Poll: Do we really want next Gen consoles?

[uchytjes]

I want it for, if anything, better PC games/ports. Also, the advancement of technology is always good.

The only thing to worry about is the cost of games going up, as game development bloats even more because of the next gen consoles.

While that may be true, if you don't have the money to buy the games you probably shouldn't be playing them anyway. Also, it isn't like we won't have any more $20 games, we'll always have indies.

I'm more worried about the budgets for game development going out of control and game developers will start cutting corners.FYI I have a good part time job with decent pay so I can afford buying games.

Yeah, that really is the biggest concern here. But it could be solved fairly easily BY cutting corners in certain areas. For instance, I'd like to see more games in the line of Blood Dragon where they reuse a fairly large amount of assets for a new, standalone game with only tangential ties to the original. It doesn't even need to be a cheese-fest with only comedies, it could be a completely legitimite story all on its own. But yes, the production costs are an absolute worry. Also, I'd like to see more smaller, episodic games combined with the whole idea of reusing assets. It'd be a gold mine if done right.

 

[rob_simple]

Snip

I had to take anti-biotics to combat the overdose of sarcasm I got from that, but I appreciate your scorn for luddites.

The issue I have with this is that the current generation of consoles was a complete mess. Both the Xbox360 and PS3 were plagued with hardware issues from the start (I'd never replaced a console in my life; I had to replace my PS3 and my 360); the production costs for hardware and software are preosterously high, to the point that a developers livelihood is made and broken on a single title release; the games are knowingly being released full of bugs now that patching is an option...it's a clusterfuck of incompetence, dickbaggery and screw-ups.

I remember reading an interview with some big-wig from Sony or Konami or some place where he said the problem with the modern game industry is that we are pushing the technology beyond it's capabilities, and I agree: the consoles we have just now do not work properly because, in an effort to meet a demand that doesn't exist, developers are pushing for the shiniest graphics and the most polygons evar, forgetting that the basic principle of games is that they are supposed to be fun.

If the next PS4 had the exact same graphics as the PS3 but more processor power and RAM or whatever so the games ran smoother, were bigger and gave the player more freedom then I'd be all for it, but all I've seen so far are tech demos wanking off over how good the graphics look.

I am happy for change to come when the industry is ready for it, but the only thing I can see a new console generation doing is putting more pressure on the cracks already starting to show. Production costs are going to become even higher, development cycles will become longer, more studios are going to get shut down and the whole place is going to turn into a wasteland.

...and that is why I'm sticking with my PS3 and the library of games I am yet to work through. It isn't perfect, but I can only see it getting worse.

 

[Arslan Aladeen]

Eh, like with most console generations, I'm going to wait until it comes down in price and has some games worth owning on it. The new consoles will have to come around at some point. But considering how much I'm enjoying stuff on current gen, I'm in no rush.

 

[Yopaz]

Personally I think we do. Not because of the shiny new graphics, they are decent with our current consoles, but because the consoles lack the capabilities required to play the games they currently have perfectly. If I were to say Skyim on PS3 does anyone agree with me?

Now that's one of the more famous example of a game where there are issues keeping up the framerate, but this isn't exclusive to Skyrim. I have had similar issues with several games. Things slow down and starts chugging when there's too much action, limited size on areas and limits on details. Part of this could simply be solved with more RAM which should never have been 512 MB even when the current consoles were released. If the games continued to look like they do today, but some extra processing power and RAM could improve how they were running I would be thrilled.

 

[GonzoGamer]

It all depends on what they're going to do with it. If it's all about more polygons for David Cage's emotions (thanks for that Jimquisition), I'm not interested. If it's all about Borderlands 3 having hoards of enemies rushing at me while I shred them with an orange-tier rocket launcher, I'm game.
Either way, I'm not buying one at launch. I don't want to be stuck with a console that I'm afraid is going to brick or one that gets awful support. Hopefully that wont be the two choices again.

 

[TheCommanders]

Yeah, because if people had decided when they made the first model of car that it "worked fine" and hadn't kept on innovating, I'm sure that would have worked out terrifically. The current generation simply can't keep up with PCs, and regardless of whether or not you game on a PC, this is a huge issue for developers of cross platform games. Technology is outdated quickly. Frankly I'm surprised the current generation has lasted as long as it has.

 

[jowell24]

I like to describe the next console generation as a natural progression. I think we're at a point where hardware must be updated to catch up with the progression of technology since the release of this current gen of consoles.

With the release of a new generation comes will come games with higher graphical fidelity, gameplay quality and overall experience. Part of the reason AI tend to be quite simplistic and dumb is due to the bottlenecking of processing power from outdated hardware and many developers with next-gen titles in the works have all mentioned the possibility of "smarter" AI in their games.

