Spasm
03-16-2011, 03:32 PM
I was reading this blog, and I wanted to share it with my fellow ibis friends :)
First, let me apologize for not updating this blog for over 2 years and even leaving a part series unfinished. Sure I have been busy like everyone is these days but really I don't have a good excuse for this to be honest. Anyways I'm back now and hopefully you won't have to wait this long ever again. Enough about that, off we go!
With the consoles of this current generation stepping up to HD resolutions and putting serious focus on online gaming many of their games are now being shared with the PC.
The positive side being that no matter what platform you are using it's a very likely chance you will still be able to play that upcoming game that the public and your friends all seem to be talking about.
The potential negative though is that their may be a noticeable drop in quality when the developer has to focus on many different platforms instead of optimizing and building for just one from the ground up. May it be graphics, controls, user interface and so on as one platform might not handle a certain thing as well as the other.
This is nothing new though, for example a multiplatform game on the original Xbox didn't often have the visual fidelity as an exclusive title and even earlier than this we have seen this kind of thing.
But it's not until this generation and very recently I've started hearing of "consolization" or "consolized", meaning that a PC title feels and play like a console title. Actually it's not just limited to this I also keep hearing over and over how the Xbox 360 are holding back games on the Playstation 3. One may think though that these three platforms are so similar so what are people really talking about? That is true they are becoming more and more similar but there are still key differences between them.
But are the differences big enough to matter in multiplatform development? And if "consolization" exists is it as bad as some make it out to be?
Well speaking from personal experience, yes it does exist. Multiplatform development this generation has made more and more games both feel and look different compared to what you been used to. And is this a bad thing? Well most of the time this has not bothered me but there are instances were it has become overly noticeable but there are also cases where multiplatform development has been done really well. Here follows examples that covers a bit of both these things.
________________________________________________
The F.E.A.R. franchise
The first F.E.A.R. was a game that blended both horror and intense first person action really, really well. And with the sequel that was scedueled for a simultaneous multiplatform release many expected it to continue in the same fashion.
But sometimething just didn't feel right. The artistic design of the weapons and the enemies got a major overhaul. The HUD was implimented with a visor like effect perhaps a way to make Halo and Metroid players feel more at home. Instead of continuing from where the first game left off with its cliffhanger ending you were put in the shoes of a new, previously unknown character and with a story that vaguely resembled and referenced the one from the first game.
Perhaps this was done to target a new audience unfamilliar with the first game even though ports of that game had already appeared on the consoles a few years back.
But it didn't just look different, it played differently too. The moving speed of the player felt greatly reduced. You could no longer lean even though your enemies still could. You could no longer do cool stuff like shooting grenades mid-air to make them go off earlier and the enemies didn't seem as smart overall as they were in the first game among other things.
Did these changes that were perhaps made to appeal to a new audience on consoles make it a stronger game there compared to the ports of the first game made a different developer? Well looking at the reviews for these games here on Gamespot certainly doesn't indicate that and the original fanbase on the PC were just left off angry and very dissapointed.
Now F.E.A.R. 3 ( or F.3.A.R.) is on its way and to me it doesn't look like it takes place in the same universe anymore. It might prove me wrong and return to it's former glory found in the first game but I very, very low expectations. Damn shame for a series that was off to such a great start.
The Dragon Age franchise
Dragon Age: Origins released back in 2009 by developer Bioware was a fantasy RPG many considers to be one of the very best in years and here on Gamespot the PC version scored a whopping 9.5. It was a multiplatorm title but the PC version still felt like a PC game thanks to it's interface and mod-support among other things. They had also bothered to give the the console versions their own user interface and controls.
However it still felt like the console versions got the short end of the stick due to some annoying performance issues and the visuals were simply behind the the curve even by the platforms standards and especially in the 360 version. So this is almost a case "anti-consolization" or "consolization" in reverse or whatever you wanna call it.
