You've arrived at the Next Generation of Console Gaming...

...what game experience will mark the arrival of the next generation of console gaming for you?

For me, it's going to be 64 player Battlefield 4 online multiplayer. The content disparity between BF3 on consoles and PC ultimately marked the end of the current console generation as my gaming platform of choice. From what we know of Battlefield 4, it's planned for it to be a launch title for the next generation of Microsoft's and Sony's consoles, and that it'll feature full 64 player multiplayer - full content parity with its PC counterpart.

That'll do it for me. That'll mark the return of console gaming to form. What game experience do you think will mark your psychological entrypoint into 'next generation' gaming?

It'll be when I experience a gameplay that I know that I could never have experienced on this current generation of hardware. Not so much more of something or better looking etc. etc. I want something that was as dramatic a jump as Mario 64 was from the 16-bit era or that Assassin's Creed's crowd technology was. Once that happens then I'll feel like it's the next generation.

This isn't gonna happen, but if every game was accessible on console day 1 through the same kinda streaming technology Blizzard has been using the last few years that would mark a significant change in my mind. Also 1080p60fps (if actually upheld) is a bigger change than you'd think. Hell, 60fps alone has become so rare at this point that a resurgence of that would be enough.

Dark Cloud 3. Someday....someday.

Aside from legitimate technical advances like the huge crowds in Assassin's Creed that weren't possible on older hardware, most other advances I can think of this generation were really just superfluous graphics improvements. Game design has moved forward and slightly different genres are now trendy. Compared to last generation, I think the industry has largely weeded out people who are complete garbage at designing UIs; I feel like it has become increasingly rare that I have to tolerate bullshit like Deus Ex: Invisible War.

So whatever, photorealistic graphics will continue to improve, but I'm not THAT stoked about the next generation, because I honestly wasn't that impressed by the changes this generation. I guess at some point I'll realize we've really entered the next generation when I notice some new game design trend is now widespread and will partially define that generation of consoles, but I pretty much don't expect any hardware advances to impact gameplay very much in the games I play.

Shenmue 3?

You've arrived at the Next Generation of Console Gaming

>take Next Generation of Console Gaming

You can't take the Next Generation of Console Gaming

>Awww

I do not understand 'Awww'

60FPS and little to no glitches in open world games.

Maybe I'm just completely inured to graphical and development advancements in games, but I feel like it wasn't until earlier this week, when I was watching the opening cinematic to Halo 4 with a friend that had us both questioning whether it was real people or CGI that I stopped and though to myself "holy shit, the next generation is on its way".

Though, like some previous comments have stated, if I ever stop and think about just how nuts Assassin's Creed's crowd technology is, I can't help but think "wow vidya games"

There really isn't a large jump from the old gen to the new gen like before.  And devs/pubs have already been saying that games cost too much to make so really the limit to games is money so I don't expect much.

I excpect the same thing we have now but old problems slove, with ones to fill in. Once we get everything at 60fps everyone will complain that it not a 100 fps.

Better AI and a consistent 60 fps. Also, an increased amount of players in a multiplayer game; hopefully 64.

Peter Jackson's King Kong 2

Less loading, more streaming.

I suspect it'll be the next Kojima game or Fortnite, and then everyone will be catching up to them for 3 years.

I want Fallout 4 with a super massive map with everything super spread out (you know like in real life) with vehicles added in, Mad Max style.

Cutting planets in half in KH3?

I don't something tells me there might be more loading.

@ShaggE said:

You've arrived at the Next Generation of Console Gaming

>take Next Generation of Console Gaming

You can't take the Next Generation of Console Gaming

>Awww

I do not understand 'Awww'

Haha, I had the same thought, except I was going to mention that "Obvious exits are NORTH, SOUTH, and DENNIS."

Fuck, I know more humour about old PC games from Homestar Runner and Giant Bomb than I do from actually playing like ANY pre-1990 PC games. Who am I kidding, I probably couldn't make it more than 5 minutes into Zork or King's Quest, given the way modern games have conditioned me.

For the current gen it was never the games themselves but playing Resistance Fall of Man on my first Big Screen TV. It was the first time I got to see something on a big screen and in HD and I remember just sitting in my chair jaw dropped at how amazing it was to see such graphics on such a big screen. Up until then my entire life had been nothing but Standard def on a 19 inch CRT TV or 19 inch computer monitor. But the games themselves never blew me away. At the start they just felt like the same games last time around with more detailed graphics and by the time they had started doing new or interesting things I had adjusted to the new stuff and it just felt like it was expected.

As someone who has an awesome gaming PC and who has become use to having a big screen HD TV I'm not sure what they can do to blow me away. I know I will be very interested to see this years E3 and I hope we see what it's going to be like.

