Amazing game!!!

[lordxorn]

What I think has been the biggest killer of the 4x genre is the EA Affect, and the proliferation of good hardware on consoles.

Back in the day when Nintendo was "state of the art" for home consoles, games with real 3d graphics were aged like M1 Tank Platoon, F117 Stealth Fighter, F15.

The PC was on the bleeding edge of graphics quality, and the consoles were WAY behind.

Fast forward to today, that bleeding edge is not so far ahead of consoles now.

Plus, big companies like EA dominate the market and feed the "washed" masses with crap regurgitated clones of formulas that work. In other words they have hijacked the PC Game market and ruined it with corporate profit motives.

This is why small publishers like Matrix Games can exist without EA totally stomping on them, they are filling a niche market.

So yeah it is true that the 4x market has been abandoned by biggies in pursuit of profit, this leaves a vacuum of niches like Matrix Games to fill.

We are seeing a resurgence of this genre though, and that is a good thing.

So complain or praise all the latest games one way or another, Armada, Distant Worlds, Lost Empires Immortals, Star Ruler, Gal Civ, SINS, SOTS, SOTS2, etc...

We all need to make sure we thumb our noses at EA, and buy everyone of these games to support something we all love. (While buying some of the cool stuff EA puts out [:'(])

I also have a feeling CIV5 will be a huge success!

[J HG T]

ORIGINAL: lordxorn


We all need to make sure we thumb our noses at EA, and buy everyone of these games to support something we all love. (While buying some of the cool stuff EA puts out [:'(])

Only games EA games I've bought recently are Dead Space and ME2. I don't like EA very much either, but EA redeemed itself slightly with Dead Space in my eyes. Dead Spcae may not be the most innovative game but it's definetly the best sci-fi horror game for long time.

[vonboy]

about the console game market, everyone is trying to copy the pc game market (except nintendo. they're always kinda doing their own thing[:D]).

back on topic, distant worlds is one of my favorite games of all time. i ranks high on my list, just behind SEIV. it's really fun, innovative, creative, and sometimes surprising. the only bad points are that it's still a little buggy/unbalanced, and at this point calling this game modable is kind of a stretch.

[Shark7]

Some games are far better suited to for consoles than computers and vice-versa. And some are well suited to both.

Shooters...IMO they are best suited to the console market.

4x games are definately best suited to PCs.

RPGs can do well on both platforms.

Granted, every genre is generally ported from console to pc or the reverse, maximizing profits. The trouble is that giant corporations like EA is that they try to completely monopolize the industry. When that happens, they don't have to put out quality games because you have no other choices. This lack of quality is the exact reason why companies like Matrix can make it...small companies push quality over quantity and have earned a loyal fan base for it.

Just my little opinion of the games market as is.

[J HG T]

ORIGINAL: Shark7

Some games are far better suited to for consoles than computers and vice-versa. And some are well suited to both.

Shooters...IMO they are best suited to the console market.

4x games are definately best suited to PCs.

RPGs can do well on both platforms.

Granted, every genre is generally ported from console to pc or the reverse, maximizing profits. The trouble is that giant corporations like EA is that they try to completely monopolize the industry. When that happens, they don't have to put out quality games because you have no other choices. This lack of quality is the exact reason why companies like Matrix can make it...small companies push quality over quantity and have earned a loyal fan base for it.

Just my little opinion of the games market as is.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

[WoodMan]

Having owned PC and consoles over the years, I would say that Shooters are not better suited for consoles, and with the exception of Strategy are more suited to the PC than any other genre of game.  Once a console controller is as easy to use a mouse and keyboard and dedicated servers and modding are available on consoles, then shooters will be better suited to them.  Unfortunately the gaming industry sees it the other way around, shooters are more suited to consoles because the player market and therefore potential profit is bigger [:(]

[J HG T]

ORIGINAL: WoodMan

Having owned PC and consoles over the years, I would say that Shooters are not better suited for consoles, and with the exception of Strategy are more suited to the PC than any other genre of game.  Once a console controller is as easy to use a mouse and keyboard and dedicated servers and modding are available on consoles, then shooters will be better suited to them.  Unfortunately the gaming industry sees it the other way around, shooters are more suited to consoles because the player market and therefore potential profit is bigger [:(]

Reminds me of the case of Unreal tournament 2004 and Unreal tournment 3. UT2004 is one of my favourite shooters of all time. It's fast, fun, moddable and has insane amount of content compared to todays shooters. When I tried UT3 I was amazed how much the game have been simplified. Lesser content, lesser game-modes, lesser anything! Heck even the graphs were a step back in a perspective of style. UT2004 was colorful and over-the-top stylished crazy shooter, and it worked! UT3 was just gears of war turned into Unreal. Consolefied, in short. "Pathetic!" I though.