And now with the sequel Dragon Age II it seems like instead of bringing the console versions up to the same standards as the PC version of the first game it appears they had them both meet half way in a weird blend and scaling back on a few things. Altough to be honest I'm just speculating here and basing this from what I've seen or heard as I have yet to play the sequel myself.
The Call of Duty franchise
I think you have all have heard of Call of Duty now considering how extremely it has become with its latest iteration Call of Duty: Black Ops being the best selling game in US history. Though the series actually started on the PC and started going multiplatform with Call of Duty 2. Although desipte this the series managed to mantain high quality on all platforms it appeared on including Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.
After that game however PC players started to loose things such as the ability to lean, dedicated servers and mod support. The lack of dedicated servers leading to more widespread cheating and hacking on that platform. The game however still feels and plays great on the consoles and now a franchise that once started on the PC has now turned in to a mainly console oriented FPS franchise.
_________________________________________________
I can't really blame developers for focusing more consoles though as sales seems to be constantly increasing and of course companies go where the money is and while at the same time PC games being sold in physical stores is becoming more and more a rarity and they are instead being shifted to online stores and services such as Steam and Direct 2 Drive. However the changes the developers make to established franchises to make them be better suited for consoles doesn't always feel warranted to me as they they don't always make the games actually play any better, just differently and might just end up really disappointing the original fans of that franchise.
Also if you have been hanging around here on the forums lately you might have noticed big complaints about the upcoming game Crysis 2. Many now fear this series will also go down the road of "consolization" due to things such as smaller environments compared to the first game and very limited graphics and controls options in the PC version of the Multiplayer demo not to mention stuff like "Please adjust your TV settings" and being greeted with "Press start to begin" (that was recently changed to "Press enter to begin" in the latest patch for the demo).
Me personally though am still extremely excited about the game and I'm gonna hold of any final judgement until the full version has arrived.
Now I wanna hear your thoughts. Have you noticed "consolization", Yes? No?
If you have does it bother you or not? Heck, do you even care?
Discuss!
First, let me apologize for not updating this blog for over 2 years and even leaving a part series unfinished. Sure I have been busy like everyone is these days but really I don't have a good excuse for this to be honest. Anyways I'm back now and hopefully you won't have to wait this long ever again. Enough about that, off we go!
With the consoles of this current generation stepping up to HD resolutions and putting serious focus on online gaming many of their games are now being shared with the PC.
The positive side being that no matter what platform you are using it's a very likely chance you will still be able to play that upcoming game that the public and your friends all seem to be talking about.
The potential negative though is that their may be a noticeable drop in quality when the developer has to focus on many different platforms instead of optimizing and building for just one from the ground up. May it be graphics, controls, user interface and so on as one platform might not handle a certain thing as well as the other.
This is nothing new though, for example a multiplatform game on the original Xbox didn't often have the visual fidelity as an exclusive title and even earlier than this we have seen this kind of thing.
But it's not until this generation and very recently I've started hearing of "consolization" or "consolized", meaning that a PC title feels and play like a console title. Actually it's not just limited to this I also keep hearing over and over how the Xbox 360 are holding back games on the Playstation 3. One may think though that these three platforms are so similar so what are people really talking about? That is true they are becoming more and more similar but there are still key differences between them.
But are the differences big enough to matter in multiplatform development? And if "consolization" exists is it as bad as some make it out to be?
Well speaking from personal experience, yes it does exist. Multiplatform development this generation has made more and more games both feel and look different compared to what you been used to. And is this a bad thing? Well most of the time this has not bothered me but there are instances were it has become overly noticeable but there are also cases where multiplatform development has been done really well. Here follows examples that covers a bit of both these things.
________________________________________________
The F.E.A.R. franchise
The first F.E.A.R. was a game that blended both horror and intense first person action really, really well. And with the sequel that was scedueled for a simultaneous multiplatform release many expected it to continue in the same fashion.
