I have yet to feel a need to move on from my “Command and Conquer, the first decade” disks.
I’ve beat pretty much every skirmish with maximum enemies and difficulty, but it’s always fun to try new strategies and see what happens.
“Now, all of a sudden, next year’s gaming landscape looks to be shaping up very differently. Instead of three major platforms based on a common hardware architecture, game developers will face two monolithic platforms and a fragmented one—the PC—that will have two starkly different operating systems and three different APIs—Direct3D, OpenGL, and Mantle.”
That is pretty much a load of BS.
Everything besides Windows will use OpenGL (in fact some Windows titles use OpenGL). Playstation, SteamOS (Linux) and Mac are all extremely similar. Xbox and Windows are extremely similar. The reference Steam machines were all specified with Nvidia graphics cards (so no Mantle), and it entirely remains to be seen how uptake will be with Mantle. I expect any performance gains over OpenGL will be minimal.
A little bit of hyperbole here.
It’s hard to predict what is going to happen here. The last time we had major API wars between 3dfx and Nvidia, Nvidia chose to abandon proprietary standards and supported MS DirectX, which in spite of being a favorite whipping post has been a very good thing for gamers.
If we go back to API wars between Nvidia and AMD, gamers won’t win.
SteamOS is a good idea. I’m no Linux fan specifically, but if MS continues down the path of making their OS more and more cloud based and less localized it will only get consistently harder for a gaming PC to be an island unto itself that runs our games.
So in short, I vote for unification behind an open OS platform with SteamOS = good in the long run. Separate APIs right at this time in Windows = bad in the short and long run.
One of the things at the top of my spare time list is learning Valve’s movie making software.
Quality, cost and content thrive in a competitive market. Sure, you’re still going to have companies making buggy whips who complain and file lawsuit after lawsuit trying to stop tech advances that make them obsolete.
1) DLC. Many game makers are going to a free-to-play-must buy-additional-content type gaming. The problem is the cost of the DLC: the trend is to nickel-and-dime players to death.
I play race simulations. The problem here is if you don't have a certain car or track, you can't join that race, even if you have all the other cars and tracks on the server. I would much rather pay all the money up front for a complete game. If the game maker offers an expansion pack at some later time, fine.
2) Consoles. Consoles are getting better and better and FPS's are, to me, actually better with a gamepad than the old KB-and-mouse control. Also, upgrades. With each new iteration of a PC game, it requires more power, more RAM, faster CPU and a better GPU.
Buy a console, and it will last the life of around three generations of a PC without having to upgrade a major component or even OS. No worries about what DirectX you have (as MS sees fit to not upgrade it for older OS's - to get you to buy their newer OS).
Get a cheap USB KB and mouse and you can use the console to surf the web, visit forums, watch blu-ray (PS3 or 4) and play the latest games without having to worry if your CPU or GPU or RAM are enough to handle it. Besides the fact that most games now days are written specifically for consoles and then (usually badly) ported over to the PC to make a few extra bucks.
end rant.
As a developer I can say the only thing this does is to make AMD graphics cards the option for PC gamers. And this means nothing. The Video cards you get now are mainly AMD cause they are cheaper and most PC are AMD cpu anyway. PC’s future will be a console anyway since Windows 8 is a App driven OS.
The future will be having a console be your work, game, and media entrance. That is what your smartphone is anyway.
Yes. Next question.
When I buy a computer game, I just want to play the game. I should not have to go through something like Valve or Steam to play the game I bought. I should not have to get permission to play a game that I paid $60 for.
Do we have a lot of steam users here on FR? If we do we should make a steam group for us.
I present to Freepers this product, developed by a disabled vet, and possibly the coolest steam box product to come to market in the next few months:
http://www.roundsdownrange.com/?p=1438
As far as I’m concerned computer gaming was ruined when EA changed the Command and Conquer games to the Generals platform.