Editorial: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 We Hardly Knew Ye

So, with a new generation of consoles here, it's time to eulogize the imminent passing of the previous one. We look back on all of the good times we had, the bad times, the high and low points, all the things that made the generation special for us. My problem is that this past generation was the first time I genuinely found myself not caring about console games, and I can see that opinion galvanizing in the future.

There were plenty of games that I liked that came out on those systems, but they also came out on PC where they were often times prettier. Even better, if I waited until something like a Steam Sale, I could get a lot of those games for a sack of nickels, which is quite the savings over their console equivalents where I was hard pressed to find a lot of those games for under twenty bucks.

Sure, there were exclusives, and I did partake in them. The problem is that they largely failed to hold my attention very long before I went back to my PC or maybe whipped out the DS for a bit. I didn't really come across a lot of games that were able to hold my attention on consoles.

Hell, the one game to really sink its claws into me during last generation was World of Warcraft. Maybe it was that game that started me on my path to being an almost exclusively PC gamer for current gen stuff. I'd played plenty of PC games prior to that, but now they're all I want to play. It's partially due to the platform having genres of games I can't find elsewhere (4X, grand strategy, space games) and also the fact that I view it as a more affordable platform in the long term when I factor in the truck loads of games that I've picked up for pennies on the dollar at various sales.

So, happy trails PS3 and Xbox 360. I'm sure you two put smiles on a lot of people's faces, but I wasn't one of them. It's not a bad thing. We just weren't made for each other, and I don't see your successors changing that. I think I may have made the shift to full-on PC gaming this past generation, and feel no compulsion to change that.

- Jeff Nash
Follow @MrNashAE

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Launch titles for any console are often characterized as, "utter crap" at worst and "something to play on a piece of technology I just dropped an obscene amount of money on." For the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, there were both of kinds of titles. Let's take a look at a few of them.

Oh, and you'll also notice that most of the games below are Xbox 360 titles. Not that we had anything against the PlayStation 3, we just didn't get the launch titles.

Call of Duty 2 (360)
No matter how things change in the games industry, some things remain constant. Battlefield 4, and arguably all first-person shooters, suffer to some extent by putting so much power and emphasis on the player. There may be a dozen friendlies to choose from but the opposing force will always zero in on the player. Here's a snippet from the Call of Duty 2 review:

"The AI for both your foes and friendly forces in pretty good.  Foes and friends alike take cover and return fire; enemies may crouch in a room waiting for you to enter; if a grenade lands near them they’ll often scatter.  But it still falls to you to lead the action – you always get the short straw though your squad never lets you in on the selection process.  “We drew straws and you got the short one.  Get down there and take out that tank with a sticky bomb!  We’ll cover you from here.”"

Resistance: Fall of Man (PS3)

Resistance: Fall of Man

The opening paragraph of our review of Resistance: Fall of Man comments on the scarcity of the PlayStation 3. Remember that?

As the defacto launch shooter for PlayStation 3, the game went a long way to showcase some of the graphical power of the new system, even if some the enemy AI didn't always match that standard:

"Enemy A.I. is pretty simplistic.  The enemies will take advantage of cover, try to flank, react to grenades and such, but they aren’t the smartest enemies in the FPS world.  Only their sheer firepower (and the toughness of some of the larger ones) makes the game challenging."

Kameo: Elements of Power

Kameo: Elements of Power (360)
In retrospect, the 7.9/10 score seems overboard and we just might have fell victim to what often happens with launch titles. You're just glad to be playing something, anything so it must be good!

"So did Rare redeem themselves for Grabbed by the Ghoulies?  Yes, but not like a Phoenix rising from the ashes – Kameo’s good but I have the nagging feeling that it could have been better."

Grabbed by the Ghoulies... I'd almost forgotten.

Gun (360)
Before Red Dead Redemption became the standard for Western games but after Gun.Smoke, there was Gun, an open-world game starring Colton White. I don't remember much about Gun except thinking a sequel might push things in the right direction for something truly memorable.

"They’ve laid a good foundation with Gun because the basic mechanics are sound but a more populated game world with more to do and a more extensive story would bring the whole experience from a rental on a slow weekend to an outright purchase."

- Aaron Simmer
Follow @EmpireArmchair

Have some fond memories of Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3? Not ready to give up on either one? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!