Next Gen Remorse

So, eight months in and the next generation is pretty damn disappointing, if you ask me. Am I missing something? Is this all next-gen is? Because as far as I can tell, nothing at all has changed.

I don’t mean to be dour or negative, but I do feel a bit like the major console players somehow convinced us all to buy the same machines we already had, with very little to show for it. As I look at the upcoming cavalcade of next-gen games set up for the end of the year, I don’t really see anything that makes me think, “Oh, this is why I bought an Xbox One.”

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying there aren’t good games coming out or that there aren’t games I’m excited for — it’s not that at all — but what I am saying is that when I look at the offerings to come, I really don’t see anything that feels like it couldn’t have been played on my 360 or PS3.

Adding insult to injury was recent news that Watch(underscore)Dogs had been graphically hobbled on the PC, conjuring images in my mind of Ubisoft as Kathy Bates holding a sledgehammer threateningly above James Caan, who in this particular metaphor represents my PC. It’s as though game and console makers all agreed on what Next Gen should look like, but just decided not to actually make machines that can accomplish it.

I haven’t really turned my Xbox One on to play a game in months. You might read into that some assumption that I just don’t tend to play console games, and there’s truth in the fact that most of the time I play on my PC, but in my house the Xbox 360 is still getting plenty of play. My kids were interested in the new and shiny for a few weeks, but inevitably the abundance of games in the XBLA selection called them back home. And even as we buy new games, frankly we’ve bought just as many new games for the old generation as the new.

So I’m left somewhat asking why we went through the mess and cost of a new generational cycle. Oh, I have no shortage of cynical answers to that question, of course, but I try hard not to just assume that every decision made in the industry is entirely, disingenuously devoid of actual logic or purpose. I understand it takes a new generation a little time to find its legs and justify the expense, but it’s not just that there’s nothing yet to really validate the effort. There doesn’t even seem to be anything on the horizon.

Part of the problem may be that the experiential iteration of the generation is different than the technical iteration. After all, I’ve seen side-by-side comparisons of next-gen games with the same game on a 360 or PS3, and in a freeze-frame moment I can analytically look at the game and note the differences. There are plenty of people, I also assume, for whom this kind of micro-analytical comparison is a substantive justification, but in the moments of actually playing I never feel those differences. Even when there are meaningful technical differences between two versions of a game, if I play that game on a next-gen system and then immediately play it on an older system, I almost never experience that evolution. It feels like the same game.

I think back to the differences between the original PlayStation and the PS2, and I remember feeling a substantive experiential difference between the two. The PS2 had games that felt more advanced, like an actual leap forward in the way you felt while playing games.

I’m not even sure that kind of sensation is possible anymore through brute-force technology iteration. It’s probably more likely that such an experience-based leap is now in the realm of interface, with things like the WiiMote and Oculus that genuinely make you feel a different sensation of what games are.

What really sticks in my craw is the idea that companies will now actively undermine one system’s performance to match the lowest common denominator. I realize there are financial reasons for this, and I don’t care. The net result is that a seemingly half-baked generational launch is acting as a functional drag on the technological evolution and development of gaming.

I’m sure it will change over time — slower than it should and not fully to the end it could — and at some point maybe I will see the next-gen game that justifies the switch. It’s just entirely disheartening to me that it seems like it will be 2015 at the earliest before we get there, and in the meantime we live in an awkward limbo that could have instead been a longer golden age of last-gen gaming.

I suppose we all asked for it, or at least enough of us did that the tide turned. Looking back, I remember that the best games for a generation almost always seem to come from its fully matured years, and yet those are the ones we’re most eager to leave.

You could say I have no one to blame but myself for buying in so early. Still, I don’t know that I regret asking for the next generation or regret diving in. I’m not sure that’s the real problem with next gen.

The problem is, from my point of view at least, that the industry failed to deliver one.

Comments

I completely agree.

I just moved to a new place. Still in the process of unpacking. The only console that I took the 5 min to put it on the TV stand is the PS3. And that's for watching Netflix, movies, etc.

The Xbox One is still boxed up somewhere. Not even a tiny itch exists to unbox it right now. Hell it's been that way since January. The Xbox One is suppose to be the all in one entertainment machine that I was told or imagined. But it can't even play mp4s and its been 7 months out. No HBO Go. I feel like not only did the whole gaming next gen thing fail in my opinion, so did the entertainment part of it which equals a big ass black box that collects dust.

