I'm a little drunk right now, so I didn't read through the past few posts in detail, but... My thoughts on the newest generation of consoles is that they would need to really, really sell my on exclusives. And it would have to be permanent exclusives, not the kind that will be on the other platforms in 6 months. This past gen I ended up getting a 360 a good 2 years after it's release (which surprised me once I looked up the dates), which was my first console of that generation. I ended up getting a Wii and PS3 too, but I mostly regret those two. The PS3 has been our bluray player and Netflix machine for the living room more than it's been a game console. At this point, PC is the way to go for me. I have a 360 controller connected to my PC, and it's also connected to the same 42" TV that my 360 is on. For non-exclusive games there is basically no reason to not play them on PC, and I expect that trend to continue for quite a while.
I got the big PS3 about a month after it came out. Haven't had one problem with it in 7, 8 years. But I agree with the other posts, it took forever for there to be good games on it, plus it took a while for designers to fully utilize the new technology (at the time). I do look forward to the PS4, but since I only game in spurts (last I played was DLC for Dark Souls and Black Ops 2), I'll probably go ahead and wait at least 6 months before buying it.
The issue with gaming PCs is that they are expensive if you want to run the newest games, and that they tend to be out-of-date much faster than consoles. A gaming PC can run games now, but within a year or two it is unable to play the newest games on the highest settings, and it may even start to experience lag at lower settings, so you find yourself having to upgrade (which can be quite expensive). A console, however, can have a much longer shelf life. The PS3 and 360 are going on 7 and 8 years respectively, and they'll have at least another year of life in them. With the added benefit of the PS3 being a blu-ray player/Netflix, our PS3 will continue to be used LONG after it is done being used as a game console.
On the other hand, the update frequency between PC games and console games is enormous, there are huge mod communities that exist for pretty much only PC games, and PCs are generally more powerful. I also think the "PCs go out of date" is a bit of an exaggeration, almost every moderately powerful PC can play any game on the market at decent settings.
Yea. And if you want more performance, a new video card will usually go a long way, if you want more life out of an older rig.
The downside is, they're definitely starting to show their age. Which is to be expected when the games start pushing their processing limits. The big upside of consoles is standardization and conformity. A PS3 game is a PS3 game, you know it will run. And the Blu-Ray playing ability is an awesome bonus. Hell, the PS3 is still rated among the top Blu-Ray players on the market. I love both PC and console gaming. PC Gaming modding is limited only by imagination. With consoles, you're at the mercy of the developer. PC gaming is also vastly more expensive, but still there's nothing quite like building a new rig and firing it up.
Fuck both the PS4 and the Xbox whatever. Always-online is retarded; social everything is annoying; locking out used games is stupid; better hardware doesn't equal better game design. The PS3 didn't have any games that made me run out and get it; I doubt the PS4 will be different, especially at launch. I'll think about buying a new console once I see a must-buy. Until then, it's old-school for me.
This. I've always preferred single-player/team objective (L4D2, CoH Blitzkrieg compstomp) to getting my ass kicked on any platform by a bunch of kids who have figured out the optimal method/weapon/strategy/exploit and used it six hours a day since the day the game came out. No thanks. And as much a cheapass as I am, I'm close to caving on my need to buy a new processor. 2.53gHz is nothing to sneer at, but it doesn't mean shit when you only have two cores (yes, dual-cores still exist). Any suggestions for an affordable* replacement mobo/processor that's ATI vid card compatible are more than welcome. *Aside from savings and bills I'm broke as shit. I remember browsing Alienware a while back and fucking around to see how expensive of a gaming PC I could custom order. I closed the browser and went to find a pillow to sob into somewhere around the $13k mark.
Not to nitpick, but PS4 doesn't require you to be connected to the internet, but the 360 next is rumored to. Also Sony currently has no plans to lock out used games. http://kotaku.com/5985874/ps4-will-not-require-an-always+online-connection Better hardware does however equal easier game design, and all the major devs have praised how easy the PS4 is to develop for as opposed to the PS3 and the Cell, which was proprietary technology of Sony's.
