Xbox 360 Easier to Use for Skyrim Demonstrations, Says Bethesda

[dillinger88]

snip

Hey in fairness the consoles give these developers more money than the PC. Its a bigger market and its quite arrogant for disliking their wanting to expand. The Pc is not as big. End of.

I never said in my post that I didn't want them to develop for consoles. I think it's perfectly reasonable to expand to other platforms. Unlike a lot of PC elitists, I fully support it. It just seems incredibly strange to me that it's now the norm to develop primarily for consoles then porting to PC, when the other way round just makes so much more sense. Once you've put the leg work in so that it runs stable over many permutations of different components it should be a doddle to port across to consoles. All the while making best use of modern PC hardware.

If a company wants to make console exclusives, that's fine. I have 360 to play them on. If they're going cross-platform, it seems like they're doing it backwards.

 

[Spygon]

Good thinking Bethseda as i always feel something that is missing in games at the moment is "the blown away" moment because compaines put the best looking part or major moment in their trailers.

I miss the wow moments that have been replaced with "oh i have seen that in the trailer. or its looks the worse than in the trailer"

 

[Easton Dark]

Were they? Could have sworn they were using a PC.

It would appear that indeed was the ps3 and xbox footage they were showing.

If you went to our press conference, you saw the PS3 footage and the Xbox footage.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/111005-EA-Chief-We-Got-Koticks-Goat-With-Battlefield-3

Egg on my face then. I just saw they had a computer set-up there and.... bah. Assumptions.

 

[Sylveria]

Incoming crappy console-to-PC port with a bit more shine on the apple.

 

[NewYork_Comedian]

Totally agree with them, let PC gamers be impressed by the better visuals then have console gamers be disappointing by the graphics when the game is released.

EDIT:

Incoming crappy console-to-PC port with a bit more shine on the apple.

Wait, what? Since when has Bethesda released crappy console-to-PC ports for the Elder Scroll or Fallout series?

 

[Azaraxzealot]

and thus, PC elitists were pacified... for the next second until they found something else to complain about because they will never be satisfied.

seriously though, this guy has a point. the 360 is just easier to show, play, and work with. no wonder it's the best-selling of the HD consoles.

Accessibility, user friendliness, and reliability (at least with the new 360) have always been more important than "IT CAN DO MORE!" or "how many pixshelsh can it fit on the shcreen? derp!"

 

[Yokai]

I appreciate Mr. Howard's statement. That said, the only graphical elements I really care about in a game are high-poly models, good animation and good physics. Add good gameplay in there and the game can look like it came from 2004 shader-wise as far as I'm concerned. I'll play it on the PC, of course, but I have no problem with the graphical detail on the 360. Bethesda's being very nice about all this.

 

[gunner1905]

Don't care about the graphics. The most important thing that the PC version has compared to the console version are the mods and the ~ button (console) so that I don't get bugged to death.

 

[ResonanceGames]

That all makes sense, but I still want to see it demoed on a PC, and not just to see the graphics. They can show it off in 800X600 with all the settings on low for all I care, I just want to see if they ported it with a console UI that's going to be super clunky on the PC version again.

I don't get why developers can't get it through their heads that you have to change the UI when you port something to PC. Different controls = different interface, period. It's not difficult or expensive to change (if it were, we wouldn't have so many mods that fix them after the fact) so just do it.

 

[LuciusJose]

It's all about money people. The fact is, they will sell more copies of the game on the console.
Even so, EA blew everyone's mind with Battlefield 3's E3 demo on the PC. Bethesda could've done the same, but it's a matter of perspective...

 

[Lord_Gremlin]

So taking that into consideration, does DICE enjoy taunting console gamers?

OT: Sounds reasonable. Seems like PS3 would be just as easy to use though :l

As far as I know the real deal is that a PS3 demo should be on console HDD, so you basically need to bring a whole console with demo installed already. You can't install it from a flash memory card. Or you need a blu-ray disk with a demo, mind it - it must be signed with PS3 authentication code to boot. Developer can't just burn it via his PC blu-ray drive.
While on 360 you can put the demo on a memory stick and that's it. You just bring that stick with you at the show and can use a console that is already there.

 

[Mahorfeus]

I would love to buy the PC version, but I'm afraid my wee laptop would just explode if I even mention running it. So, the 360 version it is - not that I care. The graphics look amazing, and even if they did look better on the PC, I could give less of a damn because it's THE ELDER SCROLLS for God's sake.

(And at least the 360 version will remove the temptation of "~ --> *click* --> 'kill'")

 

[Roboto]

Should be easier. HDMI -> Screen, Xbox -> wall

PCs, especially ones good enough to max out modern games, can be unwieldy at best to move around, and not something I'd want on the show room where too many things can go wrong, like electromagnetic interference with a mouse/keyboard, gotta hook up tons of wires otherwise and even with wireless parts, and I wouldn't want to be the one responsible for the several thousand dollar piece of computer where it could very possibly be damaged.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

screw dlc, keep your fingers crossed for mods support on consoles.

if you read this sony, enable mod support on the PS3 and i will buy Skyrim on my ps3 and not my pc.
while you are at it, give us other OS back. and free pony rides.

The big roadblock for mods on consoles is that the console manufacturers want some mechanism of content control built into the system... some way of vetting mods to get rid of ones that emulate DLC, pre-order bonuses or contain 'objectionable content'... and probably blocking god item and cheat mods as well. That, or a limited toolset that makes doing any of that impossible.

Don't get me wrong, Bethesda will most likely find some way of getting mods onto consoles but almost certainly in a way that is limited compared to PC mods (for example, you can forget mods that use custom code or 3rd party addons).

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

(And at least the 360 version will remove the temptation of "~ --> *click* --> 'kill'")

Heh.. mate of mine got addicted to using 'killall' for hairy situations... until he ran into a hairy situation outside.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

I think Bethesda went the right way about it. Not only does it stop console gamers from getting false expectations but also gives some hope to gamers with older/mid-spec PCs a good idea of what to expect.

 

[Low Key]

Are some lower res textures actually pissing people off? Really? I guess I'm of the mindset that a game could have shitty graphics but still be really fun to play. *cough* Dwarf Fortress, Minecraft *cough

And I have a beastly gaming computer.

 

[Morbissus]

Wow, people really care only about graphics. You are all weak minded fools.

 

[Sandernista]

(And at least the 360 version will remove the temptation of "~ --> *click* --> 'kill'")

That's why I bought F:NV for xbox, and will buy Skyrim for xbox.