I currently play on an Xbox One but it’s struggling to run the new TSW3 routes, particularly Southeastern High Speed. TSW3 is the only game I have on the console with about 15 add-ons. Nothing too disruptive, but I’m losing a couple of seconds per minute of gameplay. I’m thinking of buying an Xbox Series S but wanted to know if other players think it’ll improve my experience? I know it won’t be as good as the Series X, but I can’t afford one of those! Would appreciate any advice.
The Series S is a fine console. Obviously the Series X is going to be much better and yes it's noticeable, it's a fairly significant upgrade particularly if you have 4K equipment. But at 1080p, the Series S runs just fine and has all the layers and graphics settings used on the X. I've got both Series S and Series X at home and I love how well the Series S does for its low price point. I would absolutely recommend the Series X if you can afford it - but if not, you will get a very good experience out of the Series S.
Go for the series X because you have the ability to play disk games and also digital copy. Also the ability to use 4K resolution which the Series S can struggle. Series X uses PC timetable since 2021 Rush Hour update.
Not sure how the audio is on the One, but you may be in for a nasty surprise on the Series consoles, as since TSW3 the audio quality is seriously nerfed. This was reported and acknowledged months ago but as far as I know nothing as yet has been done to address it. Pretty shocking really, not even a whisper on the roadmap.
If you're okay with that then that's fine. The XB sounds were fine in TSW2, I find it unacceptable that they are so bad in TSW3 and no action is being taken to rectify that.
I've got the pc version PlayStation 5 version and xbox series x version and after many many hours of play I can honestly stay the xbox series x is the one for me. Quick load times and gameplay for the most part is smooth. Yes the odd micro stuttering but not like the pc or ps5. Also tsw2 is very smooth a lot better than tsw3.
Yeah, listening to the 422's door warning sound makes me wanna stick my head in the toilet and flush.
The game runs excellent on the Series X in most situations. I'd recommend it if you have the ability to buy one. I've also always heard good stuff about the S from a pricepoint vs performance point of view but I have never actually used one.
I'm willing to bet that an awful lot of Series S owners who bought the console for general gaming purposes will heavily disagree with that bit. It might be "just fine" (does this now mean the "out of memory" issues are now a thing of the past?) for TSW but away from the world of trains you WILL be stepping into the realms of poor performance and/or 30fps gaming, so for those who (like myself) 'upgraded' from X1X this most definitely isn't a step forward where overall gaming is concerned. The other thing which doesn't really get mentioned is the fact that Series S comes with no optical drive (and no support for one either) so not only are you locked into the insanely overpriced digital marketplace, you're also stuck in Microsoft's "no refunds" policy when it comes to trying to return something from that rapidly increasing list of poor quality content. Great for developers (take the money and fix it at their discression..sounds familiar?) but not so great from a consumer standpoint. In an ideal world the Series S has/had (maybe it's too late in the day now) the potential to be an ideal piece of kit...but until the day those consumer safeguards are well and truly updated there are no levels of recommendaion whatsoever for it. I see it as like really, really wanting a Scalextric for christmas but your parents buying you TCR instead because it was cheaper...and even though it feels like it does the job "just fine", the more you play it, the more you realise it, well, doesn't! The other thing I thought I'd mention is, if TSW on Xbox is indeed "just fine" then how comes you no longer show it doing it's stuff on you official streams?
For me, and I really only play TSW, my series S does the job just fine. Given one of my kids normally pinches the X, I end up with the S most of the time. It's now sitting next to me in the office helping me test AddonManager builds. I haven't bought a physical disk for any platform in a very long time, maybe midway through Xbox One years. Same for BluRay. I am digital only. I'll take part in sales when they come up, or use GamePass any other time. Ironically, the most recent physical disk game I bought, I think was for japanese imports of "RailFan" and "RailFan 2" at some horrendous price, for a PS3. I also had to buy a PS3. Sorry but I can't stand physical media, so for me, the S not having a drive is a pro, not a con. I appreciate many will have a different take on that. For a £250 machine, I have modest expectations. If you're expecting 60fps gaming out of a £250 console, you're probably going to need to reset your expectations a tad. Not everyone can afford an X - for those that can, I will always recommend it, it's a far better machine, but it's also far more expensive. IMHO, for what you pay, you get a decent machine and its a major step up from Gen 8, but if you're expecting it to run like an X, then you will be extremely disappointed. And as far as TCR, I really enjoyed mine, thanks - never really got on with Scalextric! Each to their own I guess, eh? Peace. Matt.
