90°

Mashcast #80: I don't always play console, but when I do, I play PC.

Jarret's smugness for PC gaming just became smuggier. We discuss that plus Valve getting sued in Germany(again), why microsoft got into the console business, GameStops stock falling, and a racism debate over Tiny Tina.

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pompombrum4093d ago

With the rumours mill going crazy for next gen consoles, I guess it is time for PC gamers to be smug. If the realistic possibility of the consoles focusing more on accessibility and entertainment, chances are, whatever they are talking up, can be done on PC already in some shape or form or soon will be.

jmc88884092d ago (Edited 4092d ago )

While there is some truth in there, there are some real differences.

PC games are generally held back by consoles, but they do also have higher settings available to them, and in some cases already have settings the PS4/720 won't be able to do. (that is if the rumors of 1.2 TFlops 720 and 1.8 TFlops PS4 are true).

So really it seems the 720/PS4 will catch up to PC gaming in 2010-2011, and eventually as they learn how to use it properly probably top out at very high settings for say Battlefield 3 (not ultra settings).

Some people are smug, but many PC owners also buy at least one console. Some realize with new consoles, the quality of PC games will only go up. It forces developers to start as a baseline using more resources, and thus when they add the higher settings they are more efficient and an even higher quality.

Some of the smugness is also a reaction to idiots who try to claim a bunch of bull. When someone comes out and says something like Wii U is stronger than a PC, people laugh. Same goes with 720 and PS4. These people just guess wildly without any recognition of what's going on and assume because it's a new console it must be the most powerful state of gaming possible. Others assume PC's only get console ports. The truth is however much different. PC's get roughly yearly updates, have larger spaces to incorporate more power hungry parts and dissipate said heat, while allowing for much stronger power supplies to run those hungry parts, even multiple ones with say dual, tri, quad SLI graphics cards.

Usually smugness is the response to ignorance from the other side, whether it be between consoles, or between consoles and PC's.

MestreRothN4G4093d ago (Edited 4093d ago )

So... How nice does RDR play through YouTube?

SuperKing4093d ago

PC Gaming... where you buy a $600 GPU to play console ports. lol

kevnb4093d ago (Edited 4093d ago )

the forums sometimes make it seem that way don't they, I bought my gtx 460 for $100 3 years ago now. It might not be able to max all the higher end games, but it certainly holds up.

jmc88884092d ago

Sure whatever you say. You can lie to yourself, but not to others...and be believable.

Are there 'console ports'...sure.

But even many of the 'console ports' are much better than what 360/PS3 can do.

For one they run at 1080p not 588-604p. If someone has the display it can go much higher like 1440p, 1600p, or the insane 5760x1080p, etc.

Also they don't run on low PC textures. You have the option to go up to say...medium textures...high textures...very high textures...even ultra textures.

The sad thing is, those 'console ports' you speak of currently run at higher settings than PS4/720 will allow.

The 'port' aspect is mainly more about the control schemes, and some people's wish to have even MORE of a difference between PC ultra settings and 360/PS3 low (or below low) settings. Not having some basic other settings like FOV, which isn't a performance setting, but the field of view.

Also you don't need a $600 graphics card. You could of bought something 50 percent stronger than a PS4 and over double a 720 last year for $399, or $339 when it's been on sale for a GTX 670. By the time the PS4/720 comes out you'll already had the option to buy to buy say the Nvidia 700 series which will increase those leads by another 60 percent or so.

Plus there's more PC exclusives than Sony/MS/Nintendo offer combined.

Oh I buy ALL the consoles, and keep a good PC rig. I believe there's value in having them. But to say PC gaming is just wasting money on console ports without decided advantages is ludicrous and flat out Obama/Bush thinking...aka (lying loser thinking).

So if you thinking about power, just realize on PC in 2013 you'll be able to buy something for $399 before a PS4/720 that's about 2.5-3x faster than a PS4, and 3-3.5x faster than a 720. PC gamers will be playing games like the Samaritan demo and Watch Dogs, as 720/PS4 'next gen' consoles will start off by getting downgrade versions of PC games.

