8 Days of Gaming, Day 7: The worst generation after the Atari 2600?
That’s what a lot of people think at least and I’ll try to explain why. I’ll also try to figure out what made the Wii such a hot seller but died so fast.
DISCLAIMER: I will rip apart every console in this generation as I believe they were all a bunch of garbage. If you happen to be a blind fanboy that thinks your console of choice was perfect, go away I don’t need your business. I do appreciate however constructive criticism and civilized arguments independently on whether you agree or disagree with me.
After Sony’s enormous dominance on the market for two consecutive generations, everyone was looking up to the follow up of the PlayStation 2, but what they got instead was a really arrogant Sony with a console that didn’t really know if it was a console or a really expensive multimedia device.
The PlayStation 3 was a huge step from the PS2 in terms of media playback. It could play CDs, DVDs, Blu-Ray and a wide variety of digital formats from either the internal HDD or an external USB drive and it had the ability to install Linux and turn your PS3 into a semi-decent PC, this was nice as from the start Sony was supporting homebrew and code execution on the PS3 officially and it was the main reason the console never got hacked, until Sony played the *** game and removed this feature. Like fail0verflow said it themselves, the only people who really used linux on the PS3 was hackers, take that away from them and you’ve successfully *** off the people you shouldn’t be *** off.
I really liked this and I’ve used my PS3 for media playback on the living room a lot of times and I was a big fan of otherOS, but the problem was that they didn’t centered on the games and the console was really expensive.
Just like with the PS2, Sony used backwards compatibility as a way for people to migrate from the PS2 to the PS3 without loosing their catalog of games, and it allowed the system to have a really decent library of PS1 and PS2 games before actual PS3 games started to come out. The difference here was that for PS2 playback earlier models had to use both the PS2 CPU and GPU, basically this means that there was an actual PS2 built-in into the system, this amounted for the cost of the system. Eventually Sony made the PS3 cheaper by removing the PS2 CPU and having it emulated, and eventually they removed PS2 support altogether.
The PS3 was a heck of a mess. Expensive, not centered in gaming, and a year later than its main competition. That’s right, Microsoft pulled the Xbox 360 a year earlier than the PS3.
This was Microsoft’s attempt to outtake Sony, release their next gen system before them. Due to the system being released earlier it meant that they couldn’t focus too much on extra stuff other than the main gaming aspect, this cheapened the system down compared to the PS3 and made it look like a gaming centered console that appealed to a lot of gamers. But I digress, the system was a load of ***. It was yet another beta product that Microsoft released way too early. Users all over the world were suffering from overheating and many other faults resulting from the lack of development put on the new hardware.
The PS3 also suffered from this, but not on such a grand scale and it usually took a few years for the older systems to start failing, while most 360 units started failing months, and even weeks, after being bought. Microsoft tends to release most of their products in the beta phase, that’s why Windows Phone looks like an early deprecated first generation smartphone OS rather than a modern updated one, it’s also why Windows Vista sucked so much.
But this is not the reason why I hate this console, Microsoft did a great job with later units addressing most of the issues and they were nice replacing people’s units, they even extended the warranty from 3 months to a whole year (which is what they should have done in the first place). I hate them for the type of gaming they brought up to the mainstream. With Xbox Live being a decent success with the original Xbox, and being a big reason for gamers to get the 360, online gaming became the norm in this generation.
With this we eventually saw the rise of games like Call of Duty that profited off of releasing the same *** every year but changing the online maps and weapons, because online was all the rage with the 360).
This also meant games had shorter storymode, because single player is for freaks living in their mom’s basement, online is awesome dude. With online also came microtransactions on FULL PRICED GAMES, day one DLC that were (and should have been) on the disc but was cut on purpose to be sold separately, not to mention content that was actually on the disc but was locked until you paid for it.
I remember back when this generation started the main points most 360 fanboys brought up when defending this *** of a machine was “Xbox Live, Gears of War and Halo”, that too me translated into “online shoot ’em up, online shoot ’em up and online shoot ’em up”.
The Xbox 360 brought brodude gaming to the mainstream, allowed for companies to do corporate ***, and it eventually made worldwide Japanese companies westernize their games, making franchises like my very own Metal Gear loose their Japanese charm and start looking like another bland western online shoot ’em up.
And of course we can’t forget about the Big N. Ever since the release of the original GameBoy, Nintendo have been monopolizing the portable console market, but when it comes to home console, they hadn’t done a real dominating console since the NES. One can argue that the SNES was a huge success, and it was, but it was pretty evenly matched with the Genesis, and the N64 and GameCube were both ripped apart by Sony’s respective competing consoles. In this generation Nintendo saw a market that wasn’t fully exploited in gaming and created its console to target it, the casual gaming market.
