Michael Pachter chooses the Xbox to win the next generation

What issue do you have with Nintendo? Writing them off as a game publisher and developer, or the Wii U off as a platform, suggests you’re well and truly entrenched in the ADHD, “a month is a long time in gaming” generation.

As does you comment about Quantic Dream’s work. Sure, it may not be your cup of tea, but the world and interactive entertainment is a (clearly!) a fair bit broader than your own (by the sound of it narrow) experience in gaming. And the way you’re talking suggests that you haven’t achieved a greater level of evolution than the rest of us, so I’d hold off before calling people chimps .

On the by, Forza is developed by Turn 10, part of Microsoft Game Studios – they _are_ part of Microsoft, so yes, Microsoft did decide to put a Kinect achievement in .

Anyways, the point I was making in this thread was that all three console platform holders behave quite similarly with hype – so singling out one over another suggests biased parochialism. Same goes for your odd comment on faceless corporations – you realise that the Xbox and Windows 7 (or 8 if you’re insane) are made by a large corporation that is just as ‘faceless’ (despite the fact that all three platform holders have a number of clearly identified spokespeople – ie, they’re not actually faceless – or maybe you’ve never heard of Major Nelson, Jack Tretton, Andrew House, Shigeru Miyamoto and so on).

As for Sony’s ‘gimmicks’, I think you’re getting a little carried away – what, we’ve seen the Sixaxis, 3D, Move and Wonderbook this gen. Of those, Sixaxis had no negative impact on gaming, and worked well in a small number of games (Flower would have been impossible without it). 3D is niche, but there are people that get right into it. Move is similarly niche, but again has a decent rate of adoption and has some of the best-in-class motion games on it. Wonderbook may turn out to be a miss, too many bits and pieces to get it going, but it’s a little early to tell at this stage.

I agree that David Cage goes on a bit, and can be far too pretentious, but Heavy Rain is actually a really well put together game (I play a whole range of stuff, from strategy, shooters, racing, sports, RPGs, flight, action, brawlers, the odd fighting game and whatnot, and have for over 20 years, and I enjoyed it – it’s well paced, and well put together. It’s game mechanics aren’t ‘standard’, but they are absolutely game mechanics. Of course, it won’t appeal to fans of arcade shooters and sports games). It’s like I think Cliffy B carries on like a twit sometimes, but I still gave Gears a go and can appreciate it as a quality shooter . And Peter Molyneux really needs to promise less, and carry on a whole lot less, but the Fable series is all quality (even if it’s not quite what Peter says it will be ).

As for Ninty, do you not like abbreviations, or that particular phonetic arrangement? It’s an odd thing to dislike – that abbreviation for Nintendo has been used for decades, and has a long history. I’d be interested as to where your emotional preconceptions relating to the term come from.

As for the hype, you could just ignore it and focus on what you enjoy? I find it odd so many people go ga-ga over Justin Bieber (very odd, in fact), but I happily enjoy it and listen to music with a dash more depth. Just because he’s with Island records doesn’t mean I’ll avoid listening to Queen (also on Island records). I think Kinect is an overhyped niche product as well, but I’m not going to avoid Halo because of it.

How much of a playthrough of Heavy Rain did you watch? (And why on earth would you watch rather than play a game like that?) It definitely starts slow, but it builds and _every_ gamer I know who’s played it enjoyed it a lot. It may not be your cup of tea (and it sounds like you’ve got a few suitcases of emotional baggage relating to Cage, so there’s a fair chance this would get in the way of your enjoyment anyways), but if you haven’t played it, then you’re not really in a position to comment. Because of the nature of games, watching someone else play them is a materially different experience than actually playing them.

As for MS, I’ve heard plenty of people call it ‘The Big M’, and I have no issue with that. I’m not a Ninty fanboy at all – I play across systems, but the Wii’s the first console I’ve ever regretted owning (and the first I’ve ever traded back in), and I find the Legend of Zelda games boring. It’s just an abbreviation, a nickname. I may live in a more relaxed society than you, but over here, we use nicknames all the time and think nothing of it. Apologies for offending your cultural sensibilities, but unfortunately on the internet you’re likely to come across people with different cultural backgrounds.

As for Move and 3D, how well they’re adopted isn’t your concern. I have a Vita – its awesome. It’s not selling like hotcakes, but I don’t care as its not my main gaming system, and I’m having a great time on it as there are still plenty of games. Its a little sad so many people are missing out, but that’s a first-world problem if ever there was one, so I’m not going to lose sleep over it. Adoption is also outside of anyone’s control – the Wii, Kinect, Move could all have failed hard. They didn’t, and continue to be well supported (the Move is still well supported – I suspect strongly that you don’t even have a PS3, let alone a Move), as does 3D implementation (which is also well supported on the 360, given the two of ‘em like to compete pretty strongly. If I had a 3D TV, I’d be happy with my options. I don’t have a 3D, though, and don’t care.

As for feeling lied too, you get that from every advertiser, most politicians, and a lot of media outlets. Yes, Sony push it too hard and don’t always come through with what they’ll say they do (Move and 3D actually have been done well – Remote play, on the other hand, has generally been a failure this gen, after being talked up hard early), but so do MS (sorry – Microsoft) and Ninty (cough – sorry – Nintendo). I’m not sure if you’ve ever watched Fox News, but if you disliked being lied too, they’d have your rage meter filled in moments, as would listening to any politician for more than about a minute. It’s an unfortunate fact of life, and one that needs to be adjusted too. I’m excited about the PS4, but I don’t think for a second we’ll see the smooth implementation of everything mentioned in the reveal, because that’s not how these things work, for any platform holds.

