Console veterans? Meaning that having experience suddenly makes you good? Judging by their previous efforts I'd certainly say that's not the case with Z-Axis.
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars coming to PS3/360
- Thread starter Titanio
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Console veterans? Meaning that having experience suddenly makes you good? Judging by their previous efforts I'd certainly say that's not the case with Z-Axis.
Yep, roughly that's the idea
The mobygames blurb on Z-Axis:
mobygames said:
I would definitely trust them more with making a competent port than the bunch of ex-modders with little to no console experience that is Splash Damage. Porting is all about technical excellence and ability to execute reliably within the tight budget and time constraints - which is what you get with experience.
Splash Damage molded the awesome Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory game... oh, and are the makers of Quake Wars: Enemy Territory (an id Software assist in both cases). They are not porting anything. Considering the quality of the original ET and how id is angling QW:ET it wouldn't be surprising that QW:ET was a great game. You have id donating and co-developing the engine so the technical aspects are in good hands and the gameplay aspects for a multiplayer game is something Splash Damage does well. Further, "bunch of ex-modders" is not as bad as you indicate. First, they ARE industry veterans by now--not some punks off the street. Second, I have known people who chose the mod route for the very reason of independance and doing it on their own creativity wise (as well as a fast track for some recognition) and were very proficient coders, game designers, or artists. No one really cares how you entered the industry if you can get the job done and it wouldn't be surprising that many industry people have just as humble of beginnings.
Nerve Software (Xbox 360) software and Z-Axis (PS3) are doing the ports. Your criticism may be valid to a degree with Nerve Software, but then again it is headed by an ex-id Software member and is mainly composed of people from a now defunct dev house (Rogue Entertainment). And they have worked with the Doom 3 engine (D3: Resurection of Evil), did American McGee's Alice, and have a number of multiplayer games under their belts. Technically, yes, Nerve Software will probably be needing a nice assist from id if Quake 4 (Raven) and Prey (Venom) are an indication.
But I wouldn't say Z-Axis is in the clear. QW:ET is a PC first title and porting it to the PS3 is going to have some major hurdles. Obviously offloading to Cell is going to take some work and Z-Axis has no Cell experience. The segmented memory system could also pose a hurdle as it has some other multiplatform titles.
Personally, from a gameplay perspective, having more players and KB/MS on the PC is a good reason to go with the PC. Add on top the fact the PC is the primary dev platform and Splash Damage and id are most likely focusing on it I would venture a guess it will be by far the best version.
The best the consoles can hope for (imo) is a faithful (gameplay) port with stable framerates, decent graphics, and (importantly) well designed and balanced controlls. The controlls could kill this game on the consoles, as could framerate. Oh, and network latency and features and...
That is what assen's point, it is probably better that they aren't, as porting a game to a console is quite a different project than anything they have undertaken before. He didn't say anything critical of the companies doing the ports either, at least not unless he edited it out before you quoted him.
