Like every other gamer with a bad spending habit, I jumped on the hype train for the next-gen consoles, pre-ordering my PlayStation 4 not too long after it was officially announced and available on Amazon for purchase. I couldn’t contain my excitement for the games we had seen at E3 and at the console’s announcement. They all looked so great, so brilliant and beautiful… so new. The reality, it turns out, was far from that truth.
It’s been a few months since the official release of both consoles; both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One launched in November, and we’ve yet to see any real “next-gen” games. My recent purchase of Thief over the weekend has confirmed this. Next-Gen is not truly upon us quite yet. So far we are receiving games rehashed for the new consoles, with marginally updated graphics and some novel features that make use of…nothing spectacular at all.
Where are the new next-gen games and all their brilliance?
I ask myself this question nearly every day. My PS4 sits on my stand under my television right beside my work desk. It is literally eyeing me every moment of the day. To my left is a bookshelf, which is home to my numerous games across a multitude of consoles, handhelds, and PC.
Sadly, there is nothing in that row of blue-colored game cases that offers me anything truly new and genuine for my expensive, shiny black console.
I look towards the future, deep within 2014 and the coming months. I see a couple of truly incredible games and I can’t help but wonder, would these have fared better if they were released alongside the console? Would the console have fared better with more exclusives at its launch?
It’s still early in the development cycle for the new consoles, this is true. Developers need time to learn the ins and outs of the system to make a truly next-gen game to utilize the power of the consoles. So, perhaps launching a couple more exclusives at the console launches would have been a bad idea. We won’t know, however. It couldn’t have hurt and could have brought about more console sales overall.
Games like Destiny and The Division look truly next-gen.
I am overly excited for inFamous: Second Son, but even that looks as if it could have worked on the PlayStation 3 without any problems. Perhaps gamers just want bigger and more of everything as time goes on. Larger open-world environments, better character development and more enthralling stories.
I eagerly await the day when I see a truly next-gen game loaded up on my PlayStation 4, just as I sit down with a controller in hand to enjoy it for endless hours. Once work is completed of course.
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