So I'm a millennial (35 years old), and I have the following devices that I play games on (in order of most gaming prestige to least):
Xbox Series X
Steam Deck
Lenovo Thinkpad T480
Macbook Pro M1
I can tell you right now I am struggling to find a reason to play games on my XSX. On my Steam Deck/Thinkpad? I have a massive library of games, from old and new.
One of the biggest mistakes that this generation of gaming has done is do lots of remasters of old games - now I have my Steam Deck with all these old titles, I wonder in most cases why I'm paying so much money for such little return (my personal feeling is that the Resident Evil franchise is the only exception to this - the PS1/PS2 games, if they were ported onto PC, had horrible controls and lacklustre saving mechanisms. The remasters solve this as well as enhanced graphics).
Furthermore, the biggest selling point for me with the XSX was the backwards compatibility of old games like GTA IV and RDR. RDR aside, most of these games have made their way onto PC with a controller scheme that is fully compatible with any modern controller, let alone the Steam Deck.
It's quite funny how my XSX in recent times has been used more as a TV streaming device until I upgraded my TV, which has the smart apps on the TV, so I don't need the XSX any more.
I have strongly considered selling my XSX, but honestly GTA VI is the only thing that's keeping the XSX in my living room. I am awfully tempted to pack it up and put it in the loft until GTA VI comes out - that is how little I care about the console. Over the weekend I went to my brother's and played on his PS5 - apart from the triggers, I couldn't immediately find the selling point, nor could I convince myself to shell out up to £500 on a console where the only game I would be interested in playing is God of War Ragnarok and/or Uncharted franchise.
This console generation by both companies has been exceptionally weak. It's kind of funny that I sold my Nintendo Switch for the Steam Deck, but I've found owning a Switch to be far more compelling and memorable than owning any of the modern games consoles; Super Mario Oddysey was great, even if it was a little too hard for me, and BOTW was actually a little fun, but I really had to tap out after a few hours in. Donky Kong Tropical Freeze was just absolutely incredible and stellar. I can't tell you any first party game I've enjoyed on XSX outside of Forza Horizon 5, but even then, FH5 was effectively a reskin of FH4).
Oh, and I don't think it needs to be said, but the Macbook is not very good as a gaming machine. It's OK for small indie titles, but unless Apple gets its finger out (it never will unless gaming makes them gangbusters for very little money - not very likely in long term), the Macbook/iPhone/iPad/Apple TV will always be a second class citizen to even the crappiest PC.
XSX is good for free gamepass via farming MS rewards points. That’s basically all I use mine for. I don’t think I’d use it much at all if it wasn’t for gamepass. Probably helps that I’ve never had an Xbox before and theres a huge back catalog of games I missed that I now have access to.
I'd say I use my xbone and pc equally, however it isn't my Xbox I'm looking to upgrade this year, since I don't really see a reason to. Any game I want I can get on my new laptop, or I can play an older version of with backwards compatibility or game pass.
I'm okay with not playing exclusives for Playstation, since I'm not completely changing my gaming ecosystem to one that barely connects to pc gaming. Besides, they're releasing a ton on pc anyway, so I probably just have to wait slightly longer if I want to play one.
I got a switch for my wife and she plays that thing every day, never really seemed interested in the Xbox though. Even though she's playing minecraft either way. I think she likes the portability most.
As a fellow millennial, I completely skipped the last two generations. There was nothing compelling that I couldn't already play on my PC.
I've got a Switch, because Nintendo games. But yeah, consoles just seem like weak ass PCs with budget hardware. Why bother with that? I can just just lean back in my gaming space and game on my PC with a controller if I wanted the same experience.
It's the age old problem of high end gaming for the past 20-30 years .... too young to afford the best hardware/consoles ... too old to find the time to play on the best hardware/consoles
The demographics always have one or the other .... youth or time
- the younger you are, the less money you have but the more time you have
- the older you are, the more money you have but the less time you have
The only common denominator in both groups is investing in smartphones or a general PC ... if you don't have the money as a kid, you always have access to a phone ... if you are old and don't have time and don't want to invest in expensive hardware or specialty consoles you won't have time to play with, you just invest in cheaper smartphones or a general PC
I’d love to have a gaming PC, but honestly the price is way too high for what I want, and the PS5 will play all the games shown on the tin with no issue.
I know the PC form factor is better for all sorts of things, and you get better graphics, people say the price is cheaper, etc. But when I keep hearing that game devs aren’t giving any consideration for performance, so it sounds like you need a top build with lots of video ram to actually play modern games anyway.
The price for a mid to high tier PC in Canada seems to be 2.5-5x the price of a PS5, so I just don’t feel like I can justify the cost. Streaming with GForce Now makes the value proposition even worse for me, since it would take many many years for the streaming service to cost more than a gaming rig.
edit: I’m sure I’m wrong on the pricing thing, so if anyone can point me to a good place to buy a PC which doesn’t suck or have shitty parts mixed in with the headline ones, and has a simple way to buy the parts, I’ll happily take a look. I miss strategy games that suck on console or emulating in Wine.
Smartphones have one major benefit - you basically always have your phone with you. Even if the games are crappy, you always have the option to play. Emulation on Android also opens you up to decades of games to play.
The latency makes any sort of fast paced game difficult. I can play platformers or turn based strategy games, but something like Fortnite is unplayable.
It's really about the type of network connectivity between where you are playing and where the PC is.
Eg, I have my TV ethernet hookup to my PC. Typically, I get less than 15ms latency, and I think it's usually about 8ms added at 120fps. I'm comfortable using Sunshine/moonlight for any game on this setup, and I can't tell the difference between playing on the PC or via moonlight on the TV. Fortnite or any other type of FPS is totally playable. 15ms latency might matter to hardcore or competitive FPS, but it doesn't make any difference whatsoever to my crap reaction times or shitty skills.
