What I believe is the BEST thing about the next-gen systems...

[ODogg]

Re: What I believe is the BEST thing about the next-gen systems...

What I believe is the best thing about Next-Gen systems?

Honestly, it's the fact that "the little guys" are getting more and more notice for the things they bring to gaming. AAA gaming is, for lack of a better word, stagnant. There are a plethora of reasons for this (which a lot of them come back to the budgets and priorities being out of whack) but it's good to see good games get recognized, no matter where they come from. I don't like calling them "indie games" because A) That term has a negative connotation and B) that term, for the internet, has so many different meanings and nit-picky definitions it's ridiculous. Please note that I am only using the term for relative ease of description, because it's what most people will associate them with in their head.

Three of the best PS4 games out at this moment are what some people would call "indie games". Zen Pinball 2, Resogun and Don't Starve. Those stack up favorably (in terms of fun factor and 'would I enjoy spending my time playing this?') with any AAA game released for any system in the time they've come out.

What I truly want out of this generation, though? I say this with baited breath, of course, but I want a return to form (and prominence) of those true "AA" games. Games that don't have the bloated marketing budgets, games that aim for their particular niche and hit them in full stride.

The PS2 was fantastic for this type of game. The 360 and PS3 seemed to go more towards "Indie/AAA or bust!" mindset (especially later in the PS3 lifecycle, though there are still a few titles coming out that are more of a lower budget type deal.)

Right now, major game publishing companies won't even take a look at a game if it's not insanely profitable. Not "well above breaking even." That's a sad state of affairs, and it's why we see crap reboots coming out - that's neither here nor there, though.

Note: "New IPs" doesn't equate to taking chances, at all. They can go hand-in-hand, but not necessarily so.

I didn't want to let this go by without giving ubernoob credit on this because I too agree with it wholeheartedly. We need innovation to continue to thrive or games will eventually fade away..

[ODogg]

Re: What I believe is the BEST thing about the next-gen systems...

The notion that there is a $500 PC that can do everything the One does, while being simplistically plug and play is laughable.

We'll see if a Steam Box can match up, but even those seem to run in the $1000 and up range.

I agree with the OP, in that fast switching has made a bigger difference than I would have thought. This was clear the other night while watching Justified. My wife forgot something from last year's finale. From Tivo, she was able to pause, go directly to Amazon Video, and then launch last year's finale, not only without a remote, but so much faster. Then, after she saw what she wanted, it was a simple, "Go to TV" and "Play" to be right back where we were.

Input One makes a difference, from getting messages from friends and notifications that downloads are ready to play while watching regular TV, to instantly jumping from games to other apps without a controller or remote, this really is a game changer. It might be approaching the same level of necessity as Tivo did years ago. I want all my games on the One and digital.

Basically, this is the true Entertainment System that Nintendo tried to claim with their first consoles.

I agree...it seems to me as if PC is analog entertainment. It can offer much more, it can offer much less and everything in between from not working at all, to poor to unbelievably excellent and console killing depending upon your configuration, the year we are in, what devs want to do with a game etc. There's just no way of knowing when you buy a PC game what the baseline is.

The console however is digital, either you get a pretty good experience or none at all, I mean in reference to levels of audio and graphics. There's no worry that your game won't run or you won't have the directX drivers installed or your soundcard driver needs updated. And you know there's a certain baseline of quality because all titles are run through Nintendo, Sony or Microsoft.

PC can be better, in fact it can blow the doors off a console if you're willing to spend the time and money but it's not ever going to match the console in value and ease of use...

[metalmilitia623]

Re: What I believe is the BEST thing about the next-gen systems...

I agree...it seems to me as if PC is analog entertainment. It can offer much more, it can offer much less and everything in between from not working at all, to poor to unbelievably excellent and console killing depending upon your configuration, the year we are in, what devs want to do with a game etc. There's just no way of knowing when you buy a PC game what the baseline is.

