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The Last of Us

Read More The Last of Us As for The Last of Us, I'm in the middle of the game right now. It's hard. The clickers are impossible to kill, basically one attack will kill you right away. Having said that, the play style is a lot more fun than Beyond: Two Souls ....

The Last of Us
hbo.com

I love the video game The Last of Us, probably my personal Game of the Year in 2018 for the PS3. The game was so good, that I re-purchased it for the PS4. I probably would’ve have bought the PS5 version if it wasn’t so hard to find the Sony console. I kid, I saw one at a retail store, but am waiting for a “slim” or new version. I absolutely hate the look and massive size of the current PS5 console (I think it’s ugly).

I love the game, I know the story well, so I’m very interested in this HBO Max’s television show based on the game.

I just saw the pilot, and there are some sequences that are straight out of the video game. Of course, the show made some changes to the story, like adding more store to Joel’s daughter. It’s weird, but the show cast a girl that doesn’t look (or mix race?) anything like Joel. As for Ellie, they also cast the girl from Game of Thrones… and she doesn’t look anything like the girl in the game. Personally speaking, I would have preferred they casted someone who looked like Ellen Page. I get it, they cast people who can act, but it’s just my personal preference to have them look exactly like the characters in the game.

I think whenever they lifted the scenes from the game, I’m very happy. It’s when the show decides to change things or add stories and characters that has nothing to do with the game, that’s when I’m not interested. There’s enough from the game that I think the pilot does a good job in setting up the story.

As for the story, if you’ve never played the game, it’s about how this fungus destroyed the human race. It’s somewhat based on real life fungus that would take over ants and control them, like puppets. Anyway, this random girl, Ellie, may hold the key to saving humanity, and it’s up to Joel to transport her across the country. It’s a simple story, I don’t know if they can stretch it out to more than one or two seasons.

Here is my fear: I haven’t played the sequel to The Last of Us, but I’ve heard fans absolutely hated the game. According to these gamers, they made Joel into a bad guy and everybody revolted against it. So my fear is that fans will absolutely hate Season 2 or something. I don’t know, I haven’t played the second game, so I’m reserving judgement.

I am excited enough that I may re-buy The Last of Us for the PC when it is available on Steam (which I previously mentioned will be available Mar 3, 2023).

Update: Now that I’ve seen up to Episode 3 of The Last of Us, I thought I would share my opinion on what I’ve seen so far.

Of the three episodes, I think Episode 2 is by far the best. That’s because it’s so close to the game, that I’m really happy how it turned out.

I hated Episode 3, because it had nothing to do with Joel & Ellie. For whatever reasons, the show creators devoted a whole 70 minutes to two random characters Bill and Frank. Look, it’s a beautiful love story… but it didn’t really fit into the grand story! I wish HBO Max would have made this episode a “special”, I wouldn’t have an issue with it. Instead, I’m spending so much time with Bill & Frank, and it’s all for nothing! Maybe they could have cut the time in half and devote half the episode to Tess?

In the video game, you do meet one of these characters, but it’s a totally different story. In the game, the two hated each other.

Of course my opinion on Episode 3 is in the minority… as the whole world seemed to love this episode.

I’m hoping Episode 4 goes back on track and we can see those deadly fungus creatures and more action.

The show is doing so well that they’ve already announced a Season 2!

vu (vu@weheartmusic.com) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

Steam Winter Sale 2022

Read More Steam There’s no more waiting… You can now buy Steam Deck, right now, without reservation. According to steampowered, it’s been more than a year since it was first announced, but due to numerous supply chain issues and …

Here are three reasons why you would want to invest in buying games on Steam:

1. You can play your games on any PC or Linux… this includes my PC, laptop, and Steam Deck. If you buy your games on Xbox, PlayStation, or Switch, you’ve locked your games on their system.

2. All “Exclusive” games on the PlayStation and Xbox will eventually be available on Steam. This means the PC is the only place you can play both Halo and God of War. Note that Sony only decided to make their games available on Steam starting last year… which is the smartest decision they’ve ever made. Even exclusive games on the Switch can be played on your PC through emulation. It’s not legal, but it’s the only way you can play Nintendo games on your computer.

