Walking towards the next-gen

Greetings people,

I decided to write this post to state my opinion regarding the latest gamespot articles about the next-gen. This generation of gaming is finally coming to an end and all I can think about is "Too soon or too late?". Don't get me wrong, I own a PS3 and over 100 games on it. And I freakin' enjoyed it A LOT. But let's be objective for a minute here. Comparing this gen to previous ones, this one is the weakest of all. Remember the Playstation and Nintendo 64? Remember Crash Bandicoot, Abe's Odyssey, Resident Evil, Parasite EVE, Dino Crysis, Final Fantasy VI-VIII, Metal Gear Solid, Super Mario 64, Zelda: Ocarina Of Time, Perfect Dark? Of course you do. And don't get me started on Playstation 2 and Xbox. When you thought it actually couldn't get any better, suddenly you played Metal Gear Solid 2, Final Fantasy X, Resident Evil 4, God of War, Ninja Gaiden, Forza, Alan Wake, Max Payne and so on. I could be blabbering for hours, naming epic games. But not in this gen. This gen was simply "good". We got our hands on some pretty epic games, but for me, it was just not good enough. Sure, I won't forget Assassins Creed, or Demons/Dark Souls, Uncharted,Bayonetta, Heavenly Sword. But still not good enough. Why you ask me?

Although a lot of AAA games came out with a big success, and indie development went a step ahead with titles like journey, limbo or braid, there where A LOT, and I mean A LOT of dissatisfying games in this era. Not because they were not good, but because they were small-length, tiring with too many cutscenes with their epic graphics, resulting in waiting for a release for two years to get the game and play it for... 8-10 hours? Absurd, I tell ya. Then WiiU came out. You guys might hate it, but forget the loading times for a minute. How great is this technology? This controller? How great is it that we now await a ZeldaU in 1080p? I'd like to get my hands on that baby. And finally, the rumours started with Playstation 4 and Nextbox. We got to hear about the 256 SSD drive of PS4 and the Illumiroom of Nextbox. Fingers-crossed, DON'T mess it up developers. Please. Gaming today is a form of entertainment that every age deserves to play. It's not just the "Secret Santa gift" for your seven-year old child. This means that I don't simply need GREAT graphics. I need gameplay, mystery, plot and duration... I need to spend my 60E and not be sorry about that. I do not need launch-day DLC's that cost 15E each.

This generation of gaming, gave it it's best to give great technologies to the next-gen. I'd like to think of it as a very nice transitional point between the PS2 and PS4, Xbox and Xbox720, Gamecube and WiiU, Steam and Steambox. I still fear about the digitalization of gaming though. I'm sorry but I adore my Blu-ray cases. It's safer that way. I wanna rent games to my buddies and vise-versa. I don't wanna spend money on new HDD or SSD so I can own my games.

Anyways, sorry for blabbering. Feel free to comment on my opinions and post yours too! I'd like to talk about it with you guys.

Cya soon!

Soooo, I just finished watching the interview of Jonathan Blow. The interview described a lot of my feelings about games. But should we face the game developers as a company, or as people? If we were to face them as companies, then Jonathan Blow is correct. Games these days simply tell you what to do and then you do it as if they are speaking to a robot. Something like an interactive movie. This, in my opinion is very wrong. On the other hand, I hardly believe that if a respected indie developer worked for a AAA-company and the company told him "I want the game to appeal to ALL audiences, so make it explainative" he would say "NO, I won't because this isn't gaming." On the other hand, facing developers as people, then I believe they too share Jonathan's opinion. The problem is not in the developers. The problem is in the marketing. The game market has switched it's views in order to appeal to a greater audience. Most games are "noob-friendly" while only a small percentage of these games allow you to be immersive, creative, doing stuff on your own. So tell me guys: What would you do as a AAA-developer to make gaming better?