Rumor: Microsoft Killed PC/Xbox Cross Platform Play

[garfoldsomeoneelse]

TWO COPIES!?!11You best be explainin the story, because I'm not a fan of that game and knowing someone has two copies for no good reason makes me mad.

Sure thing, I just didn't include it with the original post because I'm trying to dull my long-winded tendencies. Anyway, here's the short version: Xbox 360 RROD'd, and I knew I was going to remain unemployed with absolutely nothing to do for the entire month it was away at the repair center. I had a hundred dollars to my name, so I drove off to Best Buy in search of a game that I'd be able to play for an entire month straight. So, I settled on MW2's multiplayer, because despite its imperfection, you can't deny the fact that it's easy to get caught up in it for hours at a time.

Unfortunately, I ended up dropping sixty dollars on a game that I already owned without playing it for more than ten hours or so. Apparently, NAT settings (which made it nigh-impossible to find a game on Live) are universal buzzkills, and I still got shitty hook-ups from the game servers.

 

[Andy Chalk]

Microsoft pitted the best console players using control pads against "mediocre" PC gamers with mice and keyboards and found that the console players were "destroyed every time." It was apparently so bad, he wrote, that cross-platform play would have been an embarrassment to the Xbox team.

ATTENTION ALL BUTTON-MASHERS:

Don't feel too bad about it. Just try not to poke yourselves in the eye while you're flailing around trying to shoot each other.

 

[Irridium]

Didn't the PS3 version of Unreal Tournament 3 have cross-platform play? How well did that work?

No, the PS3 version could play mods, but the players couldn't play together.

OT: Huh, so its another thing Microsoft silently abandoned without telling anyone. Like Backwards compatibility. Awesome.

 

[WilliamRLBaker]

and this has a single thing to do with skill? no it has to do with controls, PC users get mouse and keyboard, and console users get a controller..the KB+M is going to win in FPS games every time.

 

[CmdrGoob]

But in fast paced games, console gamers would have a mobility advantage, as WASD isn't all that great for movement...

Huh.
And yet those PC gamers seem to move so fast...

 

[frago roc]

I personally think crossing them over isn't the best idea. PC wise we have mod tools, precision aiming with a mouse, custom maps, hackers (sadly) etc. It would just be too much programming, test-trial and error.

It would be good to see it one day where it IS balanced, but it wont be anytime soon.

As far as hacks are concern, both 360 and PC are plagued I'm afraid. Usually I don't jump on the band wagon witch hunt, but MW2 for 360 is a mess with hacked lobbies and auto-aimers.

 

[tehroc]

There's no a lot of difference between the 360 controller and a keyboard+mouse if you put the sensitivity at it's higest.

Yes there is. A mouse goes exactly where you point it in relation from your mouse pad to monitor depending on you sensitivity. No fine aiming required. The analog stick moves faster the further away from center, in order to fine tune your shots you have to find a happy spot in between full move and less movement. Matter of fact if controller were not inherently inferior there wouldn't be double tapping snap aiming.

Other genres do favor the analog controller though, anything involving driving or flying.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

*sniggers*

But does anyone think that The Xbox TF2 team could even stand against a weak PC TF2 team?

 

[Potato21]

But in fast paced games, console gamers would have a mobility advantage, as WASD isn't all that great for movement...

WASD is actually better, we can switch from strafing left to strafing right far faster since we switch which button is depressed rather than moving a stick. May be a very small benefit but the stick is a slight hindrance due to size. WASD is better for movement in this regards. Sure, its limited to 9 directions, but the speed we can shift it, along with how quickly PC players can adjust their aim means they're still faster at movement and aim. Plus, even though the tactic would never be useful, we can circle strafe side step bunny hop crouch jump while reloading and firing all at the same time without contorting our hands at all

I see a lot of posts saying access to the console, mods, and then the hacking argument against PC. The thing is, you're not allowed to use any console commands that give you an advantage in a game (unless you're the admin and you're a jerk but you don't encounter many of those, often they'll give everyone the bonus for fun), mods need to be played on servers running that mod, and hackers are banned by admins as soon as they start zipping around a million miles per hour or you see their aim snap to people (its really obvious). These are not problems you face when you load up TF2 or Battlefield or any other game you play since PC gamers can self monitor the game unlike consoles and individual servers can deal with people who glitch or hack.

 

[jamesworkshop]

But in fast paced games, console gamers would have a mobility advantage, as WASD isn't all that great for movement...

Huh.
And yet those PC gamers seem to move so fast...

Even older games required good agility from PC players

 

[frago roc]

I grew up on FPS for PC, so naturally I feel I am at least a little biased towards PC. That being said I only own MW2 for xbox, and although I usually rank top in most lobbies, I still feel frustrated in some instances. Mainly, mouse acceleration is a million times better than joystick acceleration, it's hard to explain but in PC when your aim is off by a few pixels, you can move your mouse to fix the aim, but I feel most the time on console I end up moving my character to the left/right to fix my aim because the joystick is just too clumsy...

