Porting From PC to Console Is Doing Things Backwards, Says Rage Dev

[Rad Party God]

Well, I guess I know what to expect.

At least if the port is as good as Capcom's games (port wise) or Borderlands at the very least, then I'm fine with it.

 

[DSK-]

Why not, if at all possible so long as there are enough resources and man power focus on both console and PC versions? that way both player bases won't have to look forward to shitty ports (from both platforms), poorly optimised and poorly accessible games.

I don't care what version you do first, so long as the game running on my platform of choice isn't an experience of complete misery and anguish.

 

[ImprovizoR]

So what he said basically is that it's easier to make a dumbed down game and port it to PC just the way it is, than to make a complex game and try to dumb it down for the console controller. It makes sense in business side of things, but it doesn't make sense if you're talking about the overall quality of the game because quality will suffer. But that's not something most console gamers are preoccupied about. If it was they wouldn't all jump to buy CoD every year.

 

[CleverCover]

And this thread is just going to dissolve into console versus PC, isn't it?

Damn, isn't this war getting really freaking old. Why does it matter that he's going to make a game fit one type of console and then bring it over to re-fit it to another? I don't understand why everyone feels the need to suddenly toss him off a cliff for betrayal.

He's still going to make the game. People are still going to buy it and play it.
If it's fun and great, no one's gonna care that it was a console port. If it wasn't, then I guess it has to be the fact that it was a port. From either side.

It's like a love/hate thing that is trapped in a Big Rigs level from hell or something.

 

[Arehexes]

I wonder how many of the hard core PC gamers are pissing their pants in rage?

 

[Double A]

Well, I guess it's nice to get your priorities straight. As long as devs realize that you can't play strategy games on a console, I'll be at least somewhat content. RPGs should be played on PCs, though, as they don't handle nearly as well on consoles. Don't really give a fuck about how shooters are made right now. Hope it works out for their hardcore fans in the end.

Still, it's saddening to see that the once-great PC is becoming less and less popular ever month, but is still the better platform for gaming. Can't really do anything about it because console players are incredibly stubborn when it comes to talking to them about the subject.

Wait... maybe if we talk to people about buying a PC for gaming when new consoles come out?

Just don't blame pirates when no PC player buys a console port

I can tell you right now I won't be purchasing it, yet have plans to play it.

id wants to play the backstabber game, well they can live by that path. Battlefield 3 is proof enough of just how much shit they are full of.

Given the rules of the site that's on a knife's edge

He's totally saying he's going to borrow it from a friend.

 

[Astalano]

Also, doesn't 2/3rds of sales on consoles mean that 1/3rd is the PC, 1/3rd is 360 and 1/3rd is PS3? Doesn't that also mean they make more money from the PC sales?

I don't understand this logic.

 

[Azaraxzealot]

Just don't blame pirates when no PC player buys a console port

well doesn't that just compound the problem? those who pirate games discourage developers from trying hard. the more people pirate, the less developers want to support the platform it gets pirated on (which is most often the PC).

 

[Azaraxzealot]

RPGs should be played on PCs, though, as they don't handle nearly as well on consoles.

Fallout and Oblivion seem to do just fine.

Along with Dragon Age, Fable, Torchlight, Castle Crashers, The Witcher 2 (which is coming out on xbox), Demon's Souls, and the upcoming Skyrim.

maybe you mean "classic" RPGs?

 

[HassEsser]

So, id and IW are following the same route? Being supported and utterly built up by the PC community, before letting money and sales get in the way and saying "fuck you" to group that created them?

Shameful.

RPGs should be played on PCs, though, as they don't handle nearly as well on consoles.

Fallout and Oblivion seem to do just fine.

Along with Dragon Age, Fable, Torchlight, Castle Crashers, The Witcher 2 (which is coming out on xbox), Demon's Souls, and the upcoming Skyrim.

maybe you mean "classic" RPGs?

They seem to do fine to you because you've never played them on a computer properly. If, lets say, you eat doo-doo for your entire life, then of course you're going to think doo-doo is just fine. Honestly, Fallout, Oblivion, Dragon Age, Fable and Torchlight play much, much, much better on PC. No lie. (also, Castle Crashers? uhh k)

 

[ph0b0s123]

-snip-

If you watch the whole interview he is very clear that PC's are 10x more powerful and its shocking how mediocre the difference is given that difference in hardware. Of course it will look better on PC, everything does. The difference is NOT EVEN CLOSE to what you would expect from 10x superior hardware.

It was a good interview he talked a lot aboiut development cycles and how shooting for top teir graphics can hamper your development.

The PC is 10x more powerful but you and Carmack are mystified as to why that difference in power is not being demonstrated...

I thought Carmack was smart. Bitching about the PC not showing it's potential while also stating that your next game will focus mainly on what consoles are capable of. These two things are related you know.

I have heard this put forwards a few times about why with all it's 'supposed' extra power is the PC not showing off that extra power. I wonder why. Maybe if someone develops a title for it that uses all of that power, even if it means that the title won't work on consoles. But that won't happen as it would be financial suicide at the moment. So we are stuck in a situation of the PC under delivering what it is capable of because the market is not big enough to support the investment needed to use that extra power, but due to it under performing the market never gets any bigger. Catch 22 or what.

But console gamers be warned you will be having the same problem soon as there is a bigger gaming market than even yours arriving soon. I expect ID to be mainly focusing on mobile devices next time around, making all their staff play the game with the touch interface before using a joypad. Damn those awful mobile ports.

