Game consoles 2016-2017: the most interesting novelties

Sony PlayStation 4 Slim is a smaller and, more importantly, cheaper version of the PS4 console from $400 to $300. Compared to the original, it has lost touch control buttons and digital audio output, but both of these losses are insignificant.

But the complete Sony DualShock 4 New gamepad received a slight improvement: now a separate LED on the touch panel informs about the health status of the main character of the game in a changing colour.

Otherwise, this is the good old PS4 released in 2013 with all its advantages and disadvantages. The main trump card is exclusive games, which are not available either on a PC or on a competing Microsoft console. These are, first of all, slasher Bloodborne, platformer Ratchet & Clank, action Uncharted 4: A Thief's End and horror Until Dawn. Another thing is that these and any other games for PS4 are twice as expensive as on PC. However, if you are not a particularly avid gamer who goes through an average of three to five big games per year, buying and maintaining a PS4 Slim will not hit you hard.

That the original PlayStation 4, that its cheapened Slim version, runs most modern games in a resolution of only 1600x900 pixels, with a frame rate of less than 30 and average (by PC standards) game settings. And it looks 900p-a picture on 1080p and even more so on a 4K TV, to put it mildly, is not perfect. To solve this problem, in parallel with the PS4 Slim, a special Pro version of the console was released, which costs $ 100 more.

If the PS4 Pro processor was only slightly overclocked in frequency (from 1.6 to 2.13 GHz), then the graphics accelerator was replaced with a new one, twice as powerful as the previous one (performance – 4 vs 2 Teraflops). As a result, the Pro version turned out to be even larger than the original PS4, but it still remained more compact than most gaming PCs.

At the user's choice, PS4 Pro offers three profiles of graphics settings in games: 1080p with 30 FPS at ultra graphics settings, 1080p with 60 FPS at high graphics settings and 4K with 30 FPS at medium graphics settings. There is already someone who is more important: maximum graphic effects, high smoothness of the picture or ultra-high resolution coinciding with the TV. It is the owners of 4K TVs who are the main target audience of the PS4 Pro.

The updated Xbox One S was Microsoft's answer to the PlayStation 4 Slim. The novelty also decreased in size and was repainted white, the power supply moved inside, and the price dropped to $ 300 for the version with a 500 GB hard drive. Models for 1 and 2 TB are also offered, which, given the low speed of downloading games from the Xbox Store digital store, is quite justified. The Xbox One S Wireless Controller has also been improved (see the article "Which gamepad to choose for PC: XInput or DirectInput?").

The main drawback of the original Xbox One – a graphics accelerator with a performance of only 1.4 TFlops – was inherited by version One S. Most games on the Microsoft console run at a resolution of only 1280x720 pixels, which makes the picture look fuzzy, blurred.

Nevertheless, for users who are undemanding to graphics, the Xbox One S can be a very profitable purchase. So, for a set of console plus two games (Forza Horizon 3 car racing and FIFA 17 football simulator), they ask only a little more than for the console itself. Both games are new and, taking into account the multiplayer, they are quite enough for several months of entertainment. However, an additional monthly fee is charged for access to the multiplayer.

The main novelty of this season's gaming devices was not the updated Sony and Microsoft consoles at all, but the PlayStation VR virtual reality helmet. At the start of sales, more than fifty paid and free VR games are available, some of which are exclusives, and the rest are ported from Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.

Sony engineers have done a good job on the ergonomics of the helmet. Unlike competing solutions, the main weight falls not on the user's face, but on the head. Thanks to this, you can comfortably sit in a helmet for much longer. However, it is also not worth tiring the eyes and the vestibular apparatus with too long immersion in virtual reality.

You can watch videos using PlayStation VR even when connected to a PC and Xbox One, but its gaming capabilities are fully revealed only when paired with PlayStation 4. Moreover, any version of PS4 is suitable: original, Slim or Pro. Also, for the maximum effect of immersion in VR, you will need to buy a PlayStation Camera and two PlayStation Move motion controllers.