We’ve all experienced the painful sting of disappointment. The long awaited second album from your favorite band sucking. The super hot guy (or girl) who turns out to be a crappy kisser. Learning after 15 years that your grandmother has been cheating at Scrabble. Sometimes, disappointment hits your right in the face. You put that new CD into the player and are instantly assaulted by the sound of your favorite singer howling like a banshee. Other disappointments ease into your consciousness. You start kissing the hot guy and the sheer novelty of it makes it feel good. A moment later, though, you’ve realized he’s drooling on your chin.
Collecting dust next to the TV, the Playstation 3 is drooling on my chin. Rereading my first article about the PS3, I hardly recognize the enthusiastic author. That young, naive lass died shortly after Sony’s disappointing launch. I have not purchased a game since NHL2K7, which rounded my collection of PS3 titles up to three (Resistance: Fall of Man and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance preceded this purchase). There simply has not been a single title that has seemed worth $60. Also, the controller adapter that I have eagerly awaited so that I can play GH 1 and 2 on my PS3 has yet to materialize (just pushed back – again – to March 1st). Worse yet, the web content is still lacking. I have downloaded two games, Sudoku Challenge and a concept racing game. Both were moderately entertaining for a week or so but have lost their charm.
Looking at the games due out, a compelling, exclusive title won’t release until Assassin’s Creed (just pushed back – again – until August 1st). I am looking forward to playing Elder Scrolls IV (due March 13th), but my Xbox 360 brethren have been playing this game for what? Two years?
I can only hope that this truly capable machine does not go the way of the mini-disc player too soon (the first time God beat me). I still believe that the Playstation 3 will prove in the long run to be the system to own, and I know that this time next year, I’ll be playing Final Fantasy XIII and smiling like a looney. I just hope that, in the meantime, titles like Golden Axe and Indiana Jones can keep me – and my system – afloat.
Rachel, you poor lass. I must say that, honestly, I’m feeling the same way about the Nintendo Wii right now. I haven’t played it, really, since Elebits came out. Sure, a lot of it is probably attributed to my addiction to World of Warcraft and The Burning Crusade. Still, I should be able to take time away from that game, just like I did when the Wii first launched. Zelda is great, sure, but you can only play it so many times. The Virtual Console is alright, but I’ve played all those games to death over the past…err…20 years?! I don’t feel like it’s a bad investment, persay…just that Nintendo is sitting on its hands.
With Mario Galaxy and Medal of Honor: Vanguard and Metroid Prime 3 and so many promising titles on the way…my problem is that they are “on the way”. Zelda didn’t last as long as I’d hoped. Elebits can only work for so long before I reach that point of “katamari overload”, so to speak.
I guess we’re in the same boat. Sorry about all that PS3 bashing I’ve done…even though their market share has fallen and there are rumors of a price drop to move more units in the U.S. when there are systems on shelves yet no Wiis anywhere still…and PS3 should be able to make a decent showing in years to come…but if they lose grip of it all this year, it’s gonna be hard to come back.
In other news…we’ve upgraded to 360s at work now, and man, that thing rocks! I wanna get one, BAD!
Oh…and to comment on your “second album sucking” thing, there are PLENTY of times where that didn’t ring true, and here is a short list:
Rage Against The Machine – Evil Empire
Silverchair – Freak Show
As I Lay Dying – Shadows are Security
Jimi Hendrix – Axis: Bold as Love
SR-71 – Tomorrow
Sum 41 – Does This Look Infected?
Pantera – Vulgar Display of Power
Staind – Dysfunction
Kelly Clarkson – Breakaway
Christina Aguilera – Stripped
The Offspring – Ignition
Oh, I could go on forever…but honestly, the “sophomore slump” thing is only accounting for about 15% of the music industry.
Everyone just needs to chill out on the PS3 and give it a little longer than like ummm… five minutes to develop. Yes, the game lineup sucks right now except for Resistance and a few other titles that are worthwhile launch titles despite what is said about them, but it’s only been out for a few months and all’s I keep hearing is nothing but that Sony and the PS3 are already dead. The 360 had a worse launch if you ask me (launch lineup wasn’t any better and the widespread system overheating was worse than any problem the PS3 has) it just had no competition at the time so everyone seems to have forgotten about what it went through. And now with a year under its belt everyone thinks it’s like gods gift to gaming consoles when there still really aren’t but a few games that are that special. The 360 has nothing but shooter after shooter- most are fun to play and gorgeous to look at, but still, nothing but one genre of game constantly coming out is really starting to bore the fuck out of me lol.
As you said Josh, the Wii is going through the same problem with shortage on good games as the PS3, but no one really even talks about that because it’s the flavor of the month, and the novelty of the control scheme and the cheap price make it somewhat of an impulse buy (like Sony came out and said recently, and I actually think they were right, for once lol).
Both consoles just launched though- it takes at least a year for a console to show signs of coming into its own, and it seems like everyone is so quick to jump the gun and dismiss them already. Sony’s consoles in particular always take a while to come into their own, I mean seriously, games coming out on the PS2 right now are far more creative and innovative than anything I’ve seen from ANY of the so-called next-gen consoles. Okami was last year’s REAL game of the year, and many of my other personal top GOTY contenders were PS2 games also.
