coilAmateur pirate. Professional monkey. All pance.Join Date: 2002-04-12Member: 424Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
Why the hate? I love my PC, and I love my consoles. And I've had the opportunity now to play several different games cross-platform, and here's how they break down IMO:
My PC: Athlon XP 1900+, 1GB DDR RAM, GeForce FX 5900XT.
1) Morrowind: PC vs. Xbox. PC wins, because Morrowind is at its heart a first-person-"shooter." Keyboard/mouse is much better than the gamepad, though the problem is mitigated by the slower nature of Morrowind compared to a true FPS.
2) Beyond Good & Evil: PC vs. Gamecube. Gamecube absolutely destroyed the PC. PC was pretty, but I honestly didn't notice an appreciable difference between the visuals. The control scheme, however... on the PC, I found it impossible to reverse the Y-axis without also, bizarrely, reversing the X-axis. Third-person combat was confusing due to the 8-way limitation of WASD compared to the full 360 degrees allowed by the Gamecube's analog stick. Control layout was also much simpler, since I wasn't hunting through 104 keys for the ones I'd assigned to various functions.
3) Halo: PC vs. Xbox. I only played the demo of Halo PC, and it was on a system that couldn't quite handle it (my previous computer, a P3 800 with a GeForce4 Ti 4600). It was buggy, ugly, and unstable, and framerate was terrible even when I turned everything off. It also felt extremely simplistic... but I think it may have been because the game was designed with a gamepad in mind, and the mouse just made things a lot easier to deal with. So a 50/50 split on Halo -- better visuals/performance and simpler on Xbox, but clearly much easier controls on PC.
4) Prince of Persia: Sands of Time (GC) vs. Prince of Persia: Warrior Within DEMO (PC). A few observations from this one. #1, the camera in PoP on GC was imperfect, but you seldom needed to manage it as the game took care of most of it for you. PoPWW, however, found me constantly fiddling with the mouse to try and get it where I wanted, and I missed/was glad for the lack of acrobatic segments in what I played, because I wasn't sure I'd be able to handle them. #2, the combat was vastly improved in WW, but confusing because of the number of buttons. I couldn't help but think "I can't wait to play this on GC," because I knew all the buttons would be laid out in such a way as to make perfect sense. #3, Combat has become much more complex in WW, especially in terms of "crowd management" -- jumping between multiple opponents. Without the GC's analog stick, I had a really hard time dealing with this facet of PoP gameplay.
I could go on... Legacy of Kain: Defiance's control scheme on Xbox was much better than Soul Reaver and Soul Reaver 2's on the PC, for instance. In general, I find a couple rules suit well: 1) FPS's for PC, due to the mouse. 2) 3rd-person action for consoles, due to the analog sticks. 3) Fast-paced games with a lot of controls do better on console, where all the controls can be sensibly mapped to the gamepad. 4) More thoughtful games with a lot of controls do better on the PC, 'cause hey, the keyboard has more buttons. ^^
It'll be interesting to see what pervasive voice chat does to the balance. MMO's are currently limited to the PC because of chatting, and I'm torn as to whether MMOs should feature voice chat at all... it sort of breaks character if the huge orcish thug that just kicked your *** suddenly breaks out into "<SQUEEEEK> OMG I JUST OWNED YOU, WHAT A NUB</SQUEEEEK>" over voice chat. Dunno.
Final verdict? Each has its place, and anyone who declares himself true to one only is basically neutering his own gaming experience. Except you PS2 fanboys. Man that system sucks. I played Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal the other day... Game Informer gave it a perfect 10, but that really has a "for the PS2" scrawled after it. Graphics like that on Cube or Xbox would get it about an 8, no matter how good the gameplay was.
<!--QuoteBegin-Cartman2b^+Oct 26 2004, 03:22 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Cartman2b^ @ Oct 26 2004, 03:22 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> Exactly. Everyone has different opinions on games. People might not like HL2.. they're entitled to their own opinion.. right? <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> Wrong.
But I do agree that console gaming can be fun as long as I stay away from console FPS which frustrate the living crap out of me.
<!--QuoteBegin-coil+Oct 26 2004, 06:39 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (coil @ Oct 26 2004, 06:39 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> It'll be interesting to see what pervasive voice chat does to the balance. MMO's are currently limited to the PC because of chatting, and I'm torn as to whether MMOs should feature voice chat at all... it sort of breaks character if the huge orcish thug that just kicked your *** suddenly breaks out into "<SQUEEEEK> OMG I JUST OWNED YOU, WHAT A NUB</SQUEEEEK>" over voice chat. Dunno. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd--> Worst. Idea. Ever.