Elysium wrote:

I don’t mean to be dour or negative, but I do feel a bit like the major console players somehow convinced us all to buy the same machines we already had, with very little to show for it.

Well, have you considered the non-major console player?

In all seriousness, I would be rather disappointed if I had bought a PS4 or Xbox One at launch, and I'm quite happy that I waited a year to get a Wii U. The Wii U has taken awhile to find its footing, but now, 18 months after launch, there are so many interesting and engaging experiences on it that I have an embarrassment of choices, and what they showcased at E3 looks amazing.

A year from now, the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 are going to have a lot more to offer, I hope. I've decided to be optimistic and trust that it's much too early to dismiss the entire generation as disappointing after just eight months.

It was the same last time around. The best time to buy the "new" consoles is always three or four years in.

I've been frustrated as well. After buying a PS4 we had fun with infamous but NBA2k14's my career mode which I'd looked forward to was a frustrating dud for me and I've been underwhelmed with the response to Watch_Dogs so didn't pick it up.
I'm sure it'll improve but I thought the months I waited had been enough.

Another sign - the XBox 360 got plugged back in at the house over the weekend taking the precious HDMI slot on the TV. The PS4 lays ready but doesn't know for what.

Well, have you considered the non-major console player?

I have one, and the boys play it periodically. Not sure I've turned it on to just play for myself yet.

The problem is we've gotten too good.

The difference between using 60 triangles to make a picture of something and using 600 is huge. The difference between using 600 and 6,000 is also huge. The difference between using 6,000 and 60,000 is unnoticeable (at least to me).

IMAGE(http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/polygon-count-diminishing-returns-consoles.jpeg)

The graphics war is over, pretty much. Which is a big reason I think we'll be playing with the current console generation in 2020.

Weird, am I the only one who is completely satisfied with my PS4? I haven't spent ALL of my gaming time on it, but I never do that with any system. It's a welcome addition though to all of the other boxes, and I turn it on quite regularly. Most of the time I used to spend on the PS3 is now on the PS4. The PC, 2ds, Wii, PS3 and PS2 now get about equal play, with the PS4 slightly edging them out, and the PSVita completely clobbering all of them. I'm mostly playing games that are cross platform, but the PS4 versions are definitely the best ones. (Keeping in mind that my PC is a Kaveri APU system with no video card. I've dropped out of the PC arms race and mostly play interesting indie exclusives now.)

I actually have several PS4 games that I haven't even put in the system yet because I haven't had enough time. I have many, many more PSN titles that I haven't fired up yet because there's just a deluge of them.

(I still buy PS3 games, but only full exclusives. Persona 5 is the only PS3 game that is on my guaranteed buy list.)

jrralls wrote:

The problem is we've gotten too good.

The difference between using 60 triangles to make a picture of something and using 600 is huge. The difference between using 600 and 6,000 is also huge. The difference between using 6,000 and 60,000 is unnoticeable (at least to me).

IMAGE(http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/polygon-count-diminishing-returns-consoles.jpeg)

The graphics war is over, pretty much. Which is a big reason I think we'll be playing with the current console generation in 2020.

You are correct, but the biggest improvement this generation isn't in the polygon count. It's in that more games will be able to do their graphics without major texture pop-in, without as many frame rate hitches, and with larger worlds. I don't care if the graphics get better than the PS3, but I sincerely do care that we don't get a game performing like Skyrim or Bordelands 2 did on the PS3.

As for 2020, that's pretty much a given. The PS4 will be around until 2023 at least. We might see a new PS5 console launch, but that'll be 2019 at the very earliest and more likely in 2020 or later. I'm more looking forward to the new Vita replacement in 2017/2018 myself. That thing should really be impressive.

I think the old feelings of "Oh man, we're in the next-gen now!" are gone. From here on out the changes are going to be subtle, much in the same way you can tell Toy Story 3 looks better than Toy Story 1, but you'd have to see them side-by-side to make note of why (and truth told, it's probably more like comparing Toy Story 2 and 3).

I noticed that, in the Assassin's Creed: Unity gameplay video for the Xbox One event, that there was a lot of impressive crowd stuff going on. But it's a minor touch compared to what we were seeing this generation, where I could wade into massive battles as early as Kameo: Elements of Power or Viking: Battle for Asgard. Particle effects are improving as well.

