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Gaming News & Discussion (Page 42)
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Leonard
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Jan 25, 2013, 11:55 AM
 
Call me one who holds a grudge for a long time, but I'd NEVER pay for Half-Life after the stunt Valve pulled on Mac users with it, and at this point it's really too old to care about.

I think that's the only grudge I hold against a software company.

Of course I did buy Portal 2. But it was just so damn good, and I never did buy the first Portal or the Orange Box.
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KCrosbie
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Jan 25, 2013, 12:37 PM
 
Anyone here going to get the new Aliens game? The more I see the more I'm intrigued. Sega and Gearbox look to have done a good job...

Colonel Marines Kick Ass Trailer
     
Demonhood
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Jan 25, 2013, 02:30 PM
 
Originally Posted by lpkmckenna View Post
I think the beta will only show up in your Mac client if you already own the Windows version.
I bought the Windows version of HL1 a thousand years ago, and the 'Install' button appears on the mac side now. Spiffy.
     
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Jan 25, 2013, 05:01 PM
 
Originally Posted by Leonard View Post
Call me one who holds a grudge for a long time, but I'd NEVER pay for Half-Life after the stunt Valve pulled on Mac users with it, and at this point it's really too old to care about.
What about Bungie? Didn't they pull something similar with Halo? Why no grudge against them?

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The Final Dakar  (op)
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Jan 25, 2013, 05:02 PM
 
Because that was likely more on MS. Unless you want to blame them for signing the contract.
     
lpkmckenna
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Jan 25, 2013, 05:12 PM
 
I think still holding a grudge against Valve is silly since they've utterly vindicated themselves since.
     
Leonard
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Jan 25, 2013, 05:42 PM
 
Originally Posted by Stogieman View Post
What about Bungie? Didn't they pull something similar with Halo? Why no grudge against them?
Like Dakar says, that was more of a exclusive licensing deal with Microsoft for the Xbox, and I can't blame them (and I really can't blame MS for a good business buy). Besides, they delivered it for PC and Mac nearly the same time, after the exclusivity for Xbox.

But Valve, they had the product finished. The only problem, the Mac version wouldn't network with PCs. Nope, we're not going to release it that way. ******s. Now the ******s have the gall to rape Mac users of money now that Apple is the in thing.
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lpkmckenna
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Jan 25, 2013, 06:11 PM
 
I don't feel raped by Valve at all.

Going back to Microsoft and Bungie, I'd feel raped if I bought Halo on PC or Mac. First, Halo is made available on XBox, and PC, and Mac. Then Halo 2 comes out, XBox exclusive. Thank you loyal PC customers, but we think you should buy a $300 console from us to continue the story! BTW, eat a d!ck! And then, they pulled the exact same sh!t with Gears of War. Microsoft obviously hates its own customers.

In other news, I just saw this deal at reddit: 2 AAA shooters from Aspyr for $15, or 6 for $35. Website looks kinda fake, and there's no mention of this deal at Aspyr.com. But this company, GetGames, seems to have a pretty solid web presence. EDIT: Apparently, GetGames is owned by EuroGamer.

I'd recommend Rage, which is criminally underrated. Rage+CoD4 looks like the best deal, but who hasn't played CoD4?
     
Leonard
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Jan 25, 2013, 11:04 PM
 
Why hasn't Valve released Half-Life earlier? And what outrageous price are they selling it for? Anything more than $10 is too much in my opinion for such an old game!

As for HALO and Bungie, if Microsoft hadn't bought them as an exclusive, some other console (Sony?) would have licensed them as an exclusive. I have to give Microsoft credit, they were smart to get Bungie as fast as they did.
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lpkmckenna
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Jan 26, 2013, 03:16 PM
 
Originally Posted by Leonard View Post
Why hasn't Valve released Half-Life earlier?
When Valve decided to become Mac devs, they only ported games using their current engine. Perhaps they thought the cost to port an old engine wouldn't be worth the low price they would have to charge for an old game?

