As if on the verge of a misty field, Microsoft had given the entire gaming world a chance for new life to be breathed into it's stagnant comatose body. For years, the industry had been filled with sequels, dead horses and the systematic failure of customer appreciation and respect for creative freedom. After the lack luster reveal and subsequent uninspired response to the Nintendo Wii and Playstation 4, Microsoft was poised to strike; ready to crash into the gaming scene with ground breaking technology along with new reveals and features that was excite players once again and inspire a new generation of creative and consumer freedom.
Instead what was revealed was a front row seat to not the crumbling of an empire, but the homogenization of the already colossal, roiling beast that is corporate influence in video game. We were treated to the death of backwards compatibility the shifting of focus from gamers to the home entertainment system, letting everyone know that 'Xbox One' isn't for you, silly gamer, it's for people who are not informed about gaming enough to realize the titanic insult of a corporate hand reaching out of your TV and slapping you across the face when your friends let you borrow their game or the continuous stagnation of game graphics and innovation.
Allow me, if you will, to take you on a journey. But be warned; because in the words of Lostprophets, 'It's not the end of the world, but I can see it from here'.
1 step forward and 359 steps back.
Backward in this case is used generously since backwards is exactly what the Xbox One isn't compatible with. Get ready to keep your old 360 around or throw out your 360 library because despite the massive technological advancements that humanity has undergone in the past decade alone, you won't be able to put a 360 game in the brand new Xbox One and play it.
Xbox 360: Now with 20% more inconvenience
Call of Duty: Check
Kinect: Check
Improved graphics: Not really but I guess a little
Fish AI that moves out of the way: Wait what...?
Yes, it's back and not better than before. The Kinect will be shipping along with the new Xbox so everyone can not enjoy all those mediocre games that no one cares about! And not only that, it is required to run the Xbox in the first place.
Along with this reveal was a preview of the new Call of Duty: Ghosts. I can't speak on this as the game isn't even out yet, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that players will kill Russians with modern military weapons.
In grand conclusion. . .
I don't get it. I have never been so unexcited about a new generation of game consoles. Can someone explain to me how game consoles are anything more than a pole vault for game graphics any more? It's as if we wait 8 years just so we can see a somewhat marginal improvement in video game graphics.
The only conclusion I'm left with is that what was revealed were features that failed to deliver excitement and graphics that, while were being honest, were not all that good. I remember when a console reveal was met with questions of how it will progress the gaming industry. Instead, today it is met with pleas for said company to not invent more ways to hold back the creative potential of companies.
The game industry has become like a dying lawn. You don't know when the grass turned yellow, you just know you need to start pulling weeds before it spreads into your driveway..