Basically, it feels like this generation is, at best, just improving overall performance. Frame rates and resolutions and such.

But honestly, I'm kind of on-board with Clockwork for this in regards to Nintendo's system. Even though I don't use Miiverse proper very often, there's something about the subtle uses of it in the Wii U that feels fresh. There was nothing more delightfully surprising than finishing a level in Super Mario 3D World that took place on one of Bowser's trains, and then seeing a Miiverse post that read "Cole train runs on whole grains, baby! Whoo whoo!" It was a surprising laugh that, sure, I had to play Gears 3 to appreciate, but it wouldn't have been there without Nintendo's implementation of Miiverse.

Simultaneously, I refused to play Wind Waker HD without access to the TV and the gamepad simply due to the convenience of the second screen. Not every game needs to use it, but when a game implements it effectively, it's hard to imagine ever going back.

Yet even these are all subtle, smaller advancements in design and technology. Next-gen is truly just an upgrade, now, as opposed to an evolution.

Which is why I don't mind grabbing Alien: Isolation or Evil Within for PS3 instead of feeling the need to snag a PS4.

I was so excited for the next generation and then spent 5 months after my day one purchase playing the 360(after DR3, there was really nothing on my radar until Titanfall). I want to be super enthusiastic about the XBO but unfortunately I am left disappointed in both the console and myself (for buying into the hype).

I wish I would have waited for a sale:(

This post has validated my decision not to go next-next gen yet. Had I jumped aboard at launch, I would be having the same feelings.

I remember the first 18 months of being an early adopter of the PS3: long waits for games, and THEN they were premium-priced. Admittedly, once a game like Drake's Fortune came along, I would have some quality awe time chanting "The water! The water! So beautiful!"

Aside from that, the main reason for not jumping into next-next gen has been having a much smaller gaming budget the past couple of years.

When I recently had hands-on with a PS4, playing AssCreed Black Flag, the 2 main improvements I noticed were: crisper graphics for sure, but on the diminshing returns scale that jrralls has identified above, but the more impressive thing was the superquick load times. While I reckon that that would make my gaming experience a lot smoother, it didn't feel like $700-odd worth of smoother.

psu_13 wrote:

It was the same last time around. The best time to buy the "new" consoles is always three or four years in.

People forget the 360 Launch... Ouch! Talk about barely an upgrade.. Xbox One and PS4 games in 2016 will look remarkably better and perform better as well.

In fact one might argue the real Xbox One launch happens when Halo 5 releases.

TheGameguru wrote:

People forget the 360 Launch... Ouch! Talk about barely an upgrade.. Xbox One and PS4 games in 2016 will look remarkably better and perform better as well.

In fact one might argue the real Xbox One launch happens when Halo 5 releases.

I was about to argue with this, but then again, I just remembered I played Doom 3 on the original Xbox, and Quake 4 looked mostly the same.

Then again, it was the huge environments and all the crap happening on screen that impressed me with Kameo: Elements of Power, as well as the fact that it was a whole lot of fun. Then again, I got the 360 just a few months before Dead Rising came out, and THAT had a next-gen feel to it based on the sheer number of zombies present.

I suppose next-gen is what you make of it.

I think as consoles continue to approach parity with PCs, this kind of early adopter regret is inevitable. I don't think anyone realizes the full potential of the new consoles yet, but if my understanding is correct, the late generation bump is going to get smaller and smaller. Consoles used to be about making gaming systems based on obscure, proprietary technology (Blast Processing, wooo!) that would take developers time to unravel and optimize. Now, the APUs in the consoles (all 3, in fact) are not so dissimilar from what developers might work with on PCs that there's a whole lot to figure out. We'll still see a bump, as having an ecosystem that doesn't change for nearly a decade fosters tons of experience and optimization that more fluid platforms, like PC, don't allow for, but by the time that happens, PCs will be an order of magnitude ahead again (which, fortunately, will probably be enough motivation for developers like Ubisoft to end their policy of homogenizing the graphical experience across all platforms).

As the new generation progresses, too, porting to the old generation will become too much of an investment in downgrading and the old consoles will fall away. Indie titles, which could be generation-agnostic, will likely end up eventually being limited to the new generation for the purposes of pushing sales, and we may even hear more about how old XBox Live or PSN for last generation simply needs to be retired because it can't keep up with the new anymore. Eventually, this generation will become the dominant one, either by means of pure popularity, or corporate greed.