I think the current porting of older engine games like HL and CS is motivated by the move to Linux and the coming "Steam Box." I imagine Steam Box will debut with Half-Life 3 as the launch title, and "Play the entire series for one low price!" will figure heavy into the marketing.

I suppose it's also possible that the recent indie launch of Black Mesa has re-invigorated interest in the series, and the new ports of HL to Linux and Mac are designed to catch that wave.

And what outrageous price are they selling it for? Anything more than $10 is too much in my opinion for such an old game!
We don't know yet, but HL sells for Windows for $10. When the Mac version is finally available for purchase, there will probably be a promotional sale price of $5 or so, and then the game will revert to the standard price of $10.
     
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Jan 26, 2013, 05:19 PM
 
     
BLAZE_MkIV
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Jan 26, 2013, 10:18 PM
 
Is it me or are those colors washed out. Or is it over exposed? I'm not sure on the turn. Its impossible bright.
     
Leonard
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Jan 26, 2013, 11:34 PM
 
Originally Posted by lpkmckenna View Post
When Valve decided to become Mac devs, they only ported games using their current engine. Perhaps they thought the cost to port an old engine wouldn't be worth the low price they would have to charge for an old game?
They've been sitting on the Mac code for years! The only thing I can think of is it was made for PowerPC Macs and not Intel Macs, but that should be a simple recompile.

Originally Posted by lpkmckenna View Post
We don't know yet, but HL sells for Windows for $10. When the Mac version is finally available for purchase, there will probably be a promotional sale price of $5 or so, and then the game will revert to the standard price of $10.
I think you're dreaming if you think you'll see it even for $10, but I guess we'll see when the full game is released.
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lpkmckenna
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Jan 27, 2013, 12:55 PM
 
Originally Posted by Leonard View Post
They've been sitting on the Mac code for years! The only thing I can think of is it was made for PowerPC Macs and not Intel Macs, but that should be a simple recompile.
This is unlikely to be a port of the PowerPC version, but a brand new port of the Windows version to Mac. And I don't think it would be "a simple recompile," since it would need to be "double ported," since it was a Mac OS 9 game on PPC.

As an aside, ports from PowerPC are almost completely dead. It's nearly impossible to buy AAA Mac games from the PPC era. Look around the Mac App Store, Steam, Mac Games Store, or even Good Old Games. Go ahead, try to buy Unreal Tournament, Quake III Arena, Aliens vs Predator, Halo, Oni, Star Wars Racer, Neverwinter Nights, Diablo. I owned all those games (except Halo), but not one of them is for sale for Mac today. Even games that were ported to Intel like Unreal Tournament 2004 cannot be bought anywhere. There are a few exception to this rule (Tomb Raider, some Star Wars games), but essentially the legacy of PPC games has vanished. You need to play Wine-wrapped Windows versions if you want to play these games today.

Interestingly, I wondered if Marathon was available online for Mac Intel, and turns out it is. I've never played this game, but I knew its place in Mac gaming history. I just downloaded it and I think I might put some time into it today. See here: Bungie.net : Bungie Universe : The Marathon Trilogy - Get It!
I think you're dreaming if you think you'll see it even for $10, but I guess we'll see when the full game is released.
Valve is already selling the Windows version for $10, and Valve always sells the Mac version for the same price (and gives away the Mac version to anyone who already bought the Windows version on Steam). Not only am I not dreaming, this selling for $10 is a veritable certainty.
     
BLAZE_MkIV
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Jan 27, 2013, 01:25 PM
 
For more Marathon fun see AlephOne. They've been working off the M2 code base for quite a while.
     
lpkmckenna
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Jan 27, 2013, 03:19 PM
 
Originally Posted by BLAZE_MkIV View Post
For more Marathon fun see AlephOne. They've been working off the M2 code base for quite a while.
The stuff I linked to is Aleph One.
     
