It's exciting all this next gen nonsense, isn't it? We all wait with baited breath for details about the Xbox One and PS4, finally sit through the reveal shows and then the world is flooded with a torrent of fanboyism, hatred and envy.
I'm an advocate of Sony but must admit that all the people jumping on the PS4 bandwagon have surprised me a little these past few weeks. Granted, Microsoft has been guilty of fanning the proverbial flames with its dumbass DRM PR strategy and the misjudged promotion of its shiny new console as an entertainment hub. Turns out gamers don't want an expensive machine that offers services we already use everyday through our smart phones and televisions. Who'd have thought, eh?
And the latest twist is the tail is Micro$oft caving in to all the criticism and mockery and renouncing its lofty ambitions for a digital future. Must admit, I'm a little disappointed about the change of heart; access to your entire games library wherever you are and the Family Sharing facility sounded like a real trump card in the console war. Ah well, my preorder is already placed and I'm still psyched about it. Here's why:
Kinect is mandatory
This point is guaranteed to divide the masses but I actually think this will be a good thing! And before the haters start, there's a privacy feature to stop Microsoft snooping 24/7 - and if you're uber paranoid about being watched, why not just switch your Xbone off at the mains when you're done gaming... (or you can now just disconnect your internet connection if you're that bothered). Anyways, the fact that everyone will own the souped up motion controller means it might finally be able to reach its full potential; developers will be able to invest time and money into harnessing its power in the knowledge that everyone has access to one. Conversely, PS4 owners will be buying controllers with integrated sensors that can't be fully used unless they own the optional EyeToy camera. How many software houses are going to work that into their games if the user base is so small? The first Kinect was clever but mediocre, whereas this new version can capture six players at once, work in a smaller play area and even see you in the dark!
The controller is king
This is clearly personal preference but the Xbox controller is arguably one of the best ever. It's comfortable to hold during even the longest gaming sessions, nicely weighted, and all the buttons and triggers are nicely positioned... could it get any better? Hell yeah. There are a raft of improvements in the new version - 40+ improvements in fact - including impulse triggers, tweaked analogue sticks and a better D-Pad.
Innovation
Moving forward not standing still. That's what many of us came away with after Microsoft's May reveal. Not only was this a machine capable of better-looking graphics and had a bit more grunt under the hood, but there were plenty of other notable features. A Blu-Ray player is included, Kinect is significantly enhanced, the controller improved and more servers have been set aside for Xbox Live. The cloud means game worlds can be dynamic and constantly updated, and that a lot of that boring old processing can be done remotely and in the background, giving your Xbox some extra capacity to do more important calculations and technical stuff. Although it's now canned, the DRM meant that discs weren't needed after the initial install and all your games could be played on another Xbox. Not only that but the (also defunct) Family Share feature would have slashed costs for households and allowed you to nominate 10 "family members" to access your library. It shows, at least, that Microsoft is trying to innovate and drag us into the digital era. Some of its plans could have been thought out more so as not to screw over us consumers quite so much - but in principle, the ideas were quite interesting. Hopefully, some of these functions will come back eventually (the fact a simple patch is all that's required to switch them off means that they may eventually be reintroduced when the plans are ironed out a bit).
HDMI in
This is a pretty cool feature despite the naysayers. Connecting your satellite receiver and having an integrated box, with voice and gesture control sounds kind of good to me. And screen in screen will be a boon too - watching the televised football while hacking zombies to death would be great.Major Nelson even suggested your 360 could be plugged in too - making use of the interface and providing instant backwards compatibility, kind of.
Xbox Live still trumps PS+
PlayStation Plus is now mandatory to play online so the whole argument about the exorbitant cost of Live has been watered down somewhat. Of course, you get free games and other benefits with PS+ but at least Microsoft is starting to introduce that too now (albeit with older titles right now) with Fable III, Halo 3 and Assassin's Creed II the first ones available. Add in the promise of all those thousands of servers, the cloud and all the other things that make Live such a successful online system and it's just another reason to snap up the Xbone. Oh, and all your achievements, gamerscore and profile details carry over too! Addiction guaranteed for another few years at least - beats the hell out of those Sony Trophies!
The games look great
Who can argue that the E3 conference didn't contain a decent selection of great new games? The likes of Dead Rising 3, Ryse, Forza 5, Quantum Break and Halo (all exclusives) look awesome. And I really liked the look of Insomniac's mental new shooter and of course, Respawn's TitanFall. It's personal choice sure but few of the PS4 titles really grabbed me - graphically they looked great but Sony's exclusives didn't show such a great leap forward from current gen titles for me.
The next few months will sure be interesting. Expect many more announcements, arguments and controversy. Right now, this far exceeds the vitriol seen in those halcyon days of the 8-bit rivalry between the Master System and NES, or the head to head bewteen the Megadrive and SNES a while later.
Xbox and PlayStation owners can rest assured, however, that whichever system they opt for, this generation is shaping up nicely. For me, it's the Xbone that's going to be first out the box - purely because its promise and potential seems far greater. The PS4 can wait.