 

[mad825]

YAY!

I guess now PC vs Console threads can now die in peace while knowing who is the true master race

.......So I would at least think....

 

[Ironic Pirate]

Spoiler: Did I miss anybody?

But in fast paced games, console gamers would have a mobility advantage, as WASD isn't all that great for movement...

WASD is actually better, we can switch from strafing left to strafing right far faster since we switch which button is depressed rather than moving a stick. May be a very small benefit but the stick is a slight hindrance due to size. WASD is better for movement in this regards. Sure, its limited to 9 directions, but the speed we can shift it, along with how quickly PC players can adjust their aim means they're still faster at movement and aim. Plus, even though the tactic would never be useful, we can circle strafe side step bunny hop crouch jump while reloading and firing all at the same time without contorting our hands at all

I see a lot of posts saying access to the console, mods, and then the hacking argument against PC. The thing is, you're not allowed to use any console commands that give you an advantage in a game (unless you're the admin and you're a jerk but you don't encounter many of those, often they'll give everyone the bonus for fun), mods need to be played on servers running that mod, and hackers are banned by admins as soon as they start zipping around a million miles per hour or you see their aim snap to people (its really obvious). These are not problems you face when you load up TF2 or Battlefield or any other game you play since PC gamers can self monitor the game unlike consoles and individual servers can deal with people who glitch or hack.

But in fast paced games, console gamers would have a mobility advantage, as WASD isn't all that great for movement...

Huh.
And yet those PC gamers seem to move so fast...

But in fast paced games, console gamers would have a mobility advantage, as WASD isn't all that great for movement...

Uh...Yes it is...

Like I said, handicaps were put in place on the PC version:

"Because of the lack of 'pixel-accuracy' with the Xbox 360 analog thumbstick, the designers have included an aim-assisting technology, which basically interpolates the player's movement and causes the reticle to stay over an enemy player like a weak magnet. In addition, FASA has implemented a feature which causes the cross-hair to expand during quick movements, thus lowering the player's accuracy, making it impossible to quickly turn and maintain accuracy, reducing the potential advantage of playing with a mouse.[7][8] PC players, who have a more sensitive control scheme, are able to turn significantly faster than their controller-using counterparts and would have gained an unfair advantage."

(Wikipedia)

I also remember reading that the crosshairs on the PC version would wobble around slightly.

You beat me to it, I guess a lot of xbox players didn't realize this? It was only the main topic of discussion every Shadowrun game I got in.

But in fast paced games, console gamers would have a mobility advantage, as WASD isn't all that great for movement...

Which is why you come up with a new control scheme that isn't so [f**kING G*DA*NED] cramped with your hands.

But in fast paced games, console gamers would have a mobility advantage, as WASD isn't all that great for movement...

Try strafe jumping with a controller, or any fast paced FPS manoeuvre.

You couldn't do any of the hard jumps in Quake or Warsow with a controller.

But in fast paced games, console gamers would have a mobility advantage, as WASD isn't all that great for movement...

lol I find it much better than a joystick. Combine that with the mouse accuracy, and you have a much more efficient way of playing any fast paced game

Okay, what I meant by that, is that the analog stick is slightly more natural to movement, it's an "analog" to moving. The people in the videos are moving fast, yes, I realize that. I'm not much of a PC gamer, and when I've seen friends play it they tended to get stuck on corners a bit more.

I thought that meant this was a bit more common then it apparently was, and made a post based on that. Apparently my friends just suck, or maybe that game did.

No hard feelings, right?

 

[Gildan Bladeborn]

Sood sources claim that the Microsoft pitted the best console players using control pads against "mediocre" PC gamers with mice and keyboards and found that the console players were "destroyed every time."

This seems highly unlikely to me. But it'll be music to the ears of the PC elitists of course...

I can't really comment on the veracity of this fellow's statements, or whether there would have been a PC renaissance had cross-platform connectivity remained on the table, but the disparity between the best console FPS players vs mediocre PC FPS players has been demonstrated before - staff from Official X-Box magazine challenged staff members of PC Gamer to a Halo competition.

Now Halo isn't cross-platform interactive, but since there was a PC port and it allowed you to plug in and use the X-Box controller, they could essentially simulate the console vs PC experience, while also eliminating any niggling doubt about hardware discrepancies, as the machines themselves were identical and only the control method differed. Using that setup, the team of extremely experienced Halo players from X-Box Magazine, who knew the maps in and out and played Halo Deathmatch all the time... were handily trounced by a team consisting of Halo newbies, it was a one-sided pouncing match for the folks using mice.

