Gaming Consoles

Xbox or PS5?

by Gavin (and brother), January 26, 2021.

Xbox Series X:

The Xbox Series X by Microsoft came out on November 10, 2020. The Xbox Series X has 12 teraflops, quick play, hard access ray tracing, 4k gaming resolution, and much much more. The thing that gets people to buy the Xbox Series X over other consoles is its variety of games and the backwards compatibility with other Xbox games from past Xbox consoles. Now Xbox has some great titles like Halo, Gears of War, Sea of Thieves and Forza Horizon.

PlayStation 5:

The Xbox Series X and the Sony PlayStation5 are almost the same except for their exclusive games. The PS5 is the sixth generation of consoles for PlayStation unless you want to count out the PSP (PlayStation Portable). The PS5 and Xbox Series X had their ups and downs at launch and PlayStation must have worked really hard to make these consoles better than Xbox, they only managed to sell five of them at launch. These things keep selling out quick, it would take until the next generation of consoles to get your hands on them.

PlayStation has a much better reputation than Xbox because of how the Xbox One failed at launch and people switched over to PlayStation. But now the consoles are equal at power and to be honest, do we really need to talk about the specs? But nobody likes a console that doesn't have exclusives. Exclusive games for consoles give people a reason to choose. The only reason people go to pick up a new console is because they want to play the newest games (I’m looking at you Google Stadia). Here is a list of PS5 exclusive games that you can play: Astro’s Playroom, Destruction Allstars, Ratchet and Clank, and Spiderman Miles Morales.

The Evolution Of Game Consoles Throughout The Years

__________

By Ghost Wing, March 6, 2020

Mission Briefing: Tutorial Level

When most people think “Early Systems”, they think of many different things. Perhaps the first video game, PONG, Or maybe the Nintendo Entertainment System? Explanations differ between people, but the first system is not known by many. The first video game home console, “The Magnavox Odyssey Video Game Unit”, came out in 1972. It, however, was mostly forgotten in the market because of being overshadowed by PONG’s overwhelming success at the same time.

Level Two

The second generation started off with a bang with the Atari 2600. The Atari was a smashing hit in the video game market, with a game library of 470 unique games, which was quite big for the time. It also spawned hits such as “Space Invaders”, “Adventure”, “Dig Dug”, “Combat”, and “Pitfall!”. Adventure, one of the games for Atari, was famous for more than one reason. Not only is it a very early version of an RPG, but it also contained the first easter egg in a game, namely being a hidden room. Even today, many games’ roots start at games on the Atari 2600.

Checkpoint

It was in the third generation (also referred to as the 8-bit era) of video game consoles when the NES came in. This is where we hear the arcade smashers such as Super Mario and Mega Man come into the picture. Another game for the NES is the all famous “Excitebike”, which made it’s modern age debut as a special course named “Excitebike Arena” in Mario Kart 8. The Sega SG-1000 also hit the market during this period, bringing in games such as “Galaga”, and “Pitfall! 2: Lost Caverns”. One of the more important things about this era of video games is that it helped put an end to the North American Video Game Crash of 1983. This was pretty much the dark ages of video game history. The amount of video game consoles available was low and people's interest in video games overall had dropped. The NES was the thing that saved people’s interest in video games. Other game systems such as the Sega Master System, bearer of the famed Sonic The Hedgehog, came out along with the Atari 7800.

Level Up!

The 16-bit era came in after the third generation. The thing that really made this era stand out was the introduction of handheld game systems. The Nintendo Gameboy and Sega Game Gear are still systems used today. In fact, the beloved Kirby series made its first debut on the Nintendo Gameboy. Whereas some new consoles were introduced, others were upgraded. The SNES (Super Nintendo Entertainment System) and Sega Genesis flew in and further extended the Mario and Sonic games. Another event that happened during this time was the Mortal Kombat conspiracy. At the time it came out, Mortal Kombat was a controversial game because it was on the SNES and Sega Genesis. The reason it was controversial was because people didn’t like the idea of having a game that showed images of blood and gore on what was primarily thought to be a kids’ system. Nintendo refused to have a game with violence on their systems, so they did Mortal Kombat but took out the gore. Unfortunately, the gameplay was also messed up in the process, causing the SNES port to not be a popular one. Luckily, Genesis was a little smarter with their marketing. They disabled violence, but let out a code to turn it on. This version increased popularity because the gameplay wasn’t screwed up. It also gained popularity with adults who knew the code.

