Next Gen Consoles are super convenient

[jorgejjvr]

I have a gaming laptop, but it is becoming increasingly hard to choose it over the convenience of consoles (PS5, XSS, XSX).

They are fast and snappy now, thanks to the SSD, and easy straightforward UIs. They are also incredibly quiet. They all have resume features, where I can just start them up and keep playing exactly where I left them.

But more than that, with activities i can go straight to the side mission I want, and with quick resume, i can instantly load my last 5 games exactly where I left them.

But there is more. I can buy games from my phone, and choose to install on my consoles. When I get home, they are there. With Series X/S I can even download games I don't even own, so that when I do make the decision to buy, they are there.

Then there is remote play. Both work flawlessly for me now, and I use my razer kish for both. Basically, its not at all too different from my switch. I am playing my games from the comfort of my bed upstairs, or at my in laws, while doing my car maintenance, during lunch break at work etc. And if I ever want to take a console with me somewhere, I am finding it a lot easier to just pack the Series S vs my laptop.

A real world example I have, was recently during new years. I went to my inlaws there to celebrate. We had a lot of people over, and I forgot to take my series S over. But we wanted to play JackBox party pack 4 (on gamepass). But I did bring my razer kish. So I put it on my phone, I console stream on gamepass, started jack party pack 4 over the cloud, and did Smart View/mirror my phone to the TV and boom, we now had a party game for all to play. Then we played a LOT, and were thinking of playing other games in series (they were on sale), we were between party pack 5, 6 and 7, so I installed them all on my home series X from my inlaws, without buying them until we made a decision. Once the decision was made, I bought pack 6, remote play into my series x, the game was already downloaded since I had done it previously, and mirror the screen again on the tv, and now we were playing party pack 6. All seamless, almost as if I had brought my xbox over,

It felt like all I needed to do to play and have my full PS5 and XSX experience was to simply pack my razer kishi wherever I go, if I did that, I had a console experience I could take anywhere in my pocket.

Crazy convenient on all fronts.

 

[gdt]

But wait, there's more!

 

[Jaded Alyx]

I can buy games from my phone, and choose to install on my consoles. When I get home, they are there

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Well that's not new, old consoles have been doing that for a while.

You can also do this on Steam though your PC at home would have to be on.

 

[pswii60]

There's no doubt they are more convenient than PC.

The problem is that when I'm playing a game on them, I know they'd look/perform better on my RTX3080. If you don't have grass-is-always-greener-itis like me then it's very hard to fault the new consoles.

But with convenience always comes compromise, like everything in life.

 

[ngower]

I agree that the speed of everything is welcome--it was what I first loved about the Switch (no bloat, get right into games). I think it takes longer to boot up the PS5 from rest mode than it does to fast travel within Tsushima--it's absurd how snappy everything is. My time is precious and the less time I spend in loading screens, the more likely I am to sink time into games.

 

[Magnus]

Agreed OP. People gotta take a step back every now and then and appreciate all of this. It's really amazing.

 

[tabris]

There's no doubt they are more convenient than PC.

The problem is that when I'm playing a game on them, I know they'd look/perform better on my RTX3080. If you don't have grass-is-always-greener-itis like me then it's very hard to fault the new consoles.

But with convenience always comes compromise, like everything in life.

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I don't think convenience = compromise. It's actually price = compromise here. You are talking about a $700 graphics card that's probably attached to at least $500+ (MB, processor, SSD, Windows OS license, Case, Keyboard, Mouse, etc) but I'm going to assume if you're paying $700 for a graphics card you probably invested $1000 in everything else.

Consoles could target the same price and have something without compromise with same level of convenience.

 

[jorgejjvr]

Agreed OP. People gotta take a step back every now and then and appreciate all of this. It's really amazing.

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Yep, we've come a long way

 

[Fuhgeddit]

I still don't understand how remote play works. I can play games on my iPhone at someone else's house on their Wifi with my PS5 on sleep mode at home?

Like I've never done it and I think I'm just so busy and sort of lazy to figure it out? lol

 

[jorgejjvr]

I still don't understand how remote play works. I can play games on my iPhone at someone else's house on their Wifi with my PS5 on sleep mode at home?