Honestly, at this point I’m disappointed with the entire outlook of this next-gen cycle so far in terms of innovation. There are plenty of enjoyable games across the 360, Wii and PS3, but the majority of it is last-gen game design doctored up by fancy graphics- I guess I just have higher expectations for advancement in gameplay than everyone else lol. But as I said before, it’s early in this new console cycle, and we’ve all just gotta kick back and be patient for developers to tap into what these systems can do. Hopefully by the end of this year and into 2008 each of the big three will have high quality game libraries and more innovative upcoming lineups.
Honestly, Sony’s little “impulse buy” knock is below the belt and stupid on their part. The Wii is a great console with a lot of nice innovations…hell, I’ve found myself surfing the news channel and weather channel for hours just checking stuff out. The system as a whole is a great multimedia center, and the games that are out for it ARE entertaining, just as I’m sure there are plenty of entertaining games for the PS3. The big problem is just that third-party crossover is dominating the market and there aren’t a ton of original titles for the PS3. HOWEVER, the Wii has plenty of original titles for launch…just not many that EVERYONE wants to get. They did a good job of covering every class of gamer, from youth to adult (Spongebob to Zelda, if you will)…but they didn’t realize that one game per class of gamer ISN’T enough. However, I will say that I’m far more excited about the upcoming games from Nintendo’s Wii than I am about anything from the PS3.
lol, I found the Wii weather and news channels to be quite pointless myself. I browsed for a few minutes and just didn’t see any reason to use them over simply turnign the Wii off and getting the same info in more in-depth form from TV news and weather channels. I do like that the news channel puts all the headlines all in one place that you can read real quick, so I can see it being useful, but I didn’t find the weather channel to be very accurate with its forecasts in my experiences. but hey, they’re little extra features, so can’t complain too much, I just wouldn’t consider them as any big sellings points right now. Like the PS3 online store, the Wii virtual console needs some work too. I don’t much care for any of the side features of any of the three next-gen consoles to be honest, I just wanna play games and watch movies, anything else is just fluff to me.
As for games, I think they all have solid outlooks. With stuff like VF5, Heavenly Sword, Lair, MotorStorm, Warhawk, Oblivion, AC4, VT3, GRAW2 and some others currently due between now and summer, the PS3 has a quality mix of exclusive and multiplatform releases on the horizon, before some even bigger stuff for the holidays. The Wii’s short term lineup of games isn’t thrilling me, but with Metroid Prime 3, Super Smash Bros Brawl, Battalion Wars 2, Cooking Mama, Mario Galaxy, and a bunch of other stuff due at some point this year it’s library should pick up pretty soon. Konami just announced a bunch of cool Wii titles at its Gamers’ Day event the other day too. I’m most excited about this game called Dewy’s Adventure. Title sounds goofy, but it’s from the creator of Elebits and it definitely looks unique, so I’m sold already! And the 360, I just want Mass Effect man, damn does that game look amazing. I also hope Blue Dragon comes sooner than later and is worth the wait, as the 360 desperately needs some RPG love. that’s mainly been my problem with the 360 so far- all it’s best games are the same genre, and though they’re fun I just want some more variety. that’s why I love the Live Arcade- i play stuff like Heavy Weapon, Small Arms, RoboBlitz and Lumines more than anything else right now.
See, I was impressed visually with Lair…but then again, it’s next-gen, so of course I’m impressed visually. The game itself, however, I’m not expecting much from it. If Warhawk can be half as good as the original game, then I’m sold on it. But when you look at all the games that WERE PS3 exclusive getting ripped away…INCLUDING METAL GEAR SOLID 4!…I just question whether the love is really there. And when you bring up games like GRAW2 and Oblivion…well, Oblivion was a real pusher for the 360, but how much it’ll push a PS3 when all those guys already have the PC or 360 versions, I don’t know, man. And while GRAW pushed a few 360s, I don’t think it was that big of a deal, so I’m not sure about it…and plus, it’s on 360 also, lol. Heavenly Sword is cool, as long as it won’t knock from God of War TOO much. MotorStorm, from the demo, isn’t that big of a deal at all…just a racing game. Armored Core 4…mech games were never a huge pusher for consoles.
I guess what I’m saying is that…honestly…360 had a great strategy with coming out a year ahead. I mean, they’ve got a hell of a hit with Gears of War, regardless of how much some don’t like it so much (me included). Lost Planet seems to be pushing well. Blue Dragon and Mass Effect are going to be big hits, and honestly…when you think about it…with all those, Dead Rising, Halo, PGR, Forza…I mean, I’m seeing a HUGE list of ORIGINAL IPs! That’s something that Microsoft REALLY needed on their last console.
Microsoft is picking up from their mistakes, and Nintendo is doing the same. However, I think Sony is FINALLY MAKING mistakes, and how hard will it be to come back from them? I don’t know.
I’ll be curious to see end of the year numbers though.
I don’t mean to hate, but I guess I’m just ticked off that all the launches sucked. I’m a little bitter that I shelled out the dough, and now have to sit around and wait six months for good games to come out. The long and the short is, I feel as if I should have waited until March to pick up this system.