Next Gen, is anyone really done with their current consoles?

[DarkhoIlow]

Err yes, I am completely done with current gen. In fact I was sick of current gen at least 2 years ago. Absolutely cannot wait for next-gen consoles.

BUT - wait for it - not because I want to BUY or PLAY on next-gen consoles. God no. The hardware will be junk compared to PC's even from 2-3 years ago, there is bound to be some level of bullshit that MS/Sony tacks on (no used games, always online, no backwards compatibility?)...plus the inability to use anything other than the provided proprietary controller(s) is the nail in the coffin for consoles as far as I'm concerned.

No, the reason I'm looking forward to next-gen is because we'll finally see some decent console-to-PC ports! Next-gen consoles look like they will be using hardware/software platforms a lot closer to PC than ever before, so we'll be seeing drastically better-looking games with more complex AI and all the goodies that aren't possible on console hardware (hint: input methods).
So yeah, the sooner this generation is over the better.

Don't worry console fans, your 7-year-old toasters aren't going anywhere. When next gen comes out your PS3/360 won't magically vanish. My cousin has a perfectly functional PS2 lying around + a nice collection of classic games, did anything happen to those when PS3 came around? Of course not, they'll be around forever!

THANK YOU! Finally that someone put in words what I wanted to say. I've been trying to get this point along for a very long time. The ports to PC from consoles being so bad due to the 8year old hardware was really annoying and gimping the power of my computer.

At least now with the new generation around the corner, the ports won't be dwindled by many restrictions(I hope), especially since having a controller on the PC for certain thing is a commonality now.

 

[DarkhoIlow]

Question for all you PC guys. Do you guys have huge-ass monitors, do you hook your PCs up to your TVs somehow, or does the idea of playing a game on a big screen TV simply not interest you?

Until this generation, I was always a PC-exclusive gamer. Since PS3 came out, I've moved squarely into consoles for gaming. Now, the thought of downsizing to something that would fit on my desk terrifies me.

Although I have a 60" TV which I can't use because I am not living alone, I can't really hook up my PC to that.

Unfortunately since my 3yo PC, although powerful, can still manage high/ultra graphics due to the fact that I didn't buy a new monitor in a very long time (6years+). I play most of my games on a Samsung 19" SyncMaster 940N on 1200/1024 resolution. Because of this "low resolution" in our day and age where the common thing is already at least 1600 res, I can still run all high fidelity PC games that come out on maxed settings.

My specs are: 8GB Ram,i5 2500k and a GTX560Ti.

 

[Aaron Sylvester]

Question for all you PC guys. Do you guys have huge-ass monitors, do you hook your PCs up to your TVs somehow, or does the idea of playing a game on a big screen TV simply not interest you?

Until this generation, I was always a PC-exclusive gamer. Since PS3 came out, I've moved squarely into consoles for gaming. Now, the thought of downsizing to something that would fit on my desk terrifies me.

How do you feel about watching movies in theaters vs watching it on your TV? Are you terrified by the thought of watching the movie on a smaller screen? Of course not, because screen size is largely irrelevant - it's all about how far you're sitting from the screen and pixel density.

The majority of PC gamers play on 21-24 inch monitors at a resolution of 1920x1080, sitting anywhere from 1-3 feet away. That's just a fact.
So for most purposes playing on a big TV is impractical because you need a flat solid surface to work the mouse + keyboard (i.e. a desk/table) and you need to sit at least 1-3 meters away- too big a distance for most desks/tables. Monitors also have drastically higher pixel density so it's easier to read really small text and details....e.g. try reading font 8 text on a TV, or playing an RTS/MMORPG, or browsing news articles on the net. TV's just weren't built for that kind of precision in mind. Monitors also have minimal input lag. In the majority of PC build forums no sane PC gamer will genuinely recommend playing on a TV outside very special cases.

 

[Vault101]

Question for all you PC guys. Do you guys have huge-ass monitors, do you hook your PCs up to your TVs somehow, or does the idea of playing a game on a big screen TV simply not interest you?

Until this generation, I was always a PC-exclusive gamer. Since PS3 came out, I've moved squarely into consoles for gaming. Now, the thought of downsizing to something that would fit on my desk terrifies me.

