The mainstream of the game player will not with computer

Even though personal computers forever changed the video game industry back in the early nineties, they are not the leading platforms for games anymore, according to John Carmack, a legendary game designer whose Doom and Wolfenstein revolutionized the industry. Game consoles are much more popular devices used for video gaming and therefore id Software's latest Rage title was tailored for Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation 3.

"We do not see the PC as the leading platform for games. That statement will enrage some people, but it is hard to characterize it otherwise; both console [Rage] versions will have larger audiences than the PC version," said John Carmack, the lead programmer at id Software, in an interview with IndustryGamers web-site.


Nowadays most of the quality of a game comes from the development effort put into it, not the technology it runs on. A game built with a tenth the resources on a platform 10 times as powerful would be an inferior product in almost all cases," added Mr. Carmack. 


The recently released highly-anticipated Rage video game has major issues with quality on personal computers. id Software said that the problems were conditioned by driver issues of ATI Catalyst and Nvidia ForceWare and would be resolved shortly. The main reason for the issues is that the latest title by id was designed with PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 video game consoles in mind, whereas the PC version is essentially a port with high-quality graphics.
 

"You can choose to design a game around the specs of a high-end PC and make console versions that fail to hit the design point, or design around the specs of the consoles and have a high-end PC provide incremental quality improvements. We chose the latter. A high end PC is nearly 10 times as powerful as a console, and we could unquestionably provide a better experience if we chose that as our design point and we were able to expend the same amount of resources on it.

Every PC games all from the video

Move over, Pokemon, a new video game with the potential to start a 'collect 'em all' craze is coming to town. On Thursday, Singapore will be among one of the first countries in the world to get Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure, a unique video game that can transform plastic action figures into moving digital warriors on your TV screen.

The game uses a wireless dock that can read specially coded chips embedded in the action figures. When players put their Skylander characters onto the dock, a similar looking creature is generated and added into the game world. As the characters level up and gain new abilities in-game, this information is saved back into the chip so that players can carry their powered-up creatures with them. There are a total of 32 characters to collect, and players can pit their warriors against a friend's in the game's two player battle modes.


Skyland: Spyro's Adventure is available for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii consoles, as well as for the PC and Mac. A version for the 3DS handheld gaming device, which plays slightly differently, is expected to hit stores here on Oct 25. The games will be available at IT stores such as Challenger and retailers like Toys 'R' Us.

A starter pack consisting of the video game software, the dock, and three standard action figures will go for $109 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii versions. The PC and Mac version will go for $89.90. Additional action figures are priced at $19.90 each, or $49.90 for a set of three. Extra levels, also stored in figurines that can be read by the dock, are available in adventure pack sets for $49.90 each.

Computer games make us more easy to control

Maybe there’s a connection, or maybe there’s not, but I find it somewhat ironic that, during the same week in which the father of the Mac passes away, the man who basically helped to give birth of the modern PC game market (a market share that was perhaps the only thing Steve Jobs was unable to completely own and dominate, and the thing that kept many on Windows, despite OS X offering a superior experience on every other level) has also decided to throw in the towel.


As noted already, the PC version of Rage has been the source of much frustration and legitimate anger among gamers. Not just because of all the messed up textures, but due to the simple fact that it was created alongside the console version, instead of the normal developmental cycle: PC first, consoles later.

Many feel that it honestly dragged everything down, something that even Carmack himself stated in an interview a few months ago, during E3. Just fast forward to the two minute mark in which he states his biggest regret with developing Rage is how he viewed consoles and PCs equally, since they were in terms of graphical capabilities and processing six years ago at the start of the project…. but again, that was six years ago.


But now he’s singing a totally different tune, which completely infuriated PC fanboys that are turning in their id fanboy membership cards. Via an interview with Kotaku, he starts of by explaining the whole screw up involving the vast majority of everyone’s drivers not being up to snuff…


“The driver issues at launch have been a real cluster !@#$… We were quite happy with the performance improvements that we had made on AMD hardware in the months before launch; we had made significant internal changes to cater to what AMD engineers said would allow the highest performance with their driver and hardware architectures, and we went back and forth with custom extensions and driver versions.”