The console however is digital, either you get a pretty good experience or none at all, I mean in reference to levels of audio and graphics. There's no worry that your game won't run or you won't have the directX drivers installed or your soundcard driver needs updated. And you know there's a certain baseline of quality because all titles are run through Nintendo, Sony or Microsoft.

PC can be better, in fact it can blow the doors off a console if you're willing to spend the time and money but it's not ever going to match the console in value and ease of use...

Value is questionable. You have to remember a PC is more than just something to play games on. You can surf the web with ease (compared to console), you can create office documents, you can create all kinds of music and movies, you can (with the right software) create all sorts of engineering and architectural wonders. Among many other things you can't do on the consoles.

So while yes as a gaming only platform the consoles will have more value than a PC at any price but if you think about everything else you can and possibly will use that PC for the value starts to go up exponentially.

As for ease of use consoles will have PC beat but that is also sort of the point of them. They are designed for those that do not understand how to do the complex techy things.

[ODogg]

Re: What I believe is the BEST thing about the next-gen systems...

Value is questionable. You have to remember a PC is more than just something to play games on. You can surf the web with ease (compared to console), you can create office documents, you can create all kinds of music and movies, you can (with the right software) create all sorts of engineering and architectural wonders. Among many other things you can't do on the consoles.

So while yes as a gaming only platform the consoles will have more value than a PC at any price but if you think about everything else you can and possibly will use that PC for the value starts to go up exponentially.

As for ease of use consoles will have PC beat but that is also sort of the point of them. They are designed for those that do not understand how to do the complex techy things.

Yeah I agree, hence why I don't like comparing the two...they each serve a purpose.

[metalmilitia623]

Re: What I believe is the BEST thing about the next-gen systems...

Yeah I agree, hence why I don't like comparing the two...they each serve a purpose.

The thing is consoles have been designed to try and create a divide between gamers with things like exclusives and times content releases. To me that is the biggest problem of all even more so that the casualization of all AAA games.

Games should bring people together not push them apart.

Video games has become too much about making money (in the AA sector) than about making art and that is the downfall. That is why THQ is gone, they were trying too hard to maximize profits and not hard enough on making quality games and boom gone.

Now other devs are doing the same things but I think they fare better than THQ at least for now due to the IPs they own. EA has it's sports titles, BF, NFS, etc. Activision has WoW, CoD, something else. Ha no clue what Activision makes anymore. Take-two has GTA, sports titles, Civilization. THQ didn't really have any big names yet they continued to try and sell them instead of taking some risks and making some good new IPs.

It just saddens me how cutthroat this industry is and how there has been no effort to try and unify all gamers across all platforms.

God how I wish I could (without shelling out $50-$100) play Console Strike: Global Offencive with a kb/m. Just for the sole purpose of making kids rage from scout headshots.

[mgoblue]

Re: What I believe is the BEST thing about the next-gen systems...

The thing is consoles have been designed to try and create a divide between gamers with things like exclusives and times content releases. To me that is the biggest problem of all even more so that the casualization of all AAA games.

Games should bring people together not push them apart.

Video games has become too much about making money (in the AA sector) than about making art and that is the downfall. That is why THQ is gone, they were trying too hard to maximize profits and not hard enough on making quality games and boom gone.

Now other devs are doing the same things but I think they fare better than THQ at least for now due to the IPs they own. EA has it's sports titles, BF, NFS, etc. Activision has WoW, CoD, something else. Ha no clue what Activision makes anymore. Take-two has GTA, sports titles, Civilization. THQ didn't really have any big names yet they continued to try and sell them instead of taking some risks and making some good new IPs.

It just saddens me how cutthroat this industry is and how there has been no effort to try and unify all gamers across all platforms.

God how I wish I could (without shelling out $50-$100) play Console Strike: Global Offencive with a kb/m. Just for the sole purpose of making kids rage from scout headshots.

