Soldato
Spot on.
Diablo was out on the PS1 and Diablo 3 is likely to get a console release btw.
Changing fortunes for PC gaming..??
- Thread starter iv-tecman
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Spot on.
Diablo was out on the PS1 and Diablo 3 is likely to get a console release btw.
COmpletely agree.
It also seems that quite a few PC exclusives are made by people who value their art so to speak above profits - take games like ARMA, IL2, Rise of FLight, Stalker to mention but a few. All have been designed (in eastern europe) by PC fanatics who know all too well that their work could have made far more profit in console land without all consuming piracy, but refused to move there because that would entail too many compromises.
Last time I checked, the Witcher 2, Stalker 2 (sequel), IL2: Birds of Prey and many others are coming out on consoles just as well as on PCs so to say that they "value their art above profits" is quite unlikely in real life.
Exceptions are only there to further prove the rule
Birds of Prey is exactly the kind of thing (proper) IL2 and RoF developers did not want their games to become. Primitive flight modelling, primitive damage modelling, short visibility distance, small maps, pathetic missions like shoot down 20 bombers.
Witcher2 is a real exception. Stalker 2 we have not seen yet - could well turn out to be the new R6:Vegas
Birds of Prey is exactly the kind of thing (proper) IL2 and RoF developers did not want their games to become. Primitive flight modelling, primitive damage modelling, short visibility distance, small maps, pathetic missions like shoot down 20 bombers.
Witcher2 is a real exception. Stalker 2 we have not seen yet - could well turn out to be the new R6:Vegas
Yes, we can still dream though and not pretend that currnet situation is "progress". No, in terms of PC gaming, its a regress. Piracy has severely wounded PC gaming.
Not to mention sim based games, i.e. flight sim x, x-plane, can't get them on a console
Well, we can- Microsoft Flight anyone? (tumbleweed blows by)
Not to mention sim based games, i.e. flight sim x, x-plane, can't get them on a console
GT5, Forza 4.
Soldato
PC gaming seems no different now than it has been for the last ten years, the change for me is that the current gen of consoles are now utterly decrepit.
Of course once the next gen of consoles finally break cover, it'll be all "PC gaming is dying! etc..."
I wouldn't worry about GT5, that's a grand example of fanboyism as I discovered. 'Tis very dull. I doubt Forza 4 was much of an improvment over Forza 3 either.
Of course once the next gen of consoles finally break cover, it'll be all "PC gaming is dying! etc..."
GT5, Forza 4.
I wouldn't worry about GT5, that's a grand example of fanboyism as I discovered. 'Tis very dull. I doubt Forza 4 was much of an improvment over Forza 3 either.
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Soldato
GT5, Forza 4.
Once again, these are great games, but GT5 would not sit comfortably with Iracing or even Live For Speed in terms of simulation aspects. Their target audience is simply different.
Who said ALL PC exclusives are awesome? You've not seen Moscow Sniper or Boxer's Revenge - both PC exclusives and are just ludicrously tosh
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In the context of my whole post, my quoted comment was referring to the fact that PC gaming is in a completely different stage of development from the consoles. Yes, piracy has had a huge effect on the traditional 1st-Party approach to game development, but look at the digital age it has given rise to with Steam and other such services. Look at how the power has now returned to the Indie developers and modders, who are releasing such high quality work like "Dear Esther" etc. Look at the sheer range of choice we have on the PC, where we can play anything from strategy to sim, to FPS the way it was meant to be played with a mouse/KB, to varying-quality ports of big Console releases.
What I am trying to say is yes, we constantly lament the state of PC gaming and the good old days, but the truth is we have never had it so good. The PC means choice, flexibility and user customisation - all of which the consoles can never provide. Our good old days were an excellent period, but we are now in a different cycle, where the market seems to have contracted, but at the same time brings us massive growth in the Indie sector. In time, we may come back to that golden era where the games could be so innovative and fresh, but it will not be by looking back misty-eyed at the past.
I would also point you to the fact that it is a real possibility that the next console-generation will be the last one. Sure, the COD generation may sustain it - but those teens will grow up, get into the real world, probably have less time for these pursuits. Tablets and Cloud Gaming will continue to enroach on the traditional Console space....all the while, PC gamers aren't going anywhere.
Consider this - the next Doom/Quake like experience may happen on the Cloud
And much, much larger than "proper" simulators.
What about games like Ninja Gaiden, jRPGs, adventure games?
Not to mention the whole market for casual gaming on consoles.
PCs have barely a few niche genres that won't make it on consoles.
I think whats happening is some or all & of the following:
1: MS Game Studios do not care enough about PC gaming as they know it would cost them a lot of money to make serious inroads so they just throw out mediocre stuff like AOE Online & MS Flight (both F2P but around £80 each if you want all DLC content Doubt many PC gamers are prepared to pay so much for an inferior experience). MS were prepared to let Remedy self publish Alan Wake on PC which is a crazy decision considering how many copies its sold in a few days Good luck to MS on Windows 8 having native Xbox LIVE support all it will mean is its easier for developers to bring some content to PC I cannot imagine it will be much more than an embedded XBLA store on PC though.
2: XBLA is a massive PIA according to many developers & MS now charge $40K per patch which is insane I realise they want stable well tested games but its driving developers away to Steam/PSN which is only good news for PC gamers everywhere. (I expect Alan Wake American Nightmare on PC within 6 months for instance
3: Steam allows publishers/developers to have confidence & if the game is good it will sell either at launch or when its very cheap.