Regarding graphics we have also reached a point where at first glance there minor differences between current and next-gen. However comparing polygon count and texture resolution isn't simply the way to assess the need for new consoles/better hardware as now we must look at many other factors like, lighting, particle physics and motion/animation.

Curren-gen titles have figured out tricks to make games appear better than they really look through the use of depth of field, motion blur, etc. Manipulating the geometry of polygons and textures such that you don't notice the jaggedness and lower quality of character models and environments are all part and parcel of many games (For instance the strong motion blur when travelling at high speeds on GTA 4 on consoles). These all help in making the game perform better and the next-generation of consoles will allow developers to not have to rely on these tricks to create the effect of good graphics

I would recommend that people have a look at the slideshow that the developer of Killzone: Shadow Fall, Guerrilla Games made to provide a view of the development for their PS4 title and the demo showcased at the PS4 reveal event (I pretty sure it was posted on NeoGaf). One thing to highlight is how the demo used only 4GB of ram (They didn't even know the console was going to have 8GB prior to the event).It provides a good insight into all the good things we can expect from next-gen

 

[Atmos Duality]

It all depends on what they're going to do with it. If it's all about more polygons for David Cage's emotions (thanks for that Jimquisition), I'm not interested. If it's all about Borderlands 3 having hoards of enemies rushing at me while I shred them with an orange-tier rocket launcher, I'm game.
Either way, I'm not buying one at launch. I don't want to be stuck with a console that I'm afraid is going to brick or one that gets awful support. Hopefully that wont be the two choices again.

That's kind of the same boat I'm in. "How will they use the horsepower?"
I'm guessing it will mostly go towards the most superficial elements of gaming: Graphics and sound, while putting little effort into enhancing the other areas that gaming is lacking.

And if so, I lose nothing.
I've abjectly avoided the previous generation (and stumbled into a Wii, which even by happy accident was still a mistake), because it didn't really offer much of what I wanted to play.

The one and only game on the 360 that I cannot play on PC is Shadow Complex. The PS3 has Warriors Orochi 3, and I only really play Dynasty Warriors and its ilk with my friend when he visits.

My old standby in Armored Core turned into Speed KillZ blurry nonsense and online grief-fests (if you're losing in AC4, just push Dashboard and it draws the match. Or unplug your network cable for a second to gain unbreakable lag armor. Brilliant!) so that's out..

Really, there is no reason for me to buy non-handhelds, and even the handhelds are largely failing me.

 

[Reyold]

I am completely and utterly apathetic towards it. I don't think it's a bad idea, but nothing I have seen or heard so far has made me look forward to it either.

Pretty much took the words right out of my mouth. You mind giving them back?

That, and I've pretty much converted to PC anyway, so no skin off my bones.

 

[V8 Ninja]

In terms of graphics, the video game industry has basically hit a ceiling. It has come to the point where it is becoming hard to distinguish graphics improvements from their previous iterations. Until really advanced graphics features like ray-tracing are perfected and usable on consoles, companies will be dumping too much into graphics for no good gain.

However, the other myriad of hardware that consoles use (specifically CPUs and RAM) could be significantly improved until a ceiling is hit.

 

[josemlopes]

The way I see it, current gen graphics are more than good enough for pretty much any game, and any further advance we could make is going to require huge investment for only a very little gain. We've pretty much hit the ceiling as far as that goes

There is still a lot that can improve without spending much money, models and textures certainly are close to the ceiling but things like dynamic light and particle effects or destruction with physics are still a long way from there. Basicly we are at the ceiling when it comes to screenshots.

Stuff like light, particles and physics probably arent that expensive to make since its usually stuff that is implemented to the engine making it available for a very big amount of games, and physics stuff is usually done by those Havok guys.

And engines are becoming more easy to use as technology moves along, Unreal Engine 4 is looking like a fun engine to mess around with.

 

[00slash00]

i dont really care about the next consoles. my ps3 is essentially just a netflix machine. however, and im sorry if i come off as a pc elitist, but the current gen is holding back pc games. most games are designed primarily for consoles and ported to pc. bottom line is that i paid a lot more for my pc than my ps3, because i wanted games that would look and run as good as possible. im not getting that when games are being designed for tech thats 7 years old

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

I'm ready for next gen consoles. I want to play console games that look prettier and that's all there is to it (with the caveat that a gaming pc would be too expensive and too much trouble to be worth it for me). I have yet to see anything that tells me the next console generation will worse than the current consoles or worse than the previous consoles for that matter. People just want to be eggy and melodramatic about anything that has to do with vidya gamz

Edit: and it'll also be nice for games to be made with pc 86x architecture in mind. My laptop with better specs than my ps3 can only run most games at slightly higher settings which makes buying pc games for graphics pointless

 

[Zeke63]

Yes just cause itll make pc gaming better because of how itll shift development. Better ports cause basically the same and better graphics/other engines since no longer held back by 360/ps3 2006 tech

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

And engines are becoming more easy to use as technology moves along, Unreal Engine 4 is looking like a fun engine to mess around with.

