The article gets one thing right. It's about the games. That said, IMHO consoles are going the way of the dodo. Too many console games feel like the same experience. I've been a gamer all my life. It feels like some of the best game developers are engaging in more shenanigans than usual. I think this is because of one thing .. profits over anything else.
Let me provide examples:
- Diablo 3 ... the DRM and market place issues; inability to play a single player game without a network connection.
- StarCraft 2 has issues similar to D3. But I found them to be less severe.
- I bought the 3DS on the first day. The glasses-free 3D made me feel sick. On top of that, Nintendo lowered the price big time (which didn't upset me). They claimed to reward early adopters by giving them a number of free games. Few people neglected to mention that the free games were from a small list of classics/oldies (this really ticked me off).
- Few innovative games on each of the consoles. Lets face it ... if you are a gamer, you likely have all three top consoles. The reason is there are 3-4 amazing titles for each console. There's a pretty long tail of crap out there.
- Motion control makes arms tired. This is true for the tech used in all three consoles.
- I don't want to tell all my Facebook friends what I am doing in my games. I really don't.
- Games again ... there are entire genres of games that have been devastated due to lack of profit. This isn't game developers being evil. It costs a fortune to make most hit games these days. What surprises me is why this is the case. These days there are far fewer platformers out there. New space based flight sims? Forget about it! Real-time strategy? The winners are set .. no new entrants please. You know what we have tons of? First person shooters!!
Sorry for the somewhat ranting post. I just feel very letdown by console gaming. I'm going to go play "where's my water" on my ipad to calm me down :-p
Comments
The article gets one thing right. It's about the games. That said, IMHO consoles are going the way of the dodo. Too many console games feel like the same experience. I've been a gamer all my life. It feels like some of the best game developers are engaging in more shenanigans than usual. I think this is because of one thing .. profits over anything else.
Let me provide examples: - Diablo 3 ... the DRM and market place issues; inability to play a single player game without a network connection.
- StarCraft 2 has issues similar to D3. But I found them to be less severe.
- I bought the 3DS on the first day. The glasses-free 3D made me feel sick. On top of that, Nintendo lowered the price big time (which didn't upset me). They claimed to reward early adopters by giving them a number of free games. Few people neglected to mention that the free games were from a small list of classics/oldies (this really ticked me off).
- Few innovative games on each of the consoles. Lets face it ... if you are a gamer, you likely have all three top consoles. The reason is there are 3-4 amazing titles for each console. There's a pretty long tail of crap out there.
- Motion control makes arms tired. This is true for the tech used in all three consoles.
- I don't want to tell all my Facebook friends what I am doing in my games. I really don't.
- Games again ... there are entire genres of games that have been devastated due to lack of profit. This isn't game developers being evil. It costs a fortune to make most hit games these days. What surprises me is why this is the case. These days there are far fewer platformers out there. New space based flight sims? Forget about it! Real-time strategy? The winners are set .. no new entrants please. You know what we have tons of? First person shooters!!
Sorry for the somewhat ranting post. I just feel very letdown by console gaming. I'm going to go play "where's my water" on my ipad to calm me down :-p