I haven't been able to post for some time due to my insane schedule as of late - work combined with school combined with getting married in OHMYGODLESSTHANAMONTH. I'm fine, I'm cool - ok anyways let's move.
My timeline as a person is tied very closely to video games (and other things of course, but for the sake of this post...just games), from opening up my first NES and attempting to land that damned plane on the aircraft carrier in Top Gun (IMPOSSIBLE) to the PS4s and Xbox Ones of today. I love video games, I always have and always will - though, like most loves, it has been tested close to the point of breaking during this "Next-Generation" of gaming we have entered. Allow me to elaborate.
Once upon a time, in a time not so long ago there were consoles that WANTED you to play games on them - for besides the odd DVD night, playing games was their purpose in life. User interfaces were uncomplicated and honestly, most of the time I barely noticed them because I could just toss my game and and off we went on whatever adventure I was destined for that day. If you can recall with me, how many steps between you and playing your new video game were there back in the era of N64's and the original Playstation? One - you put the game in...and then you played it.
Fast forward to the present. One of my favorite and most respected series recently released the next title in their line of amazing games - Bloodborne. Bloodborne, if you do not know, is another spiritual successor to the Demon's/Dark Souls games that all hold a place in the upper echelon of what I consider to be truly good games. The game itself is absolutely amazing, I'm not here to lampoon Bloodborne's game play in any way - I loved the experience and have already completed the game. What I am going to attack is this:
Let's jump back again, remember the good old days of the first Halo or Mario Kart 64? How easy it was to have an absolute blast with your friends, crowded together on a couch screaming at the douchebag that just released a blue shell at you or who smacked you in the face with an RPG from across Blood Gulch? Worst case scenario, another friend would bring their console, you hook them up, and boom 8 players instead of four - now you've got a party. Couch Co-op has taken a back seat in favor of the pay to play services advertised by most console providers - for example the Souls series never charged for use of their online mode (an integral feature to experiencing the whole game) until the release of Bloodborne. After putting my game in, downloading it from a disc SITTING IN THE DAMNED CONSOLE for an hour, then INSTALLING it for another half an hour, I finally had the game ready to go. I started and was immediately greeted by a window telling me I needed to purchase a PS+ membership to access the online functionality of Bloodborne.
I already am trapped paying for Xbox Live, now I get bent over another 10$ a month barrel just so I can play a game with a friend maybe once a week. I begrudgingly let go of yet another ten dollars of my not so disposable income....and have used the online functionality about twice - because the lag between host and player is insane. Sure, I can play with my friend - but you know what isn't fun in a game where dying actually carries consequence? Getting cut in half by a giant monster you didn't even see swing his 30 foot sword at you because the game's frame rate took a dip into the pits of hell.
Thankfully some titles, the Borderlands series for example, are putting in the work to make couch co-op return and I am eternally grateful.
Being able to sit with my fiance on our couch and tear through legions of bandits has been an absolute blast and Borderlands deserves extra kudos for making this type of multiplayer happen.
Let's get back to that rant shall we? Now, I know it's painful and gross, but there is a hideous boil lingering on all of these next-gen consoles. It is not a new infection, in fact its roots can be traced back to the last generation of consoles, yet it has steadily grown in infection rate and severity. I'm talking of course about - DLC. The closest thing to a four letter word I can think of in the gaming industry. The way 90% of companies handle downloadable content add-ons for their games is absolutely sickening, why? I'm glad you asked.
While Kotaku isn't exactly a place I'd go to find anything trusted about gaming - this visual aid I found is just what I wanted in order to help explain this ridiculous process. Back in the Golden Ages we were given a full game on release date. Everything was finished, polished, and sold for full price - because well, it was a full game! Sounds like a fair deal to me, if the game was a success the ravenous fan base would be rewarded with expansion packs that cost less than the full game they already purchased, now you have hours and hours of extra content for the game you thought was over - wonderful!!
Things started to take a downswing as the 2000's progressed. We still bought full games, but the expansion packs seemed to just be logical add-ons to a game we already played. We still bought them because it was still a relatively fresh concept - and we still wanted more content for our games. So, as this may have not been perfect, I went along with it.
Welcome to the present! Now we have the luxury of AAA gaming companies like EA and Activision (these are NOT the only offenders, merely the biggest) selling us incomplete games where the extra content is ALREADY on the disc you purchased. To put it in another way - you buy a game for full price that already contains all of the downloadable content on it that will be released later. All of these extra goodies are locked away behind a big dollar sign - but you can have them if you shell out an extra 5 or 10 bucks every now and then. Before you know it, you've paid double what the game is actually worth ONLY to access content ALREADY PRESENT on the game you ALREADY purchased. See a problem here? No wonder large game companies are doing so well, all they have to do is sell one game and make money as though they were selling two.
At this point my Xbox One and PS4 have become glorified Netflix boxes. The utter lack of respectable games out there is staggering (though there are some examples that I've talked about earlier that are actually highly enjoyable). Bright shiny technologically impressive games are sold for 64$ and people snap them up because WHOOAAAAA it looks SOOOO GOOOOD. Guess what, that amazing looking concrete that was so awe inspiring doesn't matter if the game you are playing is a steaming pile of crap. In fact - let me dig into my current loot hoard of games and see how many next-gen games I actually enjoyed. Keep in mind, the following games are only ones I've actually purchased and played.
Next Gen Games Delrain Enjoyed:
1. Alien Isolation
2. Shadow of Mordor
3. Borderlands: The Handsome Edition
4. Bloodborne
5. Dragon Age: Inquisition
6. Crimes & Punishments: Sherlock Holmes
7. Fantasia - Music Evolved
8. Wolfenstein: The New Order
9. Bayonetta 2
There are some that barely did not make this list, such as Farcry 4 and Sunset Overdrive, but I have quarrels with said games that did not allow them to make it on my nice list, though luckily they do avoid the naughty list. I don't have GTA V on this list because I was impatient and played it on 360. Now, let's talk about games that I have bought, played for an hour, and then returned fuming to the store to return the game for a fraction of the money I paid - effectively robbing myself. If it is in bold, you would have more fun being beaten by a whiffle-ball bat until you were unconscious.
Next Gen Games That Are Terrible:
1. Ryse: Son of Rome
2. Killzone: Shadowfall (or whatever dumb word they use to signify a sequel now)
3. The Evil Within
4. Assassin's Creed: Unity
5. Any and all Final Fantasy games
6. Infamous Second Son
7. Knack
8. The Order 1886 (I started out loving this title, but once I got past its looks it was nothing to write home about)
9. Destiny
10. Seriously, any and all Final Fantasy games
11. Dying Light
12. Titanfall
13. Evolve
14. Dead Rising 3
15. Watch Dogs
16. Lords of the Fallen
17. Thief
Almost double, sounds about right. The list of terrible games would have been much longer if I played Call of Duty or Battlefield, but luckily I don't. From terrible story, game play, and insane amounts of necessary DLC all of these games have too many sins to forgive.
Right now, the only thing preserving my gaming sanity is my faithful PC. There always seems to be something I can dig up and enjoy on the computer - and for that I am lucky. I know the Wii-U didn't receive much discussion time here, but honestly I don't have that many games for it still. Aside from the usual Mario titles, Bayonetta 2 was the only standout.
Today was more of a rant than anything, but to all you game companies out there - keep up the good work, soon you won't have jobs because your massive corporate overlords will one day force you to pump out so many garbage titles that there won't be anyone left who wants to buy them.