Games, movies, etc are always about making money. Yes, they care about the art, but you can't build a company or feed your kids on art (paint and canvas taste nasty).

The issue with exclusives and whatnot is that there's no "PC" company to pay to promote PC.

[ubernoob]

Re: What I believe is the BEST thing about the next-gen systems...

Video games has become too much about making money (in the AA sector) than about making art and that is the downfall. That is why THQ is gone, they were trying too hard to maximize profits and not hard enough on making quality games and boom gone.

Now other devs are doing the same things but I think they fare better than THQ at least for now due to the IPs they own. EA has it's sports titles, BF, NFS, etc. Activision has WoW, CoD, something else. Ha no clue what Activision makes anymore. Take-two has GTA, sports titles, Civilization.

God how I wish I could (without shelling out $50-$100) play Console Strike: Global Offencive with a kb/m. Just for the sole purpose of making kids rage from scout headshots.

PC Gaming is dead, didn't you get the memo about 10 years ago?

You can play CS:GO with a keyboard and mouse. Use the computer you are caping for.

Games should bring people together not push them apart.

It just saddens me how cutthroat this industry is and how there has been no effort to try and unify all gamers across all platforms.

They do. Stop acting like there is some huge paradigm shift that occurred when you were sleeping.

3rd Gen - NES (1985), SEGA Master System (1986), Atari 7800 (1986) and Atari XEGS (1987)

4th Gen - TurboGrafx-16 (1989), Sega Genesis (1989), Neo Geo (1990) and SNES (1991)

5th Gen - Atari Jaguar (1993), 3DO (1993), Sega 32X (1994), Sega Saturn (1995), Sony PlayStation (1995) and Nintendo 64 (1997)

6th Gen - Dreamcast (1999), PlayStation 2 (2000), GameCube (2001) and XBox (2001)

7th Gen - X360 (2005), PlayStation 3 (2006) and Wii (2006)

8th Gen - WiiU (2012), PlayStation 4 (2013) and XBone (2013).

You're right. Let's go back to the old days where we were all unified across consoles, where gamer's all got along and one company didn't try something for money that none others did.

*cough*

Spoiler

The thing is consoles have been designed to try and create a divide between gamers with things like exclusives and times content releases. To me that is the biggest problem of all even more so that the casualization of all AAA games.

A company pushing the fact that it can release DLC before others? UNHEARD OF!

*cough*

Spoiler

Also, since we're being all "unify-ey" here, let's sing Kumbaya around the campfire and remember the days where multiplatform games weren't different at all.

*cough*

Spoiler

THQ didn't really have any big names yet they continued to try and sell them instead of taking some risks and making some good new IPs.

THQ was simply a product of ballooning game budgets. THQ has literally made it's name off kids games, and licensed tie-ins. That's it. If you think differently, then you're just being silly and don't know what you're talking about.

The very first game they published was "Where's Waldo?" for the NES. Four of their next five games (Videomotion being the one that's not) were based off of animated series (Swamp Thing and 3 Ren and Stimpy games.)

From there on out, they stuck to the kids games but added wrestling into their portfolio starting with WCW vs. the World in 97.

They had Company of Heroes, Darksiders, Red Faction and Saint's Row. Those should be MORE than enough to keep a company afloat if they manage their budgets properly. To use a sports analogy since we are on OS - most companies don't because they think a potential "home run" (in financial terms, not in game terms) is a better move than taking a guaranteed walk, even when the real cost is a game-ending strikeout.

TL;DR version -

Dev Teams/Publishers blowing budgets is what's "killing" gaming these days. A focus on stuff outside gaming like these machines being "All-In-One Media Boxes", while very handy and nice to have, is killing gaming these days. Having more options (tablets, smartphones, browser-based) to play a quick game of something is "killing" console gaming these days. "free-to-play" gaming is "killing" gaming these days.

But no, having multiple console choices with pros and cons to each of them will never be what is "killing" gaming.

[metalmilitia623]

Re: What I believe is the BEST thing about the next-gen systems...

