Inspired by a recent Twitter post by Kurt, I was thinking about my favorite exclusives of the generation. Thought it might be an interesting thread. If we say PS4, Xbox One and Switch?

I've not got an Xbox, so...

My top 3 PS4 exclusives:

1. Days Gone
2. Bloodborne
3. God Of War (EDIT: No, actually, Uncharted 4!)

My top 3 Switch exclusives (and no, BOTW wasn't a Switch exclusive, but come on, it's still a Nintendo exclusive)

1. LoZ: Breath Of The Wild
2. Super Mario Odyssey
3. Animal Crossing: New Horizons

So how about you?

I don't have an Xbox and haven't really bought any Switch exclusives, but I'll do my PS4 top three:

1. Bloodborne
2. The Last of Us Part II
3. Horizon Zero Dawn

PS4:

1. Bloodborne (astounding marriage of mechanics, lore and mood)
2. TLOU2 (the outstanding technical achievement of this or any generation)
3. FF7R (enormous recency bias, but its highpoints are pretty much peerless in how they made me feel)

Honourable Mentions: GT Sport (vastly underrated), HZD (took me nearly three years but worth the persistence).

Xbox:

1. FH4
2. I'm not trying to be funny.
3. I didn’t enjoy one other Xbox exclusive game.

Switch:

1. BotW
2. ARMS (an incredibly deep and satisfying game which misrepresents itself - requires persistence for rewards)
3. Fire Emblem: Three Houses (I never want to play it again but it consumed me completely for a hundred hours or something).

Honourable Mentions: Odyssey (dazzling highs, exhausting structure), Splatoon 2 (one of the greatest games ever, but I'm too shit at it to really enjoy myself).

Hmm interesting... A lot of my favourites are kind of half-exclusives, or exclusives that later went on to have ports on other platforms, so I guess none of those count. Otherwise I would have to put Nier Automata and the Yakuza games in there somewhere.

PS4:

1. God of War
2. Gravity Rush 2
3. Shadow of the Colossus

The last one there is hard because it's a toss-up between SotC and The Last Guardian. I think I preferred actually playing SotC more, but it is a remake, so it's hard to say it really fully counts as a PS4 game. Also Yakuza 6 and Judgment are probably contesting for that third spot as well, but at the moment I don't feel too bad about missing them out, for reasons that I'll talk about once I finally finish the Yakuza 5 remaster.

Switch:

1. BotW
2. Splatoon 2
3. Astral Chain

With these ones though it's hard to rank them. For all of them I could make a case for them being either above or below the others, so I guess with these ones they're just my three favourites, not necessarily ranked against each other. All stellar games. Mario Odyssey is great too, but it doesn't line up enough with my personal tastes for me to say it's one of my own favourites. Still enjoyed it a lot though.

XB1:

1. Forza Horizon 4
2. Forza Horizon 3
3. Forza Horizon 2

Yeah, Xbox didn't have a great lineup this generation... And you could even argue 3 and 4 don't qualify for being on PC as well. The games are genuinely great though, as I've talked about at length before. I'd say 3 and 4 are also pretty equal as well, both having pros and cons between each other.

Damn I forgot Uncharted 4. That would probably be in my top 3 ahead of God Of War, actually.

Hmmm

PS4

Yakuza 0 (ps3 version wasn't localised for the west)
FFVII Remake
TLOU2

Honorable mention for Horizon Zero Dawn

Xbox One is yeah a tough one but

1. Gears 5. Great comeback after the meh 4
2. FH4
3. FH3

Switch

1. Mario Odyssey
2. Animal Crossing
3. Arms

Tried around 6 times to get into BOTW but I didn't like it.

There are still many exclusives I need to play, but so far

PS4
1. Last of Us 2
2. Spider-Man
3. Judgement

Switch
1. BOTW
2. Mario and Rabbids
3. Mario Odyessey

Not played enough Xbox exclusives as in I’ve only played two in Gears 4 and FH4 but must say I really liked them both

Yakuza 0, Kiwami and Kiwami 2 are all on the XBO now, but I guess they still mostly count as ps exclusives.

Flabyo wrote: ↑August 16th, 2020, 9:53 pm Yakuza 0, Kiwami and Kiwami 2 are all on the XBO now, but I guess they still mostly count as ps exclusives.

Yep keep forgetting they've all been put on there, I think it's my brain trying to help me forget that I bought 3, 4, 5 and 6 a week or so before it was announced it was all coming to game pass.

In no particular order...

PS4 - God of War, The Last of Us: Part 2, Spider-Man.

Switch - TLOZ: Breath Of The Wild, Super Mario Odyssey, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

Xbox One - Forza Horizon 3, Gears 5, Sunset Overdrive

Must say I think people are maybe a little mean spirited towards the poor Xbox on exclusives (or maybe just didn't play many?). They've definitely not had a strong generation on that front particularly when you look at some of the incredible games on the other systems, but not being able to name 3 or anything that isn't Forza Horizon? It's not been quite that much of a wasteland!

