Video Games without all the boring bits

THE NEXT GENERATION GAME - by Mr Biffo

8/12/2014

Is it just me who has been a bit disappointed by the current generation of games hardware?

Maybe I'm drunk on my own hairy boobs, but back in the day every console offered something different. You could tell a Mega Drive game from a SNES game just by thrusting your eyes at it.

Likewise the PSOne, and PS2. Even the PS3 and Xbox 360 felt different from one another – at least at the start, before they started playing "Anything You Can Do..". A new generation of hardware traditionally meant some sort of quantum stride in terms of the games we’d get, and the experiences on offer.

This time, there has been only an incremental, somewhat ladylike, step up from the last generation. Yeah, Tomb Raider: The Beginning looks a bit better on the Xbox One and PS4 than it did on their last-gen equivalents, but if all we’re getting for the price of upgrading is wavier ponytails I’m not sure it has been worth it.

SECOND SWELL

Of course, we’re still only in the second swell of games for the new machines – it always takes time for developers to really tease the juice out of an unfamiliar "lemon" – but thus far all I can really see is that we’re now able to get more NPCs on screen at any one time.

The graphics in Dead Rising 3 weren't better as such. There were just more of them being thrown at the screen. We call this phenomenon "George Lucas Syndrome" (ha ha).

Plus, I’m not wholly convinced that a higher resolution and framerate, while welcome on paper at least, is always beneficial. Certainly, the graphics in the PS4 remaster of The Last of Us impressed me somewhat less than they did on the PS3, because – thanks to the “better” hardware – it now looks more like a game.

This has been coming for some years, admittedly, but whereas once there was an argument for owning more than one console, now I’m not so sure. At least, there’s no point owning a PS4 and an Xbox One. There’s probably enough quality, distinct stuff on the Wii U to throw it onto your shopping list, but that’ll come down to whether you want to play baby games while being forced to hold an ugly portable television from the 1990s (joke)

It seems a bit weird that we've strolled fully nude into an era when your preference for a games console comes down to which user interface you'd rather wrap your limbs around, and whether or not you want to watch a Halo TV series.

DIS-KINECT

I actually think it’s a shame that the Kinect is so universally hated. It would’ve given the Xbox One something that set it apart (well, arguably it did – but for all the wrong reasons: “Xbox – hear me roar! Xbox, please hear me roar. Xbox...? Right. I'm unplugging you. Stupid waste of money. I hate you. I'm going to stay with my mother.”).

There was outcry about the next Tomb Raider game being a temporary Xbox One exclusive, but those people really need to shut their fat faces: exclusivity looks like the only logical way forwards for the Big Three. Of course, Nintendo has that issue of exclusives sewn up like a recently investigated corpse – it’s part of the company’s culture.

Infamous: Second Son and The Last of Us Remastered are the big ones so far this year on the PS4. Microsoft has fared a little better with Titanfall (brilliant, but weirdly overlooked), Halo: The Master Chief Collection, and Sunset Overdrive - the ranting frat boy's Jet Set Radio - being the standouts. Perhaps tellingly, both those lists have re-releases in them.

Next year we’re looking at the likes of The Order: 1886 and Uncharted 4 dropping on PS4, and Crackdown, Halo 5 and Fable Legends hitting the Xbox One – with the Wii U leading the way in saucy promises (new Zelda, new Star Fox, Captain Toad, and Mario Maker joining the likes of Bayonetta 2, Super Mario 3D World, Pikmin 3, ZombiU, Super Smash Bros. and Mario Kart 8).

I DUNNO

So, in short... this: I dunno.

I suppose I was just expecting more. Many of the big games for the Christmas season are multi-generation releases.

I don't really want to have spent four hundred quid on a brand new console to play Call of Duty: Advance Warfare knowing I could've played it - and it not look particularly different from a next gen version - on my old hardware. I guess I feel a bit cheated.

When I first got an Xbox 360, do you know what game really impressed me? King Kong. Alright, it wasn't exactly a classic, but there was stuff happening on screen which made me feel I'd done the right thing in upgrading. I remember marvelling at the muddy puddles in the jungle and thinking "Yeah - this is what the next generation is all about; you wouldn't have got that on the Xbox".

