NextGen is the future of gaming that has arrived early, but not early enough! Especially for the console gamers who have had to accept certain frame rate locks that were merely hardware limitations of the time. Without the prevalence of online games for newbies, the online gaming scene was once a daunting space that’s now been refined down to the click of a button.
Gaming has made the most of the technological revolution the world has been going through since the turn of the millennium. Take a second to consider how far every aspect of gaming has come: from the sixth generation of gaming, where gamers were astonished by the power and innovations that the Nintendo GameCube, Sony PlayStation 2, Microsoft Xbox and Sega Dreamcast brought to the table.
Fast Forward to the present, and we are faced with the new NextGen hardware behemoths of the console world. This gives PC gamers, especially those who are in the budget gaming range, a real run for their money. With these new consoles boasting unlocked framerates, ray tracing technology and more, we are in the golden age of gaming. The Sony PlayStation 5 and Microsoft’s Xbox Series X and S are truly magnificent machines, showing us that the future of gaming is bright.
Challenging the Player Experience
Now it’s time for the game developers to catch up. Watching how the triple-A game developers part of the CD Projekt and CD Projekt Red team behind the highly controversial title CyberPunk 2077 proved that development issues in terms of making a stable game playing experience across all platforms will be a challenge many will face.
This particular setback is probably why a lot of the NextGen experiences are currently PC exclusive experiences. It is clear to see that there are nowhere near as many new NextGen console titles readily available yet. However, do not be quick to disregard these consoles yet, because there are a healthy abundance of titles coming to the console scene.
Restocks & Price Drops
With Black Friday sales and Christmas around the corner what better time to try to capitalize on the recent restocking we have seen since the release frenzy. For months after release, your best chance of getting either of this year’s most demanded consoles was from a scalper selling it for double the recommended price. The drought is finally over; gamers prepare themselves for the raytraced and uncapped framerate Christmas season you have been dreaming about for years.
Dealbreakers
Power, speed, and unprecedented levels of visual fidelity are at the heart of the next generation. As for the internal specs inside the PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles, it appears that Microsoft does have an edge in terms of sheer computational power, although internal specs don’t seem too different between the two systems.
To keep this fair, the comparison is only between the Sony PlayStation 5 and Microsoft Xbox series X, as they are almost identical in price, as opposed to the cheaper, yet almost as powerful Microsoft Series S.
A deal breaker truly comes into play when you are forced to consider what company exclusives you follow and are interested in. Both the Sony and Microsoft exclusives pride themselves in a long line of exceptional quality games that are only compatible with their own companies’ consoles.
Finally, another main deal breaker would be the backwards compatibility factor, which Microsoft truly outdid themselves with in the series X. Sony was nowhere near as generous, offering your PlayStation Classics but not digitally and the feature to play your PlayStation 4 games on your new PlayStation 5.
Otherwise, these two machines are neck and neck, and the ultimate decider may come down to other non-hardware related factors.
Games to Focus On
Halo Infinite, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2, Forza Motorsport 8 and State of Decay 3 are some of the exclusive titles the die-hard Xbox fans will be waiting for, whereas Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Horizon II: Forbidden West, Gran Turismo 7 are games the Sony heads can look forward to playing on their brand new consoles. Of course, these are exclusives everyone can look forward to playing loads of new games in 2022.
One of the most anticipated games coming out in the new year is a title Developed by FromSoftware and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. Elden Ring is a third-person and open-world action role-playing game. Elden Ring will be an online experience too which truly tops the immersion value gamers have experienced from the previous Dark Souls titles.
Dying Light 2 may be a title for fans of the original to focus on. The developers have patched massive issues and the monotonous nature that the first title offered up, and have created a horrifically wonderful zombie experience, with a lot more content.
Rainbow Six Extraction explores the world of strange creatures, known as Archaeans, as teams of three battle for survival with players. Many of the same gameplay mechanics and Operators from Siege will be present, but their dark, deadly nature will be emphasized. This time, Ubisoft will abandon its realism in simulated combat to make an end-to-end simulation.
Ending the Console Wars
Since time immemorial, it has seemed that brand loyal console gamers will die at the stake if necessary, for their console of choice. Instead of arguing over remote control schematics and minute details from certain games that might appear brighter, or running at most five frames more than the other, at the end of the day it’s simply the question of “what console are my friends getting?”
With the higher demand for online-only games, it’s more important you choose the console your friend group gets, because realistically speaking a feature or an exclusive is nice, but the best way to experience games these days is with your friends.