I used to be a hardcore PC gamer, with a multi-thousand-dollar rig. Eventually, I drifted away from it and bought an Xbox. Why? For several reasons: 1. Constant updating was getting on my fucking tits. Even if my rig was top-of-the-line, I could always use the fact that someone had a better game-cruncher as an excuse for sucking, which in turn led me to believe my own excuses, which in turn led me to buying new components every six months. I've had my 360 for over 3 years now. It's the Great Leveller. The only thing I get to blame nowadays is lag, and with a good connection, I can't even do that. 2. Portability. I move house a lot, and my gaming PC was like the Monolith from 2001. You could've built Carnac with my fucking computer case. With the Xbox, it fits into my laptop bag. 3. It really is an integrated, all-round experience, particularly with things that were designed to work with it, like Windows 8. Say I want to watch a movie or play some music out of my TV. Provided I'm connected to the wireless network, right click - Play to Xbox - it appears on the TV. No fuss. No hassle. No cables. I also use my Xbox to watch Sky Satellite TV, live, streamed through the internet. If I turn on the Xbox Smartglass App on my laptop, I can use its keyboard to type in shit on the Youtube or Internet Explorer Apps, so I can put multi-hour music mixes from Youtube on my TV while I work. I can also use my Windows Phone as a remote for my Xbox. Skydrive? Synch. Xbox Music? Synch. Xbox video? Synch. And all that's gonna get a hell of a lot better with the new console. 4. Frankly, if you claim that you get owned by kids who have no lives/are glitching/whatever, you're just making excuses for the fact you suck. I play half an hour a day tops on average, including weekends when I might play longer and days when I don't play at all. Sometimes I don't pick up the controller for weeks at a time. I still have a perfectly respectable K/D ratio on games that haven't gotten absurdly perk-heavy, like CoD. 5. Barring the early-stages RRoD issues (and even when I got that, Microsoft got me a new Xbox within 2 weeks, no quibbles), it's a fairly seamless experience. Game goes in, game loads, you play. End of. 6. When it inevitably melts/gets stolen/I puke in it while drunk/gets dropped while moving/gets cursed by a gypsy, I'm out of pocket what, $200? Try replacing a gaming rig.
Im just hoping they allow you to keep the downloaded games you've bought for PS3. I have GTA SA (a fucking masterpiece by the way), WipeOut, and Infamous downloaded. Fuck if Im paying for them again.... (well at least GTASA)
You can keep them, on your PS3. As of right now you're fucked with anything from before since the architecture. They haven't talked about full blown emulation, which would be required, according to IGN. God of War Ascension Trailer. The Game one, not the silly live action one. fap fap fap fapfapfaapppppp
See, this, to me, is the biggest reason I hate when they roll out a new system, and why I am absolutely dreading when they move completely away from disc-based games (this will happen by the end of the PS4's lifespan). Eventually, I'll get a PS4, and it'll be the main Blu-Ray player/entertainment system in our main room. The PS3 will move to the secondary room, and won't get used as much. Any downloaded games I have on my PS3 become obsolete. God forbid my PS3 bricks, because then I lose those games completely. This is something Nintendo has done right with the Wii and the Wii U. You can transfer everything from your Wii to your Wii U and it is totally backwards compatible. Have some Wii games? You can pop them in the Wii U and pick up right where you left off. Virtual console games will all come back, and if you already own them for the Wii, you can (supposedly, this hasn't happened yet, but this is what they're planning) download them for the Wii U virtual console for a vastly reduced price (I've heard $ or $1.50). I'd be willing to pay it mostly because it'll be worth it to play them on the game pad. Don't want to pay the slightly extra to re-buy it? That's fine, still works on the Wii virtual console, too, you just can't play it with the game pad. This is why I had no qualms buying the Wii U early, but why I will wait significantly longer to buy the PS4. The Wii U game library includes Wii games, so why not? I'll still get to play my Wii games on my Wii U.
Okay, question: which do I replay? Dragon Age: Origins/Dragin Age II, Skyrim, or (dark horse) Final Fantasy XIII and XIII-2?
So GTA VC is on the App Store for the ipad now. Surprisingly, the controls are a huge improvement over the clunky bullshit from the GTA 3 port.
Dragon Age it is. I was leaning towards that, anyway. Game of Thrones made me want to play a good fantasy RPG, and Dragon Age is indeed the front runner. Starting it back up tomorrow. I've played it as a warrior and rogue, so I'm thinking Mage... but I just hate playing as a mage. Unrelated note: I've been playing The Simpsons Tapped Out on my iPhone and iPad. It is, for all intents and purposes, FarmVille except with the Simpsons. I now get why people can get so obsessed with those games.
Getting away from this recent console topic, I got to play in the Sim City closed beta/stress test last night for about 3 hours. Not sure if anyone else has ever played any of the previous games but I've always been a huge fan of the series. After playing for those 3 hours I can say that I am very excited for it to come out next week and that I will definitely be hooked. It's got some significant differences from the previous installments, especially the multiplayer bit. My only real complaint about the game itself so far is that the available space for each city feels much smaller than in the past games. However, there seems to be much more depth here so it may not be a big deal. There is of course the EA bullshit of having to be online all the time to play, similar to Diablo 3. I could rant about that but it's the same stuff that's been said over and over by many others. Bottom line is that the game seems good enough to still pick it up.
I just find the Mage to be boring. I honestly can't say why. I think it is because playing as a mage tends to grind the battle to a halt, because you have to continually pause and pick spells. When I play primarily as a melee fighter, or even an archer, the games just tend to play faster. On top of that, a proper Mage ends up being stupidly overpowered in most RPGs, and takes away virtually all the challenge. In Dragon Age I've played as an Archer and two-handed DPS warrior. I've started and played a bit as a two-handed DPS rogue assassin, which is what I think I'm going for this time through. Also thinking about picking up more of the DLC. I already have Awakening and a few other small quests, so I'm not sure if I will. None of the other DLC looks that good. Also just saw that they have finally released the Skyrim DLC for the PS3. Highly considering playing that instead.