Gamepads are simply an inferior control option when the title in consideration is an FPS - developers program in all sorts of behind the scenes "cheats" to counterbalance how analog sticks are a terrible option for precisely aiming at things, and even if the game presents you with options to turn aiming assistance off it will still leave the rest of the tricks it's using to counterbalance your shitty aim in place - the alternative is a game that is basically unplayable and no fun for anyone.

Which is fine really, consoles are an active market segment and FPS titles are quite popular on consoles, irrespective of their interfaces not really being well designed to play them. But when you pit people who have mastered the art of distance running by walking on their hands against regular old marathon runners who use their legs for the purpose of locomotion, only a crazy person would conclude that running along by balancing on your hands upside down is going to put you at an advantage against people running normally - you're going to lose, badly.

Which is why more FPS games aren't made that let people on the PC compete with people on the X-Box, and why the ones that have employed coding tricks to try and 'gimp' the PC players - it's the only way to (somewhat) level the playing field if one side is stuck using an analog stick to aim - there's a good reason we don't all have joysticks sitting to one side of our keyboards instead of mice.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

It does make sense, it is much easier to move and shoot on the PC then the Xbox, making it moving targets against standing still targets.

 

[uppitycracker]

Okay, what I meant by that, is that the analog stick is slightly more natural to movement, it's an "analog" to moving. The people in the videos are moving fast, yes, I realize that. I'm not much of a PC gamer, and when I've seen friends play it they tended to get stuck on corners a bit more.

I thought that meant this was a bit more common then it apparently was, and made a post based on that. Apparently my friends just suck, or maybe that game did.

No hard feelings, right?

lol no hard feelings at all, i see how you gained that perspective. but yeah, at least in my experience, you can get much more natural movements with the combination of the mouse and the WASD keys. naturally it takes them both, just like dual analog sticks, but it certainly feels and looks much more natural to me, anyway. ultimately it's preference, and what works best for the individual, but this is what works for me.

 

[Andy Chalk]

Microsoft pitted the best console players using control pads against "mediocre" PC gamers with mice and keyboards and found that the console players were "destroyed every time." It was apparently so bad, he wrote, that cross-platform play would have been an embarrassment to the Xbox team.

Just to be clear, that's "destroyed" as in "taking a righteous ass-kicking up one side and down the other," not "destroyed" as in "oops, my shoddily-constructed game console has broken and those funny little lights are flashing at me again," right?

There's a lot of potential for confusion here and I just want to make sure we're all up to speed.

 

[Loonerinoes]

Microsoft pitted the best console players using control pads against "mediocre" PC gamers with mice and keyboards and found that the console players were "destroyed every time." It was apparently so bad, he wrote, that cross-platform play would have been an embarrassment to the Xbox team.

Just to be clear, that's "destroyed" as in "taking a righteous ass-kicking up one side and down the other," not "destroyed" as in "oops, my shoddily-constructed game console has broken and those funny little lights are flashing at me again," right?

There's a lot of potential for confusion here and I just want to make sure we're all up to speed.

I...I really shouldn't...

BWAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH...

So sorry...I'm personally too nice a guy to get into the whole 'PC master race' thing and would prefer to say 'each to his own' anytime I could...and I know others might see this as some form of kissing ass or such...

...but I don't care about preceptions at this point. That was...*head-desks in laughter-induced tears*

 

[Treblaine]

There was never a golden age of PC gaming, at least no more than there is today. (peak of 2.3 million Steam users every day, against peak 2.2 million Xbox Live Gold users)

Home consoles have ALWAYS been more popular in seer numbers at least as they are simply easier to market and in fact their entire business model is based around getting the most number of units out there.

PC gaming practically by it's definition is for smaller, niche market and offering better performance. Just like surround-sound, it's hard to set up and can get very expensive (if you don't buy smart) though it is still better than plain old built in stereo-speakers/set-standard-consoles.

But in fast paced games, console gamers would have a mobility advantage, as WASD isn't all that great for movement...

Really? Sure that is an inherent thing or rather a matter of familiarity with one or another.

For zig-zagging it is easy to hold-W and alternate tapping between A and D. You have three fine fingers for movement rather than 1 thumb. Circle strafing too is very easy with WASD and though have a thumb ALWAYS on space bar ready to jump, and a pinkie ALWAYS ready to sprint/crouch.

Take a look at this example:

This IS the PC version of MW2, this player sprints and while holding-W (run forward) but by very quickly flicking the mouse left-to-right this is a very fast zig-zag that even head on is very hard to hit. And then he face-knife stabs 'em. You just can't change directions as quick with a thumbstick and simultaneously have in any way workable stick-sensitivity.

An analogue stick only really has an advantage with racing games where you need very subtle and continuous adjustments to turning... but whether Console or PC you are best to get an actual wheel and pedals.