New to gaming - recommend a platform and some games for me

Depends on what you're after. All the major platforms offer something different these days.

Playstation is the most traditional console, buy the game, play the game. They have a great list of exclusives available.

Xbox also has this but less of the big games Playstation has. Xbox has GamePass however, a monthly subscription service which gives you access to about 200 games or more for €10 a month or something like that. Great way to get back into gaming but not sure where to start as you get access to lots of different types of games from the start.

Nintendo is the place to go for Mario, Zelda and the likes but has also become a great place for Indie games. Quite a few big 3rd party games come to the platform but usually a slightly inferior version since the Switch isn't as powerfulas a PS4 etc.
It is a hybrid console though which is a great feature. You can play on your TV as noral or bring it with you and play on the go as it's also a handheld console.

If you only plan on playing here and there look at Stadia if you have decent broadband. No hardware needed. Just stream your games. You can sign up and play Destiny free too.

Pick up a cheap PS4 Pro and Xbox One X second-half bundle with some games would be my recommendation. Plenty for you to catch up on, especially with Game Pass and PS Now.

PS3 is a 15 year old console at this stage.

For someone that doesn't already have a console sitting in the house and is looking for a bit of casual gaming, I'd go with the Switch. Can be used handheld or on your TV, good variety of indie games as well as all the Nintendo exclusives and Switch online membership (which is only €20 a year compared to the likes of €60 for Sony and Xbox) comes with a load of NES and SNES you can play for free. The Switch is also going to have proper support from Nintendo long after the Sony and Microsoft start taking the pedal off support for the Xbox One and PS4. It's a no brainer imo.

The only real downside is that the Nintendo exclusives tend not to go down in price the way the exclusives for Sony and Xbox tend to do.

First of all there are two new consoles, the Xbox Series X and Playstation 5. They're expensive and they're in short supply so unlikely to be a good fit, but if money is no object and you want to commit and be future proof, both machines are completely compatible with games from the previous consoles, so they might be worth your while.

More realistically, you're looking at the previous consoles, the PS4, Xbox One and Switch. The PS4 and Xbox One have updated versions called the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X - these are probably the ones to go for as the originals struggle a bit with some newer games. I don't think they're too expensive these days.

The Switch is pretty unique as it can be plugged into the tv but also taken away and used as a handheld. It is less powerful than the others so games can be a bit more limited or worse looking, but it's not a big deal in most cases. It has access to a range of Nintendo exclusive games (Mario, Zelda etc, basically they're still pumping out sequels of everything you remember from the SNES days, very little originality but always high quality, they may not resonate with you if you were more into Sega at the time), and also a pretty good variety of third party games, though less than the other consoles.

The PS4 has the biggest and best library of games by a country mile. But it also has more great games than you could play in a lifetime, so if you were to get another console you wouldn't feel like you were missing out necessarily. The Xbox has a subscription service where you can pay 15 quid per month and get access to around 200 games, a bit like Netflix. The Playstation has a similar service, it's cheaper but it's more like 100 games I think and generally not considered as strong. If you get a PS4 you'll be buying games, if you get an Xbox you'll probably just use the subscription. If you're just sampling things to see what might interest you the Xbox might be the way to go.

While there are still plenty of games in the genres you mentioned, they can be a bit niche these days. You may find that it's worth delving into newer more modern styles of games. For example, if you like Streets of Rage there are plenty of games out there that are true to that, including Streets of Rage 4 which recently came out, but if what you want is roaming around a city picking up street furniture and hitting people over the head with it, you might find you'll love something like Yakuza (also made by Sega, available on both Playstation and Xbox) which takes the format to a whole different level, with an expansive story and a whole lot of other things going on in the game too.

If you're looking for good shooting / action games there are again 2D games faithful to what you remember, but you could also check out modern games like Nier Automata or Ratchet & Clank which are filled with action packed shooting. Or of course there are first person shooter games like Call of Duty etc which I'm sure you've heard of which are a bit different (I've never been a fan of the genre personally)

I'd recommend watching some youtube footage of different games to see what takes your fancy. If you like Shinobi, look up Ghost of Tsushima. If you like Streets of Rage, look up Yakuza. If you like Golden Axe, look up God of War. If you like Sonic, look up Trackmania (ok that's probably way wide of the mark but I never really understood what people liked about Sonic games )

And whatever you do... try to keep some control over your backlog



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