Real Next gen game

[Ze_ro]

I would go as far as to say Crysis represents the biggest problem with PC gaming right now which is that no one wants to make a fun game on current hardware, they are too obsessed with the technological aspects of gaming. We need more game designers and less game engines.

This is the exact problem...in this statement...N8 has it pegged. And is the real reason why console gaming brought me back in. There is no reason why a game like Pikmin, or Katamari couldn't have been on a PC. In fact if they had...I would've been all over that. No...instead, we have Quake 4, Doom3, FarCry, and all these other FPS.

Well, I wouldn't say any of this is really a problem, per se. It's simply a matter of the PC gaming market being seperate from the console market. Companies making PC games focus on graphics and technology because that's what their core audience wants (In reality, I think their core audience has gravitated towards PC's because that's what the PC gives them... kind of a chicken/egg situation). The fact that we're all here on a forum dedicated to classic consoles pretty much guarantees a luke-warm response in this thread as we're not really PC folks. If you went over to a PC forum and started talking about a new Pikmin game for the Wii, I bet you'd get a ton of people saying the game looks like childish garbage. Oh well, to each his own.

 

It's a difficult situation trying to stay ahead of the curve for PC gaming due to the constant upgrade cycle. Companies spend years working on a game, and for them, the ideal situation is to release a game that almost requires an amount of power that isn't yet available. If they release something that runs nice on todays hardware, then the game will be obsolete within a couple of months, and they'll have precious little time to actually make money off their investment before more impressive games start to show up. Meanwhile on a console, you're pretty much guaranteed of about 3-4 years worth of potential sales, as the technology remains (mostly) constant.

 

There's also the fact that Crytek wants to license out the game's engine for many years to come, so it's obvious what their focus will be in maying Crysis. Making an amazing tech-demo to show off to developers is probably about as important to them as making something that will sell to consumers.

 

--Zero

[n8littlefield]

I completely agree that the core PC audience is that group of gamers who are willing to update every year or so to remain competitive and don't even notice the demands on the hardware. However, the bigger picture is the problem. While the core gamers do exist, the PC industry really needs more casual gamers as well to be able to survive. Stuff like Sims, Bookworm Adventures, or Roller Coaster Tycoon help keep PC gaming profitable and it seems like PC's are really losing ground i n this area. Look at the shelves of EB/Gamestop, the PC section keeps shrinking with every remodel.

 

The consoles are really starting to go for the casual gamer between mobile phone games, the DS and Wii, the marketplace on the 360, they are all pushing for that gamer who normally played Bejeweled on their PC. If they manage to pull that base audience away, it's going to hurt PC gaming severely.

[Paranoid]

Lack of a dominant paridigm in PC controller interfaces is one reason why the PC is not as good at platformers and the like as the consoles.

 

If there was someone making a standard controller and the games came preprogrammed to work well with those controllers, there would be far less compelling reason to own a console.

 

Today, your game tries to accomodate an avalanche of different potential controllers you might own. So out of the box, it is usually up to you as the player to decide and program which buttons do WHAT in a particular game.

 

Get rid of that, and have a controller that, with it, you can load up any game and the defaults are generally going to be the best and most logical choice, and you've disabled a major advantage of the consoles over PC gaming. Play GTA/SA on the PC and then on the XBox... and, the game itself is superior on the PC... as far as graphics... and really, as far as the range of hardware that can play the title. But the control sucks, and it makes the game unenjoyable. On the Xbox though, the default control scheme is great, and that makes the difference between a fun game and a medicore one.

[n8littlefield]

I was just reading something really similar. Apparently with Vista, Microsoft is hoping to create a standard where a game would be certified a "Game for Windows" which would require a standard box design like the consoles have and have built in settings for (surprise) the Xbox360 controller. That way, a PC gamer could own a good joypad (the 360 controller is awesome) and know when they buy a game it will be a simply install and then ready to play.

Edited December 6, 2006 by n8littlefield

[MCHufnagel]

MS is addressing the controller issue by requiring games that appear under the Games for Windows banner have the XBox 360 controller as an option. I would imagine that many PC developers will do this, just for the promotion dollars that MS is spending on this program. With being able to use a console controller, I expect to see more variety in genres besides RPG, FPS and RTS. Although keyboard/mouse controls work great with those types of games.

 

I recently bought a high end (not extreme though) gaming PC because my four year old model couldn't play anything newer than two years old with any speed. It is Vista upgradable so it will have a decent lifetime of usefulness for gaming. But I'm not into the upgrading scene, so I'm sure within a couple of years, there will be games that will have massive slowdown on this rig. But it's nice to be able to play games that are either not available on consoles or look better than their console counterpart (and they're less expensive too).

 

Damn n8, I'm too slow in my reply. You beat me to the Games for Windows message!

Edited December 6, 2006 by MCHufnagel

[n8littlefield]

Yeah - I had just got done reading about it last night thinking that it was really something that took too long to happen. I'm actually glad someone like Microsoft is throwing some weight and money into the PC market. And honestly, even though I don't own the console, I really do like the 360 controller more than any PC one I've owned. Hopefully this will help the arguably stagnant PC scene. I was thinking about a new PC next year, but it's so hard to finally buy one when things move and get replaced so quickly. You keep thinking "In another month I'll get more storage and more power for my money" and keep delaying the inevitable purchase!

Edited December 6, 2006 by n8littlefield

[MCHufnagel]

As far as buying a new PC for gaming, I just picked a point that I thought would be good for some time down the road and went with it. My video card isn't Direct X 10 compatable, so that is where I'll have to make a decision to upgrade to a new card or not. I'm gambling that DX10 only games won't be that common for another year or so, and by then there will be a greater choice and lower price point for them.

 

As far as growing the PC gaming market, this new program by MS will make things better. Standardization will help and I think that the new family controls will make a difference also. Dad can finish a session of his gore-fest game and then lock out junior from playing it.