Unreal Engine 4, exclusively to target consoles

[peetee]

you only layed off cos you were gunna lose knives

My 1st comment quoted above I do stand by, people who purely play consoles generally ignorantly swear by them, iv got a few mates who love absolutely tripe games and write anything else off thats on PC and will slate it just because it has higher specs than their machine.

My truly bad game one.. well that was a joke =) Theres crappers on consoles aswell as PCs.

 

[Participant]

Just.......LOL. Looks like KNiVES' PC fanboy comment was spot-on to me

Fanboy is a commonly used cliché, and true or not, the PC is better for games than the console in terms of the following:

- graphics
- upgradeability
- controller options

it is worse in terms of the following:

- price
- convenience
- portability

So to conclude with another cliché, one man's meat is another man's poison.

 

[Adrianr]

Fanboy is a commonly used cliché, and true or not, the PC is better for games than the console in terms of the following:

- graphics
- upgradeability
- controller options

it is worse in terms of the following:

- price
- convenience
- portability

So to conclude with another cliché, one man's meat is another man's poison.

Could we sticky this or something?

 

[DreXeL]

So to conclude with another cliché, one man's meat is another man's poison.

I completely agree, but I just found it amusing that KNiVES' comment was incredibly accurate when you look back through this thread

FWIW I have personally almost exclusively switched to console gaming now. I played orange box on my 360 rather than my PC, I just prefer to do my gaming kicked back on the sofa infront of a 50" screen now. Hell, I even played Crysis running through my TV with a 360 pad......

 

[Participant]

I completely agree, but I just found it amusing that KNiVES' comment was incredibly accurate when you look back through this thread .

Understand that mate, wasn't singling out your comment for any reason of disagreement, just referencing it.

 

[peetee]

Fanboy is a commonly used cliché, and true or not, the PC is better for games than the console in terms of the following:

- graphics
- upgradeability
- controller options

it is worse in terms of the following:

- price
- convenience
- portability

So to conclude with another cliché, one man's meat is another man's poison.

i agree with it generally but theres a few niggles.
Portability.. Laptops fall under PC catagory IN MY EYES, SFF PCs are also generally smaller than Consoles - yes? So its not so clear cut.

Convenience, hmm the ability to just turn it on and play is convenient, but then you could argue that to turn a PC on and boot a game up isnt v hard, you also dont need to keep disc swapping.

Price. In the long run a PC will work out cheaper for someone who purchases lots of games due to the price different between PC+console games, aswell as this it must be taken into account that most households will require/want a PC, so add ontop the price of a console to that and its very easy to get a decent specced PC, especially if shopping around etc or even buying some components 2nd hand.

 

[Participant]

Laptops fall under PC catagory IN MY EYES, SFF PCs are also generally smaller than Consoles - yes? So its not so clear cut.

But laptops always have relatively poor graphics cards; certainly rarely anything that can compete with the latest console .

 

[Tefal]

I love it when people go on about the "elitist, holier-than-thou attitude" of PC gamers but then decide to fill the entire content of their post with rubbish about how they prefer consoles or whatever and how they say it's fine by them if developers spend more time on their pet platforms. Selfish much?

Get over yourselves hypocrites, we should be trying to make every platform equally great.

Sorry but that's a little silly, if you mean one engine should be made the same on all platforms, it's much better to have specialised and optimised engines (more so for consoles due to unified hardware) that can make the best of the specific hardware for that console.

pc engines however face more of a problem due to different hardware, and so take longer to develop and would be just a pointless expense to try and optimise them for consoles too,

because you will just end up with an engine that works, but doesn't take advantage of the specific advantages of certain hardware.

 

[Skeeter]

Making games for consoles is easier than PC's - FACT!

With a console, you can guarantee the exact hardware everyone is using, the exact control pad, the exact type or environment they will play in, etc.

Coding for a PC means you have to consider the infinate amount of combinations between hardware/software/control/screen/etc. Making games for a PC is a much more challenginf prospect. I belive the lack of a standard gamepad for the PC is the reason there isnt as many racing games as there are on consoles...

Which methodology produces the best games, well, that depends on a lot of things and is entirely open to opinion. But I belive Epic have taken the console aproach for UE4 because coding for a console is easyer

 

[Tefal]

Convenience, hmm the ability to just turn it on and play is convenient, but then you could argue that to turn a PC on and boot a game up isnt v hard, you also dont need to keep disc swapping.

Yes but what ab0out updating drivers and patches?

Convenience, is not having to go and fix a problem with consoles you don't have to go about getting patches, and worrying whether your old saves will still be usable, or not finding out what card you have so you can go get some new drivers for it etc etc.

And as for disk swapping, I think with blu ray, and hd-dvd( If MS use it for games later, or if they use blu ray) It will still be quite some time before we need separate disks again.

 

[DreXeL]

But I belive Epic have taken the console aproach for UE4 because coding for a console is easyer

No, it's because consoles are where the money is, it's that simple.

 

[Skeeter]

No, it's bacause consoles are where the money is, it's that simple.