BLAZE_MkIV
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Jan 27, 2013, 11:02 PM
 
Originally Posted by lpkmckenna View Post
The stuff I linked to is Aleph One.
Then why not just Aleph One - Marathon Open Source
     
sek929
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Jan 28, 2013, 12:14 AM
 
Originally Posted by KCrosbie View Post
Well this bit of news went unnoticed by me. I knew THQ was ailing but I didn't think it had gotten to this point yet.

Most interesting buyout for me, obviously, was for the Metro 'franchise.' It appears Deep Silver will have control of Last Light. The only games I have played from them (or even heard of) are Dead Island (meh) and the worst of the 3 STALKER games.

Having greatly enjoyed 2033, I hope Last Light is close enough to release that noting gets mucked about by this acquisition.
     
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Jan 28, 2013, 05:49 AM
 
Originally Posted by lpkmckenna View Post
I don't feel raped by Valve at all.

Going back to Microsoft and Bungie, I'd feel raped if I bought Halo on PC or Mac. First, Halo is made available on XBox, and PC, and Mac. Then Halo 2 comes out, XBox exclusive. Thank you loyal PC customers, but we think you should buy a $300 console from us to continue the story! BTW, eat a d!ck! And then, they pulled the exact same sh!t with Gears of War. Microsoft obviously hates its own customers.
Actually Halo 2 was out on PC, but it was a Vista exclusive - although that took about 5 minutes for someone to remove. Halo 3 was the X360 exclusive.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
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Jan 28, 2013, 06:00 AM
 
Originally Posted by lpkmckenna View Post
This is unlikely to be a port of the PowerPC version, but a brand new port of the Windows version to Mac. And I don't think it would be "a simple recompile," since it would need to be "double ported," since it was a Mac OS 9 game on PPC.
Half Life was ported to the Source engine (what HL2 uses) a few years back. Most likely they just used that and the work they did on HL2.

As for holding grudges...Almost everyone abandoned us in the dark years at the end of the nineties. I think it's better to remember the ones who stayed. Blizzard stayed, and almost kept Mac gaming alive all by itself, even if Starcraft Mac was crazy late. Firaxis made every Civ game ever released on the Mac as well. id even put the Q3 beta on Mac first. I think Unreal/Unreal Tournament got good support all the way. There aren't too many more.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
The Final Dakar  (op)
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Jan 28, 2013, 12:42 PM
 
Originally Posted by BLAZE_MkIV View Post
Is it me or are those colors washed out. Or is it over exposed? I'm not sure on the turn. Its impossible bright.
Nintendo confuses me; They take the polarizing art style of WW, convert it to their more standard style, then add a shit-ton of bloom just to polarize people yet again.
     
Leonard
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Jan 28, 2013, 01:05 PM
 
Originally Posted by P View Post
I think Unreal/Unreal Tournament got good support all the way.
Macsoft supported the Mac with Unreal/ Unreal Tournament which was there until the last Unreal Tournament, Unreal Tournament 3 (UT3). For some reason Macsoft announced UT3 but never delivered it. I believe it was a software licensing issue with some software the game used, but I'm not certain. Basically UT3 never came out.

I think that's one of the reasons I bought an Xbox 360. That, HALO 3, and being able to access more games...

I never did play UT3, though. Heard that it didn't get a good reception on the PC, and I just couldn't see playing the console version - I wouldn't be able to play on the PC clan's server that I was playing UT2004 on.
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lpkmckenna
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Jan 28, 2013, 09:10 PM
 
Originally Posted by Leonard View Post
Macsoft supported the Mac with Unreal/ Unreal Tournament which was there until the last Unreal Tournament, Unreal Tournament 3 (UT3). For some reason Macsoft announced UT3 but never delivered it. I believe it was a software licensing issue with some software the game used, but I'm not certain. Basically UT3 never came out.
MacSoft refused to pay the licencing for some essential middleware (they probably assumed it was included when they licenced the game from Epic), so the porting dev icculus spent an enormous amount of effort trying to replace that functionality himself. He probably even finished it, but by the time he did, any interest in the game dried up and MacSoft probably wasn't interested in paying for his effort. MacSoft likely lost all the money they paid to licence from Epic, and icculus likely never saw a dime from MacSoft for all his hard work.

