Nightshape

I find it disturbing that you chose to worship a man instead of a woman. Well there's only one thing we can read from this. Wals has breasticales.

I look at it similarly to how I look at home movies. You can buy a Sony or a Panasonic Blu-Ray player, they still play all the same movies that get released. You don't have to worry about the movie you're looking forward to only being released on HD-DVD. You don't have to worry about whether the Blu-Ray version getting X deleted scene and the HD-DVD version getting Y behind the scene. Or try to figure out which versions has the slighty improved sound and which version is accidentally missing the cigarette burn at the end of reel 2. I care more about the media competing than I care about the players competing. Obviously it's not the same situation. I'm just not really sure why it's not the same. And it'd be definitely nice to see the segregated networks gone. "Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black" - Henry Ford. I think that the current iphone market describes where I think we'd end up. I personally for the next generation of consoles want to see a large array of Arm processors clocked at a couple of gig, I'd love to see a 256 core machine, running an arm instruction set, but if one vendor went down that route I'd obviously want to see other take another route. Alot like we've seen this generation, the X360 and PS3 are in some respects so close, yet in others so far apart its crazy. Can anyone here actually tell me which machine is better the X360 or the PS3? They both come up trumps but in totally different ways. They're stronger in different ways, which is why when you throw an exclusive at either platform you get some interesting results. Killzone 3 is a wonderful looking game - I can't think of anything that comes close, yet many a comparison has shown that some games do not perform as well on the PS3 than on the X360. Its an interesting thing, one of the best looking console titles every to see the light of day is on what would assume to be the weaker hardware - That's not to say it is, but based on publically available emperical testing. While I agree with your statement, its really about the media, I do like having the choice.

Yeah, it'd be more expensive, but it'd be far more exciting! I think the result would be alot like the old 8-bit computers, it could be good, it could be bad. Even now though if both systems can't do something, and its cross platform, it can get dropped. With exclusives we tend to see those unique features come through. I see your points though, Sir.

So.. first you're mocking Morgoth for wanting/predicting a single console future, because you like variation, and then you go on to say you like exclusives because you enjoy focusing on specific hardware? Do you need a minute to think this through, Nightshape? The two are distinctly different mkreku - There would be positives and negatives to a single hardware platform. The problem with a single platform is to do with the hardware vendor and what kind of innovation they would commit to. It is certainly easier to work on a single platform, which is why I like exclusives - Its always an attempt to get the best out of that particular machine. You could certainly argue that one single console makes everything and exclusive, and hence, everything should shine. That said different hardware variations allow for specific techniques to be implemented in different ways, some hardware is better suited to particular tasks, the PS3 with the SPU's have been both a pleasure and pain for many developers. The people working on a console exclusive get to focus on the hardware more, all hardware has quirks, and platforms require a slightly varied approach, some feature may be easier on one platform than another, but the results do end up slightly different as a result. As a software engineering problem, I'm fond of cross/multi-platform development. I also like the variation and choice that that provides to consumers. I worry that having a single platform would lead to a rigid way of approaching problems, with a rigid result - The fixed function 3D pipeline of DX 7 era games lead to a somewhat samey looking result, and that is what I would fear occuring. It is just pixels but the chances of programmers implementing something in a different way, significantly decrease when you've a single hardware platform. Game engines themselves would be less scalable, and simpler so I would expect an increase in stability on a single hardware platform. Locking this all down, means no Wii U, no PS4, no new Xbox, and no variation. It'd be like having one spec of PC, and one choice of OS and service - would you like that? I wouldn't like that personally as a user. As for Morgoth, I just don't agree with him that it'd be a great thing - though there are developers, and consumers who would think its great, and I can see those benefits, I don't think its the best long terms solution for the industry.

I like variation too, but there's no difference playing on a Playstation or a Xbox (or a Wii U, for that matter). It just means more development costs. We can have a single home console future, or we can have a future were more quarreling competitors like Apple or Google jump into the game hardware market, where we will have one and the same game released on 5-7 platforms. Well congrats! Am sure programmer like you are going to enjoy the overheat! You say that there is no difference, but there always is, one version always runs better etc... Programmers enjoy finding different solutions to problems, and different platforms allow for this. Most of all I enjoy exclusives, cross/multi-platform releases are more chellenging, but an exclusive title allows the coders to focus on the specific hardware. Compitition drives innovation, and if we had a single console future, there is no competition, there is no innovation, all we have is PC's with dumb down interfaces, and slightly better suited hardware. I mean seriously, stuff like the Cell architecture, blu-ray, or controller innovations like what Nintendo, Microsoft are doing wouldn't exist. So, while I've never actually worked on a smartphone game, what I can tell you is Androids have been selling well, but supporting an Andriod handset is like supporting many many different SKU's, I remember a few story's from back in the early mobile phone developer days when programmers would be supporting hundred's of SKU's. So 5-7 platforms doesn't seem so bad, and I can assure you, each one will likely be slightly different in different ways. Have you never seen a Eurogamer comparision?