But sometimething just didn't feel right. The artistic design of the weapons and the enemies got a major overhaul. The HUD was implimented with a visor like effect perhaps a way to make Halo and Metroid players feel more at home. Instead of continuing from where the first game left off with its cliffhanger ending you were put in the shoes of a new, previously unknown character and with a story that vaguely resembled and referenced the one from the first game.
Perhaps this was done to target a new audience unfamilliar with the first game even though ports of that game had already appeared on the consoles a few years back.
But it didn't just look different, it played differently too. The moving speed of the player felt greatly reduced. You could no longer lean even though your enemies still could. You could no longer do cool stuff like shooting grenades mid-air to make them go off earlier and the enemies didn't seem as smart overall as they were in the first game among other things.
Did these changes that were perhaps made to appeal to a new audience on consoles make it a stronger game there compared to the ports of the first game made a different developer? Well looking at the reviews for these games here on Gamespot certainly doesn't indicate that and the original fanbase on the PC were just left off angry and very dissapointed.
Now F.E.A.R. 3 ( or F.3.A.R.) is on its way and to me it doesn't look like it takes place in the same universe anymore. It might prove me wrong and return to it's former glory found in the first game but I very, very low expectations. Damn shame for a series that was off to such a great start.
The Dragon Age franchise
Dragon Age: Origins released back in 2009 by developer Bioware was a fantasy RPG many considers to be one of the very best in years and here on Gamespot the PC version scored a whopping 9.5. It was a multiplatorm title but the PC version still felt like a PC game thanks to it's interface and mod-support among other things. They had also bothered to give the the console versions their own user interface and controls.
However it still felt like the console versions got the short end of the stick due to some annoying performance issues and the visuals were simply behind the the curve even by the platforms standards and especially in the 360 version. So this is almost a case "anti-consolization" or "consolization" in reverse or whatever you wanna call it.
And now with the sequel Dragon Age II it seems like instead of bringing the console versions up to the same standards as the PC version of the first game it appears they had them both meet half way in a weird blend and scaling back on a few things. Altough to be honest I'm just speculating here and basing this from what I've seen or heard as I have yet to play the sequel myself.
The Call of Duty franchise
I think you have all have heard of Call of Duty now considering how extremely it has become with its latest iteration Call of Duty: Black Ops being the best selling game in US history. Though the series actually started on the PC and started going multiplatform with Call of Duty 2. Although desipte this the series managed to mantain high quality on all platforms it appeared on including Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.
After that game however PC players started to loose things such as the ability to lean, dedicated servers and mod support. The lack of dedicated servers leading to more widespread cheating and hacking on that platform. The game however still feels and plays great on the consoles and now a franchise that once started on the PC has now turned in to a mainly console oriented FPS franchise.
_________________________________________________
I can't really blame developers for focusing more consoles though as sales seems to be constantly increasing and of course companies go where the money is and while at the same time PC games being sold in physical stores is becoming more and more a rarity and they are instead being shifted to online stores and services such as Steam and Direct 2 Drive. However the changes the developers make to established franchises to make them be better suited for consoles doesn't always feel warranted to me as they they don't always make the games actually play any better, just differently and might just end up really disappointing the original fans of that franchise.
Also if you have been hanging around here on the forums lately you might have noticed big complaints about the upcoming game Crysis 2. Many now fear this series will also go down the road of "consolization" due to things such as smaller environments compared to the first game and very limited graphics and controls options in the PC version of the Multiplayer demo not to mention stuff like "Please adjust your TV settings" and being greeted with "Press start to begin" (that was recently changed to "Press enter to begin" in the latest patch for the demo).
Me personally though am still extremely excited about the game and I'm gonna hold of any final judgement until the full version has arrived.
Now I wanna hear your thoughts. Have you noticed "consolization", Yes? No?
If you have does it bother you or not? Heck, do you even care?
Discuss!