You can play the game on Mac now with a Wine wrapper from The Porting Team. It took that community three attempts to make the game run properly. It works really well now. But really, it felts a bit archaic, and I can see why people prefer "realistic" shooters and coop-focused shooters like Borderlands and Gears of War. Who cares about Capture the Flag anymore?

I never did play UT3, though. Heard that it didn't get a good reception on the PC, and I just couldn't see playing the console version - I wouldn't be able to play on the PC clan's server that I was playing UT2004 on.
It had a buggy launch, and people complained about the limited graphics customization options, but Epic fixed most of the issues and relaunched the game with the Titan Edition. There was also moaning about changes to gameplay, but myself, I thought everything they included was much improved over UT2004; for instance, I can't stand UT2004 Onslaught now because it lacks hoverboards, and you're basically stranded and useless without a vehicle far from the fighting. And I thought the Capture the Flag and Deathmatch maps were better designed and felt "tighter," more like the original UT. I didn't care much for the stuff they removed (Assault mode, Bombing Run), though some people were very angry about that.

This biggest problem with UT3 was user-generated mod and mutator support. You see, UT and UT2004's gameplay logic was powered by Unreal Script, so it was very easy to replace the built-in scripts with customized scripts, thus making it very easy to make mods. But to make UT3 run faster (especially on consoles), the gameplay logic was compiled into machine code, making it impossible to modify. And what Unreal Script support did exist for mods was very limited. Basically, the design of the game killed mods, which was a huge part of the appeal of Unreal Tournament to the fans.
     
lpkmckenna
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Jan 28, 2013, 09:16 PM
 
Originally Posted by BLAZE_MkIV View Post
We're arguing about which page on the Bungie website I should have linked to?
     
exca1ibur
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Jan 29, 2013, 01:37 AM
 
Originally Posted by KCrosbie View Post
Anyone here going to get the new Aliens game? The more I see the more I'm intrigued. Sega and Gearbox look to have done a good job...

Colonel Marines Kick Ass Trailer
I played it at ComicCon. Wait till you play the multiplayer, it's even better.
     
lpkmckenna
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Jan 29, 2013, 07:23 AM
 
Originally Posted by P View Post
Half Life was ported to the Source engine (what HL2 uses) a few years back. Most likely they just used that and the work they did on HL2.
Half-Life and Half-Life:Source are sold as two separate items on Steam. The system requirements aren't even the same. It appears that this new Mac version is not the Source engine version.

Demonhood, can you verify which version the Mac beta is?

As for holding grudges...Almost everyone abandoned us in the dark years at the end of the nineties. I think it's better to remember the ones who stayed. Blizzard stayed, and almost kept Mac gaming alive all by itself, even if Starcraft Mac was crazy late. Firaxis made every Civ game ever released on the Mac as well. id even put the Q3 beta on Mac first. I think Unreal/Unreal Tournament got good support all the way. There aren't too many more.
I don't carry grudges. I look at the company that exists today. And Valve policies today are way better for users than Blizzard policies.
     
lpkmckenna
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Jan 29, 2013, 07:37 AM
 
Well, I guess we now know why EA is testing an Origin client: DICE to bring Frostbite engine to Mac.
     
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Jan 29, 2013, 08:23 AM
 
That works well with the rumors that EA will be using Frostbite 2 for its future games. EA likes to be the master of their own destiny, so using an internal engine makes a lot of sense. Methinks they might have learned something from not being able to push the ME series onto every platform known to man.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
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Jan 29, 2013, 09:36 AM
 
     
The Final Dakar  (op)
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Jan 29, 2013, 10:10 AM
 
I would remind the person from wired that the current systems barely push HD content. To expect the next gen to do anything better than 1080p is a joke.
     
