Xbox Series S|X reviews

[the-pi-guy]

https://www.usgamer.net/articles/xbox-series-x-s-microsoft-console-review



https://www.vice.com/en/article/pkdd7k/xbox-series-x-series-s-review



https://www.vg247.com/2020/11/05/xbox-series-x-s-review/



https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/373176/A_tale_of_two_consoles_Xbox_Series_X_and_S_in_review.php

Shamefully stolen from these Era threads:

https://www.resetera.com/threads/xbox-series-s-reviews.319540/

https://www.resetera.com/threads/xbox-series-x-review-thread.319549/

[kitler53]

i don't have time to watch any of these for at least a while.  do you have 1-3 sentence summary to offer?

[the-pi-guy]

i don't have time to watch any of these for at least a while.  do you have 1-3 sentence summary to offer?

From the Era summaries, (I haven't watched the videos) very consistently:

- incredible console
- what am I supposed to play right now?

[Dr. Pezus]

Ign X review is impressed with the console but lack of exclusives drags it down - 8/10

[the-pi-guy]

Pez, why did you sticky this!?!!

[kitler53]

From the Era summaries, (I haven't watched the videos) very consistently:

- incredible console
- what am I supposed to play right now?

is that more series x oriented?  any specifics to series s?

and lol, they truly have the worst line-up ever.

[Dr. Pezus]

Pez, why did you sticky this!?!!

Uhm no idea. Must've accidentally hit it instead of post haha

[the-pi-guy]

is that more series x oriented?  any specifics to series s?

and lol, they truly have the worst line-up ever.

Those are from the Series X reviews.

Series S is largely similar, but with more concern about the storage space.

[kitler53]

so i watched the eza one just because it wasn't blocked for me.   

while they seemed impressed the more they talked the less impressed i was.  i've got zero desire to play any games from the original xbox or 360 era.  i don't have a library of xbox one games to replay.  there's nothing new coming to the system.  not games.  not controllers.  not OS.  at launch it's just a faster high resolution xbox one.  

ps5 was always going to be my lead next gen hardware but they absolutely un-sold me on even considering hardware as a second console.

[Legend]

so i watched the eza one just because it wasn't blocked for me.  

while they seemed impressed the more they talked the less impressed i was.  i've got zero desire to play any games from the original xbox or 360 era.  i don't have a library of xbox one games to replay.  there's nothing new coming to the system.  not games.  not controllers.  not OS.  at launch it's just a faster high resolution xbox one.  

ps5 was always going to be my lead next gen hardware but they absolutely un-sold me on even considering hardware as a second console.

I don't get it either. I'm hyped to play tons of old great games on it and future first party games on it, but the system feels like a 360 successor in terms of innovation.

[Xevross]

I don't get it either. I'm hyped to play tons of old great games on it and future first party games on it, but the system feels like a 360 successor in terms of innovation.

Yeah, Series X did the bare minimum for innovation. Its powerful, does some cool stuff associated with the SSD jump... but what else?

[kitler53]

Yeah, Series X did the bare minimum for innovation. Its powerful, does some cool stuff associated with the SSD jump... but what else?

to me is not that the hardware itself isn't innovative.  i mean, maybe innovative isn't the right term because it is basically identical to ps5.    ...it's that what innovations are there are not put to use.  

sony clearly put the SSD to use in ratchet and clank because that portals things is just not possible on current gen hardware.   whether you love the game or not is irrelevant,.. the need for ps5 hardware is clear.  xbox basically has the same possibilities as ps5 with respect to things they could do,.. MS is just choosing not to utilize them because having the same OS on all xboxs and having the same game library on all xboxs is their priority.  

xbox is in a lot of ways worse then "cross-gen" because in "cross-gen" there is a core of sameness but some wiggle room to make improvements on the next gen hardware.   MS is committed to not having any improvements except in: loading times, resolution, frame rates.    i'm not saying there is no value in these things but it is a disappointing use of a $500 investment.

[Legend]

Yeah, Series X did the bare minimum for innovation. Its powerful, does some cool stuff associated with the SSD jump... but what else?

I don't think it innovates on a single thing during gameplay, again outside of hardware improvements, which is kinda crazy.

[the-pi-guy]

Thinking about it, the controller is probably the smallest change since DS1 to DS2 out of any of the 3 console makers.  Even PS3 added sixaxis.  Whereas DualSense is arguably the biggest change on that side of things.  

Quick Resume is great for switching games, but it's not great for during games. And this is pretty much the biggest next gen feature Xbox has. Pretty sure it's even running the same OS?  

Sony's pitch this gen is immersion.
MS's pitch is "the Xbox you've been playing for years, but faster and no Kinect*).

[Xevross]

Thinking about it, the controller is probably the smallest change since DS1 to DS2 out of any of the 3 console makers.  Even PS3 added sixaxis.  Whereas DualSense is arguably the biggest change on that side of things.  

Quick Resume is great for switching games, but it's not great for during games. And this is pretty much the biggest next gen feature Xbox has. Pretty sure it's even running the same OS?  

Sony's pitch this gen is immersion.
MS's pitch is "the Xbox you've been playing for years, but faster and no Kinect*).

Quick resume is probably the biggest but like you said its not that crazy, its a nice to have for people who play lots of games at once and that's about it. And PS5 has it as well, so yeah.