Arts & Culture
The Second Console Wars - Mario's Revenge!

It seems like only yesterday that we were all excited about the next generation of consoles.

We got to say farewell to our old, almost geriatric friends; the PS3 and the Xbox 360, which both enjoyed a hugely impressive run of almost 10 years on the market! And we welcomed their bold successors with open, eager arms with the promise of HD gaming, proper VR support and of course a litany of shiny new games to play.

But it seems the two giants of console gaming have decided that all this new power isn’t enough for mere mortals, and they’ve decided to lock horns once again before Christmas gets into full swing with their latest, uprated offerings.

Microsoft appear to have struck first with their ‘new’ Xbox One S, adhering to a trend the motor industry has had since the 90s of adding the letter S to things to make them sound like an improvement. Now capable of playing 4k Blu-ray and streaming, yet somehow 40% smaller than its sister console, the One S can house up to 2TB of storage and includes High Dynamic Range, which makes everything look prettier.

You also get something called an IR Blaster, which turns the One S into some kind of base station that turns on everything in your house from one point. So no more searching for every remote to turn on the TV, sound system and other accoutrements, just turn on the Xbox and you’re away it would seem. Of course, this is just a ploy to make you use your console more as the centre piece of your home entertainment suite, but it does seem pretty nifty if you’re a bit lazy…

Of course, Sony have immediately hit back and in November will be releasing the PS4 Pro (not the GTR? RS? At least the Competizione Speciale?!) which comes with similar features as you’d expect, but also claims to be the “world’s most powerful console”. Bold claim from Japan, but as always this is a case of ‘anything you can do, we can do better’.

To that end, the PS4 Pro will be geared towards getting the maximum out of Sony’s latest 4K TV range (mentioned earlier in the Tech column) meaning games like No Man’s Sky and Horizon: Zero Dawn will probably burst from your fancy new screens like an immersive Picasso painting. And of course, this will only enhance your experience when twinned with the PlayStation VR kits.

But that’s not all! 1080p Share Play for a group experience in high definition, 1080p Remote Play so you can get the best out of your other devices and enhanced wi-fi that will hopefully kill lag from your router, it’s shaping up to be an interesting fight once again between the console giants.

And if you’re struggling for a third option, Nintendo announced their revolutionary new Switch console during October. As soon as we have more details on this we will bring them to you, but it looks like a hybrid console you can play at home or on the move. So the best of both worlds for gamers then, you no longer have to rely on terrible graphics and unresponsive on-screen controls from a tablet, and we get classic Nintendo playability on a proper console again!

Welcome back to the console war Nintendo!