Comparisons

I wish to touch on this subject but before I do I want to share with you a few tips on getting one of these consoles. What I will type is based on the situation before and at the time of writing. First use a reputable retail store within your region when purchasing these consoles. I have seen people who have tried to buy these consoles from websites that would have recently popped up and are not genuine claiming to be having the console. Most got scammed, some never received the product and some got something else from what they had ordered. Do not be desperate at all because I tell you guys the situation will get better over time as the consoles flood the market. There is obviously a lot of factors contributing to the shortage chief among them being the global pandemic.

Secondly try your best to buy not from what I call generic retail outlets but rather retail stores than focus primarily on gaming. I say this because since their focus area is gaming there is a commitment from the store to get stock and deliver the product to the consumer. Sometimes big retail stores take time to update on whether they have stock or they out of stock as they focus on a variety of things. Setup an online account with a safe secure online retail store make sure you put all necessary details required so that at the time of purchase you don't fumble around looking for say your banking details and they will be a lot of people purchasing at the same time while stocks last. Try to follow reputable stores on twitter to get quick fresh updates and links for purchase.

Lastly I want to give a heads-up to people in my region and that is South Africa. One of the best places to acquire especially the Playstation 5 is BTGame stores apart from me having obtained one from them let me tell you why. I have over 5 accounts with different retail stores and also follow a lot of them on twitter but their biggest problem was that they couldn't deal with the scalpper. I am not going to disclose how BTGames does it but they do an excellent job at making sure the scalpper wont have the upper hand. Just register with them. As for the majority of the stores you have to do a 10second or even less race to click and checkout purchase and more so hope your order doesn't get cancelled. With BTGames there's no such a thing. I don't get any benefits with this referral to them nor do I intend to but I just want you who are struggling to get this console to at least find a good chance to secure it. I have been there its stressful and difficult to always find the words "sold out".

Now to the main issue of comparisons. I follow a lot of influential and reputable channels that brilliantly do system comparisons for gaming. I want to first highlight what I think are the positives of this before I really take time to critique the whole idea. Now obviously when a game is compared on how it works on different platforms it gives us the fans and consumers knowledge on what that specific hardware can achieve for us running that game. It will help us in our purchase decision making and also in a way makes game developers, system developers, consoles developers and the whole gaming world within the making of games accountable for what they make and release to their markets.

Now to the serious sensitive issue, is Playstation 5 or Series X or S and or high-end PCs the best way of gaming? Which among them is the best? Let me tell you why I wont give you an answer and why I am actually growing to loathe this topic. Firstly who remembers the days where we used to play FIFA 98, Tomb Raider, Tekken 2, Granturisimo, Grand theft Auto Vice City, Smackdown 2006 etc just naming a few? At what frames where we playing those games on? At what resolution? on which TV? Who really cared is the question? Gaming was all about "dude I am coming over to your house to play Halo with you or Zelda God of war or something". And the answer "was sure come over lets party". That was it guys but what is bringing about this change?

What I see today is "hahaha Xbox is trash it has no games", "Playstation is trash it cant do 4k", "you cant be playing games on no less than 4k", "Console players are peasants", "I will just upgrade my pc and not waste money on a console" and the list goes on and on into what is being called "Console Wars and Fanboys". I find this appalling. Gaming in this way is losing its essence due to comparisons. Gaming should be about socially having fun and also bringing you positive memories.

I have met people who say they will upgrade their PC to match a console. My first question to you who say that in a spiteful way is why do you think there is a console business? Do you fully understand and are you an engineer in the field? See the problem with people is that they pick one single aspect and run with it. It does not take a graphic card alone to run a game its more than that. You need the software, the right cooling system, the OS, RAM etc. As for Xbox has no games what is Gears of War then? Console players are peasants? How much money do you have to spend to get a true gaming PC? How many consoles can I buy from that? If you can afford brilliant but does it help to make others feel bad.

The best way to go about it is, what gaming Library do I currently have? What have I always enjoyed? What can I afford? Do I like multiplayer games and what do my friends have? What kind of resolution and performance targets do I enjoy the most? Do I care much for exclusive games or not? The issue is about YOU not battling the whole world with your opinion about what plays and works best.

Clearly I did not like the marketing campaign of Xbox saying "games play best on Xbox" and it is the worlds most powerful console and later on they had to change it. Give us good competition without bringing negativity to a specific brand even in the slightest of ways. I think this also accelerated the console wars. Don't get me wrong I enjoy both consoles but I have all the liberty to be myself and express my views not for popularity but just my honest opinion as both a client, customer, fan and part of the gaming market.

Each took a different approach and each machine serves you best primarily dependent on how the developer wished to expressed themselves on their project. Its not about which is the best hardware its the work the developer is going to dedicate on that hardware and its limitations, resources specifications etc. This rules out even comparing a gaming PC with a console built for a 7 year cycle. Look at Call of duty ghosts (came out in 2013 I really love It), it was widely criticized for its graphics but recently we had COD Modernwarfare(2019 release). Then can we conclude a console performance or PC based on the current state of affairs? By now we should know it takes years for developers to get used to a system and be able to harness all its capabilities into making a stunning game both visually and performance wise. We saw this with the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. A few years before Playstation 4 and Xbox One got released games were looking very good, the likes of Gears of War 3, The Last of us, God of war Ascension etc. Today we have even more visually stunning games like Gears 5 and Ghost of Tsushima just naming a few as examples. Its clearly evident technology is not static, you may have a RTX 3090 today but in the near future especially with PC graphic cards you will be out of date. We see it with cellphones too, you will clearly lose your mind trying to keep up.

My answer to you is enjoy the game/s on the platform you like and if you like both like me why not enjoy both if you can. Frame drops will always be there and even your eye can barely notice. Resolution will always drop here and there and all sorts of things fluctuate while you enjoy your game. Fighting over it will only create a toxic environment which is why I think comparisons must come to an end or If they could approach the whole comparison method differently. I have had some people say "I wont play online because I have a poor mans console, guys with good gaming rigs will beat me" and yet they are great players feeling insecure and shadowed with the console wars. There is clearly need for a different approach than seemingly removing interest from say Xbox because they say its unstable in frames and say rather be on Playstation or PC. Its not fair for the product and the market it serves and in times like we are in the last thing we need is console wars.

In conclusion comparisons are clearly losing their purpose but just creating a wild fanatic fan base full of hounding toxicity, disrespect a lot of bickering and people seem to forget to enjoy the games but rather are constantly stressing on how they can play the games better. Just have fun and happy gaming.

Cheers and happy gaming.