In terms of ones not in my top 3 there's Halo 5, Gears 4, Forza Horizon 4, Forza Motorsport 5-7, Sea of Thieves, Quantum Break, Halo Wars 2, 2 x Ori games, Cuphead (first Ori and Cuphead are on other platforms now but substantively exclusive for a long time e.g. Yakuza on PS4). Perhaps not even one of those hits the heights of the exclusives on PS4 or Switch, but all good video games in their own right.

This is one of Microsoft's big problems next gen though right! The pervasive narrative they have to flip is that they have no good exclusive games even if the reality is maybe not quite so dire!

They do have exclusive games, and I do love my One X, but I use it almost solely for third party games.

Of the games you listed, I also really loved and should have included FH3 (and appreciate FM5-7) and I can understand that Sea of Thieves became something unique and was well supported. It looks fantastic, too. Hard to count Cuphead at this stage but it would have been on my list. It's an amazing game.

Everything else listed there...I wasn't trying to take the piss, I'm genuinely disappointed. I think they're average games which would have arguably received even less attention and praise if they were third party. Xbox is absolutely miles behind in terms of exclusives.

In literally every other way, though, the One X is my favourite console by some distance.

I agree with a lot of what you're saying here.

My One X is also my third party games machine of choice, and as a piece of hardware it is my favourite of the three this gen. I guess I like some of those other exclusives a little more, but to each their own! Do agree that they are behind in terms of overall quality though, because as much as I like some of the Xbox One exclusives there's not really anything I could argue is on the level of God of War, TLOU2, and Spider-Man, all of which I loved.

I think I've said this in another thread at some point, but I think what Xbox does have up its sleeve that could turn the tide moving forward is variety. Sony has third person action/adventure games of various sizes and flavours nailed to near perfection, but if they just keep ploughing that furrow over the next few years and Microsoft's first parties start to really raise the quality bar on some of these exclusives in different genres, then it could be really different conversation in future. Especially when you consider everything comes to Game Pass day one.

PS4

1. Bloodborne - Pretty far in front too. It's top shelf for me.
2. The Last of Us Part II
3. Spider-Man

Switch

1. Breath of the Wild - Similar to Bloodborne, this is very easily number 1.
2. Fire Emblem: Three Houses
3. Super Mario Odyssey

I didn't really own an Xbox this gen, but I liked playing Gears 5 on PC.

I think I’m the only one that played BotW on the WiiU... heh

I did, as discussed on the podcast.

Me too, thought it was great on WiiU unit I included it in my Switch list just because it’s on there

Nearly all of my favourite games this generation are available across 2 or more platforms, makes this quite a hard list to make.

I’d say Sunset Overdrive is probably my favourite xbox exclusive though, not sure what I’d pick for PS4. Probably Horizon at the moment. But you have to disregard PC releases for both of those for them to count.

PS4

Bloodborne
Ratchet and Clank
Until Dawn
(Last Guardian is close)

Xbox

Sea of thieves
Rare replay
Halo: MCC

Switch

Zelda: BotW
Super Mario Odyssey
Luigis Mansion 3

When it comes to exclusivity you kinda need to put PC ports out of the equation as technically its still Sony/MS exclusive, just on a mostly agnostic platform.

Everyone here has given me a lot of food for thought when it comes to this generation. I focused on the PC, but I have pivoted back to consoles and definitely need to buy myself a PS4 Pro, Xbox One X and Switch when time and funds become available. Such an amazing breath of games, especially for the PS4 and I feel foolish for not picking up a current gen console earlier.

I had a look through everybodys' list here and far and above, Bloodborne stands out! I only ever hear great things about this game from the Internet and for some people, it is the pinnacle entry in the Soulsborne/Sekiro series of games. Why on earth From Software hasn't capitalised on this and made a Bloodborne 2, I don't know. Perhaps it could come to PS5

When I do pick up a PS4, this will definitely be on the list. The only enhancements provided by the PS4 Pro seem to be Supersampling and the Boost Mode from what I have read.

Speaking of Bloodborne, Digital Foundry posted an excellent article (which I'm sure you have all read or seen the YouTube video, but just in case for those who may have missed it) about an unofficial 60FPS patch for the game.
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digi ... lete-story

Sinclair Gregstrum wrote: ↑August 17th, 2020, 3:02 pm I agree with a lot of what you're saying here.

My One X is also my third party games machine of choice, and as a piece of hardware it is my favourite of the three this gen. I guess I like some of those other exclusives a little more, but to each their own! Do agree that they are behind in terms of overall quality though, because as much as I like some of the Xbox One exclusives there's not really anything I could argue is on the level of God of War, TLOU2, and Spider-Man, all of which I loved.

I think I've said this in another thread at some point, but I think what Xbox does have up its sleeve that could turn the tide moving forward is variety. Sony has third person action/adventure games of various sizes and flavours nailed to near perfection, but if they just keep ploughing that furrow over the next few years and Microsoft's first parties start to really raise the quality bar on some of these exclusives in different genres, then it could be really different conversation in future. Especially when you consider everything comes to Game Pass day one.

This would definitely be how I play 3rd party games as well! Most Xbox One X games seem to have been patched to take advantage of the X's power. Out of interest, what changes have you seen playing Xbox One games on the X compared to the original Xbox One and S models (if you have those at all)?