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Mark Rein says consoles limit gaming technology on PCs |
Listed in: PS3, Xbox 360, PC Gaming Tags: DirectX, Epic Games, Mark Rein, nVidia, Unreal Engine
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After PC gaming (at least in the North American side) had drifted off to a steady decline, game companies have steered their focus into development for the next-generation platforms, such as the Xenon-powered Xbox 360 and the CELL-powered PlayStation 3. But with their physical limitations, consoles can only power so much in a game before plateauing at a certain performance level.
Epic Games' vice president Mark Rein told CVG that the game industry has to "dumb the games down for the consoles," so it's highly unlikely that gamers on PC will see anything pushing the graphical or technological envelope in the near future. In fact, Rein thinks that it most likely that no game would even tap DirectX 10 until the next iteration of consoles.
While Banzai Runners the world over could be "facepalming" in unison, this doesn't present more of a threat to "geeked up" gamers than to, say FutureMark or NVIDIA, whose businesses has been at the brunt of graphical technology advancement since the late 1990s. Sneaking around the Web's most reputable tech forums, we've found that majority of the reactions aren't even concerned with Rein's statements.
It is true that the opinion is worrisome to an extent (essentially, while unproven, it is potentially viable), but it appears that more concern has been emphasized toward creativity, variety and (gasp!) quality games for the PC, rather than always push the frontlines of graphics with first-person shooters, dungeon crawlers or real-time strategy games. Is a revolution at hand? If so, this blogger wants X-COM back (please?).
And as for PC gaming technology being throttled, however, some people believe that Germany, banded together with computer companies worldwide, may have something different to say altogether.
Via CVG
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Comments
Or you might realize that gamers are tired of shelling out hundreds each year on new video cards which barely see use before they become almost worthless.
Or you might realize game developers and companies don't want to spends piles of money and buckets of time relearning and recoding everything for each time they make a new game.
I'm glad we are reaching a point where the graphics are pretty much good enough that developers are starting to focus on other aspects of gaming. Rein is just *****ing because Epic's business model is focused on cranking out graphical improvements to their engine.
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1. Video cards being worthless is a subjective analysis. They are, in fact, one of the primary liquifiable assets you have in a PC that doesn't degrade in value significantly, in a black market perspective.
2. I believe with the trend nowadays, licensing of middleware solutions are becoming a norm, and there's no need to break banks to create the next best thing. Not that they have been the next best thing anyways...
3. Excellent point. In fact, it appears a lot of other gamers are expressing that feeling, even the technically-inclined ones. But with too many console FPSes, is the major game industry getting anywhere?
Of course, indy, shareware, freeware and homebrew games are a different aspect altogether, though.
Great input. Thanks for sharing.
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However, I always got the impression that when developers make games for PCs, if they want to make an amazing game with great graphics, the system requirements are simply bumped up. With consoles, (unless it goes the way of the dreamcast) you're guaranteed that the console you buy will have games coming out for it for at least 5 years.
Developers instead need to learn how to use the hardware more efficiently.
Instead of buying a superpowered specialized gaming pc for a couple thousand dollars, you could buy a decent one (be it used or budget) for things like playing music, web browsing and chatting and also pick up a console.
"Technology will fail when you need to rely on it the most"
While you may not rely on gaming per se, I think the chances of something going wrong are greatly reduced if you can pop in a game tailor made for (or at least tested with) a console and just start playing, without any installation.
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The only reason the PC gaming industry strived is because it did so at a time when the games on PC could be EXTREMELY better then on consoles....however with 360 and PS3, they look so similar to their PC counterparts that the difference and price, and the ease of use makes them the way to go.
I suppose we will have to see how well developers keep squeezing juice out of the system. Xbox kept producing better and better looking games until the day it died...as did/does PS2 with the recent GOw being quite awesome...
I agree he is just whining because pc gaming wasn't the market it used to be...
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I think Epic is just saying this because their business model relies heavily on ppl sticking with PC gaming.