3. Games are dirt cheap, as evident in the Steam Winter Sale that kicked off today (December 22). You can get hundred of games for less than $3. On top of that, you can also get packages, like from Humble Bundle which will save you even more!

Anyway, this year, I’ve barely keep it under $100, but here are some games I would recommend:

The Witcher® 3: Wild Hunt - $7.99 (80% off)

DOOM Eternal - $9.99 (75% off)

Halo: The Master Chief Collection - $15.99 (60% off)

Horizon Zero Dawn™ Complete Edition - $16.49 (67% off)

God of War - $29.99 (40% off)

Elden Ring - $41.99 (30% off)

Yours,

- Weekend Gamer

Read more Weekend Gamer.

vu (vu@weheartmusic.com) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

Game of the Year: Elden Ring

Read More Elden Ring Yes, I’m finally playing Elden Ring, the game that literally everybody was playing in February 2022. The game went on sale on disc, so picked it up. I popped in the disc, expecting to play the game. Guess what? You can’t just put in a disc and play the game. ....

Ever since I started playing Elden Ring in September 2022, I knew this game was special. At first, you might get discouraged, but as you build up your character, you feel accomplished when you finally take down that boss!

Of all the games that came out in 2022, I really felt that Elden Ring was my personal game of the year.

As it turned out, the Game Awards also agreed with me, and gave Elden Ring the “Game of the Year” award as well. The game also won three other awards: “Best Game Direction”, “Best Art Direction”, and “Best Role Playing”. Its biggest competitor, God of War Ragnarök, the sequel to my game of the year 2018 God of War, won “Best Narrative”, “Best Score and Music (Bear McCreary)”, “Best Audio Design”, “Best Performance (Christopher Judge)”, “Best Action/Adventure”, and “Innovation in Accessibility”.

I personally haven’t played God of War Ragnarök as the game is on PS5 (which I don’t have) and it was only released in November 9, 2022. I’m sure the game is deserving of those awards, but it just seemed really unfair to release the game only weeks before the Game Awards… so it’s so fresh on everyone’s mind.

With the Game Awards over and done with, I’m excited to see how everyone loved Elden Ring … that it’s almost guaranteed to get a sequel. Of all the Souls-like games, I felt that Elden Ring is the best among them, thanks to the open world nature of the game.

If you follow what I have said in the past, I have disagreed with Sony and their greed. In additional to raising the PlayStation 5 prices, they’re releasing their new games at $69. New games on Xbox are $59 (or in some cases, free via Game Pass), and games on PC are $59 new. Sony wants $69 to be the normal price for “next gen” games. Let me speak for everyone, no one wants to pay $70 for a new game. Since I refused to get a PS5 (and being locked in that $70 per game pricing), I’m glad to see that Sony decided to release their PlayStation exclusive games on Steam, starting in Jan 2022 with their PS4 game God of War. I think the trend is good for Sony, as they’re seeing even more profit from having their games on the PC.

Since these PlayStation games are now available on Steam, I have purchased God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn™ Complete Edition, Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered, UNCHARTED™: Legacy of Thieves Collection, and Days Gone. Besides from GoW, I wouldn’t have bought or played these other games, if those games remain exclusively on their PlayStation … so, yeah, I’m glad Sony is moving their games outside of their PSN.

Even though I own The Last of Us on my PS4, I’ll probably re-buy it on Steam, as the game is now available for pre-order for Mar 3, 2023.

Returnal also has a listing, but no release date is set. I’m probably less interested in this game, but will likely pick it up if it’s on sale.

In other gaming news, Ubisoft has come back to Steam, with its game Assassin's Creed Valhalla on Dec 6, 2022. Ubisoft wanted to make money by force PC players to buy games directly from them, using their U-Play launcher. Unfortunately, PC gamers refused to buy it on U-Play, so Ubisoft has decided to bring their game back on Steam.

