Anyone else not feeling this new hardware generation much yet?

I don't know about this assessment. First and foremost, you don't own a PS4 or Xbox One. So this is through your limited exposure, and I'm surprised by the depth of this not-first-hand review. I've been there for every iteration of home gaming… Pong, Atari, the early computer eras (TI, Commodore, Apple 2, etc), Intellivision...

Colecovision was the first system where I stood back and was like "Wow, this is really moving forward". This feels more like the arcade. Donkey Kong looking correct, at home, man, now we're getting somewhere.

Atari 5200 - meh.

The first Nintendo entertainment system was revolutionary, but compared to Colecovision, not that extraordinary? Think back, that wasn't a huge jump. Zelda was revolutionary, but not because of the console.

First Sega - no big jump there (compared to what else was happening at the time).

Sega Genesis - meh.

SuperNintendo was an upgrade in the same way that Xbox One was to Xbox 360. Not a big jump there.

Playstation (1) - At this point we were seeing 3D graphics coming into play more, which started a large scale change in the industry.

Nintendo 64 was a jump, admittedly, as this was the platform that released the first (large-scale) game to change how gamers were going to play. Super Mario 64 defined how 3D games could (and would behave).

Playstation 2 - No doubt was a big one. But it was just improving up what was done in playstation 1, N64, Sega Dreamcast. GTA came out and changed the future of gaming, but can we really attribute that to the console? More like content and the way that stories/mission type games work.

Gamecube - Such a small jump.

Xbox (1) - Again, a good slew of games, but revolutionary in what was happening? I don't think so, just a lil more power. Although KOTOR was a big one in RPG approaches (to me anyway - now, it's very limiting, but at the time).

I bought the Xbox 360 for Oblivion (also bought my first HD TV for it at the same time). And I remember being blown away. Were we playing gaming in a new way? No. Was it starting to look more and more real? Certainly. HD gaming was a pretty sizable jump. PS3, same can be said there.

The thing we also have to remember is that it takes a while for the developers to learn how to maximize what the consoles are capable of. They can get things wrong near launch and it takes a while to allocate where to put the power. I noticed this over the course of Xbox 360.

I bought Xbox One for Witcher 3. Again, was it redefining gaming. No. Did it need to? No. But it's starting to look really amazing. As things get more and more real, we start taking them for granted (and notice them less). Sit for a bit in some of these next-gen games now and just look around. The way the lighting is treated. The way the AI behaves is getting more and more complex all the time. The attention to detail in every nook and cranny. And this is going hand in hand with a million other developments as well. It's a lot all at once. And the demand for well-thought out stories is also getting louder. What worked for GTA is old news now. Go do this, go do that, collect these. People are bored of that. A lot of games are striving to rework the experience so it doesn't feel like it used to. And I applaud that.

Long story short, when I loaded up Witcher 3 on Xbox One, I just sat back in awe. It really looked like the next gen. The strides aren't going to be as obvious anymore. But they are still really really beautiful. And all the more immersive.

As to your point, in-game purchases are absolutely despicable. I won't ever do it. But that is a carryover from mobile gaming.

There is too much to talk about here. Too many games we could get into talking about. I can't help but be limited in my mentions, but my point is that the progression feels as it should be to me. It's going to be crazy to see how "real" they can get.

The thing that gets me is a lot of these games nowadays are far too easy to beat. The challenge isn't there and hand holding has gotten worse over the years. The only series of games that I've gotten totally immersed in was the souls series. They are hard yet you get a feeling of accomplishment when you beat a boss or find that item you have been working for. Demons souls was the first of the series and when i started playing i thought it sucked because it was so difficult. I picked it up after six months of not playing it and beat the first level. After that, no game has given me that nostalgic feel i had as kid. I can't even get into other games anymore, because they are more centered on graphics, user friendly game-play and money grabbing. The souls series on the other hand focuses on unforgiving game-play and the world and story-line you're in is a bit cryptic put that adds to the mystery and leaves room for your imagination to decide.
It can be frustrating, but i remember playing games like mega man and Zelda: a link to the past and they were centered around the same things that makes the souls series so amazing. They used to make sells by releasing games that weren't completely broken, had lots of content, and the difficulty of finding things out for yourself instead of having markers that tell you the exact location you need to be at. To top it off when a dlc comes out for souls games it is worth the money and gives you hours of play and new lore to let the imagination run wild.
I downloaded steam on my computer and they have tons of games but, i hardly play them because they are either broken or i just can't get into it. Plus the community is so centered on fps and the best possible graphics which has really taken away from all the stuff that used to keep me interested. There is just so much division with the gaming community these days because these kids have grown up thinking that graphics make a game. Anyway, i suggest you give the souls series a shot it might surprise you and it will most certainly change the way you think games should be made.