Like I've never done it and I think I'm just so busy and sort of lazy to figure it out? lol

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Yes. You got it.

When you remote play to PS5, you wake your PS5 from sleep, and play your PS5 from somewhere else. Then you can put it back to sleep from remote play.

One day my wife was home and I remote play and I scared the crap out of her, the ps5 woke up by itself and she was on the TV, so to her it looked like it was playing a game by itself lol, with a mind of its own

 

[Relix]

I just wish the PS5 had the quick resume thing XSX has and it'll be perfect.

 

[oneils]

I still don't understand how remote play works. I can play games on my iPhone at someone else's house on their Wifi with my PS5 on sleep mode at home?

Like I've never done it and I think I'm just so busy and sort of lazy to figure it out? lol

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Yeah, that's pretty much it. However, a lot of the games I play don't have UIs that scale well on small screens. So I find it hard to play those games remotely on a small screen. So I never really use it.

edit
I would use it if the app was available on the tv itself. That would be cool. I'm not sure if the ps remote play app is available on my tv. I'd have to check.

 

[Fuhgeddit]

Yes. You got it.

When you remote play to PS5, you wake your PS5 from sleep, and play your PS5 from somewhere else. Then you can put it back to sleep from remote play.

One day my wife was home and I remote play and I scared the crap out of her, the ps5 woke up by itself and she was on the TV, so to her it looked like it was playing a game by itself lol, with a mind of its own

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Oh that's great, I want to give that a try ASAP then.

 

[jorgejjvr]

Oh that's great, I want to give that a try ASAP then.

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Yeah it's super simple. Sony has its official remote play app.

But if you have android, you can use the unofficial Psplay app, this let's you use 3rd party controller, like razer kishi, right now the official one only allows for DS4

 

[DarthWalden]

Yup, being able to hop from fortnite with my kids to Doom Eternal once they are in bed to getting a Pubg invite and hopping into play a few games of that only to hop right back into Doom Eternal right where I left off... All done in mere seconds thanks to the fast loads and quick resume.

I just absolutely love that I can be playing a single player game, I can get a game invite and I don't have to close or reboot what I'm playing. It's so great.

You'll notice I haven't been playing anything new but the next gen experience hasn't been at all about playing new games for me but more just the ease, speed and convenience of the systems thanks to the SSD and new features.

 

[60fps]

Yeah, that's pretty much it. However, a lot of the games I play don't have UIs that scale well on small screens. So I find it hard to play those games remotely on a small screen. So I never really use it.

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Exactly. Even on Switch, which was made with handheld gaming in mind, most games don't have UIs for the small screen. That's why I generally don't play Switch in handheld mode.

 

[Deleted member 86891]

remote play isn't console-exclusive? I use Steam Link and it works pretty well - played a game with minimal issues when I was out of state.

 

[Prine]

Quick Resume is a game changer in terms of QOL. It's made a massive difference to how I game. Its acceptable to drop in for a 15 minute session now. I play a lot of UFC3 (Gamepass + EA Play) with my brother in law who's staying over for a few months, we're instantly back into the game, with the previous match highlights playing, It's an incredible feeling to know I can do this.

 

[Dylan]

I feel like I share all of the excitement of the OP except for I feel this way about Stadia and other streaming services instead of consoles.

 

[jorgejjvr]

remote play isn't console-exclusive? I use Steam Link and it works pretty well - played a game with minimal issues when I was out of state.

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I thought steam link was local network only, didn't know I could leave my laptop home and remote play from another wifi/mobile network/location

Also, I take it I have to leave my laptop on? Idk how I feel about that. With console remote play I can remote play and put it back in rest mode

Can I use my Razer Kishi with it?

