Consoles severely hampering PC development?

[Tricky]

So I got Far Cry 3 a week or so ago, very good game, very pretty, and yesterday I thought I would fire up the original Crysis game to see how they compare. When I first got Crysis which lets not forget is now a 5 year old game, my PC at the time stood no chance of maxing it out graphically, it still looked good but cranking it up to ultra made my PC cry. Anyway now I run a quad core rig with 4gb RAM and a decent mid range card I can set it to ultra mode, and I also downloaded the "extreme immersive mod" for it which tweaks the graphics, take a look at this
LH0oDkVyIww
93YKsiL9MDo


The graphics easily surpass those of Far Cry 3, so why are the latest games being dumbed down visually? is it because consoles have the bigger market so developers are only creating games for the outdated consoles and making half arsed attempts at PC ports?

[Danny]

yes thats exactly what it is. its why so few devs are like quantic dream and dare to make one standalone game each time instead of shitting out another in a mindless franchise. its all thats keeping the bloated devs afloat after the 2nd crash thats going on.

[krisvds]

Wow. Crysis indeed looks incredible!

To me the worst thing hampering game development at the moment is a lack of creativity/imagination. So many FPS games, so few ideas.

[Tricky]

Yeah there isnt much innovation now, most FPS games feel exactly the same to play & very few of them have a gripping story or characters that you give a crap about. To me Crysis is an absolute joy to play, especially now 5 years later when I can play it with the visuals in those vids I posted, it was way ahead of its time when it was released and I'm finding it difficult to get my head around why games in 2012 have inferior visuals and physics to a 5 year old one, its like we're going backwards. Don't get me wrong Far Cry 3 is a good game, its fun to play and has some good features, but leaves don't flick around when you fire bullets through them, you can't blow trees down and everything looks like it's made of plastic. PC hardware is advancing all the time, but devs are clearly not taking advantage of this as the majority of games we get to play have been designed with the dated Xbox 360 & PS3 in mind.
Hopefully in 2013 we will see ArmA 3 and Rome 2:Total war which are specifically PC games taking full advantage of the hardware available now.

[Neil]

That second video is a thing of beauty :)

Next year it'll all change I guess with the new 720 and PS4 :) They'll be equal to (or above) regular top end PCs...

- - - Updated - - -


Hopefully in 2013 we will see ArmA 3 and Rome 2:Total war which are specifically PC games taking full advantage of the hardware available now.

And DayZ standalone :)

[shootemindehead]

Yes.

That's why my duel core from 2007 can run any of today's games without a problem.

But that's not the only problem with modern gaming. Consoles have dumbed gaming down. Games area lot less harder these days, because they're aimed at ADD kids, who'll just bugger off an play something else.

Remember the days when you played the same game for a long time...and it wasn't 'Skyrim' or 'Oblivion'?

Games today are way too easy and way too short. There's no life in them and little in the way of intelligence. I've pissed through both 'Arkham Asylum' and 'Arkham City'. They were so short and way too easy to complete.

And to be honest, I'm sick of it.

Games today are like movies, that the player sort of interacts with. There's usually little game involved. 'Modern Warfare 2' is a perfect example. 'LA Noire' is an even better example. Christ, that game could have been brilliant.

I've had an XBox for a few years now and I can honestly say that the most enjoyable time I spent on it was 'Topspin 4' and 'Red Dead Redemption'. That's really about it.

A testament to how great PC games were, I recently fired up 'Hidden and Dangerous 2' and it's still bloody great, despite being a decade old.

[Tricky]

Yeah I remember those days well, days when PC games were made specifically for the PC and were generally much more intelligent and absorbing than console titles. The Xbox 360 & PS3 were what brought about the change as they could compete with the PC on the latest graphics at the time, as well as bringing online gaming to the masses, the devs saw where the money was to be made so have since poured everything into console friendly games while PC gamers just get lazy outdated ports.
I think todays games lack soul too, I've got a fair few in my collection from the last few years that I haven't completed and probably never will, whereas in the past I was driven to see the ending of every game I bought. I'm not sure whether its down to the fact I'm older or just that the games fail to keep my attention.

[Danny]

The trouble is games reached the point where you didnt have barebones gameplay with the jaw dropping cinematics every few hours, now the entire game has to be an explosive, casualized cinematic. The challenge is gone, just a series of masturbatory franchise exercises. I think its why i dig stuff like demons souls, heavy rain and the more indie stuff like journey and dear esther. because none try to be a "TRIPLE A GAME CHANGER 10/10 TOTALLY NOT A PAID REVIEW" bullshit fest like mass effect, call of duty or "asscreed" to name a few. They are just games. You sit down and have fun.
And hardware wise my goddamn 2008 iMac can still do things that my 360 cant, especially since it has both OS AND windows on it, which means i get the best possible choices in material.

its just a shame most of its now second hand console ports.