Area Advance

This generation brought a huge advancement. That is three dimensional graphics. Old time gamers may remember the titles such as the Nintendo 64, Sega Saturn, and the groundbreaking Playstation. Many recognize titles such as Final Fantasy VII, Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid, Silent Hill, Street Alpha Fighter 3, and Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night, which were all smash hits for PSX (A common abbreviation for Playstation) at the time. Some gamers such as myself still play these classics.

On the other side of the spectrum, Mario had pulled ahead of Sonic. Mario and Sonic had always been rival characters for rival companies, but Mario made a crucial move that placed him ahead: A 3D game. The first 3D Mario game was Super Mario 64, A three dimensional platformer for the Nintendo 64. Three dimensional graphics were a hot topic when they came around. Originally, both Mario and Sonic were going to have 3D games, but Sonic’s was cancelled. Sonic X-treme was intended to be the first 3D Sonic game for the Sega Saturn. The game was designed to be the game that would advertise the Sega Saturn. However though, it was cancelled, leading to the market failure of the Saturn. The Saturn failed, whereas the Nintendo 64 thrived.

New Fighter!

One of the biggest changes at this time was the introduction of the Xbox. The Playstation had been upgraded to the Playstation 2, Sega had introduced the Dreamcast, and Nintendo had brought in the GameCube and Gameboy Advance. But the Xbox rivaled the PS2 with titles such as Halo, Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Meanwhile, Nintendo’s Gameboy Advance introduced fan favorites such as Pokemon: Ruby/Sapphire, The Legend Of Zelda: The Minish Cap, Metroid Fusion, Mario Kart: Super Circuit, and Super Mario World. PS2 also maintained a strong ground with games such as Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Final Fantasy X, Soulcalibur II, God Of War II, and Kingdom Hearts II. Modern day gamers may recognize the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the newest generation of Microsoft and Sony consoles.

Boss Fight

Time to bring in the big guns! This generation brought in many of the modern consoles such as the Playstation 3, Xbox 360, and Nintendo Wii. The Xbox 360 came out first on November 22, 2005. After that, the Playstation 3 was introduced on November 11, 2006, which was shortly followed by the Nintendo Wii as of November 19, 2006. These systems brought in the revolutionary concept of motion gaming. Before the 7th generation, motion gaming was an unheard of, nonexistent concept. The Nintendo Wii was the thing that defined motion gaming technology. Afterwards, The Playstation Move was first shown at E3 2010, in which Sony announced that it would arrive in America on September 19, 2010. Only two months after the Playstation Move was released, Microsoft brought the Xbox Kinect to America as of November, 2010. It was first mentioned under the name “Project Natal” at E3 2009. Both the Move and Kinect were wildly popular, with the Playstation Move selling 4.1 million units within two months of its release, and the Xbox Kinect selling 2.5 million units in less than a month of it’s release. The Nintendo Wii, Playstation Move, and Xbox 360 were all revolutionary motion technology, and one of the things that defined the motion era.

High Score!

The eighth generation is the one filled with the modern consoles of today. Consoles such as the Playstation 4, Xbox One, Wii U, and Nintendo Switch. Despite the popularity of the Playstation 4 and Xbox One, the Nintendo Switch sold 3.2 million units in Japan in its first year, breaking the record set for most units by the Playstation 2. Other systems in this generation such as the Playstation Vita, the successor to the seventh generation’s Playstation Portable , were there. Many variations of the Nintendo 3DS were introduced, including the Nintendo 3DS XL, Nintendo 2DS, New Nintendo 3DS, New Nintendo 3DS XL, and the New Nintendo 2DS XL. And we’re all caught up to the present. Video games are still being made, and new technology is still being manufactured. One thing is for sure, this certainly isn’t “GAME OVER”!

Page updated

Report abuse