I’ve mentioned before that I’ve been trying to decide which way to go this gaming generation, when it comes to the platform. I had been looking at Playstation 4, Xbox One, and even some variation of PC. In the end, I finally made a choice.

For my birthday, Jennifer got me a Playstation 4.

While I have an Xbox 360, I’ve never been a purely Xbox person. It was my console choice of the last generation simply because it had more games that I wanted to play, like Gears of War. The generation before that, I started with a Nintendo GameCube (because of Metroid Prime), then ended up purchasing a Playstation 2 when Mortal Kombat: Deception wasn’t announced for GameCube. This generation, I didn’t see anything that was exclusive for Xbox One that grabbed my interest, while at least one game for Playstation 4 (Mo Man’s Sky) caught my eye. In the end, I went with the system that interested me most.

I admit, I had considered going PC-only this time around. The issue I mainly had was the cost, as all of the research I did towards upgrading my desktop PC for recent games showed that I would likely end up spending more than I would if I were buying a new console. Not only that, the machine would not last as long as a console would; my desktop PC’s memory, CPU, and motherboard were last upgraded in 2010, while I had my Xbox 360 since 2006 or so. Also, if I wanted to play on my TV, I would need to either put together a small Steam Machine to connect to the TV so I could stream my gameplay or connect the PC directly to the TV via an extra-long HDMI cable.

In the end, I decided it was easier to just go console-only for gaming. I’m not even going to bother making my current PC gaming-worthy anymore; if anything happens to it, I’ll likely just replace it with my laptop and be done with it.

As for games, I only had one game I really wanted to get: Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor. However, when we went to purchase the console, we were offered the limited edition console with Destiny included. I had heard of Destiny, of course, but hadn’t had much interest in it. However, as it was a Bungie game and I had enjoyed their Halo games, I decided to go ahead and give it a shot.

As it turned out, I’m actually enjoying Destiny more than Shadow of Mordor. In fact, it’s the first MMO I’ve gotten into since EverQuest, even if I haven’t being doing any raiding or much multiplayer. It’s fun for some casual gameplay, especially when I just want to blow off some steam in a FPS. That’s not to say Shadow of Mordor isn’t fun, too; it plays very much like a Batman: Arkham game set in Middle-Earth. If anything, the only thing I don’t like about Shadow of Mordor so far is the fact that there are several orc chieftains who’ve kicked my ass enough times that trying to fight them usually ends up with me getting killed AGAIN pretty quickly… and they love to show up when I’m busy doing missions to cause me grief. :-)

Since getting those two, my friend Josh also got me a game called Transistor. It’s a nice little action RPG that takes place in a bit of a cyberpunk world. It’s not the sort of game I would have purchased on my own, but after a few nights of playtime, I’m really enjoying it.

Right now, there are only two upcoming games that I’m waiting on: Mortal Kombat X and Batman: Arkham Knight. I’m sure there are others coming that I’ll want to get, but I’ll take those as they come.

It’s nice finally getting up to speed with the current generation of gaming. In a sense, it’s sad that I’m more or less leaving PC gaming behind, but then again that sadness is due to nostalgia more than anything else. It’ll mean less money out of my wallet for hardware, and it wasn’t as if I play very much on my PC these days anyway. It’s for the best, and when all is said and done, I’ll be able to play the games I want. :-)