 

[mjc0961]

People are probably going to be mad at them over it. I say good job, as long as they take time to make the PC version take advantage mouse and keyboard properly. A bad PC port is still just as annoying as a bad console port, even though less people will be bitching about it.

 

[Vault boy Eddie]

Being primarily a PC gamer, I don't see a problem with this, I mean, how can you mess up aiming with a mouse? The problem comes when deciding if a port will be worth getting or will it be full of bugs and whatnot, cause if there is no demo for the game and seeing as how you can't return PC games(at least where I live you can't) you might be stuck with a POS you can't play, this happened to me with Black Ops.

 

[bombadilillo]

-snip-

If you watch the whole interview he is very clear that PC's are 10x more powerful and its shocking how mediocre the difference is given that difference in hardware. Of course it will look better on PC, everything does. The difference is NOT EVEN CLOSE to what you would expect from 10x superior hardware.

It was a good interview he talked a lot aboiut development cycles and how shooting for top teir graphics can hamper your development.

The PC is 10x more powerful but you and Carmack are mystified as to why that difference in power is not being demonstrated...

I thought Carmack was smart. Bitching about the PC not showing it's potential while also stating that your next game will focus mainly on what consoles are capable of. These two things are related you know.

I have heard this put forwards a few times about why with all it's 'supposed' extra power is the PC not showing off that extra power. I wonder why. Maybe if someone develops a title for it that uses all of that power, even if it means that the title won't work on consoles. But that won't happen as it would be financial suicide at the moment. So we are stuck in a situation of the PC under delivering what it is capable of because the market is not big enough to support the investment needed to use that extra power, but due to it under performing the market never gets any bigger. Catch 22 or what.

But console gamers be warned you will be having the same problem soon as there is a bigger gaming market than even yours arriving soon. I expect ID to be mainly focusing on mobile devices next time around, making all their staff play the game with the touch interface before using a joypad. Damn those awful mobile ports.

Nobodies mystified. Way to state what everybody else already said. And there are plenty of games that are pc only and still dont look too good!

 

[Vault boy Eddie]

-snip-

If you watch the whole interview he is very clear that PC's are 10x more powerful and its shocking how mediocre the difference is given that difference in hardware. Of course it will look better on PC, everything does. The difference is NOT EVEN CLOSE to what you would expect from 10x superior hardware.

It was a good interview he talked a lot aboiut development cycles and how shooting for top teir graphics can hamper your development.

The PC is 10x more powerful but you and Carmack are mystified as to why that difference in power is not being demonstrated...

I thought Carmack was smart. Bitching about the PC not showing it's potential while also stating that your next game will focus mainly on what consoles are capable of. These two things are related you know.

I have heard this put forwards a few times about why with all it's 'supposed' extra power is the PC not showing off that extra power. I wonder why. Maybe if someone develops a title for it that uses all of that power, even if it means that the title won't work on consoles. But that won't happen as it would be financial suicide at the moment. So we are stuck in a situation of the PC under delivering what it is capable of because the market is not big enough to support the investment needed to use that extra power, but due to it under performing the market never gets any bigger. Catch 22 or what.

But console gamers be warned you will be having the same problem soon as there is a bigger gaming market than even yours arriving soon. I expect ID to be mainly focusing on mobile devices next time around, making all their staff play the game with the touch interface before using a joypad. Damn those awful mobile ports.

This. This so very much. PCs can be advanced as hell, but the console are basically PCs from a few years ago, so games have to be downgraded to that tech. If they were to use the full potential of available technology, they would have to make 2 full games.

 

[DaHero]

I'm a PC-only gamer and all I can say is I respect the priorities he has and sticks to them.

At least PC gamers have a fair warning about how it's going to be and can then make educated purchases and how to expect the finished product.

I understand and respect that consoles heavily outweigh myself and other PC gamers when it comes to buying power, but (and this might be a little selfish), I can think of a good reason why porting from console to PC is a bad idea: It won't take advantage of what the PC has to offer.

While there have been a couple exceptions (Chronicles of Riddick being a good example), most of the console -> PC ports I've seen have a noticably different feel than a straight PC-developed title. For example, Mass Effect 2 has the spacebar do about five different functions, rather than allowing us to map all those functions to separate keys. Nothing gamebreaking, but frustrating nonetheless. What -is- aggravating is how low resolution the textures can be in the game, especially on characters. It looks fine on an HDTV, but it looks cringe-worthy on a PC.

If you develop a game for the console with plans to port it to PC later, what business incentive is there to optimize the port with better visuals and customizable controls to take advantage of modern PC's? I can't think of any, as most of your sales will be on console anyway. And that's my problem. If you're going to do multiplatform development, tailor the game to each platform and utilize each platform's strengths.

No the sad thing is that it would have been REALLY easy to do that and they didn't.

No really, take like a day at best, it's just an input control.

 

[JediMB]

~snip~

Misleading article is misleading.

Rage is tech-wise being developed for PC first, and as such the porting goes from PC to consoles.

All Hollenshead is saying is that they have to make sure that the gameplay works with the traditional console gamepad from the start, rather than slimming down the controls later on.

 

[octafish]

And John Carmack said almost the exact opposite.

Well one is a businessman and one is the high lord god of all nerds. I expect with id it won't be a shoddy port, they have the talent and the work ethic to do a good job. I must say I prefer DICE's approach though.

 

[ManiacEskimo]

And they just guaranteed one less sale on the PC until its dirt cheap on a Steam sale.