Comments on: Gaming: Console vs. PC

By: Kai

Kai — Tue, 09 Nov 2004 17:04:20 +0000

Some weeks ago I accidentally got a new gameboy advance sp (because I didn’t know what else to do with my Lufthansa frequent flyer miles :-) and it’s amazing how I returned to playing on it since then.

Yes, it’s tiny and lacks of CPU power but – hey – to play round-based strategy games or japanes rpgs on it on the go, it’s just perfect. I just got the new Mario Golf Role Playing Game. That’s amazing, between playing golf you have to visit your Gold Zen Master etc… great fun.

By: JesterXL

JesterXL — Fri, 29 Oct 2004 00:03:58 +0000

I’ve had Steam installed for like over a year. What I found interesting was I THOUGHT it was in planning for Half-Life 2’s mods, but after I got an email (as did all steam users) from Valve’s CEO asking why we haven’t logged in awhile, I changed my mind. I guess when I heard about it 3 years ago, they were trying to consolidate current Half-Life 1 mods. Problem is, a lot of them, even Counterstrike, have problems running on newer DirectX versions.

Still, it is a grand first effort.

By: Daniel Roberts

Daniel Roberts — Thu, 28 Oct 2004 18:03:44 +0000

Valve Software has released a new platform for their PC games (based on the Half-Life 1 and 2 engines) called Steam (http://www.steampowered.com). Among other features, Steam automatically downloads patches and provides anti-cheat protection for Valve's games. What does Valve get out of it? Customers have the ability to buy and download games directly from them instead of going through a publisher and retail store. No middleman = more money per buyer. They also are now connected to their customers directly. Their system also makes piracy very difficult, especially for online games. "Wouldn't that be a lot of downloads of 1+GB files on release of a new game" you might ask. You preload an encrypted version of game content in the weeks or months before release of course. Then the minute the game is released your Steam client is given a key to unlock the game for your Steam account. Cool stuff. Definitely the future of PC games.

By: andy makely

andy makely — Wed, 27 Oct 2004 21:54:09 +0000

QA does need to be rigorous for consoles, but at least you know that they will always have the same hardware. Video driver, processor, RAM, all become given constants when building for a particular console. If it works on your PS2 in the lab, odds are it will work on everyone else’s in the field.