unforum

[fugitivesoldier]

I'll take analog sticks over point-n-click anyday.

Anyone can click on someone's head over and over.


I have a decent PC:

3.0ghz P4
200gb HD
ATI Radeon X700 Pro 256mb GPU
2x512 Corsair DDR2 RAM
5.1 Surround Sound
17" Samsung Flat-Panel LCD monitor

yet I frequently leave it to go play Halo 2 in my room on a crappy RFU hookup 20'' TV with mono sound.

Because it is fun. It's that simple.

HL2 has better graphics. Good for it. Here's a cookie.

Xbox Live's systems trump any PC thing I've seen to date. It's like Xfire, TeamSpeak, etc. all rolled into one.

It may be overrated, but the most overrated title of all time?

I think there are many that beat it in that regard.

[Ranger D]

I'm not saying one interface is better than the other. I'm saying that each interface is suited for it's particular environment. This was an evolutionary process.

I can only think of one console game that used a mouse (it actually shipped with one). The game was called MarioPaint and it was for the SNES. Essentially it was photoshop for your snes. You could draw, paint, stamp out custom sprites, build musical tracks, and I think do some very basic sprite animation. Try drawing on a canvas with a controller. It's hard enought with a mouse. I think Nintendo is really the only company that is still trying to experiment with different types of controllers. Would Donkey Konga be as much fun without the bongo drums? It would be lame.

So you have different types of interfaces for different environments. Let's not threadjack this into a "console vs. PC" thread.

[Pluvius]

[water10]

[Guest]

There's a big missed point for this PC vs. console thing here:

Keyboard/mouse vs. controller, not to mention graphics, don't even matter to most people... what it comes down to is the social element.

Maybe I'm not a tremendous geek, but just about everyone I know would rather sit on their couches than at a computer any day. It doesn't matter how ergonomic your mouse, keyboard, or desk setup is.

Extending this further, what's an enjoyable two-player (we won't even get into four-player) simultaneous game that can be played on a single PC? I can't even think of one. I know when I invite friends over, if they're going to play video games, they're sure as hell not going to sit in chairs in front of the computer to do it.

I can buy a top-of-the-line gaming PC for about $2,000 that'll play everything that comes out for maybe the next two years. (For the build-it-yourselfers who'd like to think that's more than they'd pay for a good PC, pretend you have Doom 3, Half-Life 2, The Sims 2, or whatever in that.)

Or...

I could buy a nice, large new sofa ($1000), a cheap new 27-30" HDTV ($400), an XBox 360 (current projected price, $300), 3 more wireless controllers (guessing $120), and Halo 3 ($70?). That leaves $110 leftover which will buy me: a cheap new charcoal grill ($50), a bag of charcoal ($6), a lot of ground beef for burgers ($15), other fixin's ($20), and a decent amount of hard liquor ($19). ($2000 total)

Which sounds like a better time with your friends to you?

Hence, we have XBox/PC integration on the horizon...

[vector]

I find that your assessment of $19 worth of hard liquor as a decent amount to be flawed as either A. You are buying one bottle at the "drinkable" level of quality, in which case there really isnt enough to be counted as a decent amount or B. You are buying multiple bottles of the really cheep stuff of which no amount is decent. My recommendation, alter that budget a bit to 1 used couch $50, a bar with bar stools $200, that leaves $769 to go towards filling said bar with a decent amount of spirits.

[krystyn]

And if there's no barku, all bets are off!

[water10]

[vector]

[hamatoyoshi]

[vector]

[hamatoyoshi]

Since we were on the topic...

Happened to see a link to this at /. ... Xbox 360 and PS3: death to PC gaming?

[Phaedra]

[DreamOfTheRood]

Can somebody make a wiki for 'pulling a phaedra?'

As for the hardcore mud wrestling deathmatch between consoles and pc's, I don't see the kind of dramatic change that "The Death of PC Gaming" implies. People enjoy playing on their computers just as much as they enjoy playing on their consoles, and as long as there are PC-exclusives, then there will be PC gamers. Maybe, maybe the numbers will dwindle over time, but I doubt it.

[poorsod]

Daeath of PC gaming? No way! Just consider. D3 ported to XB 6 months after the PC release. They cut out quite a bit of the game simply to 'clean up' the game. No hardware problems or anything with those terrifying dead-ends, pant-filling sudden monster spawns or atmospheric diary entries. id just wanted to make the game faster to play through, and (I've played both versions, so believe me) cut out the scary bit. To the console gamers, who represent a majority, Thief 3 with the Cradle is still scarier than DOOM 3 with a retelling.
Point two. Half-Life 2 (please just believe me and buy it) is THE best shooter - no, the best game - I've ever played. And I've played most of them. It is coming to XB... but without Steam. I know the 56k players hated Steam, and I do agree that VALVe were being a bit paranoid and should have stripped out the activation, but the idea behind Steam is actually a good one. You can buy and download the game instantly with an entire back catalogue of games, and the money goes straight to the people who deserve it - the developers. Publishers are completely removed from the eqaution! Updates are delivered instantly and without hassle. You start up the game, it spends two minutes downloading, and you have a fixed game. No more faffing about with patches. The Lost Coast and HDR are shipping in the summer, again effortlessly, and completely free to all players. Whether your PC can handle it is another matter, but the point remains. Aftermath is next up after that, which will quiet the nutters who didn't like the ending. And don't forget DoD: Source. And the modding capabilities. And HL2: Deathmatch. And instant informative news every friday without having to trawl through websites and newsgroups. The list continues. Nothing on the console could ever live up to that kind of innovation. It is simply impossible.
Point 3. Upgrade capabilities. With new processors and gfx cards coming out monthly, PCs quickly overtake consoles in specs.
Death to PC gaming? No way!