Tells you how older ideals are sometimes better.

And, I'm sorry. UTs might not be the best examples but I think we all still share the same idea what's wrong with gaming industry nowadays.

[Baleur]

Impulse and Steam would indeed bring DW up to the top seller list for a week or more. No doubt about that.
If games that are worse than DW (my own opinion, but not hard to agree with), such as Armada or GSB, or even Space Empires V, can sell big numbers there, so can DW, probably more.

[J HG T]

ORIGINAL: Baleur

Impulse and Steam would indeed bring DW up to the top seller list for a week or more. No doubt about that.
If games that are worse than DW (my own opinion, but not hard to agree with), such as Armada or GSB, or even Space Empires V, can sell big numbers there, so can DW, probably more.

Gratious space battles doesn't really compare that well to 4x games like DW. I think it more like fleet building puzzle game. Still, good game nevertheless.

[Shark7]

ORIGINAL: WoodMan

Having owned PC and consoles over the years, I would say that Shooters are not better suited for consoles, and with the exception of Strategy are more suited to the PC than any other genre of game.  Once a console controller is as easy to use a mouse and keyboard and dedicated servers and modding are available on consoles, then shooters will be better suited to them.  Unfortunately the gaming industry sees it the other way around, shooters are more suited to consoles because the player market and therefore potential profit is bigger [:(]

I must be one of the exceptions to the rule then, cause I have never been able to play a shooter on a PC well. I do far better with the console controller.

[WoodMan]

Hehe, back many, many years ago I can remember switching from a gamepad to my mouse and keys to play the original Quake, at first I was like, what the hell, this is awkward.  But yeah, after a few weeks you can't go back to a gamepad.  The newest console controllers are far better than the older consoles, I remember Golden Eye on the N64, all my friends loved it, but being the only PC gamer among them I was like, you can't even jump, looking up and down leaves you standing around taking ages for your character to adjust his view unlike the instant reaction of a mouse (like moving your neck/shoulders in real life) and generally thought it was pants [:D]

But, the fact that autoaim is still a feature of console games today while the same games PC version has no autoaim shows the inadequacy of the controller systems.  I wonder what this latest generation of "wand" type controllers will bring for FPS.  Personally all these gimmicky controllers have driven me further away from consoles, the numerous guitar controllers are the funniest, some kids spend 6 months playing these guitar games, but when I was at school kids went from never touching a guitar to playing along to Metallica and Guns n Roses on real guitars in 6 - 9 months [:D]  As for the "wands" if I really want to jump around waving my arms about, I'll go and play Tennis not a computerised version

[Shark7]

ORIGINAL: WoodMan

Hehe, back many, many years ago I can remember switching from a gamepad to my mouse and keys to play the original Quake, at first I was like, what the hell, this is awkward.  But yeah, after a few weeks you can't go back to a gamepad.  The newest console controllers are far better than the older consoles, I remember Golden Eye on the N64, all my friends loved it, but being the only PC gamer among them I was like, you can't even jump, looking up and down leaves you standing around taking ages for your character to adjust his view unlike the instant reaction of a mouse (like moving your neck/shoulders in real life) and generally thought it was pants [:D]

But, the fact that autoaim is still a feature of console games today while the same games PC version has no autoaim shows the inadequacy of the controller systems.  I wonder what this latest generation of "wand" type controllers will bring for FPS.  Personally all these gimmicky controllers have driven me further away from consoles, the numerous guitar controllers are the funniest, some kids spend 6 months playing these guitar games, but when I was at school kids went from never touching a guitar to playing along to Metallica and Guns n Roses on real guitars in 6 - 9 months [:D]  As for the "wands" if I really want to jump around waving my arms about, I'll go and play Tennis not a computerised version

Well, the newer console games don't have auto-aim by default....if you can't shoot straight, you don't hit it. Halo and Gears of War are this way for sure...if there is an auto-aim function I've never used it. And like you said, the newer console controllers are far better than the previous ones...and you can jump now. [;)]

[Igard]

ORIGINAL: Shark7
the newer console controllers are far better than the previous ones...and you can jump now. [;)]

[:D]ArmA 2 is a PC only game where you can't jump. Lot's of other things you can do though.

