Painkiller Dev Can't See The Benefit of PS4 Over Gaming PC

[Steven Bogos]

Painkiller Dev Can't See The Benefit of PS4 Over Gaming PC

Nordic Games' business development manager says they made a remake of Painkiller in order to bring the spirit of old school shooters to console gamers.

Fresh on the heels of Nvidia Gaming Bolt. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/122736-Nvidia-Claims-PS4-Is-Only-as-Good-as-a-Low-End-PC]

"We will monitor further development closely and are also in a stage, where we evaluate certain game concepts for this hardware," added Pollice, telling us that Nordic Games is not quite convinced of the PS4's merit, and will opt into a "wait-and-see" approach for the console. "Even a great platform sometimes isn't able to convince a critical mass. A lot of factors are important here. Plus we are not in the position to be under the obligatory first-movers in that sense, so we will be careful for the time being."

Pollice then went on to talk about Nordic Games' upcoming FPS: Painkiller: Hell and Damnation, specifically, why the company opted to do a remake rather than a sequel. "We brainstormed a lot here and had ideas looking into a lot of different directions about a new Painkiller game," he revealed.

"We ended up concluding that the market is lacking a key element of the original Painkiller, that 'old school' element. So we decided that our game should be in the spirit of old school shooter games. We also noticed especially that console gamers never really had a chance to get into Painkiller, which is why we decided to take that route," said Pollice.

Painkiller: Hell and Damnation is scheduled for release on April 5 for the Xbox 360 and PS3.

Source: Gaming Bolt [http://gamingbolt.com/no-real-benefit-in-buying-ps4-over-gaming-pc-nordic-games-bm]

Permalink

 

[Frostbite3789]

Pbbbbth. These aren't even the guys who made the original good Painkiller. They made the expansions/far less good new ones.

 

[Urabutln]

These industry people slamming the consoles have a point, sure, but they are also speaking from a bubble of total blindness to pricing structures, since they don't have to pay for their stuff themselves. Yes, The PS4 might be akin to a $800 PC, and you could get a monster PC for $1600 that would blow it out of the water, on paper.

But the reality is that the PS4 (and the new XBOX) will cost between $300 and $500, and its unified architecture means that developers will know exactly what kind of machine they're making their game for, resulting in some serious optimization. I mean these comments were bandied about when the X360 and the PS3 came out as well - they still sold 170 million units between them, and their software was impressive long after their hardware was all but obsolete.

 

[RicoADF]

These industry people slamming the consoles have a point, sure, but they are also speaking from a bubble of total blindness to pricing structures, since they don't have to pay for their stuff themselves. Yes, The PS4 might be akin to a $800 PC, and you could get a monster PC for $1600 that would blow it out of the water, on paper.

But the reality is that the PS4 (and the new XBOX) will cost between $300 and $500, and its unified architecture means that developers will know exactly what kind of machine they're making their game for, resulting in some serious optimization. I mean these comments were bandied about when the X360 and the PS3 came out as well - they still sold 170 million units between them, and their software was impressive long after their hardware was all but obsolete.

Agreed. Also another point that consoles have is that they just work, no technical knowledge other than plug into TV required. Don't get me wrong I love my PC's (I built them myself and bought a laptop), and I use them more than any of my consoles now. However I can see the role they serve and the advantages they have. I think it speaks volumes of the industry that negativity and condeming others in the industry like this is so common and routines. Rather saddening.

 

[Smooth Operator]

"PS4 blows! Also we are releasing our new game shortly, be sure to check it out." - completely legit

 

[47_Ronin]

They'll jump on board as soon as there is a marked for their games, no matter how legitimate their criticism might be. But I'll say, if there is something modern games do not need, it would be the old school feeling. I've had that for 20 years now, come up with something new already.

 

[Terramax]

Dear all PC loving devs,


No matter how much you moan how superior PCs are to consoles, consoles are here to stay, so suck it up.

Yours sincerely,


The rest of the world.

EDIT: For clarification, I play both PC and console games. I'm just fed up of devs making these pointless comments. Both have pros and cons. People have only had since the 80's do deal with it.

 

[Lord_Gremlin]

A highly specialized device is always better at what it does than a more universal one.
@Frostbite3789 They actually have several guys who worked on the original. Of course, the most important and prominent guys are all working for Epic Games now. But they do have some members of the old team.

