New gen of PC games??

Chris [BEANS]

Chris [BEANS]

Chris [BEANS]

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With consoles, next gen is easy to spot. You quite literaly have to wait until the next generation of console......

I'm starting to think that we have entered a new gen of PC games though. Gone are the days my trusty 9800 pro would play all the new games, even if I did have to sacrifice resolution and detail.
Now with games like COD4, Crysis, Gears of War, plus up and coming titles like the new Total War etc things are starting to look amazing and world away from the previous benchmarks like Far Cry.
Not only graphically but physics too.

Sadly I'm going to miss this little evolution because I just can't justify the money on a new rig, but that's not to say that I don't welcome it.
To be honest, I look forward to the day I get bored of waiting to save up and simply blow a grand and a bit on a rig to play these titles!!!

Not realy any point to my thread, just occured to me and wondered what your oppinions were on the matter :)
 
Well for consoles you have to wait years for any real graphical advancement, when for PC's its all the time, hardware improves very quickly. It seems to go through phases, the 2004 phase was a breakthrough imo, Half life 2, far cry, doom 3, 3 very good games, all very nice graphics (still) and the engines are still be used today (well far cry's isnt exactly the same but meh). Since then its just been getting better and better, there have been some boring parts where no good new games have been released, but its all picking up now and next gen pc gaming is imo has started with games like Crysis/UT3/CoD4 etc.
 
It does seem to exist though its far more frequent. I would say it occurs when a slew of new engines appear. For example Far Cry, Doom 3 and Half Life 2 all appeared relatively close to one another. This time round the UE3, Crysis engine and CoD4 engines have all made their first full appearance within a month of eachother.
 
I don't think the 360's and PS3's are next gen. I think the only really next gen. console out there is the Nintendo Wii.
 
I guess that the PS3 and xbox360 are just advancements in graphical technology - but they were still behind PCs in terms of performance even on their release, ergo not next gen.

The wii however offers something that no other platform has ever offered as well as this aside from the PC with some highly unsupported and expensive peripherals - motion technology.

I personally think that all three consoles are 'next gen', i just think that's where he was coming from.
 
I agree with Streeteh, the last sea-change in engine quality was FC, D3 and Source coming out in 2004. Since then things have been much-of-a-muchness until U3 engine titles have started to crop up, followed by Crysis etc.

Of course, there are things which blur the lines. In between 1999 (UT/Q3) and 2004, there was little in the way giant leaps forward. Modified Epic/id engines were used by many games for a few years, with the odd interesting newcomer raising the bar slightly every now and then (Croteam's Serious engine, Jupiter from Monolith, Chrome from Techland etc).

Obviously I'm only looking at FPS engines here as they tend to be the ones receiving the most hype and lend themselves to benchmarking.
 
Yup Gen is kind of a marketing word really.... It has no technical basis.

But yes I agree, the UT3 engine and the Cryengine are quite a big step up and if there is ever a new gen this is it.

Wii is justa gamecube with a fancy control hardware wise. but from a gameplay point of view I guess it could be next gen, you see you can apply this next gen crap to anything.

One reason why I wont buy a 8800 series now, they can't handle Crysis and UT3 at max settings onmy monitor so I know that there are going to loads of games requiring similar spec over the next year, roll on the 9000 series. I have had this 7900GTX for like 2 years now though so it has done OK.

It is really to do with game engines IMO. Like how the Xbox has a "last gen" GPU but Gears of war is a "next gen" game, it ran it fine so it is "next gen" imo. ut how far into the gen do we have to get before next gen becomes this gen, console wise about 2 years I would say lol.
 
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The Wii definitely offers next gen in terms of game play, Nintendo couldnt have dreamed that it would be so sucessful.

Sony and Microsoft mush be wishing the had pressed more on this tech, i mean PS3s and 360s are 10 a penny just now. How exactly have either moved on from the original PS gamepad?

Other than right here at OCUK ;) its hard to get your hands on a wii.

http://http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7094069.stm
 
gizmoy2k said:
Other than right here at OCUK ;) its hard to get your hands on a wii.
Click to expand...

At the most upsettingly inflated price i've ever seen... sorry i know it's off topic but i just looked due to your post. I picked mine up without a preorder last december (before xmas \o/) for £180, how can it be worth nearly £300 now? Guess people will pay that much due to desperation.

Ninty are certainly doing this generation of consoles right.
 
Streeteh said:
At the most upsettingly inflated price i've ever seen... sorry i know it's off topic but i just looked due to your post. I picked mine up without a preorder last december (before xmas \o/) for £180, how can it be worth nearly £300 now? Guess people will pay that much due to desperation.

Ninty are certainly doing this generation of consoles right.
Click to expand...

People seem too go crazy for this console, at a local large retailer they had over a hundred people waiting for a delivery of the wii. When they finally arrived things got ugly (people arguing at the check out) due to the fact that there were less consoles than customers, and the police had to be called.

On the next gen theme- Pc's will always be next gen ahead of consoles because of the rapidly changing hardware etc. Also I think i read somewhere that Crysis is optomized for hardware that is'nt even released yet, so it will look better in 3 yrs than it deos now. Consoles could never compete with that.
 
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