Enjoy,

- Weekend Gamer

Read more Weekend Gamer.

vu (vu@weheartmusic.com) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

Steam Deck Update

Technical Specs Processor AMD APU CPU: Zen 2 4c/8t, 2.4-3.5GHz GPU: 8 RDNA 2 CUs, 1.0-1.6GHz Storage 64 GB eMMC (PCIe Gen 2 x1) 256 GB NVMe SSD (PCIe Gen 3 x4 or x2) 512 GB NVMe SSD (PCIe Gen 3 x4 or x2) Display 7" - 1280 x 800px (16:10 aspect ratio) Optically bonded IPS LCD Expansion UHS-I supports SD, SDXC and SDHC USB-C with DisplayPort 1.4 Alt-mode support; up to 8K or 4K Read More Steam I’ve put down my $5 to preorder my Steam Deck. I decided to get the $400 entry model. I think that is a fantastic price, considering that I looked at similar handheld PCs, such as the Aya Neo and OneXPlayer, and they are usually $1,000 or more …

When I placed my $5 deposit to buy the Steam Deck in Aug 2022, I was convinced that I wouldn’t get it until 2023. I was so wrong.

I recently got the alert that I have three days to purchase the Steam Deck. So it took a little over a month to finally fulfill my order. It could be that someone else turned down their Steam Deck, due to disinterests, or the email went to a spam filter, or lack of funds, and I may have gotten their Steam Deck… or it could be that Steam really was ramping production to meet demand. Either way, I’m so excited to finally get my hands on this thing.

I bought the cheapest one, because all three version are basically the same device (same chip, same speed), with the only exception of storage. The cheap version comes with 64GB, but I can always expand it with an SD card.

Again, I have been shopping around at various hand-held devices, such as the OneXPlayer and Aya Neo, and they are all very expensive (about $1,000). The only advantage is that those devices runs the full Windows operating system by default, so you can play GOG or Epic games.

With the Steam Deck, you have to go through a lot of trouble to install Windows on the device. Since the hardware is so new, and Windows doesn’t really support it, getting Windows to run on the Steam Deck is difficult.

Now that I’m waiting for the Steam Deck to ship to me, I am shopping for some new Steam Games. I’m excited to see that Sony is making some of their PlayStation games available on Steam, including God of War, Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered, and Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition. All of which are Steam Deck verified (meaning they will run on the Steam Deck without issues). Since I probably will never buy a PS5, these PS games are the only way that I’ll get to experience them.

Also, it’s laughable, but none of the PS games will install on my Steam Deck because they’re all over 64GB in size. I probably need to invest in a 1TB SD card ($140) or 512GB card ($70).

Yours,

- Weekend Gamer

vu (vu@weheartmusic.com) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

Weekend Gamer Update (August 2022)

Read More Steam Weekend gamer here. This weekend, we will look at Steam’s Steam Deck (not to be confused with Elgato’s Stream Deck). For some months, I’ve been eyeing on the handheld AYA Neo as a … Nintendo Switch I’ve wanted the Nintendo Switch since I first heard about it last October 2016. The system launched in March 2017, but it immediately sold out everywhere. … Xbox So, I joined Game Pass. There are two price points, the $10 per month pricing is strictly for Xbox games, and the $15, called Game Pass Ultimate includes PC, EA and Xbox Gold (you need this to play online … Sony Still, you know I’m still somewhat interested in seeing the next generation of gaming consoles… and today, Sony showed up what the upcoming PS5 will look like. And holy crap, it is so ugly. …

It’s the weekend, and here’s your Weekend Gamer update.

I’ve put down my $5 to preorder my Steam Deck.

I decided to get the $400 entry model. I think that is a fantastic price, considering that I looked at similar handheld PCs, such as the Aya Neo and OneXPlayer, and they are usually $1,000 or more. Even though Steam said they are ramping up production, and it’s listed as delivery date of “October-December 2022”, but I doubt that I will get my Steam Deck until 2023. The company already announced they are working on a Steam Deck 2. I think the smart move is to just wait for the second version, as it will fix all the problems in the first version...

