FAO Weaste

Count Duckula

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This isn't a dig, it's a genuine question and for all my mocking you genuinly appear to be the best person to ask:

A friend of mine and I were having a discussion, and we couldn't reach a conclusion because neither of us know the technical details well enough. You're that man, I think.

If you wanted the ultimate gaming machine, something that would look amazing, play amazingly, maintain a framerate, sound good, play in HD, not crash etc. what is the best machine on the market? Is it the PS3, because that really is an amazing piece of machinery -- just look at the games planned for it.

Or is a top of the line pc still the more powerful beast? Assume in this comparison money is no obejct, because of course a PS3 is ~£350, compared to the £3,500+ you'd blow on a behemoth pc. If you factor in money then the PS3 wins hands down, but we're not. In this hypothesis we're both billionaires looking for the ultimate thrill.
 
What you have to remember when looking at consoles is that they are locked down in their hardware and operating systems. This allows you to go for the "metal" as it will never change. The problem with the PC is that you are running a game on top of a highly bloated and resource intensive operating system and have to go through multiple layers of drivers and interfaces to do what you need to do, because the game never knows what the underlying hardware actually is. A bit like Java games, and yes, with .NET, that's becoming the norm on the PC as well. Soon games will not actually be distributed in native code.
 
Do you reckon gaming pcs and consoles will eventually become one and the same thing? It sounds to me from what you said there that despite having the better technology, pcs are slowly on the out because they're so much harder to code for?
 
Count Duckula said:
Do you reckon gaming pcs and consoles will eventually become one and the same thing? It sounds to me from what you said there that despite having the better technology, pcs are slowly on the out because they're so much harder to code for?
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Yes, it will all become one eventually, just like all formats be it audio or video or whatever, eventually all the manufacturers come together and make a standard. It's been tried before, Microsoft was one of the leaders of the MSX project to try to standardise home computers and video games. It fell on its arse, just like 3DO did. It's inevitable however that it will at some point happen, as the game publishers are now far more powerful and can start dictating.

The PC is not hard to code for, they are very easy to code for, a PS3 is a far more challenging prospect in that regard. PCs however, as I said, can run a game perfectly as it was intended to be played, or run it like total shit. It all depends on what hardware the player has. And with PC games, you always need the latest hardware to run the latest games.
 
WeasteDevil said:
PC is like a cartel, I'm sure that software and hardware producers do what they do on purpose to make you keep having to renew.
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That I AM sure of. I've always thought there was a laziness element in pc game making. Sure, the technology improves, and so graphics and gameplay improve, but it always seemed to me they just sort of coasted along with the improving technology.

You look at a console like the PS2 and the games at the end of its lifespan were so much better looking and smoother than those at the start, despite the technology being exactly the same. Innovation is far more important there, whereas with a pc, because the technology gets better, they just raise the performance requirement. Which, as a side effect, means people are constantly having to upgrade.

But thanks for the answer, it was exactly what I was looking for :D And when I think about it, it makes sense. Crysis came out on the pc first, and gigantic games like Mass Effect will thrive more on the pc than they have on their console versions (mass effect I know has had serious texture and loading issues, which should be resolved for when it eventually makes its pc debut).
 
We'll get a standard I would expect after either Microsoft or Sony back down. The trouble now is that it's more than just games, it's about control of the entire house and what and whose devices and systems will do that. The house is Sony's traditional ground, they are not going to let some American software company come along and take it away from them and become a Sanyo. On the flip side, Microsoft see that whoever gets their systems to become the standard in the home could eventually become a threat in the office, which is their traditional ground. So, I wouldn't expect a resolution to the standardization of this for quite a while, like I said, until one of them backs down.

If Microsoft win, they will stop making hardware in the blinking of an eye. I'm not supporting this line, I refuse to do so.
 
Surely, though, if Microsoft are software first and foremost and Sony are hardware first and foremost then it makes the most sense for them to work together? Then they don't have to waste money competing and can reinforce their dominance in their related spheres.
 
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