notnert427

I'm excited about this. This should be high-security for a decent level of challenge, and I'm curious to see what hijinks they can some up with. I just hope they don't lean too hard into a socioeconomic angle here.

Nope nope nope.

I don't feel like enough games really pushed the limits of the hardware this generation. Hell, only a handful even featured 4K HDR. The PS4 Pro and One X haven't been around long enough to have a bunch of games developed with their capabilities in mind, so it is too soon for me. I'm not particularly excited about the streaming/subscription future, either, and 8K is a case of really diminishing returns. I'd rather see them wait 2-3 years for games and television to start standardizing at 4K HDR (at least HDR), because 4K and/or HDR adoption in terms of TV sets is at least somewhat out there at present. I have zero interest in buying both a new console and an 8K-capable TV next fall, nor do I really want to have to upgrade to fiber internet so streaming gaming is viable or pay someone like MS a monthly fee to stream from the cloud. My current 4K HDR TV and Xbox One X are both awesome, so I'd much prefer to see some development for that tech that's still very much ahead of the curve unless compared with beastly PC gaming rigs and the very latest, highest-end 2019 TVs, and I just don't see these things being rendered technologically obsolete in the next 13-14 months at all.

It's an upgrade for the sake of upgrade, IMO. It seems like we've reached a point where they're just chasing spec benchmarks. "It can do 8K!" Awesome, the 0.1 % of households with an 8K set are happy to hear it. Except there's pretty much zero 8K content being made, and not even that much 4K content yet outside of some scattered Amazon and Netflix stuff. The infrastructure has fallen behind the tech. You have to have some pretty solid internet to stream in 4K as of right now. I'm extremely skeptical about the viability of 8K streaming. The content isn't there and most internet will struggle mightily delivering it. Moreover, even 4K was approaching territory of being overkill that isn't actually that much more noticeably great, and 8K is further down that path. So...what's the need for the next gen again? Oh, load times. Right. I can wait fifteen fucking seconds, guys. I am not some petulant child needing everything NOW NOW NOW. It's just not a big deal.

The refrain on console life cycles of late has continually referenced smartphone upgrade cycles, which is sadly coming true. Phones arguably peaked about five years ago, yet people are dropping a grand every year or two for a "new" phone that pretty much only offers a marginally better camera. Fuck that shit. Yet here we are with consoles trending that way rapidly. That we're apparently supposed to get amped about the mere capability of a borderline useless resolution and faster load times speaks for itself. I don't want consoles utilizing the bullshit "planned obsolescence" strategy, but it's inevitable. I'm really glad MS actually seems to care about backwards compatibility, because that at least gives me some hope that they won't easily sunset the "old" stuff to where it can't be used anymore. That said, who MS is when they need to build goodwill and who they are when they don't are two different things. I'm far from sold on Sony's actual commitment to BC as well.

I don't like how we're quietly losing ownership of things. I was on board with the shift away from physical media, but I kinda hate the idea of being beholden to multiple subscriptions with games I "own" potentially being made unavailable on a whim. I simply do not trust that MS, Sony, whoever will not be tempted to actively make things not work on an "old" system to try and increase adoption of the "new system!!!" This next generation that doesn't really need to exist yet is a half-step in that direction. It's setting up an ecosystem of dependence where you pay the same place for your gaming subscription, your hardware, your internet, etc. Guess what? Now they own your ass. It's how Apple made billions upon billions. It's fucked, but it works. People say, "well, all of my stuff is here, I can't change now" and just accept throwing money at incremental trash that arrives far before the end of the actual useful life of its predecessor.

In a world where content was typically 4K/HDR, my TV was noticeably inferior to new sets, and my Xbox One X was struggling to run games, bring on the upgrade. In this actual world, 4K HDR content is minimal and you can't even count on new games to feature one or both, my TV is more than capable of beautifully displaying available high-end content, and the only game that feels like it taxes my One X even a little bit is Forza Horizon 4. Yet in just over a year, I'm apparently supposed to drop $3-5K on a new 8K TV, $500ish on a new console, an additional $30-50ish a month on either better internet or cloud streaming, a $15/month console game subscription fee, probably another $30ish for other publishers' game subscription fees as everyone dives further into this lovely model, plus whatever games I want that don't end up on a subscription service. Yeah, let me go ahead and drop $3500 to $5500 on the next-gen from the outset and commit to well over $1K/year in requisite periphery. All this so I can have less control over my stuff and sit around hoping they don't make a Xbox Two X in 2022 or so to repeat the cycle again.

