I've not been a big gamer as an adult, I did love my megadrive, amiga and PC games when I was a kid and in particular the GTA series. I did also buy some consoles - PS2 (mostly for GTA San Andreas) and PS3 (again for GTAIV) and at the time I owned them I mostly bought just a few Rockstar Games - Bully on the PS2, RDR on the PS3 etc.
I've recently been trying some retro gaming inc some old Nintendo stuff and buying a cheap PS2 games from CEX, I've started grabbing a few PS3 games too but it's occurred to me that for this era I'm perhaps missing a trick as, aside from PS exclusives the Xbox one X or the Series X would seem to be optimal. I'm reluctant to get a Series X as I could probably play anything current gen on my PC at say 1440p... but I'm very behind on games anyway - have only just bought the Last of Us for PS3 for example! I will likely buy a PS5 Pro at some point rendering a PS4 Pro largely pointless so... reasons in favour an XBox One X:
- cheaper than PS4 Pro (which will also be redundant if I get a PS5 Pro too)
- WAG friendly - sits more inconspicuously under TV
- has a 4k Blu Ray player - fewer devices required in living room
- backwards compatible
- actually enhances some 360 games too
- can play current gen stuff via cloud gaming too I understand?
Those last two points seem quite relevant to my recent interest in popping into CEX, finding some awesome games from a few years ago that I've never paid and paying just a few quid for them! Aside from PS3 exclusives it seems that games from that era will be better on an XBox One X.
In the era of 4k TVs the PS3 and 360's typical 720p output arguably scales better than the FullHD (1080p) era as it's a 3* integer scale to 4k (2160p) - even if the scaling method isn't strictly integer scaling.
Back in the FullHD era the PS3 could be set to 1080p (and scale internally with a decent-ish scaler) or be left for the TV to handle... not ideal - but these days with a 4k set then 720p or 1080p is a 3* or 2* (respectively) scale horizontally and vertically - so our current TVs are pretty good for trying these games...
... but the XBox One X is way more powerful - so running games on that should be better by default (whereas the PS4 can't run PS3 games) and there's the enhancements - some 360 games got improved for the XBox One and can render at a higher res and output at 4k.
And lastly - games like RDR and GTAIV didn't actually render at even 720p back on the PS3, AFAIK GTAIV was like 640p or something and then used the internal scaler to get to 720p (so an already soft game could look like dog **** at 4k) whereas the 360 version was 720p and apparently has enhancements for the XBox One X to output at 4k resolution. So if I want to re-play RDR or GTAIV on a modern TV I'm better off getting the 360 versions and ditto to if I want to try any of these from the 360 era:
en.wikipedia.org
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In conclusion - though I will probably get a PS5, I think perhaps, if I am going to try one XBox, I should get an XBox One X and by default buy the 360 versions rather than PS3 versions of any games from that era + potentially some XBox One era games too (albeit I'd maybe look to get some as PS4 versions for the PS5 when I get that far in my gaming journey) - still quite far behind in terms of gaming eras.
Any comments welcome if I've missed any key points here - I guess I can't go too wrong here, it's only £70 or so for a second hand console + a bit more for controllers - should I opt for current gen xbox controllers or even one of the fancier elite ones?
I've recently been trying some retro gaming inc some old Nintendo stuff and buying a cheap PS2 games from CEX, I've started grabbing a few PS3 games too but it's occurred to me that for this era I'm perhaps missing a trick as, aside from PS exclusives the Xbox one X or the Series X would seem to be optimal. I'm reluctant to get a Series X as I could probably play anything current gen on my PC at say 1440p... but I'm very behind on games anyway - have only just bought the Last of Us for PS3 for example! I will likely buy a PS5 Pro at some point rendering a PS4 Pro largely pointless so... reasons in favour an XBox One X:
- cheaper than PS4 Pro (which will also be redundant if I get a PS5 Pro too)
- WAG friendly - sits more inconspicuously under TV
- has a 4k Blu Ray player - fewer devices required in living room
- backwards compatible
- actually enhances some 360 games too
- can play current gen stuff via cloud gaming too I understand?
Those last two points seem quite relevant to my recent interest in popping into CEX, finding some awesome games from a few years ago that I've never paid and paying just a few quid for them! Aside from PS3 exclusives it seems that games from that era will be better on an XBox One X.
In the era of 4k TVs the PS3 and 360's typical 720p output arguably scales better than the FullHD (1080p) era as it's a 3* integer scale to 4k (2160p) - even if the scaling method isn't strictly integer scaling.
Back in the FullHD era the PS3 could be set to 1080p (and scale internally with a decent-ish scaler) or be left for the TV to handle... not ideal - but these days with a 4k set then 720p or 1080p is a 3* or 2* (respectively) scale horizontally and vertically - so our current TVs are pretty good for trying these games...
... but the XBox One X is way more powerful - so running games on that should be better by default (whereas the PS4 can't run PS3 games) and there's the enhancements - some 360 games got improved for the XBox One and can render at a higher res and output at 4k.
And lastly - games like RDR and GTAIV didn't actually render at even 720p back on the PS3, AFAIK GTAIV was like 640p or something and then used the internal scaler to get to 720p (so an already soft game could look like dog **** at 4k) whereas the 360 version was 720p and apparently has enhancements for the XBox One X to output at 4k resolution. So if I want to re-play RDR or GTAIV on a modern TV I'm better off getting the 360 versions and ditto to if I want to try any of these from the 360 era:
List of Xbox One X enhanced games - Wikipedia
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In conclusion - though I will probably get a PS5, I think perhaps, if I am going to try one XBox, I should get an XBox One X and by default buy the 360 versions rather than PS3 versions of any games from that era + potentially some XBox One era games too (albeit I'd maybe look to get some as PS4 versions for the PS5 when I get that far in my gaming journey) - still quite far behind in terms of gaming eras.
Any comments welcome if I've missed any key points here - I guess I can't go too wrong here, it's only £70 or so for a second hand console + a bit more for controllers - should I opt for current gen xbox controllers or even one of the fancier elite ones?
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