4: Many console owners are making the jump to PC gaming as the games are so much cheaper & technically a long way ahead. Xbox LIVE is ruined by all the adverts/rage screaming children. PSN was never any good to begin with & as its F2P unlikely to change much (the publishers have to pay for it though).
I think PC gaming is growing rapidly worldwide as a lot of big countries like Germany, Russia, Brazil, China, Korea only like PC gaming. This is driving a lot of growth (not in UK though as PC gaming is apparently declining a little). I do not think next gen consoles will make much difference to PC gaming as they are unlikely to offer anything more than current PC's can manage anyway. Current gen consoles cannot even handle 720P without vsync disabled on a lot of games so next gen will likely offer 1080P with more detail & thats about it. There will probably be an 18 month period when next gen consoles are out where PC gaming may take a hit though unless the games are very easy to port over
1: MS Game Studios do not care enough about PC gaming as they know it would cost them a lot of money to make serious inroads so they just throw out mediocre stuff like AOE Online & MS Flight (both F2P but around £80 each if you want all DLC content
Doubt many PC gamers are prepared to pay so much for an inferior experience). MS were prepared to let Remedy self publish Alan Wake on PC which is a crazy decision considering how many copies its sold in a few days Good luck to MS on Windows 8 having native Xbox LIVE support all it will mean is its easier for developers to bring some content to PC I cannot imagine it will be much more than an embedded XBLA store on PC though.2: XBLA is a massive PIA according to many developers & MS now charge $40K per patch which is insane
I realise they want stable well tested games but its driving developers away to Steam/PSN which is only good news for PC gamers everywhere. (I expect Alan Wake American Nightmare on PC within 6 months for instance 3: Steam allows publishers/developers to have confidence & if the game is good it will sell either at launch or when its very cheap.
4: Many console owners are making the jump to PC gaming as the games are so much cheaper & technically a long way ahead. Xbox LIVE is ruined by all the adverts/rage screaming children. PSN was never any good to begin with & as its F2P unlikely to change much (the publishers have to pay for it though
).I think PC gaming is growing rapidly worldwide as a lot of big countries like Germany, Russia, Brazil, China, Korea only like PC gaming. This is driving a lot of growth (not in UK though as PC gaming is apparently declining a little). I do not think next gen consoles will make much difference to PC gaming as they are unlikely to offer anything more than current PC's can manage anyway. Current gen consoles cannot even handle 720P without vsync disabled on a lot of games so next gen will likely offer 1080P with more detail & thats about it. There will probably be an 18 month period when next gen consoles are out where PC gaming may take a hit though unless the games are very easy to port over
I think PC gaming is growing rapidly worldwide as a lot of big countries like Germany, Russia, Brazil, China, Korea only like PC gaming. This is driving a lot of growth (not in UK though as PC gaming is apparently declining a little). I do not think next gen consoles will make much difference to PC gaming as they are unlikely to offer anything more than current PC's can manage anyway. Current gen consoles cannot even handle 720P without vsync disabled on a lot of games so next gen will likely offer 1080P with more detail & thats about it. There will probably be an 18 month period when next gen consoles are out where PC gaming may take a hit though unless the games are very easy to port over
The German PC gaming market is from what I’ve read quite big and a lot of PC games are sold there… I remember the German market for Amiga being quite strong back in the late 80’s, Russia has a lot of PC developers and we’ve seen some really good games recently from Russia.
I don’t think the next gen will have as much impact as believed. A PS3 can hardly handle 720p as rightfully stated. GT5 is meant to be 1080 60fps but it screen tears horrifically when you get more then two cars on the track, F1 2011 is sub 720p and has zero v sync, even the off track menus and celebrations screen tear, and the textures are woefully dire… F1 2011 on the PS3 is a disgraceful mess of a game, reason I ended up buying it again for PC, its night and day. Even my laptop handles F1 2011 at ultra DX11 1080p with v sync and D3D triple buffering enabled without too much trouble... Could say codemaster just don't know how to utlise a PS3 correctly. maybe.!!
Current consoles can turn up a decent surprise though, uncharted shows you want aging tech can do when done right.
Thing is about PC’s, you throw brute force power at games to get them into the higher res and more detailed textures with more AA applied.
Anyhow, digress. PC gaming as mentioned has hit a niece sweet spot. Its just good to see indie games performing well, such as Dear Esther or Amnesia and also cross platform games, I wonder what the sales figures for Batman Arkham City were, despite it having broken DX11?
The reason even Niche games fail is piracy. Look at Rise of Flight - alive and kicking (as niche as it was immediately after its launch), Silent Hunter - dead. One big difference? RoF had the best anti piracy DRM that was never ever cracked (still so!).
And how is Steam a messiah, or even "sign of good times for PC gaming"? It's just a distributor- like rainforest or Tesco. It has no say in the war aginst pirates which is by far the biggest problem for PC exclusives (single player games).
But it's not just about niche games on PC- Thief, Ghost Recon, R6 were all popular...
And how is Steam a messiah, or even "sign of good times for PC gaming"? It's just a distributor- like rainforest or Tesco. It has no say in the war aginst pirates which is by far the biggest problem for PC exclusives (single player games).
But it's not just about niche games on PC- Thief, Ghost Recon, R6 were all popular...
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Soldato
Steam is far more than just a distributor. I'm sure to some people that don't get the appeal it's just a use "once to get a game" tool. For me and others, it's a place where I check out new releases, catch up with mates, organise games with people, share screenshots and links, find news, check out patch notes. When a game I'm interested in comes out, one of the first things I want to know is will it be SteamWorks. It's more than just a tool, it's almost a gaming platform in itself.
You could also stop harping on about piracy, it's not the cause of developers choosing to go cross platform rather than exclusive.
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