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gamemodustk-blog · 8 years ago

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3 years later the console war is still confusing

Last year, after much previous hemming and hawing, we recommended that console gamers looking for a new console finally take the plunge and invest in a PlayStation 4. But the console market has changed in the 12 months since that recommendation, from the release of new generation-splitting hardware to the announcement of upcoming console hardware from both Microsoft and Nintendo.

Is it time to upgrade? Is it better to wait? Should you just stick to a retro-focused Raspberry Pi build instead? Below, we'll walk you through the current state of the console market, summarize what we know about the near future, and give you our best recommendation for where to put your console dollars.

Go Pro?

The PS4 Pro: It's bigger, it's pricier, and it's more powerful. But does it offer a true 4K experience? Video hosted by: Mark Walton.

By far the biggest change in the console space in the past year was Sony's release of the PlayStation 4 Pro. This isn't a full-blown "PlayStation 5" follow-up, but rather a slightly upgraded piece of hardware that's firmly in the same console generation as the PlayStation 4 Sony released just three years ago. That means that all software released by Sony or third-party developers for the foreseeable future will work on both the standard older PS4 and the newer PS4 Pro.

Without exclusive games over the existing PS4 (which sells for $250 with a bundled game during the holiday season), the only reason to invest in the pricier PS4 Pro ($400 without a game) is for that bump in processing power. The PS4 Pro includes more GPU cores and a slightly faster CPU and RAM bus, which developers can use for better graphical resolutions, faster frame rates, and more detailed character and environmental models in many games.

Keep in mind, though, that these visual upgrades don't apply across the entire PlayStation 4 library. Only games specifically coded with the PS4 Pro in mind (or older games whose developers have released a downloadable patch meant for the Pro) will see any benefit. So far that includes only a few dozen games, most of which came out near the tail end of 2016.

Going forward, Sony has said all the games it publishes directly will include upgrades for the PS4 Pro. Sony seems keen on ensuring its third-party partners also code their games to take advantage of the Pro. Adding in those Pro enhancements doesn't take much extra effort, according to developers we've spoken to, so it might not be a rarity in the future. Still, the full impact of the PS4 Pro on the PlayStation 4 library going forward will depend on how willing the development community is to support the new hardware. That, in turn, depends on how many people end up buying the new system and how many of the 50 million or so current PS4 owners stick with the older hardware.

In this gallery, I used my SLR camera to capture how The Last of Us: Remastered actually looks on a 4K TV. Here's a shot of a bookcase on the standard PS4...

... and here's the same bookcase on the PS4 Pro. Notice the smoother lines (Expand or download the photos for a better look)

Extreme close-up of the bookshelf on the standard PS4...

... the same books are much more readable on the PS4 Pro.

The model of Sarah in the mirror is pretty jaggedy on the PS4...

... on the PS4 Pro, mirror Sarah looks much smoother.

Should you be one of those upgraders? Well, if you have a plain-old 1080p TV, the apparent improvement in PS4 enhanced games is marginal. You might see slightly smoother frame rates or slightly fewer jagged edges on certain in-game objects.

To get the most out of a PS4 Pro, you need a quality 4K TV. True, most PS4 Pro-enhanced games don't put out a full "native" 4K signal from the system itself. That said, most of those games do go well above the maxed-out 1080p image on the standard PS4. On a 4K screen, those extra pixels lead to a welcome bit of extra sharpness in supported games, especially if you tend to sit close to a large display.

You'll also notice some PS4 games have now been enhanced with high-dynamic range (HDR) color, which can make images pop with hyper-real contrast on supported 4K displays. Keep in mind, though, that those HDR colors are available from the standard PS4, too—you don't need the PS4 Pro to get the benefit.

FURTHER READING

This year's new Microsoft console is the Xbox One S. A shoot-out between the One S and the PS4 Pro is a bit of a false comparison, though. The Xbox One S is primarily a cosmetic upgrade to the Xbox One box itself, shrinking the total volume by 42 percent and getting rid of the bulky "power brick" that sticks out of the wall outlet with the original Xbox One.

The Xbox One S sports some slight internal hardware upgrades over the original system, however. For one, it's the only Xbox capable of outputting HDR colors (unlike the PS4, which supports HDR on all hardware). So far, only nine Xbox One games have support for that color standard, however. Although more are promised to be "in the works," this seems like a marginal reason to upgrade for the time being.

Unlike the original system, the Xbox One S is capable of pushing ultra-high-definition 4K signals to a compatible TV. This upgrade doesn't apply to games, though; those still max out at 1080p on the Xbox One S and run at the same resolution as on the original Xbox One. Instead, the Xbox One S can play 4K Blu-ray discs (something the PS4 Pro can't do) and can handle 4K streams from the likes of Netflix. A nice benefit, but, again, not really a reason to throw out your old Xbox One if you have one. (If you don't have one, the Xbox One S is the only version of the system Microsoft is selling new nowadays, though refurbished original systems might be slightly cheaper.)

