Portal is the game of the year

[Asher]

The only person who thought that data was relevant was the person who called a PC game the best rated game ever.

Nintendo games hold the honour of being the most overrated games ever. Nintendo is like Apple -- the majority of their fanbase will see nothing wrong with whatever they do.

[DrSpike]

I hope you see how rich that is coming from your good self.

[FrostyBoy]

Asher is Hitler, Apple are jews and Microsoft are his Nazi's.

[Asher]

Originally posted by DrSpike
I hope you see how rich that is coming from your good self.

Why is that?

I can't think of a single company without products I've been critical of.

[Solver]

You seem, though, to automatically assume that PC games are usually worse than console games. Not that I'm not guilty of the opposite. Though my problem is mostly with the platform, not the games.

[Asher]

I've no problem with either platform. I own a gaming PC and the consoles.

It's just a pretty observable fact that unless you only like a specific subset of games (eg, Civ-like), consoles tend to have more games that are good.

[Solver]

Almost anyone likes a subset, or several. Say, Civ-like games and FPS games. There aren't many people who enjoy FPS, RPG, strategy, sports sims and racing games, all of those.

Anyway, "good" is subjective. My problem with consoles is that they don't have the features I like in games. I know little about console games, but many sound great. Like Gears of War, should be interesting on the PC.

BTW, how do modern consoles solve the problem, for FPS games, of the console controllers being less precise than a mouse? Slight autoaim?

[Asher]

Usually, yes. Console FPSes take a more casual/fun approach to FPS as opposed to hardcore precision like on the PC. Something I actually prefer on consoles now.

What features do you not like in games that consoles don't have? No cheating? Standard voice chat?

[Solver]

My biggest gripes with consoles is the lack of moddability. You can't look around game files (I've often enjoyed unpacking game files) and, more importantly, the absence of editors and such. Morrowind/Oblivion last longer because there are thousands of mods, hundreds of which are really good. Frankly, I don't think I'd enjoy Oblivion for long in its unmodded sate. So the inability to mod/tweak game files/script on consoles is what kills me.

Probably more a problem with the platform than the games. While I do enjoy a significant amount of PC-only games (uh, Civ) that can't work quite as well on consoles, I don't have a problem with games like Oblivion, Bioshock or HL2 being on consoles - it's just that, to me, those versions become inferior because of impossibility to mod them.

I actually see consoles as more casual. Probably great for people who want to buy a game, pay through it and put it away, and do so with many games. I prefer to play few games, but I want a good lifespan from each game I play.

[Asher]

I don't care for modability in the slightest. Mainly because I work during the day and don't want to work at night, and the vast majority of mods for games simply aren't worth it. Usually by the time I finish the game as it's shipped (and sometimes even before then), I get tired of it.

[asleepathewheel]

Another big feature that is missed is the ability to turn down graphical options to help with frame rate problems. I know some games on consoles have limited options to fix the frame rate, but I need something more at times.

Similarly, console games are basically as is. If they chug the first day, they will till the end. On a pc, at least I can upgrade parts as they become available, which may fix the issue.

[asleepathewheel]

Originally posted by Solver

BTW, how do modern consoles solve the problem, for FPS games, of the console controllers being less precise than a mouse? Slight autoaim?

wiimote aiming.

when done well, its much more accurate than analog pad aiming, though less than mouse aiming.

[Solver]

Originally posted by Asher
I don't care for modability in the slightest. Mainly because I work during the day and don't want to work at night, and the vast majority of mods for games simply aren't worth it. Usually by the time I finish the game as it's shipped (and sometimes even before then), I get tired of it.

That's what I'm saying, it's good for people who just want to finish a game, not for people who want to enjoy a game for months / years.

And I don't necessarily mean modding the game yourself. I've modded some, but I've of course played mods for more games than I've created them for myself. Some games really have a good modding community - the Half-Life, Elder Scrolls series, a few others. Many SP-oriented shooters will have custom maps made for them, let alone MP shooters. Games such as Portal also benefit from modding heavily.

[Solver]

Originally posted by asleepathewheel
Another big feature that is missed is the ability to turn down graphical options to help with frame rate problems. I know some games on consoles have limited options to fix the frame rate, but I need something more at times.

Is that ever a problem with consoles? Their hardware is standartized, I understand that games are developed to run well on that specific hardware configuration. Setting changes on PCs are only needed because people have widely different configs.

[snoopy369]

I think it's most often a problem for "older" consoles, so for example Madden 2008 (or Fifa 2007 or whatever) which is developed for the X360/PS3 but is still released for the PS2. The PS2 game is lousy graphics and such. On a PC, you could just turn down various options to have a game that you still liked; on a PS2 you have to deal with whatever options they chose to turn down, and still not a perfect framerate.

I'm sure there are also occasionally games released that have frame rate problems; as you well know, testing isn't ever a perfect science and something that performs well in the lab won't always perform well in the field, even on "identical" machines.

But I don't play console games really so I don't know for sure