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00:00So I've had my PS5 and Series X for, well, 10 months now.
00:04They're coming up to their one-year anniversary,
00:07which is pretty crazy,
00:08considering it feels like they've just come out,
00:09and also most people still can't get their hands
00:12on one of these next-gen consoles.
00:14But if I did have to choose just one to keep
00:16and take into account all the new stuff
00:18coming to these machines over the next year or so,
00:21I'm pretty certain I'd know which one I'd stick with.
00:24But there are plenty of reasons
00:25you might want to go with one over the other,
00:27and that's where things get interesting.
00:29Of course, all this is just my opinion,
00:30but if you do enjoy the video and find it helpful,
00:32then a cheeky little like and subscribe
00:34would be very much appreciated.
00:36So I bought both of these myself,
00:38but if I could only keep one,
00:40I would probably go with the PS5.
00:43Don't get me wrong, I love the Series X.
00:45I think almost from a hardware technical point of view,
00:48it's actually the superior console.
00:50And of course, Game Pass is a huge selling point.
00:53In fact, if I was on a tighter budget,
00:55I would probably just go with a Series S
00:57with Game Pass and call it quits, job done.
01:00But in my case, the wild card is in that room over there,
01:04my desktop PC.
01:05And because that also has access to Game Pass,
01:07I therefore get the Xbox exclusives on my PC.
01:10Now, of course, not everyone is lucky enough
01:12to have a desktop PC and a console.
01:15And of course, I actually made a video all about
01:16whether you could build a PC for similar money to these,
01:19and the answer is no,
01:20unless you want to spend like three times the money.
01:22But for my situation,
01:23I think having a PS5 plus a PC or a laptop
01:26is the best combination.
01:28But putting PCs to one side,
01:30while it is kind of a cliche,
01:31with these consoles, it really is all about the games,
01:34and also, of course, where your friends play online.
01:36And for me, it is mostly PlayStation exclusives
01:39that I'm most excited for,
01:40and I also do prefer the DualSense controller
01:43for the smart haptic feedback and adaptive triggers,
01:46even if I do turn it off in some games.
01:48And there's also no getting around
01:49that there are some pretty terrific PS5 exclusives
01:52already available, like Ratchet & Clank,
01:54Returnal, Demon's Souls,
01:56and I'm about to get properly into Deathloop.
01:58Plus, I can't wait for next year's Horizon Forbidden West.
02:01But that said, I am also really looking forward
02:03to Forza Horizon 5, which I think looks incredible,
02:06and also Halo Infinite,
02:08to really get a feel for what the Series X can do,
02:10even if I must admit,
02:11Halo doesn't look particularly next-gen,
02:14if I'm being honest, or maybe that's just me.
02:16Now, this isn't a reason to go with one over the other,
02:18but clearly the PS5 is more popular,
02:21as Sony have sold, I think, like 11 million units,
02:23versus about 708 for both the Series X and the S combined,
02:27so more people do seem to want a PS5.
02:30And that's made it the fastest-selling console ever.
02:33So while silicon shortages and pandemics
02:35have slow production, a lot of availability issues
02:38are simply down to people falling over themselves
02:40to get one, me included.
02:42However, while I think the PS5 is great,
02:45that doesn't really extend to the digital-only edition.
02:48While it is 50 quid cheaper,
02:50going disc-less dooms you to paying full price
02:53for games on the PS Store,
02:54without the option of proper refunds
02:56or the chance to sell games on and trade in,
02:59it's a total false economy.
03:01But whichever one you go for,
03:02has it actually been worth upgrading to a next-gen console?
03:06Well, I can tell you I don't love
03:08the ludicrous £70 asking price for some new games.
03:11I have to wonder how much this has impacted sales,
03:14as I've only bought a couple of games at that price,
03:16and it hurt like hell every time.
03:18But leaving that to one side,
03:19the exclusives I've played so far
03:21have been pretty good for games
03:22this early on in the generation.
03:24And while the jump in graphics fidelity
03:26maybe hasn't been that huge,
03:28there are definite benefits to load times,
03:30120 FPS support in some games,
03:32and just overall quality,
03:33especially if it supports ray tracing.
03:36We've also just had the PlayStation Showcase,
03:38which has shown off some great-looking games
03:40like God of War Ragnarok,
03:42Spider-Man 2 and the Uncharted 4 remaster,
03:44also a teaser for Wolverine,
03:46and maybe most exciting of all to us lot
03:48who remember it first time round,
03:50a remake of Knights of the Old Republic.
03:54But we do also now have a proper date
03:55for Gran Turismo 7 in March next year,
03:58so there's plenty of games to look forward to,
04:00although I was a little bit disappointed
04:02that we haven't seen a new PSVR 2.