[Andy]

I think it's more the fact that current hardware has been pushed as far as it can be and new hardware materials are still out of reach.. PC's are still built now out of sillicone and copper and you can only push these materials so far. consoles haven't dumbed gaming down, they have just caught up with PC's.

[Danny]

consoles haven't dumbed gaming down, they have just caught up with PC's.

-circa 2006.

[Tricky]

I think it's more the fact that current hardware has been pushed as far as it can be and new hardware isnt being developed like it was.. PC's are still built now out of sillicone and copper and you can only push these materials so far. consoles haven't dumbed gaming down, they have just caught up with PC's.

Really? PC's now are far more capable than the current gen consoles, but the hardware isnt being utilised the way it should be. Otherwise Far Cry 3 wouldn't be completely outdone by a 5 year old game like Crysis.

[shootemindehead]

Yeah I remember those days well, days when PC games were made specifically for the PC and were generally much more intelligent and absorbing than console titles. The Xbox 360 & PS3 were what brought about the change as they could compete with the PC on the latest graphics at the time, as well as bringing online gaming to the masses, the devs saw where the money was to be made so have since poured everything into console friendly games while PC gamers just get lazy outdated ports.
I think todays games lack soul too, I've got a fair few in my collection from the last few years that I haven't completed and probably never will, whereas in the past I was driven to see the ending of every game I bought. I'm not sure whether its down to the fact I'm older or just that the games fail to keep my attention.

I think it's the latter Tricky, TBH. For instance, there's nothing on a console that has the absorption of a PC designed Total War game. I've actually gone back and started a new 'Napoleon' campaign because of the Rome II trailer you posted last week and I'm still washing the cream out of my knickers over it as well. Cannot wait for that to come out.

I was hoping that Creative Assembly would tackle the American Civil War, as I think the game engine is very suited to such a conflict (and nobody has done it since Sid Meier), but hell, Rome is an era I can visit any time. Bring it on.

As far as lazy ports are concerned, I've played a few in my time as well. 'Resident Evil 4' (or was it 3?) was a pretty awful port. but the top prize for "Paragon of Shite" has to go to 'Grand Theft Auto IV'. My god that was some bucket of bollocks. I got a few years ago for Christmas and I felt that Santy has kicked me in the face.

Except, it wasn't Santy, it was Rockstar who was to blame. Christ, it's awfulness was legendary.

And Danny is bang on, it's the indie devs that'll (hopefully) keep producing little masterpieces, though they are becoming fewer and far between.

[Rancid Carcass]

Next year it'll all change I guess with the new 720 and PS4 :) They'll be equal to (or above) regular top end PCs...

I wouldn't hold your breath on that one:

http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/12/20/next-gen-consoles-will-struggle-to-beat-pc-say-industry-insiders/

[krisvds]

Games today are way too easy and way too short. There's no life in them and little in the way of intelligence. I've pissed through both 'Arkham Asylum' and 'Arkham City'. They were so short and way too easy to complete.

And to be honest, I'm sick of it.



Play Dark Souls or Demon souls on the PS3. Every now and again an old school experience gets through. Both are brilliant.

ZombiU is hard as nails when played on survivor mode as well. So is trying to get all the stars in the latest 2D mario game. Hell, while most people seem to think nintendoland is a casual minigame collection completing that first course in the Donkey Kong game will make grown man weep.

Agree with most of your post though. Too goddamn many easy cinematic crappy games around. Un-fucking-charted. Pffff.

[Wyldwraith]

It's fairly easy to see where the problem has become inflamed,
The money men/production executives are, as always, interested solely in spending as little as possible while profiting as much as possible. The DIFFERENCE is that now they just jump in with both feet to the development process, sweep aside what the developers were doing in whole or part, and then it's rush rush rush the game to release, with no time for polish or tweaking game-enjoyment-diminishing recurrent glitches/crashes.

Sure, franchise degradation and the dumbing down of PC gaming to move into lockstep with consoles are major problems, but so long as things like say, the ending to Mass Effect 3 can happen...you could fix every single other problem in the industry and STILL end up with a majority of shitty games. Investors/executives need to remember why they hired developers in the first place, and then let said developers carry out the vision of said investor to the best of the developers' technical ability.

[shootemindehead]

It was going that way for years. I used to do a bit of testing for a software house back when most companies were small affairs. Development was never at the beckon call of the suits. Now it is, almost totally. The company I was testing for was eventually bought out by EA...so that says it all really.

A few friends of mine were involved in the industry with Popcap games, making stuff for phones. They're all redundant now, despite the company being worth a fortune, because it was bought out...

...by EA.

Problem is you get a small(ish) company with a great idea. They usually have to go to a larger company (ahem, EA) to get production money because the cost of making the game has been vastly outdone by the cost of its advertising etc. They make a great game and then they go under, because talent is poached, the core of the company breaks up, or the company owner(s) decide to cash in and sell and it's bought out...

...by EA.

[krisvds]

"it's in the game"


Wankers.