A review of the 7th Generation of consoles

Before i go on and put out what i think of it, i will tell you what consoles i owned. I had a 360 for the most part of the generation and got the PS3 in 2012. I also have a 3DS and a Vita from this generation of gaming. So now that you know where i am coming from i will give my thoughts on the generation as a whole.

I think this generation of games we went through might have been the strangest one. We had 3 winners in all of their own categories. The 360 won with multiplatforms games, gaining ground and the online experience. The Wii sold most consoles and drew the casual gamers in. PS3 had the most unique games, most exclusive good games and the best overall graphics. I wouldn't say there was a clear cut winner, but for me personally it's the PS3. I am a singleplayer kind of guy, and i never really saw the interest for the Wii. So i am going with the PS3.

Gaming overall managed to reach a whole new audience this generation and became bigger than movies and music. This was most apparant for the online aspect of the generation. The 6th generation did have online, but it wasn't as prominent as it was during the 7th generation. It was easier to play with others online than ever before. We also got to see bigger worlds and old genre's getting a new boost. The biggest boost was the FPS genre. They got new life when they came to consoles and became the biggest genre of the 7th generation of gaming.

I've been mostly stuck to the singleplayer experience and i've gotten loads of awesome games i've enjoyed. Batman, Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Assassin's Creed, GTA and other games that i've had loads of fun with. I do think that the online portion of games have gotten a little too much attention sometimes and that the singleplayer has suffered because of it. I really hope that this trend doesn't continue and that multiplayer keeps getting shoehorned into games.

We've also seen Microtransactions and DLC making it into the AAA market. Games that we've already paid full price for are getting in game currency and additional content which most likely most of the time is taken out of the game and sold for a cost. Games are going to suffer if the publishers don't come to realize that these practices are going to hurt them in the long run.

Overall it's been a great console generation, but i do think that the focus has been too much on the multiplayer and the bottom dollar instead of just the games alone. I hope some of them will realize that they're only screwing over their costumers by doing it

Good analysis, pretty accurate too.

I feel like developers are pushing too hard towards online gaming. There is a future in sight where players will need to always be connected to the internet or the cloud or some kind of network to play their games, and truth be told, when that day comes, I officially announce my retirement from my once-favorite hobby.

I hope that good, offline singleplayer console gaming stays. I appreciate the simplicity of it, just being able to plug-in-and-play.

Don't misunderstand me; I enjoy online features (multiplayer, streaming, digital, etc.) just as much as the next person, but I am just afraid of a future where being online is the only option. There is talk that the PS4 will be Sony's final console, and that they are even already preparing for a future without consoles.

I dread the next gaming generation. The 9th generation will certainly, without a doubt, be the most transitional generation gaming will see so far.

I will play singleplayer games as long as i can.

Having a singleplayer is important to a lot of players.

i agree

let's hope they singleplayer won't dissapear

I thought the previous gen was excellent, so many fantastic games. My overall favourite was the 360 though. I preferred the controller and the online experience. While it may not have had the most exclusives it did have the ones that interested me the most.

9/10

i'll would've give a 10 if KH3,FFXV and TLG was released

I can say that i prefer a single player experience overall but if i look back and consider which games i had the most fun with, it was while playing online with friends or competitive style of games.

Left for Dead really stands out for me. I wasnt into shooters like at all, but this was interesting. Then there was the vs mode which had special zombies attacking survivors. I cant explain it but successfully chasing down and killing a team of survivors with a group of friends you play often with. There are few things in life as rewarding. Standard style of online shooters just dont seem as fun. I haven't found the same kind of fulfillment from games in the past few years as i did in the earlier half of the generation but much of that could have to do with a lack of friends to play with.

The other game that stands out was Dark Souls. To begin with, i've never played anything as challenging and frustrating before in my life but the thing is, somehow i couldnt put it down either, i was hooked. Hooked on an overall frustrating and stressfull experience. That game somehow blured the lines with what could be expected between a muliplayer and single player experience. For those of us that are concerned about the push to multiplayer at the expense of single player games, perhaps if more games adopted Dark Souls' approach to online experiences, this could help the industry.