Ars' Mark Walton and Sam Machkovech discuss the awesome processing power of Scorpio. But what do all those specs mean for the gamer? Where does the Xbox One S fit in? And will existing Xbox owners upgrade?

If you want more significant visual upgrades to your gaming in Microsoft's console ecosystem, you're going to have to wait until the end of 2017. That's when Microsoft is planning to release Project Scorpio, its own heavily upgraded version of the Xbox One. Much like the PS4 Pro, Scorpio isn't intended to replace the original Xbox One. Instead, Scorpio will augment many Xbox One games with improved graphics, and those games will still work on the older hardware.

Microsoft's E3 announcement for Scorpio promised significantly upgraded specs over even the PS4 Pro, including 6 teraflops of total CPU power and fully 4K games running at 60 frames per second. We're skeptical that the Scorpio will live up to that promise at a mass market price within the next 12 months, but with little in the way of details to go on, we have to wait and see.

Microsoft has also said that Scorpio will be the only Xbox console to support virtual reality headsets. Though Microsoft hasn't gone into any details about how that support will work, the company did recently get behind a line of PC-based VR headsets to launch next year. There's also some speculation that Microsoft could be planning to extend its existing, Windows-based relationship with the Oculus Rift to direct Xbox One support.

Until we know more, judging the Scorpio as anything but a series of vague promises is hard. At the same time, the knowledge that heavily improved hardware is coming to the Xbox One line within a year also makes taking the plunge on the system as it currently exists just as difficult. The result is an awkward holding pattern that probably won't be broken until more Scorpio information comes out, likely at E3 in June.

Nintendo wants you to Switch

In last year's console round-up, we only gave a perfunctory mention to the Wii U, which was clearly circling the drainpipe of console history even back then. Despite a healthy selection of excellent, Nintendo-developed exclusives, the Wii U wasn't (and isn't) a system for anyone who wants a healthy line-up of new gaming content well into the future. Nintendo recently confirmed this assessment by ceasing production of Wii U hardware less than four years after its debut.

In recent months, though, Nintendo's attention has switched over to the Switch, a new console that seems destined to unify Nintendo's home console and portable hardware lines. The system itself resides in a roughly six-inch tablet, with detachable controllers that can be used together for a dual-joystick single-player experience or slid apart separately for more limited multiplayer controls. You can also use those controllers when you slide the Switch into an included dock, which both charges the system and displays its games on a full-sized HDTV.

Nintendo

With a "custom Tegra processor" of the type used to power tablets and phones, the Switch seems unlikely to outclass (or even match) the likes of the PS4 and Xbox One in raw processing power, to say nothing of the PS4 Pro and Scorpio. That said, it should still be at least a marginal step up from the underpowered and aging Wii U, despite the portable form factor.

The Switch also isn't loaded down with the same kind of motion control and multi-screen gameplay gimmicks as recent Nintendo consoles. Those gimmicks, as much as underpowered hardware, ended up hurting Nintendo's support among the third-party publishers that gravitated toward Sony and Microsoft systems instead in the last decade.

This time around, recent games like Skyrim, NBA 2K17, and Dark Souls 3 are reportedly in the works for the system. And Nintendo is promoting a variety of third-party partners that are working on the Switch, though similar early support for the Wii U evaporated quickly.

If Nintendo can fix its problem with attracting external support from outside publishers (a big if, at the moment), the Switch might actually merit consideration as a "first" console for some gamers. Right now, though, it's impossible to know how seriously to take Nintendo's unique take on the console market. We'll know more when Nintendo reveals additional details about the Switch launch in January.

Should I stay or should I go, now?

If you've managed to avoid buying a current generation console for this long, you really should hold off a little longer. With new hardware from Microsoft and Nintendo coming in the next 12 months, any purchase decision you make now might look under-informed in the near future. Plus, current systems will likely cost less next year, if you're willing to miss out on a few months of playing currently available games.

That said, if you can't wait a year to see how things shake out, we still recommend going with a PlayStation 4. It still has the best exclusive games (a list that grew to include Uncharted 4 in 2016), and it now comes with the option to add on the relatively cheap and surprisingly able PlayStation VR headset, if you're interested in taking that plunge.

If you don't plan on getting a 4KTV or PlayStation VR, the cheaper standard PS4 should be just fine for your purposes. If you do have one of those fancy displays, though, or are looking to future-proof your system, the small extra investment in the more powerful PS4 Pro is probably worth it. Then again, if you're looking to the future anyway, you should just wait and see where things stand in another year.

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