Don’t get me wrong, I love X-Box. I’ve been a strong X-BOX supporter for years now, and bought the X-BOX One the day it came out. I’ve played a large selection of the games: Dead Rising 3, Assassins Creed, Call Of Duty Ghosts, Battlefield 4, LEGO Marvel Superheros, NBA 2K14, Titanfall, Watch Dogs, FIFA, Need For Speed: Rivals, Killer Instinct, Max: Curse Of The Brotherhood, and the demos for NBA Live and Thief.
The problem with X-BOX One is that it’s buggy as shit.
The system itself has suffered recently from server outages, preventing people from logging on to play.
The GAMES suffer from outages themselves. NBA 2K14 had an outage two weekends ago that prevented players from playing the game. It wasn’t the first outage. Battlefield 4 had a ton of connection issues when the console launched, but it has gotten a lot better about it.
Why have we become complacent with buggy games and server downtimes?
Just today on 2K, I was playing a game in the My Team Road To The Playoffs where I was winning. With 2 minutes to go, I was told the 2K servers are not available at this time. Instead of registering this game as neutral, no effect, and no contracts lost… I lost the game. I lost the game, and wasn’t even given the 4500 My Team points as a consolation.
I’ve had many problems with 2K, which is asking me to preorder the new 2K15 when it comes out in October. Why should I? Why should any of us? So we can get a new Kevin Durant card? 2K has one of the worst customer service channels I’ve encountered, soon to be made worse as they are eliminating their phone support. I’m scared of a game developer that is ending their phone support right before they launch their new title. Do they know something I don’t?
Many people are excited for Destiny. Which, sure, I played the beta. It seems like a really cool game. I cannot tell you how many times I got kicked during the beta, or was unable to sign on. Hopefully this “stress test” will prove a better Destiny launch in September, but I didn’t have nearly the problem when I played Titanfall’s beta.
Watch Dogs is a buggy game too. Don’t believe me? Just google “Watch Dogs Glitch” and find out how many glitches there are in Watch Dogs. That’s a game that was pushed back from its initial launch. I can walk around under the city, I can glitch into buildings, I can glitch into cars… this kind of stuff is fun… but it really points to bad programming.
And Call Of Duty isn’t fun anymore. It’s the same game, over and over, only this time they eliminated the zombie portion and replaced it with Extinction. Extinction is no Zombies.
The most fun I’ve had in gaming are on games with no replay value. Dead Rising 3 was fun on the first run through. Marvel Super Heroes was fun until I beat it, and then had nothing else to do.
Out of the repetitive games, I find myself struggling to want to play Battlefield 4, or Call of Duty, or Titanfall.
X-Box Gamers have to wait a LONG time inbetween major releases to get satisfaction, yet there are a billion titles scheduled for this fall. It’s frustrating to have to wait months for a good title, only to be told I have to now spend 500 dollars in a 3 months span for the titles I’ve been wanting to play.
Evolve, Sunset Overdrive, Destiny, Disney Infinity, Alien, Battlefield 5, Call Of Duty, Halo, and at least one of the NBA games, as well as a racing game. Had even one of those games come out in July or August, I might be a happier camper.
I haven’t bought Wolfenstein, because I honestly prefer multiplayer games.
And the arcade titles? Honestly? Max was OK for what it was. Guacamelee couldn’t hold my attention for more than a few minutes. Killer Instinct is repetitive button mashing.
As X-Box is looking ahead to its second year, I can say without a doubt that what gamers want are better games, with less downtime. It’s not a lot to ask for, especially with downtime. We often never get compensated for a games downtime, or X-Box Live downtime. It’s just a giant “fuck you” from an industry that makes billions off of gamers who only have a few options.
Will I get 2K15? Probably Not. What’s that old phrase? First time, shame on you, second time, shame on me?