I have a bigass monitor (because why not?) its almost as big as the TV I was using before for my ps3

one of the major things I have against consoles is I dont actually like playing on a TV I like to sit in a desk and have it all in front of me up close...to me thats better than even the biggest TV

I dont see how a TV is "bigger" since your closer to he screen on PC and its cheaper....if you want to play on a TV why not just hook up your PC? best of both worlds

[snip.

so its not the actual monitor....jsut the fact yoru running the games in a lower resolution (since yoru monitor doesnt suport anything higher?) I think you need a graphics card upgrade

 

[DarkhoIlow]

[quote="Vault101" snip[/quote]

Nah, that's not what I wanted to point out. The fact that my max resolution is 1200/1024 and my the specs that I've written in my previous post means that I played all the games that have high requirements on maximum settings because of that "gimped resolution setting". I cannot afford a new monitor, but I'd rather keep playing like this than try to save up for a bigger monitor and needing an hardware upgrade because once you go higher resolution, the games require more powerful hardware than what I have to handle the increased resolution.

Also my GTX560Ti is working quite swimmingly thank you very much. I reckon I won't have any more problems in this year and next year's games (Witcher 3 specifically).

 

[pure.Wasted]

How do you feel about watching movies in theaters vs watching it on your TV? Are you terrified by the thought of watching the movie on a smaller screen? Of course not, because screen size is largely irrelevant - it's all about how far you're sitting from the screen and pixel density.

I actually feel pretty crappy about it, yeah. And I'm sure I'm not alone, otherwise big screens wouldn't... really... be a thing. You wouldn't really suggest that watching TDKR in theaters and at home is the same experience, would you? There's a reason people paid extra on top of that to watch it in IMAX.

Playing a game that's going out of its way to wow you on a small screen just seems like a disservice. In fact, this strikes me so common sensical, I really don't understand how PC gamers can just shrug consoles away. I'm sure pixel density helps (I didn't know that! But it makes sense, of course) but you're still basically listening to a cool new album without headphones... don't you think?

edit: just to clarify, I'd definitely choose PC for moooost multiplayer games. Not only does PC BF3 visually own console BF3, but the servers are better, mouse control is still better, and you're not really trying to be immersed to begin with.

 

[Robot Number V]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Not even close. I definitely won't be buying the next-gen consoles until at least a year after their release, probably closer to two years. I'm just pretty happy happy with what I've already got, I don't feel like tossing out a few hundred bucks to upgrade. I've still got Bioshock Infinite and The Last of Us coming my way, I don't need anything else.

 

[blackrave]

New gen platform?
Yes I am planning to increase RAM and get better GPU
Thanks for asking

 

[Aaron Sylvester]

I actually feel pretty crappy about it, yeah. And I'm sure I'm not alone, otherwise big screens wouldn't... really... be a thing. You wouldn't really suggest that watching TDKR in theaters and at home is the same experience, would you? There's a reason people paid extra on top of that to watch it in IMAX.

Playing a game that's going out of its way to wow you on a small screen just seems like a disservice. In fact, this strikes me so common sensical, I really don't understand how PC gamers can just shrug consoles away. I'm sure pixel density helps (I didn't know that! But it makes sense, of course) but you're still basically listening to a cool new album without headphones... don't you think?

I said it earlier and I'll say it again, screen size is irrelevant because a 50" TV and a 23" monitor are running at exactly the same resolution (1080p), both screens "fill" your vision because you are sitting proportionately the same distance away from them.
In fact I would say a 23" monitor viewed from 2 feet away fills far more of your vision than a 50" plasma viewed from 3-4 meters away - this is one of the crucial reasons behind why most PC gamers demand a 90-degree Field of View (FoV) enabled in PC ports as opposed to the 55-60 degree FoV that consoles use...but that's another story for another time.

Coming back to pixel density, monitors do a wonderful job of displaying the finer details - and I think you'll agree that often beauty is all about the finer details. Higher-grade IPS/PLS monitors can also display vibrant accurate colors and broad viewing angles which most TV's lack, also there are 120hz monitors which provide insane smoothness and response times (no ghosting/tearing issues) which TV's can't hope to reach.

