What is new with gaming?

[Grindspine]

I have been out of the loop on gaming in general.  With outrageous graphics card prices and an utter lack of availability in PS5 consoles, it has been difficult to get excited about the next big thing.

Is there a next big thing coming that we should be excited about for 2021 and 2022?!

[BLUEVOODU]

You know... this is a good question, @Grindspine . 

I've been working on certifications over the last couple years and in a post grad program right now... I'm a bit out of the loop.  really, the PlayStation 5 and newest Xbox were supposed to be decent jumps in technology... at least storage for PS5.   However, even those systems don't see like a major jump.

The latest Nvidia cards (3080....etc) were supposed to be decent jumps.  However, the inability to acquire ANY of the above (or at least the difficulty of acquiring) very well could hamper adoption of said technologies.  Obviously, it will happen.  But we are in a weird limbo state it seems.

for example... when the i7 came out with triple channel ram... that was amazing.  When the 4870x2 came out many years back... that was amazing.   Crisis... nothing (in my opinion) really pushes the envelope like that.  I'm not sure it should.... What's next?  Super real life?  then again... I'm not sure it shouldn't either. 

one thing I will say is that your average general PC performs very well these days.  I'm not talking Chrome book... but on $1000 hardware, TONS can be done.  That's a major shift from years past.  It's also cool to see games being developed for all classes of systems.   You no longer HAVE to have ugly graphics with lower to mid tier systems.  They've really optimized visuals for what I would consider "standard stock" equipment.  Sure, you don't get all the bells and whistles... but you're normally not suffering either.

[CreepinDeth]

It really is difficult to be excited about games when hardware to play them is out of reach for most.

Personally, this makes the Switch a little more enticing. It's relatively easy to get and even though the games are not pushing max framerates and resolution, just simply for gaming it's pretty decent.

The new Metroid looks really cool and the rumors that Metroid Prime is getting a remake is exciting for me.