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thismeintiel on 17 November 2010
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Scoobes said:
thismeintiel said:

The real thing I find fault with is his reasoning that the consoles are the reason for games being this way.  How does a console change how a developer creates a game?  Well, besides graphics.  But even then they usually, if not always, have a slightly better version optimised for the PC.  Plus, when I think of all the great games that were made exclusively for consoles (SMB, SOTC and Uncharted to name a few), it doesn't make sense.  And really, if it wasn't for consoles (the NES more specifically) then home gaming may have just continued to be in the dismal shape it was in after the gaming crash of '83.  No, the reason the game is like this is because the developer was going to make it like that regardless of what platform it was on.

Don't get me wrong.  I know the advantages of PC gaming, and really have no problem with PC gamers in general.  I just can't stand these elitists who feel their shit don't stink cause they game on a PC.  Can't wait to see what they do next gen when there probably will be no difference in graphics between the consoles and PC.  Or if consoles start using something like Unlimited Detail.

Not just graphics, but physics, scale, modability, absence of dedicated servers (in MW2, not Black Ops) and interface. Essentially, most games are simple ports of console games meaning they have no optimisation for the PC and therefore do not take advantage of the benefits of the PC as a platform. Not saying I blame the devs for doing it as they need to make money in a competitive environment.

I'll give a few examples.

1. Oblivion: Now I love this game and it's one of my faves of all time, but the interface was obviously designed for consoles, and the experience was "streamlined". Now I liked this to an extent, but many Elder scrolls fans were disappointed at the seemingly "casual" nature. Instead, we now have many many mods that change and improve the interface and features so they're more in-line with PC games. The Obscuro Oblivion Overhaul mod was so popular that they actually hired the guy who made it to work as a consultant on Fallout New Vegas.

2. Mass Effect 2: Again, great game, but was obviously a direct port of the 360 version. The graphics and textures were the same as the 360 version with no extra optimisation for the PC version. Even basic PC graphical options were taken out such as anti-aliasing which you needed to "force" via the hardware. Another small yet easy to implement problem was the lack of shortcuts on the PC version. The PC has the advantage of having an input device with multiple buttons so why did they not implements simple hotkeys? (e.g. 'J' for Journal).

3. Deus Ex Invisible War: From last gen, all the design decisions were made based on the orginal X-box then ported to PC. It meant areas were smaller (the last level is a recreation of the first from Deus Ex but split the level in half with an extra loading screen). The graphics were poor (A fan made high def texture pack was released after 6 months), yet the system requirements were higher than Half-Life 2 (which released after). Finally, they made some really shoddy design decisions based on "appealing to console gamers" such as unified ammo.

Btw, what's unlimited detail mode?! :P

While their are going to be developers that don't optimise for the PC, there are other's who will.  The point is, in the end it's the developers choice on how they create their game and if they will or will not optimise their games for specific platforms.

And Unlimited Detail is a new way of creating graphics for gaming.  Basically, instead of using polygons covered in textures, it uses billions upon billions of floating dots to create objects/characters.  This creates not only the shape of the object, but also covers the textures, as well.  Here's a vid about it.