The Xbox Series X Review: Ushering In The Next Generation of Game Consoles
by Brett Howse on November 5, 2020 9:00 AM ESTGameplay Analysis: Gears 5
As one of the few titles available pre-launch that is “Optimized for X|S” platform, Gears 5 is a great chance to see what some of the optimizations might bring about for the Xbox Series X. With the Xbox Series X offering about double the GPU performance, and far more CPU power on tap compared to the Xbox One X, we should be easily able to see games that ran at 4K 30 FPS jump up to 60 FPS, and 4K60 jump up to 4K120.
Gears 5 Cutscenes
The first optimization that is instantly noticeable moving between the Xbox Series X and the Xbox One X is how much smoother the cutscenes were. With the additional hardware the newly optimized game jumps from 30 FPS on the Xbox One X to 60 FPS on the new console.
Xbox One X Texture Sample
Xbox Series X Texture Sample
Zooming in on individual frames, the Xbox Series X is also able to leverage more detailed textures as well, as everything in the scene is much sharper than it was on the Xbox One X.
Gears 5 Gameplay
Gameplay was a different story, as both the Xbox One X and Xbox Series X both allow for 60 FPS gameplay, although the Xbox Series X will offer 120 FPS multiplayer, at the expense of visual quality. The Unreal Engine 4 used in Gears 5 uses dynamic resolution to keep the framerates at or close to 60 FPS on both consoles, but with the more powerful hardware on the new console it is able to keep the average resolution higher and with a higher framerate.
Gears 5 was first released over a year ago on PC and console, so it is interesting to see Microsoft choose it as a launch title for the Series X. The move to 120 FPS multiplayer should be a boon for smoothness and latency, although it will almost certainly require a new television to get the most out of, and with variable refresh rate available as well. Still, this is a nice update for the Gears 5 game. The optimizations have been around both visual quality, as well as framerate and latency, and show off what tweaking existing titles can do with the new hardware.
Here's a clip of Gears 5, showing the new 60 FPS cutscenes with the high-detail textures on the Series X.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
68 Comments
View All Comments
Kangal - Saturday, November 7, 2020 - link
I haven't seen any TV, Radio, or Billboard ads. Even the buzz online has been quite mute.Despite that, 2020 is a bad time for console release. Not only is the pandemic risk a real problem, but the component supply issues are tough, the people having a lot less spending money is massive, and on top of that software and game developers have also been hit.
Now every disadvantage has it's advantage!
1) I think this was the perfect opportunity for MS to one-up and beat the console race, by pulling a "pro move". And what I mean about that is that MS should have trolled Sony, by developing a next-gen console that is launching in December, priced much higher, have worse specs, be much hotter, be much louder, look uglier, have a confusing name, and have gimmicky launch titles. So it's basically a 4K-checkerboard console with NO RayTracing. Yep, even going as far as sending lots of units to game publishers to work on, some individual units to online reviewers, and even limited supply to retailers. This would've meant Sony develops a PS5 that's even worse than now in terms of features (No RayTracing) and specs (20%-60% slower), and at a higher $600 price, to help the company profit-margin.
2) Then at the last minute, bam, MS apologises and cancels the product just before launch. Then cite the covid restrictions, supply issues, etc etc as the culprit. But promise to release the system very soon when they are ready. A slimy business move indeed. It will have the half-baked PS5 competing with itself, which doesn't matter, as PS4 had won the current-gen console race.
3) Then "re-develop" the next-gen console to actually release a year later, in Oct 2021. By this period, they would have stopped Xbox One/S/X production and ended stock. And released the "Xbox Two" as a better named, beautiful console, that runs cold, runs silent, ships with the Elite2 controller, and has a couple awesome exclusive games. It would run all enhanced "XB1X" games, and it supports next-gen games with an output of 4K-HDR-RayTracing with 120fps, but all games are actually rendered in 1080p. So because of the questionable 4TF RDNA +2 GPU its only a slight upgrade (modest upgrade to Base Xbox One), and priced equal to the discounted Xbox OneX at $300. Even worse it lacks a Disc tray, so it is Digital Only which gives a monopoly to MS for game sales and streaming. However, thanks to the much faster 4.0GHz Zen3 CPU, 16GB GDDR6 memory, and the Soldered 512GB nVme SSD, it does support all next-gen titles. So this rounds out the Xbox One era, with no reviewers sent any units, with all retailers having full stock already, it is ready for sale right away, shocks the industry and defeats the 1 year old $600 PS5 on a strict value proposition.
