PC Remains Top Platform For Developers
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xIcarus
No. That is highly subjective.
Consoles are primarily lacking in the esports department, where a huge chunk of today's gamers go. CS, DOTA, LOL, SC2. Hell, the total population of these 3 games is huge. Dota and CS peak at around 1 million players online each day together, LOL alone is probably 3 times as that. SC2 adds 100-200k.
Consoles are lacking in MMOs. I don't think I need an argument for this.
And the games themselves? The only console games I would have liked to play are halo and the last of us. I cannot imagine playing the mass effect or deus ex franchise on a console. It's just so limiting.
In the end it doesn't even matter. PC stands out for its superior performance and different controls (mouse/keyboard) compared to consoles. Modding is also huge. I don't know about you, but I couldn't live without competitive games like mentioned at the start of my post. Controllers severely limit your capability in fps games, this is why the competitive scene is so restricted aside from fighter games.
PS: I am aware you can hook up a mouse/keyboard on a console, but many games do not support them.
(.)(.)
Theres plenty of esport going on with the consoles. COD, HALO, FIFA etc.
MMOs, well theres Final Fantasy, Destiny (in a sense) and this is only going to grow. Not only that, but Id argue that WOW and FF MMO are the only MMOs worth touching these days on the PC.
The controller argument is as irrelevant as the superior hardware argument. Its nothing but stating the obvious next to the fact that if you're playing mp on console, its a far more even match than playing on the pc as everyone has the same handcap as you. That being the controller and whatever fps, aspect ratio and FOV the game was designed to run at. If we were able to play pc vs console, then yeah, the argument of whats the best control method would speak for itself. But again, thats obvious and doesnt need to be pointed out. It doesnt take a genius to figure out that a car is a faster mode of transport vs a bicycle.
I fail to see how Mass Effect would be limiting on the the console, considering they're the exact same game on both platforms. Other than res and fps (which in the case of ME is not an issue) there really isnt anything to set them apart. If you cant play such a simple game as ME with a controller, than thats not the fault of the game or system. Same goes for DE.
Playing ME or similar games on the console would be no different to playing fighting games on the PC, they're both very basic input games. Press button, things happen. You won have an advantage with a controller or a keyboard if playing fighting games.
As I've said previously, modding. Great, but considering that the majority of games that are moddable these days are nothing but ports such as WD that people scramble over to be the first to make a visual mod in hopes that its going to make a **** game better.. I could careless. All the games worth modding are pre 2008 of which you can do some real proper TCs and other such things, everything after are again, simple texture overhauls for mediocre games that have been ported poorly and perform terribly enough as it is.
I honestly had to look at the thread title to figure out how we got to this subject. Now that ive read it, this is just a silly conversation to be having. Its not 1999 any more.
xIcarus
I know there's esport going on with the consoles, but it pales hard when you compare it to the PC esports scene, that's what I wanted to highlight. I enjoy dota and cs. For me they're irreplaceable, this is exactly why I brought this up. It's highly subjective.
There are a lot of PC mmos that are worth playing beside WOW (which I honestly dislike). Take TERA or TESO for example. Though admittedly, TERA's general direction has been fubar lately. There's also Archeage and RIFT. Eve online. Guild wars. Lots of choices.
Mass effect is limiting on consoles, it's not that simple of a game. Here I'm primarily referring to the skills you use. On consoles you basically have to pause the game to cast spells because you do not have enough buttons on the controller. To me, this aspect is extremely annoying.
About multiplayer games, yes, everyone has the same 'handicap'. That doesn't make it less uncomfortable for me. Again, this is a subjective topic.
And mods are not about shi.t games, I don't know what you're talking about. It's exactly the opposite, the most modded games are always the most popular and successful ones. Take skyrim for example. Damn man, there are mods for completely new races in that game. Mass effect, since we mentioned it. Tons of visual mods. Deus ex 1, holy damn I've had as much fun playing custom campaigns than I've had playing the original story.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not hating on consoles (though I blame the companies for bringing us crappy ports). I simply find them severely restricted, from the simple stuff like the controller, to the more important stuff like games (they do not contain the spectrum of games that I play) and even the lack of modding.
vbetts
Moderator
Always looking, never getting! 😀
It's no surprise though, despite all the options playstation and Xbox give(We won't even talk about the Wii U), PC still has almost complete freedom to develop.
