It could have been better.  A lot better.

First of all, notice that there is nothing wrong with being not curious or fascinated about indie gaming.  It's my case.  I don't play Flowers, Fat princess or things like that, and I'm not starving to change that fact.  I do not care either about the famous "We made this console for the developers" that Sony is claiming since the first PS4 press conference.  Fine for them if they are saving some time porting some obscure game to the PS4.  But as far as i'm concerned, it's a non-issue.

However, I care a lot about online experience, and exclusives.

Well, online is not going to be free anymore.  And exclusives are being more scarce every day.  Kingdom Hearts is not an exclusive anymore.  Neither Metal Gear Solid.  Same with Final Fantasy (Which is a dead franchise anyway) and GTA.

But sure, there is knack.  And the Indies.  Hooray!

Even more bad, the box itself is bland and completely ugly.  This is not that important, of course, but yes, I do prefer good looking devices to put on my shelf.

So, I'm left with what?  Great multiplatforms like Ubisoft "The Crew" (That I will buy day 1, without any doubt), Watchdogs, Battlefield 4 and the next Metal Gear Solid.  All games that I could just choose to play on the Xbox One, or on my PC.  And in the latter, online, for free.

I guess there is no next generation finally.  It's just like Gran Turismo 6.  An upgrade.  Sort of.  A step forward, two steps backwards.  

First of all.

What happened? Why are we here?

Remember the low 90s and the Nes and SNES era? Well, if you are old enough, you will remember it. At that time, there was people gaming, like there is today. Used market was not big at that time, because the vast majority of people bought new games, and traded them with family and friends. Gaming industry was in its infancy stages. There was no Internet reviewers either. You had Nintendo Power biased of course and the words of people you know. Thats why people vastly bought new games. At least they had rental to try those games before purchasing.

Society is evolving, as technology is either. More individualism is present out there, and people are never satisfied. People started to buy a lot more games, while the old medias converged to Cds and DVDs. Piracy came in, and large amount of people started to play games while cracking them or stealing them from developers. This affected the music industry too. Piracy was really bad for the industry because, Im sure you understand that concept, stealing something is not going to give a lot of bucks to those who create those things. While this is an obvious issue, that they must condemn and fight; its not the sole issue. Soon, the developers and publishers had to face another major threat : the one related to used games.

Problem is not that there is used games. Of course, you should be able to do what you want with your properly. (In a philosophic way, I assume) Problem is that people started to buy way more used copies than new. People wanted more games, more more and more! But wanted to pay less they could at the same time. Of course a crash is going to occur since on one side you have people that wants each and every day quality games; and on the other side, developers not getting a single penny out of that used market.

Furthermore, People dont seems to realize that stores like GameStop are really not really helping them. Try to think clearly. When was the last time you went to GameStop to buy a used quality AAA game for less than 5, or 10 bucks than the regular new price? Ever heard of GameStop investing money to help indies? Of course, not. Because they are greedy like any other company out there. With one exception. GameStop do money by reselling other peoples work. And there is no competition.

Thats what we call a TRUST.

Microsoft came to the conclusion that the only way to help the industry was to cut out the used market. Of course, they certainly thought about getting a few bucks (more than that, I agree) in the process. Fair and square. Why not? If the system is made in a such a way that people do not pay a lot more than before; and that an important cut is going right to the developers well, I certainly do agree with that. I prefer a business model in which we are more inclined to get quality games than a model where game makers struggle to sell their works, while GameStop is laughing and giving cash prizes to their own PDGs.

Of course, there is the issue about property. Well its not really an issue, since games are not your own property anymore, thanks to hackers and crackers. And such a system have yet to be crafted in such a way that you wont have to pay to let a friend try the game. Or, of course, if you dont have an always online Internet connection.

But one thing is for sure, the industry wont go back. Whine and cry, this wont change anything at all. Instead, if you really dont like this, use your power as a consumer to voice your concerns by purchasing, or not, a system that you cant tolerate. But notice that this may very well have no impact at all, since the Xbox One will sell millions as soon as there is good games for it. A situation that will likely occur even more now that the developers are going to make more money out of their work.

Finally, notice that every gamer have options to help the industry.

1- Always chose the lesser evil. Prefer Wal-Mart to GameStop to buy games.

2- Buy less games, buy the one you really love, buy them new.

