April 21, 2014

Haven't Cared About 'Console Wars' Since Gen 4: Xbone Better Drop the Kinect or Tap Out of the Ring

In life there are people that think they are better than you because they show loyalty to a person or product. Sometimes, people have anger issues with seemingly 'innocent' things. Woe to the person who crosses the fan boy with an anger issue. They are all too common on Xbone Live, I hear.

I don't own a PS4 and I don't plan on buying one for another year or two. I like to get into new systems when they mature. I am a retro kind of guy. Now that the last gen is... last gen, I've been looking at expanding my Wii collection, my PS3 collection especially, and I am considering investing in an Xbox 360 if there are exclusives worth playing on the system.

I have had the chance to play both the PS4 and the Xbone. Completely barring the NSA and Kinect camera spying from the picture- I felt both were good systems that have a lot of potential. When it came to UI- PS4 seemed a little different to me, while the Xbone had a Windows OS- something more familiar. With that said, I prefer the PS4 UI.

I don't care about console wars anymore. I haven't cared since generation 4. I can't find Playstation 4 in stores, but I see plenty of Xbones. I am sure you can find either system online, though. What I do care about are good games. I may be on the majority a PC and Retro gamer now, but I still enjoy picking up a controller and playing good games.

I prefer value in my games rather than shelling out $60 for 30 hours of content. What, are they up to $70 for games now? sheesh. I don't know. When I buy a title I seek value. Skyrim. Borderlands 2. Goat Simulator (deviant example). Bioshock Infinite ($10) and games like GRID ($4) or Ace Combat Assault Horizon ($7). Steam.... is impossible to leave.

I've pumped over 400 hours into Skyrim before I finished everything I wanted to. Borderlands 2 had netted me around 170 hours. In college, I dumped 400-500 hours into Borderlands easily. I'm still not done with the sequel and I have found value in both the original game and the DLC. Gearbox Software does DLC right, unlike some companies I know who force you to pay for "disk locked content". I don't buy games to have the chance to buy something on the fucking disk, thanks.

There might be a couple of exclusives that Rhombus has in store for us. In the future I might look at getting one. As for the spy box, I am too pissed at Microsoft for wanting to bring a water cooler and a seal team dog to my living room, along with big brother. I've already got a water cooler in my fridge and I have no use for a german shepard. Too many vet bills. Can't deal with the heartache. No cats or dogs for me.

If Xbone wants to survive, and I say this from the neutral sidelines (I don't have a WII U, PS4 or XBONE) the puppet masters better ditch that $100 kinect device fast. Then, and MAYBE then I would recommend the console to people, until I just realized that Microsoft can throw a switch on and fuck with gamers again, by either requiring constant connection DRM schemes or stopping physical media from working. Bad move on the second part, and I know Sony is capable of doing it- but Microsoft is more likely to go through with it. Sony is in a position (and they investigated the idea of additional DRM) to cater to a bunch of pissed off gamers- and that is exactly what they are doing. Value, support and good games.

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