Topic: Official Push Square Xbox Thread

@JohnnyShoulder @TheFrenchiestFry A console that holds back games is a bad idea to me. Anything that lowers the common denominator is a bad idea to me. MS or Sony. I’d call the S out too if Sony did it. Games may get scaled back on PC, but there’s a point where they wouldn’t pass for being released on a console and perform and look like trash. PC is also expendable as far as how the game performs and runs (if it runs) on lower power PCs compared to consoles, where an expectation for more consistent performance that’s better optimized (consoles are far more specifically optimized with more work to get more out of the power than any given PC setting.).
It has nothing to do with it being Xbox, but the concept itself for me.

@Jaz007 That would be an understandable mindset, but I feel like it would be more valid if Series X was just a non-entity. Series S is clearly not meant for the kind of person who is actively wanting that complete full-fat experience, or doesn't have the income for it but still wants to play today's games.

Series S is very clearly meant to be something for the casual crowd who might not even be acquainted with a specific console or brand. It may hold things back on a technical level, but your average joe is probably not even going to care about that. If they were really so concerned about that kind of stuff, they'd shell out the extra money for a Series X or even a PS5. It's nice to have the option there for the people who aren't going to be dedicating a lot of their spare time to that kind of intense gaming period, but still want to at least have access to those kinds of games, which is also why Game Pass is such a tempting value proposition

@TheFrenchiestFry If devs want to develop a game in mind for all consoles, they have to keep in mind the lowest common denominator, and the problem gets worse the longer the gen goes on. It affects and third party and MS first party unless they decide it’s a niche that’s not worth developing for or just letting it run poorly. It affects gaming as a whole is my issue.

@Jaz007 Yeah I mean the series S is not for me either but as @TheFrenchiestFry says it is mainly for the people that play only the same couple of games all the time and don't care about it being in 4K. Not sure why they wouldn't just stay on One X or S for now though, as I'm assuming they wouldn't be bothered about all the other advantages the series S brings either.

@JohnnyShoulder Two words. Ultimate Team. Sports games have been doing the rounds showing off the next-gen versions. I expect to see plenty consoles sold just on the promise of better sports games. Especially with The Show going multiplat this year.

In all my years of gaming, its always been the same when you have multiple options. At the start of this when Sony's launch line up wasn't as strong, there were Sony fanboys saying 'power mattered' and multi-platform games looking/running better mattered more because more of those are released and purchased - by the time the X came out and Sony hit their stride with first party, Exclusives mattered more, Xbox had the power but no games, even Backwards Compatibility didn't matter because 'no-one' wants to play old games on new hardware...

Its the same this time and there will be fanboys saying similar things. Even if they both ran games identically, both had the same quality and Genres of Exclusives, there will still be arguments over whether Forza is better than GT, whether Last of Us is better than Hellblade, Avowed is better than Horizon etc - just like we had whether Mario was better than Sonic.

Its always worse around the new console releases - especially in the build up to launch and how 'X' will give their preferred platform an advantage - or at least offset the perceived advantages of the other. ESRAM would equal PS4's faster RAM for example and then removing Kinect would somehow free up enough to bring parity. Even when one has an Advantage, the others will blame devs rather than admit the design choices of the platform manufacturer was perhaps wrong - especially when First Party devs build their games specifically for that hardware and can make choices that specifically fit within the capabilities of that hardware - why Forza and Gears can look incredible and run at a native 1080p but multi-platform games don't.

At the end of the day, if you are only interested in one platform, then it really shouldn't matter what the other platform does or has. Its not as if you will buy it because it has 'X' games or runs 'Y' games better. If Demon Souls does or does not have RT, what does it matter if you have no intention on buying a PS5 (or the game)? What difference does it make if Assassins Creed: Valhalla has a higher/lower (average) resolution if you are only going to buy it on your preferred platform. If you find out it runs a higher resolution on the other platform, are you going to jump platforms? Surely the only thing that matters is the way it runs on your platform and as long as it runs well, that matters most.

Things like 'performance' of games does matter to me to a 'small' degree because I have the choice of which platform I will be buying a game for and that factors in to my decision sometimes but if I only had one choice, I don't have to worry about what other platforms are capable of doing as it really doesn't matter.

With PC being added into the equation (as is very much the case with gamepass), XSS is far from the lowest benchmark.

Furthermore, it has been built specifically to run all games that are available to the XSX, scaling down in visual fidelity.

While I'm certainly not interested in purchasing the XSS, it has a legitimate niche of being able to run this coming generation's games, digital BC releases, and gamepass.

