I've had a few weeks to break in the new next-gen consoles, Xbox Series X and PS5. On Xbox, I've been playing Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Gears Tactics, and Forza Horizon 4. On PS5, I've been playing Spiderman: Miles Morales, Demon's Souls, NBA 2k21, Bugsnax, and Astro's Playroom (more of a bundled in tech demo). Overall I've been having a blast, playing some great games with the best performance currently possible. But it's still way too early to comment on these consoles. Especially since most of the games are moreso "optimized" versions of last-gen games, rather then games built from the ground up with the new technology. Probably will take a couple of years before we can really see what these consoles are capable of. The main highlights of these consoles so far are the SSD's and improved framerates. The SSD's allow for lightning quick load times, and the "Quick Resume" feature on Xbox is really cool. Think of how you have multiple apps open on your smart phone, and they each can stay suspended in the background without using power so that you can pick up right where you left off. Similar feature here for the Xbox, meaning you can go from the middle of a Gears Tactics mission to suddenly load up right where you left off in Assassin's Creed in like 10-20 seconds. May not sound like much, but when you actually use it, it is quite impressive. I think it will help me manage my game backlog better, since there is no more bottleneck of waiting 3-5 minutes just to fire up a new game. In terms of graphics, these games look great ... but it's hard to say how much of an improvement from last-gen. Most games already looked really damn good on my PS4 Pro anyways. Like NBA 2k21 on PS5 looks phenomenal with some insanely realistic player models ... but you don't really notice all those finer details when you're playing unless you zoom in on a replay. So far, it has been the PS5 games that have been most graphically impressive. Spiderman uses new ray tracing technology to implement some great looking reflections on all the skyscrapers you're webslinging around, and Demon's Souls is gorgeous as well. That's not to say Xbox isn't capable of the same graphics, and AC Valhalla does look great too for the most part, I just haven't gotten around to playing the graphical powerhouses (apparently the Series X optimized version of Gears 5 may be the best demonstration of the next-gen graphical power). I think how immediately impressed you might be from these new consoles depends on what you were coming from. If you're like me and going from the previous "mid-gen" consoles (PS4 Pro and Xbox One X) where I was already playing games in 4K HDR, the improvement is still there but might be one of the smaller leaps from generation to generation. If you are going from a base PS4/Xbox One on a standard 1080p TV without HDR, and now move on to PS5/Series X on a 4K HDR TV, you very well might see this as the biggest generational leap. I still don't know which one I would pick if I could only go with one. So far, I've put more time into my Xbox just because I'm really loving Assassin's Creed and trying to savor the shorter games on PS5. And Game Pass really is a hell of a deal, plus Microsoft bought Bethesda to even the playing field a bit in terms of exclusives. But overall, I would probably have to go with PS5 just because I have more confidence in Sony's exclusives like The Last of Us, God of War, Horizon, etc.
Playing Madden 21 at the moment. I’m a franchise guy so I’m running the Atlanta Falcons. In the off-season of the first year. Just got finished with the draft. Went 5-11 first year. Looking to build through the draft exclusively, so no easy way outs by just signing superstar and X factor free agents. Any free agents I do sign can be no higher than 75 and can only be normal development. Anyone that runs a madden league looking for any members, I’m game.
Anyone actually pick up Cyberpunk? Apparently it is a buggy mess and Sony/Microsoft offering refunds. Sony has removed the game from their online store entirely for now. Unprecedented for such a major game. I had already decided to hold off until the game gets a proper next-gen version (originally supposed to come out early 2021, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that gets delayed further), but I’m almost morbidly curious to see the current problems.
I have an Xbox series X so Cyberpunk is playing well on it. So far it's a pretty good game. No where near the level of Witcher 3, but it's fun. Unfortunately it's unplayable for millions of people.
Yeah from what I’ve heard it runs great on PC and pretty good on Series X. On PS5 it performs well, but apparently still crashes a lot as the game seems to have a memory leak when it plays in Sony’s architecture. Base Xbox One and PS4 versions are almost unplayable though it seems.
Finally snagged a PS5 from the Best Buy drop, very excited. There isn’t really a PS5 game at the moment I want to play, except maybe NBA 2K, but Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart is only a few months away. Mainly I’m looking forward to playing my PS4 games in better quality with lesser load times, and the 4K Blu-ray player is definitely a bonus.
I have a hard copy of it that I received for Christmas. I haven't played it. My son tried it, but I think he didn't even get past installation.
Definitely picking up Elden Ring! FromSoftware does not miss, I loved the rest of the “Soulsborne” games so I’m super excited for Elden Ring. I’ll probably be playing on PS5. Also got the new Horizon coming out this week, it’s a great month for gaming!
Elden Ring so far is cool. From Software had to put in some form of permadeath though didn't they. Losing the Runes on a second death is brutal. lol
I'm about 7 hours in. Great graphics, solid feel. Love the open world allowing me to choose where to go instead of being funneled one direction only. I love the new stealth mechanic. The horse is also a nice new feature. Was finally able to do some co-op. Made it to the castle, but Margit killed me about 10 times even with two other players helping.
I'm moving right along through Elden Ring. I finished Radahn. Honestly, one of the easiest bosses if you know how to semi cheese him. It's not really cheesing per se. It's just super effective.
I'm not quite to Rahahn yet. I finished the Lady in the library that allows you to respec. Since then I've been focused on farming runes and getting a few pieces of gear I wanted to use like Hoarfrost Stomp and the Sword of Flame and Night.
Juggling Horizon and Elden Ring so haven’t been able to put too much progress in either of them, but I’m fine taking my time through them as they truly are both great games! In Elden Ring, early on I got funneled to the castle to fight Margit, who I assume is supposed to be the first main boss. I had just got the horse and made it to that giant troll who jumps down and pretty much just anxiously ran away and soon ended up at Margit. Tried fighting him half heartedly a few times, was able to knock off like 30% of his health before getting crushed. But figured I was underleveled/undergeared, and didn’t think he was THAT difficult. So then I spent a few days pretty much scouring through the entirety of that first chunk of the map, took down all the mini-bosses in all the caves, grinded to a solid level, got a Dismounter+3 and finally made my way back to Margit to give an earnest shot. Kinda was assuming I wouldn’t have much difficulty after all my preparation. And I am getting WRECKED! Can usually get to his second phase, but at that point when he pulls out the giant hammer in addition to his other weapons it’s just too much for me. I know I need to just keep going at it and try to learn his patterns, but boy this has been a reality check for what I’m in store for in this game