The Wii was a pretty primitive console compared to the other two. It used an upgraded architecture from that found on the GameCube, which granted it full backwards compatibility, but graphics wise it wasn’t as big of a leap compared with the other two. This was done by Nintendo on purpose to guarantee a cheaper price, a more robust and fail-safe console, and because they didn’t need that much power for what they had in mind and the people they were selling the console to. Perhaps the biggest novelty here as we all know what the motion controls. Many people say Nintendo innovated here, but that usually come from the mouth of people who have no idea that motion controls have existed as early as the NES era and perhaps even earlier. What Nintendo did here was make it bigger and somewhat better. Motion controls were really nothing more than gimmicks, used to create gimmicky games that were all the rage amongst the casual audience. Nintendo was really clever when they tackled this market, and it was what gave them the huge boost in popularity and sales that they haven’t seen in a while. Despite the casual market being what made them huge again, it was also their doom. With the rise of smartphones and tablet where casual gaming was the norm, people left the Wii to rot just when this generation was at its peak. Neither Sony nor Microsoft managed to catch up to the Wii but you have to understand that both of those consoles were sharing the same market, while the Wii was tackling a totally different one.
Nintendo aiming at a different market that wasn’t fully developed at the time, while Sony and MS continuing to battle in the same area, gave Nintendo the dominance they wanted.
But this is why I hate the Wii. When the Wii decided that it’s most important audience was the casual market, many core Nintendo audience felt backstabbed, and in the end, it was this core audience that would have always stayed with them. Nintendo should have known this, the casual market is a lot more volatile than your core audience, you never know where they will be centered at tomorrow, while your core audience will always be there so long you give them what they want. Now that the casual market is all about smartphones and tablets, Nintendo is struggling to gain back the core audience they lost with the Wii. There will always be hardcore Nintendo fans that will buy your system, but those who used to be on the verge between Nintendo and Sega/Sony/MS now have it easy to pick against Nintendo.
Personally I was this kind of people, I’ve always liked Sony consoles above the rest, but I also loved and enjoy the N64 and GameCube, but the Wii I felt that Nintendo didn’t need my business, so I passed on it, and I will most likely not buy the Wii U as a result of this.
Eventually the PS3 finally became the successor to the PS2 we all wanted to see, bringing new and excellent franchises as well as classic PlayStation ones. Lowering the price and offering a great console for a reasonable price. To the point where, despite being released a year after the 360, and despite having a really turbulent release, the PS3 still managed to catch up on the 360, which either tells me that the 360 greatly dropped sales over time or Sony did a really good job in bringing the PlayStation franchise back on track.
Still, with the PS3 initially not being the followup the PS2 deserved, the 360 bringing so much *** to the gaming community, and the Wii kicking out it’s core audience in favor of a casual market that ended up dumping Nintendo, I don’t think those that call this “the worst generation after the atari 2600” are very far from the truth. What we need for this upcoming generation is for Japanese games to be Japanese again, online multipalyer to not be all the craze (I’m not saying it should die, it’s a nice feature but it shouldn’t be the main aspect of the next generation), companies to stop all the *** ( no microtransactions in FULLY PRICED GAMES, no day one DLC, no Disc-Locked Content), Nintendo to stop all the casual gimmicky ***, the PS4 to be a true PlayStation console, and Microsoft to die already.
Stay tuned for the last article in this series, where I will briefly give you my opinion on the upcoming generation that just started, I will conclude the series and I will make a special announcement.
- Previous – 8 Days of Gaming Day 6: One Goes and another comes
- Next – 8 Days of Gaming Day 8: The conclusion
lol guys I’m furst, 1’m I k00l nao?¿!?¿
Dang! 😀
You’re cool, seriously. MS trying to get Japanese devs attention equates to Microtransaction heck. Fu**, and Japanese are the most microtransaction tolerant people, that’s exactly why MS going to ruin gaming industry.
Let’s categorize each era of gaming as a nuclear disaster, in honour of the Metal Gear franchise.
Troll.
I agree with the dlc *** right when the game comes.out there is half another game to buy. That is rediculous that you pay 60 bucks for a half game then spend 60 bucks on the other half game as dlc. Never owned Xbox but have wii, wii u, reflowed my backward compatable ps3, bought slim ps3, and another slim ps3. No ps 4 for me until I see a decent game for it.
yeah madafaka I totally agree with your disclaimer!!