I'm personally excited for this as technology moves along. Unreal Engine 4 supposedly cuts out a lot of time consuming processes in game making. There have been estimates that it could cut development time in half. Those are probably very generous estimates but anything a dev can do to decrease production costs and time without cutting content are welcome.

Of course, this is only if developers and publishers learn to reuse game engines and assets instead of building everything from the ground up

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

I don't care about better graphics, but I would like to see games like Metal Gear Rising in more densely packed environments where chopped objects stick around for more than five seconds so you can appreciate the devastation. We need better hardware for that sorta stuff.

 

[darlarosa]

To be honest...not really...I feel like they're pushing new consoles not to push technology but because we've reached some arbitrary time limit. There are advances to be made...but I'm not sure they're actually going to make ones that matter. (I don't give two flying fucks about graphics)

 

[Joccaren]

Yes, because PC games will get better ports, and some games with interesting levels and AI might start being made again, rather than the corridor games ATM made due to lack of RAM on consoles.

Also, why do we need another console generation? So that the companies can make money. So that we can get more games. So that fewer people move to PC and console is forgotten. If MS/Sony didn't release new consoles, PC would dominate the market ATM. Imagine the PS1 vs a modern day PC, and tell me which one you see people playing. Sure, the PS1 would cost $20 or so, but it would be the equivalent of a phone in terms of a gaming machine when everything gets put on the more advanced system.
Its already started happening this generation, with half the people I know who played exclusively on consoles swapping to PC exclusivity as the 360 and 3 begin to look dated, with inaccurate control schemes and not many real advantages. Give it the next 10 years until VR actually works, and the console market would cease to exist.
Yeah, I'd like that. Not going to lie. More focus on the PC means no crappy ports, no exclusive titles I have to pay over $300 to get, and a much larger community to interact with. However, console manufacturers would not like that, and would quite prefer you gave them your money. So they release a new generation to try and keep up [And fail to keep up of course].

 

[GonzoGamer]

It all depends on what they're going to do with it. If it's all about more polygons for David Cage's emotions (thanks for that Jimquisition), I'm not interested. If it's all about Borderlands 3 having hoards of enemies rushing at me while I shred them with an orange-tier rocket launcher, I'm game.
Either way, I'm not buying one at launch. I don't want to be stuck with a console that I'm afraid is going to brick or one that gets awful support. Hopefully that wont be the two choices again.

That's kind of the same boat I'm in. "How will they use the horsepower?"
I'm guessing it will mostly go towards the most superficial elements of gaming: Graphics and sound, while putting little effort into enhancing the other areas that gaming is lacking.

And if so, I lose nothing.
I've abjectly avoided the previous generation (and stumbled into a Wii, which even by happy accident was still a mistake), because it didn't really offer much of what I wanted to play.

The one and only game on the 360 that I cannot play on PC is Shadow Complex. The PS3 has Warriors Orochi 3, and I only really play Dynasty Warriors and its ilk with my friend when he visits.

My old standby in Armored Core turned into Speed KillZ blurry nonsense and online grief-fests (if you're losing in AC4, just push Dashboard and it draws the match. Or unplug your network cable for a second to gain unbreakable lag armor. Brilliant!) so that's out..

Really, there is no reason for me to buy non-handhelds, and even the handhelds are largely failing me.

I know how you feel.
We got three consoles this gen and they were all a disappointment. The Wii was actually pretty good but didn't have the best third party games. The 360 was defective and had a monthly fee. Then the ps3 had lame firmware and crappy ports.
I mentioned this in another thread but one of my favorites on the ps2 was Burnout Revenge. When the current gen hit I was exited to see bigger Crash Junctions with more cars piling up and bigger explosions. Then Burnout Paradise hit and it didn't have crash junctions at all. Couldn't help but wonder why they/I bothered. It felt like any other racing game, just looked nicer.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

Do we *want* a new console generation? I can't speak for everyone but I frankly don't care. I might buy one, I might not, there're no exclusives I care about to buy one for that alone.

Do we *need* a new console generation? Absolutely. Ancient, ailing console hardware has held back PC gaming for years now. Since big publishers entirely stopped PC developement and now only make console games which get ported across, the PC only gets these games made to run on 8 year old technology, an eternity in IT terms.

I'm looking forward to an eventual leap forward in graphics, physics, AI and map design/sizes even if the shitty UIs, achievements and other console shit insist on coming to the new generation as well. Current consoles have held gaming back for far too long and outstayed their welcome. If all I get is shitty console ports, the least the consoles can be is slightly closer to the power of a PC.