BluRayHiDef
Banned
I know that Xbox and PlayStation are brands of large, multi-billion dollar corporations that don't need our sympathy. However, I have personal feelings about these brands because I enjoy video gaming.
I see PlayStation as this great brand that has a leg-up on the competition due to launching one generation earlier and subsequently establishing a great reputation earlier. Hence, it has a very loyal consumer base, which it has made increasingly more loyal and more numerous due to its widespread support by unprecedented multitudes of developers (e.g. PS1 and PS2), its consistent release of incredible triple-A experiences, and its introduction of new media formats.
On the other hand, I see Xbox as an innovative brand that has revolutionized console gaming due to its introduction of online multi-player, the X86 CPU architecture, hard disk drives, and unparalleled raw power. However, despite this, Xbox has come in second place to PlayStation in all three generations that it's existed due to the following:
1. Lack of appeal by the original Xbox to consumers outside of the West due to most games catering to only American gamers and due to an unaesthetic, bulky design.
2. Hardware issues of the Xbox 360 (Red Ring of Death) and lackluster support during the later years of its lifespan.
3. A small variety of brand-exclusive triple-A IPs (e.g. Halo, Gears of War, Fable, etc).
4. Poor business decisions, namely minimizing the budget for Xbox One's core components in order to make the mandatory bundle of it and the Kinect affordable, which resulted in the console being embarrasingly weak.
Now, with the impending arrival of Xbox Series X, it looks like Xbox is still suffering as a brand due to two game shows that have been, quite frankly, terrible. Both the one that was streamed back in June and the one that was streamed today (July 23rd) consisted primarily of indie-quality games and pre-rendered trailers that were either completely out of engine or in-engine but not running on the Xbox Series X in real time (e.g. Hellblade II, Forza).
In regard to the one triple-A title from which gameplay was shown, Halo Infinite, the graphics do not look like anything that cannot be rendered on the Xbox One X, the level design and gameplay look identical to what has been featured in previous games (small maps sparsely featuring trees and shrubs through which you run, jump, deploy shields, and shoot), and the physics and animation are dated by even current-gen standards.
None of the games that were shown demonstrated the whopping 12 teraflops of power that the Xbox Series X possesses, which I firmly believe makes the machine capable of running far better looking games.
There were a couple of gems, namely Bright Memory Infinite and Hello Neighbors 2. Bright Memory Infinite has great physics (e.g. wind simulation, cloth physics) and Hello Neighbor 2 has a high frame rate and great physics too (e.g. wind simulation and collision effects). Additionally, I think that both, particularly Hello Neighbors 2, have ray tracing. However, these are only two games.
Essentially, Microsoft has failed to prove to consumers that the 12 teraflops of performance that the Xbox Series X possesses matters.
Honestly, Sony's game show for the PlayStation 5 was better; the show featured actual gameplay from games that genuinely looked next-gen, particularly in terms of ray tracing, asset quality, or asset streaming: Ratchet and Clank, Grand Turismo 7, Resident Evil 8, Demon's Souls, and Pragmata, though admittedly the heavy hitters were just pre-rendered cinematics (e.g. Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Horizon Forbidden West). This is ironic, because the PlayStation 5 has lower specs than the Xbox Series X, yet we have seen more games running on the former with ray tracing, next-gen level asset quality, and next-gen level asset streaming (e.g. Ratchet and Clank).
Considering all of the power that the Xbox Series X possesses, I think that it deserves to be better marketed. I feel sorry for the machine, and it hasn't even been released yet.
I see PlayStation as this great brand that has a leg-up on the competition due to launching one generation earlier and subsequently establishing a great reputation earlier. Hence, it has a very loyal consumer base, which it has made increasingly more loyal and more numerous due to its widespread support by unprecedented multitudes of developers (e.g. PS1 and PS2), its consistent release of incredible triple-A experiences, and its introduction of new media formats.
On the other hand, I see Xbox as an innovative brand that has revolutionized console gaming due to its introduction of online multi-player, the X86 CPU architecture, hard disk drives, and unparalleled raw power. However, despite this, Xbox has come in second place to PlayStation in all three generations that it's existed due to the following:
1. Lack of appeal by the original Xbox to consumers outside of the West due to most games catering to only American gamers and due to an unaesthetic, bulky design.
2. Hardware issues of the Xbox 360 (Red Ring of Death) and lackluster support during the later years of its lifespan.
3. A small variety of brand-exclusive triple-A IPs (e.g. Halo, Gears of War, Fable, etc).
4. Poor business decisions, namely minimizing the budget for Xbox One's core components in order to make the mandatory bundle of it and the Kinect affordable, which resulted in the console being embarrasingly weak.
Now, with the impending arrival of Xbox Series X, it looks like Xbox is still suffering as a brand due to two game shows that have been, quite frankly, terrible. Both the one that was streamed back in June and the one that was streamed today (July 23rd) consisted primarily of indie-quality games and pre-rendered trailers that were either completely out of engine or in-engine but not running on the Xbox Series X in real time (e.g. Hellblade II, Forza).
In regard to the one triple-A title from which gameplay was shown, Halo Infinite, the graphics do not look like anything that cannot be rendered on the Xbox One X, the level design and gameplay look identical to what has been featured in previous games (small maps sparsely featuring trees and shrubs through which you run, jump, deploy shields, and shoot), and the physics and animation are dated by even current-gen standards.
None of the games that were shown demonstrated the whopping 12 teraflops of power that the Xbox Series X possesses, which I firmly believe makes the machine capable of running far better looking games.
There were a couple of gems, namely Bright Memory Infinite and Hello Neighbors 2. Bright Memory Infinite has great physics (e.g. wind simulation, cloth physics) and Hello Neighbor 2 has a high frame rate and great physics too (e.g. wind simulation and collision effects). Additionally, I think that both, particularly Hello Neighbors 2, have ray tracing. However, these are only two games.
Essentially, Microsoft has failed to prove to consumers that the 12 teraflops of performance that the Xbox Series X possesses matters.
Honestly, Sony's game show for the PlayStation 5 was better; the show featured actual gameplay from games that genuinely looked next-gen, particularly in terms of ray tracing, asset quality, or asset streaming: Ratchet and Clank, Grand Turismo 7, Resident Evil 8, Demon's Souls, and Pragmata, though admittedly the heavy hitters were just pre-rendered cinematics (e.g. Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Horizon Forbidden West). This is ironic, because the PlayStation 5 has lower specs than the Xbox Series X, yet we have seen more games running on the former with ray tracing, next-gen level asset quality, and next-gen level asset streaming (e.g. Ratchet and Clank).
Considering all of the power that the Xbox Series X possesses, I think that it deserves to be better marketed. I feel sorry for the machine, and it hasn't even been released yet.
