Deus Ex 3 (PC)

[swaaye]

If only people would stop playing PC games at lowest/medium settings and complain it only looks slightly better than other versions...

The truth to realize here is that the vast majority don't care that it looks better. A lot of people can't tell the difference anyway. The path of least resistance to getting into gaming isn't PC gaming and that is what matters most.

I'm rather interested in what will happen to PC gaming once MMOs leave it behind. It has to be on the drawing boards everywhere.

As for Deus Ex 3, well I would be shocked to find it being PC exclusive. Maybe for a week or something. I can't believe any developer/publisher would even consider this anymore.

 

[obonicus]

If you go for WoW-level graphics, there's a huge market for PC games. Not much of a consolation for B3Ders, perhaps. Fusion being a not-terrible IGP also might expand the market of PC games, too. Which also isn't much of a consolation to B3Ders.

 

[green.pixel]

the consumer base of at least the 2 HD consoles.

You are counting the Wii as the 3rd one?

HD Consoles? I thought that idea already died when realism about their actual resolution in games kicked in.

Well, to be fair, 720p is high-definintion , but the framerate and IQ are places to look for the real differences.

 

[neliz]

Well, to be fair, 720p is high-definintion , but the framerate and IQ are places to look for the real differences.

I'm to lazy to look for the list, but do 50% of the multi-platform games actually run in at least 1280x720? There's some egregious upscaling going on most of the time.

 

[green.pixel]

Some of the best selling and most popular games run at sub-HD - CoD, GH, GTAIV, Halo 3, MGS4. But it's definitely >50% at 720p.

 

[obonicus]

I'm to lazy to look for the list, but do 50% of the multi-platform games actually run in at least 1280x720? There's some egregious upscaling going on most of the time.

We have a stickied thread in the console tech forum that lists the games and their resolutions.

 

[neliz]

We have a stickied thread in the console tech forum that lists the games and their resolutions.

It's exactly that one I was to lazy to look for. .well the "non-full HD generation of consoles" it is then.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

I'm rather interested in what will happen to PC gaming once MMOs leave it behind. It has to be on the drawing boards everywhere.

I don't see this happening until all consoles at least include a keyboard. Imagine trying to play WoW, EQ2, AoC (god I almost puked in my mouth saying that one), Vanguard, etc. purely with a console controller. When it's possible that you have up to 40 special abilities on hotbars.

Just not possible. Unless you decide to dumb down the MMO's even more than WoW. Champions online was designed with consoles in mind, and it's a bit of of a mess, IMO.

Then again we could go back to EQ1 style of MMO where you have a max of 8 special abilities available at any given time, and then hotkey area limited to 8-12 custom macros. But I think people now days are so spoiled about having everything available all the time, that there would be a huge outcry.

Regards,
SB

 

[swaaye]

I don't think having some sort of special MMO input device is really all that much to ask at this point. The games just need to come. The consoles already run USB so putting some remodeled chinese keyboard + mouse out for sale at walmart isn't exactly a risky proposition.

I think something else holds the MMOs back from the consoles. RAM maybe? We'll see with the next machines.

 

[obonicus]

Interest, maybe? MMOs target the a slightly more-sophisticated peggle crowd. Popcap's not going to go console-first because there's a ton of computers that aren't even up to consoles' standards.

 

[Frank]

I don't think having some sort of special MMO input device is really all that much to ask at this point. The games just need to come. The consoles already run USB so putting some remodeled chinese keyboard + mouse out for sale at walmart isn't exactly a risky proposition.

I think something else holds the MMOs back from the consoles. RAM maybe? We'll see with the next machines.

Then again, I use my TV as monitor for my PC, and it already has some sort of special MMO input device: a keyboard.

 

[swaaye]

Interest, maybe?

Well shit there's interest in RTS games for gamepads! Who coulda guessed? Outside of driving and platformer games who wants to use a gamepad for anything?

I really do think that RAM is an obstacle. My MMO loving buddies moved past 512MB in like 2002, I think it was. EQ1 was one of the first games to recommend 512MB (not initially, but later on). I think it's a combination of their unique game worlds and perhaps inefficient engines...

I'm sure MMO devs are ready to find tens of millions of new customers. I'm also fairly sure that PCs don't have a "casual infinite loop gaming" advantage.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

I think many MMO devs have also looked at how well FF XI did and are rather hesitant. Champions Online is the next "big" MMO targetting consoles. We'll see how well that does, but I'm not holding my breath on it.

Then again I don't see any upcoming MMO's succeeding in the Western market as most of them are targetting PvP, and the mass market western audience wants a PvE centric MMO. Just look at all the MMOs that focused on PvP, and all have failed rather miserably. While those that have targetting PvE have faired relatively better.

Regards,
SB

 

[obonicus]

Well shit there's interest in RTS games for gamepads! Who coulda guessed? Outside of driving and platformer games who wants to use a gamepad for anything?

That's stupid. Taking the Blizzard all-inclusive route for an MMO is the only way to go. If you go by that, there's a huge number of PCs that can run your game. Just how it's not worth it to build a blockbuster just for high-end PCs if it means excluding consoles, it's not worth it to build an MMO to target consoles if it means excluding low-end PCs.

I really do think that RAM is an obstacle. My MMO loving buddies moved past 512MB in like 2002, I think it was. EQ1 was one of the first games to recommend 512MB (not initially, but later on). I think it's a combination of their unique game worlds and perhaps inefficient engines...

Except one of the most successful non-WoW MMOs runs on consoles with 32MB of RAM. They'd design a game around the limitations.

