When thePlayStation 5and Xbox Series X/S were announced, gaming enthusiasts were thrilled to see what the future of gaming was going to look like. Each new console had exciting new features that have seemingly changed gaming for good. One of the unsung heroes of the newest console generation is definitely the majorly reduced load times. Waiting for a game to load is just something that comes hand in hand with playing video games, but both the PS5 and the Xbox Series X/S have reduced those wait times drastically thanks tothe internal SSDsthat come standard in each unit.
As is often the case when fixing a problem, eliminating load times by in large has created another. Loading screen tips have been used in a majority of video games for the past several console generations, and while they’re still around in games for the PS5 andXbox Series X, they’re virtually useless. Loading screen tips have given plenty of gamers a little something to do while they wait for the next section of their game to load, and with games likeSpec Ops: The Line, can sometimes even add to the overall narrative experience. However, they are no longer a valid option.
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The Death of Loading Screen Tips
Loading screen tips have been around for so long that it seems only natural that game studios would keep putting them in their titles. However, now thatloading is almost instant with the PS5and Xbox Series X, tips often appear on screen for only a second or two before players load into the game. The text onscreen is usually too long to read and comprehend in that split-second wait time, so it seems unnecessary for studios to continue including them as cross-generation titles become less and less common. While there’s plenty of good that the newest consoles have done for gaming, they’ve also brought with them the death of loading screen tips.
While loading screen tips are hardly ever revolutionary in terms of what they’re teaching the player, they often serve as good reminders of game mechanics and lore that players might not remember when playing through lengthier titles. Some ofthe best loading screens also offer forms of interactivitythat help make the wait feel less long and, unfortunately, those sorts of memorable loading screens are also disappearing with the new consoles.
Changing What Loading Screen Tips Can Be
Because of their obsolete nature, games should just drop loading screen tips altogether. It’s often jarring to try and read a tip only to get four or five words in and then abruptly be placed in the game world. If having tips function how they have been for years isn’t working anymore, then games should try something else to take their place. Inserting anything into a one to two-second slot isn’t going to do much since that isn’t enough time to really see and understand something. As such, simplyinserting different game art into the mixisn’t a great solution.
The problem is that the amount of time just isn’t enough for really anything, so studios need to figure out what to do with that downtime. It could be as simple as throwing a logo onscreen or even just cutting to black, but it’s likely that the next few years will be instrumental for discovering how that downtime will be spent. As more and more studios work onPS5 or Xbox Series X exclusive titles, they’ll likely look to their favorite recent games to see what they’re doing in the quick loads. This will establish what’s going to happen to loading screens, but it’s likely that the limited wait times of thePS5and Xbox Series X will bring the permanent end of loading screen tips.
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