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: The Wolf Among Us
Although a cell-shaded game like The Wolf Among Us, created by Telltale games, may not seem like a particularly taxing game to test on the Xbox One X and the Xbox Series X, this PC port is actually quite demanding on the consoles, with the Xbox One and Xbox One X both exhibiting stuttering and framerate drops. So, why not see how the more powerful Series X can handle it?
Although both consoles were not able to maintain 60 FPS 100% of the time, the Xbox One X most definitely had more frame time jumps, and lowered framerate more often.
Looking at this scene, the Xbox Series X does drop the framerate slightly, but far less than the Xbox One X, and without quite as large of a frame time spike either.
This happens quite often, with the Xbox One X running into a wall much more often and with more of an impact than the more powerful Series X.
Although the framerate of The Wolf Among Us is not a key to the gameplay, it does keep you immersed, and frame time spikes can really jar the eye as a sudden hitch in the game. Telltale games clearly did not do a great job porting this to the console, but it does give is a good chance to see where the new console can improve the gameplay of an older title.
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eastcoast_pete - Saturday, November 7, 2020 - link
You're correct, and Brandon was outstanding in this movie (by Elia Kazan, I believe). Thought Stallone did borrow that line for Rocky, but it's been a while that I watched it. That being said, the "S" is at risk of being the bum among consoles, and the fact that it's readily available for pre-order suggests it's not rocking many boats out there.flyingpants265 - Friday, November 6, 2020 - link
One or two of the cores are doing things not related to games.flyingpants265 - Friday, November 6, 2020 - link
What exactly is the point of the Series S? The whole point of consoles is that they're standardizedandrewaggb - Friday, November 6, 2020 - link
The trend started with the ps4 pro and xbox one x. They're still fairly standardized, same peripherals, same cpu, same gpu archicture, same software. Series S is just for 1080p only and will probably have somewhat lower quality textures because it has less ram.Shlong - Monday, November 9, 2020 - link
The Series S also doesn't have updated graphics for backward compatibility games. The graphical updates for Xbox One games will show up on Series X but not S.cmdrdredd - Monday, November 9, 2020 - link
That went out the window a while back. Now it's just a brand, the Xbox. All games using smart delivery work on any Xbox One or Series console and will use the appropriate settings and resolution for that console. Not unlike graphics settings in your PC. I could ask what the point of a RTX3070 is and the answer is the same. A lower power and cheaper alternative that is good enough for a lower resolution.eastcoast_pete - Friday, November 6, 2020 - link
Thanks for the first look/review, Brett! Question: Did you have a chance to see just how fast the USB 3.1 connection is when a. Used with an external SSD or b. a regular 7200 rpm HDD. Especially interested in getting an idea how fast or slow it is to transfer some of the games you tested back into the built-in SSD. If you haven't tested it but still have the unit, can you try it? Thanks!Brett Howse - Saturday, November 7, 2020 - link
Thanks for the question. I don't actually have a USB SSD drive to test this. I do have a slower USB HDD but I think it would end up being the bottleneck and would give unreliable results. I think whether this is worth it for you is whether you have fast internet or not.I'll still try the USB HDD this weekend and just see how it goes and let you know.
eastcoast_pete - Saturday, November 7, 2020 - link
Thanks Brett, even a regular HDD will give an initial idea. Regarding an external SSD: Maybe someone else at AT has an external SSD they can lend you? With the current pricing for the proprietary add-on SSD, a half-priced external SSD connected by USB 3.1 is an interesting alternative. Assuming the Series X supports about 350 - 400 MB/second over USB, I'd probably get a 1TB external SSD and keep an external 8 TB HDD for "cold storage".Brett Howse - Saturday, November 7, 2020 - link
Just so you are clear on this, any USB connected drive is not capable of being used for Series X|S games. It can be used for storage only. To play the new games they have to be on internal storage or on the Seagate storage drive. You'd have to shuffle games around if you want to keep them on USB.