On the by, lols at the basement example. Fortunately for me, I live in a society where people that use abbreviations and nicknames aren’t forced to live underneath houses!

Yeah, the early bits are the slowest – that’s only the ‘set up’ part of the game, and it does improve considerably after that. No, you don’t need to own a product to have an opinion on it, but it’s sensible to have a strength of opinion that’s aligned with the level of experience. If I said “The Hobbit” was a horrible, horrible movie, after only watching the first 10 minutes, and carried on about it, there’s a risk I’ll get called out and look like I don’t know what I’m talking about (unfortunately, the Hobbit isn’t that great, and I’ve seen the whole thing). This is happening to you now because the strength of your opinion is disproportionate to your knowledge of the subject. Sure, if you read Xbox fanboy sites, you’ll get the impression that Move is poorly supported, but it’s not. Same for 3D. So calling them out as ‘lies’ just makes you look like you don’t know what you’re talking about. If you’d have complained about remote play, on the other hand, or the PS2 Hard Drive, you’d have been fine, but you ended up attacking products that provide quality entertainment, and continue to do so. It’d be like me going off about Xbox360 hardware failures in 2013, when the issue was (mostly) resolved years ago. I’d rightly look like I was out of touch.

And apologies if it sounded like I was ‘infantilising’ Nintendo – I picked the term up from Nintendo fans (indeed, from reading the Official Nintendo Magazine – not because I was a fanboy, but because a cousin was on the writing staff, so I subscribed to it for a while) – if the Official Nintendo Magazine calls Nintendo ‘Ninty’, I didn’t think they’d find it insulting – should I have written to them to double-check?

As for the Vita, it’s doing well enough to have a number of quality games out for it – because Sony support it well – that’s all I need. I’d be a bit disappointed if it was all I had, but it’s not, so I’m smiling .

As for PC – it’s great, but you get just as many lies from PC publishers – Skyrim at launch (interface optimised for PC, right…..), Half Life 2, Episide 3 (we’re still waiting), always-online DRM. I game more on console because I have more trouble with PC. That said, if you’re willing to deal with all the extra work, PC is easily the most flexible gaming platform.

Most importantly, make sure you have fun – I’m not talking about this with you to attack you, just because I’m a big fan of stuff being represented accurately, and it was fairly clear you weren’t full bottle on what you were talking about. Gaming should be about enjoyment – so focus on the system or types of games you enjoy, and accept that there are others that aren’t your cup of tea and leave them be. I personally found the Wii terrible, but I know plenty of people who enjoyed it – the last thing I want is for my dislike of it to hurt their enjoyment.

No shame in blind fandom to Deus Ex – that’s a sign of good character .

Not sure about all entertainment products needing to capture your attention in the beginning though. I like stuff that ‘builds’ (I’m a big fan of grand strategy games, and they almost always start slow – but you get slow building movies and books as well). It’d be a shame if all entertainment followed one path of ‘intensity’ – would make everything one-note. Doesn’t mean you should have to like that stuff, don’t get me wrong.

Not suggesting you’re not alone in not thinking it’s a silly word – it just isn’t everywhere, or I’d never have picked it up. I didn’t make it up, I ‘learned’ it from reading the ONM – so calling Nintendo by a nickname it’s endorsed seemed harmless enough – you’re the first person, ever, who I’ve bumped into that’s ever had an issue with it – there are also plenty of people out there who think it’s fine.

As for the Vita, the whole point is that it’s for when you’re away from a big screen – you’ll never get the same amount of power/dollar from a handheld system than you will from a console or PC, as the handheld is much smaller and has to run on a much lower wattage. That said, I have found that the Vita experience is scarily close (in fun factor) to hitting the PC/PS3/360 – I’ve found myself playing my latest ‘travel’ game on the couch, instead off firing the big boys, on more than a few occasions. But it’ll never be quite there.

As for Cage and Blow (and I didn’t get Braid either – went right over my head), they are what they are – gaming’s a much bigger medium and has room for a wide range of experiences. I loved Heavy Rain, but I found Braid arbitrary and pithy. I don’t think Blow is terrible though – lots of people clearly dug what he did – but it’s not my thing. Hell, I found Demon’s Souls to be a frustrating mess (not for its difficulty, but numerous other design decisions), but lots of people enjoyed it – it’s not a bad game, it’s just not my kind of game. Sounds like Heavy Rain is in the same spot for you – just not your thing – but don’t fall into the trap of thinking just because you don’t like it, that’s it’s necessary all-round bad – it just may be made with a different audience in mind.

On the other hand, the Lord of the Rings (the book), starts very slowly, but is one of the most popular books of all time. I’m not saying things should always start slowly either, of course, but that different patterns and rhythms can work well, but they won’t work well for everyone (ie, clearly Heavy Rain didn’t work for you).

Not sure what you were getting at with the success thing – agree success doesn’t mean it’s good on a technical level, but success usually means that it’s doing something for people. For an entertainment product, if its successful it’s highly likely to be providing entertainment in some form. I don’t like Oprah or Kanye, and don’t think much of their technical skills (or personalities ), but I can appreciate that they have entertained a great many people. Now, those people that they entertained may have poor judgement, but it’s not for me to shape the world in my image – better to appreciate others for what they are.