04:06However, if you can't get your hands on a console
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04:38But they all feature NVIDIA's 30-series laptop GPUs
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05:01And a big thank you to NVIDIA and Scan Computers
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05:06The thing is though,
05:06as I mentioned in my original PS5 and Series X reviews,
05:10the main reason I think to buy one of these new consoles
05:13isn't for the next-gen exclusives.
05:15It's because it's the best way to play cross-platform
05:17and older-gen games,
05:19as we get much faster load times, smoother frame rates,
05:22and on the Xbox, HDR added in thanks to Auto HDR.
05:26And plenty of games get a frame rate boost from 30 to 60
05:29or even up to 120 FPS, either with patches
05:32or if supported automatically with Game Boost
05:34and FPS Boost on PS5 and Xbox.
05:37And if you do have a 120Hz TV,
05:39then in compatible games like Dirt 5, Siege,
05:42and soon-to-be-updated Rocket League,
05:44having 120 FPS support reduces latency,
05:47makes gameplay feel so much smoother,
05:49and actually it brings it more in line
05:51with a proper PC gaming experience.
05:53Although on the flip side,
05:54only a handful of games do support 120,
05:57and the reality is that most games
05:59will drop resolution or image quality
06:01to maintain that triple-digit frame rate.
06:03But we are also starting to see
06:04some proper meaningful updates to older games.
06:07We've just had the Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut,
06:09the FF7 Integrate, the PS5 version,
06:12and in Tsushima, which is still one of my favorite games,
06:15we get better graphics at full 4K60
06:18and also DualSense controller support.
06:20Personally, I can't wait for proper updates
06:22for Last of Us 2 and Red Dead 2.
06:25It's funny because before these consoles launched,
06:27there was so much hype around which is faster
06:30and technically more powerful in terms of teraflops,
06:33but really it all came down to the fact
06:35that both of them had super-fast PCI-4 SSDs.
06:39And while on paper the PS5 is slightly faster,
06:41then the Xbox has more convenient expandable storage,
06:44although we'll come back to that in a second,
06:46it's these SSDs that's made the biggest difference
06:48to this new generation of hardware.
06:50Because now we're talking seconds
06:52rather than minutes for load times,
06:54and in games that properly support it,
06:56like the new Ratchet & Clank,
06:57it's unlocked a whole new kind of
06:58seamless gameplay experience.
07:00Now storage, while much faster, is a bit of an issue
07:03because on the PS5, we only have 670 gigs usable to play with
07:08versus 802 on the Xbox, which is a little bit better.
07:12Now that will fill up pretty quickly.
07:13So on the Xbox, you have this pretty elegant
07:16plug-and-play solution with this
07:17one terabyte Seagate expansion card,
07:20which will set you back about 200 quid or so.
07:22Nice and simple.
07:23Whereas PS5 owners have to jimmy open the console
07:26to install a top-end and pretty expensive PCI-4 SSD,
07:30one with at least a 5,500 megabyte per second read speed.
07:34And these are even more expensive and pretty rare right now,
07:37although at least the software does finally support it,
07:4010 months after launch.
07:42Although to be fair, you can use cheaper external SSDs
07:44to store PS4 games, which does help a little bit.
07:48But the Xbox has another advantage
07:50because this holds the last five games you've played
07:52in a kind of stasis, it's cached them,
07:54so it basically loads near instantaneously
07:57back to where you were.
07:58I really wish the PS5 had this,
08:00and don't be fooled by the app switcher
08:02because you will definitely be closing the game
08:04you were just playing to open the other one.
08:06But it can't come quick enough to have something
08:08like Quick Resume on the PlayStation.
08:10Other good stuff?
08:11Well, both machines obviously feel a lot faster to use
08:14and compared to last gen, they also feel more premium
08:16and crucially for the PS5,
08:18it is so much quieter than my old PS4 Pro.
08:21What a world of difference it makes to quality of life,
08:24not having to listen to a bloody hurricane over there
08:26when your PS4 Pro is playing a bit of Last of Us.
08:29Going back to the hardware for a second,
08:31and I have to say that when you're in a multi-platform game,
08:34other than maybe the feel of the controller,
08:36it's easy to forget which one of the two
08:38you're actually playing on.
08:39I mean, Digital Foundry are great
08:41at finding the old frame rate dip here and there,
08:43but in isolation, it's usually very difficult
08:45to tell them apart, which is obviously good for everyone.
08:49Now, having had both of these consoles in my living room
08:52for the best part of a year now,
08:53in terms of design, I have to give it to the Series X.
08:56I think it's the best engineered console I've ever seen,
08:59and while the design may be a little bit boring,
09:01it really does just blend into my living room,
09:03which isn't something you could say about the PS5,
09:06which definitely likes to remind you of its presence
09:08every time you enter the room.
09:09And also, Sony, please stop it with the glossy black trim.
09:13It just scratches so easily, it's ridiculous.
09:16As for software, the PS5 is just about catching up
09:19with the Series X.
09:20It's only just now getting
09:21expandable internal storage support.
