You may have seen over the past week or so a bunch of games getting rather decent reviews scores and one heralded as the best game of all-time.
The real big two games which have got people talking are Horizon Zero Dawn a PS4 exclusive with a Metacritic of 89 and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild a send-off the Wii U and to ring in new beginnings for Nintendo with the Switch, it has done that with a whopping 98 on Metacritic with only one game above it with a 99, that being The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for N64.
That is great to see for gaming, games getting such great scores. I wrote a piece awhile on what 2017 looked like for PS4 and how this year could top all other years and so far, this looks like it may turn out to be true.
However, with all this said of course you get your fanboys saying how great their games are and how bad yours are, you just got to look at Breath of the Wilds user scores to see this.
That’s always been something in gaming but fanboys are not the only ones doing this as the two games I bring up are exclusive to PS4 & Nintendo’s consoles, this has led to a bunch of articles on numerous sites some small like this one and some rather big ones on the state of Xbox and even the hardcore of Xbox chiming in a throwing shade at Phill Spencer.
It wasn’t long ago I wrote an article about even the most unloved systems have their merits and did this as I bought yet again another Xbox One just after another decent showing at E3 from the green brand.
Role on almost 8 months, I traded in yet another Xbox One towards my Nintendo Switch. The Xbox One has been an odd system for me this generation as I’ve wanted to like it as much as the previous Xboxes which was always going to be a hard task or at the very least like it as much as my least favourite systems (Wii, PS2) from previous generations.
This current period of quality exclusives coming out is what has led to the talk about Xbox be it on sites like this like, big name ones or social media.
Well respected games journalist Chris Scullion even tweeted I believe in response to criticism about the Nintendo Switch, that fanboyism comes from only having the one system, which for some leads to defending some billion-dollar company’s system & bad mouthing another one.
I’ve always thought the same and since about 1996, I’ve had all the current main systems of the time and of course had my favourite and least favourite during each generation as I do feel you can still enjoy one over another, I enjoy Star Wars over Star Trek doesn’t mean I don’t like Star Trek.
I’ve always had the luxury to do that and because of it, I’ve always seen games in the same way as films, if I wanted to watch a film I just did and if I wanted to play a game be it on Xbox or PS2 or GameCube, I just did.
With that said you might be wondering why did I get rid of another Xbox One, could you not afford a Switch? Nope I could have bought one right out if I wanted to. The answer is the simplest one games, this comes back to my film analogy, the Xbox One has to have games I want to play.
This is what has led to these articles, shade at Spencer and videos from well-known Xbox Gamers in the gaming community saying things like Microsoft don’t care about the console gamer any more etc. When you see things like Scalebound getting cancelled, Lionhead being shut down, and the other systems getting these great exclusives. The PS4 for instance in last 90 Days alone has had over 12 games that are considered great by Metacritic. The Switch of course has only just come out that it is hard to judge it by anything at the moment but we know the likes of Super Mario Odyssey and Splatoon 2 are coming this year and both are very likely to score high.
That you can sort of get the reasoning behind it even if some of it is a little uncalled for. Yet their is no reason why you can’t own more than one system and feel like you need to have ago at someone because the only system you’ve bought hasn’t got a bunch of exclusives or things you want on it.
For myself like most things games I have my own personal taste and what has come out since E3 2016 & prior for Xbox One hasn’t done anything for me personally and what is currently slated for Xbox One doesn’t float my boat either, that I feel I’m not actually missing out on anything by not having a Xbox One but that doesn't stop you or anyone else enjoying your console of choice.
This could all change at this year’s E3 with the showing of Scorpio and hopefully a bunch of exclusive games but I do feel like it is very much could be fool me three times, shame on you; fool me four, shame on me.