Where can I buy steam link?
I need to learn more about steam link, I would love it to work well for me

 

[808s & Villainy]

Weren't a lot of these features already staples of consoles? Straightforward UIs, resume, buying from stores remotely, signing into other systems, etc

 

[jorgejjvr]

Weren't a lot of these features already staples of consoles? Straightforward UIs, resume, buying from stores remotely, signing into other systems, etc

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Some yes, some no, all together makes it great even if some things aren't new

Some unique these time around, uis were slow, now they are fast. Overall everything is better and faster now. Activities and quick resume are new. Buying from stores and downloading remotely is old, but being able to download games without buying them is new. And yeah remote play is old, but works a lot better now

 

[Deleted member 86891]

I thought steam link was local network only, didn't know I could leave my laptop home and remote play from another wifi/mobile network/location

Also, I take it I have to leave my laptop on? Idk how I feel about that. With console remote play I can remote play and put it back in rest mode

Can I use my Razer Kishi with it?

Where can I buy steam link?
I need to learn more about steam link, I would love it to work well for me

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Steam Link for phones is a free app! you would have to leave your laptop on. not sure about the razer kishi, although I don't see why it wouldn't work

 

[jorgejjvr]

Steam Link for phones is a free app! you would have to leave your laptop on. not sure about the razer kishi, although I don't see why it wouldn't work

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I download the app on my phone, do I also need to download something on my laptop? I wanna try it, I just don't know about leaving it on. But I'll give it a shot here locally on my network

Sounds like it also works outside my network?

 

[PopcornMegaphone]

Quick resume is sooo good! Typically I'm a "one game at a time" person, but I'm much more willing to play games simultaneously now. Everything is so snappy and nice. I love it!

 

[Lobster Roll]

I've got a Series X and the exaggerated "come home, sit on couch, start gaming" commercials of the last 20 years are a reality now. I can walk into the other room and be back in Gallopolis in DQXI faster than my TV can boot up.

 

[Deleted member 86891]

I download the app on my phone, do I also need to download something on my laptop? I wanna try it, I just don't know about leaving it on. But I'll give it a shot here locally on my network

Sounds like it also works outside my network?

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you don't need to download anything on your laptop. yes you can use it out of network, you can use it even on LTE if you have unlimited data.

 

[djkimothy]

Loading up a spider-man save file or bouncing around Demon's souls levels pretty much turned my current gaming PC into a dust collector for now. I have a separate SSD for PS4 games and it has been a game changer.

 

[Naner]

Fast loads + quick resume made me enjoy videogames more.

Quickly switching between games is a huge QOL benefit.

 

[Ushay]

I've been smashing my way through Dragon Quest XI on XSX, and I do wonder how much time I'd be waiting if I played this game on the last gen consoles. The loading is instant, I absolutely love it and cannot play without this feature going forward. That and Quick Resume has been a life saver for me, we have a busy household and my son plays as well.

 

[Issen]

My gaming laptop comes with me wherever I go and all it needs to be a fully featured gaming set-up is a power outlet and an xbox controller. There really isn't anything that can compare except the Switch, and even then the Switch cannot compete with so many other PC niceties (high framerates for everything, universal BC...).

It's the ultimate convenience for me, whereas other things like the Xbox instant resume are more niceties than anything.

 

[Gibordep]

The new consoles are a huge upgrade on QoL. I don´t imagine going back to the previous generation. IF I have 10 minutes to play I play for 9:45, in the previous gen I would play for 5:00

Fast loads + quick resume made me enjoy videogames more.

Quickly switching between games is a huge QOL benefit.

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edit: And they are completely silent. I never heard my series X, and with the Pro I quit of playing games because how loud the console was.

 

[jorgejjvr]

I've been smashing my way through Dragon Quest XI on XSX, and I do wonder how much time I'd be waiting if I played this game on the last gen consoles. The loading is instant, I absolutely love it and cannot play without this feature going forward. That and Quick Resume has been a life saver for me, we have a busy household and my son plays as well.

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Yep, and being able to play dragon Quest on the go too, super useful

 

[TooBusyLookinGud]

Coming from primarily gaming on PC, the speed could be the reason I'm gaming on consoles more. They are both very fast now and I'm really enjoying this aspect. Quick Resume is amazing when it works and the PS5 launcher is fast too. Hades keeps crashing on my PC after I updated Windows and it has put me off too.

