I'm a long time lurker here and this is the first time I've actually been interested in posting.
Also, I'm a Sony fanboy. If that matters in any sense I'll leave it for you to decide.
I have been very impressed with Sony this gen, not just the PS3 but also the PSP and the PSVita more recently. I'm a long time PlayStation gamer, owning the original Phat PS, the Phat PS 2 and so on. Sony's not let me down on either of those seeing as I can still whip out the PS2 and play it even if it's been in storage for a few years now.
Starting this gen I jumped ship to the 360 as it was earlier on the market - I had previously owned an original XBox that I used as a media hub seeing as the gamepad was all but unusable in my opinion...finished a couple of games on it but I just couldn't enjoy it - and was hoping for some of the functions that the original had. It didn't have them at the time, the game I was most interested in for the console was a fizz out - Lost Planet if you're wondering...finished it in 5 hours, raged for 2 days afterwards - and the console died on me after less than a month.
Okey...second console. I had exams, lent it to a friend for a month, got it back, played some Overlord on it...and it died. Didn't get a third one, sold this one off for parts and got a PSP and never looked back.
And thing is, I actually LIKE some of the stuff on the Xbox. I am a LONG time Halo fan - since 1999, at E3 when they showed that demo with the Spartan running and hijacking a Banshee -, I was very impressed with the gameplay possibilities from Gears of War and Fable was among my favorite games in last gen, on the PC, true, but still a fav.
I have borrowed a 360 and played the sequels: Fable 2 was mediocre, linear and utterly uninteresting, Halo 3's campaign proved to be very short - satisfying ending though... lessened somewhat by the fact that they're making another one - and was utterly disappointed by Gears of War 2.
In the mean time, I had also gotten my hands on a Wii with some games on it. I've played a Russian pirated NES in my youth - the SNES or Genesis never got where I'm at, so that "Terminator" was my only connection with Nintendo growing up - but that was that, Mario for me did not exist after Super Mario Brothers, which is interesting because many people here just can't accept that Mario went 3D. I had a collection of games for it, but nothing mind blowing. Some party games that we quickly got tired of, Anno 1404 which was REALLY fun on the Wii and sports. From a collection of more than 50 games I only managed to find ONE - Anno - that could hold my interest for long, ONE that I quickly finished and dropped - Pung Out- and nothing else of lasting appeal. I gave the Wii back after a while, and never looked back.
This, I'm sure you understand, is context. I am not a mindless hater of the other consoles, I have just not had a good experience with them as compared to the PS3.
Cuz after the second 360 died on me, I saved up money and got a cheaper 40Gb PS3 - that was 5 years ago - and, NEVER looked back.
And this is where I start being impressed this gen.
Sony made asses of themselves out the gate. It's like that prized horse that instead of running with the others stops and struts in front of the masses while everyone else gets a nice head start. And when it finally starts running it drops the jockey off and runs without him only to come back in shame to get him, all to the laughter of the crowds.
At one point that horse will, however, start running.
After the business with the 600$ price point, after the HORRIBLE PR campaigns they've done, the abyssal E3s leading up to 2008, I almost gave up hope that Sony could recuperate and was honestly expecting them to go the way of Sega. Not to mention the whole stigmata - unjust in my opinion - that the PS3 had no games or color. You can still see people touting that off, as if they were the first words they've learned and will never renounce them.
Somewhere along the line, the Wizard of Oz gave Scarecrow some brains. And we got the 2008 E3 with a sleuth of good games, a good show and great fun over there.
The new IPs started flowing with Sony. Looking in my library I'm seeing Folklore, Lair, the Uncharted games, the God of War games and collections, Demon's Souls, the inFamous games, MotorStorm Pacific Rift, Heavy Rain and the Ratchet and Clank games. Some are sequels, some are not that very good - Lair was sheer disappointment - but they are varied and offer different experiences.
Cinematics instead of gameplay?
Bah. inFamous' gameplay is fun and fast, with a great flow at higher difficulties. Uncharted may be cinematic, but the shooting is great, even the melee. God of War 3 as well, so is Ratchett and so on.
Aside from great exclusive content that's proven both varied and interesting - for me at least, don't get your panties in a bunch -, they've shown some of the best sense in this industry and keep on doing so. I use E3 generally as a barometer for these things. I know, not the best representation of the industry, but gives you an idea of what to expect.
Sony in recent years have concentrated on one gimmick or another, but it never affected their games. You can play any game in 2D or 3D, the motion controls are optional - unlike Kinect generally - and so forth...you can enjoy the games as you will.
Whereas Microsoft just spent 45 minutes of a gaming conference talking about how to use menus with Kinect, aka the same stuff they've shown 2 years ago. Woohoooo.
Nintendo are doing a lot better, it's true. Last year they offered bomb after bomb at E3, game after game with some VERY nice additions. This year I hear things weren't as good - sorry, didn't get around to watching it yet -.
They don't innovate.
So what?
They support indie games and that's enough for me when I think back to Dead Nation, Flower or Journey.
They support the games on their platform - remember the Bayonetta debacle where Sega was touting high and mighty that the game couldn't be fixed on the PS3 and were shown otherwise? -.
They DON'T NEED to innovate. The gamepad is the most obvious thing. It's the same Dual Shock layout since the PS1 days. Would that boomerang thing have proven better? It was a terrible design and was scrapped. As it is it's great for people that are used to it. Why fix something that's so elegant and comfortable. Heck, get some of those clip ons on the triggers and the gamepad's main problem is solved.
I see a lot of people touting Nintendo's horn that they're innovators and leaders. For all that they still concentrate on NES days franchises. That comes as a bit as a double standard here, wouldn't you say?
Sony have been doing well with getting back on track. They've got a great library now - I have played some of these games back to back with a 360 version and did not find any noticeable differences for games like Darksiders, Fallout 3, Burnout Paradise, Batman: Arkham Asylum -, they've got a good online service and they have shown some of the best spirit in regarding gaming and gamers and have handled the bad press of last year's hack with unexpected gusto and decency - I like Jack Trenton in general, but I really liked how well he got on stage last year and just got the business over with -.
To sum up, cuz I feel I'm losing threads here.
Yes, I am impressed with the PS3 and Sony in general. They went from "It has no games, no color, no online, no Netflix, no whatever" to having some of the most varied exclusives in the industry aside from Nintendo, to having a presence on the gaming scene and even to bringing back some of the people they've lost along the way. They may blunder and they may screw up here and there, but at least they don't forget the gamers and don't seem ashamed of making a gaming machine.
Nintendo have more or less abandoned core gamers this gen, Microsoft are apparently more interested in becoming the MTV of gaming and Sony keep chugging along. Sometimes you just need to appreciate the hard working ant that's main distinction is that it does its job admirably.
