It’s time that you can now test-drive the new Xbox One and Playstation 4 in the gaming shops, you can pick up the controllers, play the games on the huge sixty-inch 1080p LCD screens that they have them displayed on and look at the new sheen that the extra processing power of the new consoles brings.
I’ve not picked up a shiny new console at launch yet, but have watched and played quite a few games on one of these demo-units. Playing retail versions of game, the one thought that comes to my mind is “Hmmmm, haven’t I seen this before, like… One million times!”.
The new consoles may have better specifications, but as far as new games goes, it’s just more of the same. Sure Killzone Shadow Fall looks damn sweet,as does Forza Motorsport 5 but it’s just more of the same with a slight graphical improvement over the Xbox 360 and PS3, less frame rate-issues, better colours and of course better lighting and particle effects.
But graphics do not make a better game! Yes, they give you those “wow” moments, but in all honesty, the difference between the new Xbox One and Playstation 4 graphics and PS3’s flagship The Last Of Us is miniscule.
Until these new consoles give us new experiences, and what I mean by this is jaw-dropping moments such as never been-seen before, then I’m going to hold off buying one. We need far better games, with many new IPs, we need better graphics, we need better media capabilities unlocked on the machine.
It’s early days yet, however that said, the jump from Playstation to Playstation 2 was big, from Playstation 2 to Playstation 3 was a bit smaller, and the jump up from there seems to be smaller, and indeed gone backwards a step in some areas.
So, I'm not excited at the moment, a lot of the excitement I had at the announcement of the new consoles has faded and it will take time for something special to happen with the new consoles before I feel excited again.