 

[defaltoption]

There's lots of reasons to love consoles I'm right there with you on most points but what I'll say is that I've never felt more like an early adopter/beta tester then I do with ps5 and on Xbox it feels like I've already ran out of things to play.

I feel like the ps5 already needs a full ui overhaul, the only thing it actually does well is play the games themselves. Any interaction with a menu of any kind is unintuitive, the way the disc spins constantly even when not played, the external drives and rest mode killing consoles, the way you delete something and it leaves that dumb ass icon on the screen.

Then with Xbox I can't even think of any upcoming games I want to play, of course games take time to make so even buying all of those studios only helps once they're ready but is Halo the only game they have for next year so far?

 

[kitler53]

100% agree.

the only thing i'm jelaous of with PC is the huge catalog of indie games that don't make their way to consoles. i was literally just looking at antichamber yesterday as a recommended puzzle game that i can't play on any console.

it's probably also nice that pc has access to all those "console exclusives".

 

[jorgejjvr]

My gaming laptop comes with me wherever I go and all it needs to be a fully featured gaming set-up is a power outlet and an xbox controller. There really isn't anything that can compare except the Switch, and even then the Switch cannot compete with so many other PC niceties (high framerates for everything, universal BC...).

It's the ultimate convenience for me, whereas other things like the Xbox instant resume are more niceties than anything.

Click to shrink...

I used to do that too, but my laptop gets incredibly hot, even if it's reasonably hot, it's uncomfortable for my lap, and I don't always want or have the chance to be at a table of sorts. And I'm also not going to carry a laptop cooler with me.

I was in your same shoes, but with the combination of cloud streaming, remote play, and things like gamepass, I'll rather carry a razer kishi with me and done, gaming anywhere

 

[jorgejjvr]

There's lots of reasons to love consoles I'm right there with you on most points but what I'll say is that I've never felt more like an early adopter/beta tester then I do with ps5 and on Xbox it feels like I've already ran out of things to play.

I feel like the ps5 already needs a full ui overhaul, the only thing it actually does well is play the games themselves. Any interaction with a menu of any kind is unintuitive, the way the disc spins constantly even when not played, the external drives and rest mode killing consoles, the way you delete something and it leaves that dumb ass icon on the screen.

Then with Xbox I can't even think of any upcoming games I want to play, of course games take time to make so even buying all of those studios only helps once they're ready but is Halo the only game they have for next year so far?

Click to shrink...

The medium comes out on 1/28

And Xbox is not all about exclusives, it's about gamepass which gets a bunch of 3rd party and indie games too. Ive played metro exodus, dmc 5, dragon Quest, fallen jedi, etc that aren't unique to Xbox sure, but I would have never bought those games myself, and had a chance to play them

I would just browse the gamepass catalog, and see if there's 3-5 games you like, exclusives or not. The exclusives will come, but gamepass value is more than that

 

[J_ToSaveTheDay]

Yeah, there's enough really good quality of life experiences that actually do elevate the kind of every day game playing experience enough to be a noticeably positive experience overall.

There's still some launch negatives like crashes and bugs, and some people might reasonably argue that this start is steeped deeply in cross-gen transition with the software on offer, though I personally still think the "next-gen" versions of cross-gen games generally make up for the lack of dedicated next-gen titles. Playing AC Valhalla at mostly 60fps on console is awesome to me.

I'm finding it pretty awesome overall.

 

[Judge]

I just wish the PS5 had the quick resume thing XSX has and it'll be perfect.

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And vice versa! If Xbox had the activities feature PS5 has it would be great too haha

 

[Instant Vintage]

Even though I've had my PS5 since Day 1, my first real moment of "This was totally worth every cent" was when I finally bought my own copy of Immortals:FR last week. (Had been using my brother's copy.)

I installed it on my PS5 and my PS4 Pro. The fact that I LITERALLY (like, for real) loaded up the game, went to a random vault and was almost through the first part of it on PS5 before the PS4 Pro had even loaded the same save was just *chef's kiss*.

