirely true.I think modern gaming is still taking risks.

VR is still coming along but there’s been some interesting stuff in that field, games taking on a more movie like experience which is extremely expensive and risky(some like it some don’t), stuff like demon souls/dark souls, a silent hill demo inspiring capcom to create a very different resident evil, studios investing a lot of money into open world games when stuff like CoD and sports games dominated which in turn created one of my favourite Zelda games (BotW), indies coming up with some amazing stuff.

I could go on but personally modern gaming excites me and I can’t wait to see what this gen brings.

[Tanooki | 4,975]

I'm not writing it off, just writing off the console hardware because their me-too half decade old style computer footprint for that price does nothing for me.  The games though?  When one comes along I'll play it, and if the aging PC I have won't, I'll wait or finally upgrade as I've been hoarding funds for a year and a half now for just that in a do not touch fund.  This will be my first desktop in over a decade, shooting for a 2XXX nvidia card given the prices on the 3's are nauseatingly high, and whenever they're not, easy upgrade.

[T-Pac | 7,690]

On 9/10/2021 at 3:31 PM, cj_robot said:

This console doesn't look exciting to you guys?

No joke - this is the first time I've had a good look at the new XBox console and I legit think it's stunning. 

It's so sleek and minimalist - I love it.

-CasualCart