I'm sure MMO devs are ready to find tens of millions of new customers. I'm also fairly sure that PCs don't have a "casual infinite loop gaming" advantage.

You know those BS numbers that come out and say that there are like 500 million gaming PCs out there, or something? In this case they actually mean something. Now, not every rig that runs a popcap game runs WoW, but there are a bunch of computers with terrible low-end graphics that do.

 

[green.pixel]

I'm rather interested in what will happen to PC gaming once MMOs leave it behind...

...and (other ) Blizzard games too - Diablo, Starcraft, Warcraft . I don't think there is enough fans of those games among the console crowd for Blizzard to make games for consoles. Blizzard probably knows this. If and when the shift happens, that will be "it".

IMO, PC gaming will live as long as AMD and nVidia keep making PC GPUs.

 

[eastmen]

Except one of the most successful non-WoW MMOs runs on consoles with 32MB of RAM. They'd design a game around the limitations.

Its also a 5 year old game. They also reccomend 1 gig of system ram dual core cpu and 128 meg video card

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/faq/technology.html

You know those BS numbers that come out and say that there are like 500 million gaming PCs out there, or something? In this case they actually mean something. Now, not every rig that runs a popcap game runs WoW, but there are a bunch of computers with terrible low-end graphics that do.

At this point in time . 5 years after the release of wow every computer for the last 7 years seems to run the game at low settings

Silent_Buddha I think many MMO devs have also looked at how well FF XI did and are rather hesitant. Champions Online is the next "big" MMO targetting consoles. We'll see how well that does, but I'm not holding my breath on it.

Then again I don't see any upcoming MMO's succeeding in the Western market as most of them are targetting PvP, and the mass market western audience wants a PvE centric MMO. Just look at all the MMOs that focused on PvP, and all have failed rather miserably. While those that have targetting PvE have faired relatively better.

Regards,
SB

Even todays consoles would suck for mmo's . Considering half the install base of the 360 and ps3 have sub 60 gig drives and the constant patching and some mandatory installs would reduce that capacity. Your 60 gig capacity would be cut down. Your looking at 15-20 gigs already just for the original instal.

But hasn't stopped people from trying . Age of conan failed because of the console verison. Champions is such a crappy game because of the console verison also. Both limited shards to 50/100 people which took away the massive part. We know its not the servers or pcs that can't handle more people as there was a bug in champions that stopped spawning more shards and there were easily thousands of people running around enjoying themsevles in the single shard of each zone.

As for the next mmorpg to be big here , check out sw tor . Its really big on the story.

 

[swaaye]

I forgot about the MMO storage space issue and the constant patching aspect for some reason. I'm pretty sure that trying to stream one of those games off an optical disk would be a serious challenge to overcome. Optical disks are obsolete, consoles just haven't figured that out yet. PC games almost entirely stopped trying to stream off optical disks before this decade started lol.

I think the next consoles will probably have >500GB HDDs so that problem will be gone. And you can probably bet on 4GB of RAM in a unified pool or some such. Maybe 2GB if they are feeling particularly cheap.

 

[Mobius1aic]

The cutscenes could possibly be in-engine, since there is more to creating a cutscene than just deciding to make it pre-rendered or not. I'm sure the cutscene creators/directors at Square are pretty good at directing and producing such things, pre-rendered or not.

 

[Mobius1aic]

Except one of the most successful non-WoW MMOs runs on consoles with 32MB of RAM. They'd design a game around the limitations.

And it couldn't do it w/o the add-on HDD that came with it (FFXI). While I hear it's a great game and a much more hardcore alternative to WoW (I have quite a few friends that play FFXI), it does look like ass, especially to someone who hasn't seen it before and is looking for an MMO to play, and I'm referring to the 360 and PC versions here. They look terrible compared to WoW or even most of the free MMOs out there to play. One friend of mine could play the Aion beta decently on his HP with a Radeon 3200. The game looks much better graphically (and arguably artistically), and still manages to be accessible to lower end hardware. While yes, I hear it's not as thorough as FFXI or WoW, it does manage to win people in the eye-candy factor.

As for Deus Ex 3 being PC only, it will probably be a timed exclusive, or Eidos is targeting high end PCs for the purpose of having the art and engine assets ready for the next crop of consoles and we'll see a release on the consoles in 3 or so years via the PS4 or Xbox 720 and maybe the Wii 2. I honestly can't see Eidos risking it on the PC only market unless it happens to be exceptionally good, winning every PC gamer over. Makes me think of Bioshock haha, it was originally PC only, then a 360 port was planned, with focus still on the PC version, then they became equals in terms of focus, but then the 360 version seemed to get more love in advertising and in sales the 360 version got the focus. I've seen so many console gamers tout how much they loved Bioshock, but not a single PC gamer. Hell I had the game, played about an hour or two into it, and didn't touch it again. Maybe my feel for the game was alot more cold than other PC gamers, but in the end it became a console (specifically 360) centric franchise. I must admit, I do feel a need to play the game again, and actually give it time for me to play, but there is so much for me to play already.

 

[obonicus]

Aion's the exception (and it targets the high-end consoles can't reach), but we don't know what sort of longevity it will have. The 500-pound gorilla in this arena is very primitive-looking and tries to make up for it with art design. I'm not saying FFXI is a great-looking game, but that if they want to target consoles, they will target consoles. Limited memory isn't going to be the issue, the issue is that MMOs thrive on all those computers B3Ders wouldn't use as a doorstop.