Something equivalent to Red Faction's GeoMod stuff, which couldn't have been done on the PS1. Or maybe Assassin's Creed, which let you climb on freakin' windowpanes.

60 FPS, no pop up, and other technical crap is expected, but I'd like to see something that couldn't have been done before. I don't know what that is, since Asura's Wrath already let me punch a planet in the face and L.A. Noire had some believable facial technology. Guessing the next gen will be more about subtle improvements and smoothing out the rough edges. Like Windows 7 compared to Vista.

You guys are kidding yourselves if you think next generation is going to be 60fps. It will be Direct X 11 @ 30fps; devs will max out the graphics because thats half of what sells games. Giraffphics.

@sins_of_mosin said:

There really isn't a large jump from the old gen to the new gen like before. And devs/pubs have already been saying that games cost too much to make so really the limit to games is money so I don't expect much.

Game development tools have vastly improved. One of the most significant changes is realtime iteration. Designers can implement changes to the game in realtime and instantly see if a change works or not, whereas earlier this generation, any change to the game's code usually entailed long waiting times before such things were playable in-engine. The more efficient the tools are, the less restrictive the end-consumer hardware is, the more productive and creative game developers can become.

Just look at how far games have come from the beginning of this generation to right now. It's incredible how much things have improved on stagnant hardware power. Modern engines are capable of so much more than current gen games let-on - the gaming industry is ready to impress right out of the gate, don't ever doubt it.

Sure - budgets are inflated for the big games - but there's a profitable market for that out there. It's just very competitive and extremely high risk outside of well-established franchises. The industry has to learn to place much more low budget bets. Similar to big movie studios. Produce your two big budget blockbusters each year, and then have a shit-ton of smaller productions. Some small films always hit it big, and the profit margins are off the chart - and it takes very little business to break even.

Guess big publishers like EA and Activision should have their developers gamejam much more, on company dime, take the best things to proper pitches, and break up most bigger dev-teams into much smaller entities pursuing the smaller projects stemming from such efforts - whilst synergizing on the asset production and tools development side of things - and temporarily moving manpower off small projects to their big budget productions when needed.

Of course, I know nothing, and just puff hot air - but that sounds more awesome than doing only big budget games, and each of 'em that fails pretty much spells doom for the people that made it - and the people who got money riding on it lose their shit big time, which creates an atmosphere of cowardess amongst the company brass, which ain't the kind of leadership you'd ever want for anything ever.

Long story short. Big games get bigger, but fewer. Small games multiply in number. Everybody profits from better development tools, and less hardware restrictions. Players win big big, because games!

@Atramentous said:

Shenmue 3?

You just had to reopen that old wound ...

@Subjugation said:

@Atramentous said:

Shenmue 3?

You just had to reopen that old wound ...

For me its never closed.

@Seppli said:

From what we know of Battlefield 4, it's planned for it to be a launch title for the next generation of Microsoft's and Sony's consoles, and that it'll feature full 64 player multiplayer

Where the hell did you see this? Links or I'm calling bs.

@awesomeusername said:

@Seppli said:

From what we know of Battlefield 4, it's planned for it to be a launch title for the next generation of Microsoft's and Sony's consoles, and that it'll feature full 64 player multiplayer

Where the hell did you see this? Links or I'm calling bs.

The source of the wealth of information that's recently surfaced regarding Battlefield 4.

http://www.dsogaming.com/news/battlefield-4-rumors-female-characters-platforms-release-date-commander-role-voice-commands/

When we can topple down fucking barrels already.

EDIT: This video kind of defines my view on what the next-gen SHOULD be.

@Seppli said:

@awesomeusername said:

@Seppli said:

From what we know of Battlefield 4, it's planned for it to be a launch title for the next generation of Microsoft's and Sony's consoles, and that it'll feature full 64 player multiplayer

Where the hell did you see this? Links or I'm calling bs.

The source of the wealth of information that's recently surfaced regarding Battlefield 4.

http://www.dsogaming.com/news/battlefield-4-rumors-female-characters-platforms-release-date-commander-role-voice-commands/

I don't believe any of that until I see concrete proof. I mean, female characters in an FPS? Lies, lies, lies.

Seriously though, I won't believe that simply because next-gen consoles will not be out next year. In my head.

@Tru3_Blu3:

I'll believe it, when I see it. Crysis was such a huge step forward, and both the consumers and the industry just didn't follow its lead. I wonder if the next generation of consoles will be capable of that quality of dynamic interactivity through quality simulation - at that scale. I sure hope so.

Hell - my current computer (first generation lower high end DX11 rig) doesn't always cut it with Crysis 1. Through proper optimization and more specialized architecture, I guess the upcoming console generation will be about as powerful as my current 2 year old PC - but that's not necessarily enough to give us back all the awesome that Crysis introduced in 2007.

