unforum

[water10]

[ubercado]

Not nessarily...

With the new dual core processors comming out, I belive, later this year, the PC will over take the consoles again in really short time. Also, with the release of XP 64, the developers will have a whole new sandbox to play in. And both of the gpu's in both consoles will be in the PC market by early to late summer '06.

I'm not saying that it will happen over night but, certianly by the time the PS3 hits the market.

[poorsod]

[water10]

[hamatoyoshi]

[SuperJerms]

[hamatoyoshi]

[water10]

[Ranger D]

The point trying to be made here is that some games just won't work on a console. Most of the time, it's due to the the type of interface. Imagine playing Warcraft 3 (or any way more complex RTS game) with a console controller. I have yet to see a console controller give me the presicion and finess with which I get using a mouse. The fact of the matter is that you can't cram every video game into using a 10 button 2 thumbstick handheld controller.

I have yet to see a handheld controller give me the precision and control of a mouse and the informational bandwidth of a keyboard. Some types of games have specific core game elements that just can't be be limited by an informationally low bandwidth device like a controller. There is a reason the keyboard is the standard interface device for computers. It is probably the fastest way to communicate in a written language. It also gives you...crap how many keys are on this keyboard? Over one hundred? How do you input written data using a controller? You scroll through the alphabet using up and down arrows and then enter each letter/character in One. At. A. Time. Now, voice communication may remove the need for written communication in some games. FPS games are a prime example because you only need a single thread of information sharing. Commander to troops, "Attack this target", "Yes sir." Or collective to collective, "I'm doing this here, etc." This doesn't work too well when you need to monitor multiple threads of info and conversation. It cannot replace the keyboard yet. In most MMOs you are keeping track of at least 3 threads of conversation, usually more (local chat, party chat, guild chat, private tells, etc.). How can you do that with just voice? Also, read this article here, then tell me you want voice chat in everygame. If you are reading this here on unfiction, then you obviously have some understanding of immersion. I certainly don't want to hear a female avatar sound like the burly truck driver.

One more thing. The Xbox was released in 2001. Exactly 4 years ago iirc. The PS2 and GameCube dropped in 2000. These consoles are hitting almost FIVE years old. Would you play Doom 3 on a five year old PC? Hell no. PC gamers live not on the cutting edge, but on the bleeding edge. This is where the innovation takes place. This latest round of game consoles are the first to really "catch up" with PC gaming. But 6 months after the console releases, the PC gaming industry will have faster cards out. And games you can only play on a PC. You like high-def gaming? Try playing Half-Life 2 on a GeForce 6800 Ultra SLI box with a gorgeous 23 inch Apple Cinema Display at 1920x1200 and you will shit your pants. And you can do that NOW. Not by this Christmas or a year from now. (technically you could've done that last December) Of course it's more expensive, but that's the price you pay for living on the bleeding edge and doing things few have done before.

The PC is not going away for gaming, and neither are consoles. Maybe they will become one, but there are lots of obstacles in that path.

[water10]

[SuperJerms]

[water10]

[Ranger D]

Thanks SJ. You make excellent points yourself.

And now, before we leave this dead horse truly dead....

I was just thinking about voice chat in general. Thinking about how voice chat would work in games that require you to suspend disbelief and offer you a certain amount of immersion. My conclusion is that, personally, in those instances, I would prefer communication via text, rather than voice. For the simple reason why books can be so much greater than movies.

I assume you all saw The Blaire Witch Project. Throughout the entire film you are hearing about this "witch" that may have 8 arms, and all this crazy shit, but no one really knows what she looks like. You get this throughout the entire film, hoping to see what the big stink is about. The thing is, you never see her. So what ends up happening is the audience (read: players) use their imagination to create an image of what is scary for themselves. No hokey guy in a monster suit, that would ruin the immersion. The audience knows what they are afraid of, and if you give them just a little, they will fill in the rest and imagine something super scary just for themselves.

I hope we can see some real progress made in voice recognition and synthesis. This is an area that has had almost no innovation since the Macintosh could speak and I can't wait for all the crazy things you'll be able to do with it. As I get older, I think it's more fun using my imagination to "fill in the good stuff" than to have everything given to me. It lets each person invent their own part of the game, and personalizes it.

Horse is dead, moving on now...


Damn, I need a blog. Or something.