I'm concerned about the new generation to say the least. Every single game is just not interesting to me.

360 was the best, by far.

I'm not much of an online gamer so I never had to pay for live, the dualshock 3 is junk and ps3's exclusives are incredibly overrated.

This gen got off to a really bad start all around, hope it gets better.

I enjoyed last gen. 360 was mostly my machine of choice because of the superior multi-plats, controller, and online. I also preferred Live to PSN until they fucked over their UI with each update until the mess it is today. The PS3 I really didn't get too into until the very end, mostly due to TLoU. The Wii was my least favorite Nintendo console of all time, even though it has one of my favorite games ever (SMG 2), and believe despite its massive profit and install base, it did nothing but ultimately hurt Nintendo in the long run.....as evidenced by problems they are dealing with currently that that immense success allowed to fester and be ignored.

I agree about multiplayer, the focus needs to go back to single. As for DLC and MTs, I believe this is borne not entirely out of greed but is a natural response to piracy.

@amillionhp: There are games like Dragon Age, Walking Dead, Tales of Borderlands, Game of Thrones, Watch Dogs, etc that all have good singleplayer

I'm quoting this because this is exactly how I feel about my online experience. My earlier experiences playing on Live with my friends were much more enjoyable to today's games. A big part of it is most likely that we don't play anymore. Everyone branched out to different games and schedules. But I miss the simplicity of CoD 2, Assault Heroes, and Project Gotham.

I think this past generation started with a bang and got a bit stale by the end. The games looked technically great (again CoD 2 at 60fps and those awesome smoke effects) and there seemed to be good variety with other games like Kameo, Amped 3, Tony Hawk, and even FPS-es like Condemned and Perfect Dark Zero.

DRM is against piracy, but all this really does is screw over those who actually bought the game instead of rewarding them

@Chozofication: I have 360 and a ps3 and i disagree with everything in your comments, first of all the 360 was not the best by far, i think they where pretty much equally good. And second..The Dualshock controllers including dualshock 3 is the best controllers for all fighting games and they work pretty much the same as the 360 controllers for other types of games so calling the dualshock 3 for junk is rather ignorant of you. It is also ignorant to say that games like The Last Of Us and Journey are incredibly overrated.

I would disagree, but it's probably more of what games you play and like

I have to admit, the PS3 did suck in the beginning, and for a while I was under the impression that it was crap console, but then eventually it slowly came into its own and ended up becoming one of my favorite consoles ever made. I thought my PS2 would be unmatched in terms of quality content, but the PS3 surpassed it, at least for me. So many memorable games - Uncharted, Last Of Us, Infamous, God of War, Ni No Kuni, Sports Champions, Beyond 2 Souls, Puppeteer, LittleBigPlanet, and so many more. Some people trashed the system because it was a do-it-all machine, but personally I felt that was one of its biggest strengths, the fact that it saves me a lot of hassle in doing things, whether that's watching movies, using it as a media player, or browsing the web all on one device. I'm just really glad it came off very strong in the end and finally laid to rest all the harsh criticism that levied against it. It's really come a long way since those rough early days.

The PS3 had a much better library than the Wii overall, but the Wii had better exclusives than the PS3.

And no, the PS3 didn't have the most unique games. It was basically a Japanese 360.

Dualshock 3 gets the job done but it's uncomfortable compared to the 360's controller.

As to your last comment, having a different opinion than you about The Last of Us and Journey/=/ignorant. Getting butthurt over other people's opinions is not a good look.

I've played on all the consoles last gen. Even though they all had amazing games each, I found more games I liked with the PS3, so in terms of an overall experience, I'll go with the PS3. The 360 hands-down had the most solid online experience, as well as a higher higher quality of third-party games for a good chunk of the generation. The Wii by far was the most nostalgic and had some of my favorite franchises evolve into something amazing, like Metroid and The Legend of Zelda, and had Super Mario Galaxy, which is IMO the best platformer ever created.

