Joy, pure joy! Today, today has come! I leap from sleep, immediately awake at the prospect of the coming day. It has arrived, finally. I rush to the purchase, nothing else matters today. I arrive home, the screen is on before my coat is off. Time to play, happiness finally!
console
The Inadequate State of Gaming
I have played almost every Xbox One game that has been released, Fifa 14, Forza 5, CoD Ghosts, Battlefield 4, AC Black Flag, NFS Rivals, Titanfall and Thief as well as others. Of these games only Forza and Fifa have been games I keep going back to, this is a problem I have noticed with a lot of games recently. I buy a new game and I love it, for about a week, by then I have basically beaten it and am all but completely finished with it. I find this disappointing, especially since my wallet is starting to hate me. I want more games like Skyrim, I put at least 200 hours into that game and rarely was I bored. I want more open-world games or at least more games with more to do or more to unlock. This revelation has become even more clear after playing Titanfall. A shooter such as Titanfall needs lots to in the multiplayer section of the game, especially since there isn’t even a singleplayer. Unlocks are a driving force for multiplayer especially in shooters, Battlefield 4 for example had over a hundred different unlocks, Titanfall has I think 15 weapons in total, not a lot, and even less in terms of attachments, I want more, I want more choice, not one of each type of weapon. I want to enjoy Titanfall so badly and it is really fun but after 10 hours I find myself bored, I want to keep playing but unless I’m with a friend I find it difficult without something to work towards. Even if it’s something like the medals in Battlefield something would be better. Titanfall was and is a great game, but when compared to its competition I am finding that it falls short in some ways especially when considering that it is a next gen title. I see the “next gen-ness” in gameplay but not in scope, or graphics for that matter.
Titanfall is not the only game I am getting bored of, Thief and CoD and NFS Rivals, all of them were a letdown, I finished most in less than a week and moved on. I find myself constantly looking to the months ahead where the big open world titles will be arriving, they show such promise for hours and hours of fun. Games like Destiny, Watchdogs, Dragon Age Inquisition, The Division and Dying Light, these all are terribly promising and as much as I want to be excited I’m also nervous. I want to be excited but I was excited about most of the games that have been released in the last few months and been let down in some way or another. I want to stop having to look ahead for the next big title; I want a few games that I can play for months or at the very least weeks rather than days.
The Console War
The console debates have been raging on for years, this pointless argument is the realm of fanboys/girls trying to prove that their console of choice is the best for one reason or another. When I was just a young lad in high school I was admittedly somewhat of a fanboy, thinking that my Xbox 360 was the only console worth buying. However, this attitude of course was a foolish one. In recent months the talk of the next generation has rekindled this debate into a roaring fire of a dispute bringing it to the for-front of the media’s attention. Sides have since been picked as the consoles survive their second month of release. But why have so many people felt the need to tell everyone which console to buy, which one is better than the other?
Consoles especially now, are extremely similar they do basically the same thing, with the exception of the Wii U (although Xbox Kinect and Playstation Eye are changing that) they all play games and they all use a controller to do so. It is even difficult to argue with the basic features, often Sony fans used to say Playstation was the way to go because it was free to play online. Now however that has changed both the Xbox One and PS 4 require a monthly subscription to play online. What the discussion has come down to is not the technical differences between consoles but which exclusives are available, although the hardcore fans would beg to differ choosing to argue about processing power and other numbers and stats. When picking a console your really picking the games you will be able to play, for Xbox, franchises such as Halo and Gears of War (and Titanfall which looks extremely promising) come to mind, whereas Playstation has the Uncharted series, God of War and Little Big Planet.
What this means is that instead of looking for a hardware difference to argue about, gamers both hardcore and casual alike should look at what games will be released for each console (I’m not saying however they should argue about them). I doubt the debate will change much, fangirls and boys will forever argue that their console is better for one reason or another. The key to picking a console is to look at the games you want to play and ask your friends what console they are thinking about getting or which one they already have. Gaming isn’t always about playing alone. My friends are split down the middle, some chose the Xbox One like me and some went with the PS4. The reason I chose the Xbone was because it had better (not better, more like better suited to me) exclusives (in my opinion) and my friend who I play with regularly was also getting one. If all my friends had gone with Sony and the PS4 I most likely would have chosen that as well, this is one instance where South Park is right, this is the one time to cave to peer pressure.
What I’m trying to get at here is that the supposed console war is unnecessary; everyone has their own preference and favourite games. What gamers need to remember is that it’s all about personal preference and in some cases the social preference of your group of friends not what random ranting fans on the internet claim.
A Boisterous Life 