Over the course of the past twenty years, gaming has seen meteoric technological advancement, unlike any other industry. Every year the graphical and mechanical capabilities of games invariably grow; procedurally generated universes with over 18 quintillion planets, gorgeous vistas, and grueling, gritty combat that is utterly believable and gut-wrenching – we’re quite capable of these technical feats in the 2020s, but what is the future of gaming?
Gaming technology isn’t solely reliant on game developers – it’s an enormous, coordinated effort between many industries; smart TV manufacturers, console manufacturers, and programmers, each industry must work in tandem to produce next-level gaming content that can be supported by the average shopper. This year has been excellent for the advancement of console technology, gaming technology, and of course, TV technology – so if you’re dying to know, for example, what’s the best 65-inch TV for gaming you can get this year, or what the best VR headsets are, then stick around.
Best gaming TV of the year –
LG OLED C2 65” 4K Smart TV –
https://www.amazon.co.uk/LG-OLED-C2-65-Smart/dp/B09W65BR8S/
Crushing the competition this year as easily one of the best gaming televisions ever made, LG’s C2 OLED TV delivers where it counts most – in both dazzling, crisp, precise, and dynamic onscreen beauty, and razor-sharp response times.
Considerably brighter than last year’s C1 OLED with a maximum brightness of approximately 850 nits, shoppers regularly face the typical trade-off of speed for vibrance when deciding between OLED and QLED is largely a thing of the past.
Easily the most exciting feature of LG’s C2, however, is the 0.1ms response time (alongside that excellent 120Hz refresh rate), which is far and above the potential speeds seen typically in your standard 4K TV. Rapid response times are particularly exciting for gamers because this translates to controls that feel far more responsive, there’s little to no delay between the press of a button and the output on the screen, giving you far better control than ever before.
Best VR headset –
Meta Quest 2 VR Gaming Headset – 128 GB
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Oculus-Quest-Advanced-All-One/dp/B0973RP7H3/
For a brief glimpse into the potential of gaming in the future, look no further than Meta’s Quest 2, one of the most thrilling, yet affordable ways to experience VR ever made.
With 128 GB of storage, the Meta Quest 2 has the unique capability of having its own onboard game library, eliminating the need for forking over even more cash for the pleasure of playing your favorite games.
If you prefer to access your own library of PC games, simply hook up the VR headset to your PC and experience the power of VR gaming in an instant.
The future of gaming – where do we go from here?
First and foremost – we’re going to see large improvements in gaming hardware – greater processing power leading to larger, more graphically impressive worlds with an even greater scale than ever before.
With greater console power, smart televisions will inevitably become faster, with much better response times across the board – and of course, we’ll eventually see some more gamer-friendly 8K televisions that seem, as of now, quite far away.
As for VR technology – the PSVR2 is set to be released in March, which seems like a major step up from the first iteration of Sony’s VR, with a built-in 4K resolution, and a far more expansive game library than ever before, the future of gaming is incredibly bright.