4) But wait, there's more!
Upon release of the Xbox Two, one week later MS holds a press release/announcement. This is their true fifth-gen console aptly named "The Xbox V". It's even better named, more beautiful design, runs silent, runs cool, released cheaper and better than expected. The next day and following, there are ads for it everywhere on TV, Radio, Billboards, and everywhere online. Whilst pre-orders start the next week, for a sweet $500 price, with heaps of stock in MS's warehouses boxed and ready. They would also have a new 5th-gen controller dubbed "XP5" for Xbox Pad 5 with an updated design. It also uses upgraded parts like 4.0GHz Zen3 CPU, a more modern 12TF RDNA2+ GPU, ample 32GB GDDR6 memory, and a 1TB nVme SSD that is user replaceable. Not to mention a much more polished API, Software, and launch titles/exclusives (not gimmicky). Overall there's a huge and noticeable (30%-90%) performance difference between the "half-baked PS5" versus the "enhanced Xbox V". This means PS5 suffers immensely with all third-party releases for the entire generation (not enough RAM, worse APIs, and slower CPU and GPU), and this new console package with such an instant reveal and launch puts Sony at a difficult position. Hence, having an early victory in 2020 for Sony proves useless in terms of profit and market share, and the console race really heats up.
PS: ....with all this hypothetical yet possible scenario laid out, I should note Nintendo lost a similar opportunity with the Switch console. Which could have retailed more/less price, and launched same/earlier period, YET using the new technologies it could have been much more advanced and even more powerful than the PS4, thus supporting all third-party games from the current-gen consoles. It would've extended its effective lifetime, not be obsolete so quickly. Perhaps remain relevant in the next-gen console era as well, instead of relying on gimmicks, fans, and nostalgia.
persondb - Saturday, November 7, 2020 - link
That would require Microsoft to know ahead about the current situation. Because you know, hardware takes a long time to develop and it was likely finalized just before the start of this pandemic. Same for playstation really.Tams80 - Sunday, November 8, 2020 - link
This is what an uninhibited stream of fanboi fantasy looks like.Utterly clueless, impractical, unrealistic, and silly. Move along; nothing to see here.
TesseractOrion - Sunday, November 8, 2020 - link
Total drivel.Kangal - Sunday, November 8, 2020 - link
I concur.Still fun thought exercise. Besides fact is stranger than fiction.
cmdrdredd - Monday, November 9, 2020 - link
People without disposable income have made the PS4 Pro and Nintendo switch disappear from retail supply though. Seems people have more money than you thinkFloridaMan - Friday, November 20, 2020 - link
Sir,Corporate espionage is a real thing. Nearly all tech companies engage in an array of both soft and hard spying to know what the competition is bringing to the table.
AMD would be point entropy in this situation. Not only is a third party designing for both Sony and MS, but their using the same architecture as well. One has less room to differentiate their product within those lines. However, this is beneficial to the consumer as developers are working between a framework rather than having to code for separate entities.
Gone are the days where one might wait a year for game to port. (At least for consoles. The PCMASTERACE still locked behind this constraint on many titles, but we are patient, and mighty! What cannot be unlocked will be emulated, modded or synthesized!)
Yojimbo - Thursday, November 5, 2020 - link
I don't know if that's true or not, as I don't watch any TV. But maybe they feel it would be counterproductive in this environment. Hyping something up that will be in short supply for a while might make people frustrated. And by short supply I don't mean the supply will be low, I mean that demand will already outstrip supply without any advertising.The console market as a whole is probably pretty stable without any advertising, but Sony and Microsoft would want to gain an edge against each other in enthusiasm. So I would expect campaigns to try to influence people. Perhaps at first they will be a bit more subtle? (such as to get their product talked about on gamer youtuber channels, etc...) Then it's out there in people's minds without the direct, implicit promises of availability that come with direct advertising.
MonkeyPaw - Thursday, November 5, 2020 - link
Maybe they know they're facing supply shortages and there's no point in paying for advertising to sell a product that might already be sold out through the end of the year. I think enough gamers knew about PS5 and XSX that a tv commercial wouldn't move the needle.HarryVoyager - Saturday, November 7, 2020 - link
That would be my suspicion. As I understand it, the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S have all, already, completely sold out in most markets, and it will be a while until they've got enough hardware on hand to make more.At that point a big ad blitz is just going to cost you money.