Looking Behind...

The next generation of console games is just beyond the horizon, and it's time to reflect on my experience with this generation of games. I had been working my first job and been saving up money for a new game console. I played Halo 3 at several friends houses, but I didn't feel the game was different enough from Halo 2 to warrant an expensive investment. My brother was the only person I knew that had a Wii, but he lived several hours away and I couldn't get time off to visit him and try it.

Then I saw it. Metal Gear Solid 4. This game was an amazing technological display and a fitting conclusion to a story that I had fell in love with on the PS2. I still think the parts of the game that are playable are amazing, but the game is bogged down with it's massive amount of cut scenes. While Metal Gear may have perfected the cut scene new story telling techniques were just beginning to evolve.

Naughty Dog was expanding motion capture technology with Uncharted: Drake's Fortune on PS3. The improved technique of performance capture would

Uncharted Performance Capture

get more believable and life like characters in our games. Looking at games like LA Noire, The Last of Us, or Tomb Raider we can see the performances of the actors giving the characters so much more life and emotion then the characters of the previous generation.

Another exciting change of this generation has been narratives that react to player choice. Telltale's The Walking Dead, and Bioware's Mass Effect Trilogy and Dragon Age provided decision points that effect the story in a unique way. It created exciting discussions as no one's experience was exactly the same.I found that these games would fill the drought of JRPG's that took a long time to show up on the system.

I have always been a fan of Japanese games. I wasn't following the business as closely back then so I had not realized that many Japanese developers were struggling with the higher demand of HD visuals, and many had gone to handhelds to make these games. I would later find these on my PSP and pick up a Nintendo DS to play many of these creative titles.

No retrospective of  this generation of gaming would be complete with out plastic instruments. In 2007 I had fallen in love with with Harmonix's rhythm games Guitar Hero, Frequency, and Amplitude had become addictions as well as Sony's Singstar. When I found out about Rock Band a game that combined Guitar Hero, Singstar, and added drums it was love at first sight. This game would become the focus of almost

every party or group gathering for the next several years. It was unfortunate that by the time RockBand 3 added keyboard it would seem that the bright burn of the living room rock-star had faded into obscurity.

I did debate between a Wii and X Box 360. Halo 4 looked amazing, and I had a lot of faith in Harmonix and couldn't wait to play Dance Central. Nostalgia won out though and I went with the Wii. I had not had a Nintendo console since the original NES. The virtual console. But it was The Legend of Zelda: Skyword Sword that drew me in. This game proved that motion control can work non casual games. Look forward to my top 10 game of the generation coming soon.