But I belive Epic have taken the console aproach for UE4 because coding for a console is easyer - to make more money

That better

 

[Participant]

Their business sense has been distorted because

- they made no money from UT3
- PC games market is rife with pirating / warez [allegedly]

 

[DreXeL]

But I belive Epic have taken the console aproach for UE4 because coding for a console is easyer - to make more money

That better

Ahh OK, it looked like you were trying to say the switch to consoles was driven by some sort of laziness on the part of the coders at Epic.

But make no mistakes, this is purely a money driven decision, and it's a cold hard fact that the PC games market just doesn't provide anything like the $$$$$$'s to be made in the console market.

 

[Adrianr]

Price. In the long run a PC will work out cheaper for someone who purchases lots of games due to the price different between PC+console games, aswell as this it must be taken into account that most households will require/want a PC, so add ontop the price of a console to that and its very easy to get a decent specced PC, especially if shopping around etc or even buying some components 2nd hand.

Interesting point. To note CustomPCs totals for Consoles + the same games, the 360 came in at £642.62, PS3 at £601.86, and PC at £761.28. Alright the PC was a fair bit more, but the spec was very good, some things you could get cheaper too. Also worth noting the same game bundle on the 360 was £257.40, £250.90 on the Ps3, and £160.90 for the PC. So once you've brought a few more games, you'de be at near enough level heading anyway. Consoles just seem a lot cheaper due to the lower initial outlay for the unit.

 

[Shamikebab]

Interesting point. To note CustomPCs totals for Consoles + the same games, the 360 came in at £642.62, PS3 at £601.86, and PC at £761.28. Alright the PC was a fair bit more, but the spec was very good, some things you could get cheaper too. Also worth noting the same game bundle on the 360 was £257.40, £250.90 on the Ps3, and £160.90 for the PC. So once you've brought a few more games, you'de be at near enough level heading anyway. Consoles just seem a lot cheaper due to the lower initial outlay for the unit.

Im sorry, what? How could the 360 come to more than the PS3

 

[peetee]

Yes but what ab0out updating drivers and patches?

Convenience, is not having to go and fix a problem with consoles you don't have to go about getting patches, and worrying whether your old saves will still be usable, or not finding out what card you have so you can go get some new drivers for it etc etc.

And as for disk swapping, I think with blu ray, and hd-dvd( If MS use it for games later, or if they use blu ray) It will still be quite some time before we need separate disks again.

Fair point, although updating drivers and patches nowadays is idiot proof really, and games have started alerting people to when drivers should be updated, and new versions are available for games.
Hell, steam does all the updating for you, and new games suggest installing contained drivers or visiting website for updated ones, Xfire also updates games yup? Hmm, finding out what card you have? the old 'dxdiag' was always a winner for me, and i think most people nowadays who want to play games will try and educate themselves due to wanting a better fps and what not about graphics cards..
Game saves is a good point though, always a killer.
Bane of PC gaming is releasing unfinished games with the whole idea of 'oh we can patch it to fix it later' though.

But laptops always have relatively poor graphics cards; certainly rarely anything that can compete with the latest console .

Urmmm, relatively poor graphics? a lot do, but when you pay for a bog standard one you cant expect much, if you got one instead of a gaming desktop it means you can combine the finances, basically a normal desktops outlay + £300 for laptops sake, if you wanted you go go and add a bit more to replace a console too..
They are not really that poor, iv got a vostro1500 which are cheap, it wasnt bought for gaming, just some 3dwork and for portabilitys sake(i once had a shuttle that i used to cart in my bag, ever since then iv craved for a laptop cos i move about a lot) Either way, its not all about graphics is it, if it plays the game its usually spot on. Thats the problem with the fanboys of latest consoles actually, they swear by graphics - so theyd rather have their console over a laptop say.. but then they moan about other things when you say its not all about graphics!

Im sorry, what? How could the 360 come to more than the PS3

Xbox live ££ could be one reason Maybe just a better bundle offer though.

 

[Spektor]

PC games market just doesn't provide anything like the $$$$$$'s to be made in the console market.

I have always found this to be a pretty misleading arguement when comparing the two. And just can't be the primary reason why certain developers are turning to consoles. As has been mentioned earlier, I suspect the ease of development within a console environment is most likely the culprit. In that a developer making an FPS game for a console knows exactly where he stands in relation to its specifications and what he is likely to be able to pump out of it... they don't have to worry about making graphics scaleable for both forward and backwards compatability to support the vast wealth of setups in existance within the PC market. As well as that with the very nature of the static hardware environment they won't have to worry about pushing boundaries with graphics.

You could say the extra work that goes into that = $$$, whilst a factor I can't see it being the decider because if it were true then you wouldn't be seeing games we're used to on PCs or Consoles, the '$$$' of the games market is in niether. If that were why Epic decided to ditch the PC, then their next title would not be some fancy new shoot fest (GoW2 / UT4?) but a tacky little puzzle game for a mobile phone or played in a web browser or something that would take one of their programmers a weekend to make and make them more than their vast team of programmers / artists could ever do with a 3-4 year big budget title.

Again, this is why Epic have gone into QQ mode over this... somewhere along the line, and I guess somewhat deservedly so, they convinced themselves they were the #1 in game development capable of putting out blockbuster after blockbuster. They made a flop, and are still in the denial phase of getting over that shock to the system.