a reply to: ForgottenRebel

I can imagine kids today playing Contra. One of the hardest games ever created and absolutely no hand holding. Especially without knowing:

U U D D L R L R B A

Kudos to anyone who knows what that is without looking it up.

I grew up with the 8-bit consoles, through the PC era (CGA/EGA/VGA/SVGA/GPU's) and all the way to the current generation of next-gein console systems.

In the 8-bit console system era, developers had at most 8K of memory to share with 6502/Z80 assembly language and bitmap artwork. In the VGA PC era, C/C++ programming with a bit of 80x86 assembly language was enough, and you would have a sound guy and a team of texture artists to do the artwork. That meant a single title could be completed in anything from 3 months to a year.

Now for a current PC title, a game developer needs around 250 artists, animators and modellers to do all the 3D artwork. With online gaming, there is now no upper limit on how much memory can be used for game levels, since everything can be streamed. The only problem is how to convert all that geometry and artwork into revenue since all those people have to be paid. So the pressure is to get the basic title out on the market and then add levels/artifacts later on. Even all the visual effects are standard now.

a reply to: boymonkey74

Whenever Oculus actually goes on sale for the masses...*eye roll* they've been tinkering around with it for YEARS.

Samsung has that Gear VR headset that uses Oculus software for head tracking...but you have to use a Galaxy Note as the screen. Really? It's 2015 and the best we can do is strap a smart phone to our faces? Really?

I want images directly beamed onto my optic nerve so that my entire sense of sight is immersed. I don't want some bulky headset or some kind of cheasy "augmented" reality either. I want fully immersive VR with haptic feedback gloves and suits, with special chairs/seats that allow you to walk/run or whatever.

The reason video games seem so stale is because we've been playing the same games the same way for decades with only the graphics improving.

originally posted by: MystikMushroom
I want images directly beamed onto my optic nerve so that my entire sense of sight is immersed.

That reminded me of the Star Trek Voyager episode Equinox part 1 and 2. There was a device that was acquired called a synaptic stimulator. It was able to directly access the visual cortex sending signals that do exactly what you've mentioned. Sight, smell, and feel was all provided. They called it a "poor man's holodeck". They weren't interactive people in them. Mainly just scenery.

I think it would be an incredible piece of technology and I hope to see something like that one day. I would call it the "poor man's vacation". The places you could program into it to visit are endless.

originally posted by: okrian
I don't know about this assessment. First and foremost, you don't own a PS4 or Xbox One. So this is through your limited exposure, and I'm surprised by the depth of this not-first-hand review.

It's not an assessment of the quality of the content or the technology. It's an assessment of the degree to which they've managed to make me feel compelled to partake compared to past gens. Very little shown so far excites me. Keep in mind, I've also sampled quite a bit of it as people I know do own the systems. It's just not doing it for me - or them in most cases (so far.)

*Assessment of past gen platforms' and their revolutionary status or the lack thereof omitted for sake of brevity though I probably won't achieve that due to my own penchant for verbosity - apologies*

Too much to respond to point by point. Let us simply agree to disagree there lol. Past gens definitely felt more exciting and revolutionary to me, their technical leaps or lack thereof notwithstanding. As you point out, game design is about much more than hardware power. But it's precisely the design and mechanics and horizon expanding that I find lacking this time around compared to the past. Your mileage may vary of course. It's all subjective, as always.

