Last couple of months has been specially good for me in terms of work, and that left me with some cash to spare I wouldn't otherwise have considered spending, so I decided to go ahead and get one of those cheap Series S.
The thing is, my reasons to get the console are, as I have come to realize, very peculiar and unlike the reasons why most people probably buy a console nowadays. What I wanted to have here was:
- A thing where I could easily access all the stuff I bought in the 360 days. Games like Virtual-On, Perfect Dark HD, Lost Odyssey, Kameo, Ikaruga, Banjo & Kazooie and the rest of those XBLA niche releases.
- A place where I could still purchase some of the stuff I missed from those times, like **RayStorm HD, Geometry Wars, The Darkness, Condemned, Radiant Silvergun** and a bunch of other games from those days.
- Most crucially, a way to access most of the games that interested me from the first XBOX, which I didn't own at the time. Stuff like: **Phantom Dust, Gunvalkyrie, Breakdown, Otogi, Blinx, Panzer Dragoon Orta** and a bunch of other things of which the only one crucially missing is **Jet Set Radio Future**.
Having a somewhat easily portable box where I could take advantage of the gamepass I already I'm paying for on PC, which is the main reason I could imagine people would want to get this device is also nice, but kind of a footnote in terms of my personal preferences here. This has left me with a number of realizations. First one is how weird it feels that the reason to having finally broken into the next generation of consoles is... having a convenient place to play all the weird ass games I've come to love since I stopped caring as much about being on top of the videogame discourse and all the newest releases. Second is having good backwards compatibility as the main reason to make that jump. And with the console already running, how meaningful the effort on Microsoft part feels in terms of still providing spotlight to all those older games from the backwards compatibility catalog (there is for example a bunch of games like DARK VOID or the already mentioned Condemned featured in the current Halloween sale, with no meaningful distinction or barrier separating those from all the hottest new releases).
It's actually... kind of a nice thing? That in the middle of some of the worst times in terms of capitalism defining the whole culture and the course of this industry, this is an experience that you can have. Probably not intentional and perhaps somewhat of an accident that this console caters to my hyper-fixations and niche interests, and at a price point that seems extremely reasonable (it cost me 220€ here in the Canaries) for what's being offered, but hey, you know what? I think I'll take it anyway!
I‘ve actually been thinking about pulling one of those new Xboxes for the exact same reasons! Right down to the footnote of “oh yeah, I guess gamepass is nice too.” My problem is that I’ve been sitting and saving and waiting for the right time for a Series X, for the reasons you mentioned of backwards compatibility - to me that means requiring disks. You‘ve got an S though - are that many old, actually-interesting games really just available digitally? That’s a pretty great deal if it's true
@“Funbil”#p89251 I did a bit of research prior to buying it because I had the same doubts. All the games I mentioned are available digitally, yeah, and speaking specifically of the original Xbox it‘s a big deal because I’d imagine trying to get a physical copy of games like Orta or Otogi would eat the whole budget for the console.
There is a neat [link to explore what's exactly available digitally](https://www.xbox.com/en-us/games/backward-compatibility?cat=xboxOG), and the prices range from 10$ to 20$, which is extremely affordable (also with a fair amount of deals and sales going on, as I explained with the Halloween thing they have going on right now).
@“JoJoestar”#p89254 Wow!! This is a robust catalogue. I guess I‘m used to Nintendo and Sony nickel-and-diming me for the distinguished opportunity of playing a heavily-curated selection of their most obvious, popular, boring titles that they haven’t let me stop thinking about since before I was even born. Nice to see Microsoft's Game Passian generosity layover to their legacy titles as well.
When I bought my PS5, I got a 2TB external HDD for PS4 games and a PS5 is the best way to play PS4 games. I never got an external for my PS4 but using it on my PS5 gives me access to a large collection of digital games (purchased and from PS+) that I can just hop between in seconds without getting out of my seat and some of the load faster/run better. Not exactly a ringing endorsement that the best reason to buy a PS5 is to play PS4 games but whatevs.
Honestly backwards compatibility is maybe 85% of what I actually use my Xbox Series X for. Love that box to pieces, hope Microsoft never ever stops caring about backwards compatibility.
