written by owen on 2018-Oct-01.

This generation of home video game consoles has not impressed me at all. It seems that people are using them as expensive netflix players than for playing video games. yes, the graphics, the resolution is great which is mostly a result of tonnes of RAM while most of the games are simply pretty versions of old stuff.

I played some rounds of fortnite and all I have to say is battle royale is beyond trash. Like noob lotto. I seriously have not felt like this since the last time I played Modern Warfare 3. I could feel my brain cells shrinking as I looted buildings looking for guns and health kits. The randomness reminds me of smartphone games that never end. Games that appeal to a part of the brain that gives a "feel good" with no substance. I generally avoid stuff like that, I instantly feel like I am wasting my time when I could be doing something else.

Played some NBA 2k but my main focus was Minecraft. I can see why little kids like the game so much. It allows them to have a big sandbox in which they can play around while feeling good and constantly making progress. It will be interesting to see what effect this has on kids that grow up on it. I spent a little over a week getting into the game, mining, running from witches until I found a good cave in which I spent a couple days digging until I found some diamond.

It was certainly fun crafting my first diamond sword then venturing off into the unknown in a boat in survival mode. Creative mode does not really appeal to me. I turned off auto-save and played one game until I found some diamond ore - quitting and restarting if died while deep in a cave. I dont see the point in auto-saving when a random witch can popup on you at anytime, anywhere and end your life. Or worse yet be stuck underground with an axe. I would most likely keep playing that one save file until I made everything I wanted then get bored with the game loop. Its definitely a choose your own adventure game. The game starts a bit slow but with a good spawn and some luck it opens up nicely.

As for the ps4 itself it crashed on me twice; once in game and once in the browser. It runs well for the most part, the PS4 interface keeps trying to sell me digital games and DLC. I could not find any free demos to download. Ratchet and Clank is pretty much the same mindless game it was on the PS2 - I never could bring myself to play it for any length of time. Rayman Legends was cool but its a older game. WRC was ok but I still could not flip the vehicle on a hard turn.

More than half my time on the PS4 was spent watching Kim's Convenience on Netflix. Not a very efficient way to watch streaming video.

Overall I give the PS4 a 6/10 - more juice, same controller, same old games but with new paint. No Backwards compatibility. This whole generation of consoles is trash except for a few games like HZD, NMS and BOTW.

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