 

[Phishfood]

These industry people slamming the consoles have a point, sure, but they are also speaking from a bubble of total blindness to pricing structures, since they don't have to pay for their stuff themselves. Yes, The PS4 might be akin to a $800 PC, and you could get a monster PC for $1600 that would blow it out of the water, on paper.

But the reality is that the PS4 (and the new XBOX) will cost between $300 and $500, and its unified architecture means that developers will know exactly what kind of machine they're making their game for, resulting in some serious optimization. I mean these comments were bandied about when the X360 and the PS3 came out as well - they still sold 170 million units between them, and their software was impressive long after their hardware was all but obsolete.

Agreed. Also another point that consoles have is that they just work, no technical knowledge other than plug into TV required. Don't get me wrong I love my PC's (I built them myself and bought a laptop), and I use them more than any of my consoles now. However I can see the role they serve and the advantages they have. I think it speaks volumes of the industry that negativity and condeming others in the industry like this is so common and routines. Rather saddening.

Yeah, it's all well and good saying there is no difference from ps4 to pc being good with PCs, however I know people that struggle with anything on a computer. For them, a console where they can buy a disc, put it in and play is going to be far better than a box with a load of numbers that they have to compare to their PC. Not to mention, most people HAVE a tv, so the cost is literally just the console. PC you have to buy everything, in theory anyway. Take away the cost of a decent monitor from the cost of a console and you don't have much left for parts.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

A highly specialized device is always better at what it does than a more universal one.
@Frostbite3789 They actually have several guys who worked on the original. Of course, the most important and prominent guys are all working for Epic Games now. But they do have some members of the old team.

I think you'll find that Wild Flying Hog now has the bulk of the creative team from the original Painkiller.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Not to mention, most people HAVE a tv, so the cost is literally just the console. PC you have to buy everything, in theory anyway. Take away the cost of a decent monitor from the cost of a console and you don't have much left for parts.

If only there was some sort of High Definition Multimedia Interface that could allow people to run their PCs through TVs!

 

[Tien Shen]

I get the feeling Escapist is reporting on all these devs opinions on consoles vs PC just to generate attention and traffic, oh wait....

 

[Robetid]

It all depends on how much people want to dump into thier PC, although acording to nvidia the PS4 is only as good as a "low-end" PC, which doesnt sound too thrilling pre-launch. I've never been a playstation gamer and it doesnt look like now is the time to start.

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

And I thought wihout March Mayhem we wouldn't have any pointless flame wars this month

Can we wait till the damn thing is out before we all start ripping it apart? Granted a ps4 is going to be outperformed easily by mid to high end gaming PCs with the gap only widdening as the years go by. However power alone is not the soul factor people considered when weihing up a pc or console purchase.

 

[Phishfood]

If only there was some sort of High Definition Multimedia Interface that could allow people to run their PCs through TVs!

Sure, but again - average person. They aren't going to think of that, they are going to go to PC world and buy a complete PC with a 50% markup.

 

[Stalydan]

Not to mention, most people HAVE a tv, so the cost is literally just the console. PC you have to buy everything, in theory anyway. Take away the cost of a decent monitor from the cost of a console and you don't have much left for parts.

If only there was some sort of High Definition Multimedia Interface that could allow people to run their PCs through TVs!

I'd like to interject here with the knowledge that a TV doesn't compare to a monitor with how good the picture quality looks, especially if you're running it through HDMI. My flatmate built his PC in January and wouldn't get his monitor for about a week. Until he did, it was ran on his TV through the HDMI and it really didn't look as good when he used his monitor instead.

OT: I would get a gaming PC if I could afford one and wasn't interested in the game set I'd get for a PS4. As was mentioned above, there's a lot of fiddling around with settings when you get a game on a PC, making sure it runs well on your own set up. With a console, I just put the game on and I shouldn't have to worry about it not running.

 

[Kargathia]

I get the feeling Escapist is reporting on all these devs opinions on consoles vs PC just to generate attention and traffic, oh wait....

You're not the only one with that feeling. The sad part is they should recognize they're preaching to the choir and practically flame-baiting.

Hey, if people are stupid enough to be flamebaited by articles like this, then I honestly can't blame them if they keep posting them - it's news relevant to the gaming industry, and they can use the pageviews.

Chances are anyway that reality will be rather boring: not as great as its fans envision, and not as terrible as its detractors are proclaiming.