And of course you are chachi now
I agree with this article, but is it bad that I like online multiplayer? I like that Nintendo doesn’t drop the core single-player aspects from their games for it, but for some reason I really wanted online multiplayer for 3D World.
Liking online gaming is not bad, it’s just another way of gaming, that’s not exactly what I criticized here, it’s how online gaming was managed on the 360 and how companies like EA and Activision handled it.
I guess there is a lot of rage in your post. And I don’t think it’s mature to start a thread saying that if someone doesn’t agree with you, to “move on”.
As a long time nintendo fan and more recent sony fan, I think that although you have very good (and true) points, they are somewhat exaggerated.
Yes, Nintendo did focus the market on gimmicks, but they also cared for it’s fans. Zeldas and Marios did retain the same “hardcore” (if they ever were) magic. The fact is that the most shovelware gimmicky *** came from 3rd parties.
But I blame Nintendo itself, because the way they advertise their console most developers and gamers couldn’t grasp on the console concept. Nonetheless, there were some developers who did, so Wii got some hidden (and single player) gems like pandora’s tower, Xenoblade and Last Story, as well as great 1st party games that are not gimmicky at all.
I agree that the most damage was made by the X360. Not only they focus on crappy multiplayer and DLC, but also make no guarantees that the game will live enough to be worth your money. I think that developers who are shutting down their servers, should release a server binary to let the community decide when the game is ready to die.
Read this again and interpret correctly this time:
DISCLAIMER: I will rip apart every console in this generation as I believe they were all a bunch of garbage. If you happen to be a blind fanboy that thinks your console of choice was perfect, go away I don’t need your business. I do appreciate however constructive criticism and civilized arguments independently on whether you agree or disagree with me.
He said that because fanboys do the exact opposite of what he said he appreciated based on the disclaimer. He never said people with reasonable arguments could not put up their opinions, politely.
He said, “I do appreciate however constructive criticism and civilized arguments independently on whether you agree or disagree with me.”
Always interpret accurately.
“I guess there is a lot of rage in your post.”
That’s what I warned of at the very beginning of the post. It is actually what I warned everyone in the very first post of the series, that it will be all opinion and little fact (other than the mandatory history lessons).
“And I don’t think it’s mature to start a thread saying that if someone doesn’t agree with you, to “move on”.”
In the disclaimer (which is what I believe you are talking about), I pretty much say two things: if you are willing to constructively criticize my post or are willing to have a civilized and logical argument, then I am open for it, I do not care if you agree or disagree, as long as you keep it constructive and civilized. On the other hand, if you are a blind fanboy who only wants to rage about how I am wrong because your console is perfect and doesn’t have any flaws, then you can go away.
Now, in which part of that do I say that if you disagree with me you have to go away? Nowhere right? ok, next time read more carefully.
“they are somewhat exaggerated.”
That’s probably true.
“Yes, Nintendo did focus the market on gimmicks, but they also cared for it’s fans. Zeldas and Marios did retain the same “hardcore” (if they ever were) magic. The fact is that the most shovelware gimmicky *** came from 3rd parties.”
Zelda and Mario were (and still are) the biggest sellout from Nintendo.
If you compare the evolution of Zelda from the very first NES version onwards, you will start seeing a trend that starts with the Wii: NOTHING CHANGES. The GameCube versions of each and every Nintendo franchise was highly innovative in gameplay mechanics that gave a fresh new image to the games, but with the Wii, we basically just see every N64 game ever with better graphics. Where is the FLOOD thing from Mario Sunshine? Where is the having two characters at the same time idea from MK Double Dash? Where is the Wind Waker other than a copy-pasted HD Collection? With the Wii Nintendo went lazy, they created gimmicks to attract casual gamers, and copy-pasted the same games with the same gameplay mechanics, half-*** to work with the motion controls, updated graphics and threw it out to please the hardcore nintendo fans that will be pleased with anything that has mario or zelda in it even if it’s the same exact thing copy-pasted for the billionth time.
“But I blame Nintendo itself, because the way they advertise their console most developers and gamers couldn’t grasp on the console concept. Nonetheless, there were some developers who did, so Wii got some hidden (and single player) gems like pandora’s tower, Xenoblade and Last Story, as well as great 1st party games that are not gimmicky at all.”
hidden jewels have each and every console, doesn’t matter if there’s gimmicks or not involved. It’s not about how good your game is, it’s about how much money you throw into advertising it, that’s why the same CoD, the same Marios and the same Zeldas get released over and over again but they sell a ton more than some lower budget game that happens to be a ton more enjoyable, more fresh and cheaper.
