RJO

The Next Gen Kinda Sucks (For Now)
I started this weekend with a bit of a mission - I was going to upgrade some aspect of my gaming life. I more or less thought this was going to mean getting a next gen console and I figured it’d mean getting a PS4.

Now as a proud member of the PC Gaming Master Race I started where I should, could I upgrade my computer in a way that made financial sense?



I recently grabbed a new video card so all I really needed to upgrade to get that new-PC-smell was a mobo/CPU. I figured surely my CPU from 2011 has fallen behind by now - but it turns out for $400-500 (or the price of a next gen console) I was looking at a 5-10% performance gain. So that was out.

With the PC fine I went on to my next assumption - a PS4. I think Sony is my horse in the 8th generation of the console wars (despite being a MS fan in the 7th generation) so I started looking in to it. The PS4 has everything you could want - great living room features (netflix, etc are all there), the highest performance of the generation on a specs basis and $100 cheaper than the Xbox One. Also from someone who loves to stream the included Twitch streaming integration is fantastic as well.

For fairness sake I explored a little bit of the Xbox One offerings and found it just fell more or less short. The only exclusive they have coming up that seems exciting (possibly - its low on my radar) is Titan Fall and it’s on PC, so that’s a meh for me.

I was ready to go, excited. Let’s. Get. A. PS4! But first let’s find a game to get with it! My default position was FIFA, my by far favourite console game (I clock around 250 hours of FIFA a year) but that seemed uninspired for a new console purchase. So I looked. And looked. And looked.

There was nothing. There are no games on either of the consoles right now that are must buy exclusives. Anything available to buy was on the PC or would play just as well on my PS3 or XBOX360.

Well that was depressing. I ended up grabbing a Wii U which despite the fact its way under powered for this generation it rocks a cheap price point and has quite a few Nintendo exclusives that you’d actually want to play.

It was a strange weekend in which I learned the 8th generation of the console wars is off to a slow start.