I own both Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 Disc Edition. Xbox Series X is my primary gaming console while the PlayStation 5 is for full exclusives only.
Thus far for Xbox Series X, I have played and completed Gears 5: Hivebusters expansion, Watch Dogs Legion, Immortals Fenyx Rising, Tom Clancy's The Division 2 base game and episodes, Tom Clancy's The Division 2: Warlords of New York expansion, Gears Tactics, Immortals Fenyx Rising: Myths of the Eastern Realm expansion, Outriders, Resident Evil VIII: Village and Tom Clancy's The Division 2: Season One. With the exception of Watch Dogs Legion, every game have played a smooth 60FPS with ultra fast loading times and best of all for me, no controller gimmicks which im not a fan of and I don't care who implements it as all that crap get turned off at the console level.
Have been super thrilled with the Xbox Series X and this is without using Quick Resume, FPS Boost, Auto HDR or playing Backwards Compatible games. Knowing that all of these features are present for me to use if I so choose is a great feeling because even if I don't ever use of any it this entire generation, just knowing that these features are available to me is excellent because it shows the dedication from Microsoft in preserving their past history with Xbox and making those old games better than ever before. Best of all, I do have a few older games that I want to play - Dishonored 2 and Dishonored: Death of the Outsider but im waiting for the current generation upgrade and/or FPS Boost for Dishonored 2. DOTO received a FPS boost so im hoping that Dishonored 2 receives the same eventually. Add in that they're currently testing Dolby Vision to where that may be an "auto" feature to see how that works with games that don't have Dolby Vision. Plus, there's a great chance that they may also add Resolution Boost at some point as well. So features wise, im super satisfied and looking forward to the future.
Despite playing several games to completion, I still have Assassin's Creed Valhalla base game and Wrath of the Druids expansion as well as Cyberpunk 2077 (waiting for the current generation upgrade) in my backlog and just bought Mass Effect Legendary Edition today which is a brand new game for me as I never played any of them. Next week is BioMutant and for June/July, I currently have Necromunda: Hired Gun that im interested in and The Ascent which im very much looking forward to playing.
Controller wise, it's not perfect but I easily prefer it over the PS5 controller but I do wish it was the same size as Xbox One because it would fit my hands better but no biggie as im already used to it. The directional pad is too "clicky" and I liked the directional pad layout on Xbox One better. Overall though, it's a better version of the Xbox One controller due to the Share Button and better latency. Best of all for me, no gimmicks. Turned off vibration at the console level and it's great.
Exclusives wise, it's pretty much non-existent. Gears Tactics was a great 8.0/10 but I prefer Mutant Year Zero and Kingdom Battle more. The Ascent is looking like a great action RPG twin stick shooter set in a cyberpunk universe which yeah, im hyped for!!! Halo Infinite will be later this year and im also expecting to have Wolfenstein III which would give me an overall great year for exclusives despite the first 8 months only really having Gears Tactics for me.
Then of course, we get to Game Pass. Exclusives day one and third party games day one is huge for me because I no longer have to buy any of these games. Between Gears Tactics, The Ascent, Halo Infinite and Wolfenstein III, im going to end up saving $170 total and that's just from the first year. I'm expecting to have at least 20 first party exclusives in which I will save $1000 over the duration of this generation which doesn't third party exclusives like The Ascent or third party multi-platform games being day one on Game Pass.
Overall for me, Xbox Series X is an easy 9.0/10 especially since I own an LG CX OLED which goes perfectly with the console. I can understand people on both sides bashing Xbox Series X/S for not having exclusives at launch outside of Gears Tactics but at the same time, I have never had an amazing launch full of exclusives that I actually purchased and wanted to played. Xbox One had the better launch lineup but how did that work out? In fact, last generation for both PS4 and XBO, I had five games that were no better than a 7.0/10 (Ryse, Dead Rising 3, Infamous First Light, The Order and Until Dawn) and one game that was a 6.5/10 (Knack).
I personally didn't get an 8+ game until Quantum Break and Gears 4 along with Alienation, Uncharted 4 and Ratchet & Clank in 2016. That was over 29 months after launch. So if I get Halo Infinite and Wolfenstein III later this year (along with The Ascent and 2020's Gears Tactics), it's already surpassed the first 29 months of PS4/XBO for me by far. It's not even close. Best of all, 2022 will be better than 2015 which in turns kills those first 29 months of PS4/XBO to where they don't even exist.