Combine this with what I also said earlier about convenience and practicality. Remember that gaming is not all people do on computers - we do a lot of web browsing, work stuff, etc and those tasks would be nothing short of retarded to do on a big TV screen. It's easy for people to forget that a gaming computer can do a hell of lot more than just gaming. Browsing porn would also not be smart to do in the living roo--wait, I meant browsing Escapist. Gaming is a side-thing for PC users, in fact quite a few PC gamers have 2 screens (one running a game, one for web browsing).
Secondly mice/keyboards also need stable platforms and don't exactly have super-long cable lengths like console controllers. Also most people can't place a 50" TV on their computer desk in fear of it falling over, or their eyeballs melting due to sitting 2 feet away from such a giant screen.

You get the idea by this point I hope?

 

[DanielBrown]

Not really. I had over 100 PS3 games during my last count(a while ago) and have just started replaying some of them. Got Far Cry 3 on it's way here and some other releases I'm gonna pick up when they get cheaper, so there's still a lot to do.
If the PS4 is backwards compatible I'll pick it up when it gets a lot cheaper or my PS3 dies, but otherwise I got a few years left with this baby.

Also started using my PS3 as a Netflix player when I discovered you could. Love it! <3

 

[xDarc]

The 360 is turning 8 this year.

When the 360 came out, everyone was using flip phones.

The xbox 360 came out in 2005, in 2006 Reasearch In Motion's Blackberry was called the "Crackberry" This year, Research in Motion is struggling to stay relevant and out of bankruptcy because no one gives a rat's ass about blackberry's anymore. Microsoft gets a free pass because they have a strangle hold on the software and the platform. They have you by the cajones.

Relatively speaking, the 360 was a dinosaur 2 years ago. Now it's just pathetic.

 

[Vault101]

How do you feel about watching movies in theaters vs watching it on your TV? Are you terrified by the thought of watching the movie on a smaller screen? Of course not, because screen size is largely irrelevant - it's all about how far you're sitting from the screen and pixel density.

I actually feel pretty crappy about it, yeah. And I'm sure I'm not alone, otherwise big screens wouldn't... really... be a thing. You wouldn't really suggest that watching TDKR in theaters and at home is the same experience, would you? There's a reason people paid extra on top of that to watch it in IMAX.

Playing a game that's going out of its way to wow you on a small screen just seems like a disservice. In fact, this strikes me so common sensical, I really don't understand how PC gamers can just shrug consoles away. I'm sure pixel density helps (I didn't know that! But it makes sense, of course) but you're still basically listening to a cool new album without headphones... don't you think?

.

*facepalm*

No..:its not

again the size of the screen doesn't matter when your a Cople of feet away from it, if anything I feel like the effect is better than a big ass tv, there just so much detail, a computer monitor is not the same as a small tv, it's all there in front of you

So no, pc gamers are not missing out, if anything they are getting a better deal

 

[Frybird]

As it stands, the most important question for me is: Will any next-gen console make me want to buy one?

Not even talking about supposed DRM measures or something, but as i see it, next-gen consoles won't be able to be TOO impressive in terms of graphics (at least not as much as the PS1->PS2->PS3 jumps) and may have to find other ways to impress me.

I'm still not sure whether or not i'll buy a next-gen console or try to build a gaming HTPC (i really don't like playing on a Desk, as i sit at one the entire day anyways, and i don't want to buy a second 5.1 sound system), but at least when i choose consoles i won't buy one until next year anyways (i don't buy consoles until there is at least a small selection of good games).

So for this year, I'm excited, but i am still rocking the ol' 360, and will be most likely happy with it. I have multiple Levels of Games in my Backlog and new and exciting games are still coming strong (March alone will make my buy Tomb Raider and Bioshock Infinite, two games i've been excited for years).

So no, i am not done.

 

[Hazzaslagga]

I don't use my 360 much any more after migrating to the lands of the pc. So I would welcome the gen change even if it just increased the potential of cross platform games. Also after reading some replies in the thread, better hardware does not just mean prettier graphics and load times.