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Jan 29, 2013, 12:16 PM
 
I think the point is movies, but even that doesn't make sense - one can improve the quality quite a bit without moving up from 1080p by simply using a higher bitrate. I guess that they could do gaming by having some sort of hardware scalers, so they will render at something lower internally and then push 4K to the screen, but I honestly don't see why.

The next gen hardware rumors are all over the place right now. At least one and possibly both of the PS4 and Xbox next will apparently use 8 Jaguar cores for the CPU. The Jaguar core is the successor to Brazos, AMDs low-end core used in Atom competitors like the E350. If you thought that Bulldozer was a low performance core compared to Intel's latest, prepare to be disappointed.

The GPU is even less clear, but something like a Radeon 7770 seems likely (MS supposedly has said 12 CUs - the 7770 has 10 and the 7870 has 20 - at a slightly lower clock than the 7770).
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
The Final Dakar  (op)
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Jan 29, 2013, 12:19 PM
 
I don't see them pushing 4k streaming. Can blu-ray do 4k? (Either way we're talking such a small subset at this point its a joke).

I'd love to see numbers on what % of HDTVs in homes are 720p to 1080p. Sure the latter is likely winning, but much like HDTVs in 2006 I'm sure it's not overwhelming.
     
mattyb
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Jan 29, 2013, 05:20 PM
 
So was does this mean for HDD sizes? Terabytes? Or will they try and make everything cloudy and those with shitty connections will suffer.
     
The Final Dakar  (op)
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Jan 29, 2013, 05:23 PM
 
I'll be impressed if they start at 1TB (or even 500 MB, really). Though there is a lot of logic to doing so.
     
mattyb
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Jan 29, 2013, 05:25 PM
 
How much hard disk space you will need for 4K video files | Expert Reviews

Although there's no set standard for 4K video content yet, we've already got some idea as to how big 4K video files will be. During a recent hands-on with the Sony VW1000ES upcoming 4k projector, we managed to find out that an uncompressed 4k version of the trailer for The Amazing Spiderman takes up a whopping 500GB of hard disk space.

OH MY FOOKIN GOD.
     
The Final Dakar  (op)
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Jan 29, 2013, 05:27 PM
 
Also, no ****ing proprietary HDs.

I'm looking at you, MS
     
The Final Dakar  (op)
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Jan 29, 2013, 05:28 PM
 
Originally Posted by mattyb View Post
How much hard disk space you will need for 4K video files | Expert Reviews

Although there's no set standard for 4K video content yet, we've already got some idea as to how big 4K video files will be. During a recent hands-on with the Sony VW1000ES upcoming 4k projector, we managed to find out that an uncompressed 4k version of the trailer for The Amazing Spiderman takes up a whopping 500GB of hard disk space.

OH MY FOOKIN GOD.
Yup. Can't stream it. Will take forever to download. Wired guy is an idiot confirmed.
     
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Jan 29, 2013, 11:54 PM
 
Originally Posted by The Final Dakar View Post
I don't see them pushing 4k streaming. Can blu-ray do 4k? (Either way we're talking such a small subset at this point its a joke).

I'd love to see numbers on what % of HDTVs in homes are 720p to 1080p. Sure the latter is likely winning, but much like HDTVs in 2006 I'm sure it's not overwhelming.
The H.265 standard was recently finalized. Do you think it's too late for the next gen consoles to include hardware decoding?

H.265 standard finalized, could finally replace MPEG-2 and usher in UHDTV | ExtremeTech

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Jan 30, 2013, 04:42 AM
 
Depends on what you mean by hardware. A dedicated chip: Yes, I think it's too late. The only announced chips for that are frigging huge. I do think they could run the decoding on the GPU, however, if the rumors about what GPUs they're getting are accurate.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
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Jan 31, 2013, 01:31 PM
 
Brian Reynolds leaves Zynga. If he starts a Kickstarter to fund a spiritual successor to SMAC, I may fund it personally. As in 100% of it.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
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Jan 31, 2013, 04:58 PM
 
So GTA got delayed till September. Anyone think that might be so it coincides with next-gen consoles releases?