There is a market, and the way it scales with the XSX, with it's CPU and feature set, there's no reason at all to say it shouldn't scale through the generation as XSS is not the lowest denominator, and the simple fact that games scale down, and not up.

🙄

@JGRockford Exactly this...

The fact that the console has a very similar brain (CPU) but a less capable Artist (GPU) does mean that its the 'Graphics' that will be scaled down. There is a reason that once you get below a certain graphical threshold, you don't gain anything in terms of frame rates, that's because of the CPU and if you have essentially the same CPU, you can run the same games with the same AI, NPC counts, physics, hit detection, draw calls etc. 1080p is 1/4 the size of 4k and 4k is about 2.2x the size of 1440p so the Series S at about 1/3 the graphical processing power is somewhere in that ballpark area as far as resolution scaling - although may need a few settings reduced to hit 1440p. As far as the reduction in RAM, its not using 4k/Hi Res Textures either so doesn't need the RAM. To put it in context, the PS4 Pro has just 5.5GB RAM at 216GB/s for gaming. I don't know exactly what the Series S has allocated for gaming BUT it has 8GB RAM at 224GB/s.

When you look at Yakuza, a game that is very heavy on resources, it runs at 1080/30 on Pro (not perfectly) and on Series S, it runs at 1440/30 - it also has a 60fps option - unlike the Current gen.

The Series S is for those not interested in the highest level of Graphical fidelity and has the same feature set, same data throughput and very similar CPU. Of course its a bit more work for a developer as they are not able to just set the output to say 1440p and that's it. They have to also scale down textures (often they do this anyway for objects at distance) and of course tweak the settings to get the performance they want as just dropping the resolution down may not be enough to get the same consistent frame rates.

Its not for me at all but the point is, the PS5 and Series X are both targetting 4k and as such need much more powerful GPU's to achieve that resolution. Textures too need to be higher resolution to match and that means bigger files sizes (per texture) and therefore need more RAM and higher Bandwidth to get them where they need to be.

We will no doubt see how well its holding up in a few years or so but generally, you can see that the Console was designed to run the same games, just at a lower graphical standard and so doesn't need the GPU/RAM the other consoles have. I must admit, I do wonder if it will affect MS's decision to bring Minecraft DXR, a fully path traced game to console if it ran at 1080/30 on Series X - but time will tell. That was a 'tech demo' but I do wonder if it would run on Series S (720p maybe with fewer bounces?) and if not, will that affect MS's decision to release??

Oof, with the news that Star Wars Jedi is coming to EA Play, that means it’s coming to Game Pass as well. That’s a big, big game to play as part of your subscription. Considering my only real gripes with the game were technical, if I was getting an Xbox Series X then I’d definitely replay it as it would be a classic with a bit of technical polish.

Lots of xbox promotion going on from 6pm gmt tonight live streamed including a holographic display of series X in London.

Just picked up my Series X and extra Robot White controller. Still at bloody work though. 3 hours to go.

First time I've ever bought a console without a physical game. Haha.

@SoulChimera

I get mine delivered sometimes today by Amazon

Some nice additions to Gamepass including Planet Coaster and EA Access

@blacklivesmatter Just about to set up mine now. I am going to need a new entertainment unit for this and the PS5. They are big! And a lot heavier than I was expecting.

Feels very premium though.

EDIT: Up and running. I will say one thing. The cables are short as duck. I haven’t been able to set it up properly in my unit as the HDMI cable won’t reach my wall mounted TV. Going to leave it all messy until the PS5 arrives. Looks like a trip to IKEA is definitely happening.

Yeah I was suprised at the weight of the console. Setup was so easy using the app it was like a dream. Now the long wait to download all the games I had on the previous console. Destiny 2 just about finished Fan is so quiet as well but i have not played any demanding games yet. My only concern is that I will need to keep it covered when not in use as where the fan is will be like a magnet for dust.

So people are faking the Xbox Series X smoking using a vape. Could this be... FUD??

@nessisonett It is the ultimate fake news lol. The thing is people not clued up will fall for it and will probably end up not getting a series x for little Bobby at Christmas.

this ***** is taking console wars to a whole new level

I can see legit PS elitist trolls using those videos to declare their console isn't prone to hardware failures lol

@TheFrenchiestFry The thing is, both consoles will probably have faults. First runs always do. It’s just the height of pettiness.

@nessisonett I've already heard of one being reported in regards to PS5s shutting down abruptly even when put in rest mode, but apparently it's the result of router interference specifically regarding the Google Nest and its WiFi tech and Sony already stated they're looking into that

I haven't heard much in the way of Xbox hardware faults and hopefully it's a similar story with PS5