“I agree that the most damage was made by the X360. Not only they focus on crappy multiplayer and DLC, but also make no guarantees that the game will live enough to be worth your money. I think that developers who are shutting down their servers, should release a server binary to let the community decide when the game is ready to die.”
That’s not exactly how it works. Even AAA developers like EA and Activision gotta pay their server bills. So what most developers do is shut down the servers of their older games to make room for the new ones.
This imo is fair, but the problem here is the same as always, they release a game ever year so they are continuously shutting down the servers for games that are only one year old.
I like your writing, but I think that what I wrote is indeed constructive criticism. If you base your opinion purely on facts instead of rage, more people tend to take what you said seriously =]
But here we go:
“That’s not exactly how it works. Even AAA developers like EA and Activision gotta pay their server bills. So what most developers do is shut down the servers of their older games to make room for the new ones.”
I disagree. What I suggested is for them to release the server binary so people could host their own lobbies (like almost every FPS from the nineties), so EA wouldn’t need to pay any server bills. What I think it really happens is that it’s a way for them to push another crappy iteration down users throat, instead of letting us enjoy their favorite game longer.
On that regard, nintendo os much more loyal. They don’t use DLCs, their games are almost flawless from day one, and they try to keep their servers for as long as possible. Just recently they shut down wii servers, but even if it was 7 years after the console launch, I think it may have to do more with gamespy merge than with nintendo policies.
“If you compare the evolution of Zelda from the very first NES version onwards, you will start seeing a trend that starts with the Wii: NOTHING CHANGES. The GameCube versions of each and every Nintendo franchise was highly innovative in gameplay mechanics that gave a fresh new image to the games, but with the Wii, we basically just see every N64 game ever with better graphics.”
Although I do agree that they innovate less on games, there is still more inovation than most: Mario Galaxy have the multi gravitational fields, Mario Kart Wii has tricks to speed boost and item specific tricks, as well as more tracks, Mario bros Wii has 4 player co-op, Metroid Prime with wiimote is simply the best and most immersive single player FPS-exploration-adventure there is, Zelda Twilght had the werewolf, Zelda Skyward had one-to-one sword motion, and I could go on… IMHO, Nintendo is the company that has the highest capacity to reinvent itself, even with long well established franchises.
Their problem is that sometimes they focus on gimmicky hardware rather than focus all their energy on the game design and that their advertising makes people think that they are for kids. I think that any non-biased open minded gamer can be highly rewarded if they can see through slightly worse graphics and gimmicks.
Regards 😉
Here’s my point of view :
N64 > We can finally play our games in 3D
PS1 > We can finally play our games in 3D
Dreamcast > We can finally play our games in 3D
NGC > graphics improved A LOT
PS2 > graphics improved A LOT
XBOX > graphics improved A LOT
Wii > Same graphics as gamecube and motion controls where *** untill wii motion + came out (still useless)
PS3 > Imroved graphics a little
360 > Improved graphics a little and useless kinect
Wii U > Improved graphics a little and useless gamepad
PS4 > Improved graphics a little and waiting for morpheus
ONE > Improved graphics a little and useless kinect
Well as you guys can see everything above the n64/ps2/xbox gen is ***.
The only good thing about the wii/ps3/360 gen is online play.
If you still don’t get it, let me show you an example : Mario Kart
SNES to N64 = great graphics evolution
N64 to NGC = great graphics evolution
NGC to wii = no graphics evolution and stupid motion control with a fake wheel
wii to wii U = pretty good graphics evolution thanks to FULL HD
wii U vs gamecube
http://youtu.be/OOAOzfc6HeU
http://youtu.be/q74PkAxAzY4
I had one of the $600 plus PS3 consoles and it died after the warranty expired. Had a YLOD or something. Sony shipped me a refurbished one of the same model for $150 or so. But this one failed too with the same problem. Did they just ship me another broken console? So I shipped it back again and finally have one that works and still plays PS2 games. But now I am just afraid to play it for too long. I don’t want it to break too. Turns out that you have better chances with an eBay console than a store bought one.
Or you could always fix yourself. Its not that hard and adding a manual fan control mod eliminates overheating. I went thru 2 ps3’s until I had enough and even added a 100cm fan with arctic silver 2 paste. 3 years later and occasional dusting its still going strong when my daughter has all day game plays.
