Console noob seeks advice, especially about controllers.

[Angilion]

The ludicrous price of gaming PC hardware is leading me towards buying a console instead of upgrading my gaming PC. I'd feel too much of a mug if I spent £1500 building a low-midrange gaming PC when a £450 console would probably do well enough. I'd prefer to continue gaming on PC, but I'm very far from convinced that the benefits of doing so (while real and valuable) are worth that much difference in hardware cost.

The last consoles I owned were a Megadrive and a SNES. I'm a little behind the curve on consoles

I'd probably continue using my 2560x1440 monitor. A quick look around online tells me that an xbox series x supports that res and a PS5 doesn't. Is that right?

Console subscription costs are only for online multiplayer, right? I'm used to PC gaming, where such things are free. But I don't do online multiplayer, so if console subscription costs are only for that it's not an issue for me. Although I might be making an exception for TDU3 if that lives up to TDU2.

The big sticking point is the input devices. Using an xbox 360 controller on my PC (for casual racing games, the only type of game where a controller is a better input device than keyboard and mouse) caused permanent damage to my right thumb. I'm loath to make that damage worse. Are there alternatives? Something that places less strain on thumbs than a standard controller? I don't care about portability - I'd be continuing to play at my desk anyway.

 

[KraniX]

The ludicrous price of gaming PC hardware is leading me towards buying a console instead of upgrading my gaming PC. I'd feel too much of a mug if I spent £1500 building a low-midrange gaming PC when a £450 console would probably do well enough. I'd prefer to continue gaming on PC, but I'm very far from convinced that the benefits of doing so (while real and valuable) are worth that much difference in hardware cost.

The last consoles I owned were a Megadrive and a SNES. I'm a little behind the curve on consoles

I'd probably continue using my 2560x1440 monitor. A quick look around online tells me that an xbox series x supports that res and a PS5 doesn't. Is that right?

Console subscription costs are only for online multiplayer, right? I'm used to PC gaming, where such things are free. But I don't do online multiplayer, so if console subscription costs are only for that it's not an issue for me. Although I might be making an exception for TDU3 if that lives up to TDU2.

The big sticking point is the input devices. Using an xbox 360 controller on my PC (for casual racing games, the only type of game where a controller is a better input device than keyboard and mouse) caused permanent damage to my right thumb. I'm loath to make that damage worse. Are there alternatives? Something that places less strain on thumbs than a standard controller? I don't care about portability - I'd be continuing to play at my desk anyway.

Yes the Series X supports 1440.

Besides online multiplayer, you get access to a couple of games per month, but these vary in quality, personally the games with gold on Xbox have been pretty awful for a long time.

You used to need Gold to play free games like Destiny but think this has changed now.

Cloud saves on Xbox are free and not tied to a sub, unlike Nintendo and Sony.

Gamepass on the other hand is fantastic, a huge library of quality games and anything new from MS studios on day one. It can be expensive but you can buy Gold and upgrade it to Gamepass for £1, for up to 3 years, there's a whole thread on this.

You can use keyboard and mouse for a lot of titles - https://www.purexbox.com/guides/games-with-mouse-and-keyboard-support-on-xbox-one-series-x-series-s

For driving games I'd say a wheel is the way to go, especially with your thumb issue.

 

[Angilion]

Yes the Series X supports 1440.

Besides online multiplayer, you get access to a couple of games per month, but these vary in quality, personally the games with gold on Xbox have been pretty awful for a long time.

You used to need Gold to play free games like Destiny but think this has changed now.

Cloud saves on Xbox are free and not tied to a sub, unlike Nintendo and Sony.

Gamepass on the other hand is fantastic, a huge library of quality games and anything new from MS studios on day one. It can be expensive but you can buy Gold and upgrade it to Gamepass for £1, for up to 3 years, there's a whole thread on this.

You can use keyboard and mouse for a lot of titles - https://www.purexbox.com/guides/games-with-mouse-and-keyboard-support-on-xbox-one-series-x-series-s

For driving games I'd say a wheel is the way to go, especially with your thumb issue.

Thanks for the response. Looks like I was right in thinking that xbox series X would be a better fit for me than PS5.

I wouldn't call a few dozen games with some degree of KBM support "a lot of titles", so it's still a major issue for me.

I don't play racing games at all seriously, so a wheel is overkill. I had one a while back for my PC and for me it just wasn't worth the faff of buying or building a movable frame that would allow me to swing wheel and pedals in and out of position as required. Leaving them in a usable position meant that they were uselessly in the way almost all of the time. I'd do it if I was at all serious about racing games, but I'm not. I mentioned racing games because they were the reason why I was using a controller at all. I wish I hadn't. I miss having pain free full use of both my thumbs.

 

[Lobovski]

I believe a xim apex would be ideal in your situation but is generally frowned upon for multiplayer

 

[theone8181]

I'm interested about your thumb, especially as both ps5 and xbox have the right analog stick in a very similar place. I agree about mouse and keyboard on anything driving is poor, I'd also add flying to the list to. When playing Battlefield games I'd switch to controller when flying and mouse/keyboard when walking.

 

[Angilion]

I believe a xim apex would be ideal in your situation but is generally frowned upon for multiplayer

That does look like a viable solution. Thank you. I had no idea that product existed. I'll look into it in some more detail tomorrow. Too tired now after working 1130-2330. Being frowned upon for multiplayer shouldn't be a problem for me as I don't play multiplayer games anyway.

I'm interested about your thumb, especially as both ps5 and xbox have the right analog stick in a very similar place.

Not very interesting. Controllers are all about thumbs, excessive use of thumbs (especially in frequent precise movements) causes damage. Very heavy gamers using controllers can hit the problem even in their teens. I'm over 50, so I hit the problem much faster and I recovered from it rather less well.

I agree about mouse and keyboard on anything driving is poor, I'd also add flying to the list to. When playing Battlefield games I'd switch to controller when flying and mouse/keyboard when walking.

I have a HOTAS setup for flying games. The input device situation with flying games is similar to driving games - a controller is generally better than a keyboard for that type of game, but an input device specifically designed for that type of game is much better than anything else once you get used to it.

 

[Relentless81]

I have done exactly this back in February and no regrets so far, using a 1440p monitor no issues what so ever every game I've played works perfect

I haven't tried a keyboard and mouse yet but might do for Halo multiplayer but the thumb issue might be a problem

Gamepass was a game changer for me, pun intended I used to be stuck in a loop playing the same FPS stuff on PC but now I play all sorts of games I wouldn't have before, yes Gamepass is on PC but I never bothered getting into it because I was heavily invested in Steam and FPS games

Also on a console everything just works flawlessly, there's no messing and if you have limited time like me you can just play games instead of messing around with temps and wondering why games arnt running right or what settings to use