The Xbox Series S For $299 - Too Good To Be True?

The ongoing discussion for next-gen consoles and accordingly, the 'console war' has just undergone a slight development thanks to Microsoft's recent announcement. Indeed, the shockingly affordable Xbox Series S and its reveal is turning heads in the community as Microsoft enjoy Playstation's current absence in this regard. Read on to learn why I agree with the general statement - the Xbox Series S looks like an incredible value buy for the reserved customer. 

Reserved? Yeah, reserved. It seems like somebody from Microsoft, in one of their many tie and suit meetings simply stood up, grabbed everyone's attention and pondered:

"Don't you think we're pushing the price tag a little too high for everybody? You know, not everybody has thousands to spend on 4K TVs or 3D Surround Audio to make the most of our console. Why don't we offer a separate product for console gamers who are willing to invest in next-gen, but are held back by other hardware?" 

All the other very important designer, developer, producer-type people must have craned their necks, cradled their chins in their hands and thought - "that's pretty good". 

That's exactly the thinking behind this Xbox Series S and for that reason, it's hard not to admire it. On the box, it's rumoured to be 'designed for 1440p gaming'. Take a look at some of the specifications in the following trailer: 

Some things to note: 

  • It's an all-digital console, allowing for a slim form factor 
  • 1440p will be likely to play games up to 120fps
  • Has the potential to upscale to 4K
  • Packs the same CPU architecture as its older brother, with a weaker GPU 

Beyond the video, here's a spec sheet comparison for all those interested: 

Let's begin concluding this outlook by asking - who is this console for? 

As I discussed in the interview, I believe there are two targetted audiences: 

  • Loyal Xbox gamers with an extensive Xbox Live library, unable or unwilling to invest in a $500 next-gen console but still desires a next-gen experience 
  • Any gamer who wishes to dive into the Xbox ecosystem at a low price and who mainly buys games digitally to play next-gen 

Is this a fantastic move from Microsoft? Yes, it shows that they understand that next-gen consoles are somewhat pricey. As gamers, we can all unanimously agree that it's objectively good for developers to offer budget options. Is this bad news for Sony? I don't know. 

For all we know, Sony will also be releasing two consoles at launch, but is patiently waiting. Just like Rocky Balboa, Sony is sitting in his corner and letting Microsoft deal out the first punches, tiring out itself. However, I do think that Sony is waiting for the final round to deliver the knockout blow. 

Remember, technical specifications and good prices are great and all, but we all know that exclusive titles are what often determines the console one purchases. 

What do you think of this discussion? Let us know in the comment section below! 

Posted by Gabriel Sciberras on 11th September 2020, 10:22

I'm Gabriel - 19 year-old dental student attending university working as a part-time esports journalist. I've been doing this for 3 years now. Having worked with GMR Entertainment in the past, I've come on board to write some articles this summer :).

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Content Writing for GMR Entertainment - An Experience

The following is a crash course and personal opinion behind the work of content writing.  Hi there! I'm Gabriel Sciberras and I've written over 600 articles for GMR Entertainment in total and this will actually be my last article this summer. Accordingly, the following is an opportunity for me to discuss the position, educate anybody curious and possibly persuade anybody to experiment. Here's my experience working with GMR Entertainment.  My History with GMR Entertainment  It all started back in 2016, as I turned 16 and geared up for my Chemistry O'level exam. Bored out of my mind, scrolling through Facebook aimlessly landed me onto an advert by GMR Entertainment stating 'content writer wanted'. At the age of 16, obsessed with gaming and tech paid with a knack for writing, I took my chance and dived into the position with no prior experience whatsoever. And no, I wasn't getting paid - I applied for a voluntary position and did so happily, churning out 3 articles a day at times to sum up almost 250 unpaid articles.      Working voluntarily was never an issue for me. That's because the team over at GMR Entertainment provided me with a tonne of foundation into the world of online writing. While I also had to put in some working learning the ins and outs of HTML, I was taught how to upload photos, create better titles, understand different types of articles and SEO. And not just through emails either. At times, I would venture up to the Lounge in Msida where founder, Kersten Chircop, walked me through anything he thought I could work on.  As a young teenager, it was incredible. Having a remote job of this type was sort of a dream come true. All of these skills I just mentioned didn't develop overnight, but took months of work and getting used to it all. GMR Entertainment began trusting me with new types of content which opened my horizons. Through hardware reviews, I was given the opportunity to truly embrace my analytical opinion and work with the awesome Andre Mizzi,  while player interviews pushed me to innovate with questions and to interact with personalities in the esports industry.   Beyond this, I was always invited to local LAN events and Christmas company events which I've always heavily appreciated. With enough time, after 3 months of hard work and learning from my half and great feedback and direction from GMR Entertainment, I could confidently consider myself an 'esports, gaming and technology journalist.' GMR Entertainment offered me a reasonable pay which I happily accepted and work kept flowing. Sponsored articles, local discussions, research into esports and more.  To top it all off, communication was always great. Working with Kersten and Andre never offered much resistance and was always an open and casual, yet respectful affair. They'd offer ideas, I'd offer ideas and days would go smoothly. In addition, whenever I needed time off to focus on my exams, as I am quite the nerd, I was always given more than enough time to focus.  Just like that, after a year of work or so, job opportunities flew my way and GMR Entertainment allowed me to venture, always leaving their door open for me. Know, a couple years later, I've come on board for the summer as I can cope with the extra work besides the school year and my other current writing positions.  What does it take to become an esports/gaming/technology journalist?  In all honesty, it takes a few simple things. Here's a shortlist of qualities you'd need:  Time management: probably more important than the quality of writing - sticking to deadlines to make time relevant content is essential  Language: a mix of flexibility and creativity helps out here together with SEO based writing  Ability to be analytical and discursive - creating your own ideas and spinning a web is essential for longer pieces of work  An ability to learn quickly: whatever you're writing about, you need to make sure you understand it well enough to explain it to readers What makes a great writer? CREATIVITY and nothing else. Since my first job at GMR Entertainment, I've hopped around a few times and I've always noted this in other writers even with my current job. In this type of job, you'll find a tonne of people who all they do is simply copy other article ideas from bigger sites such as Dot Esports and never really innovate ever as they comfortably paraphrase away. Yes, sometimes this is necessary for the more basic articles but avoid it when possible.  By being creative you'll have more fun writing, it'll be more challenging and you're more likely to create unique and interesting pieces of work. That's my largest piece of advice - be creative and make creative opinions.  Interested in Writing with GMR Entertainment? So that's it, that's my experience and those are my tips for anybody wondering what it takes. Personally, as a student who lives all the way in Zabbar, a remote job makes me smile when I could be on the bus instead. Whenever I discuss my job with others, I always get a 'hey, that's pretty cool' type of reaction.  If you're interested in trying it out, why not send an email to GMR Entertainment or maybe through their Facebook page. Perhaps you could start right away with some test articles? Communicate only if you're really passionate for writing and putting your ideas out there - don't do this thinking about money from the get-go - that's not the right attitude to have and it won't get you far. Focus on producing good content and the rest will follow.  Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!