Sorry, but i prefer having to type. I'm a roleplayer in MMORPGs, everything i say or do is in character. "So why not use voice chat in character then?" Well, that's because i only ever roleplay female characters.<!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/smile-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Ontop of that, it would really break the mood for a number of reasons, the biggest of which would be, as you said, the large hulking giant standing infront of you sounding like a 10 year old.
EDIT: Hoj, i'm exactly the same, i dispise console FPS games, not only because of the lacking control schemes, but also the fact that they all seem to be entirely half-arsed and mediocre in comparison to the PC's greats.
EDIT 2: Except Chronicles Of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay, that kicks arse. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/smile-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> there was no deus ex 2 or matrix 2 or 3.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yeah there was, the subtitles is just marketting BS made up for people who dont like playing sequels unless they have heard of the original. Solution: pretend your not a sequel.
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Prince of Persia: Sands of Time (GC) vs. Prince of Persia: Warrior Within DEMO (PC)<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Not a fair comparison. I played and loved the PC version of Sands but the WW demo was broken in many places.
<!--QuoteBegin-Necrotic+Oct 26 2004, 12:41 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Necrotic @ Oct 26 2004, 12:41 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> But I do agree that console gaming can be fun as long as I stay away from console FPS which frustrate the living crap out of me.
How do you aim with those bloody thumbsticks?! <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> Skill.
<!--QuoteBegin-Silicon+Oct 26 2004, 01:28 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Silicon @ Oct 26 2004, 01:28 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> there was no deus ex 2 or matrix 2 or 3. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd--> So were Highlander 2, Final Fantasy VIII & Mystic Quest, and Mortal Kombat: Annihilation
Wondered wth happened there there was about 5 replies made in the time it took me to type my peasy 3 liner o_O.
Back to the topic, yeah I truly hate FPS on consoles but there are many games which work much better the blaringly obvious example being Beat-Em-Ups but racing games work much better with a control pad as do platformers.
coilAmateur pirate. Professional monkey. All pance.Join Date: 2002-04-12Member: 424Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
<!--QuoteBegin-UKchaos+Oct 26 2004, 02:48 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (UKchaos @ Oct 26 2004, 02:48 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> <!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Prince of Persia: Sands of Time (GC) vs. Prince of Persia: Warrior Within DEMO (PC)<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd--> Not a fair comparison. I played and loved the PC version of Sands but the WW demo was broken in many places. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> Duly noted. I understand it's not an entirely fair comparison, but I'm still going to be getting PoPWW for the Cube. The control scheme for the first was just too nice.
I just don't like the GTA 3 series. Maybe its because I overplayed GTA2 (the best one imo), and GTA3 is JUST LIKE all the others except 3D. It's still boring.
<!--QuoteBegin-MrMojo+Oct 26 2004, 07:56 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (MrMojo @ Oct 26 2004, 07:56 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> HL2 : New engine, same game.
But hey, keep thinking PCs are superior. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> HL2 has been reviewed by <a href='http://www.hlfallout.net/view.php/hl2info/reviewlist.php' target='_blank'>over half a dozen sources</a> and they all think it's amazing. Reviews average out to 96% and more than one source believes it's the best game ever made.
For example: <!--QuoteBegin-"PC Gamer US"+--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> ("PC Gamer US")</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->It's not <i>just</i> a game. It's not <i>just</i> a shooter. <i>Half-Life 2</i> raises the bar for interactive entertainment then uses that bar to club all other games into submission.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
While I do love all my systems, my PC is probably my favorite. Just because there is more stuff to do with it like mod/overclock/upgrade just alot more things. My consoles though, they have games that just can't be played on a computer. Like Super Smash Brothers (the n64 one, not that melee crap). Along with super trippy games like N20.
Lets not forget that PS2 online is slow as hell and you don't have to pay to play most online games for PC. I refuse to pay some company just to play their game - it's absurd, as I play about 5 games off and on every month.
[edit]But I love Halo so much... Micro$oft might force me into getting Live for Halo 2 so I can own all the "console newbs." No, I'm serious. I've been to many diverse LAN parties and no one has <u>ever</u> beaten me in any form of Slayer, though crappy team coordination has cost me my undefeated title when it comes to CTF...
coilAmateur pirate. Professional monkey. All pance.Join Date: 2002-04-12Member: 424Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
I'm getting Live for the Ninja Gaiden Hurricane pack. <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
PC with a gamepad, and a console with the keyboard/mouse combo! :O
Imo, they'd still be equal - A PC can multitask, and has much more room for different and neat prehipals. Also, PCs can have completely custom-made content (No Timesplitters/THPS level editor BS).