RuperttheBear4092d ago

I didn't spend $600, my 570gtx only cost £130. But it's good for playing games like the X series,the Stalker series,Company of Heroes,Civ 5,Arma 2,DayZ,Guild Wars 2 ,PlanetSide 2,Amnesia ,The Total War series, Starcraft 2, and loads of other games you can't get on console.

Along with being able to play the superior multiplats as well. Yeah, pc gaming is great.

DwightOwen4092d ago

You forgot the upcoming SimCity. Can't WAIT for that game!!!

RAYMEISTER4092d ago

Uhh no tard. Get ur facts straight. A $200 card will do just fine

profgerbik4092d ago (Edited 4092d ago )

Console Gaming... where every game is developed on a PC.

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 4092d ago
MysticStrummer4092d ago

I don't always game on PC, but when I do... Ok I don't ever game on PC. Tried it twice in my gaming career and never have understood the overall attraction. The games I want to play are on my console. *shrug*

c0nc3ptSF4091d ago

PC gaming is about control and power. With a PC you can choose whatever input you want to play your game. FPS games are definitely better on PC with mouse and keyboard, but even if you have a genre that is suited for controllers you an just plug one up to play your platformer, racer, etc.

PC's will always be more powerful than console. The 360 and PS3 were close for about a year or 2, but PC technology is FAR beyond what you'll find in a console. Better graphics, higher frame rates, and even smarter AI.

If you don't care enough for those items then I can understand someone not wanting to game on a PC. The investment is higher and requires more upkeep if you want to keep your graphics sharp and your frame rates high.

240°

Microsoft Seemingly Closes Bethesda France

As part of its plans to cut 1,900 jobs, Microsoft has reportedly shut down operations at Bethesda France, letting go roughly 15 people

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Hereandthere10h ago

Microsoft should have left them stay 3rd party

GamerRN7h ago

If they are let go, they can be whatever they want. They ARE 3rd party now... 🤦

Barlos5h ago

Yeah, they're also jobless.

peppeaccardo4m ago

"MIcrosoft leaves Bethesda do what they know how to do best" ... close! Oh the irony ....
(Citation from a week old article)

PassNextquestion9h ago(Edited 9h ago)

Bethesda France was made up of roughly 15 people... they couldn't of being doing much

Bethesda France mainly did publishing and marketing within the region

blacktiger7h ago

that's a shame for you to say that, i'm sure Elite loves hearing what you just said.

Profchaos9h ago(Edited 9h ago)

Bethesda France focused on publishing and marketing in the region. And 15 people lost their jobs as part of the closure.

I wonder if this is part of Microsoft's strategy to abandoned physical media or possibly gamepass advertising makes their roles redundant you don't need to market a game as hard when the majority of players get the game as part of a sub which already promoted upcoming games

Tacoboto9h ago

It's France too, there's a high likelihood only 1-2 people on the team even had an Xbox.

Profchaos9h ago

Possibly guven all the leaks we know the Xbox brand is really struggling in the region.

Yi-Long6h ago

Well, if your consoles and games are barely found in any stores any more, of course you're gonna struggle finding consumers ...

XiNatsuDragnel8h ago

Tbh Microsoft I think Bethesda being 3rd party same with Activision would probably more competitive than thus scenario imo

Profchaos6h ago(Edited 6h ago)

I think it would have been better for all parties really especially gamers

TheColbertinator7h ago

The recently purchased Activision French offices might take over all the licensing and marketing for Microsoft in France from now on.

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120°

Sony Could Increase Your Game's Difficulty If It Sees You Complain About It

Sony has recently published a new patent that wants to dynamically handle the games' difficulty and gameplay based on the player's emotions.

jznrpg11h ago

This is something I might use. Sometimes I play some good games but they don’t have difficulty option and are a little too easy.

