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Are developers finally getting "it"?

FadedbombFadedbomb Member Posts: 2,081

By "it", I mean that developing a multiplatform game for PC's power, and then scaling back for lesser performers (ala Consoles) is better all around?

 

Dice's developers seem to think so, and are currently vying to completely "destroy" the Call of Duty franchise with the development of Battlefield 3.

 

reference link<

 

 

So, what do YOU think? Do you think that developing a multi-platform game for a high end PC's power, and then scaling back to lesser performers (older PC's, consoles, etc..) is finally a step in the right direction?

 

/discuss

The Theory of Conservative Conservation of Ignorant Stupidity:
Having a different opinion must mean you're a troll.

«1

Comments

  • RedempRedemp Member UncommonPosts: 1,136

    Out of curiousity,  what multi-platform game has ever done well?

  • SovrathSovrath Member LegendaryPosts: 33,142

    Originally posted by Redemp

    Out of curiousity,  what multi-platform game has ever done well?

    Final Fantasy 11?

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  • RedempRedemp Member UncommonPosts: 1,136

    Meh .. debateable, the UI was trash for PC users which meant only the most dedicated stayed to "figure it out" .  I did actually play it for a few months .... theres just no forgiving the ported ui.

    Its actually one of the games I see that failed to translate to multiple platforms well. 

  • grunt187grunt187 Member CommonPosts: 956

    Originally posted by Redemp

    Out of curiousity,  what multi-platform game has ever done well?

    Halo?

    The following statement is false
    The previous statement is true

  • ShinamiShinami Member UncommonPosts: 825

    Final Fantasy 11 was deceptive. 

     

    It did well in the PC/playstation 2 crowd, but later it became nearly impossible to play on a PS2. Specially as the game grew in size. FF11 also had two sets of servers (like practically every major Japanese game), they had the Japanese Servers designed for pure Japanese population and International Servers for Japanese + Everyone else. 

     

    I know this well. I played in pure Japanese Servers which requires actually hacking the game itself or having the pure Japanese version of the game. 

     

    Halo itself for two years was in Xbox itself....then a PC version came out with no optimization and many bugs. It forced you to run the game with 4x the hardware to be able to run it at a good resolution. 

     

    I am hoping the next generation of consoles make something better for multi-platform gaming. However, I still believe PC is the way to go when it comes to gaming, considering it has one thing going for itself aside from power and community...EXPANDABILITY. I don't have to buy 5 games spread out across five different platforms to get the whole story.

     

    It costs LESS money to own one platform and buy the games than buying multiple consoles and versions of a game to get the full story. Lots of game series require one to own a playstation 2, Playstation 3 and PSP...and to also be in Japan for the DLCs which are all rated "For use in Japan" only.....

     

  • FadedbombFadedbomb Member Posts: 2,081

    Originally posted by Shinami

    Final Fantasy 11 was deceptive. 

     

    It did well in the PC/playstation 2 crowd, but later it became nearly impossible to play on a PS2. Specially as the game grew in size. FF11 also had two sets of servers (like practically every major Japanese game), they had the Japanese Servers designed for pure Japanese population and International Servers for Japanese + Everyone else. 

     

    I know this well. I played in pure Japanese Servers which requires actually hacking the game itself or having the pure Japanese version of the game. 

     

    Halo itself for two years was in Xbox itself....then a PC version came out with no optimization and many bugs. It forced you to run the game with 4x the hardware to be able to run it at a good resolution. 

     

    I am hoping the next generation of consoles make something better for multi-platform gaming. However, I still believe PC is the way to go when it comes to gaming, considering it has one thing going for itself aside from power and community...EXPANDABILITY. I don't have to buy 5 games spread out across five different platforms to get the whole story.

     

    It costs LESS money to own one platform and buy the games than buying multiple consoles and versions of a game to get the full story. Lots of game series require one to own a playstation 2, Playstation 3 and PSP...and to also be in Japan for the DLCs which are all rated "For use in Japan" only.....

     



    Console == $299-500

    10 games per year == $400-600/year

    All that for mediocre graphics, gameplay, and controls.

     

    Where as I built my super computer (Intel i7920 quad-core OC'ed to 4.0ghz, Nvidia 480GTX, 6gigs 1700 DDR3) for only $800.