If a game as terrible as King Kong can convince me of a new generation's worth, when one as lovely as Far Cry 4 cannot, you have to wonder if something has gone a bit awry.

We appear to have entered into an era of iPhone-style gaming hardware releases, where it's difficult to see a compelling reason to throw your old console at a tramp. They're going to force us to eventually, of course - because they'll stop selling the Xbox 360 and PS3 sooner or later, in a bid to lock us all in to what they want.

Until then... I remain to be unconvinced that this generation hasn't happened too soon. It's like a primordial fish has evolved a pair lungs before it had a way to crawl out of the sea. Good going, idiot.

Guten tag, boys und girls! Ich bin Angela Merkel, ze wunderbar chancellor of Germany.
Please do not making me speak in das fake German accent, ja? Das is grossen
racistenliebfraumilchvorsprungdurchtechnik! Bratwurst!
/

9 Comments

thekelvingreen link

8/12/2014 05:28:33 am

They've hit a plateau; graphics aren't going to get significantly better -- as we've seen with this new generation -- and because the industry has trapped itself into a graphics arms race they don't know what to do.

I predict that there will be a couple of years of uninspired rubbish -- except on Nintendo, but everyone ignores them -- and sequels -- also on Nintendo, but everyone ignores them -- then when desperation sets in we'll start to see some new ideas. This generation has a <i>Katamari Damacy</i> in it, but they just need to find it.

Mr Biffo

8/12/2014 05:34:16 am

Yeah, I fear you're right. I also think half the problem is that games all look so similar. There are exceptions of course, but it's getting hard to tell all the grey, paramilitary gun games, and big sword and armour-fests, apart.

dan de la peche

8/12/2014 05:40:02 am

Myself and a friend have been chatting about this. We both bought a PS4, as it seemed like a better option than the Xbox One on paper, and both own a 360 and a Wii U.

We both agree that there aren't any games that we own on the PS4 that are substantially better than we've played before. Maybe I'm a bit jaded, but this generation just doesn't seem to have that special something that the previous ones did. I've been thinking that maybe the graphics/abilities of the 360 were good enough for me to be completely satisfied with a game; a multiplayer FPS looks absolutely fine on it for me to get my jollies, the same thing but with better graphics doesn't really matter to me as it was enough. Far Cry 4 makes me laugh - my mate bought it, and sent me one of those Keys that let you play for two hours, all it did was convince me not to buy the game. It's almost a palette swap of Far Cry 3. There's apparently even a level where you burn down a drug plantation with a flamethrower! Sounds familiar...

I've got Shadows Of Mordor, Destiny, Rayman, Diablo, Dragon Age, and a couple more, and there isn't anything that really screams "next-gen" (Shadows Of Mordor's got some nice ideas in it that will hopefully be stolen by other developers, but falls a bit short). It's the same old thing but with fancier pants. There were things on the 360 that, coming from the Xbox, were amazing, they felt like an actual technological leap, whether that be through the visuals, or the ability to have more "stuff" going on (Dead Rising, for example).

I reckon maybe things are being hamstrung by the need to also release games on the older consoles to maximise revenue, and this, in conjunction with the fact that redundantly prettier games need more people to create is causing a real issue. It's also probably because people (and I am guilty of this myself) tend to play it safe when spending £40, and so aren't buying anything 'flawed-but-innovative", instead sticking to tried-and-tested stuff like CoD or Assassin's Creed, leading to the stagnancy we've got now.

I'd agree with you, that this gen has happened too soon, and it's a detrimental move, and probably will have a knock-on effect on the amount of innovative games that are released.

Monsieur Milk

8/12/2014 05:46:06 am

Last gen I used to own a gaming PC, a PS3, and a Wii. This time around I'm just down to a PC and a Wii U, as a PS4 or XBone seem superfluous. The exclusives are not enough, and the native PC support for XBox controllers to me have rendered the two big consoles redundant.