In terms of games, the 7th gen had some of my favorite games ever made, like The Last of Us, Dark Souls, the BioShock series, Heavy Rain, Dragon Age: Origins, and Red Dead Redemption, and then some.

As for the whole DLC controversy, I view it as a pro and con. On the pro side, it's nice to see games continuing to be expanded upon and seeing how much further our favorites games can go in terms of gameplay and story. On the con side, the bottom line for some companies seems to go in favor of either overpricing or misrepresenting their add-ons. I understand the need to give them a price due to the increasing cost of game making, but companies need to be smarter about how their prices affect consumers and how their practices, such as on-disc DLC and microtransactions, could potentially hurt them in the long run. It's not an overall bad thing, but there needs to be a better system for delivering what is essentially something still relatively new to the gaming scene.

Yeah it did suck in the beginning. I've stuck to the Sony ecosystem since i got the PS3 in 2012

Yeah 100% agree. I'm definitely worried about where gaming is headed in regards to every game forcing some kind of MP mode onto us predominately SP gamers... Unfortunately it seems that a purely SP campaign is becoming more & more of a rarity... which makes me sad.

I guess that'll make me appreciate those games that still are a proper SP campaign more (ie. Witcher 3).

The DLC thing is obvious though, most games take content out of the game

@The_Last_Ride: well all games have to cut content. Every time you listen to devs talk about their games, they all talk about how many things got left out due to budget or time constraints

true, but a lot of the DLC us taken out by purpose and resell it

@GreySeal9: Im not butthurt over his opinion but come on man! The Last Of Us and Journy incredibly overrated? Offcourse he and you and everyone are entitled to their own opinions and i respect that but i highly disagree with most of the things he said. No offence here, just stating my own opinions, it was a little bit ignorant of him i would say:)

The previous gen was excellent indeed. Probably the greatest since the GEN/SNES days imo.

@ojmstr:

The 360 controler was perfect for shooter and racing games while the PS3 controler was best for fighting and RPG. Since the last gen saw almost 80% of the content as either FPS or 3rd person shooter style ... the 360 controler was the thing and it is true that the 360 performed better for multiplat game.

I also had the 360 for a few years and a PS3 for a lot more time because the games were more my thing. I also had a Vita for a year before selling it for a 3DS. I played my fair share of Wii games with my familly on Christmas vacation.

Online gaming and digital purshase became a thing very important very fast. Which is ok but sometimes feel a little bit tackle-on like in Tomb Raider. Also the introduction of Acheivement/Trophy + DLC all that put together kinda ruined it for me, making games quite empty as the single player is shallow at best, multiplayer online keep the game longer artifically so the focus is more about the graphics. Acheivement/Trophy and DLC also stripped down the games a lot. We use to be able to unlock stuff in the game, usefull stuff. One exemple from the first game that I platinumed is God Of War 3 ... previous entry in the game you could unlock funny alternate costume that changed the game and you could unlock cool video and art. In GOW3 you only have one alternate costrum to unlock the rest is sold in a DLC ... and once you have finish the trophy hunting ... the game is boring.

Just like so many games of today, if their weren't any acheivement/trophy for many games, there wouldn't be any reason to replay any of the games as they are very boring, shallow and are more of an interactive movie than a game that we used to PLAY.

The last Playstation game that I really enjoyed was Persona 4 Golden on the Vita but it was the only good game for that system but it defined 2013 for me. I loved it. But since then, I really felt burned out by the trophy hunting thing. i discovered that al the game I have are really an empty shell if it wasn't for the trophy or online play. So I sold my stuff and got a 3DS and I never had so much. Games that is about having fun and you can unlock stuff !!! I was so surprized when I finished Super Mario 3d Land on 3DS and unlocked Luigi !!! I was so happy. Since then I finished other gamess for the PS3 but always felt like missing something and so I bought a Wii U and I'm really happy. I don't think I'll buy a PS4 nor a X1.