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you have to have the newsest graphics card. "$500 bucks" and like 4 gigs of ram and a good processor.
then a year later your stuff is out dates and you play the new games that require more and you have to set your settings way down and then you try to overclock and squeeze what ever juice you can get out of your computer or go buy a new card "500 bucks again" and that is ridiculous. prime examples are games like fear and quake 4, they did not even look that good!!
compared to valve games which did not require that much power..
if you are a real programmer you can make a game look good without high-end gear, with a little give , you have to have some good stuff in your pc.
direct x 10 blows so far cause i have not seen i single good looking games for windows yet
such a shadow run + crap ..
just a scam to get you to buy a new os such as vista which is worse than xp......
more bugs such as search function and a new look that is not that high tech.. i mean have you seeeeeen fedora 7 with berl "cube rotation and water effects" much more next gen looking then vista and no direct x 10.. i mean common mark dont be such a microsoft b iatch
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It went through only 1 use allowing me to play Battlefield 2142 perfectly on ultrahigh settings.
6 months later, I'm not able to play any of the latest games unless they are on low settings. (such as Dirt and Supreme Commander). So I am not going to spend another $500 for a Radeon X1950 to play 2 games which will face the same death as my current card in another 6 months.
My card right now is worth $150-$200. That's a 70% depreciation in 1 year.
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If anything, they hurt the console market because PS3 and 360 are getting flooded with mediocre FPS ports.
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PC parts are like the stock market. Theres a time to buy and a time to definatly NOT buy.
If you cannot do your research and be a smart consumer, don't get into PC gaming. I must have been reading about specs and sniffing for price deals for about 2 or 3 months before I built my current rig.
You want to pay $50 a year to play online? fine. Want to shell out $5 for each piece of media you download? ok. Want to pay $99 for a propritary 20GB HD? *snicker* suit yourself! Shell out some more money for the wifi adaptor? Alright. Want to spend about $3000 on that HD TV? OK!
I spent $1300 on my rig
My console gamer friend spent about $3500
My PC runs circles around the XB360 in in graphical power.
So, you see alot of you people are pretty shallow, and you don't know what you're talking about. Please bend over and bite your d|ck off so we have less idiots like you in the world, thanks!
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We're going to start to see a LOT MORE PC exclusive games once DX10 cards are standard in new PCs.
Crysis anyone?
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Every year you NEED to buy a new $500 video card? LIE!
6 Months after buying the best you are forced to run new games on LOW settings? LIE!
Give it up guys! The drama is too much!!!
The 8800GTX has been out for 9 months and it's still going strong! According to all the dumb logic here, if I don't buy a brand new 8800 Ultimate then I have to play Lost Planet on the lowest settings? Idioticness.
Anyway, graphics cards HAVE ALWAYS lasted a good two years at a time. Yes BOYS you can't always play at 1920X1200.....but you can play at a decent enough resolutions to gain good quality with all the thrills even two years down the road and sometimes more.
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So Crysis doesn't look good to you? Not to mention games for both PC and consoles, such as UT3. They don't look good to you too?
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With 3 next-gen consoles, the PC has a smaller slice of the overall games market compared to the past, but it's still a significant slice and it's stable (whereas the console market continues to grow).
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Mark Rein is a whore, nuff said.
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then a year later your stuff is out dates and you play the new games that require more and you have to set your settings way down and then you try to overclock and squeeze what ever juice you can get out of your computer or go buy a new card "500 bucks again"
Lies, lies and more lies.... 4GB of ram? HAHAHAHAHA!!!!! !!!!!!!!
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What you will NOT be able to do is play new games with NEW features at HIGHER resolutions then you are able today. However, WHY WHY WHY would you expect to do as such? Are you able to use NEW FEATURES on your 360 or PS3 2+ years after it was built?
NOPE!
With a console you have NO MEANS in which to upgrade your hardware. So no one ever implements new features into those games.
On a PC new features are implemented all the time BUT YOU CAN NOT USE THEM unless you upgrade your hardware. That DOES NOT mean you can't play the game. You simply can't turn on those features. But you can still play the game JUST FINE with the features you card does support. At a resolution your PC can handle.
