Anyone play video games here?

[Tarekith]

Funny, my XBOX is the only thing from MS in my house too.

Just got Fallout New Vegas, so far it's just like Fallout 3.

[shuutobi]

[shuutobi]

Can't deny this:


There are only a handful of games on consoles that run @ 1080p@60fps. Among this handful I don't think any use anti-aliasing.
Most console games are 30fps titles running at 720p or lower and only use 2-4xAA.

If the next generation of consoles and developers didn't focus on upping the bar in graphical quality (in the polycount/textures/shaders/post processing etc) and instead focused on upping the resolution, frame rate, anti-aliasing, etc. types of "graphical" quality, things would be so much better. It's about the gameplay riiiiiiight??!? (Oh the irony)


I prefer a mouse and keyboard (Unless I'm playing a platformer type game), and I haven't owned a console or TV since the n64. :foreveralone:

[hoffman2k]

PC gaming has a very major upside: Steam Sales!
Yet I still can't get to grips with windows. I have bootcamp and on my MBP, L4D2 at medium settings is about the highest I can get away with. Which is still higher than the settings I can get away with on the Mac side. But at least Valve is putting enough pressure on Apple to ensure every OS update comes with graphical improvements. I wonder how far away we are from the 2 platforms being graphically on par.

PC has another major upside. Even if the Mac were on par graphically, a decent gaming rig would set you back at least 2500$. A PC would cost half that and would be cheaper to upgrade.

PS3 has been a comfortable gaming experience, but lord are these games expensive. A new game goes about 60€ in most of Europe. If its a AAA title, the big UK stores will usually sell the title for half the price. Which brings the prices in Hong Kong down because those stores are usually UK fronts.
So the game gets ordered from UK at half price and if its not worth keeping, it'll go for about the same price on the secondhand market because those games still cost 60€ here.
Renting games has been banned here a few years ago.

I'm hoping for OnLive to succeed. The power of PC gaming with the comfort of console gaming...
It has yet to launch in Belgium, but we house the Europe servers and my ISP is a major investor.
In the UK, people aren't happy with it so far because it can eat like 3Gb bandwidth in an hour.
But in Belgium Onlive will be an ISP service, so that bandwidth isn't counted.
Even with the lag from the USA, some games are very playable. This should be awesome once I can play on the Europe servers.

[AceLuby]

Seriously though, has anyone gotten dark souls yet? I've put about 4 hours into it and see myself putting in about 100 more... as good as Demon's Souls.

[rbmonosylabik]

If you're on a Mac and tired of playing Photoshop, check this out http://www.udevgames.com/. Some of the past winners are a lot of fun, my favorite is Black Shades.

[Khazul]

Bear with me here.

The passing of Steve Jobs and reading some posts about MicroSoft have me thinking. I'm an unapologetic Apple fanboy. I'm completely connected through all of my iStuff (I wear an iPod Nano as a watch for God's sake).

BUT

There is one area where I am an unrepentant heretic and that area is the Xbox 360. The reason is that besides being arguably the best of the current gen gaming consoles, with the combination of Xbox Live and their Games on Demand feature MicroSoft has essentially made the 360 what I always wanted: a big iPod for games. Being able to fire up the rig and play games without even getting up to insert a disc is some some awesome shit.

Yes, the Xbox 360 as a total experience is the ONE example where MS has truly excelled and almost reached Apple proportions of design and usability.

Could never get on with consoles - even when bribed with a cheap x-box at cost - just prefer gaming on a real computer. Maybe its the kind o games like playing that just dont work as well on a console with typical control options.

[Tarekith]

I like my XBOX precisely because it gets me away from my computer

[stringtapper]

I like my XBOX precisely because it gets me away from my computer

Exactly.

For me a computer is for work, and I spend enough of my life in front of it without adding gaming in there too.

[supamonsta]

The PS3 on the other hand has a simple, effective GUI that makes it damn easy to do anything within a few seconds -

I don't know for the xbox, but I have a ps3 since one year now, and I'm still disappointed by the time it takes to do anything in the ps3 system. I know, it's only seconds, not minutes, but I don't understand why such a light system can be so long to boot, even when you just quit a game, it takes another 5 seconds to display your icons...

I'm a mac user, and so I'm used to quite instant functionnality. that's why I think an apple console (not an ipad or ipod, but a real console) could kill em all...

anyway, consoles vs pc is another debate, and speaking of spec's, indeed, current gen (why calling them next gen, when they are so odd??) consoles can't rival PCs;

but it's like loosing your time searching for the best sounding DAW, the best mastering VST suite, the best hardware gear for your music... then making no music by the time.

gameplay doesn't need the last gen processors...



On an other side, I admit console games are WAY TOO MUCH PRICEY, when you can finish the game in 5 or 6 hours...

so I always wait some months to see the prices drop to 25-30 euros



The only game I'm ready to pay 50 euros for, is UNCHARTED 3 (already pre-ordered )

I just can't wait.

[AceLuby]

I put 30+ hours into dark souls this weekend. Oh my god... it's better than demon's souls and I've only taken on 3 of the bosses. Probably won't get skyrim until next year...

[stringtapper]

I put 30+ hours into dark souls this weekend. Oh my god... it's better than demon's souls and I've only taken on 3 of the bosses. Probably won't get skyrim until next year...

Blasphemy!

Anyway, how open-world is Dark Souls? Demon Souls seemed kind of enclosed, from little I've played of it. I get the feeling that exploring an open world is not what it's about since apparently death awaits you around every corner.

I'm hoping to have most of my semester projects done before 11.11.11 because once Skyrim is in my Xbox there will be little else going on in my home I'm afraid.

[Tarekith]

I'm starting to get more into Fallout New Vegas here, I have a feeling I won't be done by 11-11-11 either.

[stringtapper]

I'm starting to get more into Fallout New Vegas here, I have a feeling I won't be done by 11-11-11 either.

No way. Especially if you buy the expansion packs. I put about 150hrs into NV alone. Bethesda games are the only games that really give you a good value. I probably spent another 150hrs with Fallout 3 and a whopping 250hrs with Oblivion!

And yes, NV is very good. Mostly the same mechanics as FO3 but some small tweaks. The biggest thing is that the story is more cohesive. Apparently the development team that made it, Obsidian, is made up of a bunch of people who made FO 1 & 2, and story-wise it is probably the "true" Fallout 3.

[AceLuby]

I put 30+ hours into dark souls this weekend. Oh my god... it's better than demon's souls and I've only taken on 3 of the bosses. Probably won't get skyrim until next year...

Blasphemy!

Anyway, how open-world is Dark Souls? Demon Souls seemed kind of enclosed, from little I've played of it. I get the feeling that exploring an open world is not what it's about since apparently death awaits you around every corner.

I'm hoping to have most of my semester projects done before 11.11.11 because once Skyrim is in my Xbox there will be little else going on in my home I'm afraid.

The world is MUCH more open than in Demon's souls. Instead of a hub and individual separate levels that you can easily travel to once the level is complete you instead have levels that lead into another. For instance, from the main starting point you can access 4 levels directly, 3 of which are too tough. That one level then leads into another level, which leads to another level after that. If I want to get back to the starting point I have to travel back through those levels with the enemies respawned. Like demon's souls there are shortcuts you can access, but there is definitely this interconnected feel to it that wasn't present in Demon's Souls.