Agree, I had a one x and upgraded to series x and it's hugely different. I'll be honest I still play on pc bur series x dies very well. Pc world do a good deal to split cost down
My last five physical purchases (in no particular order) I have made are: Dakar Desert Rally (preorder) @£26.80 (and sold for £25) Transport Fever 2 (preorder) @£34.25 PGA 2K23 (about a month after release) @£26.50 WRC Generations preorder @£27.80 (and sold for £22.01) Raiden IV: Mikado Remix (preorder) @£28. *This included £5 worth of loyalty points towards my next online purchase. These are games I would have bought regardless....but due to the fact I have an optical drive and the ability to shop around, that represents an approximate £70 saving (including what I received for selling on two of the games) over buying the same five games at the same time on Series S. Or more to the point, that has effectively made my XSX £70 cheaper! The upshot being that if you buy games reasonably frequently then you're just going to end up paying a fair chunk of the £200 price difference between X and S via overpriced digital content I do appreciate the fact that PC gamers like yourself have a much more favourable digital experience so it's understandable how unattractive having a library of physical games might well be, but for various reasons console gaming is in a bit of a mess right now and until Microsoft adopt the same level of safeguards as Steam does then purchasing a digital only console is a really, really foolish thing to do...regardless of affordability.
I think genuinely in the last 3 years of being across both consoles I've bought nothing bar a £3 dlc. I just use game pass (cost there naturally) pc however is a lot of money to DTG and a different story all together
I must admit buying a game is a rare thing for me now. It's all about GamePass for me - always something new and fun to play on there, barely any actual need to *buy* a game anymore imho. I had a massive collection of physical games for my 360, and a decent sized collection for the One, until I stopped buying physical and just switched fully to Digital. I have a bunch for the PS4 but I didn't actually use that a whole lot beyond the GT Sport it came with really. Also, being a dev who works on games, I don't have a problem with paying full price for a game tbh. Games aren't free to make. But hey, I realise that's a unique perspective and totally understand the desire to shop around for the best price. I'll make good use of sales too of course In terms of refunds - it's something i've maybe done once or twice at most on Steam? But then I tend to buy fewer games in the first place and almost never anywhere near launch (I just picked up cyberpunk over Christmas now that it seems like it's getting better feedback ). We each have our own way of doing these things Matt.
I ended up buying a Series S and it’s made me fall in love with the game again. It’s a much better gameplay experience than what I got with the Xbox One. I’d recommend it to anyone who wants to upgrade but can’t afford the X.
Sales on Xbox are apparently synchronised to the passing of Halley’s comet. The next one is expected in 2061.
Games are not free to make, no, but you still have to question as to why something that requires physical production and distribution to retail outlets can be anything upto 25% cheaper at launch than their digital equivalents. But yeah, if you ("you" in the general term) don't like money and are happy to just bitterly complain about how you got burned by the latest buggy/broken/shallow purchase that's locked behind a refunds policy which was drafted for the Magna Carta they by all means stick to digital console games. My lesson was well and truly learned after the "we've learned, this game is flawless" debaucle that went by the name of Project Cars 2 so I'm more than happy to ensure I won't get stuck with anything ever again. Gamepass is indeed a worthwhile subscription for day one additions or new users but my feeling is if you're a seasoned gamer and don't already own a back catalog game that's added to the program then there's probably a good reason as to why you don't. Or to put it more abruptly, the title of a 'Cash Pussies' single from way back (Sam has a Dead Kennedys T-shirt so he might remember it) may better describe some peoples' overall perception of Gamepass.
There's plenty where the Series S version even supports 120. Which is good, since for competitive Halo play, I wouldn't accept anything less, even switching to 60 is noticeable in my K/D ratio.
I upgraded to a Series S and haven’t looked at upgrading since then. For a small machine, it has no problems loading in games from menu to gameplay. Even games like Doom 3 which came out and basically melted everyone’s computers due to how graphically intensive the game was at the time of 2003. Sure, I may be getting 40fps max on 4K mode on TSW but, I’m fine with that.
Just to rephrase that a little... "Sure, I may be getting 40fps max on 4K mode on TSW, on a computer I paid £250 for, but i'm fine with that" :-D It's astounding what a machine at that price can do IMHO. Matt.