PS3: In my opinion, i whole-heartily agree with you in that first bit. (also, the earlier PS3s [the backwards compatible types] also played SACD [Super Audio Compact Disc] as well). The PS3 at launch was a garbled mess of no games and a laggy as -heck- OS (you couldn’t even XMB inside games at the time, plus you could lock games up simply by fiddling with the XMB in them) that really seemed alien to us types who were all ‘slap in disc, lets go.’. It was probably less so to computer users, but sadly i didn’t get into the master race til a bit later.
A fair ways into it’s life though, it -supremely- picked up, at least for the types of games i wanted (mostly RPGs) to the point where it’s my favorite console of current.
360: Ohhh the 360. You were my best friend til PS3 came around. Oh the laughs we’d share when i’d be playing fable and you’d RROD, the tears of worry shed when my friend wrapped his 360 in towels and left it on for like 5 minutes (which, amazingly, to this day fixed the problem, and he has a launch-day no-hdmi console), the anger i’d have when oblivion or fallout 3 once again corrupted my saves.
The 360 to me, was (at first) a phenomenal device. While people bash COD (and rightly so), COD4 was a pretty damn good game (both SP and MP), and i spent countless hours watching my friend playing that game. So many laughs and oh *** moments and such. It had a few good RPGs i enjoyed, but eventually with the whole needing gold to do just about anything and the PS3 getting increasingly more games i wanted to play, i ditched it. I will always praise it though for the option to install to hard drive for faster load times. My gooood did i love that feature. PS3 recently made such things mandatory, which is good, but 360 had it first and for that i’ve gotta give em props.
Unfortunately, 360 had something that always *** me, and probably many others off: Ads. What sort of honky *** is it that i pay for XBL gold AND have to see ads? And not just see them, no, they had VOICE ADS at one *** point. What the ***? Just another reason i ditched XB360.
Wii: Oh the wii. Oh..the wii. I originally bought it for the sole purpose (near launch, no less) of later playing and enjoying Fatal Frame IV. Sadly, Nintendo Of America had other plans. The excuse was something along the lines of ‘we don’t want it in america because it doesn’t fit in with the wii’s style’ (as in like, it’s a horror jumpscare game, can’t have that in my kiddy console). Good -god- that angered the heck out of me. I do love my Wii though, it’s currently used as an emulator hub in the living room for my family/the kids to play with. It does that damn well, N64 emulation is heck to do on a PC, and the wii performs 99% of the games i want pretty well. It also doubles as a gamecube emulator, which is also nice since gamecube had plenty of games i loved. No..The wii for me became less used for what it was intended for and more used for what i wanted it to be used for. Much like the PSP (god rest it’s zombie bones).
I don’t consider myself loyal to any company, I know they just want my money. The last generation did put me off quite a bit, that’s when I started getting more serious about PC gaming (though I’ll never buy something with online DRM, so I avoid Steam). That said, I think each system is worth owning, even if you just buy them used.
I don’t think a console has to have the most powerful technology to be good. The Wii proved that to me, I’ve enjoyed quite a few games for it. Yeah, Nintendo shot themselves in the foot, but that doesn’t mean the console is bad. If nothing else, it’s not a bad homebrew box.
The 360 did have a terrible launch and was terrible and exploitative. That said, the games were only popular cause people actually bought them. I blame both the consumers and the publishers for all the mindless shoot ’em ups. Something it did do that was good, through the Live Arcade, it gave Indie developers a voice, not a very good voice especially later on, but it was a voice they didn’t have before.
PS3 tried to replicate what happened with the PS2. The PS2 was an affordable DVD player and a lot of families bought it for that. Since families already had it, they were more likely to buy games for it. Unfortunately, a lot of people saw no value in blueray over DVDs, at least not enough to justify the price tag. Its architecture also made ports tricky to program, so its ports usually were bad until some patches later. It did have some interesting functionality, especially with the PSP, though. They cleaned up their act later in the console’s lifetime, but it was too late by then.
The online gaming thing. There should be variety. It’s fine for it to be the focus on some games. I don’t see a reason for multiplayer focused games to have a shoehorned single player and vice versa. It depends on what the developer wants to create. I can’t think of a reason for something like Team Fortress 2 or (for what it looks like) Splatoon to have a Single Player mode, maybe a practice mode.
Gaming has changed, but there’s always going to be people that enjoyed what came before. Luckily, with how accessible Indies are, it’s not hard to find modern games that are more of an evolution on retro games. I have a PC connected to my TV and a 360 controller. Sometimes I just like to crash on the couch and play games like Bastion or Jamestown.
