Let’s face it: this generation has been one of a kind. Some of the best quality games we have ever seen. And some of the worst service and disasters we have ever seen. As consoles have become more complex, there is a lot more room for errors and I don’t think any opportunities for screw-ups have been missed. But…the games, man! They are so good! But are they enough to overcome the PSN Hack, the Red Ring of Death, the terrible DLC debacles, the DRM nightmares, constant patches due to broken games on release day and the countless other crap we suddenly have to deal with now?
I mean, Uncharted, Gears of War, Bioshock, Call of Duty, Assassin’s Creed, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Portal and the Arkham series, just to name a few, are all amazing new franchises that stand with some of the best all time. But is the high quality of the product enough to call this the best generation? Or is the terrible state of things for us consumers too much for these stellar games to overcome? Hit the poll and then hit the comments!
The short answer is yes…the games are “enough to overcome the PSN Hack, the Red Ring of Death, the terrible DLC debacles, the DRM nightmares, constant patches due to broken games on release day and the countless other crap we suddenly have to deal with now”.
I like to look at the two (games and the industry itself) as different entities. For games alone, this is a great generation, but needs less sequels because they tend to kill innovation. The industry, however… EA needs to be imprisoned for the crimes they have committed against great game developers.
I said somewhere in between. Whilst this generation has provided so much amazing experiences (Bioshock, Mass Effect, Limbo, Skyrim, Uncharted, etc.), there has been a distinct lack of games that feel like games. So many of them are forcing the cinematic presentation in a BAD way so that we can’t go back through a game and muck about with all the funny little things you could do. Everythhing’s so serious and linear at times (CoD, CoD-clones, even GTA4 was supposed to have removed the ‘game’ from itself). I suppose that’s what made the games which stood out so much better. Also, publishers have become real assholes as of late. Like, more than they were… ¬_¬
All this 3D and motion control is getting on my nerves. Except the 3DS. For whatever reason I can’t discern, I love the 3D on it.
Still, some fantastic stuff in there which make up for any shortcomings. Maybe not my fave gen, but certainly not bad at all!