[WoodMan]

I think in some of the latest games its no longer autoaim, its a target locking system, i.e. it doesn't help you find your target, but when you do it semi locks on to it to keep track of moving targets etc.  I think the latest Bad Company uses this, perhaps only with Sniper rifles, I'm not sure, haven't played it only read about it, or it might have been CoD6, or possibly both, I can't quite recall.

[Shark7]

ORIGINAL: WoodMan

I think in some of the latest games its no longer autoaim, its a target locking system, i.e. it doesn't help you find your target, but when you do it semi locks on to it to keep track of moving targets etc.  I think the latest Bad Company uses this, perhaps only with Sniper rifles, I'm not sure, haven't played it only read about it, or it might have been CoD6, or possibly both, I can't quite recall.

Since I have played a lot of Halo and GoW on X360, I can safely say the default is not a target lock...I know cause I miss a lot.

Basically I use the 'spray and pray' method.

[WoodMan]

Well I haven't done much console gaming over the last year or two, but I found a list of games with autoaim of some kind or another and it was really surprising, 108 games in all, but the newest games released aren't in it so I guess either its out of date, or they stopped putting autoaim in games, but its only about 6 months out so I doubt it.

its big [:D]

There is 108 games listed with auto-aim, a lot of them I haven't heard of but some big famous newer ones are:

Red Dead Redemption
Alan Wake
Just Cause 2
Bioshock 2
Dark Void
Halo 3 ODST
Batman Arkham Asylum
Tomb Raider Underworld
Dead Space
Grand Theft Auto 4
Tom Clancy Rainbow Six Vegas 2
Turok
Mass Effect
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Halo 3
Bioshock
Just Cause
GUN
Halo 2
GTA San Andreas
Far Cry
GTA Vice City

Some of these may also have autoaim on the PC, I think some of the the GTA games have an autoaim option which you are meant to enable if you are using a gamepad, but is off by default controls which include mouse. However, other games like CoD 4 for instance have no autoaim on the PC, but some people manage to download cheats called aimbots which are like an extremely effective version.

[Igard]

It seems to me that if you use a gamepad and you use autoaim, you pretty much concede that mouse and keyboard is the better control method.

[WoodMan]

Sorry for taking this thread so off-topic [:D]

The thing with 3rd person games like GTA, Mass Effect and Gears of War is that the gamepads are pretty good with them (because your target is usually in front of you and visible on the screen, and the new cover systems in these games where you stick to cover slows down the combat a lot), its only when you get 1st person like Call of Duty and your spinning around a lot shooting guys at 360 degrees all around including up and down that a mouse and keyboard becomes clearly the better choice.  Add to that the fact that driving on a gamepad is usually infinately better than on a mouse and keyboard and I can see why someone might want to plug in a gamepad to play GTA on their PC.

[Anonymous]

[Deleted by Admins]

[Baleur]

ORIGINAL: Igard

It seems to me that if you use a gamepad and you use autoaim, you pretty much concede that mouse and keyboard is the better control method.

Or to simply concede that console fps games have come much further than pc fps games have, the last few years..
I havent played a pc fps since Half-Life 2, and dont want to. My 360 is my fps platform now, and i couldnt love it more than i already do.
You might argue that auto-aim is lame, but then again, arent we all lame? Regardless if there is auto-aim or not, we're all just a bunch of nerds playing games. Who cares who's considered "hardcore" (a silly term to begin with), we're all nerds, lets just get along and enjoy games for the fun factor, not for how big your e-peen appears due to how many buttons you can jam into a game (ArmA2, i'm looking at you.. speaking of horrible and unintuitive controls)