 

[pure.Wasted]

I actually feel pretty crappy about it, yeah. And I'm sure I'm not alone, otherwise big screens wouldn't... really... be a thing. You wouldn't really suggest that watching TDKR in theaters and at home is the same experience, would you? There's a reason people paid extra on top of that to watch it in IMAX.

Playing a game that's going out of its way to wow you on a small screen just seems like a disservice. In fact, this strikes me so common sensical, I really don't understand how PC gamers can just shrug consoles away. I'm sure pixel density helps (I didn't know that! But it makes sense, of course) but you're still basically listening to a cool new album without headphones... don't you think?

I said it earlier and I'll say it again, screen size is irrelevant because a 50" TV and a 23" monitor are running at exactly the same resolution (1080p), both screens "fill" your vision because you are sitting proportionately the same distance away from them.
In fact I would say a 23" monitor viewed from 2 feet away fills far more of your vision than a 50" plasma viewed from 3-4 meters away - this is one of the crucial reasons behind why most PC gamers demand a 90-degree Field of View (FoV) enabled in PC ports as opposed to the 55-60 degree FoV that consoles use...but that's another story for another time.

2 meters. 8D

I don't know. Going back to a movie example, a laptop on my chest while I'm lying down might fill the same amount of vision as my HD from a distance, but it really doesn't make sense to me that the visual experience would be the same. It certainly hasn't felt the same anytime I've done it before. I guess I'll have to try moving back to PC and see... there are certainly enough incentives, no doubt about that.

Coming back to pixel density, monitors do a wonderful job of displaying the finer details - and I think you'll agree that often beauty is all about the finer details. Higher-grade IPS/PLS monitors can also display vibrant accurate colors and broad viewing angles which most TV's lack, also there are 120hz monitors which provide insane smoothness and response times (no ghosting/tearing issues) which TV's can't hope to reach.

Interesting stuff, this. Especially the FoV bit earlier. What happens when the FoV isn't bumped up for PCs? Does that negatively affect the resolution? I'm sure you can tell I'm no technical expert... but it seems there would be more consequences than just "it doesn't look as good as it could."

Combine this with what I also said earlier about convenience and practicality. Remember that gaming is not all people do on computers - we do a lot of web browsing, work stuff, etc and those tasks would be nothing short of retarded to do on a big TV screen. It's easy for people to forget that a gaming computer can do a hell of lot more than just gaming. Browsing porn would also not be smart to do in the living roo--wait, I meant browsing Escapist. Gaming is a side-thing for PC users, in fact quite a few PC gamers have 2 screens (one running a game, one for web browsing).
Secondly mice/keyboards also need stable platforms and don't exactly have super-long cable lengths like console controllers. Also most people can't place a 50" TV on their computer desk in fear of it falling over, or their eyeballs melting due to sitting 2 feet away from such a giant screen.

Well, there's no argument here, I mean I'm typing this from my laptop, not my PS3. I wouldn't last a day without an actual computer. And between the SNES and the PS3 I was all PC.

 

[Auron225]

In any case I won't be buying one anytime soon - only in the past year have I really started building a collection of PS3 games that I'm barely halfway through.

On the one hand, the sooner they release it; the sooner I can ignore it for a few years while they make better models of them that have more memory and run better, and to let them make enough games for me to really want it. However, it means I likely won't get to play new releases for a while again =S Perks and cons of being a few years behind I guess!

 

[likalaruku]

I am in the process of buying 4th-6th gen consoles & games. Sofar the Nintendo DS looks like it will be my favorite of the year.

 

[Jfswift]

Nope. I haven't had time to finish playing all of my games. I'm still okay with the quality gen games that are coming out. Quality seems decent enough for me really.

 

[OldDirtyCrusty]

Unless Sony decides to make the PS4 backwards-compatible, I'm completely disinterested in the next-gen consoles. Instead, I think I'll spend the next few years working on my Wii collection, what with used Wii games being phenominally cheap and all.

Almost my point too. I`m not disinterested but with my recent collection it`s pretty important that i can still play those games. There are so many exclusives on the ps3 and it would be a mistake if we couldn`t play them anymore.