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WiiU vs PS4 vs XBox 720 vs cheap mobile gaming


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Old thread:

http://www.snowjapanforums.com/index.php/topic/12009-wii-vs-ps3-vs-xbox360

 

Time for a new gaming thread perhaps as new consoles ahoy.

Kind of surprised it has taken them so long, but looks like the PS4 will be announced in a few days.

I predict much less success for all of the main consoles.

Just too difficult to compete with cheap, even harder with free.

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Accounts and multiplayer related stuff seems less chear.

Playable in around 19 hours from now! If you buy it as a download anyway.

Played a bit of Destiny. Cool!  

Me too - what with gaming costs getting higher, and the blurring between the consoles and the differences between them.

 

I can see MS pulling out of Japan after a few dreadful years in Japan, mobile gaming still being more of a case of short blasts rather than big ones. In game purchases to become the norm in games, rather than the exception.

 

PC gaming to make a resurgence with the the Steam box.

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God i hate my computer. I had to buy a laptop because i was coming over from Korea, and honestly had no idea where id be in a couple of years so figured it was the best thing to do. Laptops are a PIECE OF SHIT for gaming.The graphics chip is always WAY behind decent mid range desktop cards (and these are the high end ones), and its all but obsolete within a couple of years (im not THAT much of a geek). Which of course means i have to buy another overpriced pos laptop instead of just chucking a few extra ram sticks and upgrading my graphics card. I reckon mines starting to struggle (it was just above mid range when i bought it a year and a half ago).

 

Now my point of this ramble is that proper gamers, you know, people that LOVE games and spend countless hours each day playing them, would find any statement that you can play games just as well on a tablet or a phone as hilarious. Hell, i dont even rate console gaming because a couple of years into the cycle theyre completely left behind by technology.

 

Maybe in ten years when tablets and phones can run this shit then they can join the conversation (that was finished ten years earlier just like every other game theyre currently talking about - ooooh! you can play vice city on a mobile phone! amazing!)...

 

Arma3_screenshot_01_1000x4001.png

 

Proper gamers and proper console gamers are still out there. Theyre still buying games. This idea that weve all moved on to apps is daft. That being said, as soon as baldurs gate 2 is available on my android, ill be picking it up for the tablet. Perfect game for a tablet if you ask me ;)

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ah you essentialist in relativist clothing. Its not a stand alone concept and thus does not have an eternal core. Its a term in relation to its counterpart - the casual gamer, the light gamer, the non gamer, the modern gamer, the flash gamer, the tablet gamer,etc etc. As one ebbs, the other flows. However i would suggest that if youre willuing to lay down a tonne of cash on a machine primarily for the purpose of gaming, youre probably a gamer.

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How long is a piece of string?

 

The thing with these terms is that theyre all in flux. They arent standalone. Now, common sense you might apply it to any other self identification based on any past-time and ask the same thing "what makes a surfer a surfer?" is it enough to sit on your mini-mal while the waves lap past you? Do you just need to own a decent board? How many waves do you need to ride before you become one? How big do they need to be before youre accepted as a surfer by all the people jealously guarding their own self identification as a "surfer"? Do you even need their recognition since its an entirely personal term? And last of all, is the claim its a personal term accurate in any way shape or form?

 

Or how about a skier? Is it enough to go to St Moritz for a few days lodge pimping to call yourself a skier? Is it enough to strap on a pair of skis, ride a lift, pizza down a hill and then go home? Are you a "skier" then? Or do you also need to be decked out in 80s fluro, or steezy tees? Is it a term that has an essential and reducible core? Or is it a term that people created to self identify and then jealousy protect their own status?

 

What tricks do i need to do to become a snowboarder? What lines do i need to have ridden? How many forums do i need to post in, and how much tech do i need to talk about before im a proper snowboarder?

 

As i say, theres no real essential core to this idea. An attempt to establish one can only lead to a bunch of counter examples and issues from its deployment. Its easy then to say its all meaningless, but again this misses the point. These terms are useful, they have a social function in that they offer ways to compress a multiplicity of information into a single quick expression. Its a social expression, and any attempt to turn it into an essential, scientific or dare i say philosophical one, moves the expression into a discussion it doesnt really beong to.

 

However, to avoid the claim that im being sneaky and evasive, in conjunction with the expression a "proper gamer" is someone willing to spend money on a machine expressly for the purpose of gaming. Its not the sole concept and the core of what mkes a proper gamer, but its certainly one of the components...

 

But what about teenagers whose parents buy their games and spend an obsessive amount of time in their bedroom playing? theyre not proper gamers? Arent they in fact the VERY BASIS of the gamer stereotype? yeessss, but...

 

In truth, if you ask me, and my opinion is not a universal standpoint, but a single aspect of a much wider and conntinually developing social conversation, proper gamers are people who focus a great deal of their time deliberately to playing, researching and talking about gaming.

 

But what about people who spend hours talking about a game like minecraft or farmville? These are games right? So the people playing them are proper gamers?... yesssss, but....

