Texture “Pop-In”
The supposed move towards digital downloads instead of retail may well help solve this particular issue.
More to do with disc loading times than anything else, the tendency for textures to magically pop or fade in after an initial load time will hopefully become even less frequent as optical drives get faster and faster.
Dodgy/Unnecessary Motion Controls
I don’t care what format you’re developing fall. All major console manufacturers have had motion controlled features of some kind for years now so, as we move into the eighth generation of consoles, superfluous controls will no longer be acceptable. Even worse are when motion controls are essential but ultimately fail to work. Developers have had years to get it right and sort it out, so try harder on 720/PS4.
Linear and Claustrophobic Map Design
I don’t really think there’s any excuse for this, even on current hardware. It’s normally down to laziness and poor design, but I guess it could be technical issues holding good level designers back as well. Either way, increased processing power should give designers more leeway when it comes to open ended environments.
Higher Prices For Downloadable Titles
The next generation will supposedly slip into a market more dominated by digital releases. This could certainly be a good thing, with physical retail getting total parity with the more convenient download services out there. The problem comes in price. Current consoles often offer digital alternatives to nipping to your local games score, but downloading console games is almost always more expensive than picking up a disc. If next gen games are going to be more readily available through digital channels, then the price is going to have to be right.
