The first time (and, the second time) I played The Witcher 3, I did so on PlayStation 4 before either the PS4 Pro or Xbox One X had been released. I had been impressed by the game’s graphics and performance on the console, especially with it being a game with a scope so large.
Unfortunately, a few months later, lightning struck my home and basically fried all the electronics in it, with the exception of my Xbox One, which had only been saved because I had moved it to a different room earlier that day and had been too lazy to set it up straight away.
(Yay, a win for laziness)
This whole incident occurred right before the release of the PS4 Pro, and so when I finally decided to replace my broken PS4 about two months later, I decide to go with the Pro. Now, understand that even though I sort of had a legitimate reason for replacing my base console, this was not a decision that I took lightly. Although I had a new 4K SUHD television and I spend hours and hours playing video games, I could not really justify to myself paying full price for a console that was already three years old but had basically received a facelift, especially when there was an understandably priced base model available.
In the end, I just pulled the trigger because I’m young and sometimes make really stupid financial decisions. I can remember when I got home, I could see that every game did look somewhat better but I didn’t think it was enough to warrant having spent the extra money but what was done was done.
Why am I speaking about the PS4 Pro on an Xbox blog, though?
Well, it was this experience that sort of drove away from wanting to buy an Xbox One X. Yes, the X is significantly more powerful than the PS4 Pro but it suffers from the same general problems with regards to purchase justification. It provides a prettier picture but still plays all the same games I can get on my regular old “fat” Xbox One.
I was so disinterested in the Xbox One X that when it was released I didn’t really pay any mind to it. Yes, I watched a few comparison videos and marvelled at how good it looked, however, I still wasn’t sold on it. I rationalised to myself that if I really wanted to get the best in graphics and framerates, I would’ve become a full-on PC player years ago rather than spending a good amount of money on consoles.
Is it really worth it?
But then, last week, something happened. I started playing The Witcher 3 again but this time on my base Xbox One. I had bought the game on sale with the aim of playing it for the third time (technically, the fourth but we’ll get to that) and simply increasing my Gamerscore by earning all of the achievements as I had done on PS4.
I started the game, and strangely the first thing I thought was that this game used to look better and I couldn’t understand why I felt that way. At first, I thought it was because the game is a few years old now, and more graphically intensive experiences have since been released. However, before that, I had been playing Watch Dogs 2, which was released only a year after The Witcher 3, and Yoku’s Island Express on the Nintendo Switch – a console that is known not to be as graphically powerful as the PS4 or Xbox One.
As I was playing, it sort of dawned on me why I felt it this way. I had played The Witcher 3 in bits and pieces on my PS4 Pro for content for my YouTube channel (the technical third playthrough) and had been wowed by how good the game looked, even if it was only a half-step up. Now, every time I play the game, this is how I expect it to look, and that’s not possible on a base Xbox One, which has now sort of had me looking at getting an Xbox One X.
Buying a console for just one game? (Again..)
There are a handful of games that I own for both Xbox and PlayStation. Of those games, the only one I previously actively noticed looking much better on the PS4 Pro was Battlefield 1 but I played the game more on Xbox because that was the platform the friends that I played the game with owned.
I actually really can’t tell you what clicked while playing The Witcher 3 and knowing that it can look better on console despite that being a truth I’ve known for a long time but it made me want to buy an Xbox One X. Maybe, it’s because The Witcher 3 is my favourite game of all time. Maybe, with Battlefield 1 I didn’t really care about the graphics because the Xbox One X hadn’t been released yet and I was playing the game for social reasons. Or, maybe I’ve just decided to admit to myself that I’m a shallow bitch and like looking at pretty things.
Whatever it is, its done it. I kind of want an Xbox One X and it’s really weird that owning a PS4 Pro kind of inadvertently led to that desire. I’m just wondering now whether I’ll be patient enough to wait for a price drop.
What do you think about the Xbox One X? Do you think its worth it or a waste of money? Please share in the comments down below.