 

20 years ago people played games like minesweeper and solitaire on their PCs at work in downtime. There was no attempt to suggest that these games were not games, nor that the people playing those games were "gamers". This is where its kinda interesting, because these were pastimes. They were games, of course, but playing certain types of games excluded you from the pantheon of weridos living in their mums basement spending an unhealthy amount of hours on an antisocial escapist fantasy. There was a clear distinction. Only what youre seeing now is kinda the rehabilitation of the gamer (much like programmes like the big bang theory is the rehabilitation of the nerd/geek). And now more people are wanting to self identify as a gamer. The Wii and smartphone technology made gaming a much healthier and less time intense hobby. The wii returned the console front and center as the family entertainment system making it more of a family friendly social event (much like the old atari was a family event machine), whilst the smartphone tapped into the whole minesweeper phenomenon of casual downtime quick fix boredom smashers. Suddenly gaming found itself out of its basement and into the mainstream.

 

Well, this game advances touch screen controlling, so surely it adheres to the technological frontiers and suggests its delivering at the cutting edge of its era? yesssss... but...

 

And i spend DAYS getting lost in it... yesssss, but...

 

And how is it different from games like Lemmings or bubble bobble or any other platform game from the past? You wouldnt try and argue that these arent "proper" games? yeessssss, but...

 

Well now youve admitted its a proper game, doesnt it follow that gaming itself has evolved, and we've really no need anymore for consoles like the PS4 or the Xbox720! Our phones and tablets can do what they do! they can play proper ga...

 

Let me stop you there... this is the point where the argument gets silly. Let me now pull away the terms youre taking a spot of umbrage with, and suggest that theres sill a massive market for this from people who have self identified as a gamer. Gaming has certainly got more diverse, but that doesnt mean we've all averaged our expectations or that we all want some kind of mean generic gaming experience. The "proper gamer" or the "hardcore" gamer, or the "traditional" gamer, or the "no lifer" gamer still exist. Its just theyve been JOINED by other people who would never have recognised their activity as "gaming". Nor would they have accepted the term "gamer!" to describe it. Now they do. But with qualifiers of course because they arent basement dwelling jerkwad gamers. They just like playing games now and again...

 

This is fine, but It doesnt mean that the "proper gamer" (the term in flux and in continual relationship with the casual/now and again/modern/social gamer) have all suddenly switched over to games like angry birds for their fix.

 

The market got BIGGER, and yes, it included a lot more casual part time gamers (and developers after massive returns on low cost productions), but that doesnt mean the market for massive production cost games (or games that push the latest greatest technological developments) have in turn shrank as we've all suddenly realised the error of our ways and downsized our expectations and gone back to low intensity puzzle, platform, and adventure games. It just means theres more people in the market and more means of accessing and playing games. Consoles still have a place, and anyone who thinks that the field is some great mass equivalency of expectations and technology clearly doesnt have a clue about gaming and probably isnt all that interested anyway ;)

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As a PC gamer, and having not owned a console since the gamecube, is this stuff theyve announced of any value to you guys at all? Were you all sitting there desperate for a way to link up your tablet with your console, and dreaming of the day you could play a game and have someone in another place watch you play the game and even take control of it while you play it? Im not really getting any of this to be honest :) Theonly thing thats sounded useful is that you can switch it on low power mode while you download stuff... is that the point of the cloud hook up? So you can browse netflix at work, pick some shit to download, and then when you get home its all done?

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What people often forget is that these are dedicated gaming machines, that people spend years trying to eek out as much as they can, rather than just throwing in a new graphics card etc.

 

It looks promising, in particular the extended Vita connection but we shall see.

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Heres what im getting:

 

It looks like a nice gaming system. Seriously decent quality and your games are going to work all the way through to the next development cycle. Beats PC gaming where they couldnt give less of a shit about your hideously expensive rig 3 years later when the specs start shooting up. Currently the graphics are top of the line. And SUPER CHEAP for what youre getting (assuming the under $500 price tag that people are talking about) :) Decent TV plus PS4 plus decent couch = gaming heaven for 2014.

Destiny looks like its going to ****ing murder every other game out there. Youre looking at a real wow killer. Persistent online world mashed with FPS mashed with RPG is the bomb. I genuinely get this as a gaming rig. Its a solid update and as i say, ridiculous bang for your buck.

 

Im just not getting this social thing and the hooking up with all your phones, tablets, and vitas. Well, maybe i get the vita... does this mean if youre on the train, have a dedicated wifi spot, you can, for example, just plug into destiny and off you go? If so, i get that and its ****ing huge! :) (and also annoying for people who have to code a version that functions on a much less impressive system).

 

If its just some kind of bullshit like where you can check on your auctions remotely or chat with your mates and do all that kind of book keeping stuff but not actually play the game, who honestly gives a shit?

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It always cracks me up when they show off the graphics on a system, then say they aren't using anything close to the full potential of the system.

 

Still no news on a price yet, but here's hoping it will be under 40,000yen.

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