A little while ago, I have to admit I was both very angry as a gamer and very excited at the same time about the incoming consoles.
I was excited for the PS4 with its focus on the gamer, exciting possibilities, raw horsepower and an all new Dualshock. The number of indie, F2P, and larger developers praising it helped get me more excited. Almost to the point of a blood vessel rupturing
Shortly after I was angry at MS for the decisions they had made for the X1 (if you want to see how angry read my previous blog). I won't repeat them here (you surely know them by now)and I don't want to mention the reveal (whoops) but with their U-turns my anger has subsided and my views have changed. All the issues I had are no longer relevant. I like games so that has made me happy. It means I will get an X1 at somepoint.
Oddly, these feelings of anger and excitement ran parallel with each other and now my anger has disappeared due to MS's change of heart (another way of saying sensible decision making that came better late than never)as well as my excitement for the new consoles which has dwindled as well. Certainly to a point where currently I won't buy either of them at launch.
I think I can put my finger on why. When the PS4 was revealed I saw the KZSF gameplay and my jaw was flapping about like it was broken. I coo'ed at the cityscape and the gigantic explosion that ripped a skyscraper apart. It was wonderous. I was excited.
That excitement continued on to E3. Sony comes along shows off The Order and the titles they had shown previously at the reveal in February, and tells the consumers what they want to hear.
Microsoft meanwhile shows a real smorgasbord of both 3rd party and exclusive games for the X1 and I wanted to be more impressed than I was but I felt like the actual policies surrounding the console were dulling my enthusiasm. (The Witcher 3 is entirely discounted from this train of thought by the way).
It wasn't that I didn't think the games on either console don't look good, i'm just not sure that there is anything coming at release that is really screaming 'BUY ME NOW!' anymore. I really wanted a huge RPG at launch. Watchdogs looks great but by itself isn't enough to make me buy day one (although I do have a PS4 and Watchdogs pre-ordered for launch day).
Infamous Second Son is next year. The Witcher 3 is next year as is The Order and DA Inquisition. So is Dying Light. I'm not sure a multiplayer only shooter with mechs is really going to do it for me even if it looks cool. DR3, never really been a fan of the series. Ryse, looked amazing but not quite sold on what it actually turned out to be. Watchdogs and KZSF? To be honest I can wait to play those. BF4, whilst it looks lovely isn't something that is luring me in either. Forza 5 and Drive Club, I do love my driving games but they aren't going to make me buy a console (my dad maybe but not me) and with GT6 coming soon I think I can live without them.
I want to qualify that this only applies to me. I know there are people out there itching to play BF4, Titanfall, KZSF, Watchdogs etc, i'm just not one of them. I want to play them sure, but they don't appeal to me enough to be an early adopter. Maybe i'm still jaded from the lack of games early in the PS3's lifecycle.
I just don't think that there is something for everyone within the launch games as Sony and Microsoft seem to think. I want to qualify that if The Witcher 3 was a launch title I would buy a PS4 day one, no qualms at all. In fact if there was any open world RPG at all the PS4 would be day one.
As it stands though I am happy waiting to buy both of them. I then get to see what exactly the exclusives for each console end up being and get some genuine feedback from the guys on here that adopt early. I'm still getting a PS4 first but if the X1 has an exclusive that I just need to have i'll buy one in a heartbeat as well.
Now, don't get me wrong, I know we have Gamescom coming up but I don't see either MS or Sony announcing anymore launch games at this time. I think they will both show off new titles but I fully expect them to be 2014 releases.
Anyhoo, i'm pretty sure GTA5 will keep me occupied for a while.
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I'd also like to say something to people who are still intent on bashing the X1. I have a 360,a PS3, and a gaming laptop.
If I didn't have a 360 I would of missed out on Lost Odyssey.
If I didn't have a PS3 I would of missed out on God of War 3.
If I didn't have a PC I would have missed out on Shogun Total War 2.
