So I just bought an Xbox One.
It’s been a long time since I’ve had a games console. My last one was the PS2 when it first came out.
I’ve got two things I want to say about my new Xbox, and I think this applies to the PS4 as well so I’m going to just say it applies to next gen consoles.
- The Graphics
- Being online all the time.
The Graphics
Wow.
That’s it. Just “Wow”.
I remember spending hours playing the original Final Fantasy game on a shitty old Nintendo (the 8 bit one, I think). Man were those graphics clunky. Later, on my PS1 (and still playing Final Fantasy) I loved watching those beautifully rendered cut scenes, but then you always had to go back to the much poorer game graphics. There was a scene in one of the Final Fantasy games (7, I think) when you walk up a flight of stairs and see some city for the first time. The game used a parallax effect, moving three layers of foreground in front of the back ground and it blew my mind.
Now, when I look at my Xbox One graphics, that old PS2 looks so hokey.
I started playing Thief on the Xbox, and I was blown away, and as far as I can tell, that’s not even native graphics for the Xbox one. (I think) its Xbox 360 graphics unscaled for the next gen machine.
Then I started playing Destiny. I don’t know how the graphics in that game compare to other Xbox games, but I loved them. Sometimes I’d just stand there gazing at the landscape and admiring the attention to detail. Lens flare when looking into the sunset. Motes of dust in god-rays. The Last City sprawling out in the distance. I just love it.
But one thing that has really stood out to me is that cut scenes are no longer pre rendered. They use game graphics and are rendered live. I used to love the cut scenes in Final Fantasy because they were so beautifully rendered, and stood out from the in game graphics. But now it’s all seamless. The in game rendering is so good that the cut scenes are just part of the game.
Its beautiful.
Being Online
This is a two edged sword, and some of this is personal preference, but I’ll say it just the same.
I don’t like player vrs player gaming.
I suck at PvP, but that’s not the only reason I don’t like it. Sure it’s no fun getting my ass kicked all the time in PvP. I just don’t have the time or the inclination to get good at that. But I like a good story and PvP does no contribute one bit to the story. Maybe I’ve played to much Final Fantasy and the RPG style of gaming in too deep in me, but if the story isn’t engaging, then I start losing interest.
I bought a car driving game (Forza Horizon) for the kids, and they love it. I played it a little and it was kinda fun, and the graphics (again with the graphics) are awesome. But there is ZERO story, and thus I have no interest in playing it.
So I enjoyed Destiny right up to the part where the story ended. Then it lost it’s appeal. (As I write this, the first expansion has gone live and I’ll probably download that to get a bit more play out of this game.).
But once the story ran out, I felt there was little left to the game for me. I flat out don’t play PvP (Crucible) in Destiny.