It is the curse of being an early adopter.

Before this year's E3, I was positive that MS was going to have Halo 5, a Gears of War, and something new exclusively for the XBone for November this year. That's all delayed until next year, probably late October/early November releases. MS has Sunset Overdrive, which looks pretty cool, but it's not a system seller.

Sony's basically conceded this year's releases to everyone else at this point, with effectively nothing new in terms of PS4 exclusives in Q3 and Q4: LittleBigPlanet 3 is also a PS3 title, and I'm becoming less and less convinced that Drive Club exists.

Nintendo's lineup this year is pretty strong, especially considering that it's an off year for their releases, as they typically do a Mario and Zelda every other year. Q3 and Q4 has Hyrule Warriors, Bayonetta 2, and maybe Super Smash Bros WiiU.

Multiplatform, it looks better, with AC Unity, DA:I, Middle-Earth: Not Dragon Age, and Destiny, but it's still rather thin, and with the exception of Unity, everything else is on previous gen systems. Though, to be honest, that list is basically what I bought the PS4 for, and so far, I haven't really been disappointed.

Here's the scary part: At this point, for first 18 months of the 3 next gen consoles, the WiiU has the best exclusive lineup, with NSMB, Super Mario 3D World, Pikmin 3, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, and Mario Kart 8. And it's the worst selling. MS has nothing in the pipe exclusive for early next year. Sony just has The Order.

Kind of glad I picked last year to build a gaming PC. All the games in my 360 backlog look prettier and I can play almost anything coming out today.

cube wrote:

Sony just has The Order.

Sony has Bloodborne slated for early 2015. Game, set, match for me. PS4 shall be mine. I'll grab it a bit earlier so I can get on board the Destiny train.

I am still pretty surprised that people have this kind of buyer's remorse. Maybe it's because I learned so long ago with launch day consoles, but nothing has changed. The only console worth getting on day 1 was the Nintendo 64, and it will probably be the last.

Heck the Wii U is just starting to look like a tempting proposition with the upcoming release of Smash Bros, and that will be a full 2 years after the console was released.

Big games take time to make. Not much time has passed since the launch of these consoles, so 2015 sounds pretty reasonable for the first big exclusives to start hitting on PS4 and XB1.

Dyni wrote:

I am still pretty surprised that people have this kind of buyer's remorse. Maybe it's because I learned so long ago with launch day consoles, but nothing has changed. The only console worth getting on day 1 was the Nintendo 64, and it will probably be the last.

The Sega Dreamcast begs to differ.

I'm pretty happy with my PS4, but I do see the games so far as evolutionary, rather than revolutionary.

Haven't even gotten current gen yet, but darn it, ps2 games, when they tried to do certain things, they were ugly. I was so happy for PS3. PS1 did not suffer this problem as much, devs had to make choices, really hard choices, about individual polygons. It really kept them focused, but for PS2 Sony was all, "Dudes, look at my f*cking duck floating in water, look at that sh*t, look at it! Be amazed! It can do anything. If you can't render it, it's because you suck."

edit: I bet when Oculus releases, there will be an uptick in sales of driving wheels and pedals. At least I hope so, cause that will mean someone made a racing game. Ironically, racing requires you to look forward a lot.

Don't have a ps4 as I said, but I do think this article is relevant re: 3DS vs DS.
Such a letdown for me. Terrible cameras, 3D unused by games, tiny tiny tiny f*cking screen, horrible to hold, terrible stylus storage placement. I loathe the day the last DS Lite dies.

Vita OTOH, didn't have a PSP and it is so so pretty, just never get to play it.

edit: horrible = not intrinsically pleasant

I'm a late adopter by nature. Heck, I didn't even get an NES until the summer the SNES was announced. E3 boosted my interest in a PS4, and I'll probably get one for Christmas just so the kids can have the latest and greatest Little Big Planet game.

And what really sticks in my craw is the idea that companies will now actively undermine one system’s performance to match the lowest common denominator. I realize there are financial reasons for this, and I don’t care. The net result is that a seemingly half-baked generational launch is acting as a functional drag on the technology evolutions and development of gaming.

This has always been the case, hasn't it? In fact I recall a year or so back, before the new generation was announced, Certis wished aloud on the podcast that the big three would hurry up with the new generation so he could "finally make full use of (his) graphics card for once."