I think my main reason for wanting a portable PC game console is that increasingly I’m very unhappy with the performance of my Nintendo Switch. I recently launched Diablo II on the Switch and it was just unplayable. Whenever there are hundreds of enemies on screen, the Switch just crawls to a snail’s pace. The Switch desperately needs a refresh. Come on, it’s been five years already!

Also, after six months, I finally cancelled my Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. The main reason is that I honestly did not have the time to fully take advantage of Game Pass. I love the fact that I could I try out the full games that I normally wouldn’t pay money for... And for titles that would normally cost $60! It was a huge savings, but at the end of the day, I would just rather buy (and own) the games that I like. What I am trying say is that I end up just playing the games that I already paid for.

I had a problem with Game Pass removing some games when they end their license agreement with Xbox. It’s very frustrating to play a game one month and then come back a few months later only to find out that game is no longer accessible, because it left Game Pass.

The last straw that broke the camel’s back was when Microsoft announced that they will no longer be offering free downloads to Xbox 360 games in their subscription services (they simply ran out of games to give away). The one saving grace of Game Pass was that you were allowed to keep one Xbox 360 game for free (yours to keep forever!)… and it was going away as of October 1st.

Having said all those negative things, I still believe Game Pass is worth that $10 (or $15), because if you just play one game, you’ve literally made up the price of admission. It is excellent value for the money... but I didn’t have the time for it. When I find myself with more free time, I will definitely reactivate my Game Pass.

The opposite of not good value is PlayStation 5, which is still impossible to find in retail stores. I’ve seen a lot of Xbox Series X in stores recently. I’ve yet to see one PS5 in stores. In a move that I think is a mistake, Sony announced that they are raising prices for the PS5. While the USA is not one of the region that is getting a price hike, the announcement does not bode well.

Everything I’ve researched about PlayStation 5, from ripping people off on digital games to extra $10 charge for PS5 games to Sony blocking games from Game Pass... it tells me that PlayStation is very anti-consumer and they are only interested in profits.

Yours,

- Weekend Gamer

vu (vu@weheartmusic.com) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

Weekend Gamer: Game Pass is still amazing

Read More Xbox So, I joined Game Pass. There are two price points, the $10 per month pricing is strictly for Xbox games, and the $15, called Game Pass Ultimate includes PC, EA and Xbox Gold (you need this to play online Xbox games) …

One and a half month into Xbox Game Pass, I’m happy to report that it is an insane deal. It doesn’t even make any sense how MicroSoft is even making money off Game Pass… the value is just that good! Sure, some games do rotate out, but there’s still enough there to keep me in the service.

I’m not at all worried about Sony’s PS Plus service (coming in June 2022), which is basically their answer to Game Pass. As I previously pointed out in last month, they’re not going to include downloadable PS3 games. This is because the architecture is so different, that the PS5 or PS4 cannot run PS3 games. Sony’s solution is to let you stream those PS3 games - which is not an option for me. My internet is not great, and I think it’s a poor solution to Sony’s PS3 problem.

Anyway, back to Game Pass. I have so many games (it’s about 400 games available on Game Pass Ultimate), that I finally got around to trying Game Pass on the PC recently. While the experience wasn’t amazing: the Xbox App on the PC that I was under the age of 18 and put restrictions on what games I could download. That was an easy fix (but why was this a problem before?)

Then the Xbox App would not sign me in, no matter what I did. After rebooting my computer, it seemed to sign in fine now. Again, why was this a problem? I see that others experienced similar problem, especially after the App updated.

So… when you get the Xbox App to actually work, it’s pretty amazing! There are certain games that are available on the PC only, such as the latest Age of Empires IV, that I need the PC App to run. Again, I’m impressed that I’m playing these $60 games, for basically free… so long as I pay for that service.

I knew that MicroSoft said that my Xbox games will be available on the PC for free, if I purchased them, but I never looked into this as I didn’t really care that much. So imagine my surprise when I see that my Xbox games that I bought showed up on the Xbox App for the PC… meaning I now I have access to the PC version of some of these games. Now, that’s cool.

