CliffyB, UT Politics and the Future of the PC

[zynthetic]

Yeah why can't they sell a gaming computer as cheap as some of these consoles. Or realistically, maybe a couple hundred dollars more.

because "Gaming Computer" (ex: prebuilt packages) are for suckers. Slap the word "Gaming" on a standard optical mouse and it'll sell for 2x$.
I built a pc a year ago using mostly components that were available 2 years prior and earlier. From that state the only upgrade (or component <6mo old) was a GPU.
Theoretically, my 3yo pc was upgraded at less than half the cost of any new console. I performs well enough to run UT3 @ max in 1680x1050 while recoding fraps @ 30-40fps ave.

The market is $$ driven. Until a majority of it's supporters (consumers) gain the lego-level knowledge it takes to assemble PCs and the desire to spend 10min doing so, prebuilt systems, console and "Gaming PCs" will continue to sell as long as there's someone to throw money at them.

 

[iron12]

The market is $$ driven. Until a majority of it's supporters (consumers) gain the lego-level knowledge it takes to assemble PCs and the desire to spend 10min doing so, prebuilt systems, console and "Gaming PCs" will continue to sell as long as there's someone to throw money at them.

Well that's the rub. People don't want to do that. They want plug and play. That's why PC are going the way of the dinosaur. I think the numbers tell the story. Sad for us PCer's.

 

[zynthetic]

If there wasn't $$ to be had in consumer computer components there wouldn't be an industry for it. The number of hardware venders catering to consumer ala-carte have easily doubled in the last 10 years.

 

[Vicious3745]

It's obvious! It's because UT3 Isn't all that great

It's not like Unreal Tournament has even been an epic, emotional, heart pounding never leave your couch kinda game.. It's a casual shoot em up at best. Unreal Tournament has always been merely a means of allowing the public to get their hands on the power of the unreal engine, and the Tournament itself is merely a means of showing people how to use that power.

If i made a silly game on the side that turned out to be great fun, i'd easily port it to consoles, it's not like i'm having to cook nearly as much content for xbox as that of Gears.

 

[Bishop F Gantry]

I'm not really saying standards have lowered, but more games are coming out. What percentage would you guess are moddable? Probably not a very high one.

As far as your other point, I'm not sure where you are going with that. PC games haven't really ever commonly had splitscreen, and internet multiplayer on PCs isn't that old (1998 is when it really started taking off).

Splitscreen tended to be fairly common back in the days, 10 years is a lifetime in the computer world and for alot of the guys here around half their lifetime.

Back in the late 90s there were tons of "online" multiplayer systems. Mplayer, WON, Heat.net, MS Zone, etc. They all worked fairly well but it really wasn't until 1999 that internet gaming broke it's shell and it wasn't really thanks to any of those services.

this is the reason I find going back to multiplayer middleware ridiculous. The industry HAS ALREADY TRIED THAT, and by and large they decided IT WOULD NOT WORK FOR THEM. And Gamespy, in particular, hasn't really improved from any of those either.

Id give them a bit more credit than that, have to crack a few eggs before making the perfect omelett.

Kali was a blast back in the day easy to fidn games with weak multi support, dunno if its still going strong.

Yeah why can't they sell a gaming computer as cheap as some of these consoles. Or realistically, maybe a couple hundred dollars more.

Selling computers at a loss is against Capitalism and that makes Consoles a Communist. Do you wanna be a Communist. Its perfectly possible to get a decent gaming rig that can run most games for a similar price as a console.

It's obvious! It's because UT3 Isn't all that great

It's not like Unreal Tournament has even been an epic, emotional, heart pounding never leave your couch kinda game.. It's a casual shoot em up at best. Unreal Tournament has always been merely a means of allowing the public to get their hands on the power of the unreal engine, and the Tournament itself is merely a means of showing people how to use that power.

If i made a silly game on the side that turned out to be great fun, i'd easily port it to consoles, it's not like i'm having to cook nearly as much content for xbox as that of Gears.

Unreal1 is still fairly epic and still worth several playtroughs a year, shame Epic havent caught up on that yet. Epic's silly notion of sticking with the Tournament has only lead to the weaking of Unreal as a franchise and made it stagnate.