I guess I'm different, though. I'm not a bit unhappy with this generation. Titanfall 1 & 2, multiple awesome Forza games, HITMAN 1 & 2, Rocket League, Wolfenstein, and Battlefield 1 & V are all among the best games I've ever played, and I still need to take on several of the "must-plays" like RDR 2, The Witcher 3, etc. There's also a pretty damn good argument that publishers haven't maxed out this hardware yet. On top of that, a strong case can be made against the "need" for new hardware based on the questionable real-world viability of the new features and the arguably insidious shift to unnecessarily brief smartphone-esque life cycles and subscription-based gaming that probably leaves us all worse off.

So, yeah. The TL;DR is that it's too soon. The One X and PS4 Pro aren't remotely dated, nor is 4K/HDR as a technology. The next generation will really only provide a near-worthless resolution and address a very minor annoyance in load times, while creating multiple artificial barriers that will increase the price and hassle of gaming without improving it much, if at all.

To an extent. @gamer_152 makes a good point as to why this stuff shouldn't be completely dismissed, but in and of itself, sometimes I admittedly struggle to get up in arms about some of the things I see the games media go on tirades about. I mean, I get why the games media focuses mostly on what they encounter within their bubble, but I simply can't bring myself to get super-offended at the more subjective "wrongs" in gaming. @soulcake also makes a solid point about actually making a difference.

I think a large amount of people conflate simply stating "x offends me" with activism, and that's kind of a nope. "Raising awareness" in this age of hyper-information where everyone is aware of virtually everything (or easily can be) isn't the force for change that people like to pretend it is. It seems like many get entrenched in publicly making sure everyone knows that they're "on the good side" and then call it a day, feeling far too proud of themselves over some "I don't like x bad thing" statement that doesn't really accomplish anything.

I guess my point is that IRL behavior/action impresses me a hell of a lot more than talking about something on the internet. These gaming controversies do exist on a lesser plane for me, as serious problems exist well beyond the realm of video games/internet, and it's quite arguably far better to try to address real-world issues than complain about an Overwatch skin. Still, that goes back to consideration of what an individual can and cannot actually impact.

Ultimately, I think "gaming controversies" shouldn't be ignored, but also should be kept in perspective.

Keanu definitely won E3. Seriously, though, I liked Microsoft's showing. Scarlett seems appropriately beefy, the Project xCloud stuff makes it sound like they're actually making good on the "power of the cloud" thing that's up to now been kind of a jokey punchline for gamers, and once again, Jeff's interview with Phil Spencer was rather reassuring as to the direction of all things Xbox. I don't really have a problem with Nintendo getting some love for their showing, either. I personally don't get as amped about Nintendo stuff as many do, but it seems like they're giving their fans what they want, so good on them.

Ubisoft was the definite loser for me. No Splinter Cell? Rainbow Six: Zambies? Ads for TV shows and symphonies? Fucking BOOOOOO. I guess you can throw Sony in this mix as well for no-showing, which reads to me as complacency over winning this generation. It didn't feel the same without them, and I'm concerned that leading into next-gen, they're going to just kinda coast because they feel like they can.

This is dope.

That's actually really awesome. Man, people were so pissed about that game at launch with all the no man's lie shit, but it was pretty apparent at the time that Sony forced the game out the door before it was what they wanted it to be. However, Hello Games totally could have just left it at launch state or half-assed their updates, but instead clearly worked pretty tirelessly to make sure it became the game it was supposed to be. I'm really glad people are recognizing that and making the effort to show their appreciation publicly. I'm still deep in HITMAN 2, but I'm buying NMS soon to show my support as well. Good on Hello Games and the reddit community for being cool duders.

I'm really excited to fire up some old-school Splinter Cell tonight.

I'm sorry, but this Ubi conference was hot trash. I'm not being hyperbolic when I say it's the worst I can remember seeing. No, there weren't that many cringe moments, paid cosplayers, etc., but in terms of actual substance, hoo boy.