Going forward, I think I’ll only buy Xbox games, as it’s somewhat of a “two-for-one” deal for me (since the games will be available for me in two places).

One final thing about Game Pass that I didn’t know, until after I joined… it’s that you actually get to keep one or two games forever. Whatever the Xbox 360 games Game Pass/Games with Gold offers for the month, after you click on get for free, it’s yourself permanently. Seriously, I didn’t know that.

Sure the 360 games aren’t amazing (or are available for cheap), but I feel it’s such an added bonus, that I am more than happy to remain on the service for the time being.

Yours,

- Weekend Gamer

vu (vu@weheartmusic.com) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

PlayStation Game Pass

Read More Xbox So, I joined Game Pass. There are two price points, the $10 per month pricing is strictly for Xbox games, and the $15, called Game Pass Ultimate includes PC, EA and Xbox Gold (you need this to play online Xbox games) …

Sony’s answer to Game Pass is finally here… at least in a pricing leak. According to Venture Beat, the new PlayStation Plus will include elements of PlayStation Now elements, with the three different tiers: Essential ($10), Extra ($13), and Premium ($16).

For the lowest priced, PS+ Essential, you only get three or four “free” monthly games… and the ability to play online games, just like the original PlayStation Plus.

For $3 more, you can get PS+ Extra, which includes the monthly “free” games and a game catalogue of “hundreds of older, downloadable games.”

For PS+ Premium, you get everything in Essential and Extra, plus the ability to stream PS Now games and access to “game trials” and “classic games”. To me, I read the game trial as simply a timed demo, so, to me, it’s a useless “feature”. I don’t know what the classic games will get you… maybe PlayStation One games?

The service hasn’t launched yet, but I’m curious to see how many games you will get compared to Game Pass. Currently my $15 Ultimate Game Pass gives me access to about 400 games. I don’t believe PlayStation will offer as much, but we’ll see. We do know, based on previous interviews and attitude, that new games won’t get day-one release on the PlayStation Plus service…. And that’s a real bummer. That just means that you only have access to old games.

With Game Pass, I have previously mentioned that there are only a few old games that I’m interested in checking out, the main draw for Game Pass are the new games, like Halo Infinite. I’ll be brutally honest, if Game Pass took away the new games, I know I wouldn’t bother with the service, that’s how important it is for them to include new games. If PlayStation Now Premium won’t include any new games, then I think it failed out of the gate.

There are so much we still don’t know about the new service - like will gamers have access to their PS3 games ? I still own some PS3 digital and disc games, and from what I know, I cannot play them on the PS4 and PS5 currently. With the upcoming service, I wonder if Sony will finally allow us access to our games? I hate to say it, but seeing as they up-charge $10 for PS4 to PS5 games, I wouldn’t put it pass greedy Sony to charge you $10 extra so you can play PS3 games you previously paid for.

That is the biggest difference that I’ve seen in this console generation… while Xbox won’t charge you for access to all your games (going back to the original Xbox). In fact, if you pop in an Xbox 360 disc, the new Xbox Series X will automatically download a playable version of that game (using Smart Delivery) and won’t charge you any money to play your game.

Don’t get me wrong, I would love to see Sony do better. I do still own a PS4 and PS3, which are both currently de-powered as I haven’t used them for over a year. The way I see it, if I get a PS5, I don’t want to pay $10 for each PS4 games I own… and my PS3 games, that’s up in the air (as it’s currently not compatible with PS5).

I don’t even know why I’m so interested in the new PlayStation service, I guess what I’m more interested in is competition to Xbox Game Pass. It’ll be good to see what PS will bring to the table… and how Xbox can improve their service by seeing what PS has to offer.

Yours,

- Weekend Gamer

vu (vu@weheartmusic.com) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate

Read More Xbox Since owning the Xbox Series X, I had to do a lot of research to see if I made the right decision. It’s still hard to get your hands on the latest gaming consoles, but it seems like I am seeing the Xbox Series S …

So, I joined Game Pass.

