So after more than a week with my shiny new PlayStation 4 (it it certainly is shiny; I almost never want to touch it), I find that I have very little to say about it. Honestly, you can probably hit ever corner of the nerd internet over the last few weeks and find all of the opinions that confirm whatever stance you have about Sony's new console. None of what I could say would be particularly new or shocking, so I suppose we can just leave it at that.
But I pretty much never turn it on.
Weird, right? Not really, and it's mostly of my own volition. It's become common knowledge over the last several cycles that launch games are typically mediocre at best. Usually all of the good stuff can be had for older machines or wind up being elaborate tech demos banking on the promise of future fulfillment. Yes, the first Xbox had Halo, the Wii had Wii Sports, and we didn't even know any better when North America was blessed with Super Mario Bros. when the NES dropped in '85, but I call those singular examples. I have bought all of Sony's home consoles on (or close) to their launch, and every time I do, I find myself waiting about 6 months to buy something worthwhile. Neither the Sony gaming juggernaut nor me personally are alone here (it took me more than a year to buy a game for my 3DS, which I now play just about all the time). It's just the way these things sort of work.
But it's been a particularly long console cycle, and that makes the kick in the pants of so-so launch games more like a shove into traffic. No, I'm not exactly huffy over it, but I still find myself wishing that there was something really dazzling for me to take home and boot up after that midnight launch (which I arrived to drunk. The only way to do it). I'm certainly not looking the gift horse of Contrast, Warframe, DC Universe Online, or -especially- Resogun in the mouth, but none of those games have any real weeks-of-my-life-swallowed-whole meat to them. I finished Contrast, a better game than some of the reviews gave it credit, in less than a day. Warframe is fun, but awfully redundant. Resogun is wacky and beautiful, but it's five brief levels don't exactly make me want to call in sick to work and live on Chinese takeout. Next year certainly has some good stuff on the way, but like the rest of my early adopting brethren, I bought this new machine for the sake of promise, not instant gratification.
Ironically, in the days before the November 15 launch, I spent my free gaming time playing what I considered the high water mark of the previous generations, and completely independent of the fact that I knew I wasn't going to be blown away by the brand new stuff (ok, subconsciously, I probably did). I tore through the HD remake of Clover/ Capcom's Okami, which is still one of the best Zelda knockoffs you can find, if not the absolute king of them. Granted, it was the beautiful up-rezzed rerelease, but it's in my top 10 PlayStation 2 games, and was on sale a few weeks ago for a song. I loved playing it again so much that I even went through the rigamarole of obtaining the platinum trophy, too, which is something I think I've only done a few times, and I think it says something to its staying power.
But not nearly as much as Demon's Souls; unquestionably my favorite game of the last eight years. I'll concede that Dark Souls is a much better constructed game with it's interlocking environments, but DeS spoke to me on so many more levels than all of the other games that I claimed to enjoy over the last console cycle that I've gone through it close to 10 times, if not more (I've lost a few PS3s along the way). It's funny how the game has changed for me within that time. Originally, I slaved over 75+ hours of it, observing every crack in the wall and conversation with an NPC to help me through all of its punishment. It wasn't so much the need to finish as it was the will to win, which are two totally different things. When I finally hit the summit, I retired the game with my head held high, but weary. I've said this before, but going through this game the first time makes you feel like you've gone through some shit and came out the other end of it a different person. Repeat trips are different, though. The second trip became a matter of experimentation: How radical are the differences in play style? Will it make X location more easily traversed under Y conditions? How will I adapt under weaker or stronger scenarios? It was shorter, but I was smarter. Now, after so many runs through the game (with only one small section routinely giving me problems), I can successfully bum rush it in 8 hours or less depending on circumstances and a few very minor variables. It's become less of an exhaustive challenge and more like an elaborate puzzle. Almost Nietzschean, really. Since I know where the real dangers lie, the difficulty and joy is in figuring out the best way to become stronger faster. Last week, I took the grunt-level Royal and turned him into room-clearing warlock in no time flat. In comparison to the Wanderer that struggled through those first hours of my initial time with DeS and evolved into a walking wrecking ball after what felt like years of growth and learning, this new Royal was like third grader that could split atoms. Now that he's successfully helped to lull the Old One back to sleep, any further plays with him would simply exist to push his stats toward the ubermensch that brings that earlier, shakier metaphor home.
But that was over a week ago, and even after requisite weekly time with my old flame Third Strike, I needed something else. Last night, then, I convinced myself that it was time to go back to Skyrim, if only briefly (for now). See, I liked Fallout 3 an awful lot, but in general, I wasn't so much a Bethesda believer until my time with the Elder Scrolls V. Everything in their games seemed just undercooked enough that while the worlds were huge and fun to explore, they just seemed like empty husks populated by talking heads. Skyrim, to be fair, isn't that much different, but enough care went into making it that I'm still in awe of the majesty of its scope. Hundreds of hours drifted away while my High Elf Garbanzo Bean and I explored its frozen tundra, and it's always intimidated me to go back into it knowing how easily the time can slip by while I skin a freshly shot bear or dive into yet another spider-infested mine. But after yet another character build in Demon's Souls, I felt I'd try the same approach with Skyrim, so last night's Wood Elf will, hopefully, become next week's stealthy Robin Hood.
Of course, this could all change. I'm at the mercy of my patience at this point, and with holidays coming and family/ friends willing to give me the gift of interactive entertainment, there's every possibility that I'll be knee deep (or putting up) with Assassin's Creed IV or Need for Speed Rivals. Do I really want to play those games? Not especially, but I sure would like to put this new supercomputer sitting under my television through its paces.
