The Advancement of Game Devices! by Matt DiMaria

The Advancement of Game Devices! by Matt DiMaria

Early Gaming and Intro to the Big Dogs! 1972 saw the release of the very first game console, known as the Magnavox Odyssey. It was in the fifth and sixth generation of consoles that more modern day consoles seemed to come about, with the 1st Playstation being introduced in 1995, with the Playstation 2 hitting stores in 2000 and Xbox coming around in 2001 in the US and 2002 through the rest of the world.

Modern Day Consoles! 2005 saw the release of Microsoft s second Xbox, the Xbox 360, while 2006 brought the public the Sony Playstation 3 and Nintendo s Wii. This was really the first big instance where we saw gaming become what it has grown into today. And about 6 to 7 years later we saw the release of the next/ now current gen consoles, the Wii U in 2012, Xbox One and PS4 in 2013, and later the Nintendo Switch in 2017.

Graphics Advancement! Spider-Man 2 (Xbox) Spider-Man 2018 (Playstation 4) The Amazing Spider-Man (Xbox 360)

Graphics Advancement! With each new game device, we manage to push the limits on what the previous one could accomplish. Like seen with the Spider-Man games, each game that comes out over time looks more and more life like. Rocksteady, the company behind the Batman Arkham Video Games, addressed their reason for making the final Batman game in their series exclusive to the Xbox One and PS4, despising starting on the prior gen consoles. a single character used within the game's cinematics rendered with a similar polygon count to that of Arkham Asylum's entire environment. The Batmobile itself uses 160MB of memory, too, thanks to its "very expensive shaders and textures" and the "hundreds of thousands of polygons" used to build it. (Scammell, David. Batman: Arkham Knight Isn't Coming to Xbox 360 or PS3, Rocksteady Confirms. VideoGamer.com, Game Informer, 4 Mar. 2014, www.videogamer.com/news/batman-arkham-knight-isnt-coming-to-xbox-360-or-ps3- rocksteady-confirms.)

Gameplay Advancements! Both Batman Arkham Knight and Rise of the Tomb Raider managed to avoid using loading screens when making the move to the new gens. Aimed to make games feel more complete without having breaks to take players out of the mood.

Gameplay Advancements! Multiplayer Capabilities The processing power of these newer consoles and games have expanded the limits on multiplayer gaming as a whole. In earlier Call of Duty, and shooters in general, the game would usually consist of small teams of about 6-8 going up against each other. Recent games have expanded on this, with a notable game being Star Wars Battlefront, which allowed players to break into teams of 20 for a 20v20 match on certain game types.

Gameplay Advancements! Motion Controls

Gameplay Advancement! With the Wii, you are limited by what the controller can do. With the Kinect, you have a bit more free reign as you are the controller. Both, however, are limited by what the game engine can recognize and hold. As of right now, players can not run through the entirety of a shooter like Call of Duty or an action game using the Kinect, as the mechanics are too advanced as of right now, and the Kinect still runs into issues with reading certain movements the player makes.

Gameplay Advancement!

The Future! Combining elements like the Kinect and the Oculus Rift, there are many possible achievements on the road ahead. We have started to see points where, with technology, the human body can become the controller and we have far more control over the game in this manner than we would by simply pressing a few buttons on a controller. However, due to the costs and tech available for public use, we still have some time before we can see this version of gaming take of commercially.