How this Gen almost Ended Console Gaming (For Me at least)

[Michael-5]

Well........ Did it really almost kill gaming for you, or change your gaming habits? I agree with you, many of the marketing ploys and gaming directions games went this gen really sucked, but for me at least it made me a better gamer for the most part. Here is somthing to consider.

DLC

-Ruins most games, but improves some drastically. Like you said, map packs ruin gaming, especially since often times really easy trophy's/achievements are linked to them, and they rarely go on sale. My biggest grip is Forza releasing a 9 car pack every month for $9. That's a dollar a car! You get 500 Cars with the purchase of the game, and post game you're expected to pay $1 per car? What's worse is often times the best cars are reserved for limited edition buyers. However on the same note, FallOut 3 GOTY Edition and NV Ultimate Edition are excellent games. Sure they might not be 80 hour JRPG's like you remember (Really, most JRPG's are 30 hours, not 80.....), but it took me 40 hours to complete all of FallOut 3, and I expect NV to be better. Elder Scrolls is also the same, it took me about 80 hours to fully finish Oblivion, and I don't even want to touch games like Dragon Age and Skyrim due to their length.

Pricing

Call of Duty 2 is no longer then Call of Duty 4, or any other iteration. $60 is a lot, but you don't have to buy games on day 1. I on average spend $20 on a game if I wait just 6 months - 1 year.

Multiplatform

What you say isn't really true. Call Of Duty, Resident Evil, and Elder Scrolls all sold much better this gen then any prior gen, and in reality very few games broke 3 million sales last gen, but this gen any AAA game seems to break that mark. Assassin's Creed, FallOut, Batman, Bioshock, you name it. Often a single platform version will break 3 million, never mind combined sales.

Sequals

I agree with you here, this gen is too long, and now we aren't seeing too many new IP's. It's also getting really annoying, how many Halo's do I need?

FPS/Online Play

I agree whole heartedly here.

Patches

You can't blaime the console generation specifically for this. As games get bigger and bigger, the odds of having a bug significantly improve. What you can blaime are large scale open world sandbox games. Since Skyrim is such a big game, it's basically impossible to test everything. I think games should have a smaller over-world. Oblivion was massive enough, and most of the world is just trees and repetetive quests and AI's. I'd rather have a more centralized experience.

Studios Dying

This is true, the longer generation makes it hard for smaller studios to survive after they release a game that doesn't sell well, but this gen is really no different from the last gen. Remember Cloverfield and Okami?

 

Anyway, here are some pro's to this gen

Length

Being as long of a generation as it is, it's a lot more affordable to own multiple systems now then it used to be. So exclusives present a much smaller barrier this gen then prior. I mean for a good 4 months of the last year, the 360 4GB model was on sale for $130, Wii is priced at $150 and I've seen to sell for $100 often, You can get a DS XL new for $100, and PSP is what $120? With the exception of PS3 (Which is worth every penny), you can be a real cheap ass gamer this gen.

Variety in Games

Imagine buying a PS3 or a 360 in 2010, 5 years after the start of this gen. You would have 5 years of games to pick from, plus 3 future years of gaming where your console is still getting strong support. I have more PS3/360/Wii games this gen then I have PS2/GCN/XB games by far, and you know what? I bought a lot of my PS2/XB/GCN games because of Backward compatibility (something which was exclusie to Playstation and Gameboy las gen). I have a lot more games this gen because it's so long.

Used Games

They are dirt cheap, I can go out and buy Lost Planet 1, Forza 3, Vanquish, Assassin's Creed 1/2/BH, Mass Effect, FallOut 3, Oblivion, Halo, Uncharted, etc, etc, all for $10 each, maybe even less. Who cares if they are old, they still look and play amazing. On average most of the games I buy are 2 years old or so, and I don't mind one bit.

 

What this gen has taught me is to really think about what I'm buying. I bought a lot of used games between 2008-2011, and I still have to play most of them. So nowdays I'm a more cautious spender. When I buy a game I plan to play and beat it within the next 3 months, and usually I don't get games until they are old. I have more games this gen, but I'm spending less.

So long as you really think about what you buy, this gen is amazing. $60 is a lot for a game, especially if the game get's $60 in DLC, but you know what? If you wait for even just a year that $60 is often $20, and a lot of games now are worth $20. Sure we might not see as many 30-50 hour RPG's (but they are still there, e.g. XenoBlade, Skyrim, FallOut, Tales of -, Lost Odyssey, etc), but the level of quality has gone up.