Long story short, when I loaded up Witcher 3 on Xbox One, I just sat back in awe. It really looked like the next gen. The strides aren't going to be as obvious anymore. But they are still really really beautiful. And all the more immersive.

I'll go further than that. Witcher 3 is one of the greatest works of fiction in any medium I've ever experienced, along with being one of the greatest video games I've ever played in any genre, at least by my standards. I've read the novels, and I'd even put the game ahead of them despite loving them. That game is Amazing, with a capital A. And to think that they're saying they "didn't fully know what they were doing" and that their next game, Cyberpunk 2077, will be even better and larger? CDPR are churning out digital dreams come true.

But, with that said, as stated, I was able to run Witcher 3 on my PC, so that wasn't sufficient cause for me to buy a new console or feel excited about this hardware gen. The problem is the dearth of exclusives that call out to me and grab my attention like they used to. And while I loved Witcher 3 (still playing via New Game Plus and looking forward to the expansions,) and it was very, very impressive and immersive... it didn't make me feel a sense of transformative awe or feel like "the future is here." It just felt like the best possible implementation of a formula I've seen before, executed at a higher level of quality than I've ever experienced before.

When the N64 launched with Mario 64, that was a revelation at the time. Stepping out into Ocarina of Time's Hyrule Field for the first time was like transcending reality for its time. (Ridiculously tiny and almost laughable today, of course.) Halo CE was less so, but it was still quite a massive leap for consoles both visually, and just in terms of little things which are now quite commonplace but at the time felt incredibly immersive and advanced (e.g. the vehicle physics, sidekick AI, etc.)

It's easy to forget those things, for their time, were mind blowing on a certain level at least. The first time I shot a Banshee down and it landed on me and killed me after gently falling from the sky, I was transfixed. Likewise the first time I witnessed a pitched firefight between the Covenant and the marines at my side. Today all of that is old hat, but at the time, that was amazing. Sadly, now Halo is one of the last games I'd play. I'm all Halo'd out.

I do still feel immersion and appreciation, don't get me wrong. I don't forego playing games. I'm still very, very much immersed in and engrossed by gaming. There are plenty of games I LOVE. Passionately. Just nothing that gives me that transformative sense of awe anymore.

Don't conflate awe with enjoyment and immersion, though. Just because I don't feel one doesn't mean I don't feel the others.

As to your point, in-game purchases are absolutely despicable. I won't ever do it. But that is a carryover from mobile gaming.

While microtransactions' popularity on mobile platforms has certainly begun to contaminate the rest of the industry, especially when it comes to the F2P model, the genesis of all of that came in the form of virtual goods in online MUDs. Then in MMOs. Then in paid DLC which, unfortunately, began on console. Started out free, became paid content like virtual goods already had been during the first Xbox era, and then took the industry by storm. The synergy between that paid DLC and mobile microtransactions has taken on a scary momentum affecting the entire industry to the point where major publishers predict they may not be able to compete without going completely F2P by 20 years from now.

I miss full size expansion packs (yes, I know they still exist occasionally.) Another reason CDPR are one of my favorite devs. Free bite sized DLC. DRM free games. Paid content are full expansions.

...but my point is that the progression feels as it should be to me. It's going to be crazy to see how "real" they can get.

Again, we'll just have to agree to disagree on that point. It definitely feels different to me (though, as I've acknowledged, part of it is probably just me.) And for me, "reality" is the farthest thing from my criterion or ideal metric for what excites me in gaming. (Now, verisimilitude in an unreal context on the other hand... that's another story entirely. I'd love to see more of that, ala Witcher 3.)

Peace.

a reply to: EternalSolace

Play Dark Souls or Super Meat Boy if you think Contra-level difficulty doesn't exist in games these days.

I'm personally enjoying this generation of games. I dislike having to load a game onto the HD on my Xbox One and miss the days of true plug n play, get home from the store with the game, throw it into the machine, and start playing... but the rest of it I honestly can't complain about.