The biggest problem is that they dummy down the games. They make the settings as idiot proof as possible at the time the game was created. The problem is that gamers are so stupid and ignorant that they can't figure out the difference. You get people crying about having to play a game on a lower setting....SO WHAT? A game created today on a low setting HAS MORE FEATURES TURNED ON then a game on HIGH SETTING from 2004. Stupid people are not able to comprehend such things.
The only time a person will get screwed is if something like DX10 ONLY is put on the shelves and they're stuck with a DX9 only card. But that doesn't happen over night. This is more of a case of someone buying an OLD card for cheap and suffering from buyers remorse.
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The PS3 and the XBox 360 are the current golden standards for console gaming with the PS3 as the breadwinner for technology. An HDTV is a plus, but not a requirement. But in order to "compete" with a PC, it is a must. THAT is a complete top-of-the-line setup. Let's put that into perspective.
If you want a top-of-the-line gaming rig, it wouldn't cost you $1300 as $1300 could barely get you two 8800GTXs. It would cost you at least $3,500 to get an uber-rig from either Dell, Alienware, Gateway, etc. Look it up. Then how about getting a huge LCD so you can properly play at the highest resolution possible. You can do all the reading you want and essentially custom-build you own rig to the top, current specs and save some money. BUT that defeats the purpose, since you can't custom-build a console nor can you do your research on where to obtain it the cheapest.
PCs and consoles are two different things. Don't bring up being able to multi-task on a PC since Linux is available for the PS3, although it can't execute PC games via Wine. That's not the point.
We all play games to have fun, whether it's on a PC or on a console. PCs have it better from a technical standpoint due to constant technological advancements, but that's it's main innovation. Consoles have restrictions due to their lack of being able to be upgraded. To make up for it, designers have to push a system's power in order to get the most out of it. In the process, peripherals and innovative/creative games are produced to keep gamers interested AND move the industry forward.
Your setup may be able to run circles around the 360 all day...but I'll be willing to bet there'll be more Halo 3 players on XBL than...Crysis on a pub server.
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Either way, consoles are still good and I personally don't think they are limiting the technology of the PC...if anything, game developers can just release PC games with all their bells and whistles to whoever that can run it on their PC. Consoles will just get watered-down version of the same game...for people who don't have the money to burn.
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I play more on my laptop than I do on my PS3. The games that occupy most of my time right now is DOTA, StarCraft, and CS 1.6.
I don't upgrade my rig because it's useless to spend at least $500 every two years on hardware if the new games are nothing but rehashes of old games with a working formula. CS:S is fun, but when I built a new rig to play it, it wasn't any funner than playing 1.6 either than the fact that I was better than everyone else since the game was new. Company of Heroes, Civ4, and CC has never captivated me the way StarCraft: Brood Wars ever has despite their superior graphics. I played WoW for three months on my rig, but it began to consume my life so off it went.
Here's my point:
Whenever I want something innovative to play, I look towards the consoles. Yes, they're less polished and look outdated in comparison to PC games of the same generation. But there is something on a console that can't be replicated on a PC.
Nintendo may be "gimmicky" with their Wiimote; MS and Sony may be competing for who has the bigger d*ck when we all know they'll be obsolete in two years on a PC time-frame. My question is: with all the technological advancements over the past few years for the PC, what is the last cultural phenomenal block-buster besides Half-Life 2? WoW has sold great on a world-wide basis but it came out before HL2, so it's out of the question.
Yes, San Andreas, Halo 2, and MGS3 came out the same year as HL2, but has had enormous success with their innovative gameplay. Resident Evil 4 has had success in its presentation. Don't forget Gears of War or Zelda: Twilight Princess, or Guitar Hero II either. Sure, most of these games are on the PC or will appear on the PC, but they landed on consoles first. I don't have half of these games, but they've paved the way for innovative gaming.
Dumbing down? I hardly think so. It's time they thought outside the box. Besides, DX10 will be history in due time since the next big OS from MS is coming out in 2010...
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Two 8800GTX? HA! One will do just fine. He thinks you need $3,500 in order to complete with the PS3 or 360?
Ignorance is bliss!
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Look at the PS2 it is still outselling both the the PS3 and the 360.. On the consumer side in five years both of them will be affordable, with vast libraries of cheap games. That will make them very attractive to the more casual market, and people just getting into gaming.
