All that nonsense about how dedicated hardware is much better is only true to an extent. Most people on this forum alone will have PC's just as capable as the PS4.
Alot will alot wont though, thats probably what they are getting at with posts like this in the first place. There will always be super high end pc gamers which most people on this forum would probably be included under. But the gereral population is on a mixture of onboard graphics and older gpus. Just the people i play with online have 5 different gpus with a wide range of power from a 4890 to a couple of 680s.
He could be right, a windows PC will struggle to be better . Well... it'll be better at certain things and for general purpose stuff, but as a gaming machine , a typical PC running Windows? Maybe not. PCs built like the PS4's unified architecture? Desktop PC configuration/design has evolved over time. With the manufacturing process (nm) ten years ago, it simply wasn't possible to put a complex GPU and CPU on the same die, processors were still huge power hungry beasts... they were far too hot . Look at how PC CPUs have evolved, integrating what was separate onto the CPU. This has reduced latency and increased available bandwidth. Clearly , the problem with desktop PCs today, isn't the ever increasing GPU shader count and GPU theoretical TFLOP performance capability . Desktop PC GPUs are incredibly advanced, but underperforming. Due to the PC OS environment and the physical limits of current desktop architecture. On the OS specifically and Direct X : The CPU sends draw commands and state changes to the GPU where they are buffered then processed in the GPU, buffering speeds things up , but the problem is ,the GPU is always running at least a frame or more behind the CPU so getting back rendering state or data from the GPU is limiting. Because all commands are buffered in DirectX and GL it involves a flush/sync cycle . This process can add hundreds/thousands of cycles of wait time(latency) to even simple draw operations. On the physical - PCIe: Mark Cerny (the guy who worked developing the PS4): - From the Gamasutra interview http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/191007/inside_the_playstation_4_with_mark_.php
I've said it before and I'll say it again - if keyboard and mouse were a game control option on consoles then I'd probably jump the PC ship straight away in the knowledge that a) games will only get better over the life cycle of the box, and b) the life cycle will be many years, saving me thousands. There are next to no PC exclusives these days, certainly not AAA titles, so the only things going for the PC is that eventually it will overtake a newly launched console in terms of gaming capability, and it will support higher/custom resolutions.
I'm a graphics whore to be honest. And I find that even on moderate PC hardware, you normally outpace the consoles... so I won't jump ship as long as there are decent ports, higher resolutions and more gfx options in general. Oh and the occasional indie game or the likes. But you are certainly right about the cost. That would be something to sway me. Considering how little I actually play games. Really though, in the end, it depends what piques my interest. And those are normally: the initial console 1st party games and possibly their second refresh, GTA and Rockstar titles, Western RPGs like Skyrim, FIFA, pretty games and ones where the story or gameplay premise sounds interesting for once.
I am the same, if I could use a keyboard and mouse to play games on the console without the need for a adaptor I would have jumped ship already. Not because I cannot afford a pc or to run one because I can, but simply because there are next to no cheaters on the consoles, there is around 10x more players on the consoles and finally 90% of my friends all play games on the consoles, because they either cannot afford a pc or cannot get use to the controls. Until the day I can do that I will continue though to spend a fortune on my pc.
Don't agree with that. First of all, the amount of PC exclusive games is absolutely massive, maybe not always the AAA games that are advertised everywhere, but very many independent developers and smaller studios bring their games only to the PC, simply because it's easier to develop and no licensing fees need to be paid. Without wanting to sound like a hipster or something, the indie scene is nowadays pretty much the only place where you can find creations that advance games as a medium and offer truly new experiences anyway. Personally this is the only thing that interests me, I don't see the point in playing yet another sparkly-grafix cover-based shooter with manly men doing manly things and screaming “f*ck dis sh*t” and “sh*t just got real, boss” and stuff. I'd rather play a game that tries something new, like Sphere or Perspective, even though it may not be as polished as an AAA title. Again I disagree. Where in console-land can you find the equivalent of the PC modding community? Mods allow you to customize your game to the way you want to play it. For me, Skyrim for example was one big bore-fest until I installed a few mods to get some survival gameplay mixed in. AoE: The Forgotten Empires revived my love for Age of Empires and really improved and tweaked the original IMO. Minerva Metastatis gave me more of that wonderful HL2 feel for no monies at all. How about completely free games, like Black Mesa? Open-source games? The only reason to buy a console would be for those one or two exclusives that are actually interesting (I would love to play Journey or Ni No Kuni for example), but buying a console for just those few games seems an even bigger waste of money to me than upgrading your PC every once in a while (4-5 years for me).