I spent my afternoon playing Plague, Inc. Evolved in the PIP while watching football and it's as much fun as any other generation strategy game I've ever played.

a reply to: burdman30ott6

I'll look into trying those. I've heard of Dark Souls, but not Super Meat Boy. I love Plague Inc as well. I can't help but name everything T-Virus...

a reply to: EternalSolace

Super Meat Boy was originally part of the Humble Bundle program. (A collective of Indy game designers who released downloadable bundles of games for free, but asked for donations for their work. You could choose which Indy got how much of your donation, too.)

It is a very unique game. Addictive as can be, but progressively harder and harder. Its reminiscent of golden age platformers, but very stylish and graphically beautiful.

Dark Souls is just freaking DIFFICULT. LOL!

a reply to: AceWombat04

IMO console gaming has become to limited in terms of the type of games that are available to the consumer. If I could play SimCity on Super Nintendo , why can't I do so on PS4 or Xbox One? I think the evolution of open world gaming is holding my interest in console gaming resulting in the PS4 I will be getting at Xmas.

originally posted by: MystikMushroom
a reply to: boymonkey74

Whenever Oculus actually goes on sale for the masses...*eye roll* they've been tinkering around with it for YEARS.

Samsung has that Gear VR headset that uses Oculus software for head tracking...but you have to use a Galaxy Note as the screen. Really? It's 2015 and the best we can do is strap a smart phone to our faces? Really?

I want images directly beamed onto my optic nerve so that my entire sense of sight is immersed. I don't want some bulky headset or some kind of cheasy "augmented" reality either. I want fully immersive VR with haptic feedback gloves and suits, with special chairs/seats that allow you to walk/run or whatever.

The reason video games seem so stale is because we've been playing the same games the same way for decades with only the graphics improving.

The movie brainscan comes to mind, and I say bring it!!

a reply to: AceWombat04
Ya kind of. It does seem like its all been done before in one way or another all lukewarm or underwhelming.

Even the newer games which I was looking forward to coming out seem kind of same ol stuff. I have yet to finish the witcher 3, not that its not a good game, but it at least for me feels like its all been done. But one of these days got to finish that game as well. That and the new Metal Gear, I have yet to even put much time into as well.

There are a few games I am looking forward to, or was, or who knows, Star Wars battlefront looked promising at first but seeing it in action on the beta, it does get old pretty fast, but star wars fans will like it. Halo 5 is coming out some weeks from now, I don't even have a X-Box but Halo was always one of my favorite series, and if it delivers all the hype I may think of getting a X-Box and the game. There is also a DLC expansion of Bloodbourne coming out soon, will most likely pick that up more then the other games mentioned.

Black OP's 3, is also supposed to be out in a few short weeks. It did at first look like pretty much the same ol, just another version of advanced warfare which sucked, but looking on the beta they had, it is shaping to be better then the previous COD that have come out these past years, I may just get it because there will be so many people on it and does not completely just reskin things.

And there is also Fallout 4 coming out, which to me looks like a copy paste of fallout 3, but again, if its not broken dont fix it, so the game may be more then its predecessor, the whole VATS system they had is cool at first in the beginning of the game, but it gets redundant as the game progresses on, hopefully they fixed that.

Other then that all the better games are all slated for next year. Including Dark Souls 3, but even that by now at least for me is starting to be just repeats, however the souls game so far are have been tons of fun. And a slew of other titles which I probably will never have time to play including a few which were in works for a time, yet they seemed to have disappeared from the radar now, but may be making a comeback into the lime light next year.

Really I think its not so much a hardware problem, as there is plenty of power in the hardware department in the new generations of consoles. Its just has not been been used to any new and creative way yet, which has been true of years past as well. The only difference being that in years past we always had that graphical advantage to look forward to. But now? Well when things are more on the same level, that graphical advantage or new look just does not attract all that much anymore.

Another 30 something gamer here.I think they are trying to put new platforms out too quickly. It's all in the name of profit, because people buy the latest one, just for the sake of having the latest one. I am primarily a PC gamer, waiting for a new game that really gets me excited. It's been a while.

Backwards compatible needs to be a thing across all platforms. With consoles it's a bit easier if you still have your PS2 lying around, but on a PC, if the game only runs on XP, well, nothing you can do.

originally posted by: calstorm
Backwards compatible needs to be a thing across all platforms. With consoles it's a bit easier if you still have your PS2 lying around, but on a PC, if the game only runs on XP, well, nothing you can do.