Also, I'm repeatedly hearing the consoles will be announced at GDC (rather than E3)
     
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Jan 31, 2013, 05:58 PM
 
Rumours are all over the place with the consoles, who do you trust?

You reckon big dev houses have had access to future stuff from Sony and/or MS?
     
The Final Dakar  (op)
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Jan 31, 2013, 06:30 PM
 
They have to. Game development cycles aren't 6 months.
     
Leonard
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Jan 31, 2013, 09:45 PM
 
Originally Posted by The Final Dakar View Post
So GTA got delayed till September.
Get Sleeping Dogs, it'll hold you over till then! I've had a lot of fun with it...
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Jan 31, 2013, 10:37 PM
 
     
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Feb 1, 2013, 05:04 AM
 
Originally Posted by Leonard View Post
Get Sleeping Dogs, it'll hold you over till then! I've had a lot of fun with it...
Sleeping Dogs is one of the free PS+ games this month.

It'll be much easier if you just comply.
     
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Feb 1, 2013, 06:00 AM
 
Originally Posted by mattyb View Post
Rumours are all over the place with the consoles, who do you trust?

You reckon big dev houses have had access to future stuff from Sony and/or MS?
I'm sure of them have surrogate hardware, and since the hardware seems to be bog-standard this time, that should be easy enough to hide. MS has supposedly said that the GPU will be like AMD's Southern Island (Radeon 7700-7900 series) with 12 CUs, main memory bandwidth like a 7770 at best and some form of eDRAM cache. It shouldn't be too hard to emulate this by getting a 7850, disabling some CUs in software (a 7850 has 16 active CUs), adjust the clocks a bit and pretending that the wider memory bus emulates the eDRAM cache. The OS will be some variation of Windows 8, and the CPU is an x86 with 8 weakish OoOE cores fundamentally similar to those in an AMD E350. Given this, I think they can proceed quite far. They will not use all 8 CPU cores, and they will have to adjust the filtering and AA to compensate for any shortfall in memory bandwidth, but it should certainly be easier than it was last time.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
The Final Dakar  (op)
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Feb 1, 2013, 10:12 AM
 
**** sleeping dogs.
     
lpkmckenna
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Feb 1, 2013, 03:56 PM
 
Wouldn't it be amazing if the PS4 was a Steam console?

Hear me out. Valve and Sony entered into an agreement with Portal 2, which allowed Portal 2 players on the PS3 to use the Steam network for coop and other things. A PS3 buyer was also granted a SteamPlay version on PC for free.

Sony's network sucks. They know it. If they partnered with Valve, they could mitigate their image problems here.

Hypothetically, the "SteamStation" could still have exclusive PS4 titles that Steam-on-PC users couldn't access, while the new console would immediately have a library of all games already available on Steam-Linux.

This would require Sony to make a PS4 that is basically just a consolized PC, but I think Sony wants to do that anyway. The specialized hardware like the Cell didn't do them any favours, in performance or pricing. Regardless of whether this fantasy of mine came true, I'm sure the PS4 will have commodity parts.

I can dream, can't I?

BTW, I suspect both Sony and Microsoft will limit the backwards compatibility of their new consoles. It is always an expensive kludge for them. Financially, it would be better for them to provide new ports with updated graphics of keystone titles for low-cost purchase. None of this matters if MS and Sony just go for beefier versions of the current hardware instead of switching to x86 or ARM for their new consoles. A beefier Cell would provide kludge-free access to older titles, for instance, without the nightmare of another Expression engine hardware debacle.
     
The Final Dakar  (op)
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Feb 1, 2013, 03:59 PM
 
It's not likely, but it's not completely out of the question, either.
     
 
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