The PlayStation 3 has had it’s fair share of ups and downs and as we reach the possible announcement of the next PlayStation console later this month, we will look back on this current console’s past. Firstly, I will look back into the PlayStation 3′s Most Disappointing Moments.
Final Fantasy XIII
Final Fantasy XIII was first revealed during E3 2006 and within the hype of what next gen could bring, the trailer that was shown by Square Enix became viral. With next generation graphics and processing power, we believed that Square Enix would bring an epic free roaming world for us to explore. Unlike its predecessors, however, which had an open world with towns and cities, Final Fantasy XIII was fully linear. This game was a huge disappointment to me and within the first four hours of the game, I was trying to find what few positives I could notice in the experience. Just after eight hours, however, the game did become slightly better as the battle system became more developed with further skills and party forms called paradigms. With paradigms, players could switch characters’ roles (Commando to Medic) on the fly but this didn’t help Final Fantasy XIII’s most disappointing feature – the battle system. Even with the paradigm shift mechanic, Final Fantasy XIII had very little strategy for the player with the game automatically finding out which abilities would be best for the current battle situation with the “auto-chain” system. There is the option to choose the abilities yourself but with this available to you, why would the player not choose the game’s internal A.I to automatically find your enemy’s weaknesses? Final Fantasy XIII is the biggest disappointment for me because Square Enix could have elaborated more on open world mechanics, customization and choosing your own abilities. That is why I loved Final Fantasy in the first place and part of the fun was to figure out how to level up your characters and find an enemy’s weakness yourself. What is worse is that Final Fantasy XIII is the longest running subsection of the series with Lightning Returns coming later this year. Why not have Final Fantasy VII-2, Final Fantasy Versus XIII or even Kingdom Hearts III instead of these constant sequels which seems like the majority of Final Fantasy fans don’t care about? I really like the epic but wonderfully sounding music, deep emotional characters and the amazing graphics of Final Fantasy XIII but having a third installment really is disappointing because Square Enix could do so much better with what the PlayStation 3 can offer. Look at Level-5 with Ni No Kuni.
Forgotten PS3 Exclusive Games
With plenty of Final Fantasy XIII games to develop, Square Enix has seemed to forget about its most promising game for the PS3, Final Fantasy Versus XIII. This has previously been rumored to be cancelled but Yoichi Wada, the CEO of Square Enix has said otherwise, stating in January 2013, that “just a minute ago, the regular Versus meeting ended. If you saw the presentation of the city, it’d knock you off your feet.” Will this game be shown this generation though? We will probably not receive any more information until E3 2013. Another game we have not had the privilege of playing is The Last Guardian, which was first shown during E3 2009. This game, developed by the masterminds behind Shadow of the Colossus and Ico – Team ICO, showed great potential with its wondrous graphics, splendorous art design and powerful character development. Since the Tokyo Game Show of 2010, however, we have not seen this game see the light of day and all we’ve heard is bad news. Fumito Ueda, the director for all three of Team Ico’s games and the executive producer of The Last Guardian, Yoshifusa Hayama left Sony during late 2011. One year later, “The Last Guardian” trademark expired and this led people to believe that the project was scrapped. Sony, in response, stated that The Last Guardian is indeed still in development. What also seems interesting but we know nothing about is Agent, an exclusive title from Rockstar which takes players into the dark world of espionage and assassins in the 1970′s. Somehow this game disappeared off the face of the Earth! Geoff Keighley, the host of G4TV, interviewed Jack Tretton, the president and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America during E3 last year and asked whether or not Agent was coming. Jack Tretton told Keighley, that “the minute I start working for Rockstar, I’ll have some definitive information for you on Agent, but I’d suggest you interview one of those guys.” Where are these forgotten games? We become hyped for these titles and then they completely vanish for years. These are some of the most disappointing moments for within the PlayStation 3′s life cycle.
The PlayStation Move
Motion controls have great potential. The idea of having a Wii but with better graphics and the improved power of the PlayStation 3 sounded intriguing. When Sony first showed off the PlayStation Move’s capabilities at E3, I imagined having large battles against an army of soldiers and feeling like a bad ass as I swung my sword to and fro. As I watched the demo for Sorcery, I imagined being in a world like Harry Potter where I learn spells and interact with the environment in cool ways. My imagination perceived me sadly as the PlayStation Move came out. Sports Champions, Sony’s headline title for the new controller, simply was a Wii Sports clone with a few extra sports. Gladiator Duel was surprisingly fun as the player had to figure out an opponent’s openings and block their own with a shield. On the other hand, Bocce, which is the least interactive sport thinkable for motion controls, was shown as a highlight sport in Sports Champions. That’s when I knew the PlayStation Move would be in trouble. With plenty of dancing games and fitness games, the PlayStation Move seemed to be a tourist trap which every visitor knew about before visiting. The casual market weren’t about to be sucked in. They already owned a Nintendo Wii and they were already swept away by Apple and Android’s storm to power with cheap and simple cell phone games such as Angry Birds, Draw Something and Cut the Rope. After that, Sony released the Sharpshooter accessory which failed to interest the core gaming market because of its sheer inaccuracy compared to the traditional Dual Shock 3 Controller. The PlayStation Move could have been something great if handled properly but now Sony have almost lost all focus on their latest motion gaming accessory. There were interesting concepts such as Datura and Sorcery but these games plus the controller did not penetrate the gaming market.
What were you disappointed about this generation? Comment below!
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