That said, I'm with DSGamer. I went with a PC for my main system, and I don't really see myself looking back.

I've been mulling over the choice between XBONE & PS4 recently. I owned PS1 & PS2, my son was first introduced to video games on the PS2. I never cared for the XBOX controller, and the HALO series just never did grab me... I considered myself a "Playstation Guy".

We went with the 360 last generation mainly due to XBLIVE and are now on our 2nd console *grumble*. My son actually shed tears of joy when I brought the 360 home (I commonly refer to it as his "seXBOX"). It stays in our living room and is also used as our primary streaming device (Netflix, Hulu & Amazon).

Until Skyrim launched, I honestly hadn't really spent much time with the 360 - Red Dead Redemption was the only game I had actually purchased for my own pleasure. The aforementioned and Diablo 3 are still the only games I have really invested any real amount of time in. That being said, my son owns somewhere around 25 physical games and I don't know how many digitally. We have a little bit of everything for the whole family with the 360. Even my wife, the resident NON-GAMER will fire up Peggle2 or Plants vs Zombies on occasion. My daughter absolutely loves Minecraft.

jrralls wrote:

The problem is we've gotten too good.

The difference between using 60 triangles to make a picture of something and using 600 is huge. The difference between using 600 and 6,000 is also huge. The difference between using 6,000 and 60,000 is unnoticeable (at least to me).

IMAGE(http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/polygon-count-diminishing-returns-consoles.jpeg)

The graphics war is over, pretty much. Which is a big reason I think we'll be playing with the current console generation in 2020.

I think this is a big part of what it boils down to for me. I've never been a what I would consider a graphics whore. The only real performance issue I've noticed with the 360 is some framerate/slowdown in D3 if the screen really fills up.

Thanks, GWJ, for helping me decide on neither XBONE or PS4! (for now)

ClockworkHouse wrote:
Elysium wrote:

I don’t mean to be dour or negative, but I do feel a bit like the major console players somehow convinced us all to buy the same machines we already had, with very little to show for it.

Well, have you considered the non-major console player?

In all seriousness, I would be rather disappointed if I had bought a PS4 or Xbox One at launch, and I'm quite happy that I waited a year to get a Wii U. The Wii U has taken awhile to find its footing, but now, 18 months after launch, there are so many interesting and engaging experiences on it that I have an embarrassment of choices, and what they showcased at E3 looks amazing.

A year from now, the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 are going to have a lot more to offer, I hope. I've decided to be optimistic and trust that it's much too early to dismiss the entire generation as disappointing after just eight months.

+1 on the Wii U stuff. After owning a PS3 for 3.5 years now, I'm happy not caring about the PS4 / XBone. I'll gladly play everything I could ever want on the Wii U and PC and maybe one day consider something else when it hits the $200 price point. Maybe. But probably not since I have 2 children under 3 now.

Ah, the rare 15-minute double post delay.

I'm split on the issue. The PS4 feels very next gen to me and I'm loving the experience; Black Flag looked great, Second Son was fun, even Skylanders looks great on the system.

On the other hand, the One has been a huge disappointment. The voice recognition works for crap (for me), the Kinect seems a negligible improvement over the prior hardware, the UI is horrible, and worst of all, there aren't any games wowing me on that platform. Sure, Titanfall came close, then I realized that I can't hang with the FPS crowd's rapidly evolving skills and there wasn't a single player game to dive into. *sighs*

I tempered my disappointment with the thought that "at least there won't be a price drop before the 'Must Have' game comes out for the system, so I'm not really out anything in the long run, but even that relatively safe assumption bit me.

I'm sure the "Jaw Dropping" moment will come, it just seems further away than I was expecting.

EDIT: Yeah, what MeatMan said. No idea how that happened. I blame the Steam Sale.

I'm quite satisfied so far with PS4, which I picked up earlier this year. I kinda knew going into it that the first year of the console would be a bit thin, but waiting to get two games I wanted on a next gen system has been worth it - AC4, and more significantly, Battlefield 4. My PC is about five years old now and just not fit for BF4, and I prefer playing games on console anyway. Compared to the demo I played on the old 360, the game looks significantly better on PS4 (and yes this does matter to me), and more importantly, the player count in Conquest games isn't crippled to fit on the aging last gen consoles, which matters because I love BF for these massive chaotic battles.