    Games on PC's generally run $19.99-49.99, and I MAYBE buy 1-4 games a year in total costing me anywhere from $20-200/year. I also get unparalled performance, graphics, gameplay (depending on the game), and controls that a console player can't even compete with. Not to mention I can use my computer for:

    -Video Editing

    -Graphics design such as 3D modeling, Photoshop, Adobe Flash

    -Programming such as Javascript, HTML, C++, C#, Ajax, VisualBasic, and the list goes on......

    -Watch Anime from free online anime sites.

    -Watch Netflix in 1080p on my 44inch HD WideScreen-TV (yes, my computer has an HDMI cable I can plug directly from my GFX card into my HD TV).

    -Watch Porn

    -Upload Porn

    -Download Porn

    -Edit Porn

    -Upload Videos to Youtube proclaiming how much bullshit consoles are vs Computer power & performance.

    -Make long lists about how much better PC's are than Consoles on some arbitrary forum because I'm bored.

    The list goes on my friend :).

     

    -Faded

    The Theory of Conservative Conservation of Ignorant Stupidity:
    Having a different opinion must mean you're a troll.

  • WolfenprideWolfenpride Member, Newbie CommonPosts: 3,988

    I have no problem if developers want to make their games more accessible.

    Granted you can't pull what XIV did and make a PC game more optimized to work on a console. Not without upsetting a number of customers.

  • SuperXero89SuperXero89 Member UncommonPosts: 2,551

    I don't really see what developers are doing differently now than before.  PC gamers are still getting console ports that, most of the time, look marginally better and run much smoother, but I still don't see the PC as the platform that the developers expect to earn the most money from.

  • LoktofeitLoktofeit Member RarePosts: 14,247

    A most awesome list of PC uses, Faded. :)

    There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
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  • skeaserskeaser Member RarePosts: 4,228

    Originally posted by Redemp

    Out of curiousity,  what multi-platform game has ever done well?

    Batman: Arkham Asylum

    Assassin’s Creed

    Assassin’s Creed II

    Battlefield Bad Company 2

    Battlefield Bad Company

    Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

    Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

    Call of Duty: Black Ops

    Bioshock

    Fallout 3

    Fallout: New Vegas

    Soon: Portal 2

    Fable

    Torchlight

    Gears of War

    Jade Empire

    KoTOR

    KoTOR 2

    and I'm sure there are more...

    Sig so that badges don't eat my posts.


  • madeuxmadeux Member Posts: 1,786

    Epic is really leading the way with their newest Unreal engine.  They're showing devs how to write ONE game that will scale from an iphone to a console to a $2500.00 pc. 

  • StekkyStekky Member Posts: 36

    Sorry.   

     

    A control scheme/gameplay will not take crossing from mobile 3.5" touchscreens to PC gaming on a $2500 PC.       Games need to be designed and MEANT for the platform they are designed for!       Anything less is a casual gamer and a remake of tetris is far cheaper.   

  • madeuxmadeux Member Posts: 1,786

    Originally posted by Stekky

    Sorry.   

     

    A control scheme/gameplay will not take crossing from mobile 3.5" touchscreens to PC gaming on a $2500 PC.       Games need to be designed and MEANT for the platform they are designed for!       Anything less is a casual gamer and a remake of tetris is far cheaper.   

    No offence, but I'm gonna have to trust Epic to have a better handle on things than you.  Sorry.

  • DeathofsageDeathofsage Member UncommonPosts: 1,102

    Originally posted by Shinami

    Final Fantasy 11 was deceptive. 

    It did well in the PC/playstation 2 crowd, but later it became nearly impossible to play on a PS2. Specially as the game grew in size. FF11 also had two sets of servers (like practically every major Japanese game), they had the Japanese Servers designed for pure Japanese population and International Servers for Japanese + Everyone else. 

    I know this well. I played in pure Japanese Servers which requires actually hacking the game itself or having the pure Japanese version of the game. 

    The Xbox Version of FF, though it came later, worked extremely well.

    The PS2 version was almost always the reason developers gave for questions like "Can we have more inventory slots?" and "Can we seperate the combat log from chat channels? Can we have separate chat channel windows as well?". It was certainly a running joke whenever a task was too hard for a group, that it was due to "PS2 restrictions."