There are two price points, the $10 per month pricing is strictly for Xbox games, and the $15, called Game Pass Ultimate includes PC, EA and Xbox Gold (you need this to play online Xbox games). Between the two prices, I thought the $15 was the better, considering you get much more for only an additional $5 extra.

Right now, the price is very good, but I’m seeing the writing on the wall that the price may go up late this year or next year. If you look online, Netflix and Amazon both raised their subscription prices, it just makes sense that MicroSoft will soon follow, especially since they just announced that massive buyout.

Anyway, shortly after subscribing to Game Pass, my measly 50 games went up to 480 games… which is so amazing. I can see how this is a must subscription for gaming fans on a budget or it’s something you want to give to your children.

Like Netflix, you don’t really own the game. So when you cancel your service, your Game Pass games will no longer run.

Sony’s version of Game Pass is called PlayStation Now, which ended in 2020… and they are planning on relaunching it this year under the code name Sparticus. Competition is good, but between the “stream only” PS Now and Game Pass, I would go with Game Pass any day, based on more titles and the ability to download your games.

Speaking of more titles… The 480 games sounds really impressive, however, I would say that I’m only interested in about 5% of those games. That’s because the majority of games are much older games or game genres that I don’t care for (for example sport games). Plus, some games will only run on the PC (such as the new Torchlight 3).

Regarding the older games, if you have never played them, then you’re not going to have a problem with Game Pass. In fact, I downloaded some old games, just to see what it is like on the new Series X console, and I have to say that seeing these games in upscaled 4k resolution, it’s like experiencing the game for the first.

At the end of the day, if you only play one game in Game Pass, then it’s worth it.

My plan is to keep Game Pass Ultimate until I’ve exhausted all the games I wanted to play, and then unsubscribe. We’ll see if I do unsubscribe when the day come, because I get the feeling that I might just stick to the service, because of all the perks.

Yours,

- Weekend Gamer

My Game Library with Game Pass

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Genshin Impact

Read More Games When The Witcher television show came out last year on Netflix, there was a massive uptick on newfound fans playing the game again. That’s because, like the game, the show was very well done and had a compelling story. …

According to some people, Genshin Impact is the biggest game in the world.

I don’t normally play “phone games”, but I recently upgraded my iPad and wanted to check out the game that everyone is talking about. I remember hearing about how much this game was a clone of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (which was my favorite game of 2017).

So, you know what? Genshin Impact is pretty good! They basically took the best part of Zelda, such as cooking, gliding, climbing, and sense of discovery. And the best part is that the game is free. There are some “free-to-play” mechanics, like loot boxes, disguised as “wishes”… but it’s to be expected when you play these sort of games. However, from what I’ve experienced so far, you don’t really need to spend any money to enjoy the game. I’m sure as I progress further in the game, that might not be the case.

Also, there are some things in the game that I wish I understood better when I started playing the game. I started leveling up as fast as I could, only to realize that I can’t go beyond level 20, unless I “Ascend”. This ascension requires some resources that can only be earned by doing all the quests in the Adventure Guild… If I had known this, I would have had started on this path. I guess making mistakes is part of the game. If I had known, I would have taken a different approach.

Another thing I wish I had known was that you really need certain characters (with different powers), in order to unlock some dungeons. The game does give you certain characters to keep as an introduction, but you can also unlock various characters by redeeming “Wishes”. If you do 10 wishes, you’re guaranteed a 4-star character… so, in my experience, I just save up my 10 wishes and do it all at one time.

The only negative that I can give is that the game requires you to be online all the time. This means if you disconnect with its server, your progress won’t be recorded or the game won’t work. Since it’s a popular online game, they’re subject to hacks. Recently, the game publisher miHoYo announced two-factor authenticity (which as of this writing did not work for me).

Since my iPad had a faster processor and updated internals, playing Genshin Impact on a touch screen is pretty good. Trying out the game on Android, on my aging Moto Z4 (from 2019) proved disastrous. My phone could play the game, but it had a lot of lagging and various issues that I did not experience on my iPad… it could be that the game was not optimized for Android.