09:24Variable refresh is still due at the end of the year, maybe,
09:27and it still doesn't support
09:28any kind of Dolby Vision premium HDR in games,
09:31whereas the Xbox already has all of these things.
09:34And also, the interface is about to get a 4K upgrade.
09:37I'm kind of surprised we didn't have that from the start,
09:38to be honest, though.
09:39But then back with Team Blue,
09:41and the PS5 does have its fancy 3D audio tech
09:44for its official headphones,
09:46although support for other types of sound system
09:48is in the latest beta software.
09:50But what I'm most excited about
09:51is that at the end of the year,
09:52Game Pass Ultimate subscribers
09:54will get access to Xbox Cloud Gaming,
09:57which lets you stream Game Pass games at 1080p60,
10:00and so if you have a good connection,
10:02this obviously will save on storage space
10:04and download times.
10:05Buy a Series X or S with Game Pass,
10:07and you've automatically got a fantastic library
10:10of new and back-compatible games,
10:12including exclusives and day-one access
10:14to big, upcoming first-party titles.
10:17And it means you can try games you wouldn't normally buy,
10:19maybe like MLB 21 or something,
10:21and also play with friends without any outlay.
10:26And of course, this extends to PC as well,
10:28so one subscription means you have a ton more games
10:30on your desktop as well.
10:32But I would argue it's way ahead of Sony's PS Now service,
10:35which unlike Game Pass,
10:36you have to pay a second subscription for,
10:38although all in, the cost is comparable.
10:40PS Now does work well,
10:42and you actually do get more games
10:43from the PS2 era onwards,
10:45but it's primarily a streaming service
10:47with only a limited number of games
10:49to be downloaded and played locally.
10:51You can also play on PC as well,
10:53but unlike Game Pass,
10:54it doesn't get new first-party exclusives.
10:57But what I think's gonna be really interesting
10:58is pairing a Xbox Series S and a Game Pass subscription
11:02with that new xCloud game streaming service
11:05that's coming very soon.
11:06What a combination,
11:07especially if you're on a tighter budget.
11:09Of course, you still have to pay for the subscription,
11:11but that has to be the cheapest entry point
11:13to next-gen gaming that you can get right now.
11:17So much of this, and which is better,
11:19is subjective, it's personal preference,
11:21and none more so than the controllers,
11:23and which you prefer.
11:25For me, I actually kind of like using both,
11:27but unlike Xbox,
11:28Sony's actually done something with the new consoles,
11:31and so we have the adaptive triggers,
11:32we have the speaker built in,
11:34and also much smarter haptic feedback.
11:36And it really does give you
11:37a more immersive feeling in games
11:39when you can feel the different surfaces
11:41you're moving across and having extra resistance
11:43when firing guns or shooting arrows.
11:45Although in multiplayer games like Call of Duty,
11:47I do turn off adaptive triggers
11:49because it gets annoying pretty quickly.
11:51As for media, both support most major streaming apps
11:55and also can stream 4K with basic HDR10,
11:58although on the Xbox, we do also get Dolby Vision support,
12:00which is a dynamic HDR standard,
12:02which gives you better performance.
12:04The PS5 may get Dolby Vision eventually,
12:06but no guarantees.
12:07But when it comes to the 4K Blu-ray player,
12:10both are disappointingly stuck with HDR10,
12:12although they do support Dolby Atmos
12:14and DTSX surround sound.
12:17So 10 months on, and finally,
12:19there are some properly good exclusive games to play,
12:22although really, if you haven't bought one yet,
12:24I don't think you've missed out on that much.
12:25The best games have only just started coming out,
12:27and of course, as we approach Christmas,
12:29we're gonna have Battlefield and Deathloop
12:31and Forza Horizon 5, tons of stuff just coming out now,
12:34but I would definitely say they are worth the upgrade,
12:36even if not for the new games,
12:38just for how much better your older games perform.
12:40It is the best way to play your old favorites.
12:43Now, I don't regret buying any of them,
12:44and of course, in a perfect world,
12:46we'd all have all the consoles and PCs
12:48and be able to play everything,
12:49but I think for me, my situation's a bit different
12:51because I have a gaming PC as well,
12:53which gives me access to Game Pass,
12:55which is why I would definitely go for the PS5.
12:57But if you are on a really tight budget,
12:59let's see how the Series S
13:00with Game Pass and cloud streaming performs.
13:03That's gonna be really interesting.
13:05But of course, this is all just my own opinion.
13:07So what about you?
13:08Which console do you have or are you looking to get?
13:10And also, do you regret it
13:12or do you think it was worth the upgrade?
13:13Let me know in the comments below.
13:15And if you did enjoy this video, as I say,
13:16a cheeky little like and subscribe would be amazing,
13:19and I'll see you guys next time right here on the Tech Chat.
13:23Well, can't recognize that dour expression anywhere.