Just turning on my Pro shines a real light on how sluggish the 8th gen was and how much I didn't mind it until 9:35 AM on November 12th. Now it's like I can't even stand to turn on the damn thing. It wasn't like that coming from 360/PS3 to One/PS4.

Even giving my child my One X and setting it up was SLOW. I'm thankful for the convenience of the new consoles and backwards compatibility, because I can't go back. I refuse to.

 

[Transistor]

Suspend / resume alone has pushed me to be more of a console player than a PC player. As someone with kids, it's just so much easier to pick up my controller and hit the PS / Xbox button to start back where I was, and then if my kid needs something, I can instantly put the console to sleep without any interruption.

 

[Issen]

I used to do that too, but my laptop gets incredibly hot, even if it's reasonably hot, it's uncomfortable for my lap, and I don't always want or have the chance to be at a table of sorts. And I'm also not going to carry a laptop cooler with me.

I was in your same shoes, but with the combination of cloud streaming, remote play, and things like gamepass, I'll rather carry a razer kishi with me and done, gaming anywhere

Click to shrink...

Streaming just doesn't meet my needs. Even in ideal conditions the latency is too much, and conditions are most often pretty far from ideal.

For heat when there is no table to use, I just use the back of the same backback I use to carry it. That said, I also undervolt and repaste my laptops, but I understand this is not for everyone. Thermal management is getting better though, and you can always limit your CPU or GPU to something like 70% performance, tweak your games to run well under those limits (in a pinch something as basic as dropping resolution will do) and still enjoy the many benefits a gaming laptop has besides performance.

 

[Vimto]

Nothing beats alt tab for me.

 

[jorgejjvr]

Streaming just doesn't meet my needs. Even in ideal conditions the latency is too much, and conditions are most often pretty far from ideal.

For heat when there is no table to use, I just use the back of the same backback I use to carry it. That said, I also undervolt and repaste my laptops, but I understand this is not for everyone. Thermal management is getting better though, and you can always limit your CPU or GPU to something like 70% performance, tweak your games to run well under those limits (in a pinch something as basic as dropping resolution will do) and still enjoy the many benefits a gaming laptop has besides performance.

Click to shrink...

I sometimes tend to use a USB c charger, not the charger it comes with, to deal with heat, even if it means I'm playing at 30 fps lol

And yeah, tweaking with the laptop itself, and all those settings, are far from convenient for me. That's probably why I like consoles too, I don't enjoy messing with settings. I'll rather pick performance or quality mode and done lol

Yeah idk, I am finding the laptop side more of a hassel for me. If I need a overall thing, meaning I'm traveling so I need to check on work, plus just personal emails and stuff, plus gaming, yeah I'll pack my laptop, specially if I'm flying. But if not, razer kishi is more than enough

 

[degauss]

Suspend / resume alone has pushed me to be more of a console player than a PC player. As someone with kids, it's just so much easier to pick up my controller and hit the PS / Xbox button to start back where I was, and then if my kid needs something, I can instantly put the console to sleep without any interruption.

Click to shrink...

Exact same here. Although I made the transition in the PS4-era when it was a crappier experience, but for similar reasons. Now with PS5 it's golden, literally no drawbacks except disk space which I can solve when they support internal drives.

 

[Mahonay]

Uh what are y'all doing having big New Years parties?

 

[Deleted member 76797]

Quick Resume is a game changer in terms of QOL. It's made a massive difference to how I game. Its acceptable to drop in for a 15 minute session now. I play a lot of UFC3 (Gamepass + EA Play) with my brother in law who's staying over for a few months, we're instantly back into the game, with the previous match highlights playing, It's an incredible feeling to know I can do this.

Click to shrink...

so i guess it's not just me that prefers UFC3 to UFC4

 

[Pilgrimzero]

I'm really enjoying my Series S. Last Xbox I owned was a 360. The backwards compatibility is gravy but I wish I could stream the 360 games to my pc like a regular game. My only disappointment

 

[jorgejjvr]

Uh what are y'all doing having big New Years parties?

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Just family that have been quarantined for most of the year, got together 1 time this year at home lol