Mark Rein: Consoles put a stranglehold on DX10

[Bodhesatva]

Legend11 said:

Bodhesatva said:

Legend11 said:
But what's the point in getting a crossfire or sli setup if the super high-end games become few and far between?

Because I really, really like those games that are "few and far between". I like World of Warcraft, Half Life, Half Life 2 and Starcraft better than everything on the 360 and PS3 combined, and I'm not exaggerating. I have quite literally put 200+ days (or 4800 hours of game play) in to Starcraft alone. If these games continue to remain PC exclusive (Starcraft 2 certainly is) or PC centric (as Half Life is), then I would much rather pay 500 a year to keep my rig up to date than to play the 360/PS3 games I personally believe are much less fun.

But that's my opinion. I'm not saying you should agree. You asked, I answered.

 

The system requirements for World of Warcraft, Half-Life, Half-Life 2, and Starcraft are very low. In fact Blizzard and Valve are two developers that I find make games that play very well on medium range systems. Besides Crysis (and likely Far Cry 2) can you think of any other games that would be a lot better on an sli or crossfire setup as compared to say one 8800GTX? I imagine that even a 8800GTS (640MB) will be more than enough for 99% of the games coming out in the next few years.

As for your opinion I also like games on the PC as well as games on 360, I mean I'm very sure Mass Effect will be one of my favorite games this year if not my favorite and I know Banjo Kazooie 3 will very likely be one of my favorites next year. I think all three consoles will have enough games in their lifespan to justify their cost.

Half Life 1/2 definitely required a 1000+ dollar computer when they were released, which makes them more than twice as expsensive as the 360/PS3. Not Crysis requirements by any means, but still substantial. I don't think we'll start frequently seeing Crysis-level graphics on PC for at least a couple more years. Crysis is really an aberration: usually it takes a couple of years to see PC games that really noticably outstrip new consoles. With Crysis, we're seeing it within a year of the release of the PS3, which is already a very expensive console. So I agree with almost all of this!

Instead, what I am saying is that the few high-end games that are tailored specifically for the PC have historically been my absolute favorites. With Crysis and Starcraft 2 upcoming (I'll bet you good money that you'd need to pay 1400+ dollars right now for a computer that can effectively run SC II without slowdown), I see that trend continuing.