Xbox or Playstation?

[scifidude79]

I remember as a kid in the '80s, they brought computers around to the schools once in a while (before they all had them.) We'd do stuff in DOS on 5.25" floppies. I remember playing Oregon Trail. Good times. These days, you can play Oregon Trail in a web browser, or even on a handheld.

[Infinit01]

I remember as a kid in the '80s, they brought computers around to the schools once in a while (before they all had them.) We'd do stuff in DOS on 5.5" floppies. I remember playing Oregon Trail. Good times. These days, you can play Oregon Trail in a web browser, or even on a handheld.

Ah yes, Oregon Trail.  Loved that game even til this day

[scifidude79]

I played in my browser a few months ago. I even survived the trail. The rest of my party, not so much.

[Edon Bluewolf]

Ah yes, I remember playing this in school too, going to have to check out the web browser version to relive the hardships.

[DarthProdigal]

Ah yes, Oregon Trail.  Loved that game even til this day

No joke, it's like "life sucks 101". Hey kids, guess what? You don't always win, sometimes you die of dysentery on the Oregon Trail! Oh the memories.
But in regards to the topic...

I've owned every generation of each all the way through the present, scrounging and saving to usually have one at launch. The games started to define which I'd play more often, but good times were always had across the board. Now, I am forced to return to my roots, PlayStation has won me over for now (more so Microsoft lost my support). They drove me away for 3 main reasons, 1: first to have a forced "you must pay online fees of membership for access" in a console. 2: Xbox 360's spectacular failure rate. You original 360 owners know what I'm saying, red ring of death claimed my first 5-6 of them in about a year and a half. 3: Xbox One was first time in a console I witnessed "you must be connected to internet to play this title". The arrogance that I bought your system, bought this game (a physical copy), and now I can't play "my" game offline at home without constantly being connected to the internet. Ridiculous, and if the PS5 mirrors that concept I'll sell it like I did my Xbox One and never look back. Nintendo Switch will turn into my main focus.

[DarthProdigal]

With Christmas looming on the horizon, the past me would have likely saved up for the new console generation already. But with things the way they are, I opted more toward more cost effectiveness and a healthier hobby in my 1st lightsaber instead this go around. I know as a kid (or possibly still kids now too) I loved and cherished that possibility of high tech adventures in epic games above most other gift ideas (plus I'd be lying if I didn't say I still play my consoles pretty regularly). Although I was blown away when I looked at the new price tags this time around. I knew it would be high, and that made me wait 3-4 years to even buy a PS4 after launch, making me wait till the price of used systems was forced lower. BUT $1300 (1000 digital only)!!! That's more than twice the price of PS4, and beyond 3x the price of PS3 at launch. I feel like they may finally be truly beginning to "price the front runners of the Console Wars" out of/destroying the market. I've personally felt the sting of this for like a decade with escalating prices as family wants to get you a little something special sometimes to add to birthday or x-mas joy. I was smart enough to start combining the two sometimes, but I can't even fathom putting myself in the place of a child asking for this; especially right now as many worry about food/shelter already or in coming weeks and months. It's getting kind of ridiculous, even if I understand growing tech costs, profit margins, recouping investments, and past consumer trends indicating future willingness to "accept such things". I mean this borders on what some consider the threshold of cheap used cars. If it were me it'd take 3-4 kids combining their b-day desires into a joint gift (even if truly sharing in that way is likely not going to go as planned) to justify the expense.

Ok so, complaints aside on price, I decided to do a little looking. Realizing a little research wouldn't feed my desire much more (hopefully) toward necessity for one. Thankfully I found supporting evidence alleviating my greatest concern. It seems the PS5 that is NOT the "digital" only one supports offline gameplay too. I pray this avoids Xbox One's initial nightmare I experienced of the requirement to be internet connected to set it up the first time and ironically set up the offline mode... I really hope the genius(s) that allowed/suggested that were the first to lose their employment way back when. Since little did they know a large portion of gamers still exist within the customer base that either can't afford or don't desire access to these things perpetually. I think this has been made more apparent as people have been forced to examine issues/disparities across America in relation to attempting so much "virtual school" for kids. Many have made assumptions in the past which have been shattered by the reality that for many "the American dream" didn't include fantastic wifi access. I'm really not attempting anything political, simply stating the facts related to this matter. And I feel glad that my preferred company planned this part out accordingly. These were 2 of the reference articles I looked at: (although I dislike the last site for it's shifting urls between articles as you scroll)
https://www.reddit.com/r/PS5/comments/cw5smi/ps5_needs_to_be_an_offline_friendly_console/
https://www.gfinityesports.com/article/7422/ps5-not-always-online-single-player-offline-games-disc