I take your point about the Wii U line up being childlike, but my experience with it has provided me with the idea that it is anything but juvenile. This console at its most adult is brilliant, with Bayonetta 2, and in my opinion the only way to play AC: Black Flag with it's minimap on the gamepad. When the Wii U is playing at children (MK8, Super Mario 3D World, Zelda) it plays more like a Pixar movie, so well crafted with immense depth and challenge, but accessible nonetheless.

I shout this machine's praise because the mainstream gaming media is perennially overlooking it unjustly. I have theories about this but nothing concrete. My leading idea is that Nintendo hasn't bought into the arms race that Sony / MS have bought into, and its games aren't pushing the photo realism graphics, so the console is an oddity to these outlets, as it is not playing by the typical hype rules. It isn't "Winning" the arms race. To me this is a false paradigm, what all the consoles should be matched on is the quality of it's exclusive games, and this Nintendo has in spades.

It's still surprising to me that every Wii U game plays like it did when I was playing the NES. I put the disk in and it plays. No bugs, no patches, no immediate patches (although they do come on occasion). The quality control is refreshing.

Well there's my secret shame and justification for my gaming setup.
I go now, to drown myself in maple syrup and peanut butter.

Gordon link

8/12/2014 05:56:12 am

Two things have hit this generation:

1) The 'glass ceiling' of absolute performance (borne of commodity hardware) that thekelvingreen mentions is complemented by the fact that this generation doesn't offer a SDTV>HDTV or even a composite>component jump in display capability, meaning just chucking cycles at the graphics is only going to flesh out the scenes with more 'stuff' or give the previous 'stuff' a more lifelike appearance. As the 360/PS3 were already pretty competent there is little to show off the 'wow' factor, particularly in static screenshots.

2) This generation is the first where non-graphics improvements have probably received as much development and test time as the normal bump in triangles. Think online play, Kinect/Eye stuff, game sharing/mirroring, live streaming. All of this capability means less grunt and focus on simply chucking pixels out.

Doesn't bother me one iota as I sat out the last generation (I know, some gamer, huh?) due to an infestation of small humans. However, they are now old enough to warrant something to replace the long-abused Wii, so the fact that some games are rehashes of 360/PS3 releases doesn't bother me per se, although coughing up £45+ for each title certainly does.

As you say though, it's not really about the hardware this time around. I went PS4, because...(?) so it'll really annoy me if all the nipper's mates get Xbox One and want to play Halo with him. As it is though, it seems just about everyone prefers the PS4, so happy days.

Picston Shottle

8/12/2014 08:20:30 am

I have been hoping, for years, that the console wars go tits up. As you rightly pointed out, Biffo, the console exclusives are few and far between and they make it difficult to justify buying one of each console. I just hope that when the Steam Boxes, or whatever they are called, come along that they put a serious dent in console gaming. PC gaming isn't for me for a few reasons: 1) I am a Mac guy, and 2) I want to play games on a 70" TV in my living room from my sofa, not hunched over a keyboard and mouse in the corner of a room or a bedroom. I think if the Steam Box can sell me that experience I will ditch consoles.

ChorltonWheelie

10/12/2014 01:00:08 pm

If only there was some kind of device that didn't lock you into a manufacturers format...something anyone could write for. Maybe something endlessly upgradeable with a variation for every pocket. If only I could get my hands on this dream machine with a 30" 2560x1440 monitor, amazing graphics and sound, games from lonely chancers and mega corporations, it may be useful for all sorts of other things too. If only...but alas....
Well you guys made your bed, lie in it.
(Welcome back Biffo, missed you loads x).

10/12/2014 01:28:42 pm

Cheers for the welcome, Chortuss. And duly noted about this mythical "wonder machine"...

foetus

11/12/2014 02:07:08 am

As has been previously mentioned I don't feel it is the graphical power that is the issue here. The problem over the last gen was the soaring success of cod that made most publishers try to copy to format. We even had capcom trying to make resident evil into a cod game. We so far has not had an original franchise the likes of mass effect or (I know this is cheating) fallout so far this gen as publishers and developers seem terrified to make anything original. The pc actually looks to be leading the way by diving back into the space sim with elite and space citizen.

THE NEXT GENERATION GAME - by Mr Biffo

Leave a Reply.

Archives