Surprisingly the game is not available on the Xbox or Nintendo Switch yet, but it’s available on all major platforms, including Windows, iOS, Android, and PlayStation 4 (available on PS5 as backward compatible). It’s free, so give it a try, if you think this might be fun.

vu (vu@weheartmusic.com) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ facebook.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic

Xbox Series vs PlayStation 5

Xbox Series vs PlayStation 5 Read More Xbox One As a weekend gamer, I’ve been following the Xbox One X (formerly known as Xbox Scorpio) for a while. Over the E3 gaming expo weekend, Microsoft … Playstation 4 Last week my PlayStation Network account got hacked/compromised. The person removed my email and added his or her email and took $50 from my bank account (that is tied to my account …

With the console war coming up this Holiday 2020. Let’s talk about the new Xbox Series and PS5… and possibly the dark horse in the race, Nintendo Switch.

The exciting news is that both MicroSoft and Sony have unveiled their pricing: Xbox Series X is $499, Xbox Series S is $299, PS5 is $499, and PS5 (Digital Edition) is $399.

Breaking it down, and looking at the specs on paper, it clearly looks like the Xbox Series X is the winner. There are some major things to consider: it promises backward compatibility with previous software and previous controllers and accessories. That means, if you already own the Xbox One controller and want to use it as a second player controller, you can do that with the S and the X.

The other secret weapon is that Xbox has Xbox Game Pass, which is the “Netflix of Gaming”, where you pay $10 a month and can play over 100 games on its service (including new games). For the price-conscious, particularly with the $299 S model, it’s worth looking into if you’re on a budget.

While the S model does not keep up with its more powerful big brother X, I feel the $299 will be fine for any gamers. For serious players, you’ll probably need to look at the X or PS5, because their games will supposedly run on 4k.

As for storage, believe me, 1TB is not enough for me (experiencing this on my laptop). If you install 10 games, you’re tapped out. I’ve compared speed between NVME and standard Harddrive (USB or IDE) on my computer, and I can, without a doubt, say that NVME is much, much faster (and more reliable).

The only advantage that PS5 will have is that they’ll have exclusive games only playable on their devices. With Xbox, because of its relationship with the PC, their games will always be available on computers (which I appreciate).

There is no news on the Nintendo front, but there’s rumors that they’ll come out with the Nintendo Switch Pro in early 2021. The more powerful portable console will support 4K (I’ll believe it when I see it).

Personally speaking, I will not be buying any “next generation” consoles. I think they all look ugly, particularly the PS5’s design with the fat belly of a disc drive. I hate the name “Xbox Series X or S”. It sounds stupid. Games for these new consoles will also cost $69.99 each ($10 more than previous generation). Plus, I barely touch my Xbox One or PS4 for over a year, since I’ve gotten a great gaming PC and laptop. That doesn’t mean that I won’t be following and seeing who will win this console war this Holiday 2020.

Here’s the breakdown - green is good:

Compare	Xbox Series S	Xbox Series X	PS5 (Disc/Digital)
Price:	$299.99	$499	$399/$499
Release Date:	10 Nov 2020	10 Nov 2020	12 Nov 2020
Optical Disc	None	Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, DVD, CD	None / Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, DVD
CPU/GPU	AMD 8-core Zen 2; 3.6 GHz, 3.4 GHz with SMT	AMD 8-core Zen 2; 3.8 GHz, 3.6 GHz with SMT	AMD 8-core Zen 2, variable frequency, up to 3.5 GHz
Memory	10GB of GDDR6 SDRAM	16GB of GDDR6 SDRAM	16 GB GDDR6 SDRAM
Storage	512 GB NVMe SSD (with Storage Expansion Card option)	1 TB NVMe SSD (with Storage Expansion Card option)	825 GB SSD (with upgradeable NVMe M.2 SSD, or external USB-based HDD)
Resolution	Up to 1440p	Up to 4K	Up to 4K
Backward Compatible	Games (limited), works with previous controllers and accessories	Games, works with previous controllers and accessories	Games (limited), does not work with previous controllers

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