Half-Step Consoles
This one is a shoe-in. While not necessary in any capacity to play any PS4 or Xbox One game, the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X are essential to the up-to-date tech owner. Years ago, 720p TVs were the most HD screens available to the public. On those TVs, we played games in 480p (or lower) until video game technology caught up to 720p. Then, 1080p TVs were released and a few years later, video games in 1080p became a thing. Naturally, TVs continued progressing and just a few years behind, like always, were video games. A few years ago, 4K TVs capable of HDR hit the market. Guess what followed shortly behind? Yep, video games.
History repeats itself so when Sony announced the PS4 Pro back in 2016, it came as no surprise and when Microsoft followed suit with the Xbox One X last year, still, it was a no-brainer. Just because these innovations weren’t a surprise, doesn’t mean they were any less important, though. For the first time ever, the Pro and the X gave us 4k HDR graphical settings in video games. We had bought our TVs capable of this years ago, and we had been enjoying movies in this format since then, but finally, thanks to these two consoles, we could now enjoy our favorite medium, video games, in the same way. 1080p is just fine. Games in 1080p are still beautiful, but once you play a game like Horizon: Zero Dawn or Gears of War 4 in 4k/HDR, you just can’t go back and you shouldn’t either. Here’s to 8K!