Acid, are you going to do another console generation strictly on portable gaming? Would love to hear your thoughts on the game gear among others
The problem is I’m not that much into portable gaming other than the GameBoy and the PSP/Vita. I own a DS but it doesn’t work well enough for me to judge it.
I for one would buy MH4 if it was run anything higher than PSP resolution, 3DS’ 240p is totally *** and gotta skip that for now, waiting MH5
I feel what we need to see with this gen here is that paying more and more to play a game we already own is kind of bull spit. Paying 60$ for a game then paying 100$ more just have more maps to play with friends is an insult to the individual gamer it never sat right with me and never will hopefully someday they will see this as the error it is and just make games worth playing like in the old days of gameing . I am a fan of $ony and Nintendo but Microsuck can just leave it to the professionals since they have messed up true gaming for sometime now and (at least I feel ) then never cared about the player’s just how much money thay can milk from us. Remember this is just my opinion but it does have a lot of truth behind it good day to all…
my favorite videogame/console > your favorite videogame/console
LOL@ towards the end of the article.
“Nintendo to stop all the casual gimmicky ***, the PS4 to be a true PlayStation console, and Microsoft to die already.”
Nicely said!
Dude, you might need an editor. I know it’s difficult to find errors in your own work, even if you read over it slowly, but there are so many obvious typographical and spelling/grammatical errors that I can’t imagine you even did a once over prior to posting.
Now there’s some stuff that might be due to not being a native speaker, like “amounting” instead of accounting or “outtake” instead of overtake/take out. You won’t even get the “business” you want with this sort of sloppy “product.” lol jk
And in accordance with the law of karma, I accidentally split my final sentence in two, making the “first” of the two sentences a sentence fragment. Or perhaps a very poorly constructed and confusing sentence, as in “Now [I observe this.]”
haha
I have spell-check enabled in firefox and both of those words you mentioned (amounting and outtake) come out as correct. Perhaps you’re not an American English speaker.
Lol, seriously? They aren’t the proper words in that usage. But it’s entirely possible that I’m being pedantic (definitely) and these mistakes have fallen into common usage. Spell check doesn’t tell you if your sentence is grammatically correct or even logical, it only tells you if the words are real words. Hence “Ants eat allegorical fantastically weeping.” is a fine sentence, according to spell check.
This “accounts for” that, it doesn’t “amount for” that. Outtake is a noun, as in a scene that has been taken out of the final cut of a movie. The verb that you were attempting to use would be “overtake,” meaning to go beyond something or come from behind to pass something. (as in a race) This is why I suggested that it might be due to you not being a native speaker, as those are relatively easy mistakes to make since they are so close, in both meaning and appearance, to the correct words.
Yea translathing somthing like from Spanish to English is hard some the the verb or nourn in a different place.
Some words r spell the same in difernt laugauge but mean difrent thing to.
The second I saw the word “worst” and saw a pic of a wii I knew this was written by Acid_Snake xD
Actually the Wii thing is because I’ve been using the “winning” console as the primary image of each article, I don’t mean to say the Wii was the reason this generation was bad, it was bad because of all three consoles.
“single player is for freaks living in their mom’s basement, online is awesome dude.”
I laughed really hard. 😆
Btw, people underrate the PS3. I’m no fanboy but I can see many useful features in it & awesome support for games. Plus everything under the “PlayStation” name, it being a device or a service. I like how all Sony devices know about each other.
Other than that I agree with almost everything you said.
excellent writing. it’s not exactly objective, but it does bring out several valid points.
worst generation was last gen my xbox got a red ring of death i bought a ps3 second hand and that had a ylod after 3 years lol both fcking *** now i will use alienware laptop both conwope died and this is real talk my vita is more stable than the *** fat ps3
can you stop this please wololo we are tired focus on hacking vita
Yes, please send me your vita hack by email and we’ll blog about it.
Vt krowten
I loved the Wii. It was the first time, EVER, I went to a midnight launch for a console. It was also the first time I bought a console on day 1. Sure I eventually bought the other 2 and I love them both. I had many of Nintendo’s creations. My favorite console was, and always will be the NES as it was something that I could play with my mom and dad (yes my mom played the NES). We had the Zapper and that pad for the track game.
The 2 main things I liked about the Wii was that it could play 99.9% of GameCube games and the Wiimote. It was nice to be able to point and shoot instead of fiddling with an analog stick. Some of the GameCube games that were re-released with Wii controls made them better. I played the heck out of Pikmin and I felt the Wii version was so much easier to play. Throwing Pikmin was as simple as grab, point and release. Pikmin 2 for Wii was just as good. Sure many Wii games were utter *** but there were many great titles. Twilight Princess was near perfection (the first Zelda game I fully played).