"The studio that brought you Gears of War, Unreal Tournament3" That they have to resort to another game as GOW to promote UT3 is a sad testament of how much Epic has botched up the Unreal franchise over the years.

 

[oldkawman]

ya well maybe if your GAMING pc was obsolete in a fukkin year, it wouldn't be so bad, look at the RECOMMENDED specs for UT3. Umm 2.4 Ghz DUAL core 1 gig ram, 7800GTX

I currently have a 2.2 ghz Dual care, 2 gig ram, 8800GT, and the game run about oh 40 FPS avg (1440X900), for WoW this is acceptable, for a FPS No Fukkin way.

If you want more fps, just turn down the sliders in the advanced video menu. I run 1 texture and 2 world at 1600x1200 and get great FPS with a much less powerful video card setup than yours.

 

[GreatEmerald]

It's obvious! It's because UT3 Isn't all that great

It's not like Unreal Tournament has even been an epic, emotional, heart pounding never leave your couch kinda game.. It's a casual shoot em up at best. Unreal Tournament has always been merely a means of allowing the public to get their hands on the power of the unreal engine, and the Tournament itself is merely a means of showing people how to use that power.

You're forgetting Unreals. They have always been the showcase of the engine capabilities, both Unreal and Unreal II. UT2003 went out a bit earlier but Unreal II was still the main engine showcase, mainly a showcase of how you can modify it. And remember, UT99 was a bonus pack for Unreal. Epic just accidentally noticed that they can release it as a separate game and get more $$.

Selling computers at a loss is against Capitalism and that makes Consoles a Communist. Do you wanna be a Communist. Its perfectly possible to get a decent gaming rig that can run most games for a similar price as a console.



Unreal1 is still fairly epic and still worth several playtroughs a year, shame Epic havent caught up on that yet. Epic's silly notion of sticking with the Tournament has only lead to the weaking of Unreal as a franchise and made it stagnate.

"The studio that brought you Gears of War, Unreal Tournament3" That they have to resort to another game as GOW to promote UT3 is a sad testament of how much Epic has botched up the Unreal franchise over the years.

Lol There was this guy on the classic titles forums that had a nice Communist Party sig, but I can't find him any more

Yeap, U1 and U2 were cool, we want U3, now they should go over and make one!

If you want more fps, just turn down the sliders in the advanced video menu. I run 1 texture and 2 world at 1600x1200 and get great FPS with a much less powerful video card setup than yours.

But it looks really bad that way. Even worse than on UT2004, and still with a FPS span of 30 UT3 - 150 UT2004.

 

[oldkawman]

But it looks really bad that way. Even worse than on UT2004, and still with a FPS span of 30 UT3 - 150 UT2004.

I also run UT2K4, everything maxed out at 1600x1200. UT3 graphics at 1600x1200 at 1 texture and 2 world are way above UT2K4 maxed out at the same res. Not even close! Maybe you guys have the screen percentage set at less than 100%?

My not so obsolete specs;
Opty 180 @ 2.6GHz (socket 939)
DFI Infinity NF4 SLI
2GB GSkill DDR400
2 X 7900GTX 650MHz with DDR3 512MB in SLI (AFR2)
BFG Ageia PhysX (1.1.1.14 driver)
Koolance EXOS2 LIQUID cooling System
Cooler Master Real Power Pro 750 watt
Lian Li aluminum "oldschool" PC7 plus case
XP64 pro SP2 (only until Linux port arrives)
21" Sony Trinitron G520, 100Hz refresh
1600x1200, 1-2 quality, 40-85 FPS (I set an 85 FPS cap)
1600x1200, 1-2 quality, 30-85 FPS PhysX maps(capped at 85)
UT3 ver. 1.3
http://www.oldkawman.com/liquid_cooling.html

 

[UndeadRoadkill]

"The studio that brought you Gears of War, Unreal Tournament3" That they have to resort to another game as GOW to promote UT3 is a sad testament of how much Epic has botched up the Unreal franchise over the years.

I believe that tagline was actually Midway's doing, because they believed that the PC audience was insignificant, and the console audience wouldn't recognize the UT name. Then again, that doesn't mean Epic doesn't share those views...

