Microsoft Press Conference - Post Show Discussion - #E32014

[Skyblade]

If you're a child and love colourful games and CGI trailers, you have a lot to be excited for. If you're an adult and you want games that take themselves seriously, you're left with nothing but disappointment.


But hey, if you're a fan of their brand, by all means continue to buy the third party titles. Just don't be that guy and say Microsoft is better than its competition.


I mean, THEIR BIGGEST GAME, Halo 5, had 15 seconds of promotion. And it was for the beta. Am I really the only person that thought that presentation was horrible?


And, last time I checked, Tomb Raider isn't a first party game. Typical Microsoft gamers go crazy for the third party titles, but fail to grasp that they're available on PC and PS4 as well.

I think "horrible" is going too far, as any way you slice it, they showed off a lot of fun-looking games. I will admit it was a little boring as it was pretty much the same group of games they show every year. Am I going to sell my PS4? Probably not but I have to think, for someone who doesn't own either next-gen console yet, that the decision of which to upgrade to isn't as easy as it seemed. They're going to have a steady stream of solid, if predictable, content in the near future and down the road. And I have a feeling Sony's conference will be similar - a solid lineup but few real surprises.


I would love to be wrong.

Maybe, but it fits the bill. They showed nothing of substance. Every game in attendance was either pre-rendered horsetrout, or it was an overly colourful game that is tailored to appeal to children. Like Fable. Does it look good visually? Absolutely, but it just doesn't look like a game that would appeal to a grown up.

Ok, it's weird to see this argument being leveled at Microsoft, instead of Nintendo. But I can't let it go.

Critics who treat 'adult' as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.

"Colorful" and even "childish" does not make a game "bad". Mario Kart 8 is one of the best looking games I've seen for any console. Between the amazing attention to details on Karts, tracks, and characters, it completely wipes the floor with a more "adult" next-gen game like Watch Dogs. Final Fantasy Tactics Advance is colorful and childish, and still tells a deep and serious story better than the entire rest of the franchise.