Xbox 360 had many great games too. My near launch 360 lasted my over 3 years. I bought a 360 specifically to play Halo 3 (single player only as I didn’t have broadband at the time). Now I have well over 150 games for the 360. Any game that was on both 360 and PS3, I bought the 360 version as most of the time the 360 version played better (due to memory management).
I bought a PS3 specifically to play Ratchet and Clank Future. I still have my launch model PS3.
Granted all 3 systems had their share of *** games but each one has games I enjoy. I don’t give a rat’s behind about specs, it’s all about the games.
All 3 companies made royal screw-ups this generation (360 RRoD, Nintendo’s stupid Friend Code system and eShop licensing system and Sony’s removal of desired PS3 features.)
As far as the buying digital content, I feel that Sony did it right by allowing a user to authorize PSN devices to play content even if the system is not online or logged into the original purchaser’s account. Granted they reduced the number of authorized systems from 5 to 2. 360 is next as I still have occasional licensing issues when I get kicked off Xbox LIVE and can’t play the content until I sign back in. Nintendo has it the ABSOLUTE WORST. The content is locked to a specific Wii and if something goes wrong, you loose the content you paid for and can’t re-download it. The only record of purchased content is on the Wii itself and is not tied to any online account so if the license file for a title gets corrupted (it happened to me) you can no longer use or re-download the game. Nintendo was of no help so I was forced to hack my Wii to get back the games I paid for. I never hacked my Wii until then. Nintendo is still doing it the wrong way.
Every console had both good and bad. I loved the Wii’s motion controls as a hardcore gamer. I loved games like Gears of War for the 360. I loved games like Ratchet and Clank for the PS3.
I always wondered what would happen if these three companies would get together and take the good stuff from each console and make one “Super Console”
Yeah I’ve always wanted companies to unite & make something super. More like Sony-Google-Apple. Apple may put some DRM ***, so leave it for LG. 😛
Msi and nividia
As a PS fan I totally agree with you.
I hated what Sony did in the early years of the PS3 but still supported them. And thankfully the PS3 has made its way back from being an entertainment system first to being a gaming console first and all other features second (and does a pretty great job at it!)
My personal opinion on the 360 is that the sales boosted because of the RROD and people were actually buying their second or third units because their first system RROD and due that it was cheaper they can always buy another system.
And also on how the 360 brought up this new gaming culture of online multiplayer and DLC, I HATE DLC, back then extra content can be unlocked by doing quests or “achievements” in the sense that you were able to unlock it due to skill and mastery of the game. Nowadays its all, “hidden content? secret areas? lemme get my credit card”.
It cheapened the whole hidden extra secret unlocks and achievements in games. (somewhat ironically cheapened the games by having to pay more for it).
I agree with most of the points.. and i’m predicting this generation will be even worse..
This is prolly first generation of consoles where i totally don’t care about getting a console, in the past there’d be a reason to get new console, some awesome games i totally want, awesome graphics, somme sort of weird *** innovation etc.
Now the only thing i want to have in this whole generation is new ms gamepad..
Either way you hated dlc ? i’m guessing it’s gonna get worse… what if some *** decides that streaming like in gaikai is great anti piracy method and it becomes mainstream ? impossible ? i’d say the same if someone told me years ago about dlc, microtransactions or subscription for non mmo mp games.
Oh well I’ve seen this industry have it’s sc*** up years before, it’ll recover at some point as it always did.
I agree. Japanese games were great, BECAUSE they were made to appeal the japanese market. We liked those things and came to love them even. But no, they figure out somehow that we want bullets, explosions and *** multyplayer only games. ***.
Man, one my greatest pains is the way that the japanese kill those franchises that we used to follow with utmost royalty by changing them into a bloated mess of unrecognizable ***.
Take Front Mission for instance. Great turn based strategy games. They even made a awesome multyplayer action game, Front Mission Online. But then Front Mission Evolved came out and killed the franchise dead.
OMG I BUNCH OF TEXTS
(not in your article but these comments)
saw this coming years ago, and thats the reason I totally skipped the whole last gen and stayed with PC
I really enjoyed reading this.
Hahaha… I owned the 3 consoles over the past years… and I didn’t focus in the internal pieces and stuff some people care… I enjoyed every game a lot..hacking stuff came after… never liked online game…( shity internet conection helped a lot… ) most players just buy it for one reason… single word…PLAY…haha…simple huh..?
