If you go for x360 or PS3 be aware that this party games were much worse on PS3 until the middle of the generation. I still think this would be a sweet spot for the generation & the X360 would have some backwards compatibility with original Xbox games. PS3 started the trend of modern playstation exclusives that're must plays with Uncharted 2 & Infamous though.

Regardless there's a ton of great games from that generation & not all are backwards compatable on modern Xnox (if you go that way), but I do think you could get some great value out of the Xbox Series S as you can buy old games online & could subscribe to gamepass for modern indie games or smaller games if you want to check them out.

I know you mentioned you aren't into modern titles, but it could just be the specific genres you are looking into as there are a ton of different types of games now.

As long as you aren't a jerk about it I don't see a problem with telling them thanks, but you won't use it enough to justify their gifting it. I would also keep in mind the sequel to BOTW is coming out in May & will only be on Switch if you have any interest in that.

As long as you don't present it in a rude way I can't see why they would have any issue with it.

One more is that they're are a selection of ps1/2 games you can buy digital on PS5, but discs won't work from anything older than PS4 & there's a small list of PS4 games that don't work on PS5.

Personally I prefer 40 Fps for Story games, it feels the same as 60 fps for the most part but looks like 30.

My guess would be that it's possibly the hard drive as ps3 loads games onto it & generally runs the game from there, only using the disc to verify.

Good news is changing the hard drive is pretty well documented now & it's just a laptop hard drive.

I felt the exact same way about BOTW & event took numerous sessions over 5 years to beat it. My best advice is to invest in health upgrades & then find the Master Sword as it has a recharge period after it "breaks", so you rarely need to use your other weapons & can safely use your good ones & just keep one of each elemental type weapon in you.

This changed the game & made me finish it without interruption after getting it.

Thank you! I've been saying this for years. I also don't know why they're isn't an option in rogue-like games to have a more like this. Have both so there's more content for those who want it & a fun weekend game for those that want to beat it & move on. You get people's money the same both ways.

1. Multiversus; I had a blast at launch & was playing nightly with a friend at who. We'd win about 70% of our matches, but that eventually went down a bit to 64% (this wasn't why we stopped). We stopped due to fighting the same small pool of characters that aren't balanced, too simple & too powerful compared to more interesting characters. We also were fighting people with level 40 characters when we were level 1-10 (perks not fully unlocked). Also the dailies took forever to do.

2. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze; Great game but it just didn't bring me back to my SNES days like I was hoping it would. I've given this game another chance & went in without predetermined bias, which had made me really enjoy it. I figured out that the issue is its too explorative with long levels. The thing I loved about the original DKC Trilogy was that it was a tight, challenging rhythmic platformer. Tropical Freeze is more a spiritual successor to Mario World in DK clothes.

3. Red Dead Redemption 2; I devoured the first RDR, but number 2 having an emphasis on so much size activity to upgrade things & being a very immersive but slow experience meant I just got distracted by a number of other games. I do plan to go back to it & finish at some point, but I'll be focusing on story & only doing side quests not activities.

I didn't personally put this in the same category as Chrono Trigger until I recently replayed it. It's such a great JRPG & is so unique. I always enjoyed it, but yeah I got a new appreciation for it.

Trust Nintendo to make exploring a giant empty space fun. Not that there was nothing to do, it just wasn't populated or that dense.

Which Generation though?

Donkey Kong Country / Chrono Trigger / Mario RPG. It's a tie because I enjoy them the same for different reasons & I'm ok with myself have 3 tied at the top because base 3 is number used in Most Nintendo gsmes of the SNES Era.

It's possible that Sifu may dethrone or join at some point, but it's still early days for that one.

This is a tough one, but in order lowest to highest.

Street Fighter 6, Flintlock, Final Fantasy 16, Resident Evil 4 & Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

Though I'm sure there is something I'm missing & will no doubt be other games that are announced & come out I may get more excited for.

Personally I like having physical so I can look at my games when I go to pick one to play. I also played pc heavily for about a decade too, but it was during late 90's to early 2000's which also had physical games. I just like having something you can hold or look at. I also find it easier to keep track of what games I have to play in my collection vs a list of games on some software. It's why I still buy physical games primarily even now.

I'm more a fan of Sega today than I've ever been, and I've had a Sega console since Genesis (played master system, but didn't own).

Look, I grew up playing Nintendo & still do to this day. I've also quite enjoyed a number of Xbox exclusives over the years, but what Playstation does & has been doing for a generation & a half (almost 2 at this point, I count Uncharted 2 as the starting point) is unmatched hey almost every other developer (Capcom is on par with some series, but not others). It took me a long time to admit to myself, but if you enjoy Singleplayer games it's hard to beat what Playstation puts out. Nintendo still seems to be the leader in innovation though & no one will nail the simple joy of movement in the same way they do, I don't think ever.