Do we really need new consoles?

Isn't it strange that in this day and age we still find things to complain about. Not only are we as gamers getting some fantastic games, on all formats, but developers are hitting the sweet spot on their work.

Games like God of War Ascension, Gears of War Judgement and BioShock Infinite are all examples of great games that have been made for each respective format late into the “console cycle”. And yet they are some of the best games that we have to play at this time. Each game is a sequel in a series of games that has defined this generation. Yes i am aware that God of War started on the PS2, but it was the 3^rd entry that made people notice.

Now lots of people, mostly high profile journalists will complain that we need to consoles, that game design is struggling right now. There is nothing new coming out but is that true. I don’t think that its the case. Just this year we are getting Watch_Dogs, a brand new IP as well as Beyond Two Souls. Both games are coming very late but both are brand new IP’s and both look beyond outstanding on these 6 year old machines.

Of course, people that make game engines, who have dreamt of electric sheep for ages, will indeed want more powerful hardware, to showcase their engine better.  But if you take a look at games like Crysis 3, or even Battlefield 3, those games on console look amazing.  But if you take away the graphics, is it the same game?

At any point when you’re looking at a game you are going to be drawn to the graphics. The way a game looks will always be more appealing then what the player is doing with their fingers on the controller. And it’s at this point that things are getting to complex, we have had amazing games with great physics for some time now. But it appears that we are glutens and want more. Looking at the debut footage for Playstation 4 games, can we really say they looked miles above the current consoles?

I don’t think so, sure they did look cleaner, but in terms of Killzone, just as an example it will play exactly the same as the previous ones. The controller, while having a touch screen has the same button layout as the Playstation 3 controller. Now its not a bad thing, i think each console, has got amazing controllers, each has a solid layout with no real flaws.

Does getting a new console cycle mean that we are only going to get marginally better graphics? Because thats all it seems to do from a gameplay point, at this stage. Feature sets like Gaikai for PS4 could easily be introduced into the PS3 via a firmware update. Take a look at the xbox, it has had 3 major revisions of its console software since launch, not to mention all the little add ons over the years.

So while its all well and good to have shiny graphics, the gameplay is not changing in this new generation. No matter how good a game looks if it plays like utter crap no one will care. So releasing a new console with the same controller, for the next round of Call of Duty’s and such all with a newer coat of paint wont help anyone, but you never know stranger things have happened.