Yeah, what happened to Rare is a travesty. They went from one of the greatest developers of all time to a factory pumping out crappy Kinect games. I don't know what Microsoft was thinking when they stripped Rare of its soul. But I still stand by the idea that Microsoft needs stronger first party games. Microsoft can't rely on inferior third party ports to sell the Xbone. They need their own games and franchises.
Actually, I feel like I've "digested" these games already. Need for Speed Rivals was the best one, IMHO and I don't usually like racing games. InFAMOUS Second Son is my favorite next gen console game so far. Looking forward to Destiny, Batman Arkham Knight and Elder Scrolls Online. Thinking about Dragon Age.
Not only Rare, but remember Access Software? They made the Links series of golf games as well as the Tex Murphy games. There were a few Links releases under Microsoft and whatever is remains of them has been likely making the Kinect golf. Other than that, another studio that has largely been stamped out. MS seems to treat their properties horribly. The ironic thing is, under Microsoft Games, there had been some great PC games as well as console games that were on the original XBox, but somewhere along the line, they seemed to get away from that and away from first-party games. Bungie was lucky to get out of there alive and get back to being independent. Bring back the Madness games! Monster Truck Madness, Midtown Madness, Motocross Madness etc.
Don't forget The Witcher 3. That game's looking beautiful! Looks to me like they fixed a lot of criticisms I had with the others. Hell, I was never able to get passed the first one's boss due to how it was designed, ie long segment without a break and chance to save before the big baddie.
I'm probably in the minority, but I consider the original Xbox better than the 360 for that very reason. The Xbox has some great diverse and exclusive games on the system. What happened to this Microsoft? Blinx 1 & 2 Buffy the Vampire Slayer Conker Live & Reloaded (definitive version) Crimson Skies Genma: Onimusha (definitive version) Gunvalkyrie Otogi 1 & 2 Panzer Dragoon Orta Phantom Dust
Wow, yeah, I'm really surprised they didn't milk Crimson Skies into an exclusive franchise. It really had lots going for it at the time. Quite unique too.
Good list, Kelthaz! Yeah I totally agree, Microsoft did (still do) have a good range of in-house properties, but seem to have next to know idea how to exploit them effeciently. Oh totally. In particular I feel that Midtown Madness should've been an inexaustable franchise - plenty of cities on the planet! The thing about them IMO is they had true cross-market appeal. They had the interesting gimmick of basing various types of gameplay challenge around real-world locations, but were perhaps more "family friendly" than some other similar open world games that have done the same sorts of thing since, like your GTAs and so forth.
Turns out my local Best Buy has PS4s in stock. I almost broke down and bought one yesterday, but I'm trying to be responsible with my money. I really don't have enough reason to buy one yet.
Yeah, with E3 right around the corner now isn't a good time to buy. I doubt Sony will announce a price drop, but there could be bundles.
Good point about the "family friendly" aspect of them. In a way, that series paved the way for a lot of the open-world street racing that you now see in Need for Speed, GTA, and other games. Before that, I don't remember having seen games with checkpoint races through cities that are now so popular in games. I think that whoever's in charge of the XBox now should look into reviving some of these franchises. They'd look great on current hardware, bring back some nostalgia, and give the XBox back some great exclusive games, not to mention, more of an incentive for people to pick up a console.
Well it's about damn time. $399 Kinect-less Xbox One Available June 8th Now we just need Nintendo to follow suit and release a $199 Wii U without the tablet controller.
On top of that: So they're dropping the paywall for most apps as well. About bloody time. I had been set on upgrading to PS4 at some point later this year, but now the Xbox One is actually an option for me. I'll have to think it over some more.
Well.. now it solely is about the games and personally the Xbox lineup looks better to me at the current moment. Sony needs to come up with some good exclusives and get to haul some ass to keep ahead because good titles are rare and the first good batch is set to appear fall/christmas season (not counting infamous and the soon to be released Watchdogs). It's a far cry from E3 Microsoft with their DRM bullshit and Kinect centric system.. the customers have decided already which is evident through the numbers sold. I'm curious if MS can gain some ground and narrow the gap. I'll still get a PS4 soon once i can buy one for standard retail and find one available in the store.
Yeah, wow, seems like someone in charge had the good sense to do the right thing. As for the paywall, that was one thing I was always puzzled about. It seemed like double-dipping when having to pay to open up access to something you'd have to pay access for. This is possibly one of the best decisions they've made about the XBox in general. I wonder if this would be retroactively applied to the 360. On the other hand, if they don't, that alone could be a huge incentive to get people to upgrade.
When it comes to games, Microsoft has more to prove to me than Sony. The PS3 had a boatload of quality, notable exclusives. Not every one was a system seller, but most provided for some solid gaming and quite a few were some of the best games I've ever played. And Sony had the same situation with the PS1 and the PS2. They have history on their side and there is no reason to think it won't be the same with the PS4, especially since so many of their exclusives come from 1st party studios. I bought my PS4 being pretty comfortable in the knowledge that good games are coming. And I'm enjoying Killzone, Infamous, Outlast, Resogun and FFXIV (not a true PS4 exclusive, but it's not on a Microsoft console) a lot. From 2010 - 2013 (so 4 freakin' years), the 360 had maybe 1/2 the number of exclusives games the PS3 had (I'm excluding Kinect games from the count). About the only thing they reliably had was Halo, Gears of War and Forza. It also had Alan Wake, Crackdown 2 and The Witcher 2, but that still isn't enough. I own a 360 and played quite a lot of games when I bought it, but it's been sitting in a box for years and I've had very little incentive to plug it in. I will admit that I have not paid enough attention to XBox Live Arcade games, so I probably missed some from there as well. With the price drop, and the removal of the DRM and Kinect, the Xbox One is now an option for me. But it's going to be several years before I seriously consider it, because I need to see the condition of their game line up over time.