I bought my PS5 to play “exclusives” which as an idea has seemingly started to deteriorate during this generation of consoles, which is actually a good thing I think…
Aside from Demon's Souls and GT7, it's not gotten a ton of use for gaming since November of 2020, but rather it gets used a lot for watching blurays/4K UHD blurays...I learned after getting it that it does NOT support Dolby Vision. I've considered upgrading to a standalone 4K UHD bluray player, but then what would my PS5 end up doing?
Yeah… wrt the PS5 we have experienced the lack of substance here on the forums in first person. That‘s a console I’m finding very hard to be excited about, it only really makes sense if you are extremely into prestige western AAA, and quite honestly, with most of the biggest games (Horizon, GT7, GoW) being cross-gen, it‘s more about having the best performance on that specific subset of games. With also some of those games slowly leaking to PC and their 20€ increase on the price of their games I really don’t know what's their strategy or proposition for this gen, honestly.
@“KingTubb”#p89260 it sure is nice having a library at your fingertips! Made me play stuff I wouldn't normally have done as well. Might as well download and try a bunch of stuff they give you “”“free”“”
I‘ve been playing my PS5 since around March this year and the only PS5 exclusive game that I’ve played on it is Astro‘s Playroom which is a fun time in as much as it’s a Bowser's Fury-like, condensed experience with most of the fat trimmed from it.
I've played a bunch of PS5 versions of multiplatform games and only in a few cases did I find it worth it. My understanding is that Soul Hackers 2, aside from PC, only runs well on PS5, and I think I had a better experience playing Scarlet Nexus, Bright Memory Infinite, Kena, and Spidermans on the console over their PS4 versions. I also played Ys IX's PS4 version on the PS5 as I understand that it struggles in places on the PS4.
That said, I have a bunch of actual PS5 exclusives that I've either barely touched or not played at all; Returnal, Demon's Souls, and Ratchet are all waiting for me to put serious time into, and Final Fantasy 16 will probably be what I'd hope to call a must-have by that point.
Buying a PS5 just to have a more convenient place to play all your PS4 catalog makes sense, that SSD probably makes the experience silky smooth. In terms of just having access to multiplatform stuff is a valid move as well. One thing that is interesting with regards to PS5 is that I feel I‘m seeing a lot of “inertial” purchases here, for the lack of a better word, in terms of people being like "I got through this last gen with a PS4 so I guess I’ll get a PS5 and be done with it", which is interesting considering all the controversial moves like the price increses Sony has pushed this generation.
Anyway, here is a list of what I got so far (including old downloads + some new purchases), I'm pretty satisfied!
@“exodus”#p89417 I actually played a couple of hours at around the time I opened this thread in summer 2021! Couldn't get too far into it because I was at a borrowed PC, but when I reached the point where I realized they were going for this remix of moonlight sonata as their main track for the hub I was extremely vibing with it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cH692fquXds
I remember it clearly because it happened only a couple of days after since I decided to try the newest Shadow man remaster, another moody game that features moonlight sonata as a stylistic choice (in the intro). And then, annoyed at the lack of availability of that darned PC I went ahead and binged on Paradise Killer (shoutout to @Chopemon) on the Switch in like a day and a half. Very good string of bleak and wrinkly videogames 💀
@“tomjonjon”#p89574 I have both displays available and have noticed that the Series S struggles a bit at 4K, but only in current gen games. No issues playing 360 or original Xbox games (which was my primary use, as I explained).
Also, to anyone who had the platforms, feel free to throw arround recommendations for niche/interesting 360 stuff! I'm sure I missed a good deal of worthwhile games from the XBLA days and such.
@“tomjonjon”#p89574 I got an LG CX at around the same time as my PS5 and I'm super glad that I did. My old TV was totally fine but having games run at 4K or nearing 120fps is a fine experience.
@“tomjonjon”#p89574 I‘m one of those people who can’t really distinguish between UHD and 4K (I have a 4k tv but could have skipped paying the extra $$ it turns out). Maybe obvious advice, but make sure you have the visual acuity to enjoy 4K before you take the plunge