 

[-AEnubis-]

1. Unreal, and UT were "epic, emotional, heart pounding never leave your couch kinda game's."

2. Saying consoles are like communism, is an insult to communism. Selling consoles at a loss is a smoke screen for other capital gains. I'd much prefer a truer communism.

3. Playing this game with less than 100% screen percentage is almost so gross looking, it's hardly fair to call it "scalable." It actually effects game play.

The deeper the graphical quality gets, the less the scalability of these games is worth. Yeah, you can run it on lesser systems, and yeah, you can see what's going on enough to play, but it looks so terrible... It shouldn't be that with twice the hardware I ran UT2004 on, I get now less the picture quality with UT3. What sense does that make? I spend a half grand on upgrades for a new title, only to have less picture quality than I had before, less functioning features, and finally better game play.

Seems like a better solution would be just to mod UT2004 IMO. Too bad no one has the design sense, or faith to run a mod of that nature in a widespread fashion. This silly community couldn't even decide on one weapons worth of tweaks.

 

[hal]

1. Unreal, and UT were "epic, emotional, heart pounding never leave your couch kinda game's."

You use your PC from the couch?!

 

[-AEnubis-]

One time, I brought it to my parents house and hooked it up to their projector. There is only couch in that room

 

[Sir_Brizz]

Splitscreen tended to be fairly common back in the days, 10 years is a lifetime in the computer world and for alot of the guys here around half their lifetime.

Well, as others have said, it's never been common for FPSes, but other genres, probably true.

Id give them a bit more credit than that, have to crack a few eggs before making the perfect omelett.

Kali was a blast back in the day easy to fidn games with weak multi support, dunno if its still going strong.

I can't really give them any credit. They only helped gaming gimp along to what it is today online. It's not even comparable.

Kali was great, I even bought a license for it. But it was just a workaround to a common problem: games didn't support TCP/IP. Now that they do, Kali is pretty much a "glorified" server browser for some games and nothing more (though it does still support the classic IPX/SPX games). I don't see Kali as anything different than the Xfire of it's time.

 

[WedgeBob]

You use your PC from the couch?!

Try at the side of the bed for me.

 

[GreatEmerald]

The deeper the graphical quality gets, the less the scalability of these games is worth. Yeah, you can run it on lesser systems, and yeah, you can see what's going on enough to play, but it looks so terrible... It shouldn't be that with twice the hardware I ran UT2004 on, I get now less the picture quality with UT3. What sense does that make? I spend a half grand on upgrades for a new title, only to have less picture quality than I had before, less functioning features, and finally better game play.

+1

 

[oldkawman]

3. Playing this game with less than 100% screen percentage is almost so gross looking, it's hardly fair to call it "scalable." It actually effects game play..

I think the "minimum hardware requirements" stated for the game was a big mistake. I really do not see how anyone could actually play with anything below the "recommended hardware" stated on the box. For myself, even that would not have been enough for good playability.

I do know a player who use a notebook with 8600M graphics at 800x600 res. It does not seem to bother his fun or skill any. But, I could not do it.

 

[darkonxy]

Epic deserves to die please for failing at UT3 now and that way all of this @#$ here can be undone and make everyone miserable

 

[thinsoldier]

You have to play it coop, you two can save each other and that makes the game a whole lot more fun and interesting. Otherwise it's a lonely experience.

Can 2 people on 1 pc even play GoW at the same time?

Honestly if there's anything that contributes to the "death of pc gaming" it's the lack of console-quality, in-the-same-room-on-1-system multiplayer!

My PC is in my living room 4 feet away from the couch with the biggest screen in my house, decent speakers and sub, multiple firewire and usb ports yet very little on the PC has good old 2-player gameplay.

 

[hal]

Epic deserves to die please for failing at UT3 now and that way all of this @#$ here can be undone and make everyone miserable

Bye. Your history consists of nothing more than miserable trolling posts. I asked you to stop once. Time for you to move on.

 

[sneh]

I think the "minimum hardware requirements" stated for the game was a big mistake. I really do not see how anyone could actually play with anything below the "recommended hardware" stated on the box..

Well that's why it's recommended, they're saying "we think your system should be at least this good to play, but technically it will run on lower (if you really must)"

It would be a mistake if they had "Expect full/proper game experience on minimum requirement hardware"