Now I could also play that same FPS using moonlight on my phone while I'm overseas, on the train, using mobile data in a crowded area via a vpn across the internet to my home PC, and I'd expect that to be pretty bad.
If I played that same FPS at a friend's place across town, on moonlight on their PC that is ethernet connected to his router, with my PC running Sunshine as host, the lag is going to depend on how good the connection is between his house and my house. If he's on fiber, and I'm on fiber, and there's no traffic congestion, then it could be under 30ms. Which would be unnoticeable for all but the most extreme of game requirements.
Also, what you are running moonlight on matters. Different devices will decode streams faster or slower, which can add to latency.
I guess what I'm saying is that it's about the power of the device you are running Moonlight on, and the quality of it's connection to the Sunlight PC, more than the type of game.
Sounds like I'm in the minority, at least in this thread.
I'm console all the way. Currently own a XSX and PS5. My full time job is on a PC all day, and I'm not a fan of keyboard/mouse gaming.
Am I really in the minority here? I like to sit on the couch with a controller in front of a 65" big screen. Its just so comfy. Don't want to mess with a gaming rig setup. It's the convenience of the console I guess.
I use a game pad as much as I can for PC gaming to avoid RSI. Often I do "hybrid" gaming of mostly gamepad and grabbing my mouse when navigating menus or the keyboard to type.
While I do understand the sentiment that consoles are more convenient than PCs, there's nothing stopping you from using a PC as if it's a console. I game on PC 99% of the time, I almost never play with KB+M, and my PC is connected to my 55'' LG C2 in my living room right alongside my ps5. This obviously doesn't stop you from having to deal with dumb pc troubleshooting if you want to do one of the miriad of goofy ass things PCs can do with some technical know how on your part. But if you're just going to be buying modernish games on steam I don't think you're experience is going to be all that different from gaming on a console. It's just a different box running a different OS that isn't tightly controlled (from a storefront perspective) by Sony.
Plus you get the benefit of playing games from basically every generation of gaming on one box.
Yep... Steam Deck is kicking Xbox in the nuts and I'm feel fine with that... In fact, because of the Deck, I'm actually thinking of going Linux rather than upgrading to Windows 11.
You can always dual-boot, i.e. have both Windows and Linux... or multiple Linux installations, if you please.
Start with Linux Mint for greater stability and familiarity. Soon enough you'll learn that distributions are basically fancy pre-packaged collections and configurations of mostly the same applications (they're also called packaged), which should make choosing your distribution a bit easier. There are differences, of course, but you'll need a deeper knowledge and more of a nuanced list of requirements before it starts to matter much, so don't stress about comparing them and choosing "the best" for you - you'll always be able to switch the entire distribution or reconfigure your own to fit your specific needs surprisingly easily.
I really appreciate the suggestion. In fact I'm currently trying out Pop Os in an old laptop, before trying to explore dual booting in my newer laptop.
I will definitely look into Mint now.
Who says the Linux community is crappy to newbies? You are awesome thanks again.
Only reason I would have to justify newer console is the exclusive games and even then exclusive games are becoming less of a thing. At the very least that's what it feels like. The only exception are Sintendo, and they are about as pro-consumer as a cannibal in a morgue.
Just be patient. Idk about FF, but Spider-Man 2 is definitely coming to PC. Hell, there's already a leaked mostly playable version of the game available if you don't mind sailing the high seas and don't mind that it's like 200gb(it's like a dev build, lots of uncompressed stuff and extra files that would be removed from the release version).
I also love Final Fantasy. That's definitely coming to PC. We'll get there, friend!
I was a console guy for years. I got out of gaming for a long, long time and when I came back there was no more need for a console except for exclusives.
But it's kinda funny thing to say when Xbox doesn't have much good first party game released for the lifetime of the latest xb. And when the exec chasing the f2p whale they all failed miserably.
You wrote that post with a flat affect.
Sarcasm isn't hard to read, when it is actually written.
You needed to so something with capitalization, italics, /s, make a point that counteracts the part you are being sarcastic about, use the rule of three, use juxtaposition, or worst of all, use an emoji. I don't hate emoji just to hate them, it's just that they look different depending on the end-user's machine. This can make the feeling of the post feel drastically different.
Also remember that this is the internet. Think of the absolute dumbest thing you can think of, something that is very easily disprovable, and there will be true-believers of that thing. Earth is flat, NFTs are a good idea, and that Romana Didulo is the queen of Canada. All things that people actually believe.
I care about exclusives and officially or unofficially PC has had access to the most with Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. Might not get them all, but with the other console systems they don't get them at all usually.
There's a market for people who want a console as simple as a smartphone, but I don't have that need. And I already hook up my PC to the TV with a long hdmi cable, so couch gaming isn't a selling point of a console to me.
Windows simply needs a good console mode and we're there. Pre built market needs to mature the fuck up or steam console needs to be a thing again and we can be there now.
It genuinely needs to be even more streamlined.
As silly as that sounds, anything will be used as a discouragement, regardless if xbox/ps requires initial setup too.
I recently plugged my PC up to my TV so I could game on the couch. It works well, but I had some kinks to iron out. Big Picture Mode can play a bit of hell with multiple monitors, and I've sat down on the couch with a controller just to realize Steam wasn't the app in focus and had to go back to work the mouse enough times that I've got a wireless keyboard with trackpad on order. I also wrote a Powershell script to switch audio and display settings and bound it to a keyboard macro on my G910.
I'm happy with it now, but Steam Big Picture Mode is not quite plug 'n' play yet.