Gaming in flux – time for hiatus?

Personally, I’m not interested in everything – I don’t play just to play, it has to pull me in. Only certain things pull me in anymore – big games, and the right kind of unique experience. And my interests are now so segregated that I’m at a complete impasse.

None of the new consoles represented much of a leap forward. The exclusives that interest me most are on separate platforms. I’m a Souls fan, and Bloodborne is a PS4 exclusive. I’m a racing fan, but I trust Forza on X1 more than Gran Turismo on PS4, and I’m too casul for the hardcore PC sims. I like GTA and it looks like the best place to play GTA will be on PC, but considering the future, the PC has a history of being a Rockstar afterthought.

VR is coming, and PC looks the place to be if that interests you. The consoles are pretty underpowered so VR implementation is likely to be lacking. If VR takes off it may even short-cycle (5 years?) the current console gen, making expensive console accessories a real gamble – especially considering Sony and MS tendencies to screw you over on backwards compatibility. It’s time to upgrade my PC if I want to handle new releases on PC (them Witcher 3 specs!), but with VR on the horizon, waiting a year or so for cheaper power seems smarter than upgrading now.

I’m also peripherally confused. I prefer a controller over m&k for FPS, but if you want a level playing field for that FPS fix then console is your only option. There’s not a wheel that’s compatible across all three of PC, X1 and PS4 – and a new wheel is costly so I would have to commit to a console platform if I want to upgrade my wheel now. The one unique feature the X1 had going for (against?) it was totally circumcised by market forces.

So I wait, with my aging PC and two PS3’s, and I buy nothing. Am I alone or is 2015 the year to hold on to your hobby-dollars?

Indie games, you should try them.

VR will not be nearly as prominent as you think it will be next year. It will still be an extremely niche thing, just slightly less so.

Waiting to upgrade is always flawed because you'll just be waiting forever. Every year a better video card will come out. Every year a better CPU will come out.

I couldn't disagree more. 2015 has more scheduled releases that I'm excited for than the last few years have had. Between Bloodborne, The Witcher 3, Final Fantasy Type-0, Mortal Kombat X, Kirby and the Rainbow Curse, Batman: Arkham Knight, Axiom Verge, The Banner Saga 2, Below, Xenoblade Chronicles X, Zelda Wii U, Starfox Wii U, Splatoon, Rime, Persona 5, No Man's Sky, and others I'm not thinking of at the moment, there's a truckload of stuff I'm psyched to play in 2015.

Yeah, just wait until a game comes out that you absolutely must play. Then, buy the hardware that enables you to play that game.

meh, I dunno dude. To each his own but, in a totally friendly duder way, you kind of just sound like a negative nelly to me! Maybe you need a ray of gaming sunshine in your life :D ?

You need to detail a little more here. What do you mean by Big Games? Just AAA multi-million dollar experiences? Frankly "Big Game" and "Unique Experience" has been largely an oxymoron for about a decade now, which may explain your malaise. What do you consider big and small? Why are you writing off an entire massive category of games without playing them? At this point I think gamers take their fun in their own hands with this attitude. End of the day: there are more, cheaper, fun games that are small than are big. Fair enough though - some peeps don't like small games. You can take that stance, but you have to admit that you are taking a stance against the grain of the industry. If you only care about graphics pumping definitely do not buy a console, unless, of course, you're after exclusives...

Console exclusives are a known enough quantity that you should be able to make a list and definitively say: I prefer MS, I prefer Sony, it doesn't matter to me. If neither list speaks to you, but the thought of never playing a console exclusive bothers you - just put the decision off another year. Which, really, sounds like you've already done...? One game for each platform is not nearly enough. There are tons of exclusives for you to mull over outside these three.

VR is coming. Don't expect it to be a big deal for another few years though. You should not expect any major "Big Games" to use VR except as an afterthought, rather than being built from the ground up. The tech is too early for major developers to invest heavily. Sony hasn't actually said Oculus is for PS4 but clearly the intent is there and they have already said they know they need a price point similar to Oculus. Frankly I think it's obvious VR games will largely be mid-tier so it'll be probably a decade before we are playing an Advanced Warfare looking game in VR that wasn't just tapped on. Just me, but I feel secure in this thinking. For the forseeable future, consoles have all the power they need to display the early VR games.

