Last gen I went 360 for crossplatform and online and PS3 for exclusives and single player.
This gen is 100% flipped. Though XBox for exclusives period and not single player (lol?)
When I look back at SNES, PS1, PS2 and some of the greatest games and memories of all time and my entire libraries of memorable games... all of them are single player or local coop! NOT VERSUS. Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy IV and VI, Xenogears, Xenosaga, Earthbound, Super Metroid, Wild Arms, Kingdom Hearts, Resident Evil, Lunar, Star Ocean, Megaman, Secret of Mana, Star Tropics, Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, Goof Troop, Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers, Conkers Bad Fur Day, Mario Kart, Super Mario World, Suikoden, and on and on and on as I stare at my wall of games going back to NES.
All of the best (console) gaming memories I have are from single player and local coop games. My best multiplayer memories are from WoW. I was a online FPS fanatic at it's dawn on the PC during the Quake 1-3, UT, Counterstrike etc days. 1000s of hours lost and I can't remember anything that stands out, it was just mindless twitch reflex and trying to stay on the top spot in frags. Completely forgettable. But I can still remember every wide eyed jaw dropping story revalation at 3am huddling under a blanket in the cold of night with only my SNES keeping me warm as I played FFII for the first time.
And when I stopped breathing for a moment and felt my body go numb when Xenogears dropped the bomb on my soul and it all clicked... and the bittersweet dispair and hopelessness I felt when the ending theme started and the credits rolled....and similar not even first 10 minutes into The Last of Us and close again in Ni no Kuni. That kind of thing you NEVER forget. You will NEVER EVER EVER get that kind of experience in a multiplayer online shooter.
Does 20+ years of enjoyable gaming need to end so nobody else in the current and upcoming generation can experience what it USED to and SHOULD be about, just so a few 14 year olds who can't own real guns and Dorito chugging 35 year olds who still act like they are 14 can shoot each other over and over and over again in the same 3 alley backdrops?
I do enjoy multiplayer games too. Played WoW for 3 years and that will wear out anyone. Recently Borderlands 2 coop has been fun as hell. Trying to remember what else but my shelves are disorganzed and being moved around and all my 360 games are blocked by PS3 :P Next massive loss of sleep inducing game this gen will probably be The Division. I'm not even hyped about Destiny because it's related to Halo and Activision and I'm pretty turned off those crowds after enduring 8 years of 360 and watching the death spiral of everything I loved about video games since I was a kid.
Sony and Nintendo exclusives are like those epic landmark movies like Dances with Wolves or masterpieces like a Kubric film that the mainstream is too ADHD to watch to the end or understand and appreciate it like a fine whine while MS exclusives are basically Fast and the Furious and Hangover...and over and over and over...because you know it's not manly for dudebros to shed tears or feel sad. Even I'm in the mood for both once in a while, but they need to stay far FAR apart from each other.
