I originally intended to write a series of articles on E3 2013, but I eventually decided against it. The reasons are largely to do with my unenthusiasm for the next generation of consoles, and the fact that neither the PlayStation 4 nor the Xbox One have sold me on their potential yet.
The graphics look great, obviously, but nothing these consoles are selling make me want to preorder them. The PS4, for example, brags about Remote Play using their handheld Vita system, but I don’t have and don’t want a Vita, so that’s lost on me. I’m also unimpressed by the new Dual Shock’s touch pad, which strikes me a Move move all over again. If you remember, Sony ripped the Wii for its control setup only to unveil the Move controller later on as a seemingly me-too attempt. The touch screen on their controller sounds like another attempt to halfheartedly shoehorn a novel input device into their system. Likewise, the Xbox One strikes me as an Xbox 360 2.0, only more restrictive. For fun, let’s go over some of the bullet points on Microsoft’s Xbox One page.
“Your games keep playing while you’re not!”
They describe it as game worlds that continue to exist when you log off, which sounds like any number of games I’ve already played. As a PC vet/MMO player, I’m unimpressed.
“Pick up where you left off!”
Save at any time? No! You don’t say! Cloud saves, too? You’re way ahead of the curve now, Microsoft!
“Your game stays in sync with the real world!”
It’s a new feature for sports games to update with real scores and stats? Apparently they haven’t played any EA Sports or 2K Sports titles in the last five years. They also tout games that stay in sync with real time. Hey, Microsoft? Animal Crossing just called. From 2001. They want their gimmick back.
Seriously, I’m not against new consoles but this generation seems so much like both systems are trying to do way too many things, many of which either aren’t as revolutionary as they want you to think or have been standard on PCs for years now, like live streaming or multitasking. I want to see these systems succeed because this is always an exciting time to be a gamer, seeing our hobby evolve and grow, but I just can’t get excited for more powerful current-gen systems with PC hand-me-downs.
Alphasim out.
