It’s kinda funny really! With all these talks of next-gen consoles being PS5 and Xbox Series X, I neglected to ask myself what type of next-gen leap should I expect from these consoles? I mean, should we expect to see higher fidelity in graphics, or is time to finally say goodbye to 30FPS and see games embrace full 60FPS?
Let me first shut down one of the expectations I see floating around the web. These consoles, the PS5, and the Xbox Series will NOT be running any games in native 4k 60FPS! No matter what Sony and Microsoft will tell you in their marketing ads, those game consoles won’t be running any game in 4k 60FPS. They’re not powerful enough for that, unfortunately. Yes, that includes the Xbox Series X. There are PC’s out now with higher specs that still can’t run 4K at 60FPS and you’re expecting what might be 500 dollar hardware to do the impossible? Yeah right! Maybe in 30FPS, but surely not 60FPS. Now, in terms of graphics and visual fidelity, truth be told, I have no idea what I expect to see.
On PC, we already have Nvidia RTX, which is a graphics rendering development platform created by Nvidia, primarily aimed at enabling real-time ray tracing. That’s been the buzz talk since then. It had been confirmed a while ago that the PS5 will have some sort of RTX, so likely the Xbox Series X will be able as well. After that, I can’t see the leap from PS4 and Ps5, and vice versa the Xbox One X and Xbox Series x been that high. I mean when you look at games like God of War, Last of Us 2, and Ghost of Tsushima, these are games that have already given us a glimpse of what next-gen will look like on console. I doubt we will see anything pushing past that in the beginning phase of the new console cycle.
However, it’s near the end of the PS5 and Xbox Series X cycle will we truly see what these machines will be capable of running. By then, PC will likely be showing what a PS6 will be running!
One thing that has bothered me about the talk of graphics, is how we’ve have come to equate realistic as good and cartoony as bad! This mindset needs to change. Realistic games don’t often make for great games, it’s the fidelity in these graphics that matter. Games like Storm 4, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Kingdom Hearts 3 and Genshin Impact to name a few all have unique art style and have pushed their visual to the limits, and lets hope we get to see more of that going forward. If there’s one thing that has to happen, no matter what is the permanent introduction of the 60FPS, heck 1440P too if I’m being honest. These are long overdue and should have been a staple in the current-gen.
In the end, it’s not the console responsibility to make games look good, that fall in the hands of the developers themselves. So long as the PS5 and Xbox Series X allows them to make their vision of whatever game that they want, we should see some amazing looking games in the coming future. Hell, the more powerful these console end up being, the better the game will be on PC, which is what I’m mostly looking forward to seeing. Anyways, let me know what you expect to see from the next-gen consoles.
