Welcome to Village Arcade—a new column on the Village Media network exploring the world of gaming! Every week we’ll talk about the latest video game news, break down a new trend or dive into the latest games.
It would be impossible to start a video game column in 2020 without talking about the latest and greatest in console gaming, so we’re kicking things off with a three-part series exploring next-generation consoles.
Over the next three weeks we’ll explore some of the differences between the newest consoles and how they might change the way you game, but first we’re going to explore the biggest promise of next-gen gaming: high-quality, high-fidelity gaming.
Console gaming has always been overshadowed by PC games that can balance breathtaking visuals coupled with high frame rates. Sony and Microsoft tried to buck this trend last generation with their unprecedented releases of the PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox One X.
Those enhanced consoles offered gamers a choice for the first time in console history and even though they were a powerful step up, they were still left in the dust by gaming PCs. I picked up a PlayStation 4 Pro because my launch-day PS4 conveniently failed at the same time a good deal came out for the Pro.
But in my experience, even some of the best optimized games had to scale down their quality below 1080p at specific moments to ensure the experience was smooth for their audience. I never reached that promised 4K paradise.
But with the recent launch of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, quality 4K living room gaming is here! Ray tracing, HDR visuals and 120 frames per second framerates are no longer buzzwords used to separate console gamers from their PC counterparts.
Next-generation gaming consoles have completely leveled the playing field. The same technologies that exist on PC are now available to console gamers. But the new, more powerful hardware means some might have to make decisions they never thought they’d have to make to get the most out of their gaming.
More power, more options
Something PC gamers have had to deal with for years is customization. For some that comes in the form of upgrading their PC with the newest hardware to continually optimize the experience, but for others that means tweaking each game to offer high quality visuals or best performance for their specific device.
I find myself tweaking my settings to allow for high frame rates when playing first-person shooters, but I tend to increase visuals on a story-driven game. The higher frame rates give me a competitive edge, but I can’t ignore the benefits of breathtaking visuals when I’m looking to immerse myself in a world.
These decisions are made easier by changing technology—most modern games set their default optimization settings based on the type of game—but it’s a decision consoles have rarely provided until recently.
That changes with this new generation, as many games are coming out with multiple ways to play.
Take Spider-Man: Miles Morales as an example. Miles Morales includes the option to play in fidelity mode or performance mode and, as this video shows, the difference between each is significant to those who want to pay attention to the finer details.
Performance mode optimizes the game’s performance by adjusting the settings to ensure the highest frame rate and resolution. That means visual enhancements like ray tracing are scaled back in favour of higher frame rates.
Ray tracing has been available on the PC for a while and its biggest benefits are dynamic lighting and realistic reflective surfaces. Video games have struggled to make believable reflections for years but now New York City in Miles Morales looks as realistic as possible as you swing from building to building.
The more visual fidelity a game can offer, the more immersive the environment can become. That’s why ray tracing is important to this generation of consoles. Ray tracing has been a buzzword during the leadup to this generation of consoles.
But developers have also been promising that gamers can experience a smoother experience. Gaming on your 4K has always required sacrifice. You either don’t sacrifice the full quality of your TV or you miss out on a smooth experience—you can’t have it both ways. But now developers are able to provide a smooth experience in 4K without sacrificing high frame rates.
So gamers have two choices: immersion through visual quality or high frame rates that take their competition to a whole new level.
But why does it matter?
As the living room evolves with better TVs and better sound systems, it’s important for consoles to evolve to provide a better experience. That’s what this generation of consoles have done. They’re providing high quality gaming that matches the affordability of 4K TVs.
Now when you buy that new TV leading up to Christmas or during a Boxing Day sale, you actually have something that can utilize it to its full potential.
But it’s also important to recognize that this generation is providing an incredible experience already and we’re just on the ground floor. The smoothness of these new consoles doesn’t end with the graphics potential. The new family of Xbox consoles and the PlayStation 5 are equipped with solid state drives providing the fastest storage.
According to The Verge, games on the Xbox Series X can load minutes faster than the last-generation equivalent. Sea of Thieves, for example, typically takes 1 minute and 21 seconds to load on the Xbox One X, while it only takes 20 seconds to load on the Xbox Series X.
Tom’s Guide posted similar results with the PlayStation 5, finding that Sony’s next-gen console loads games twice as fast as its predecessor.
The Xbox Series X also boasts a Quick Resume feature, which loads commonly played games nearly instantly off the home screen.
But the increased speed of the newly added solid state drives comes with its fair share of drawbacks, as early adopters for both consoles will find that their external hard drives they’ve been using to play their collection of PlayStation 4 or Xbox One games no longer work on the new consoles—a challenge we’ll explore even more in the coming weeks.