However consoles still have a couple decent advantages - First off, they're cheap. 2nd off, they're small. 3rd off, when you buy a game for $55, you don't have to worry about spending $700 to make your $2000 box compatible with it (I HATE YOU, DOOM III). You buy it, and if the graphics suck/are slow, its the DEVELOPERS fault! *gasp* Also, like someone else said (coil?), consoles are better for multiplayer with people over.
The thing I don't like about consoles is that I have to have a pretty elaborate setup to use it.
I need my TV, my VCR (because my TV is freaking ancient), the console, the controllers, the power strip, the A/V switchbox, and a decent set of speakers (because my TV is freaking ancient, AND because TV speakers blow).
With the PC, my setup is much simpler - I only need my monitor, PC, keyboard, mouse, headphones..., a minifridge, 5.1 speaker setup, joystick with seprate throttle control, fancy spinny office chair, desk with a nifty keyboard holder thing and some filing cabinets maybe, a mini BBQ, some sort of can to pee in, a pillow depending on the time of day, a lot of soda, a bouncy ball/new manga for downtime, and maybe some cereal and milk.
EDIT: Forgot graham crackers. Graham crackers own, and if you think differentley, you can go to hell.
Comments
My PC: Athlon XP 1900+, 1GB DDR RAM, GeForce FX 5900XT.
1) Morrowind: PC vs. Xbox. PC wins, because Morrowind is at its heart a first-person-"shooter." Keyboard/mouse is much better than the gamepad, though the problem is mitigated by the slower nature of Morrowind compared to a true FPS.
2) Beyond Good & Evil: PC vs. Gamecube. Gamecube absolutely destroyed the PC. PC was pretty, but I honestly didn't notice an appreciable difference between the visuals. The control scheme, however... on the PC, I found it impossible to reverse the Y-axis without also, bizarrely, reversing the X-axis. Third-person combat was confusing due to the 8-way limitation of WASD compared to the full 360 degrees allowed by the Gamecube's analog stick. Control layout was also much simpler, since I wasn't hunting through 104 keys for the ones I'd assigned to various functions.
3) Halo: PC vs. Xbox. I only played the demo of Halo PC, and it was on a system that couldn't quite handle it (my previous computer, a P3 800 with a GeForce4 Ti 4600). It was buggy, ugly, and unstable, and framerate was terrible even when I turned everything off. It also felt extremely simplistic... but I think it may have been because the game was designed with a gamepad in mind, and the mouse just made things a lot easier to deal with. So a 50/50 split on Halo -- better visuals/performance and simpler on Xbox, but clearly much easier controls on PC.
4) Prince of Persia: Sands of Time (GC) vs. Prince of Persia: Warrior Within DEMO (PC). A few observations from this one. #1, the camera in PoP on GC was imperfect, but you seldom needed to manage it as the game took care of most of it for you. PoPWW, however, found me constantly fiddling with the mouse to try and get it where I wanted, and I missed/was glad for the lack of acrobatic segments in what I played, because I wasn't sure I'd be able to handle them. #2, the combat was vastly improved in WW, but confusing because of the number of buttons. I couldn't help but think "I can't wait to play this on GC," because I knew all the buttons would be laid out in such a way as to make perfect sense. #3, Combat has become much more complex in WW, especially in terms of "crowd management" -- jumping between multiple opponents. Without the GC's analog stick, I had a really hard time dealing with this facet of PoP gameplay.
I could go on... Legacy of Kain: Defiance's control scheme on Xbox was much better than Soul Reaver and Soul Reaver 2's on the PC, for instance. In general, I find a couple rules suit well:
1) FPS's for PC, due to the mouse.
2) 3rd-person action for consoles, due to the analog sticks.
3) Fast-paced games with a lot of controls do better on console, where all the controls can be sensibly mapped to the gamepad.
4) More thoughtful games with a lot of controls do better on the PC, 'cause hey, the keyboard has more buttons. ^^
It'll be interesting to see what pervasive voice chat does to the balance. MMO's are currently limited to the PC because of chatting, and I'm torn as to whether MMOs should feature voice chat at all... it sort of breaks character if the huge orcish thug that just kicked your *** suddenly breaks out into "<SQUEEEEK> OMG I JUST OWNED YOU, WHAT A NUB</SQUEEEEK>" over voice chat. Dunno.