I readed all the post and I do notice 2 things..one its a dev/hack/pro point of view… and some people really have now a reason to have WII/PS3/XBOX…hahaha… I bet all of them passed hours playing without care about CPU and blah blah blah…
Im 28 years old now… playing since the NES was my Xmas gift… Sharing the joy of play with my wife now… and I didn’t care to much about whats inside… just enjoy it… 🙂
Thanks Wololo and Acid…I learned a lot with this 😀
Old Nintendo got good games I remember playing spy vs spy for hours
Actually the dudebro cancer it’s because of both the PS3 and X360, maybe in your country and in USA the only system bought to play these games was the X360, but here in Spain, the PS3 has always sold most than the other ones, and everyone still plays the same yearly COD and FIFA ***.
I agree 100% with this.
in particular this part : “The Xbox 360 brought brodude gaming to the mainstream, allowed for companies to do corporate ***”.
i love how something such as this can bring so much talk about games it floors me to see so much being said about so little in the grand scheme of gaming its awesome that we all feel so strongly about video games… it warms my heart ; )
I wana use Dante as a special charecter in cod
Ps3/XBOX/NINTENDO wish they had more rpg games wish ps3 had alot of sequal to ps2 games. Wish there was more wow type games. On the Asian /japanese games I always like anime games ..//hacksign would have been cool to make it to all this gen consoles.for off line and online play. shooter r good a lil u get a rush but matches last like ten minutes. but then a good thing I guess. Wish ps3 and Xbox 360 had more game like wow but atleast ps4 got final fantasy realm reborn and Xbox one got obivion. a good shooter game I guess would be a game that like from the movie star wars episode3 wen the Jedi(s)was with the clones and defending the wookie homeworld. so for the gaming industry I think it’s prety much been as it was since early Atari days not much have change since then a game good fo a lil while then there a new good game. there still the iam going to buy this game cuz all the homies r playing it. think the ps3 Xbox 360 and Wii had there own thing going on like the six axis and the kenect and the motion contoller or nunchucks. Think Sony and Microsoft where a bit competitive ooh ur console got 80gigs mine’s got 4gigs. ooh my console has 512 mb to well mine’s is split with the hardware and os. well with the ps4 and Xbox one I would have been like my system is double the graphics as your. and it’s fully back word campatible. *** if Sony and microsoft was worried about pirathing games then jus don’t put a hard drive and a usb port *** jus be like old school Nintendo. U no it was always good to turn the old Nintendo’s off before u take out the game but the smart thing was the try get the dust out of the game. ooh and Sony what was up with vio I would have jus rock more hard core gaming rigs.
need to say with ps4 and Xbox one I would have been like my system u can aim faster and fire faster.
What I’m reading, halfway through this article:
***, ***, ***, whine, whine, whine.
That, and laughably bad grammar that simply can’t be taken seriously.
Yeah, while your comment here is insightful and with plenty of constructive content related to the subject of the article 🙂
I disagree about your assessment of this generation. It was a great generation. Their were annoying parts to this generation. However, the leap in quality of some of the better games was phenomenal.
kingdom hearts end movie sequence pre-rendered
uncharted 2 bits of rubble falling of the train beginning movie sequence gpu
here is a case on the ps3 of a major leap in quality, not a minor leap and beyond persona 4, and ffx, their weren’t games that pushed the system graphically quite like persona.
most games on the 360, didn’t push the limits graphicaly quite like uncharted did, but most games for the system had some kind of multiplayer component, and many like gears of war had co-op, so you could look through a stack of games and switch between whatever multiplayer game you were in the mod for.
The Wii did nothing to improve it’s graphical power beyond including a cd drive. motion controls were fun for some games like with mario kart, but I never really saw it used much online. to get great graphics on the wii required talent and only a few games for the wii looked better than gamecube generation games before them and even that’s debatable.
donkey kong country returns wii donkey kong country jungle beat gamecube dkc3d 3ds
red steel wii this is a game I like that must people weren’t really into, but the graphics in the beginning of the game are great, and although their sadly inconsistent. a lot of the game has decent graphics. this game has very minor motion sensor customization so you have to configure the tempermental wii from settings and hope youve configured it in such a way that it’s playable. When it works, it’s quite fun.
factoring in only the first party games.
Sony was the best this generation
factoring in only 3rd party games released over the console generation
Microsoft was the best this generation.
Nintendo also released a lot of good first party games, but decided to innovate on it’s existing ones, instead of creating new ones. many sony ip’s were downright beautiful and extremely innovation like heavy rain. The Wii stuck with traditional graphics and traditional gameplay
Cool.