    Here was the major fault, IMO, with console+PC. PC allows for a lot more. Addons were illegal in that game but most of endgame still used them, if they played on a PC. PC players were also able to bot claims of Notorious Monsters (elites) and World Bosses.

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  • IncomparableIncomparable Member UncommonPosts: 1,138

    The problem with scaling down is that it will look different. So the problem is to make the game look good for the power of the pc and when scaled down. Most games I have played scaled down looked really bad, and the games that were high end requirements, were exactly that. The requirements to run them was extrememly high, and depending on the genre, if it was an mmo, the performance would fluctuate a lot.

    Since I will have a mid range PC, and when I buy a new PC, it is a mid range, so depending on when I am playing the game, my PC will be mid range or low-mid range. So i would want a game that looks good on low and high end scaling.

    So to answer the OP, the PC should have more suitable scaling for the graphics to allow for more people to enjoy thier game. If it is on console or not, it should scale well.

    “Write bad things that are done to you in sand, but write the good things that happen to you on a piece of marble”

  • drake_hounddrake_hound Member Posts: 773

    Problem is lately the piracy issue , while in the past it was localised or small network .

    Lately it is running rampant on the PC , costing frustrations on publishers and developers .

    A game pirated sometimes run smoother then the stupid protection publishers put on it .

    The security usually conflict with tons more OS Firewalls Antivirus , then pirated version .

    The other problem is that on week release on PC mostly games are pirated right away or even uploaded before the game even hit the shelves .

     

    Thus you will see more and more developers move towards alternative systems like console (not that piracy doesn´t excist there, just with nowadays regular updates of your system , it is getting harder and harder)

    But making a PC game for endgame machines has been always what developers does .

    Problem is no use if scaling down didn´t work :( , mostly scaling down what looked like a good feature on high end machines.

    Usually starts to cause memory leaks on lower OS and Machines .

  • mmoguy43mmoguy43 Member UncommonPosts: 2,770

    It really depends on the game.

    Generally speaking, making a power hungry game first and then ATTEMPTING to scale it back is a terrible idea. You might as well completely remake the game which ends up doubling the cost. The smarter route is making a game that the average computer can run it fairly well, as well as all the consoles (which they seem to be doing). If you make it first on the PC and then a year later release it for consoles then you are going to miss the mark on making it the most profiable.

    Console gamer: "What? so this game is now coming to my 360? eh, I already pirated it and played solo but it would have been fun playing with the guys on the 360... oh well"

    back to the topic..

    are they going to "get it"?

    wait what?

  • mrcalhoumrcalhou Member UncommonPosts: 1,444

    I don't care so much about the PC vs. console arguement. All I know is that I prefer playing games laying down in bed so my spine isn't pinching up against my spinal cord. So, in my circumstance, a gamepad works much better than mouse and keyboard. It basically comes down to YMMV.

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  • madeuxmadeux Member Posts: 1,786

    Originally posted by mmoguy43

    It really depends on the game.

    Generally speaking, making a power hungry game first and then ATTEMPTING to scale it back is a terrible idea. You might as well completely remake the game which ends up doubling the cost. The smarter route is making a game that the average computer can run it fairly well, as well as all the consoles (which they seem to be doing). If you make it first on the PC and then a year later release it for consoles then you are going to miss the mark on making it the most profiable.

    Console gamer: "What? so this game is now coming to my 360? eh, I already pirated it and played solo but it would have been fun playing with the guys on the 360... oh well"

    back to the topic..

    are they going to "get it"?

    wait what?

    Crysis is the perfect example of just the opposite.  When the game came out, it took a $3000.00 pc to play it on max settings with a great framerate.  Yet it still looked great on a lesser pc, and was completely playable.  As PC's improved, the game got even better.

  • mmoguy43mmoguy43 Member UncommonPosts: 2,770

    Originally posted by madeux

    Originally posted by mmoguy43

    It really depends on the game.

    Generally speaking, making a power hungry game first and then ATTEMPTING to scale it back is a terrible idea. You might as well completely remake the game which ends up doubling the cost. The smarter route is making a game that the average computer can run it fairly well, as well as all the consoles (which they seem to be doing). If you make it first on the PC and then a year later release it for consoles then you are going to miss the mark on making it the most profiable.