RTX 3090 - 8K Gaming on the Table?

Indeed, the talk of the town is the RTX 3080 - it's incredible value for the price, massive performance increase and general utility is simply superb. However, Nvidia wasn't done there as they announced two other products in the line. Currently, the community is discussing the RTX 3080's older brother, the RTX 3090. Supposedly, 8K Gaming is now a possibility though it does come at a considerable price.  If you're anything like me, then you're YouTube feed was also flooded with content creators trying the graphics card out. The BFGPU has rocked the internet due to its phenomenal size, dwarfing formerly 'large' cards such as the 2080Ti from a generation ago. The pure size of the card is dropping jaws for multiple reasons, but also due to its drawbacks.  Let's take a quick look at the specifications:  Built on an 8nm architecture 10496 cores 24GB of GDDR6X Memory  1695 MHz Boost Clock Speed It's those 24GB of GDDR6X that has made 8K Gaming possible. The only drawback however, is the sheer price of the graphics card. Once you've gone passed the $1,500 barrier or so, you'll also have to deck out your PC with the best components on the market too - a top-end CPU to make the most of the GPU and a thick power supply to run the beast. All of this will have to fit in a reasonably sized and very well ventilated case.  Then, once paired with an 8K display, it's official that 8K gaming is now possible. Games such as Doom Eternal and others have been showcased and for the most part, no video or photo can really do the experience any justice.  Let's just take a moment to appreciate Nvidia here. Weeks ago, AMD was breathing down their throat following their own incredible new lineup of products and the pressure was on. As the community wondered where Nvidia was, doubt in the community grew. And now, just like that, Nvidia has once again earned everyone's praise and reminded the world who's on top. Nobody's been talking much about AMD since.  Then again, it's unfortunate that for those interested to buy one, you'll have to wait for it to become available.  Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below! If you're interested in purchasing an RTX 3090, we'll hopefully have some stock at the Gamers Lounge in the coming weeks. 

Call of Duty Warzone Season 6 - Going Under

Once again, Call of Duty Warzone has the community's attention with their latest season of content. Last time, Infinity Ward took the world's most popular battle royale shooter by surprise with an overground train, adding new mechanics to Verdansk. Now, Season 6 looks to reintroduce more trains thanks to an underground network. Here's the scoop.  First off, we'll start by spelling out the unfortunate - for this Season you'll have to surrender 20GB of further storage. So after you manage to download, there's a tonne to jump into here. Check out the trailer below:  In terms of content, there are new operators, weapons and modes too. Notably, the Haunting of Verdansk looks to rock the royale from October 20-November 3rd. Fast travelling across the map will be incredible through the train stations, and I can already see the 400 IQ plays making use of it.  Accompanying the content is a patch note. If you're anything like me, you're terrified of going indoors thanks to the Origin 12 striking fear into the community. Luckily, Infinity Ward have made some decent changes here, including a nerf to C4:  C4 - additional delay for quick detonation and now a reduction in throw velocity too by 30% Origin 12 - reduced close damage in general while slugs have been strengthened For PC players, NVIDIA Reflex has been implemented to reduce latency Those are the main highlights - for the entire scoop, feel free to read the patch notes here. Call of Duty Warzone is doing incredibly well to hand on to the hype behind it through these in-game updates, each one changing how the game is played in a massive way. I don't expect any other battle royale to compete that much with the title until the end of 2020 for sure.  Let us know your thoughts on the changes in the comments section below!