I find it interesting that you mentioned backwards compatible. I mentioned the subject to my Mum when discussing why my preference is for the PS4. She thinks that it's stupid how my Xbox 360 discs won't play in the Xbox One. I am inclined to agree. My Mum's total gaming experience is learning to drive in GTA5.

I agree that back compat should be universal from gen to gen. That's another deficit I find disappointing about this gen so far. It's nice that PS4 and Xbox One have devised some sort of way around this, but it's not the same. In my nomenclature, PS Now is not backward compatibility. Nor is Xbox One's limited backward compatibility program via emulation, as not all game discs are supported. You cannot just put a disc from last gen in and know it's going to work no matter what.

Backward compatibility, to be considered as such in my book at least, should be plug and play. Put in a disc, and it works. Neither Xbox One nor PS4 allow that right now, and unless they systematically go back and ensure emulation for every last-gen title, they never will sadly. They didn't include hardware emulation or universal software emulation in their plans for either platform.

At least on PC - though this still is far from ideal - you can have a dual or multi boot partitioned HDD if you want to, and run different OSes.

The only 8th gen console that has what I consider true back compat, though, is Wii U. For everything else about that system I find idiosyncratic or disappointing, at least I can pop a Wii disc in and have it play without issue or limitation.

Peace.

originally posted by: Brotherman
I've went back in time to play the games on old systems I always wanted to play as a kid and find it very satisfying. There was so many games for the snes and genesis I missed out on either because my parents wouldn't allow it or I couldn't get it or a rental game I got from blockbuster I never got to finish. I have yet to buy a new Gen console ad I am still satisfied with my 360 and ps3

I like how I can just download for free the best game of all time, chrono trigger and play it on my laptop.

Other than handhelds, the newest console I own is a NES. I left consoles in the ps2 generation and never looked back but I must say this current gen, PC wins so much! Backward compatible with the millions of PC and emulated games up to Wii, can plug in a hundreds of different controllers, the graphics, the frame rates, easy to pirate games before buying them, independant producers, cheap games, every single type of game, the list goes on...

I've heard people mentioning hard games including contra, so I will recommend you "Super Cyborg".
Other mentions for good hard games :

- Hotline Miami
- Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures
- Bleed
- Dark Void Zero
- Rogue Legacy
- Electronic Super Joy
- Risk of Rain
- Faster than Light
- Heavy Bullets

In terms of hardware power, the reason this generation doesn't seem like such a large jump over the last generation is due to two main reasons. The first is because we're starting to reach the limits of how small we can make transistors, which is why they're now starting to build vertically stacked processors and memory, which should help keep up the pace. The second, and probably more important reason, is the law of diminishing returns. When you go from a very low polygon game to something with twice the number of polygons the difference is huge, but when you have a high polygon game and you double the number of polygons, it doesn't really look twice as good, the difference isn't as noticeable. Eventually we will reach a point where the graphics are photo-realistic and an increase in computing power will make no difference at all.

The next major transformation I think we will see in graphics is the practical implementation of ray tracing using techniques such as hybrid racy tracing. Then you will see life like reflections and shadows, which makes a huge difference. Some times it's more important to simulate light properly than it is to increase texture resolutions or polygon counts. It will be clever thinking rather than more computing power which will really transform the way games look in the future. I also hope to see many advancements in the area of procedurally generated worlds so that we can explore virtually endless worlds. Even the objects in the world could be procedurally generated so that every single tree looks different for example. As a programmer that's the type of stuff which excites me... it's basically the equivalent of trying to recreate reality inside a game.

originally posted by: calstorm
Backwards compatible needs to be a thing across all platforms. With consoles it's a bit easier if you still have your PS2 lying around, but on a PC, if the game only runs on XP, well, nothing you can do.

PC games are the most backwards compatible of all. I have yet to see a game which works on XP but wont work on Windows 7 when you enable XP compatibility. Even if you found a game which wouldn't work, you could always install a virtual XP machine.