I'm an advocate of Sony but must admit that all the people jumping on the PS4 bandwagon have surprised me a little these past few weeks. Granted, Microsoft has been guilty of fanning the proverbial flames with its dumbass DRM PR strategy and the misjudged promotion of its shiny new console as an entertainment hub. Turns out gamers don't want an expensive machine that offers services we already use everyday through our smart phones and televisions. Who'd have thought, eh?
And the latest twist is the tail is Micro$oft caving in to all the criticism and mockery and renouncing its lofty ambitions for a digital future. Must admit, I'm a little disappointed about the change of heart; access to your entire games library wherever you are and the Family Sharing facility sounded like a real trump card in the console war. Ah well, my preorder is already placed and I'm still psyched about it. Here's why:
Kinect is mandatory
This point is guaranteed to divide the masses but I actually think this will be a good thing! And before the haters start, there's a privacy feature to stop Microsoft snooping 24/7 - and if you're uber paranoid about being watched, why not just switch your Xbone off at the mains when you're done gaming... (or you can now just disconnect your internet connection if you're that bothered). Anyways, the fact that everyone will own the souped up motion controller means it might finally be able to reach its full potential; developers will be able to invest time and money into harnessing its power in the knowledge that everyone has access to one. Conversely, PS4 owners will be buying controllers with integrated sensors that can't be fully used unless they own the optional EyeToy camera. How many software houses are going to work that into their games if the user base is so small? The first Kinect was clever but mediocre, whereas this new version can capture six players at once, work in a smaller play area and even see you in the dark!
The controller is king
This is clearly personal preference but the Xbox controller is arguably one of the best ever. It's comfortable to hold during even the longest gaming sessions, nicely weighted, and all the buttons and triggers are nicely positioned... could it get any better? Hell yeah. There are a raft of improvements in the new version - 40+ improvements in fact - including impulse triggers, tweaked analogue sticks and a better D-Pad.
Innovation
Moving forward not standing still. That's what many of us came away with after Microsoft's May reveal. Not only was this a machine capable of better-looking graphics and had a bit more grunt under the hood, but there were plenty of other notable features. A Blu-Ray player is included, Kinect is significantly enhanced, the controller improved and more servers have been set aside for Xbox Live. The cloud means game worlds can be dynamic and constantly updated, and that a lot of that boring old processing can be done remotely and in the background, giving your Xbox some extra capacity to do more important calculations and technical stuff. Although it's now canned, the DRM meant that discs weren't needed after the initial install and all your games could be played on another Xbox. Not only that but the (also defunct) Family Share feature would have slashed costs for households and allowed you to nominate 10 "family members" to access your library. It shows, at least, that Microsoft is trying to innovate and drag us into the digital era. Some of its plans could have been thought out more so as not to screw over us consumers quite so much - but in principle, the ideas were quite interesting. Hopefully, some of these functions will come back eventually (the fact a simple patch is all that's required to switch them off means that they may eventually be reintroduced when the plans are ironed out a bit).
HDMI in
This is a pretty cool feature despite the naysayers. Connecting your satellite receiver and having an integrated box, with voice and gesture control sounds kind of good to me. And screen in screen will be a boon too - watching the televised football while hacking zombies to death would be great.Major Nelson even suggested your 360 could be plugged in too - making use of the interface and providing instant backwards compatibility, kind of.
Xbox Live still trumps PS+
PlayStation Plus is now mandatory to play online so the whole argument about the exorbitant cost of Live has been watered down somewhat. Of course, you get free games and other benefits with PS+ but at least Microsoft is starting to introduce that too now (albeit with older titles right now) with Fable III, Halo 3 and Assassin's Creed II the first ones available. Add in the promise of all those thousands of servers, the cloud and all the other things that make Live such a successful online system and it's just another reason to snap up the Xbone. Oh, and all your achievements, gamerscore and profile details carry over too! Addiction guaranteed for another few years at least - beats the hell out of those Sony Trophies!
The games look great
Who can argue that the E3 conference didn't contain a decent selection of great new games? The likes of Dead Rising 3, Ryse, Forza 5, Quantum Break and Halo (all exclusives) look awesome. And I really liked the look of Insomniac's mental new shooter and of course, Respawn's TitanFall. It's personal choice sure but few of the PS4 titles really grabbed me - graphically they looked great but Sony's exclusives didn't show such a great leap forward from current gen titles for me.
The next few months will sure be interesting. Expect many more announcements, arguments and controversy. Right now, this far exceeds the vitriol seen in those halcyon days of the 8-bit rivalry between the Master System and NES, or the head to head bewteen the Megadrive and SNES a while later.
Xbox and PlayStation owners can rest assured, however, that whichever system they opt for, this generation is shaping up nicely. For me, it's the Xbone that's going to be first out the box - purely because its promise and potential seems far greater. The PS4 can wait.
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