This is going to be the same scenario next gen. If you don't buy a X1 you'll miss out, if you don't buy a PS4, if you don't have a decent PC you'll miss out.
Gaming is gaming, whatever you play on. I mean why take sides unless someone is doing something tragic to the industry? We stood together (most of us) on the X1 issues and look what we achieved with forcing MS into changing their minds (ultimately a business decision based on consumer feedback I know but we are consumers). There is no longer a reason to be so hostile toward the X1 and whilst the PS4 is certainly my first choice i'm not going to criticise someone who wants an X1 anymore.
AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, be excited to be a gamer. I may not be getting one of the new consoles straight away as it stands but i'm still incredibly optimistic about the future of my beloved past time.
Thanks for reading.
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You know what, I never really got excited for the PS4. I only got deceived by Microsoft's politics that were a total scam. So then, I thought that I would buy the PS4, but now that Microsoft are back pedaling on the many annoying things they've previously announced, the choice wil be tougher. As of right now, 14th of August 2013, the Xbox One has a better exclusive games catalog. BUT, nor Sony and Microsoft announced all their games yet, so we better wait&see. The desert from 2011-2013 on the Xbox 360 exclusives wise was too much for me when at the same time on the rival platform they got The Last of Us that looks pretty damn solid. Let's wait until the first price drop to decide which one is better, and that will be better in the long run, because the 360 was better than the PS3 the first 2-3 years and in 2010, but it dropped suddenly.
You should get a Wii U instead so you won't miss out on Wonderful 101 and Bayonetta 2 ;)
I had already planned on getting a PS4 a couple of years after release, I have that same problem of not really being that interested in the launch games and I want to see how well the hardware works, whether the games really pan out to be as amazing as expected and maybe even a price drop. Between the PS3 and it's slew of games coming out, the Wii U and a whole host of indie games I'd like to check out on PC my money already has alot of places to go, so I'll be playing the waiting game for now. Oddly enough MS has the two games that interest me the most rght now (D4 and Crimson Dragon) but I just can't trust MS as a business, policy changes or not, so I won't really consider a One anytime soon..
"If I didn't have a 360 I would of missed out on Lost Odyssey.
If I didn't have a PS3 I would of missed out on God of War 3.
If I didn't have a PC I would have missed out on Shogun Total War 2."
How do you make the error "would of" twice and then correct yourself to "would have" in the very next sentence?
I own a ps3 and 360, and mainly prefer my 360 for gaming because of; friends, party/chat system, and controller. I REALLY prefer the 360 controller over ds3...
But in switching to ps4 because; controller and party chats are on par with 360, the system itself is not only better spec-ed, but it's )100 cheaper... And a HUGE reason I'm switching is the value of games Sony has given out through ps+. For $10 cheaper, Sony rewards it's gamers with a crazy amount of big named games. They've earned my business because they seem to appreciate their customers, and not only has Xbox lost its vision for its console, they charge $60 a year for people to play multiplayer and use Netflix. Sure they've started offering $10 bin games twice a month, but that doesn't compare to Sony.
If Sony decides to offer free online gaming to all of its games I may consider buying a PS4. Now this generation I got a PS3 didn't bought a xbox 360 instead in 2009 I got a gaming PC what after hearing so many good things about it went and checked it out. Guess what I did not miss out on two high profile xbox 360 games Alan Wake and limbo. So with those two games I really didn't see the point of owning a 360. Now I like the blogger and respect his/her decisions, but in my personal opinion I feel that I am renting a gaming console not buying it, I guess this is due to the overwhelming freedom of PC gaming. Having total control of your hardware, fix your games yourself, create your own pool of games via green light or kickstarter, free online gaming, full backwards compatibility, cheap games. ........
I just wish consoles would be more open and less restrictive. Like Microsoft and Sony could use their cloud services to stream the game data of your PS3, PS2 and PS One likewise for the xbox. That's a simple task for cloud computing.