Profchaos10h ago

Souls games will be like that players struggling make it harder

PassNextquestion9h ago(Edited 9h ago)

I think if used correctly it could work well

jambola6h ago

cool idea
cool idea for horror games especially
the way it's explained here sounds like it could never be forced hopefully, so that's ok with me

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280°

Xbox's Preservation Step Sets A Much-Needed Example, Especially For Nintendo

Hanzla from eXputer inquires: "If Xbox can care about preserving its games and legacy, what exactly is wrong with Nintendo, trying to kill game preservation single-handedly?"

purple10111d ago

Ahh yes the good old game preservation of saving all your games to a removable hhd on the Xbox 360, taking it round your mates house, setting up multiple tvs to
Be met with “save data corrupted, please re download”

Or how about removing 360 games
From the store
, download them now or else, and, better hope to god that save data doesn’t corrupt, or it’s lost for ever

Nice one ☝️

Zeref10d ago

It's better than what Nintendo and Playstation is doing. It might not be perfect but at least they are TRYING. Unlike the others.

DarXyde10d ago

Trying? Take off the blinders for a moment, mate.

1. A failure to preserve games is just that: a failure to preserve games. Don't try to sugarcoat it: NO ONE is doing it properly. Better than awful is nothing to write home about.

2. At the time of this comment, isn't it the case that you need an internet connection to play Xbox games even if you buy physical discs that are hardly in circulation anymore? I don't have a Series X and I can't verify, but I think that is correct. I'm fairly certain you can at least play PS5 games at version 1.0 (not much of a win really when many games require day one patches). I think Microsoft's all digital, licensing approach is by far more aggressive than anyone else's. They really try to push you to game pass where you lose your entire library by umm.... Skipping a month of payments.

I don't think anyone is doing it right whatsoever. Don't get me started on Nintendo, who goes after anyone looking to preserve their games better than they ever would with extreme litigation.

Don't be a simp for any of these companies. Get it together.

PhillyDonJawn10d ago (Edited 10d ago )

@DarX never speak on Xbox again. You lost all credibility with your internet connection comment. Smh you have 0 clue and misinformed yet speaking on something you don't no squat about.

Einhander197210d ago

What has Sony done exactly? You guys keep deflecting to Sony but I am not actually seeing any results, and ai am certain nothing that you can come up with even comes close to what Microsoft has done and what they have tried and failed to do, like tie all your disks to your account on xbone.

Microsoft removed their whole indie section when they moved to the xbone because they were going to only allow games on the service that came from a publisher, id@xbox started after xbone launched and it only exists because Sony embraced indie and Microsoft was forced to cancel their plans and reverse course.

And every single game that was part of games for windows live including disk games (I have gta 4 on disk that won't work) so hundreds of games that use that DRM no longer work unless the company themselves patched it out which of course very few did.

MrBaskerville10d ago

Not trying. Tried. they killed of the backcomp program years ago. They set something up again, but sounds like it's more of an attempt to save the current library on whatever they are planning next. With luck they save everything and more, but let's see. I could see them killing off parts of the OG xbox and 360 libraries. Can't imagine that they would allow us to play Forza 5-7 in the future.

With that said, I do like what they've done and really wish they could have done more.

shinoff218310d ago

Zeref

So killing off physical media is trying what exactly. Ms don't really give a fk if you think they do your kidding yourself.

Profchaos10d ago

They are not trying this team is established for forward compatability the team is. It interested in preserving Xbox or 360 games.

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 10d ago
isarai11d ago

Is that why Hellblade 2 is digital only?

Zeref10d ago

Just because it's digital only doesn't mean you can't preserve it. Just put it on an external and you have the exact same functionality of what a disc does.

MrNinosan10d ago

Guess you're trolling, but if you actually think that's how it works, I'd recommend buying some braincells.

mkis00710d ago (Edited 10d ago )

Volitile vs nonvolitile data. A disc will not corrupt either. A drive can be corrupted.

Einhander197211d ago

This is just a scammy PR move to distract from the fact they are going digital only and trying to push streaming and subscriptions only.

No gaming company has pushed harder to remove ownership than Microsoft.

Without discs there is no preservation, preservation can't be done by the rights holders it can only be done by the consumers, anything else is a lie.

11d ago Replies(3)
Einhander197211d ago

Anyone remember xblig which Microsoft removed their whole 360 indie section removing hundreds of games from people?

11d ago
11d ago
Zeref10d ago

Do you know you can put your games on an external and preserve them that way? There are no benefits to discs. ZERO. Idk why some of you are still obsessed with them.

