Video game Christmas gifts 2020: best games and Xbox and PlayStation consoles to buy this year

With Christmas fast approaching, games consoles will be rocketing up children’s wish lists across the country.

Though gaming is a billion dollar industry, it can still seem alien and technologically daunting for those not up-to-speed with how the whole thing works.

With new games consoles released this year, it can be more confusing than ever for the hapless parent just hoping to secure the right machine for their loved ones.

Which is more powerful, which has the better games, and which one can play more games from the past?

Here is everything you need to know.

What are the new consoles like?

Microsoft released two new consoles this year, the Xbox Series X and the Xbox Series S.

Given that these two console’s names are rather phonetically similar to the older Xbox One X and S, this could lead to a lot of confusion from parents looking to secure the right machine for their children.

The Xbox Series X is Microsoft’s most powerful console to-date, boasting over 12 teraflops of computing power, meaning it can output games at 4K resolution and up to 120 frames per second.

However, many won’t own TVs similarly capable of displaying such images. That’s where the Series S comes in.

The Xbox Series S is a more entry-level version of Xbox’s new console, and though it is slightly less powerful, promises to deliver the same next generation experiences.

It isn’t able to output graphics at 4K resolutions, but with many more ‘casual’ gamers yet to make the jump to 4K displays, the savings offered by the S are obvious.

Bear in mind that the Series S does not come with a disc drive, meaning games will have to be downloaded digitally from Microsoft’s online store.

This means consumers are at the behest of the pricing trends of just a handful of outlets, where deals and price cuts may be rarer than the countless retailers offering physical games, so while the removal of a disc drive may be cheaper in the short term, the actual games can be marked up by publishers.

PlayStation

The PlayStation 5 also comes in two varieties, one with a disc drive and one without. However, this time around, Sony have chosen to make both machines technically identical, bar the removal of that disc drive.

Technically, the PlayStation 5 is not as powerful on a hardware level as the Xbox Series X, meaning that in theory, multiplatform games (that is, games that can be played on both Xbox and PS5 machines) should run better on the Series X.

However, it could be argued that the exclusive games available for the PlayStation 5 (at least at this early stage of the new generation) are better crafted and more fun than Microsoft's exclusive titles.

Which games do they play?

Xbox

Currently, every game released for the ‘Xbox’ platform will play on every Xbox console, from 2013’s Xbox One to the recently released Xbox Series X.

When purchasing physical games for your Xbox console, look for the trademark green cases; the cover art will specify which machines the game will run on in a black banner at the top of the box.

While games will play across all consoles, they will run ‘best' on newer machines. That's because most are designed with more modern tech in mind, so while your copy of a game release this year may work on a seven-year old console, the developers may have had to make graphical cutbacks to make it work there.

Games should scale across each of the consoles with no extra input from you, aside from agreeing to a download before playing the game on newer hardware (this is simply the game downloading the extra info it needs to run games on more advanced tech).

That’s not always true for games optimised specifically for the next generation X and S machines though. While Microsoft has done a commendable job of getting developers to sign up to its ‘Smart Delivery’ scheme, not everybody has.

Smart Delivery ensures that games have the best, most graphically impressive version of a game when they run it on their next generation machines, at no extra cost.

But not everybody has agreed to implement it: Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War for instance has two versions, a ‘last gen’ version, and one optimised for the new consoles.

While the older version will play on new machines, it will do so with no upgrade to the game’s visual fidelity. The next gen version will not play on older machines, and is significantly more expensive.

PlayStation

"Almost all” PlayStation 4 and PlayStation VR games will run on the PlayStation 5, though unlike the Xbox, this system doesn’t work the other way.

That means that PS5 games won’t run on your older, PlayStation 4 console.

How does backwards compatibility work?

Xbox

Another area in which Microsoft has excelled is in its commitment to backwards compatibility, meaning players can play older games originally released years ago on its newer machines, at no extra cost beyond already owning the game.

Currently, every game (except for ones that made use of special accessories such as the ill-fated Kinect camera) released for the Xbox One will play on the Xbox Series consoles, as well as hundreds of Xbox 360 titles from the mid-00s, and even many original Xbox games.

Most of these will even automatically take advantage of the more powerful modern hardware to make visual upgrades to the games that would not have been possible at the time of their original release.

Accessories for the Xbox Series machines are also ‘forwards compatible’, meaning controllers for Xbox One consoles will work with the newer models, ensuring that if you’re upgrading from one to the other, you’ll have enough to pass around for multiplayer sessions straight out of the box.

PlayStation

Although the PlayStation 5 works in the same way as the Xbox Series X when it comes to backwards compatibility, often scaling up older titles to look better on the new machine, much fewer games will work with it.

"Almost all” PlayStation 4 and PlayStation VR games will run on the new console, but very few games from PlayStation’s earlier iterations will work.

Xbox Series or PS5?

The PlayStation line of consoles is historically more popular, and has consistently outsold its Xbox counterparts.

That’s due in part to more instantly recognisable branding, but also to Sony’s commitment to delivery quality first-party games (ie games developed through Sony’s own studios that only play on PlayStation consoles).

Technically, the PlayStation 5 is not as powerful on a hardware level as the Xbox Series X, meaning that in theory, multiplatform games (that is, games that can be played on both Xbox and PS5 machines) should run better on the Series X.

However, it could be argued that the exclusive games available for the PlayStation 5 (at least at this early stage of the new generation) are better crafted and more fun that Microsoft's exclusive titles, with Sony providing more revolutionary experiences.

That said, the Xbox portfolio arguably provides better value for money, and offers Game Pass, a subscription service which allows users access to 100s of games to download for no extra cost, including blockbuster new titles on the day they are released..