The Other Companies

Just because I play mostly on the Wii doesn't mean I don't listen when we get news from the other major gaming companies.I heard recently about the XBox One and the PlayStation 4.

Personally, I will always prefer the everyone-friendly controls of the Nintendo games, especially the newer  generations (anyone can play a DS game that uses only the stylus, and anyone can play Wii motion sensor games such as Just Dance). And the other consoles cost too much, anyway, and with my financial situation I would be broke buying one of them.

However, the recent revelations on the new XBox and PlayStation consoles have left me... voiceless. First of all, while I believe social networks to be a great thing, I don't think it's a good thing to combine them with video games. Sure, it offers connectivity, and so on and so forth... but if you don't want the connectivity and just want to play the damn games, what do you do? The social networking in video games takes more place inside the games that are being played, and soon enough you can't find a game that will not force you to become friends with players of the same game. This isn't Facebook, dammit!

I already dislike the WiiU for bringing this in the gaming world. The Wii was wonderful, it had simple controls! Many games were made without complex controls, so that everyone in the family culd play, even the non-casual gamers! And now, for Nintendo's pioneer of the new gaming generation, we get a Wii with the regular controllers that are played with movement detection... and this touch screen surrounded with lots of buttons. Not to mention this one controller will be used for every game that comes out. Sure, some games will use it more than other, but in the end, it will be used very often. But this special controller s reserved to the better gamers out there, which means that inexperienced gamers such as parents and young children can no more participate. And then there's the connectivity with social networks. Not everyone has an account on one or more social networks. Not everyone will use this feature, because they don't connect the Wii to Internet, or conenct it the least possible. This feature comes off as useful to those who have an account on a social network, but that's it! Anyone else will not be interested in buying this console.

And then XBox's great ideas: Using the portable computers and tablets to complete the gaming experience! Sure, as if now everyone had an iPad, an iPod, or something along those lines! Look, I never had an iPod, an iPad, or something along those lines. Does that mean my game will suck? Or I won't get full gaming experience? Even worse, suddenly XBox decides that we want to watch TV based on what we play. Television shows and video games are two completely different medias, and the people at Microsoft are misguided if they were informed that people wanted to play and watch related things. I'm not saying it's a bad idea, but Microsoft based this decision on things they never even asked the XBox players about.

And don't get me started on the fact that all PS4 games will be paid once in stores and then another time at home through the console! That means that you won't be able to rent PS4 games without paying half their price. Brilliant. Oh, maybe they'll have rental copies... Sure, and I suppose those rental copies will be cheap versions of the games. That's what happens.

Oh, I know I'm not an expert on those consoles. I'll never be an expert in those consoles, and I don't want to be an expert on those consoles anyway. I got most of my information on sites around Internet, and maybe things have changed since those revelations, maybe nothing has changed. And as I said, I have no interest in trying those consoles. In the end, whoever buys those still invests many hundreds of dollars into hours and hours of entertainment, which is not wrong in itself, but if you wind up playing a console with functions that you never asked for, that you will never use, or that will cause you to pay even more, then I'll be glad to pass. And I'll pray for all of you who buy an XBox One or a PlayStation 4 and end up dissatisfied.

Tomorrow: A review of Big Brain Academy DS!