3- Buy at independent stores. (they have better smiles too)

4- Dont hack or steal games.

One last thing. Wonder why there is more and more Season DLC; add-ons and micro transactions these days? Yes, its the same reason.

It came to me out of nowhere. Like a three-move fool's mate. Bam!

I was looking for a chess game to go along my new computer. Something to replace my old Chessmaster XI. Something for people like me who are neither beginners, nor experts or masters. With a good interface. With a lot of chess sets, including 3D sets. That is both beautiful and compelling.

But sadly, such a game do not exist anymore.

Sure, there is Fritz. Rybka. Shredder. But those aren't chess games. They are master's companions. Generally speaking, those three fine examples are made for the professionals. So, the gameplay is gorgeous. the A.I. is adaptive and challenging enough, even when you don't play at the max "deep" difficulty. But sadly, the chess sets are mostly non-existent. There is no such thing as a 3D set, or when there is one (or some like in Fritz) the 3D effect does look blind and dull.

On the other hand, there is a plenitude of chess games/chess apps on the Web these days. Nearly everyone can build one, with the proper computing knowledge. This leads to a bunch of simplified games, with atrocious A.I. and bad graphics. Those games are not compelling for the newbies, not challenging enough for the amateurs. Bref, no wonder why those are generally free.

Chessmaster XI, in it's own time, was a masterpiece. For a lot of reasons. It was fun to play online with. Winning games was also very rewarding as you would unlock chess pieces with every victory you had. You could learn the game with ex-champ Josh Waitzkin. There was even mini-games and all sort of activities to help you progress. This game was a success.

And this game was also the last of the series.

Is chess dying? Isn't there anything out there to appeal to everyone? Or is it because the demand is simply not there anymore, people moving mostly toward "mindless" games that require no "reflexion"?

Is that a checkmate for us, fans of the best game that ever been created?

Question is, do we really want to play those old games that bad?

I remember back in the days. 1990 to be exact. SNES was out, and it was the big deal. Everyone wanted to play on the new hardware such exciting titles like Zelda, a link to the past, Super Mario World, Super Metroid. The old Nes was quickly send into the dust and void of our homes. No-one wanted to go back. Some years passed, and despite never looking back, sometimes a little bit of nostalgia came on. "Hey, Dad, do we still have that old Nes, somewhere?" Yes was most of the time the answer, and when not, people rushed to the PC to emulate those games. Since we haven't played those for years, the experience was great. But short. And we quickly came back to "business as usual" putting the old hardware on dark corners again.

Then, on the ps2, something changed. It was backward compatible. The vast majority of PS1 games could be played on the new device. But at that time, of course, it was not such a big deal. Because the new hardware was so powerful, playing so exciting new games, that no-one really care.

PS2 sold millions and millions, and people got together huge amounts of games.

Then, Sony made us a favor. They decided to put the emotion engine in the PS3 to allow us to play back those games. People were very pleased, but the 60 GB FAT model - because of this emotion engine and some new technology - was very pricey. It did not sold that good, so Sony removed that feature to sell a new unit at an affordable price.

Bad idea? Good idea? At this point, know that a few people came back to play PS2 games anyway. Vast majority of 60 GB fat model users barely ever used the backward compatibility. But, it was there.

"I could use it."

"i could play those games again."

But they did not. Or just a few times, between all those exciting new gen titles, just to go back on the PS3 again.

Of course, there is some games that we will always love. Myself, i am a huge fan of past titles like Amplitude, Time Splitters, Killer instinct, and the System Shock serie. Sometimes i go back to enjoy once again those great games. And for the vast majority of us, there is always a way to do that. Because, hey, you still have those consoles, right?

Backward compatibility have become a mess now. People cry to get it, even if they barely ever use that feature. Like if it was mandatory. Like if it was the law. But hey, don't tell them that it will get the unit to cost much higher!!!!

PS4 is not a natural evolution of the PS3. The PS4 is a completely different console.

"Streaming instead of backwards? What does that mean? Do I have to buy all my PS3 titles all over again?"

No, you don't. Just keep your PS3, that have been flawlessly designed to play those games.

And in a few months, the PS3 will be far away with all your souvenirs, along with all those great consoles of the past.

P.S.: This is my first blog entree. I try to do my best, i'm not a native English user.