You know...last-gen(HD-era) is not that bad when thinking about it.

Pros:
Innovation
Online videogame marketplace
Games

Now that the brooding is out of the way for the moment, what separates the 7th gen from the 6th is the amount of innovation. Now to be honest I wasn't too impress with the Wii at first, mainly because of the disappointment of the Gamecube. Even, when Nintendo showcase motion control for the first time, I didn't really care. It was until the line of games being announced when I got more interested. By the time E3 06' ended, I was set on getting a Wii. Now I do like motion controls and somewhat still do, but at the time of 2006 I was really excited for the games that were announced with motion control. The Wii have a great library of games, many in which have some great innovative motion controls. Now at this point I see motion controls some what gimmicky and have moved on with the excitement, but I believe the Wii is a great system of pure innovation. I also think the Kinect which I own, has great innovation. I'm just hoping that companies will be able to harness Kinect's true potential and put out some really awesome games. Though I have some criticism about videogame consoles online connectivity; I do like the online videogame marketplace. I think it's a great way of putting out really good Indie games without big and small companies spending millions of dollars on a title. I'm a big fan of indie games. I also like all three systems game marketplace for retro games. I'm a huge retro nut and I love the library of classic games that Nintendo and Xbox have on their services. I�m sure this feature is here to stay and I will be glad to see in the next gen consoles. Of course the most important reason to own a videogame console is the games. The awesome games I have played for all three consoles can lie under the category of innovation. With the improvement on computer hardware in consoles come the increase possibilities of creativity games. Games that were made for this gen could not be possibly made for the gen before it. Take L.A Noire for example, this could�ve not been made on the PS2 or even Xbox. Though I only played it briefly, I was impressed with the facial engine that allowed a person to tell if someone was lying or not. I would so love to have a Batman game that would use this. That game to me set the bar on detective games and I hope more games use and improve upon this engine. I just used L.A Noire as a prime example of the creativity that only these powerful consoles can produce. Power aside the heart of gaming from this gen for me is the Wii. I think the Wii really pushed game designers creative minds to make very creative games without the use of advance hardware. Since the Wii wasn�t on par with Xbox and playstation in terms of hardware, game designers had to work hard into making games that would catch the public�s eyes. I have over 50+ games for the Wii which I enjoy playing a lot, more than any other console this gen.

Cons:
Online connectivity
Useless apps for Xbox at least
Shovel ware of so called Hardware games
DLC and online passes
Greed of gaming companies

I can�t gripe too much about these cons because one I would need to write two or three blogs to do this and two I have done it in earlier blogs if you wish to check them out. Anyway, I�m not a big fan of over the top online services with a million of useless apps like facebook and twitter on Xbox. Though many would probably disagree, I find that the Wii had the best online service because of its simplicity. The only app I care about for the Wii and 360 is Netflix, though I wouldn�t mind a separate Youtube channel on the Wii. I don�t really care about HD graphics except if it is cartoon or Cel-shaded HD graphics. Oh but, don�t get me started about the greed of some gaming companies �cough� (Capcom) and their DLC and online passes. Even though there are a lot more cons to over weigh the pros to me, those few pros are too great to be over shadow by the cons. Those pros change the gaming industry drastically in a way I think for the better. To get to the core of my blog, as I analyze the pros and cons, I realize that a few of those cons didn�t really apply to me. I don�t play online very much, so I don�t worry too much about online passes. I don�t buy any of the Call of Duties, Rock Bands, Assassin Creeds or Uncharted games etc. I don�t use facebook or twitter on Xbox. I bought the Wii and Xbox purely for the games and well some online features are great, I mainly care about the games. Many games this gen did amaze me in more ways than the games in the 128 bit era ever could. So in the end, though my gripes were valid, I can�t honestly condemn this whole generation of gaming over some features I don�t even use.

So in short I believe that the HD era of gaming is a great era. It comes with its flaws, but I think the flaws are overshadowed by the few amazing pros I discovered. I hope that these pros stay alive and well in this new era of gaming. I�m looking forward to the power of the upcoming gen consoles. I know that many innovative and outstandingly design games will come if game designers used their creativity to the fullest. I say the hardware is the limit.