The Next-Gen could be awesome if...

       I slammed modern gaming rather harshly in my last post. I stand by my statements mind you but, I do feel that there are still some great gaming experiences in both single and multiplayer games to be had in the next generation of consoles. The Xbox One and the PlayStation 4 are capable of of more processing power than their predecessors but game developers will undoubtedly us this to enhance graphics and sound. Yes, being able to count the numbers of zits on my characters' face is novel and that epic score has to assault your ears as bullets whiz by to convey the sense of battlefield urgency but, if your story is weak, your basic controls are broken, your premise has been done a hundred times before, or the whole game is just not fun to play all that work is wasted as your game is regulated to bargain bins and clearance shelves. With the new data storage and faster processing of the Xbox One and the PS4, the focus should shift away from uber-realistic graphics to making games load faster, play smoother, and try new exciting things that just were not possible on the current-gen options.

 A quick rundown of the Xbox 360, X1 and PS4

       I stated in my last post that I plan on not buying either of the next- gen consoles. I was not being entirely truthful. As a gamer there are some ideas in gaming that I would love to see realized in both single and multiplayer titles. Single player games could benefit from larger worlds, better combat and more content while mulitplayer games could see more weapons, new mechanics and, if the servers can handle it, more players in one game. These "Game Changers" are the only caveats to the end of my gaming career. That said I am a gamer, meaning I buy consoles primarily for gaming and the extra stuff is just gravy (albeit nasty, chunky gravy in Microsoft's case). So any game that will convince me to shell out nearly $600 for a box had better live up to it's promises (I'm looking at you, Molyneux) and deliver an incredible experience that I can walk away from thinking "Now THAT was awesome!"
       Now I'm not saying every title from this point on has to be a triple-A blockbuster or even have some weird, unimaginable feature we've yet to see but, if you want your players to support your work, giving them the same, rehashed game in a different package isn't good enough anymore. Whenever new gaming consoles launch you have to give developers time to learn the technology and see exactly how far they can go. However these "tech demos" often have a few glaring deficiencies.

The ridiculously easy executions are a contrast to the well done combat.

       For the Xbox One Ryse: Son of Rome offers beautiful, fluid graphics (no surprise there) and fast and furious combat that works really well for the most part. It's a solid launch title but, it may well be forgotten in the next year or so. Fighting enemies is great fun and the blood spurts from fresh wounds feels visceral but, when it comes time to deliver a killing blow to a wounded soldier you're treated like a child and given a "kill by colors" execution sequence. The battle slows to a crawl 300 style and your intended target glows a certain color. Pressing the corresponding buttons unleashes a brutal finishing move that awards players with experience and health. Not pressing the corresponding button unleashes a brutal finishing move that awards players with slightly less experience and health. Failing the sequence has literally no consequence. They don't regain portions of their health and keep fighting or counter your attack and harm you. They just die and give a few points less. Barring that almost insulting mechanic, Ryse is a decent game but, not a system seller.

The City of Vetka

       PlayStation 4 owners were given the well done Killzone: Shadow Fall. Visuals impress (how amazing...) and the FPS game play is tight and intuitive. It does tweak some of the multiplayer mainstays and adds a nice feature known as the OWL via the touch pad but, there's no denying it's a by the numbers first person shooter. The city of Vetka is a great setting for firefights and is a showcase for what the PS4 can do graphically. As far as game play..it's a shooter. The OWL drone adds some strategic options, sending it to attack opens the enemy up to flanking for instance, but it's a futuristic FPS, nothing we haven't seen before. A decent launch title but I don't see myself running out and buying a PS4 just for this.

       So far none of the next-gen offerings are pushing the envelope but, there are some upcoming projects that take advantage of the new capabilities of the next-gen consoles to do more than make games prettier. Bungies' Destiny is turning out to be a huge IP for the both the next-gen and current-gen consoles. "We're trying to build a game that we have wanted to play that doesn't exist," Jason Jones the design director and I lit up when I read that sentence. That says to me "This is a man who loves gaming and wants to deliver the best experience possible." While offering both online and offline options, Destiny has a huge, multi-planet game world, customizable avatars and an interesting (from what I've read) story. However, like Killzone Shadow Fall, it is a shooter at heart though I am excited to see how the FPS play style can work in an MMO setting. Even though Destiny will be released on Xbox 360, X1, PS3 and PS4 it's going to be advantageous to play on the newer consoles I'd wager.

There might still be hope for the Kinect...maybe...

      Something that made me laugh and cringe was Fighter Within, a Kinect required title for the X1. It was stiff and choppy at times and outright broken at others. The characters were forgettable and the arenas were so generic I swear the developers just took pictures out of magazines and rendered them in 3D. So what am I even mentioning this mistake of a game in the same article as Destiny?

      Because I saw the potential that was wasted here.

      Since the Kinect's inception someone, somewhere thought it would be awesome to have a martial arts game that read and copied your movements exactly and, in theory, it does sound awesome. To date no one, not one game of this type, has gotten it right. I still have faith that maybe a breakthrough title that will read your movements and relay them to your in game avatar, not as pre-scripted moves but, actual mimicry of your own body, is down the road somewhere. Have your targets react to your every move and give them dynamic AI, forcing you to change up your tactics for each warrior. It could be a incredible experience and I would definitely walk away and say "That was awesome!"

       As we move into the next generation of gaming, I worry about the numerous Call of Duty clones and generic rpg's that could flood the market. Today there are so many options to choose from that the casual gamer is going to play whats popular and then move on to the next big thing, while gamers who truly love the medium will be more learned and know what specifically to look for in their preferred gaming experience. This should create a need for developers to market to the core gamers as their reviews on YouTube and various blog (like this one) and Vlogs aren't regulated by a magazine or by paid in any way. They will deliver the hard facts as a consumer, not an inside agent of the industry. These guys are who gamers, casual and core, listen to. Look at PewDiePie, Angry Joe or Smosh games. Gamers respect their opinions. Their reviews and “Let's Plays” generate sales for the titles in their respective videos. Wouldn't it stand to reason that creating something new, something that reshapes the gaming landscape or at least improves upon what is there by adding features that were unattainable before, is in developers best interests? The reviews would be glowing if the titles are crafted with the prospective gamer in mind and not the end result profit. There's nothing wrong with a good staple game but they're so trite at this point. Gamers would like to play something that features something more than guns, sorcery and swords.