Might be a generation off. God - I hope not.

@Seppli said:

...what game experience will mark the arrival of the next generation of console gaming for you?

For me, it's going to be 64 player Battlefield 4 online multiplayer. The content disparity between BF3 on consoles and PC ultimately marked the end of the current console generation as my gaming platform of choice. From what we know of Battlefield 4, it's planned for it to be a launch title for the next generation of Microsoft's and Sony's consoles, and that it'll feature full 64 player multiplayer - full content parity with its PC counterpart.

That'll do it for me. That'll mark the return of console gaming to form. What game experience do you think will mark your psychological entrypoint into 'next generation' gaming?

This. Totally agreed that playercount and dedicated servers are what the consoles are lacking the most and would justify another console purchase for me. Oh and 60 FPS. I don't care if the graphics improve, it's framerate that matters for action games.

I want crazy a.i. in my open world rpg's...console side, I want a well thought out user interface.

I want a minimum of uncanny valley moments.

I imagine it'll be when I play a game like Dead Rising. That was the first 360 game I played where I was impressed by the size and scope of the title. It couldn't have been done in any other year. So whatever that game ends up being for Durango, I guess.

The games will look a little better, I guess. I don't see the next generation being a huge step forward in graphics and realism. It's going to be more about connectivity and all that social bullshit.

But as long as the games are good, specs don't matter.

a decent jump in AI and a big bump in the number of dynamic physics objects would be nice

something like geomod but amped up

Battlefront 3 with seemless ground to space combat.

@TMBaker said:

You guys are kidding yourselves if you think next generation is going to be 60fps. It will be Direct X 11 @ 30fps; devs will max out the graphics because thats half of what sells games. Giraffphics.

Wait does that mean all games will be made by Jeff Minter. Man next gen is going to be amazing.

But on a more serious note. This guy is totally right there will be pretty much no more 60 fps games then there were this gen. Developers would rather spend the power to make their next gen games look much prettier then thier current gen 30 fps games then have them be marginally prettier but at 60 fps. Also the same holds true for resolutions most games will run at 720p natively and allow upscalers do the rest.

Anything that has extremely non typical visual design, a la Bayonetta or El Shaddai, but still looks amazing. Don't care about photo-realism at all at this point and while Crysis and the Witcher 2 are still visual marvels they're PC games when they look the most impressive; I don't think a console game can ever hope to achieve that as a superior PC will already exist at the point when the new consoles are released.

@TMBaker said:

You guys are kidding yourselves if you think next generation is going to be 60fps. It will be Direct X 11 @ 30fps; devs will max out the graphics because thats half of what sells games. Giraffphics.

I'd be surprised if directx 11 would be supported by the GPUs. To save money I would assume they will go with DX 10.

I agree about load times being important, and hopefully faster disc access (bluray/whatever MS will use) will help reduce the need to install to the HD.

Also maybe the end of crappy ps3 vs 360 port differences.

I want a video game where I can burn down a forest in real time. Like Far Cry 2, except the fire tech actually works.

i kind of expect just better stuff all around. more active things happening on screen. more people doing stuff.

@BisonHero: You greatly underappreciate the strides we've made in how games play if you think this generation did very little for how games play...

For me, I want stuff like Fallout without a single loading screen. I want to start the game and see a Darksiders II style menu, hit play and drop into a seamless world.

Another thing I am excited for is lighting playing a much bigger part in gameplay. A stealth game with completely dynamic indirect lighting and all that would be sweet. Any game with that, really. I just love lighting :3

I also hope for better framerates. Especially at the tail end of this generation, framerates have turned to total shit. Reach in splitscreen was unplayable, and the campaign was often pretty awful about it even alone.

More interesting physics/AI will hopefully be a big push this time around too.

@TheSlothKing said:

Battlefront 3 with seemless ground to space combat.

it couldve been this gen bro ;_;

Player-made mods, steady internet connection, dedicated servers, fast loading times, abundance of controls, graphics and gameplay/HUD options, etc... Everything the PC has been doing for 15 years.

Triple H's hair rendered in its proper majesty.

Darkstalkers 4.

I'd want the console to be small, completely wireless and noiseless with loading so fast I don't even want to see the letters "LOADING.."

@Canteu said:

Dark Cloud 3. Someday....someday.

god yes

I am looking forward to characters not being empty shells and having actual physicality to them, as to avoid clipping. It really bumbs me out watching characters crossing their arms in games and not having one arm rest on another, but one arm clip through another. Shoulder pads on armor melding through my character's torso. Having armor not actually be physical pieces of material laying on top of my character instead of a different model being projected instead of another. Playing through Skyrim in third person and watching my steel armor twist and turn as my character runs through the world really bumbs me out.