Hello VGC,
This is your trusty ally shark. I haven’t been much active for almost a year. Been poking around here are there. There are lots of reasons for it. I got married, job pressure and managing a huge PS4 community in Facebook (40K + members). I thought I would be sharing my current views / habits / opinions in gaming in this thread. As you guys already know I prefer a specific brand and not preferring others. This is 100% true as no human can be neutral and I am very biased. Despite that I will be expressing my opinion while keeping away from my fandom and I hope you guys will participate in that manner.
The biggest change in this gen is the reduction / extinction of manuals which makes me disappointed when I open a game and find a single piece of paper. Gone are those glory days. Devs like Rockstar and some others (especially open world games developers) still continues past tradition. Salute to them.
The increasing popularity of digital games (even in consoles) havent caught me and I will continue to buy physical games regardless of the price. Got Okami HD for PS3 at $40 when I could have bought it for $10 at PSN. I am a hypocrite in this regard as I do buy steam games and prefer digital games in PC. When I get digital games in PC I feel it’s the proper way. I don’t know why but I am used to retail games in consoles for a long time and I adore my physical game collection.
I tend to buy all “good games” in my PS4. But I do sell non-exclusives as I have a plan to build a gaming PC and get those sold games via steam. I have planned to get a new PC for quite a while but I haven’t gotten it yet. I do most of my work in my laptop and sold old gaming PC a while back.
As for PS3, yeah I still buy games for it. Sold my last faulty PS3 a while ago and planning to get it to play lots of unopened and new PS3 games (those I still keep buying).
Dedicated console gaming don’t have a place in my life. Playing in small screen was cool in Gameboy era and I loved it. But time has changed. I am happy with simple yet fun games like angry birds / plants vs zombies etc. These are fun for short bursts.
I do not like sports / horror / fighting (exception anime games)/ simulator games. I like openworld ones where I can get lost. I spend countless of hours in the wild west of red dead redemption.
Personally I do not see Microsoft doing too well in the console arena. I believe Xbox Scorpio (or its successors) will be something like SteamBox type machines. Plus they do not have huge first party investment like Sony. And now their exclusives are in PC I think their appeal has lost (at least to me). Fable, Forza Horizon (I prefer forza over GT series) are my favorite Microsoft franchie.
Sony got a costly lesson from PS3 era but I do liked their effort. I always had / have / will have a fascination for archeology and fan of Indiana jones. That’s why I love Uncharted series. Played all god of war games (including the mobile one) and excited for the next. Now I am eagerly waiting for Horizon Zero Dawn and Gravity Rush 2 (I am a sucker for cel shaded games). As for PS4 Pro I will buy PS5 because PS4 is enough for my needs.
As for Nintendo they will always have a special place for me. Loved my NES, Gameboy, Wii and DS. Looking forward to Zelda. But I will wait for a proper home console version of Switch and other must have games. Because I do not want to buy any console just for one game.
Anyways. Have fun. Happy gaming.