Aura89
back in the day, games weren't as massively complex as they are now
DX12 is supported by xbox one, and that's all that really matters, PS4 doesn't really matter when it comes to DirectX
Amnesia (and sequel)
Arma 3
DayZ (though sadly it will be going to at least the PS4 at some point)
Command & Conquer games (though, looking bleak, theoretically we should see a new one, at some point...)
Wargame (European Escalation, AirLand Battle and Red Dragon)
Sims 4 (i'm not into it, but it's still a big PC exclusive)
SimCity
CitiesXL/XXL
TrackMania 2
Company of Heroes 2
Dirty Bomb (not released yet)
Don't Starve (was a PC exclusive, now on PS4/Vita)
Grim Dawn (not fully released yet)
MechWarrior Online
Civilization V
Civilization: Beyond Earth
Rise of the Triad (remake)
StarCraft II (Wings of Liberty, Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void)
Total War games, including one being released this year
Wasteland 2
Age of Wonders III
Anno 2070
Contagion (small, indie game but fun)
Dead State
Dota 2
Guild Wars 2
Hard Reset
Insurgency
IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad (not released yet)
Might & Magic X: Legacy
Might & Magic Heroes VII (not released yet)
Natural Selection 2
Rust
Unreal Tournament (not released yet)
Obviously not every single PC exclusive (or started out as a PC exclusive) game out there....but i believe i have answered your question, and i focused on in the last 3 years, a couple are as far as 5 though
Fender178
If PCs are the top priority of gaming for devs then how come there are poorly optimized games out there?
I understand that devs do not have access to the different hardware variations that consumers use but still.
Im with (.)(.) that what makes me own a PC is emulation and classic PC games. I remember the good old days where games actually worked with out patches but with some earlier games patches were needed to fix game ending glitch.
The first game that I have ever played that patches were needed and required to play online was Starcraft.
kanej2007
Completely agreed. However, you must admit FAR more effort was put into the making of pc games at the time...
Think of Duke Nukem, C & C, Quake series, Red Faction, Far Cry, F.E.A.R, Soldier Of Fortune, Unreal Tournament 1999, etc...
Now it's all about consoles and focusing on them a lot more than pc. It's all about the money, right?
(.)(.)
A bunch of unreleased titles, therefore irrelevant, and samey same MMOs/RTS's that havent changed since the 90's other than gfx and are pretty much a niche market.
SimCity...what that broken mess of a game, or the older sims games that where on ps2, xbox, 360? Arma 3, still half functional like the previous releases, Dayz - Heading to PS4 and X1.
And lol, Rust, Hard Reset, Rise of the Triad, Track Mania and silly little indie games.... really?. None of the those game can hold a candle to the First party exclusives on the consoles.
You've missed Stalker.
The Last of Us is a far more important game to the history of gaming than anything in that list.
fantaskarsef
Does it support full feature level?
You are right, most of these games can be considered niche products. But has pc gaming ever been anything else? Since the first consoles came to homes the pc gaming has become secondary, because kids grew up with putting that cartrige / disc in there and play away, rather than setting up a pc with an os, drivers, apis and finally a patched game.
But about for the Last of Us, what's important about this game? Played it on PS3 and imho, there's nothing special about it.
xIcarus
The Last of Us more important than Starcraft, Warcraft, Command and Conquer, Quake, Unreal Tournament? RTS/MMOs niche market because they aren't as popular as they used to be? No offense but you're delusional if you really mean what you said.
Aura89
effort? i don't know about effort, how do you define effort?
Do you define effort as the entire making of the game(no platform) + specific PC related development? or just PC related development?
If it's just the PC portion, then sure, but that's a completely wrong way to look at it, as if you only had the PC portion of the development of the game, you'd have no game, you still need the core game
If it's the core game + pc specific development, then no, there is a lot more "effort" going into games these days for "the PC". There's much larger teams with much more detailed gameplay(how things move, physx, etc. included) and graphics all requiring more "effort" then games "back in the day" could ever imagine. Basically, there are much larger teams spending more total "hours" or "manpower" or "effort" (they all mean the same thing) on games these days
In my opinion, what's really lost a lot of time in todays games is physical time, it takes time to find all the bugs and no matter how many people you have on a development project like software, the time to find stuff like bugs and etc. don't really change much. That said, it's a lose lose situation, no matter if you have 200-1000 testers on various different hardware, it will never compare to the hundreds of thousands of people with various different hardware
You call i believe i counted 5 of those titles (many releasing this year) "a bunch of those" not yet released with that long list? ok then, way to nit pick
In terms of sim city, who care if it's buggy mess, that wasn't the point of the post nor was it what you asked
in terms of sims games, who ever talked about sims games, that were released on consoles? I listed SimCity and Sims 4, both of which are not on console
Arma 3, your opinion, of which doesn't matter apparently
DayZ, i stated it is going to PS4, however, it is not going to Xbox 1, not as of yet, not sure where you got that information. And, it STARTED on PC, it's getting ported to the PS4, so....