Amazon Luna - Another Cloud Gaming Service

In the videogame industry, the summer of 2020 has offered multiple trends - local and online party games such as Fall Guys and Among Us, Call of Duty Warzone and also, the gaming industry's fixation on cloud gaming. Here on the site, we've covered the ongoing narrative and comparisons between Google Stadia, Project xCloud from Microsoft, Playstation Now and of course, Nvidia GeForce Now. It looks like Amazon wishes to join the race.  Indeed, Amazon wishes to dive into the very small ball pit which is already quite crowded with their upcoming product of Amazon Luna. So, what's so special about this cloud gaming experience and how does it compare to the other ones which look to hit or are already on the market?  Supposedly, the service will offer 'all-you-can-play' access to games via a channel system. In this manner, users may subscribe to certain channels which from what we can tell, will offer a certain quality of games. Only two channels have been confirmed so far, namely Luna Plus, which will house first-party games from Amazon and other services and another rumoured for Ubisoft games.  With pricing starting at $5.99 a month, with an optional $49.99 Luna Controller for Luna early access users only at the time being. The cloud gaming service will be available on PC, Mac, Fire TV, iPhone and iPad. Note that Amazon here looks to do well with the Apple ecosystem, unlike others. With reference to the game library, it's confirmed that 50 games will be on Luna Plus and Ubisoft channels.  An advantage Amazon has is running everything on Windows servers with Nvidia GPUs, so developers don't have to design games specifically for the service - a downfall behind the failure of Google Stadia.  So will it do well? Honestly, I've got no idea. This whole market of cloud gaming is so primitive at the moment, it's confusing to me. While this may be the future, it's definitely not the present.  Let us know what you think of this industry craze behind cloud gaming in the comments section below! Do any of the products stand out from the other?

Among Us - A Tiny Game Exploding After 2 Years

Back in 2018, the American game studio of InnerSloth eagerly released their new game of 'Among Us' to the world. Available on Android, iOS and Windows, their exciting new implication of a classic idea was bound to succeed but at first, it simply didn't. No, for some reason, they'd have to wait for roughly two years and a pandemic before the multiplayer game would suddenly sky rocket in popularity! I know, it's crazy sometimes how the videogame industry works. In this article, we'll be covering all thing Among Us. What is Among Us? If you haven't realized, ever since August 2020 when multiple popular content creators suddenly began playing it, Among Us is now on most phones and for good reasons. Let's first dive into what it is, as a game. Among Us is a multiplayer game for up to 10 players where 1-3 players are randomly picked to be 'Imposters' and the others 'Crewmates' all aboard a ship/vessel of some kind. Depending on your role, there are different objectives: Crewmates: given tasks to take care of across the map. Winning takes place by finishing all the tasks or eliminating the Imposter through voting  Imposter: fake list of tasks, they're given the ability to slay Crewmates, travel through vents and to sabotage the map too. Winning happens by eliminating enough Crewmates or successfully sabotaging ship.  Deduction is the name of the game here. You've got to be careful who to trust and know how to act when it's time to vote after finding a body or calling an emergency meeting.  And that's basically it, a virtual form of the party game Mafia.  An Explosion in Player Count  Back in 2018, figures show that after release Among Us had an average player count of 30 to 50 players concurrently! Accordingly, the development team admitted that due to bad marketing, they were that close to giving up entirely. However, despite the small player base, more work and maps were put into the game.  With this work, the game just snowballed to the point that 20 million downloads rocked August, with 40 million hitting September and 400,000 concurrent players on Steam. It's great to see such a long-term investment pay off for the small studio.  Why is it so popular? It's why Mafia is so fun at parties - you force people into discussions, arguments and accusations that you could never make in any other environments. With a group of friends or family, such a game is a tonne of fun, giggles, frustration and yelling at one another. Otherwise, even playing online is a lot of fun as you test your ability to be both sneaky and influential on the thoughts of others.  Just like Fall Guys a month ago, Among Us is a new way in which people are connecting and giggling through these tough times. From my experience, it's a game for the whole family and a party game which evolves in complexity due to the elite strategies possible. There's nothing more exciting than being an Imposter in Among Us.  The Future of Among Us - Sequel and Console Port?  Due to the popularity, the developers have had to cancel all thought behind a sequel. Why? Although they wished to create a fresh version with a more modern engine, they decided to abandon the idea and instead focus on the original due to the popularity behind it. Accordingly, new features and maps will be rolling out for it.  Also, console ports for PS4 and Xbox have been considered, but issues are being encountered for communication systems amongst other issues.  Otherwise, I genuinely hope the game keeps growing. It's a superb party game with a dedicated studio behind it that suffered for two years.  Let us know your thoughts in the comment section! What do you think about Among Us?   

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