The term “Next-gen” seems to be a bit redundant these days, as a culture we’re now fully in the swing of things so I believe it would be more fitting to say current gen. At any rate if you’re a frequent reader of TCG, you would know by now that it’s no real secret that I love my library of ps2 games, and at this pace it’s not about to change anytime soon, and as a testament to that I’ve recently completed The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate destruction, which has easily cruised into my top 10 all time favorite games.
One of the many reasons I’m a bit reluctant to move to the next stage of game play is just that, the game play, it’s simply not up to par with the advancements in the other sectors. It would’ve been alot simpler if my reasons had to deal with the fact that the current price points were unapproachable or worst yet the lack of games or content was abysmal but it’s simply not the case (yes even the PS3 despite its naysayers 
), it’s based on the fact that the games available barring graphical prowess (which can be questionable at times) are nothing I can’t currently experience on my ps2. Albeit I’m currently missing out on the romp that is stellar multiplayer play in such titles as The Orange Box and Warkhawk which surprisingly doesn’t phase me too much as I’m not much of an online gamer to begin with, but don’t get me wrong, I love online play when I do play, but having a continuously stacked schedule like I have, I’ll be lucky to even play a complete single player game within a month.
As an artist by trade I can truly appreciate the overuse of ‘plastic’ normal mapped assets (tongue placed firmly in cheek) and to be fair some devs do get that right, but I still hold game play above everything else, and sadly this is where the recent crop of consoles falls miserably flat. It appears that graphics have successfully made the cut to the next-gen leap, but game play and design have been left on the cutting room floor for later use. To this day I have not picked up a current gen title that grabbed me by the jugular slapped me around and said buy a PS3 or Xbox 360 to play me. FPS are still FPS, driving games are still your basic fair and let us not get started on sports titles. Maybe as a dedicated not hardcore ‘dedicated’ gamer I expect too much, but having seeing everything as basically a graphical upgrade I’m not at all that enthralled to plunk down hundreds for a new console and the $70-$80 a pop for the recent crop of titles. Ok to be fair Assassin’s Creed looks and moves incredible, I firmly believe Ubisoft has broken new ground were I expected, but things like the AI left me dumbfounded. Heavenly Sword appeals to me being a God of War junkie, and Uncharted and Bioshock definitely gets my mojo going but unfortunately it isn’t enough. The Wii is obvious acception to the rule, but even devs are playing it safe when it comes to pushing the boundaries of design and even though Mario Galaxy brings some fresh game play to the masses, Mario himself is getting rather long in the tooth.
Now it’s obvious I haven’t experienced every game for this gens systems but after studying many titles and play testing whatever demo is available in local game shops I must say I’m still very underwhelmed, maybe all I should be expecting is a deep engrossing story or even a mind numbing visceral fun ride that said title The Incredible Hulk brought me. Yes this is true but as a gamer I crave intelligent AI routines, emotive characters that escape the ‘uncanny valley’ and out of the box game play design (yes portal is insane). I might not have to wait long however as next year shows incredible promise.
