Buying next gen consoles for current gen games

Inane_Dork

Rebmem Roines
Veteran
Something I've read many times about the X360 is that people are getting deja vu. They feel like they're seeing Xbox games but with better graphics and sound. They obviously feel disappointed that they're not getting clearly "next gen" games to go along with their "next gen" console.

My question is: do you agree with these people? Do you feel like there should be a clear demarcation between current and next gen games? And I'm talking about next gen here, not just about the X360.

I don't agree with them, but let me explain why. I see two general ways in which games progress or stagnate. One is the interface/move set/feature set. Splinter Cell 3 getting the ability to switch hands when firing is an example of this. SC3's co-op is also an example. Pretty much anything directly tied to the gameplay fits here. The second is content. The story, cutscenes, dialogue, animation, rendering features and such fit under content.

So when people talk about not being impressed with a next gen game, I'm pretty sure they mean they see no clear upgrade to the interface/feature set area. For games that are heavily or totally focused on this, I can understand. Madden and Burnout are two good examples. If they don't continually tweak and expand the feature set, even the fans will see no reason to buy the new versions.

When I switch the topic to content-driven games, though, I do not understand these people. For the X360, Mass Effect is a great example of what I'm talking about. Games like ME are not properly judged by generation. They're too timeless for that. If the story is good and is convincingly told, it does not really matter what vehicle is used to bring it to the player.

Going back to feature set dependent games for a second, slow genre or franchise evolution is too often ignored. Just think of all the things that people look for in FPS games today that weren't expected back in the Wolfenstein 3D/Doom days. Vehicles, CTF, rigid body physics, friendly AI, etc. One way I think about it is that I got my Xbox to play Xbox games. Why would I not get a better Xbox to play better Xbox games? I've already clearly voted with my wallet that I like Xbox games. So when I get the chance to play Xbox++ games, why not?

A small addition I think important here is that each current gen console has some unique titles on it. Stranger's Wrath, Beyond Good & Evil, Katamari and so on. So painting a picture of a next gen platform's entire game library as "been there" will almost surely be inaccurate.

An interesting related point is that Nintendo has managed to make every game on their next gen platform have a different interface/feature set. Note that I said "different." It will most likely turn out to be for the better, but to be honest, we don't know for sure yet. It creates an immediate and recognizable jump that people can identify as "next gen."

Anyway, enough of my ramblings. What do you think about it?
 
Calling ME timeless is a bit much considering how little we know, but that's another issue. I'm kinda at odds here with this statement. I'll break this into points, because I'm sleepy and can't form a cogent arguement... sorry.

1 - A LOT of Xbox 360 games are shovelware currentgen games port to a next gen console, so LITERATALTY not a next gen experience, but not necessarily unfun.

2 - I feel next gen game launch games are a sampler... hey here's are next gen console... look at what it can do with these games. Oooooh. It's a promise of goodness to come and a measuring stick for the beyond launch games. Looking at what's coming out is a bit of a downer ungraphics. Part of it is cause of 1.

3 - At same time if Sony said PS3 BC added AA and AF.. maybe speed up loading too... I would ZO buy the console to play my current games. Which has me at odds.

I think it's something like this... at launch of next gen the whole issue is graphics... we have tons of fun games now, so if it's all about games then we should stagnate, but we can't... and it's up to the devs to make fun games... its up to the console guy to make powerful hardware, so they get graphics judged. Benchmarks would work, but we don't have them and people are visual based. I'll pass out now.
 
I think it has been pretty much expected that the coming gen would be mainly just a garphical update, just as PSOne to PS2, N64 to GCN, Sega Saturn to Dreamcast, 3DFx Voodoo to nVidia 7800 were just graphical updates with little or none actual gameplay innovations that were due to upgraded technology.

The difference isn't as noticeable as say jumping from PSOne to xbox.
At this gen already we got very detailed human characters that were truly a gen up from blocky Tekken2, and vehicles that actually have curves and massive detailed environmets with longer than 10meters view distance. There's little just bumping up the polygonal and textural detail would do to improve the look of games. All the bumpmapping and fancy shading effect are no substitute if the result still looks "flat" and computergraphicslike.

What imo would really differentiate next gen from this, would be much improved lighting, and most importantly good animation (incl. "physics" and livelier, organic environments with good "nature" effects like wind, particles...) and smooth framerate in evry game.
Those still seem to e lacking in at least 1st gen games, hope they'd be common in 2nd gen forwards...
 
Mefisutoferesu said:
I think it's something like this... at launch of next gen the whole issue is graphics... we have tons of fun games now, so if it's all about games then we should stagnate, but we can't... and it's up to the devs to make fun games... its up to the console guy to make powerful hardware, so they get graphics judged. Benchmarks would work, but we don't have them and people are visual based. I'll pass out now.

Thank you!!!

it's exactly what I was thinking :)

I actually said that on another thread... albiet, in it's cruder, tactless tone...

but that's what I meant...

and i got flamed for it...

but oh wells :)
 
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