The conference opened with an Assassin's Creed Symphony. As someone who both enjoys orchestras and several of the AC games and is also well-aware that Jesper Kyd's AC soundtracks do have some quality tracks, I should have been the audience for this, but the arrangements here weren't even particularly great. Moreover, it was confusing because I think the expectation was that it was setting up some new game or AC collection, but instead it was an ad for the symphony tour, which felt oddly tangential. We'll revisit that later.

Watch Dogs 3 started to look fairly promising. Conceptually, the idea of all the playable NPCs is terrific, and granny bustin' heads was amusing, but I'm extremely skeptical of how fleshed out they'll be. They're likely to be husks, and there's a weirdly unsettling vibe in general about the "good guys" just carelessly throwing bodies at their cause that Ubi is unlikely to address. I wanted to get excited again by some cool-looking John Wick-style combat, but then as the demo quickly devolved into a standard Ubi third-person shooter, my excitement dwindled away. Additionally, the "British" accents were terrible. WD3 at least looks ambitious and theoretically kinda neat, but this appears to be a prime "most disappointing" candidate in terms of what we'll actually get as a game.

Then we have Mac from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia show up for an ad for a TV show, which was a giant WTF. It's Always Sunny has had its moments, but I don't know that I can get all that excited about the actors' projects beyond that show, save maybe the always-great Danny Devito. Asking Rob McElhenney to carry a show seems like a lot to hope for, and the show itself didn't look particularly funny at all. Again, this felt like an odd tangent at best, with the only real tie-in to video games being that the show is apparently going for a Silicon Valley thing about a made-up game. I guess it's fine if they want to try something like this, but this is not the kind of thing that I hope to see at E3.

Next up came an attempt to hype the E-Sports scene for Siege and a "celebrity showdown", which was ugh. This was at least mercifully brief, but then there was the Adventure Time Brawlhalla thing, which definitely also wasn't for me. I'm actively trying to remember here that just because things aren't for me doesn't mean they aren't for anyone, and I genuinely hope people enjoy this stuff, but I'm just not the audience here, so it didn't move the needle for me even a little bit.

This was followed by a Ghost Recon bit that didn't tell us much more than their big reveal thing a while back did. Jon Bernthal is still being Jon Bernthal and at least seems like a good choice for what they're going for, and I guess it's cool that he showed up with his very good doggo (whose appearance may well have been the highlight of the entire show), but man, that sleepy dawg perfectly illustrated my feelings about this series at this point. It's another mildly confusing series where the "good guys" kinda unintentionally seem a lot like the bad guys. I think I'm getting serious fatigue with the "black ops badass" thing, and it doesn't help that seemingly the main good guy is this bearded, hulkish walking stereotype of a SEAL that feels like he fell out of a 2004 video game.

Then they had a girl come out and push their Ghost Recon fan forum, which, great, I guess? Maybe there's some amazingly engaged Ghost Recon community I'm not aware of, but this just seems like standard fare for most AAA titles at this point, so touting the existence of a message board isn't some mind-blowing thing. Then, as if that wasn't enough, they had another guy come out and tout the Ghost Recon website. These are not impressive things, guys. This is not worth stage time. Oh, and also something Terminator, because that franchise is apparently going to completely whore itself out.

Next up comes a lame-ass mobile RPG featuring characters from Ubi properties, which probably mostly aren't nearly as "iconic" as Ubi thinks they are. Here we reach the point where they completely lost me, because the one character that maybe is in Sam Fisher makes a brief appearance here. All that I and many other wanted from this conference was the announcement of a new Splinter Cell game, as perhaps Ubi's best property has been wasting away for years. Instead we get a borderline insulting reminder that yes, Ubi still has Splinter Cell, but sees fit to make Sam Fisher just another character in this throwaway trash mobile game. Fuck this.

(NOTE: The original three Splinter Cell games actually just became available on Xbox One backwards compatibility! Thank God I can at least play these classics again, because Ubi doesn't seem interested in doing anything with this franchise going forward.)

Then we got the annual cheesy Just Dance segment, which stopped being fun and amusing some time ago, replete with an overhype intro of the very concept of dancing. I genuinely couldn't tell if this was trying to be serious or not, and honestly, I don't really care. These games are what they fucking are and don't need to be advertised at this point. It was just more needless filler in a conference that was rife with it. Good to know I can still dust off my Wii to play it, though.

