Sorry to be cranky but both XSX and PS5 has honestly been a big fat meh so far for me. Both consoles looks to be weaker than I expected, a few great games are out but none has blown me away tech wise, Ratchet is the one that has impressed me the most but it’s not enough. Maybe Starfield will impress, we’ll see, but I’ll play that on PC anyway so idk
I don't think you are being cranky, and I am with you. We were promised so much this gen and for the first time in a while I even fell for it. I was sold on the super fast SSD dream and RDNA 2 magic etc. Velocity architecture. all this marketing speak. Yes, I think the consoles have some amazing quality of life improvements thanks to the SSD ( loading and quick resume) but now, 2 years in. I am thinking they got me with the hype cycle. Games will just be the same old shit....just less of them and more delays, nothing super exciting or revolutionary...every one is sticking to the focus tested tried and tested formula we have seen for years that is supposed to guarantee a certain amount of sales.
I am convinced we wont see the PS5 or series X used in true meaningful ways this gen. Maybe next gen, Sony will make good on Cernys talks of how levels can be designed etc thanks to the SSD. Maybe we get a CPU designed around AMD's 3D cache coupled with an awesome GPU that uses true machine learning upscaling and has a decent array of raytracing cores coupled with an impressive SSD and it all works.
It's going to take years to find developers that can learn how to use engines, and the hardware. Everyone will move to Unreal Engine 5 ( or a lot) and developers will try to latch on to the next big thing that sells gang busters.
Not to be a debby downer but I am convinced that software is not performing well for any one across the board, apart from a few outliers. Nothing compared to what Sony were seeing in the peak of the PS4 and this will further hamper development as they push more towards PC and keeping the PS4 around for longer as they can't manufacture enough PS5s.