Final verdict? Each has its place, and anyone who declares himself true to one only is basically neutering his own gaming experience. Except you PS2 fanboys. Man that system sucks. I played Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal the other day... Game Informer gave it a perfect 10, but that really has a "for the PS2" scrawled after it. Graphics like that on Cube or Xbox would get it about an 8, no matter how good the gameplay was.
Wrong.
But I do agree that console gaming can be fun as long as I stay away from console FPS which frustrate the living crap out of me.
How do you aim with those bloody thumbsticks?!
Worst. Idea. Ever.
Sorry, but i prefer having to type. I'm a roleplayer in MMORPGs, everything i say or do is in character. "So why not use voice chat in character then?" Well, that's because i only ever roleplay female characters.<!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/smile-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Ontop of that, it would really break the mood for a number of reasons, the biggest of which would be, as you said, the large hulking giant standing infront of you sounding like a 10 year old.
EDIT: Hoj, i'm exactly the same, i dispise console FPS games, not only because of the lacking control schemes, but also the fact that they all seem to be entirely half-arsed and mediocre in comparison to the PC's greats.
EDIT 2: Except Chronicles Of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay, that kicks arse. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/smile-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Yeah there was, the subtitles is just marketting BS made up for people who dont like playing sequels unless they have heard of the original. Solution: pretend your not a sequel.
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Prince of Persia: Sands of Time (GC) vs. Prince of Persia: Warrior Within DEMO (PC)<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Not a fair comparison. I played and loved the PC version of Sands but the WW demo was broken in many places.
How do you aim with those bloody thumbsticks?! <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Skill.
So were Highlander 2, Final Fantasy VIII & Mystic Quest, and Mortal Kombat: Annihilation
Back to the topic, yeah I truly hate FPS on consoles but there are many games which work much better the blaringly obvious example being Beat-Em-Ups but racing games work much better with a control pad as do platformers.
Sonic on Megadrive > Sonic on PC.
Not a fair comparison. I played and loved the PC version of Sands but the WW demo was broken in many places. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Duly noted. I understand it's not an entirely fair comparison, but I'm still going to be getting PoPWW for the Cube. The control scheme for the first was just too nice.
on another far more importent note: Touch Me...now!
New cities, same game.
But hey, keep thinking PCs are superior.
But hey, keep thinking PCs are superior. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
HL2 has been reviewed by <a href='http://www.hlfallout.net/view.php/hl2info/reviewlist.php' target='_blank'>over half a dozen sources</a> and they all think it's amazing. Reviews average out to 96% and more than one source believes it's the best game ever made.
For example:
<!--QuoteBegin-"PC Gamer US"+--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> ("PC Gamer US")</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->It's not <i>just</i> a game. It's not <i>just</i> a shooter. <i>Half-Life 2</i> raises the bar for interactive entertainment then uses that bar to club all other games into submission.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I'd hardly say "it's the same game."
<B to all
[edit]But I love Halo so much... Micro$oft might force me into getting Live for Halo 2 so I can own all the "console newbs." No, I'm serious. I've been to many diverse LAN parties and no one has <u>ever</u> beaten me in any form of Slayer, though crappy team coordination has cost me my undefeated title when it comes to CTF...
Make <3 not h8 ...
Why would anyone care what games you play on what system ?
PC with a gamepad, and a console with the keyboard/mouse combo! :O
Imo, they'd still be equal - A PC can multitask, and has much more room for different and neat prehipals. Also, PCs can have completely custom-made content (No Timesplitters/THPS level editor BS).
However consoles still have a couple decent advantages - First off, they're cheap. 2nd off, they're small. 3rd off, when you buy a game for $55, you don't have to worry about spending $700 to make your $2000 box compatible with it (I HATE YOU, DOOM III). You buy it, and if the graphics suck/are slow, its the DEVELOPERS fault! *gasp*
Also, like someone else said (coil?), consoles are better for multiplayer with people over.
The thing I don't like about consoles is that I have to have a pretty elaborate setup to use it.
I need my TV, my VCR (because my TV is freaking ancient), the console, the controllers, the power strip, the A/V switchbox, and a decent set of speakers (because my TV is freaking ancient, AND because TV speakers blow).
With the PC, my setup is much simpler - I only need my monitor, PC, keyboard, mouse, headphones..., a minifridge, 5.1 speaker setup, joystick with seprate throttle control, fancy spinny office chair, desk with a nifty keyboard holder thing and some filing cabinets maybe, a mini BBQ, some sort of can to pee in, a pillow depending on the time of day, a lot of soda, a bouncy ball/new manga for downtime, and maybe some cereal and milk.
EDIT: Forgot graham crackers. Graham crackers own, and if you think differentley, you can go to hell.