After that we get a short segment on a For Honor "limited-time event" that looks heavily inspired by Sekiro. My question is who the fuck wants a "limited-time event" for something like this? It ain't a goddamn elusive target; this is a thing that some poor devs probably slaved over that's apparently going to vanish into the ether soon for....reasons? Just add it to the fucking game and keep it there. Christ, I hate this "live content" shit.

Then Rainbow Six goes full zambies. Fuck off. Fuck right off. Take the Tom Clancy name off this right goddamn now. Anyone who remembers John Clark, Ding Chavez, et al. should boycott the fuck out of this on sheer principle. Well, at least that's what I'm going to do. I guess others are free to like or not like Rainbow Six: Zambies, but this is the icing on the fucking shit cake for me in terms of Ubi ruining their own franchises by turning them into shit that doesn't remotely represent the source material. They're just slapping beloved names on whatever their latest thing is, and fuck that.

As if I weren't angry enough, this is followed by the cringefest that is streamers, cosplayers, and characters emoting in a compilation that is everything I hate about the current state of videogames. Then Ubi goes into some Division 2 shit and the GB stream dies. I assume I didn't actually miss anything worthwhile here, and I honestly can't bring myself to care enough to go look. I'm guessing the Division 2 showed off its mildly different setting, which is meh.

Next up is a rollerball game that might have been cool in a world where Rocket League doesn't exist. Except Rocket League does exist, so anyone interested in this should probably just play Rocket League instead. Also, why the fuck did every game Ubi showed have a post-segment trailer for the same thing they just showed you and told you about? Oh, right. Padding. Following Ubi's Rocket League clone was their Breath of the Wild clone. Yay for things that don't need to exist!

Then it hard cuts to the "celebrity showdown" of some Twitch streamers vs. T-Pain & Lil Yachty, the latter of whom I didn't know existed until this very moment. GB is (rightfully) unsure if the conference is even over because everything else was so fucking haphazard that this somehow doesn't feel out of place. Once it becomes clear that the conference is actually over, GB thankfully bounces out.

Good Lord. Some of my annoyance with this show is admittedly personal preference stuff, but this was a bad time. On the spectrum of things getting worked up about, this should also probably fall way below how apoplectic I'm being about it, but for fuck's sake. It was like they made this specifically to be the polar opposite of what I wanted. Maybe I'm just getting to be a curmudgeon here at 34, or maybe Ubi really is shit now. Probably both.

Of course, but it isn't happening. I also think we've subjected Drew to too much Kojima already. Let the man Cloth Map in peace.

Thank you for sharing your personal story here in this thread. I'm sure it's not an easy thing to talk about or think about, but please know that your service is greatly appreciated. The gameplay that you mentioned is something most gamers, myself included, didn't even really think twice about, yet can deeply affect others as you described. This is very much worth noting here in this thread. I'll never be able to fathom what that evoked for you personally based on your experience, just as I'm not going to pretend like I can fully appreciate the (warranted) fears of police by the African-American community in particular here in the U.S. that can lead to a riot cop skin being offensive. As a matter of perspective, it's extremely important to consider how people's differing experiences may lead to them interacting with games in different ways and to not simply ignore things if they don't affect you, and I try to remember that. That's why I'm glad the Waypoints of the world exist. As much as the things they get upset at are often not that resonant to me personally, it isn't necessarily so for others.

As far as Red Faction: Guerrilla goes, it's a great video game and I'd recommend it, although I get that it might be hard to play based on your experiences. I do want to mention one feature that I thought was particularly cool, which was that the game allows you to rebuild destroyed objects after completing the campaign. I found it to be fairly meaningful, and made a thread here about my feelings (https://www.giantbomb.com/red-faction-guerrilla/3030-21125/forums/in-a-game-where-youre-encouraged-to-destroy-its-ca-1842755/) that might be interesting and relevant if you want to take a look. Apologies if I'm off base or overstepping, but it seems like it could help the game maybe be a little less of a struggle to play, so I felt compelled to share.

This has been an awesome thread, by the way. There are several great posts here that have made me stop and think, and I truly love that GB is a place where people can have rational and respectful discourse, even when people disagree. In my experience, this is a rare thing (especially in the realm of politics), so everyone take a moment to high-five yourselves as quality duders.