You're on a gaming forum. Levels and ranks are kind of a thing in every game from Call of Duty to Final Fantasy and have been for decades.

So find a mirror, I guess.

Absolutely.

And as a larper, that is some pretty cool chainmail.

Yeah, if having a rank in a game and offering up what was intended as a nice gesture to new players is some kind of a threat to my bro-ness or my bro-cred, I'm incredibly ok with that. And if you're not comfortable with ranks in games or nice gestures, bro, I'd think that there might be some other hobby you could take up, bro.

And absolutely, cool chainmail. Would go nicely with the Narsil hanging on my wall.

It was a joke... peace

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I could tell it was a tongue and cheek post. It's not like you never post in the games forum, but whatever.

Thanks Brack... I don't have the "bro-cred" of some gamers here... and I'm ok with that. I'm all for laughing at myself and poking others from time to time too. I'll never get personal with anyone though.

With Uncharted 4 pushed out till 2016, does this mean the PS4 will have two Christmases in a row without a big name exclusive? I mean, the PS4 did well last year without one, so I know it's not a do-or-die thing, but...

On the one hand, I'm good with the UC4 delay and fully expected it. It was obviously retooled to whatever degree when Amy Hennig was let go, and that was just a year ago.

On the other hand, yeah, not sure what they have for holiday 2015 on the current release schedule. We know they're working on a God of War, but that has always been a spring game, and nobody has said anything about a Gran Turismo. The Ratchet reboot might be this year, but those have never been tentpole games, even if they do have a fanbase (including me). Maybe they'll just try to get by on definitive collections from PS3 (Uncharted, Ratchet, God of War, Infamous etc.)

And finally, just about every first party PS4 game has been delayed. Even Bloodborne was pushed back a month, but that was just as likely to get it out of The Order's window. But it doesn't seem like a great trend, and eventually somebody has to ask whether Shu is doing a good job. The third party team is absolutely killing it, but the first party offerings have been late, undercooked or just OK. Maybe Bloodborne changes that.

If they are worried, not sure about that, they can just do a price drop.

Imagine $350 for the PS4 with Last of US and GTA V included. They will sell like pancakes.

And yes, I know they have been on sale for that price before, but the official price is always important. And I'm sure some outlets will then sell it for $300.

They have 20.2 million reasons to not be worried.

and they had 150+ million reasons not to be worried after ps2... and Microsoft had 75+ million reasons not to worry after 360.... what could possibly go wrong?

They'll be fine. They'll bundle in all the first party games no one wanted to begin with, everyone will be OMG VALUE! and it'll sell another 10 million.

I seem to recall getting yelled at for saying the PS4 is now going on 2 years with no exclusives....

Do people really not see how terrible of a job Sony is doing as a whole? It blows our minds at work as to who is buying these things, and why. They better step up their first party games quick, enough people have lost their jobs

I like you Stu. I really do. You're the most honest and straightforward of the Xbox fans here, and I respect that. But this really isn't that hard to figure out.

Sony built a simple games-focused console that happens to be the most powerful on the market at a great price with pitch perfect messaging. Meanwhile, their competition (both of them) were utterly shitting the bed with gimmicky hardware design and mixed messaging. Combine that with the fact that every growing market in the world was already a PS stronghold and the result? Sales, and unsurprisingly lots of them.

And while I agree that their first party software efforts on PS4 have been underwhelming thus far, I think they get some benefit of the doubt based on past performance.

But that "benefit of the doubt" has to be rapidly fading by now right? How many months of poor exclusives and overall "bad" news can people take before they finally give up?

What I think happened is that everyone in the world got so anti-Xbox after their E3 reveal 2 years ago that most people bought PS4's out of spite and due to the overall sheep mentality. Not anyone in here, but a more general observation.

Either way, the Xbox and Wii have had the games for 2 years now, yet the PS4 gets all the hardware sales. Eventually, the bandwagon has to crumble...

Just sucks that tons of people keep losing their jobs, I'm sure more of my friends will be soon after this year.

Wait, whaaa... they get the benefit of the doubt? People don't give a shit about past performance... just ask the Xbox 360 supporters who jumped on the PS4 bandwagon the minute MS wavered on their "one license per game" policy and double-speak.

As myopic as Stu has been regarding the X1, you're the flip side of the coin for PS4.

QFT

This was exactly why I jumped ship from Xbox (where I was for 7+ years) to Sony and have not regretted it one bit. Though a great addition, exclusives did not factor into my decision.

Edit: I guess that makes me a PS4 bandwagoner.

Maybe. Weak launch year games and game delays are hardly new, and the last 3-4 years on PS3 were pretty great, particularly compared to output on the Wii and 360.

Nobody spent $400 out of spite or sheep mentality. Consumers bought the product that they perceived as the greater value, and they continue to do so.

I think the market takes a longer view. It's more likely that some good exclusives come out on PS4 and haters will find something else to shake their fists about. I distinctly remember "PS2 has no games" and "PS3 has no games", and look how those turned out.

I hope not. Would like the industry to flourish regardless.

We're talking software here, and Sony has a 20 year track record of delivering across a wide variety of tastes. That perception/reality matters, whether you think so or not.

I've been plenty critical of PS4 hardware and software when it's warranted. And to my eye, Stu has done the same, and I have no beef with him.

Sheep!

Having both systems, I don't see that much of an edge for either system when you talk about exclusives. Of course, I don't pay that much attention to what's yet to come out, is the Xbone lineup that potent this year?

I'd say they're pretty even at this point, exclusive wise.

XBONE has Ryse, Forza, Titanfall, Sunset Overdrive, Killer Instinct and the Halo collection

PS4 has Knack, Killzone Shadow Fall, Driveclub, Infamous, The Order, MLB The Show, LittleBigPlanet 3, and The Last Of Us (since I included Halo)

Where's this two years of games that XBOX has that the PS4 doesn't? I see a crappy God Of War clone, a driving game, a fighting game, an InFamous clone, an online only game nobody plays anymore and Halo remasters.

I'm not saying Sony has knocked it out of the park. Far from it. But let's not declare a win for MS when that is their exclusive collection at this point.

I think Forza Horizon 2 is pretty amazing, but that game doesn't sell well and certainly isn't a system seller. Halo MCC has been a giant cluster-fuck. Sunset Overdrive is okay, but nothing too special -- and pretty obnoxious to boot. Dead Rising 3 and Ryse were underwhelming exclusives and Forza 5 did so many things wrong. Titanfall was great hype but a disappointing game that quickly fizzled out along with its community.

For my money (and I'm a big-time game consumer), the XO has 1 1/2 great exclusive games. While that's more than the PS4 has, it's not enough to swing the balance of power between the systems.

If we're talking about 2015, it's Tomb Raider (timed?), Halo (again), Forza (again) and Crackdown 3 (maybe?). Not a bad exclusive lineup for the holiday. The rest of the year is pretty slim.

Nintendo, however, has been killing it. If it weren't for that price and that fisher price tablet.....

Wow. You know, that throwaway comment I bolded is pretty insulting and says a lot about your attitude. I'm an "Xbox fan" but I'm also a "Sony fan" and I know I'm not the only one here. That doesn't mean that I have some sort of subversive agenda that makes anything I say untrustworthy. I'm actually on your side of most of the arguments in the above post vs. discostu.

The whole paranoia/persecution complex thing you have going on is really something else. But I know you'll see my saying that as just another example of an "Xbox fan" being dishonest and shady, because you view this whole thing as an ongoing war with sides and spies and brave warriors.