I’d never been a fan of the PS3 at all, but recently I borrowed one a friends console and played a few of the exclusive titles. The first game I had a stab at was The Last of Us, I was immediately blown away. I’d never cried at a game until the opening cinematic of the game. It was a breathtaking experience, and one that I will never forget. More so i’ve never been so scared when playing a game, never been so emotionally attached to the characters and never got to the end of a game having been wowed beyond all expectations.
Then I played Uncharted 3, and once again, the PS3 had done things to me no other game had been able to. I’d effectively become Indiana Jones in a game, hunting the bad guys and trying to recover world altering artifacts. This made me excited for the PS4 and what the exciting new experiences the developers could bring to it. The emotional story driven games of the PS3 were fantastic, and there is no reason to suggest the same developers cant produce even better games with the power of a next gen console behind them.
I’ll be honest, its always been hit and miss with 360 exclusives for me. Halo sucks, Forza was never as good as Gran Turismo but Fable was brilliant and Gears of War has always been a fun shooter. Yet when I compare them to the PS3 exclusives, there really is no competition. Gran Turismo is the ‘driving’ game, The Last of Us is the best console gaming experience I’ve ever had, Uncharted was a unique title with a gripping story and Killzone was a better futuristic shooter than Halo ever was. The exclusives that came later down the line on the PS3 didn’t just swing the balance, they blew those on the Xbox 360 out of the water.
My break up with Microsoft became ever the more justified when they terribly tried to change the gaming landscape with a variety of sneaky efforts that seemed nothing more than attempts to make more money out of gamers. That didn’t sit too well with me as games aren’t a cheap commodity as it is without Microsoft trying to make it more expensive by not allowing the playing of preowned games. They quickly changed their stance on the matter of course when the negative feedback started to roll in, but for me and many others the damage was already done.
When I look back, Sony never really did anything to hurt me, I just changed through choice. But now it feels like Microsoft have taken things a little too far and have somewhat disappointed me, whereas in the background of this Microsoft mess, Sony have quietly gone about their business and made a cracking new console with no nonsense attached. They made a games console, not an entertainment system. They made sharing games easy right from the start and they didnt have the need for a 24 hour online check in just to play it. Sony had done for me everything the right way and ticked every box on my checklist.
Still I will say that I havent’ fallen out of love with the Xbox 360, but more with microsoft themselves and personally can’t wait to get back to Sony, its going to be exciting getting to know each other again after all these years.
What I can firmly say is that Im pretty happy to be the Judas of the gaming generation as betraying Microsoft may be the best gaming decision I ever make. Sony’s showcased everything I wanted to see in this new generation of console and most importantly if the exclusives are anything as good as the those on the PS3 I will have a lot of fantastic games to be playing.
Rhys Gibson / @rhysleopards