Firstly PC gaming is far from dead. What with all the VR tech coming that consoles will not get. Also I do play Go on my PC I just sometimes play it on Xbox because some of my friends son't have PCs able to run it.

Secondly I'm a firm believer that cross platform play should be a thing on more than just OSX and Windows. It should be between the WiiU, PS4 and XBO as well. I would throw PC in there too but it wouldn't really work for a lot of games. It'd just be too advantageous for PC players over console ones.

As for the thing about there not being a PC maker to bid for exclusives. Why then are there console makers to bid for those exclusives? Why has something like the steam box not been joint produced by M$, Nintendo and Sony? Auto makers work together all the time so why not in video games?

[ubernoob]

Re: What I believe is the BEST thing about the next-gen systems...

Firstly PC gaming is far from dead. What with all the VR tech coming that consoles will not get. Also I do play Go on my PC I just sometimes play it on Xbox because some of my friends son't have PCs able to run it.

Secondly I'm a firm believer that cross platform play should be a thing on more than just OSX and Windows. It should be between the WiiU, PS4 and XBO as well. I would throw PC in there too but it wouldn't really work for a lot of games. It'd just be too advantageous for PC players over console ones.

As for the thing about there not being a PC maker to bid for exclusives. Why then are there console makers to bid for those exclusives? Why has something like the steam box not been joint produced by M$, Nintendo and Sony? Auto makers work together all the time so why not in video games?

Obviously it's not dead. It's the best gaming system one can have, that was more a comment about how people have been proclaiming it's death for well over 10 years.

Cross platform play is a thing. See: FFXI, FFXIV. Doesn't mean publishers want to do it, nor is it a good idea.

MS and Sony don't even have cross-play between 360/XBone and PS3/PS4 and yet you expect them to magically do it between two competing systems? From companies in different countries?

And PC not getting exclusive titles? Man I've been so busy in my life playing Age of Empires, Battlefield 2/1942/2142, Civ, most MMOs, MOBAs, Amnesia, DayZ, Starcraft, the Total War series, indie games like The Stanley Parable and Papers, Please while awaiting games like Heroes of the Storm, Pillars of Eternity, WildStar, Star Citizen and a host of other games.

I've been having so much fun I failed to realize that PC Exclusives don't exist.

Also, did you build your PC? If so, I fully expect you to start bidding for exclusivity for some of these games so it's PC Gamers can finally know what it's like to have an exclusive.

[metalmilitia623]

Re: What I believe is the BEST thing about the next-gen systems...

Obviously it's not dead. It's the best gaming system one can have, that was more a comment about how people have been proclaiming it's death for well over 10 years.

Cross platform play is a thing. See: FFXI, FFXIV. Doesn't mean publishers want to do it, nor is it a good idea.

MS and Sony don't even have cross-play between 360/XBone and PS3/PS4 and yet you expect them to magically do it between two competing systems? From companies in different countries?

And PC not getting exclusive titles? Man I've been so busy in my life playing Age of Empires, Battlefield 2/1942/2142, Civ, most MMOs, MOBAs, Amnesia, DayZ, Starcraft, the Total War series, indie games like The Stanley Parable and Papers, Please while awaiting games like Heroes of the Storm, Pillars of Eternity, WildStar, Star Citizen and a host of other games.

I've been having so much fun I failed to realize that PC Exclusives don't exist.

Also, did you build your PC? If so, I fully expect you to start bidding for exclusivity for some of these games so it's PC Gamers can finally know what it's like to have an exclusive.

I didn't mean that there aren't PC only games they just aren't advertised as "exclusive" games like their console counterparts.

Also I sure did build my own PC. The benefits outweigh the cons way too much to not. Plus it really isn't much harder than legos, really expensive legos.

As for what I said about unifying the consoles obviously it wouldn't just be something they do out of the blue it would be something they work on together kinda like the Suboyotion.