On the developer side, tools will already be well refined and paid for, developers experienced on the platforms will be plentiful, and development cycles will be fairly short, and more importantly fairly predictable. The risk involved in developing for the last generation is much lower. Indy developers may have a chance at a game or two.
There are certainly offsetting facotrs, but especially while there is a large price differential between generations you can see strong profits on last gen hardware.
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??? DirectX is a constantly evolving API. I remember the first version in Windows 95! Hence next will be DX11, then DX12 , DX13 etc, each containing all of the functions of the previous versions together with new functions for new technology. The developement of DirectX has nothing to do with the next OS from MS other than compatibility.
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i like the ps3 better i can play all games at high resolutions regardless..
and yes consoles do have new features after a year of coming out... duuhh that goes back to the sega genesis 32 bit addon, dumb retard..
i.e. playstation home , movie download service.
better games , better graphics, and let me see a cell processor in your pc right now or in the next five years thats affordable. the cell will take up for your direct x 10 with more alogrithims and power and more explosions at once and being able to generate more realistic enviroments due to better horsepower all at once your pc is like a 4CYLINDER PICKUP, PS3 IS LIKE A V8 DODGE HEMMY THEY BOTH HAVE GOOD GRAPHICS BUT MY HEMMY WILL OUTRUN AND PULL MORE ***** THAN YOUR LOWSY PC, MICROSOFT + *****
IF YOU DONT HAVE A MAC WITHIN THE NEXT FIVE YEARS YOU WILL BE BEHIND THE TIMES, MOST MACS ARE PPC'S AND THE PS3 IS AS SUCH.. I MEAN GEARS IS COMING TO MAC SOON ENOUGH.
YOU ARE SUCH A TOOL AND YOU PROBABLY USE NORTAN ANTI-VIRUS WHICH SAYS ENOUGH TO ME THAT YOU ARE A COMPLETE NOOB TO COMPUTERS.. I HAVE HAD 24 YRS OF EXPERIANCE AND AM 27 YRS OLD, AND I KNOW YOU ARE USING NORTAN OR MCAFEE YOU DUMB IDIOT KIDD!!!
HOW DO YOU LIKE THEM APPLES ...
GET A MAC, THEN YOU CAN SAY YOU AT LEAST HAVE SOMTHING WORTHY OF FUTURE COMPETITION... THEY AT LEAST ARE POWER PC'S
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My machine is getting close to two years old (with the exception of the 8800GTX) and I'm playing Lost Plant at 1600X1200 with everything but AA on max.
Even in three months time I'll be playing Crysis (hopefully, hurry up already!) with all the settings turned up which will push my video card to a year old and the rest of my PC to over two years old.
Lies, lies and more lies....
HAHAHA!!! this guys claims to be 27 with 24 years experience....HAHAHAH!!!! What an idiot. Gotta love those 3 year old computer experts!
He thinks that the PS3 and 360 will have upgradeable hardware....HAHAHAHA!!!!
He thinks the PS3 and 360 can gain higher performance via software? HAHAHAHA!!!!
Based on his car analogy we can all tell he doesn't know jack squat about cars either...HAHAHA!!!!
He has self proclaimed experience yet he has NO CLUE that Intel is releasing 8-12 core CPUs from 2008-2010.
What a MORON! Where do these people come from?
"let me see a cell processor in your pc right now or in the next five years thats affordable."
How about next year and even more in three year? HAHAHAHA!!!!!
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1600x1200
is not as good as 1920 x 1080 noob
and when your computer is outdates form 2008-2012
like you said you will have to upgrade you computer completely including a new mother board
, so have fun dropping at least $2000 more on your pc
just to compete with the cell. you need a few more cores
or a hemmy. and i do know what i am talking about. i was using dos when you where a cum stain in your daddy's underpants!! mean while i only spent 600 bucks and you keep spending 2 g's every 3 yrs. and buy the way you will only be able to play crytek's crysis at half settings and i will be playing haze at full. by the way crysis looks like crap and it wont be out for another year at least. wow you shoot trees and they fall over same lowsy game as farcry , does not even look good and in fact looks like a cartoon.
i will be playing metal gear solid 4 and you will be crying with crytek, and crysis is coming to ps3 or did you not get the news, they said they under estimated the cell and they are programming a better version with 10 times the content on blue ray. so while your sucking gates off , i will be enjoying true hd at 1920 x 1080 and you will be plaing crysis as 1024 x 720 with 2x AA and no shadows cause your lowsy processor wont handel it , then you will cry and overclock it or your card and poof . 3000 bucks down the drain , maybe i should have just listened to jesus biatch.