Infamous Second Son was more of a flash in the pan graphical showcase, which was nice but forgettable. I've been having fun with Watch Dogs, even though it certainly doesn't break any new gameplay ground, it's enjoyable and looks sharp. It will be nice to finally play The Last of Us this Summer since my PS3 disc drive died right before it came out. But Destiny is really the next big thing for me, based on the alpha, this is the kind of game I bought a PS4 for - sure it's on last gen too, but, I'm a fan of graphical fidelity, what can I say. For now I'm mainly playing games I could be playing on the 360, but they just look better, and I'm fine with that. By next year and beyond though, I'm looking forward to more games specifically designed to keep pushing the PS4 to its limits.

I feel like this always happens, right? I mean go back and look at the launch lineup for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Did anyone who picked up those consoles play them constantly from the moment they were launched? Probably not. You can certainly pick and choose some launches that were strong (the original Xbox was really strong, I thought) but in general, consoles don't launch with a lot to play, for a very obvious reason; they weren't sold the day before!

This is why Nintendo won E3. It was almost inevitable. They're the only guy with a new console that's been around long enough to start collecting promising and unique games. I expect we'll be similarly impressed by some PS4 and Xbox One titles next year.

If you want to feel promise, then go play an Xbox 360 or PS3 launch title, and then play something from the end of the generation like Halo 4, Grand Theft Auto V or The Last Of Us. The leap in graphics from these titles and early entries like Perfect Dark Zero and Resistance: Fall of Man. It almost doesn't even look like the same console. I'm sure we'll see a similar leap throughout the current generation.

Faceless Clock wrote:

I feel like this always happens, right? I mean go back and look at the launch lineup for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Did anyone who picked up those consoles play them constantly from the moment they were launched? Probably not.

True dat. I was literally 100% handhelds until I saw Crackdown at a friend's house. I wasn't even paying attention to consoles or the games on them. I was happy with my PS2 and my handhelds. Then I saw Crackdown and that was the game that pushed me to buy both a 360 and an HDTV.

Faceless Clock wrote:

This is why Nintendo won E3. It was almost inevitable. They're the only guy with a new console that's been around long enough to start collecting promising and unique games. I expect we'll be similarly impressed by some PS4 and Xbox One titles next year.

If you want to feel promise, then go play an Xbox 360 or PS3 launch title, and then play something from the end of the generation like Halo 4, Grand Theft Auto V or The Last Of Us. The leap in graphics from these titles and early entries like Perfect Dark Zero and Resistance: Fall of Man. It almost doesn't even look like the same console. I'm sure we'll see a similar leap throughout the current generation.

So far I don't think it is. I currently play games across the 360 and PC. And while the PC versions (I've largely replaced my 360 library with cheap steam equivalents) are much better looking, it's not the reason I built the PC. Or the reason I'd buy a new console, even.

AcidCat wrote:

I'm quite satisfied so far with PS4, which I picked up earlier this year. I kinda knew going into it that the first year of the console would be a bit thin, but waiting to get two games I wanted on a next gen system has been worth it - AC4, and more significantly, Battlefield 4. My PC is about five years old now and just not fit for BF4, and I prefer playing games on console anyway. Compared to the demo I played on the old 360, the game looks significantly better on PS4 (and yes this does matter to me), and more importantly, the player count in Conquest games isn't crippled to fit on the aging last gen consoles, which matters because I love BF for these massive chaotic battles.

Infamous Second Son was more of a flash in the pan graphical showcase, which was nice but forgettable. I've been having fun with Watch Dogs, even though it certainly doesn't break any new gameplay ground, it's enjoyable and looks sharp. It will be nice to finally play The Last of Us this Summer since my PS3 disc drive died right before it came out. But Destiny is really the next big thing for me, based on the alpha, this is the kind of game I bought a PS4 for - sure it's on last gen too, but, I'm a fan of graphical fidelity, what can I say. For now I'm mainly playing games I could be playing on the 360, but they just look better, and I'm fine with that. By next year and beyond though, I'm looking forward to more games specifically designed to keep pushing the PS4 to its limits.

Echoing AcidCat, I think the next-gen console regret is probably strongest amongst the PC gamers that have current hardware that can handle today's games. My PC is a three-year old laptop that was $300 when I bought (i.e., it's pretty crappy) and I have a work-issued Macbook Air. So, for me, playing Wolfenstein on my XBO has been pretty next-gen.