That car is sold (obviously) as a Subaru as well as a Toyota and Scion (in the US).

Those two manufacturers worked together to design it so is it too much to ask for Sony and MS and maybe even Nintendo to team up to work together. Sure they are located in different countries, so what? This is 2014 we can do amazing things over the internet in this day and age.

[ubernoob]

Re: What I believe is the BEST thing about the next-gen systems...

I didn't mean that there aren't PC only games they just aren't advertised as "exclusive" games like their console counterparts.

Also I sure did build my own PC. The benefits outweigh the cons way too much to not. Plus it really isn't much harder than legos, really expensive legos.

Right, so when you build your PC what company do you want to pay for exclusives? The ones that built the machine like Sony and MS? So pony up that cash to have stuff advertised as exclusives, not that it matters at all. Who cares how it's advertised?

As for what I said about unifying the consoles obviously it wouldn't just be something they do out of the blue it would be something they work on together kinda like the Suboyotion.

That car is sold (obviously) as a Subaru as well as a Toyota and Scion (in the US).

Those two manufacturers worked together to design it so is it too much to ask for Sony and MS and maybe even Nintendo to team up to work together. Sure they are located in different countries, so what? This is 2014 we can do amazing things over the internet in this day and age.

Right. When Microsoft owns a majority stake in Sony, then we can talk. Otherwise it's still just the same irrelevant point.

Toyota Motor Corporation owns a majority stake in Subaru's parent company (Fuji Heavy Industries.) Can't compare the two.

[mgoblue]

Re: What I believe is the BEST thing about the next-gen systems...

Right, so when you build your PC what company do you want to pay for exclusives? The ones that built the machine like Sony and MS? So pony up that cash to have stuff advertised as exclusives, not that it matters at all. Who cares how it's advertised?



Right. When Microsoft owns a majority stake in Sony, then we can talk. Otherwise it's still just the same irrelevant point.

Toyota Motor Corporation owns a majority stake in Subaru's parent company (Fuji Heavy Industries.) Can't compare the two.

Came here to say the same thing about Toyota/Subaru....Scion and Lexus are divisions of Toyota, as well....

[Hester]

Re: What I believe is the BEST thing about the next-gen systems...

Count me as a loyal PC gamer that got fed up with tweaking, updating, and troubleshooting that is involved with gaming. Once I eliminated gaming from my PC, my entire PC experience improved.

I still play a game here or there, but gaming became 100% more fun when moved to a console. It became less about making the games run well and more just playing games.

I'll give PCs credit for inspiring all of the awesome stuff consoles do today. But for me, consoles do all of that stuff easier, better, and cheaper than a PC.

[ODogg]

Re: What I believe is the BEST thing about the next-gen systems...

Count me as a loyal PC gamer that got fed up with tweaking, updating, and troubleshooting that is involved with gaming. Once I eliminated gaming from my PC, my entire PC experience improved.

I still play a game here or there, but gaming became 100% more fun when moved to a console. It became less about making the games run well and more just playing games.

I'll give PCs credit for inspiring all of the awesome stuff consoles do today. But for me, consoles do all of that stuff easier, better, and cheaper than a PC.

You and I must have the same personality because I was the same way when I primarily gamed on my PC.... Every time I played a game I was wondering about FPS, resolution, audio levels, etc. I was always thinking there was some way to do it better and get more out of the experience. Of course maybe part of that is I've gamed since the DOS days when constant tweaking your autoexec.bat and config.sys was the norm..

No doubt for some people that's just what they love about PC gaming but for me it came to overshadow the gaming itself. Although I still do occasionally game on my PC I use my consoles now. And I never have to worry about anything more than simply what console to buy a game for and then I'm done and can just enjoy the game without that constant tweaking OCD...

[piffbernd]

Re: What I believe is the BEST thing about the next-gen systems...

For strategy games is PC a must, why they don't release company of heroes or civ on next gen or ps3 or xbox 360.