“We knew that all older AMD drivers, and some Nvidia drivers would have problems with the game, but we were running well in-house on all of our test systems. When launch day came around and the wrong driver got released, half of our PC customers got a product that basically didn’t work. The fact that the working driver has incompatibilities with other titles doesn’t help either. Issues with older / lower end /exotic setups are to be expected on a PC release, but we were not happy with the experience on what should be prime platforms.”


… Fair enough. id’s not the type of company to release a sub-par product on the marketplace and just sit back, shoulders in the air, and go “hey, what can you do?” They have been working their asses off to rectify the situation. But the future, as it pertains to other PC offerings looks rather grim, and the following statements is what has everyone livid…


“We do not see the PC as the leading platform for games… That statement will enrage some people, but it is hard to characterize it otherwise; both console versions will have larger audiences than the PC version. A high end PC is nearly 10 times as powerful as a console, and we could unquestionably provide a better experience if we chose that as our design point and we were able to expend the same amount of resources on it. Nowadays most of the quality of a game comes from the development effort put into it, not the technology it runs on. A game built with a tenth the resources on a platform 10 times as powerful would be an inferior product in almost all cases.”

PC Games let us more with the spirit of freedom

 In the great bastion that is the video game industry, there was one company that still catered to the few, the proud, the hardcore PC gamer.John Carmack, id figurehead, sent a Tweet to calm the anger, saying, "Everyone, make sure you have latest Nvidia/Ati drivers to play Rage!" That was little consolation to gamers who insist they have the latest drivers installed in their souped-up PC rigs.



At least, that's what its mission statement might say. But it appears the company's latest release, Rage, is not up to snuff. All over id's forums and game websites around the Web, gamers are complaining about graphical problems with the game on their PC.

Curiously, it does not appear to be an issue with those playing the console version of Rage. Could it be that id is now slipping into the convention of catering to the console audience? It is, after all, a much more lucrative market these days.That company is called id Software, the maker of such cult classics as Doom and Quake. Even in a world where gaming is being overtaken by consoles, iPhones, and casual titles, id remains faithful to its hardcore audience.



This isn't just a story about a computer game that failed to live up to expectations. It is symbolic of the massive shift that the video game industry has undertaken in the last several years. If a company like id has more satisfied console gamers than PC gamers, that tells quite a story.

Microsoft Games Can Make You Feeling Great

Games For Windows is a functional system, but there just isn’t enough support from other developers, and it’s a distant third to services like Steam (4.5 stars) and Impulse (3.5 stars). Games For Windows currently offers fewer than 200 full games, the majority of which published by Microsoft. There are many great games from last year, but the selection isn’t nearly as great as Steam’s.You can learn most of what you need to know about Microsoft’s PC game service from the fact that its website’s URL is on xbox.com. Games For Windows was built to be the Windows equivalent to Xbox Live, with integration between the two services for Gamertags and achievements.

More New Than Old

With a few exceptions, Games For Windows is strictly for new games. A few games from the original Xbox era like Fable and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas are available in the marketplace, but besides that there isn’t any classic game appeal.


Games For Windows puts less emphasis on sales and bundle deals than Steam or Impulse.Newer games, like Fable III and Bulletstorm, can cost $30 to $50, while older titles like Prince of Persia: Warrior Within and Assassin’s Creed are only $10 to $20.

Integration with Xbox Live

There also isn’t any actual cross-platform gameplay, so you’re still dealing with fellow Games for Windows players in multiplayer and not the thousands of gamers on Xbox Live, even if you’re playing a port from the Xbox 360.Online content integrates with Xbox Live, so achievements and information is shared between the services. Unfortunately, that’s it for usefulness outside of buying and organizing games. There isn’t any friends list, so you can’t quickly keep track of who’s playing what.



Compared to the wealth of games and features in Xbox Live, Microsoft’s Games for Windows Marketplace is a disappointment. It feels like little more than a vestigial market, something Microsoft tried and then forgot about. If you want to download PC games, stick to Impulse or Steam, our Editors’ Choice online PC gaming marketplace.