Next-gen is baffling!

Mere hours separate me and my PlayStation 4 console. Yet, here I am, baffled with the choices made by next-gen consoles on the eve of the PS4 release. Don't get me wrong, I'm beyond excited for the next-generation of gaming, but there's plenty of decisions made with the next-gen consoles, and us as a gaming community, that are just off.

Charge it.

For starters, let's start with the controller. I picked up a second controller a couple of days ago. I love it. It's so much better than the PlayStation 3 controller in every way. It feels so good in my hands. It's ergonomic and actually fills the palm. I don't mind spending $60 on another controller, but why doesn't it come with a micro-USB cable? Now, I understand that the DualShock 3 controller with the PS3 didn't come with a cable, and you needed to charge it using the cable that came with the PlayStation 3. It's the same with the PlayStation 4. A mico-USB cable costs $5 at most.

In the grand scheme of things, this isn't a big deal. Every PlayStation 4 owner with two controllers should just be able to switch off charging controllers. Still, what if you have more than two controllers, friends coming over, and you need to charge more than one controller? Well, then you just use another micro-USB cable. But let's say you don't have another, for whatever reason. That's another expense, even if it is a low-cost one. Also, considering Polygon said the battery life of the DualShock 4 is only 7-8 hours – a fraction of the DualShock 3 – maybe an extra cable thrown in with your $60 wouldn't have been a bad thing.

A Blu-ray player that doesn't play Blu-ray movies.

The PS4 comes with a Blu-ray player, but it doesn't play Blu-rays unless you install a Day-One patch that adds the ability to read DVDs and Blu-rays. That's right – you have a Blu-ray player in your PS4 that can't play Blu-rays and DVDs unless you download a 300 MB patch.

The PlayStation 4's lead architect Mark Cerny said that it's not a PlayStation issue. It's a physics issue. The PS4 is not designed to read games off discs. It has a Blu-ray drive that's three times faster than the PS3's, but it's faster to read games from the hard drive. That's fine, but why can't it play movies out of the box? The math doesn't add up for me; then again, I'm an English major. Math isn't my strong suit.

I just don't understand how it has a Blu-ray drive that can't play Blu-ray movies out of the box. It's like getting a microwave that won't pop popcorn without a patch. That might be the worst analogy I've ever given.

Jules, it doesn't play records. It plays CDs. It's a CD player.

If you still use CDs for your musical desires, you're out of luck. The PS4 does not support audio CDs, mp3 or DLNA. Sony is looking to implement and support them in the future, but at launch, you're going to have to go elsewhere for this. Maybe your PS3, considering that can support them.

It's weird things like this that confuses me a bit about next-gen consoles. Shuhei Yoshida, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, said “It's not like we actively decided 'Let's not do this feature so that people will subscribe to Music Unlimited.' Like we've been saying, the focus has been always on the game features. And some of the features we wanted but we couldn't get in on day one – game features – we are very disappointed and worried about not having on day one and that have been the higher priorities.”

I'm all for Sony focusing on games over music playback. It's just weird that current consoles can do a lot of things that the new ones can't. #progress

It's a brick house.

Image Source: codhumor.com

Why, oh why, does the Xbox One have a power brick? It's 2013. Not 2006. Do we still need to clutter the area behind our TV or console with an external power brick? Come on already.

What gamers now hold important.

Boot up times.

Resolution.

Framerate.

None of these things mattered to gamers when the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 launched. Everyone just wanted the new consoles coming off of the successful PlayStation 2 and the new kid on the block, the Xbox. Now, gamers and media are so concerned with how quickly a console boots up that it's mind-boggling. Cold-boot for the PS4 – based on a video we saw – was about 17 seconds. But keep in mind, the PS4 is designed to be on and has a stand-by mode. You'll rarely perform a cold boot. Think of it as a computer. Powering on from scratch takes longer. The Xbox One from stand-by mode using the Kinect took 10-13 seconds.

Is nothing fast enough for us anymore? You have all this power and all these things you've downloaded, and now we're complaining that it takes 10 seconds to get to it?

As far as resolution and framerate are concerned, they absolutely matter. But compared to where we were six years ago, resolution was never in the discussion when comparing the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Now, the debates are so heated just over that. Priorities, bro.

Just enjoy the new consoles.

Magic Kingdom's 'The Carousel of Progress.' This was the future of video games.

There's always going to be something to complain about with the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. At the end of the day, we are getting two new consoles that pack more power and are capable of more things. Whether you're a fan of the Kinect and Microsoft or not, they are trying new things and the TV functionality and voice commands looks really promising. Sony is putting out a powerful console chock-full of particles.

The future is now. It's like the last part in Disney World's the Carousel of Progress. It's a great, big, beautiful tomorrow. And it's just a dream a day hours away.

You can follow Senior Editor Lance Liebl on Twitter @Lance_GZ. He likes talking sports, video games, movies, and the stupidity of celebrities. Email at LLiebl@GameZone.com