Now, on to PlayStation 5. This will be a lot shorter. Starting the system up, I can admit that you do get that "next gen" feeling when you first see and hear the UI/dashboard but once you start to navigate it, my goodness, why did they change it? PS4 Pro was near perfect. It looks better than Xbox Series X due to 4K/HDR but the actual layout is worse and overall, it's the music that when starting up the console gets you hyped. Turn off the music, the hype is simply gone and non-existent. But on the positive side, I have maybe spent 5 minutes total on the PS5 UI/dashboard so in the grand scheme of thing, no biggie and the novelty of it is gone anyway.
Controller wise, I wasn't a fan of the Touch Pad (I see it as nothing more than an oversized world map button) on the PS4. I hated it. Still do and perhaps even more so now because I was hoping they would eliminate it but instead, Sony made it slightly bigger. UGH. The size and weight of the PS5 controller is good though. I'm pretty sure that the PS5 controller is bigger than the XSX controller which I do prefer because it fits my hands better. However, that's where the praise ends. I'm not a fan of haptic feedback/vibration and turned this shit off immediately at the console level. The adaptive triggers were also turned off yet while playing Miles Morales, it's almost as if the game doesn't register it being turned off. So many times, I would press the L2 or R2 button and it wouldn't do what I wanted it to do. Absolutely hate this gimmick. I just want the controller to be a standard basic controller that simply works, has low latency and as little input lag as possible. That's all I care about. Based on Miles, despite having the Adaptive Triggers turned off, im expecting this to be an issue in every PS5 exclusive that I play because despite being turned off, the console isn't registering it and thus, still acts as if you have it turned on. Pressing the trigger(s) halfway to do one thing and then all the way for another is stupid to me because who does that? I have never pressed a trigger or probably any button halfway. Just don't like this at all. Hope these gimmicks die out very quickly as I will be very happy then.
On to the only aspect of PlayStation 5 that I care about which is the full exclusives. In general, they had the better launch lineup, no argument there. However, two of the three Sony published titles (Demon's Souls and Sackboy) were of no interest to me. I know Demon's Souls is a great game but I have zero interest in Souls type games and while Sackboy is easily better than Knack, why would I play that when I can just wait for Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart? I don't need two platformers unless they're top tier.
The one exclusive that I did play and complete was Spider Man: Miles Morales. Great 8.5/10 overall but the optional side content is equally bad if not worse than 2018 Spider Man and the story/characters while great and enjoyable, was too short. If I remember correctly, there was only 17 story campaign missions. Would have liked the story to be longer and the characters dived into more and in exchange, eliminate some of the optional side content completely. Also, I didn't like that you couldn't max out the gadgets unless you played New Game+. Screw that, im not doing that. SMH. Visuals were super, audio was great and combat/gameplay was excellent. An overall great game and im very much looking forward to Spider Man 2.
Not going to even mention Godfall or Destruction All Stars because both fucking suck, plain and simple. The Medium isn't worth talking about either. Moving on....
Returnal. Not into rogue like games at all. Not for me. I love Housemarque and I know the game itself is in the 8-8.5 range because they're a great development studio but again, game just isn't what I would have preferred it to be. If it was a straight forward "Sony type game" then it would have been day one but it's not so it wasn't. With that said, if Housemarque patches in an optional save system where if you die on world 5, you start at the beginning of world 5 with your weapons and whatnot intact, then I will definitely buy it but anything of this, and just nope.
Let me get to as of now, the main event which is Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. Hell yeah!!! Day one!!! Already pre-ordered and paid in full. My biggest complaint and issue is the release date...it's the day before E3 starts, damn it!!! But at least I will be on an 11 day vacation so it's okay. Hehehe. This is the second best looking current generation game that I have seen (Black Myth Wukong is first) and the variety, depth, combat, gameplay, visuals, just freaking everything looks amazing!!!
So overall, after Miles Morales, an 8.5/10. After Ratchet, should be an excellent 9.0/10.
However, I must decrease the rating at least a half point, maybe a full point for one other reason - they cancelled my #1 most anticipated sequel in Days Gone 2. I'm NOT happy about that. So basically, im looking at an 8-8.5 after Ratchet. UGH.
Conclusion: Since the SNES/GEN generation, I have owned between 2 and 4 consoles in each and every generation and this generation is no exception as owning both is the best of both worlds and I don't care about PC gaming or Nintendo. Super hyped that I chose Xbox Series X to be my primary gaming console because I easily prefer it over PlayStation 5 but I know Sony has great exclusives that I will play day one so that's a great secondary console for me.
Going forward........tomorrow, it's time for Mass Effect Legendary Edition followed by BioMutant next week on Xbox Series X and then during E3 week, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart for PlayStation 5!!! HYPED!!!!!!!!!