Oh please... You're getting more ridiculious by the day. A single console future, is basically a standardised PC - it may have a different chip arcitecture, but its what you'd end up with. I like variation thanks.

Yeah, codex seems like a place for the mentals to hang out. Gawd I hate mental people, especially, mental geeks.

Nobody wants to live a life like that. If I couldn't move my hands and legs, I'd file in for euthanasia at some Dutch hospital. Can you do that anyway? You know, for the good of humanity or something...

Face>U

You know that scene from Wrath of Khan... This one infact:

And you know that's technically not possible because??? *sigh* You failed your reading comprehension roll. DAMNIT! I fail hard... I don't think the results would likely be bad, the biggest issue is video card drivers, and how they're different, PC is sloppy, and vector units, PC as alot less the an X360.

2011 should be out soon anyways...

And you know that's technically not possible because??? *sigh*

These are both worth a look, and are by far some of the best titles to be release on the XBLA Indie games circuit. You know what else is cool? Epic Dungeon.

Thanks for the notice. ?

From personal experience, it can take at least 6 years. Oh... It'll be a long lonely dark road then. I was hoping it'd be short.

I slipped a little further into my inevitable decline and death. How many days can a man sit in a dark room before he finally looses it?

I don't know what they've done, but screw those pesky Russians.

My Final Fantasy expedition continues, I'm a good 22hrs in and almost finished with it. Probably a little slow, but its my first, and there are afterall, puzzles which are obscure due to the very age of the game. I still believe that it's a wonderful example of progression, and sits in the same camp as Zelda and Metriod in that respect. If anything its a shining example of "How to do it", and whenever this formula crops up it tends to result in excellent games, with exceptional progression. Both Batman : AA and Shadow Complex spring to mind when I'm thinking of modern examples, its that very nature of, new item unlocks new content within existing area's. Sadly Final Fantasy fails in regards to combat, and story. There isn't much there really, the story isn't exactly gripping, and the combat is an annoyance. All's said, for the era the game was made in, I can't complain too much, it has more story than most of that age, and the combat is simplistic enough that eventually you are merely paused a short period of time. I'm also hitting Dungeon Siege 3 really hard since the patch, and its really good, better than DS1 or 2. Onxy is also impressing me, the core folders are really clean, they've taken the ID approach of placing everything in a few very large files, I'd assume with some compression, I also think that the graphical quality is the highest of the most recent Obsidian titles, lovely lighting and shadows, and frankly more fitting of what I'd expect from Obsidian. F:NV (suffers from the fact the engine stinks, and it can only do ugly. The exception being terrain), and lets not talk about Alpha Protocol, I'm convinced that was developed on a budget of 20 cents.

Its interesting, because if you become a community leader in some respect, companies will listen to you to a certain respect, the problem is that merely means thems who are the loudest gets heard, opposed to those who are the most sane and stable. Good feedback, is good feedback, but I'll be damned if you can pigeon hole based off a few people what makes a game good or bad, but alas, publishers will continue to slap the big fat $$$ on anything they can possibley quantify. All innovation stems from the indie scene in my opinion, and a few desperate developers whom when they've a chance, will fight and push for something entirely new.

Gameloft, ahhh the low budget version of that popular franchise. It's like those fake he-man toys you'd see on cheap markets as a child, some kind of slightly rebranded bollocks, crappy, but close enough. I love how Gameloft have ripped off Blizzard, whom in turn, will rip of the games workshop and smile all the way to the bank. Everyone keeps whining about how new IP's are "hard to do", I don't agree, I believe that getting stunted old uncreative exec's to agree to new IP's is hard to do.

I hasn't spent a penny . U R TEH PROUD!

True Neutral

I think he's a great storyteller, I just think his actual writing is pretty piss poor, it doesn't make it hard to read so much as a disjointed experience whence readings.

Sucks to be you then! "Well, the booze on the other end of the drive will be free."