    Console gamer: "What? so this game is now coming to my 360? eh, I already pirated it and played solo but it would have been fun playing with the guys on the 360... oh well"

    back to the topic..

    are they going to "get it"?

    wait what?

    Crysis is the perfect example of just the opposite.  When the game came out, it took a $3000.00 pc to play it on max settings with a great framerate.  Yet it still looked great on a lesser pc, and was completely playable.  As PC's improved, the game got even better.

    And what about other platforms? Of course a PC game will run better over time.

    I thought the OP was talking about a game engine for a single game not using a robust engine like crytec or unreal.

    How high performance are we talking here?

  • skeaserskeaser Member RarePosts: 4,228

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_rR8ZEQztM&feature=fvst

    Unreal engine 3 on iPhone/iPod

    Looks like it's scaling well to me.

    Sig so that badges don't eat my posts.


  • RedempRedemp Member UncommonPosts: 1,136

    Originally posted by grunt187

    Originally posted by Redemp

    Out of curiousity,  what multi-platform game has ever done well?

    Halo?

    Halo is hardly played by those on PCs, that is largely a consolers game.

  • RedempRedemp Member UncommonPosts: 1,136

    Originally posted by skeaser

    Originally posted by Redemp

    Out of curiousity,  what multi-platform game has ever done well?

    Batman: Arkham Asylum -- Yes

    Assassin’s Creed-- No

    Assassin’s Creed II -- No

    Battlefield Bad Company 2  -- No -- largely a Pc game.

    Battlefield Bad Company -- Again largely a Pc game.

    Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare -- Did horrible

    Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 -- Did worse than any port AAA Fps

    Call of Duty: Black Ops  --- Almost as bad as MW2 , hit detection is HORRID on Pc.

    Bioshock -- Yes

    Fallout 3 -- Yes

    Fallout: New Vegas  -- Yes

    Soon: Portal 2

    Fable  -- No largely a Consolers game,

    Torchlight  -- This was on consoles?

    Gears of War  -- Console game

    Jade Empire  -- Ehh ...

    KoTOR --

    KoTOR 2

    and I'm sure there are more...

     

    Maybe I should have specified to strictly Multiplayer games such as Mmogs and Fps's. I still don't think it has ever been done well, there may be a few beacons out there ... but majorly its a either a flop in general, or a Flop on Pcs. Most PC Gamers I know won't touch console ports for well known reasons and sterotypes.

    Single player ports are a given.

  • JudianJudian Member UncommonPosts: 16

    Originally posted by Redemp

    Originally posted by skeaser


    Originally posted by Redemp

    Out of curiousity,  what multi-platform game has ever done well?

    Batman: Arkham Asylum -- Yes

    Assassin’s Creed-- No

    Assassin’s Creed II -- No

    Battlefield Bad Company 2  -- No -- largely a Pc game.

    Battlefield Bad Company -- Again largely a Pc game.

    Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare -- Did horrible

    Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 -- Did worse than any port AAA Fps

    Call of Duty: Black Ops  --- Almost as bad as MW2 , hit detection is HORRID on Pc.

    Bioshock -- Yes

    Fallout 3 -- Yes

    Fallout: New Vegas  -- Yes

    Soon: Portal 2

    Fable  -- No largely a Consolers game,

    Torchlight  -- This was on consoles?

    Gears of War  -- Console game

    Jade Empire  -- Ehh ...

    KoTOR --

    KoTOR 2

    and I'm sure there are more...

     

    Maybe I should have specified to strictly Multiplayer games such as Mmogs and Fps's. I still don't think it has ever been done well, there may be a few beacons out there ... but majorly its a either a flop in general, or a Flop on Pcs. Most PC Gamers I know won't touch console ports for well known reasons and sterotypes.

    Single player ports are a given.

     

    The original Battlefield Bad Company was never released on PC and yea Torchlight is on console.

  • RedempRedemp Member UncommonPosts: 1,136

    Originally posted by Judian

     

     

    The original Battlefield Bad Company was never released on PC and yea Torchlight is on console.

    Ah thanks for that ... I knew there was something about my Battlefield veteran ticker that was off.

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