If you spent enough time with a controller you would eventually forget the keyboard and mouse. It would just take some initial getting used to
To give some context, I'm a 31 year old dad who has maybe 15 hours a week to game (if I'm lucky and or/stay up until 2am or weekdays), so I generally only have time to play one or two games at a time, and I generally choose AAA titles or at least games with an excellent consensus of reviews. In order to enjoy those games as they were meant to be played I find I have to upgrade my GPU every 12-18 months (around £300+) and my CPU every three years (around £150+). I don't dispute that the indie and modding scenes on the PC are awesome, and will be one of the things which ultimately keep PC gaming alive, but I can play the majority of indie games with a C2D based office machine with a low end GPU. I don't play many of these although when something special comes along I often give it a bash. Likewise with modding, my first playthrough of Skyrim was the vanilla code, although I have since tried a few mods and they were great. I used to love driving sims, but really we've been pretty poorly served on that front on the PC. The last Gran Turismo I played was number 3 but nothing on the PC will likely ever come close to this level of completeness in a driving game for me. I don't dispute that PCs will always technically be better in pretty much every way, and will always hold a special place in my heart as I've always been a PC gamer since I first started playing in '89. I just can't help feeling that if the new consoles can offer the performance of a quad-Titan uber-rig at launch, which would cost >£5,000 to replicate with a PC, that I might be better served by a console at least until PCs catch up in terms of performance per pound. You can't have everything and will always lose out somewhere along the line, but it something that I'll be watching closely as these consoles launch and we start to see what they can do. I used the 360 controller a lot until I got bored of the meagre selection of driving games on PC, but I don't know if I could ever cope with playing a "proper" game on a controller. GTA maybe, but god games, strategy games and the more realistic shooters just feel at home with the additional precision of a traditional setup. I sold the controller earlier this year.
And this is exactly what's wrong with the state of play. Dumbing down becomes accepted. Using a thumbstick for an FPS is a very bad idea. A joystick is ideal for flight control because flight requires sustained deflection of stick. I would also say that a mouse is totally the wrong control for flight so all those people flying jets or chopper on BF3 with mouse are using the worst control possible. A console controller fails in so many ways because the stick deflection range is so small it's little better than key presses. Using one to run around on an FPS is a bad idea. I wouldn't use my Saitek X52 Pro for an FPS and a console controller is just as bad. Ultimately I think even mouse and keys for FPS isn't good enough. It's many times more precise and faster than console controller but it's not exactly a natural or realistic way to control a character. I look forward to the day when we have some effective motion sensing for running around. A system that's so natural that my GF can use it (she can't use keyboard and mouse for FPS because she finds it too strange). If you want speed and precision on an FPS then you absolutely can't use a console controller. Unless of course you dumb down the AI to the point where your control handicap is no longer an issue and that sums up exactly why I detest consoles and PC ports.
Can't say I agree with that. I've tried numerous times with controllers and failed miserably. Just can't seem to look around and move at the same time! As others have said I would love to ditch the expensive pc and concentrate on consoles.
I'm not saying that the joypad is a superior control method. Or that its not a bit awkward in a lot of situtations. All I'm saying is that if you use it for long enough you will eventually get used to it. It really is as simple as that. I used to hate touchpad mice on laptops, but I was forced to use them out of necessity and eventually became adept at using them. Now I don't mind using them but still prefer a mouse. The reason I stick with PCs is because I get to tinker with it, read up on the latest greatest parts. Spec out stuff for myself. Its beyond simply a gaming machine, it encompasses a whole hobby. I find consoles quite dull in that regard.
If they are using this "direct to metal" coding, but the type of each individual part is important... what if the makers of one of the parts goes bust and MS has to change supplier? :S
