Today we finally got a first glimpse at the PlayStation 5 at their event, and i have to say at the moment the design isn't striking me very well. Router jokes aside, it reminds me of one of those hipster "art" projects that tries to hard to look like a vision of the future but just ends up looking loud and tacky. But who knows, maybe it'll grow on me.

The event itself was good, while we didn't see every game we really wanted they did bring the hits, Horizon II, Ratchet And Clank: Rift Apart, Resident Evil Village, that time loop game.

No price or release date was unveiled sadly during the event, but they will in time.

As someone who doesn't frequent Gamespot all that much, i am absolutely titillated at my last 2 blog entries being about the launch of the current (8th) generation. It really displays to me how time has flown by and as we enter into this new decade readily with new technological changes. Just yesterday, at the 2019 Game Awards Microsoft displayed their next generation console, Xbox Series X; previously known as Project Scarlett. I was in absolute shock to see such an announcement at an unconventional time, but i welcomed it.

The Xbox Series X is a new and interesting design (fridge jokes aside) and houses a good amount of power within itself. We still have yet to hear the price and other launch details. We have also yet to hear from the Playstation camp; while they have already announced PS5 we still have yet to get a glimpse of the system itself or anything of significance.

Anyway...this is just a small update to a significant entry in the gaming world. We are here again, the cusp of another next generation!

Now that we are pretty much over the horizon or at least almost in terms of next gen E3 content, i just wantd to lay down my thoughts on Sony's and Microsofts E3 press shows. Microsoft kicked the day off first with there show and i was pleased to see a continuous stream of hardcore titles. The bulk of there showing was literally trailer after trailer and gameplay after gameplay back to back. This was really a great way to go about things in there case as Microsofts platforms especally the 360 really feed off of multiplatform titles. Once they pushed out the heavy hitters, your Halo, your Gears, your Forza you're really only left with 3rd party titles so i was excited to see the conferance be very much game focused. One of the main issues that i didn't really think about until Adam Sessler of Rev3 Games stated in his E3 conferance review was the lack of explanations when it came to the lingering questions on gamers minds. I was so excited about seeing all this great new content that i sort of glanced over the fact that there was little to no detail about issues like used games and online DRM. While they did give us some insight before hand the actual conferance was bone try in terms of how the system is going to actually work. The price point was a little steep but i could deal with that, but once Sonys conferance came into the picture i looked at things a little differently.

Sony's press conferance was almost the exact opposite in terms of game content, they glanced over the Vita like it didn't exist, with only a tiny slice at the beginning of the conference talking about Vita content and displaying games that either we already new existed or games that most us have played many times over (cough God of War HD Collection cough). I was very disapointed at the lack of Vita content and i really wish Sony would get on there a game and recognize that they have a handheld in the market and that gamers are screaming for content. Remember, software moves hardware Sony. I was really glad that Sony really went into the used games and online DRM issue with a vengence, they seemed to have saw that Microsoft was saying and listened to the communites reaction an did the opposite. Granted we might not be getting the full story from Sony, a lot of times they'll say these things for a positive reaction but then the system hits retail and were swimming in online authentications in one way or another. But if there word holds true for the most part then i think they really did an excellent job going over that in the conferences as it provided a door into both satifsying the customer base that had these draconian fears but also taking jabs about what they heard there competitors are doing. The price point being at $400 was also a winner as well and afterwards i could almost hear multiple Microsoft reps cringe, as it is going to be tough to conpete with a $100 more expense system at launch plus with the gamers fear of the console and game restrictions it might be harder to get into peoples homes. If Sony had pushed more new game content then they for me would of been on top of the world during the E3 showings. I'm sure even just showing a but of The Last Guardian would of had gamers wetting themselves. Granted, it's always better not to rush, so maybe holding back on that was a good move.

-Phil

One of the nagging obsessions our community tends to endure is that of more power, more specifically, console power. Naturally with each generation of consoles we seem more powerful hardware resources, it really is a wonderful thing in a variety of ways and we have seen it's benefits since our subcultures inception. Not to go into the whole history of game engine evolution, if you simply look back to even the early 90's or the DOOM era as you could call it; there has been an enormous leap foward in the now 20 years since DOOM was considered a graphical masterpiece. The advancment in hardware as well as game engines has helped us reach this new plato of "beauty", which allowed for modern 3D graphics to evolve from once mere 2D sprites. Fast forward to today we have hit a bit of a wall, not in the sense of what we can do but what we want to do.

Today we have created some of the most beautiful game engine yet, Cryengine, RAGE (not the game) etc. But while beautiful i sometimes think to myself whether or not i would find value in this game if it weren't put together with an advanced engine. I mean while beautiful, what have they achieved that is supposed to make me love the game like everyone else does?. Game engines today are simply more matured versions of early 3D engines, better textures, better animation, better sound etc. obviously; and yes those things do provide a better experiance usually. We have a gotten to a point where we can even see face pores on characters and even dynamic hair all of which better portrays each characters look and feel. But my concerns lie with the core game and input, i wish to see similar innovations take place in those spaces as well but i feel that many are to satisfied with the "more sequals with better visuals" approach that devs see no reason in attempting chaging something which brings them money; you hold on to what make money, not what makes a difference. I wish to see more experimental gameplay, hopefully on the PS4 as well; create some new IP's and brainstorm some different concepts as to how we can use your extra power to best of your abilities. We know your core titles make money and certainly they should continue making them even if i myself am not a huge fan of there approach.

When it comes to user input i feel Nintendo is really the only one of the three really attempting to change there gaming experiances, i mean they are the only company out of the three that has radically changed there controller designs thoughout each generation. Even if the power wasn't there, they still strived and sold because of it's wide acceptence and strange looking but cool controllers and for a system like the Wii, granted they don't have much now in terms of content. They still have a broader range of titles that took into account the unique controller, so the entry point was much more reasonable for your average consumer even if not back up by strong hardware. One thing Sony has done right with the power shift to PS4 is moving over to an x86 based CPU, this should make cross platfrom development easier and overall game development an easier process. The rest of the specs are impressive as well for a console, 8GB of shared memory and AMD based APU. While the specs are great, the games they showed off during the unvieling didn't really make we super excited as i had hoped. I mean while i was smiling and impressed with a few of the visual affects and some of the first part titles announced, at the end i looked back and could really see much of a differentiation between the current generation and the next generation. I mean just look at the new Killzone, very impressive visuals, but, it's a first person shooter and......it's a first perosn shooter. Now i say that because i saw nothing that really blew my mind in the end, the set pieces were amazing and the visual effects were top notch, but i couldn't get over the fact that i was to have this experiance using two joysticks and an R2 trigger again. And while a game is worth more then it's controls, i just wish to see something that would ignite my flame again; you know that something that makes us proud to be a part of this industry, because if no bounderies are being pushed then why do we have really?