At some point people are just going to have to admit 343 isn't very good.
Bungie were the ones who made Halo, and made it a fantastic, memorable series. 343 are the people who well, for starters appear to contract out all of the real work like the cinematics and y'know... the actual remastering of Halo 2 and Halo 1 to other companies.
So what exactly is it that 343 themselves even do? Well, it certainly isn't continue the legacy of Bungie's Halo series in a fitting fashion. Halo 4 was a mess. I'm not much of an MP guy and only played a bit of it, but from what I hear the MP fanatics thought it was a train wreck in balance, mechanics, and everything else about MP. I'll take their word for it.
My main concern was with the absolutely *awful* fan fiction they passed off as a story. For one thing, Bungie had made it abundantly clear that humans WERE Forerunner descendants. Halo 4 tried to completely undo that. I actually never even liked that plot point, but trying to change it after it was already established was a total mess. The "you have a gene song in you and you were meant to be here... in that very armor... with that very AI Construct... it was your fate!" nonsense from the Librarian character, and just generally everything about Halo 4's story was awful. Their unnecessary redesigns of Covenant aliens and such were awful too.
All the strengths MCC has come from what Bungie produced. I'm glad I bought MCC. I like having the ability to play these classic games (looking better) on a modern console which I actually still have hooked up to my TV. I'm glad MCC was released and I think it's a great product... but again, all the impressive work for the Halo 2 anniversary was done by other companies, and 343 totally dropped the ball on the multiplayer.
They are not fit to carry forward the legacy of Halo, and Halo 5 is going to be awful.
@NTM23 It's just a shame Halo 4 has such a god awful story. The previous games from Bungie were making it abundantly clear that humans were the descendants of Forerunners, the whole "humans and forerunners fought in the distant past" angle was stupid. Very, very stupid.
So was the "gene song you being here was preordained yadda yadda" from the librarian.
@Shewgenja I actually think a compilation of the main entries in the series running better on a current gen console and the opportunity that gives people to play entries they had missed because they never had an original XBox, etc. ... with 1080p, faster frame rates... and multiplayer with lots of options on current, long-to-be-supported network infrastructure is a pretty justifiable basis for a release.
The problem is the stability. The concept itself is sound.
@mdign The dirty secret is that the single player has issues too. Lots of people, myself included, have been having full system (and also just game) crashes and lock ups while playing through the campaigns.
@hoyholyhoy @Gravity_Slave I haven't spent much time with Demon Souls or Dark Souls (a bit though) so I could be wrong, but would any of the following possibly fit the bill?
"while the Xbox One version delivers the core Alien experience mostly intact, overall immersion is compromised by frequent drops in fluidity. Performance is obviously the deciding factor here and it's clear PS4 has a distinct advantage." - Eurogamer Face-Off: Alien Isolation
"PS4 gets the nod - the higher resolution is welcome and the game simulation is more closely linked to the renderer, meaning less stutter than the Xbox One version." - Eurogamer Face-Off: Evil Within
"The Xbox One version unfortunately has a harder time delivering the same accomplishments, due to the lower 900p resolution and sharpening filter giving the game a much rougher look. The appearance of frame-rate drops in some scenes is also disappointing, considering the 30fps target and sub-native visuals" - Eurogamer Face-Off: Assassin's Creed Black Flag
And I could keep this up all day.
Mind you, I say this as someone who really, really wishes I could justify getting some of these cross platform titles on XBox One because right now I don't have much of a library for it (Just Destiny and Forza digital, really) and I prefer the Microsoft controller style.
@rasterror Let's be real here, I have a PS4 and an XBox One (and a PS3/PS2/PS1 and X360/XBox) and I'm struggling to find anything to buy on the XBox One so far. I may grab Sunset soon, given the good reviews, and I'm looking forward to MCC - but MCC is a bunch of games I've owned for years.
Every game that comes out on both systems plays smoother and looks better on the PS4, and Last of Us is a masterpiece even if it is a re-release.
Neither system has much to get excited about in terms of exclusives, but overall right now the PS4 is definitely the system which is doing better.
MS really dropped the ball by not matching or exceeding Sony's specs.
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