Whatever Happened to Cross Platform Gaming?

Dyre Straits

Just asking.

__________________

IEMC

They realized how dumb of an idea it was.

You can always have an advantage with one platform over another is some form. It just wouldn't work.

__________________

BlueMak

They realised that the games most people would play would be FPS and RTS and the PC gamers would annihilate the console gamers and that wouldn't be good for business.

__________________

The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

Callandor

Lol, too true.

__________________

CDsDontBurn

idk man. i think i play equally well on both console and PC when it comes to FPS games. driving games though, hands down i'm better on console than on PC. RTS though, i can't say what i'd be better on as i have not played any RTS style games on console.

i guess it comes down to how well one can adapt to their gaming platform.

__________________

Mousey

Besides the obvious advantages PC gamers have when it comes to FPS'es it was glitchy and serious laggy apparently. So they decided to ditch it

__________________

Stop It

Open Platform communication with Closed Platofrm (I.e 360 to PC, no other combination is viable for various reasons) is never good, but some have managed it better than others.

Games like GTA4 should be cross platform, maybe devs should have a "platform parity" switch which sets the PC version of a game to 720p 30/60fps (Depending on the game being crossed over) and all elements of the game the same, maybe that would work.

__________________

BlueMak

Man, there is no way no way no way that a good PC gamer will lose by a good console gamer in a FPS or RTS game, if cross platformed, if nothing else, the use of controls.

__________________

The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

Zelig

That's because you have autoaiming for console FPS games.

And PCs support 360 peripherals, so there aren't any situations where controls are going to have better potential on consoles than on PC.

__________________
--

CDsDontBurn

BlueMak, the only real way of telling as to which is better and finally bring an end to this "keyboard and mouse is better than a console controller" dispute/discussion is to take Zelig's idea here and put a good console gamer with a 360 control on a PC up against a good PC gamer on a PC using a standard USB keyboard and mouse and see who's better . this test would need to be repeated several times with several different people to get various different results. once the results are in, we'll then see what is the better input device to use .

i'd definately be willing to give this a try. i'll even play the same game on keyboard and mouse to see how differently i perform with both input devices just to test myself even.

__________________

BlueMak

LOL, the console only gamer with the controller would be destroyed by the equivelant pc gamer. Sure I will try it if you want to, care to give me a lift to S.California?

__________________

The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

caqde

One of the biggest issues with this is development and testing time. Developing or paying and developing for a Game Engine that is cross platform is time consuming and very costly. You have to make sure everything works and that you don't have any code that is platform specific outside of that platforms preprocessor statements. The more systems you add to the compatibility of the engine the worse it is too.

Xbox 360 to PC is supposed to be "easy", but then again that is with XNA and it still isn't that simple. Then again big name companies don't use XNA so that isn't an issue. They have to make their own cross-platform tools or wait till someone else makes and sells one and hope that it is simple enough to understand (documentation/memorable function names) and develop for.

Your likely to see this type of development improve throughout the console generations as more multiplatform tools are developed (OpenCL etc) and the consoles stick to using one processor architecture for their consoles(which we are starting to see).

--
I should have noted that all this is usually used to make a (cross system multiplayer) cross platform game along with all of the games that you see that are (singleplayer) multiplatform release games. The network interface just makes it more of a hassle.

__________________
AMD Phenom II X4 925 AM3/ Giga-byte MA790XT-UD4P
XFX HD5770 1GB / 2x2GB of GSKILL DDR3 10666 8-8-8-23
Samsung SH-S182D DVD-RW drive / Sony Optiarc BD-5300S BD-RW drive
Western Digital WD1501FASS(Primary)/Western Digital 15EADS(Secondary)/Western Digital 7500AACS(Secondary)/Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320gb(Secondary)/Western Digital 3200KS 16MB 7200rpm SATAII HD(Secondary)
Antec TP-550 / CoolerMaster CMStacker
Sound Blaster X-FI Titanium Fatal1ty Professional / Creative Inspire 6600 6.1 speakers
Samsugn T200HD 20" LCD Monitor / Logitech Internet 350 Black Keyboard
Logitech MX510 Mouse

CDsDontBurn

when i win the lotto sure . you can help me build the two 3k USD systems needed to get this test up and running . you can take one home too

which game would you want to play? Halo 2, Bioshock, or COD4 (if COD4 is able to use the 360 controller)? or any other game that supports the 360 controller that you are aware of?

__________________

BlueMak

I don't mind, any game will do.
Looking forward to your win. In lotto that is.

__________________

The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

Callandor

Yeah, and no autoaim.

__________________

CDsDontBurn

any game, sure . and i'm looking to my lotto win also! a few million wouldn't hurt me

only nubs need auto aim. i'm so good i don't need it

__________________

Dyre Straits

You've already got one game you can test: Shadowrun.

__________________

CDsDontBurn

really? i do? i didn't know you could RDP into my machine w/ot reqeusting my permission first

__________________