Hard Reset, indie? since when? not only do Flying Wild Hog both have publishers (which negates "indie" right there), but to call Hard Rest an Indie game would also to be calling Shadow Warrior an indie game, they are made by the same developer, and, Shadow Warrior originated on PC, and was ported to console, yet again, though honestly i couldn't tell if you were calling this game an indie, if not, i'm not sure why you would "lol" at it, as it was a fun game, isn't that the point of games? if it's not to your liking, that's not everyone elses fault, if you find console games more fun, that's your problem, or maybe you seem to have a hate for PC games lately and try and find reasons to hate PC exclusives to praise your console games? food for thought
Rise of the Triad, i guess you "could" say that was an indie game, though again it has a publisher, negates indie again, but who cares either way? if a game is good, a game developed by an Independent developer(indie) or by a developed backed by a publisher doesn't really matter, like above, not sure if you were saying this was an indie, and like above, not sure what you find "lol" about it
TrackMania, Indie? Nadeo is no indie, maybe when they started? i mean heck, Nadeo is made by Ubisoft, is Ubisoft an indie? No? alrighty then, like above, not sure if you were saying this was an indie, and like above, not sure what you find "lol" about it, i mean REALLY not sure what you find "lol" about trackmania.....
Rust, i'll give you on indie, though in the end that company has so much money for how small their team is i wouldn't exactly call their resources indie, and what makes indie games generally horrible is their lack of resources
And i didn't "miss" stalker, stalker, latest release, was released in 2009, i clearly stated most of the games i posted were from the last 2-3 years, with some going back as far as 2010, 2009 is before 2010...
and to your last message..."important"? "important"....what does that even mean? i'm not doubting the game to be good, but it's not "that big" of a game, it has a single player campaign that is good that most people finish within 12-16 hours, which isn't bad, but is no skyrim, and then once you're done...you're done
Heck, talking about console exlusives, i've spent more time on the first game in Tales of Symphonia Chronicles (haven't gotten to the 2nd game in the disc yet) then that 12-16 hours and i'm maybe half way through, and i played it on the gamecube! 2nd time playing, yet i'll never play last of us again, it has no replace value to me at all.
Not talking about hours? maybe game changing? i see nothing here, it wasn't game changing, it didn't change what developers think they should make their games into, people really aren't talking about it anymore (take FF7, released in 1997/8, people still talking about it today)
So what's so important about it? DayZ has more people talking about it, even console gamers who have seen videos of it (you have no idea how much i get asked if it's on a console yet by people who do not even own a PC)
"important"?
supposedly, microsoft stated that xbox one fully supports DX12, so i'm not sure what else to go by lol
fantaskarsef
Fair enough.
(.)(.)
Aura89
Fair points/counter argument. Though Id like to clear up that I meant Hard Res...AND indie titles.
Im pretty sure i commented on ARMA3, could of sworn I did. At the end of the day, these such titles pale in comparison to what the consoles are doing in term of gameplay.
Where's our Infamous Second Son, Super Mario World 3d/Galaxy, Killzone, Sunset Overdrive, Uncharted, TLOU... why is it that these IPs are still here after so many iterations...But where is Stalker? FEAR went from FEAR to "Dude, checkout my killstre....GET OUT THE WAY GIRLY, YOU AINT SCARY! *Blat blat blat*"
PS4 got a remaster of a barely a year old game, two in fact - TLOU and GTAV. We got Metro LL, Tomb Raider, Sleeping Dogs H*wink wink*D.
The majority of modern/next gen racing sims are still in beta/early access and have been for a stupid amount of time now. Im pretty sure Elite and SC have made more progress in a smaller amount of time than pCars.