DarXyde10d ago

Because games like Persona 5 exist. It's STILL V1.00. On Playstation, that's a win because 1.00 is installed on the disc—no need to download anything.

If a game does not require any updates, it's all on the disc.

Extremely low bar in the modern era, of course. It's not much of a win by any stretch.

But for now, physical media does have a purpose, at least on Playstation.

Einhander197210d ago

That is factually not how game licensing works, try plugging your hard drive into someone else xbox, It's not going to work, and it won't work if the licensing servers ever go down.

Einhander197210d ago

Anyone remember games for windows live.

I have around a dozen games, some on Steam itself that will not work because Microsoft shut off the licensing servers.

BehindTheRows10d ago (Edited 10d ago )

I do. I STILL have games (Gears of War being the big one) I cannot access because Games for Windows LIVE is total garbage and no one has held Microsoft accountable.

Zeref10d ago (Edited 10d ago )

You don't have an Xbox apparently. Because you can 100 percent plug in your external and play games from it on any Xbox console lol. You just have to be logged in to prove ownership.

Chevalier10d ago

"You don't have an Xbox apparently. Because you can 100 percent plug in your external and play games from it on any Xbox console lol. You just have to be logged in to prove ownership."

Damn how many times do people got to explain your idiocy to you? You can take a copy of Persona 5 like someone used as an example and play that game on ANY console WITHOUT logging in which means I can lend the game to a friend without internet and they can play my game. Can you lend your hard drive to anyone without logging in for them to play? NOPE. That is a huge difference and if you think otherwise then sorry you're an idiot.

Tacoboto10d ago

"No gaming company has pushed harder to remove ownership than Microsoft."

Ubisoft is literally erasing games people bought from their libraries... My PS1-3 discs are useless on modern hardware. Nintendo's re-published and resold almost their entire Wii U library, and the eShop is completely dead with no BC mechanism in the Switch software. Microsoft publishes everything they make today day one on Steam and Xbox/Windows. Sony only brings to PC the titles they think you might want some years later and Nintendo won't even design a functional long-lasting joystick.

You're absolutely trolling and not serious if you think Microsoft today is the worst offender.

shinoff218310d ago

Yay steam

Not everyone fks with computers though. The disc is still the best way as a console player. Period.

Tacoboto10d ago

How do Sony and Nintendo feel about these discs from 2001-2013?

Don't be stupid, you know Xbox is the best at this today.

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 10d ago
Hofstaderman11d ago

Nobody wants this. Sales or the lack of it in the case of XBOX is very telling. I wonder how the adorably all digital series X will fare. Adorably dismal perhaps?

crazyCoconuts10d ago

Only time will tell, but for from someone like me suspecting that Xbox is trying to gracefully exit the console market, that "forward compatibility" team is trying to get Xbox games playing on Windows PCs. I mean, it's nice that they're not planning on exiting with a "enjoy your games while the hardware still works" message, so that's nice. They still have a brand to protect via Microsoft so probably feel obligated to have a better exit strategy.

Xeofate10d ago (Edited 10d ago )

That is not their plan, their plan is to transfer users accounts to the cloud.

Phil Spencer himself said as much a few months back, plans could have changed but I think people are reading way too much into one statement where Phil said he would allow Epic on xbox because he wants to be able to sell xbox games directly on other platforms. Aka, instead of selling Sea of Thives through PSN he wants to have an xbox store to sell his games on PlayStation without giving PlayStation any money.

Again, it's extremely unlikely that Phil plans to put PC on xbox and licensing would prevent them from just giving out other publishers games purchased on xbox copies of thier games on PC, Microsoft does not own their games.

crazyCoconuts9d ago

The thing that doesn't align with the cloud strategy is the giving up on exclusives. You'd still need strong exclusives for cloud streaming - it's still a "platform" , just with a lower upfront hardware investment. I feel like they've learned what PS learned with PSNow long ago. We're not ready to stream games and it's only gonna lose them money to try at this point

FinalFantasyFanatic10d ago

I would love that, I'd buy up some of the Xbox games if they could run on PC, like the Rare Replay, Lost Odyssey and Dead or Alive Ultimate, probably a pipe dream though.

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