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I own 2 Macs. They don't make PowerPC based Macs anymore, you retard. PPC processors are slow as SH|T coming out of my ***** compared to Intel and AMD processors.
I was completely against the thought of even buying a Mac for any reason a year ago, but they took out those worthless processors and put the real deal in their computers and I bought a Mac Mini and a Macbook and I run Kubuntu on both of them.
Also, the anti virus comment. Pure gold, if you cannot avoid getting a virus or worm or spyware and keeping it out of your system without software, you shouldn't own a computer.
Heres a hint folks, stop browzing the "free" porn sites.
Where do these people come from? Really! I want to know!
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YOUR A DUM ASS.. HERE IS THE PROOF
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BRAND SPANKING NEW!!!! GO TO THE MAC WEBSITE JACK WHOLE.......
AND IF YOU WHERE A REAL PRO FREE SOURCE KIND OF GUY YOU WOULD RUN FEDORA 7 AND NOT KUBUNTU CRAP??? FEDORA IS FAR MORE ADVANCED. YOUR OS IS WAY OUTDATED!!!!!!! !!1
AND I AM NOT REALLY JESUS DUHH
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I PROVED IT TO YOU PPC MEANS A SUPER COMPUTER WITH SEVERAL CORES AND I SHOWED IT TO YOU WITH
INTEL INSIDE..... WHAT DID YOU GUYS DECIDE TO RUN OFF CAUSE YOU CANT BACK YOUR STATEMENTS UP...
THOUGHT SO BIATCH???
I THINK I JUST SHOVED YOUR FOOT IN YOUR MOUTH...
HOW DOES IT TASTE MUDDA*****A!!!! !!
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More crap from the crap master himself!
Hilarious!
$2,000.....$3,000...which is it? Make up your mind. Your rear end must really hurt from pulling all these garbage facts from it.
DOS? What's that? After all, I'm only a three year old computer tech! HAHAHA!!!!! You are some piece of work kid.
Keep it coming....
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Gee, what was your first clue? The fact that it's called SYMANTEC NORTON ANTIVIRUS? Or the fact that the product is found on the SYMANTEC website?
HAHAHA!!!!!!!!!
Look little boy, living in your parents basement, a lot of us don't use tiny little consumer based anti-virus. Especially not that free crap you've been spouting about. I have to protect over 500 machines. Even that is small compared to many corporations.
As well, I have over 20 MACs and you aren't convincing anyone here. I have MORE trouble tickets for my 20+ MACs then I do for my 500+ PCs.
Walk your arse back to loserville you freak.
HAHAHAHA!!!!
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However, I can build a workstation with the same exact specs for LESS then the cost of a MAC.
Once again, you fail.
You have absolutely no clue.
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You're an idiot. Please STFU. Did you even read what I said in my last comment? They took out those worthless PPC processors and put Intel ones. Thats good...thats what was holding me back from purchasing a Mac.
I mean, you're an idiot on so many levels and whats funny is that you're convinced that you're so right that you're blind about how dumb you actully are.
I use Kubuntu because I like Kubuntu. Theres many different flavors of Linux. Serverwise, Kubuntu is a better option for me. I don't really need Fedora fluff. You misunderstood me yet again. I'm not a "REAL PRO FREE SOURCE KIND OF GUY". I couldn't give a ***** if something was open source or not. I just need computers to do my tasks
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We have lives, families and responsibilitie s. You should try them out sometime.
"I PROVED IT TO YOU PPC MEANS A SUPER COMPUTER WITH SEVERAL CORES"
WWWWWWRRRRRROOOOOOONNNNNNGGGGGG!!!!!
PPC + RISC Processor
How does it feel to fail so often in life?
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