Next Gen Wishlist

Despite there being plenty of great games on the way this year for the current crop of consoles, the unending march of progress must continue, and we all most find a spare HDMI port to plug our inevitable PS5’s and XBOX Series X’s into. That is our curse.

There’s no doubt the new machines will be big powerful beasts, but there a few things that I hope they have outside of the usual box-ticking willy-waving.

First up, just let me play games with as little hassle as possible. One of the reasons I tend to reach for the Joy-Con instead of my Dual Shock 4 is because the Switch is just a joy to pick up and play. I can turn the Switch on and run about in Breath of the Wild quicker that it takes the PS4 to crank up to speed, alert me of a software update, inevitably install something to the hard drive, then load the menu for a game. This isn’t just a case of loading times; it’s about all the weird infrastructure around the games, the amount of wee social gubbins and alerts that are thrown at you on modern consoles. They get in the way of just playing the game you want to play.

That’s not to say the Switch doesn’t have all that, it’s just that it’s less emphasised and doesn’t intrude on the main reason to play a games console.

Next, let me opt-out of trophies and achievements entirely. I know this is a contentious issue, but I’m not a fan of either of them, and while turning off the wee trophy alerts on PS4 was a genuine step towards my mental wellbeing, I’d be even happier if I could just opt-out of earning them entirely. I get that I’m in an extreme minority with this one, but I don’t want to take away anyone else’s fun; just mine.

Lastly, and probably most importantly, let me play my old games. Microsoft has done incredibly well on this front this generation.

I want to see the PS5 and Xbox Series X capable to playing all their disc-based predecessors’ games. I’m not daft; I know emulation can be a difficult, patchy experience at best. But the PS4 is more than capable of playing PS2 games already, I genuinely see no reason for the PS5 not having the ability to be play PS1-PS4 games. They’ve already said it’ll play PS4 games, but come on Sony; do the right thing.

Microsoft led the charge this generation to the point where some of last generation’s games look incredible when upscaled on Xbox One X. Folk hate Final Fantasy XIII, but you can’t deny it looks wonderful on new hardware. Not every game needs the full-on treatment FFXIII got; just let us okay all those wonderful games sitting on our shelves.

All the extra pixels and colour depth and high-framerates are very well and good but these are important.

Get these three things right, and I’ll be laughing all the way to the shop to give you money.