Comments on: No Pressure: Lombardi on Steam and the PC

By: RotBot

RotBot — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 17:13:22 +0000

See, this is what I don’t understand. If you’re going to buy a console, why buy one that’s as close as possible, and has so many games in common, to a PC? Why not buy an actual console?

I was thinking of buying an Xbox 360 last year, so I went on Metacritic to see if there were enough good titles to make it worthwhile. I think I came up with a list of 9 games, of which all but 3 were already available on PC or scheduled for PC. And I’m going to have to disagree with R. on the worthiness of $340 + $50/year to play a single game (or 3). In the end, I bought a Wii, because the number of decent games was similar but zero of them were ever going to have a PC release.

By: Chaz

Chaz — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 16:00:03 +0000

Will Tomas where the hell are you buying your games from? £50 for a 360 game, £60 for a PS3 game! You’re being ripped badly off if thats what you’re paying. The majority of my 360 games have come in at under £35. I preordered R6 Vegas 2 for my 360 a few weeks back and that was for less than £30.

As for the old survival of the platforms thing, I think that as long as people are still making huge sums of money out of them, then they’re not going to disappear or die off.

By: R.

R. — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 13:17:02 +0000

Because there are still a fair number of games that aren’t common to PC? Hell, a 360 is worth it just to play Virtua Fighter 5 online, nevermind the rest of it.

By: Andrew Farrell

Andrew Farrell — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 13:09:17 +0000

Buy a 360 to go along side your PC = win

See, this is what I don’t understand. If you’re going to buy a console, why buy one that’s as close as possible, and has so many games in common, to a PC? Why not buy an actual console?

By: Andrew Farrell

Andrew Farrell — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 13:06:27 +0000

A home console that can sell 100m+ units is almost by definition going to be competent but unexceptional in many technical respects.

Yes. Fortunately, you can buy games for it.

By: Butler`

Butler` — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 11:58:06 +0000

Buy a 360 to go along side your PC = win.

By: Catch.153

Catch.153 — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 01:13:09 +0000

To be off topic, I would like to pound the floor and whine, “Where’s the next TF2 ‘Meet the Whomever’ short!”

By: Anthony Damiani

Anthony Damiani — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 22:10:33 +0000

Honestly, with the retail sales of PC games being what they are relative to console equivalents (see: Bioshock), I think the thing we need to be thinking about now is convergence– some sort of a console product with M+K input, high def, easy free multiplayer and convenient user mods, a HD. I don’t really CARE about whether I call my gaming rig a “PC” or a “Console,” I care about these elements of the user experience. FPS is bad enough– but RTS, or TBS, or anything with a lot of complexity? F’geddaboutit.

There are some fun things about the consoles and console interfaces that I’d love to be able to access and play with. Obviously, it’s the better approach for when you’ve got a bunch of buddies over, and the Wii offers some really innovative gameplay possibilities. If someone wants to sell me a console, make one that doesn’t demand I sacrifice things I like in games.

It shouldn’t be that hard.

By: Joe

Joe — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 20:10:01 +0000

I think that UT3 on the ps3 allows you to plug a Keboard and mouse into it to play. I’m not sure about other games but it’s possible. The 360 also understands keyboard input as one of my friends uses a USB keyboard to talk on messenger. SO it sounds like if the game supports it, you can use it. If anyone has these consoles, could you try it, I’d like to know.

Joe

By: etho

etho — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 07:07:22 +0000

@heartless_:

“I can’t seem to ever find a console gamer that enjoys going backwards (aside from those retro gamers among us).”

So, aside from the ones that like to play old games, you can’t find console gamers that like to play old games? Right-o.

I think you’re dead wrong about that. That’s why backwards compatibility is a big issue in the console field, and why people like the Wii’s Virtual Console. And besides, sure maybe you’ll only get 1 or 2 games out of any single dev team in a given console cycle, but there are lots of dev teams making lots of games, and lots of them are good. So if you only get one good game in a given hardware cycle, you are doing something wrong.

Actually, I just don’t really understand your comment at all.

Anyway, I still feel like PCs and consoles both have good and bad points. Consoles are easier and cheaper at the cost of user control, PCs allow for more customization at the cost of, er, cost and ease-of-use. Consoles will have more broad appeal and PC’s will have a more devoted user base. And that’s fine. I’m just sick of people pretending that one platform is somehow better than the other.

Also, I don’t mind if consoles are made more M&K friendly, just as long as I can still use my gamepad. M&K just feels wrong to me, despite growing up on Doom and Marathon.

By: RichPowers

RichPowers — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 06:41:06 +0000

Four player console gaming with keyboards and mice would be a bit difficult. You’d need 8 USB slots or USB splitters…

That excluded, the Kb/M setup does lend itself to single-player and multiplayer (Live). But I think that image is almost too “PC game-like” for the consoles…some lonely computer geek playing by himself.

By: Alex

Alex — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 06:10:02 +0000

As another postee said on another thread … ‘why dont they just add a mouse and keyboard to the consoles and be done with it’.

Really, why dont they?

It might be that the major console corporations are actually playing to the “PC is bad” meme that people have glibly accepted the last five or so years – although they’ve never really mentioned it directly it must play into their sales. Hence they don’t want to be associated with PC gaming.