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Originally Posted by Aman
Gimicks.
And I definitely think that you are generalizing Edwood. All the games I play run SEAMLESSLY and without ANY PROBLEM on my computer. If PC developers start using a centralized system, it will limit the expandability and the freedom developers have. Look at Steam - it's the biggest piece of crap program that I've ever used. If all games were like that, I'd kill myself! Luckily, Steam hasn't given me any trouble for a while... but it's a real infamous program. Once you start making standards, the quality goes down the drain.
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I disagree. Without standards we have chaos and instability. One of the reasons for the rock solid stability of a console is that there is a SINGLE standard to program for. Not hundreds that the PC has.
ALL the games you play run SEAMLESSLY? Really? Did you have a complete stutter free Half-life 2 gaming experience when the game first came out? Or did you ignore HL2 and go straight to CS:Source?
You don't play Battlefield 2, I see. One helluva an addictive game, but it's so buggy it's barely playable most of the time (on ranked servers that is). Some people are impatient and are willing to pay to be a Beta tester (yes, I'm guilty), but I am really open to just waiting for developers to properly finish games before release.
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Stability issues are hardly a problem when it comes to using a company-maintained server. Take Blizzard's battle.net, for example, which still hasn't plagued its games yet. |
Battle.net does not have to deal with the sheer bandwidth that first person shooters demand. EA has completely botched their Ranked Server system for Battlefield 2. Yet Microsoft's XBox Live's peer to peer gaming is so immediate and more playable than many of the dedicated server setups I've seen for many PC games.
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But if we start making limitations, everything else becomes crap. The reason why graphics are so poor on consoles vs. PCs is because the consoles are much cheaper, use cheaper parts, and the games are all developed only for one type of hardware on a console. There is no such thing as 8x anti aliasing on an Xbox. |
The XBox is old hardware. We're talking about the upcoming XBox 360. Anti-aliasing will be a required minimum for games on the XBox 360, along with a standard resolution of 1280x720 for HDTV. If you have seen the XBox 360 graphics in person it would be easier to see that the next gen consoles are serious business. And how many
current PC games can you play with 8x Anti-aliasing with
all the high quality lighting, shaders, and effects on and with it never going below 30FPS? And I'm not talking only Counterstrike:Source.
I don't find the model of spending hundreds of dollars for every new PC game that comes out a sustainable business model for PC developers. PC gaming is falling behind in supporting display and audio tech. I just don't find the sense in spending over $1000 in PC hardware upgrades only to have it only work with cheap Multimedia speakers and small desktop monitors. (OK, the audio part is fine if I use my headphone rig). Although, having a $300 console hooked up to my multi-thousand dollar Home Theater setup is pretty lopsided too at the moment.
You look at it as "making limitations", but I look at it as setting proper Standards. Sure it's great to have a lot of choices, but it's what creates more opportunity for instability and incompatibility.
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One more thing I should point out is that consoles have their share of stability problems too. Take the PS2, for example - read errors all across the globe. The Xbox power chord causes houses to burn down. I have even seen people DROP OUT of Xbox Live games. |
Bad example. This is an XBox 360 thread, not a Playstation thread. How many
actual houses burned down due to defective power cords on the XBox? There was a proper recall and cords were replaced immediately. If you were to factor how many faulty PC components that have failed, you'd be buried in a huge pile of rubbish.
And for seeing people drop out of XBox Live games? 99.99% quit because they were losing. You were probably kicking their @sses. It is a very common phenomon in Halo 2 because people don't want to lose points in their score.
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You're giving way too much credit to the console developers. |
Nope, I have not given them enough credit. Time will tell. XBox 360 is not here yet. When it is, we will all see for sure whether or not it lives up to the hype or not.
I really do hope that PC developers get their act together.
-Ed