Games as Pizzas

Both consoles and PCs are ultimately more investments than they are Instant Gratification Purchases, like, say, a pizza is. Think of these machines more as an oven in which future pizzas can be made. If you create a lot of rules for yourself like I only like this type of pizza, or this type of ingredient, definitely your excitement at buying an oven for a very limited number of pizzas will decrease. Not saying you can help it, but obviously a duder who enjoyes 100 ingredients vs a duder who enjoys 10 ingredients will be more willing to shell out for a pizza oven.

So maybe you should wait? O.o

Ovens get cheaper over time, and then your mutually exclusive tastes/etc won't be a problem.

For me, there's only 1 or 2 ingredients I don't eat, so I may as well buy a fleet of ovens now. Cause I be hongry.

I had seen someone suggest this. And it happened to be in 2013 when the 360 was on the last year and the new consoles were not out. Play things outside your comfort zone, go back to games you intended to play. Always works. Instead of my usual shooters or sports games, I started getting more into RPGs and Strategy and Indie games. In fact, I saw the middling reviews some had for Dragon Age I just went back to Dragon Age Origins. And back to Starcraft.

Maybe check out Warframe on PC?

2015 will be a great year. But take a hiatus, as I occasionally go months without digging into big games. It's good to take a break once in a while.

Spelunky, though.... that has to happen every day.

Hmm...not trying to be negative. Just bouncing this crap out there while I'm thinking about it.

There's definitely indie I'll be playing. I'm watching No Man's Sky and The Witness. But when I say big games I mean if I can't get lost in it for lots of hours (non-committal like, so no WOW for example) I usually find it not worth the energy to get involved with in the first place.

It's like why I prefer Breaking Bad to The Usual Suspects. Both are excellent, but buying into the characters in Breaking Bad just lasted longer. Souls I can play to death, plus there's a long term multiplayer payoff. Same with Forza and GTA. I'm not counting polygons, I just prefer the game that keeps on giving. If it won't hold my interest for 40+ hours, that's what I consider "small" these days.

Anyway, yeah I was thinking to put a console off another year and let my PC carry me. But I'm running The Crew on PC with the lowest settings possible so, yeah, probably not going to cover me for long.

So I guess now I'm thinking PS4 as the stop gap until I do fork out on the PC. I just don't want to pick up a PS4/PC wheel, and then find out Forza 6 or Horizon 3 has gone to sim handling with seamlessly integrated and persistent multiplayer in an open world with licensed race tracks in the world and support for MS's miraculously amazing VR solution. Cuz then I'd be like "damn"...

But yeah, that's not gonna happen, so I guess I better find something to do in the meantime. Sometimes you just have to choose the things that are actually going to exist *sigh*.

I guess I never did get around to Call of Pripyat.

@killer2m8o: I'm assuming a lot about you here but if you like Souls games and controllers, get a ps4, because racing games can be played later without missing out on the mysterious experience of a Souls launch and GTA on a PC won't grab you as long as Bloodborne likely will. It's a lot to say "hey, buy this console for one game" but you're not really doing just that, you're entering the next gen. Also, there's scholar of the first sin coming soon, binding of isaac, and the prospect of future games. I feel similarly to you in that it takes a lot to grab me, but that's why I'm not taking a hiatus this year. My favorite game series is getting a new installment (bloodborne), how can I say no?

@killer2m8o: Well that's a damn shame.

I have transitioned almost entirely to indie games, there are only a couple of big name games I am interested in these days.

I've been in a bit of a gaming rut for a while. Last year was a big MMO year for me (WoW, LOTRO, SWTOR) I played all of them heavily at one point. Didn't get very many big name games. This year is the year I am digging into my back catalog to start shortening it up. Mass Effect 2, 3 (First I finished a few days ago), Bioshock Series, Skyrim, Deus Ex: HR. X-Com, Divinity: OS. Mordor, and many more. Many of them I played half way through and dropped for the next thing.

This allows me to save money for new PC parts.

As for VR gaming. I see it similar to 3D gaming. A very niche market with a few good ideas.

I can see myself firing up Civilization V or something one snowy weekend but I think I'm probably out until The Witcher 3 is released.

@claybrez said:

Game, set, match. An opening Souls window is something only on offer for a few months every few years. Even if I'm all pfft about the PS4 now, I'll end up breaking down then. Might as well start watching for the next PS4 sale dammit. Maybe GT6 will be a wonderful surprise.

I'll just think of it like buying a really nice video card? But...must...resist...transferring GTAO account...