Jimquisition: Children of the Resolution

[DrOswald]

Ok, I have 2 things here.

First of all, why can't these systems run at 1080p easily? I am so confused about this. I am running a computer I built 4 years ago and I was running at 1080p then. I still am running at 1080p even with recently released games. I am not angry as I have no investment in either console. I am just confused.

Second, I do care about graphics. Or at least I care about how good a game looks. Pikmin 3, for example, is a beautiful game and it would not be as good if it did not look so great. But a game looking good is not a direct result of power. Power helps, but only if you use it right. And I am not impressed by the games I have seen so far on either new console.

 

[thisbymaster]

GLORIOUS PC GAMING MASTER RACE REPORT IN!

Let us overclock our graphics cards and re-bind the controls on our keyboards in a way that makes shooters barely playable while dismissing the ease and comfort of a gamepad in celebration of our innate superiority over the dirty console peasants!

REPORTING I--

Wait a minute.

re-bind the controls on our keyboards in a way that makes shooters barely playable

Why would we do that? They're already better than with a gamepad.

while dismissing the ease and comfort of a gamepad

Why would we do that? We can use a gamepad.

Oh, do you mean shooters?

With a gamepad?

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

No, hold on, lemme catch my breath.

AAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Yep. Controllers are worse for just about everything. And if they ever do make a game that would be better, I can still use one. PC wins in every way, but price.

 

[DrOswald]

GLORIOUS PC GAMING MASTER RACE REPORT IN!

Let us overclock our graphics cards and re-bind the controls on our keyboards in a way that makes shooters barely playable while dismissing the ease and comfort of a gamepad in celebration of our innate superiority over the dirty console peasants!

REPORTING I--

Wait a minute.

re-bind the controls on our keyboards in a way that makes shooters barely playable

Why would we do that? They're already better than with a gamepad.

while dismissing the ease and comfort of a gamepad

Why would we do that? We can use a gamepad.

Oh, do you mean shooters?

With a gamepad?

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

No, hold on, lemme catch my breath.

AAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Yep. Controllers are worse for just about everything. And if they ever do make a game that would be better, I can still use one. PC wins in every way, but price.

Well, I would disagree that controllers are worse for most things. I find it about half and half. But no need to choose one of the other because I am of the PC master race.

Also, I would like to note that while the initial investment for a PC is high a gamer will ultimately spend a lot less on gaming overall so long as that gamer does enough gaming. It is like buying stuff from Costco - high initial price, but if you consume in bulk you come out far ahead.

 

[Mr.Fancy Pants]

The thing I'd be most afraid of regarding the XBO, aside from it's terrible launch, is that Microsft's CEO forerunners are pushing for selling off the console.

Wait, that's actually(or supposedly) happening?

I know Microsoft shareholders weren't fond of the Xbox line to begin with, but are they really planning on attempting to sell off the line to another company? Or did you mean something else by it?


I thought they were just going to shut down the department as a trim the fat kind of thing.

There's anarchy in the board room as they are trying to replace the departing Ballmer and some of the candidates have been mooting the possiblity of selling XBox for some short term gain and an Analyst with sketchy numbers that he didn't back up with any evidence started making noise about it. It's mostly political garbage to settle down short term investors and like most politicians, it's all election promises (Did prompt a rather curt reply from MS PR saying "We look forward to Bloomberg's further forays into fiction" regarding their reporting of Stephen Elop "Considering" selling off XBox and Bing)

Ars did a rather solid take down of the idea and why it's very unlikely to happen anyway (Because it would be extremely stupid and even more unprofitable thank keeping them)

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/11/microsoft-shouldnt-hire-any-ceo-who-wants-to-kill-bing-and-xbox/

 

[xPixelatedx]

Wait, people hate Adam Sessler? I thought he was all around liked by most.

He used to be my absolute favorite game reviewer back when I watched him on Xplay, but that was around 6 years ago. I haven't kept in touch much over the years, but I've seen a lot of him online recently, and I admit I'm disappointed. It seems somewhere along the way he forgot video games are about having fun. Now all he seems to focus on is artistic value (or lack there of) and politics. This is a long, pretentious leap from the guy who used to mutter dikdik and fanboy all over Bentley from Slycooper.

I'm just going to assume working for G4 kills all the joy in your heart and turns you into... well, what ever Adma has become.

 

[Something Amyss]

no but it makes it easier for the dumb console people to get into the PC Market whose imaginary complexity scares away so many.

They already have consoles if what they want is a console.

And honestly, there's no need to call anyone dumb.

Have you ever tried to play Symphony of the Night on a keyboard? shit be wack yo. Actually a lot of those old platformers are annoying as hell to play on not a gamepad.

Well, that's clearly the fault of the developers designing things for filthy casuals instead of understanding the full superiority of the mouse and keyboard.

Or I was taking the piss and the fact that I directly contradicted a previous statement should have been a strong hint.

One or the other. Probably the latter.

Would everyone really be this uptight and defensive in real life over a joke?

I don't know, would they?

No need to capitalize a full word to prove your point, especially when it is just opinion.

I think you answered your own question.

Now, before anyone accuses me of retroactively claiming a joke out of what I really believe, I'd point to two things:

1. There was more context given in that post that would indicate otherwise.
2. I primarily game on a controller. I have very little time for Mouse+Keyboard setups. It probably doesn't hurt that I have a couple crippled fingers which in no way impact my ability to operate a controller, but do impact my ability to even type normally.

And honestly, if you do need further proof I wasn't serious, look at my posting history on the subject of controllers.

For me, the caps were aa way to punctuate the absurdity. It appears that everyone else took it as a message to ignore anything else I said.

Come now, isn't that being a little bit of a silly billy.

Yup.

What about platformers? Hack-and-slashers? Driving games? Hell, I even prefer third-person shooters with a controller as opposed to a keyboard and mouse, but that's just me.

Well, that's the thing. It is just you. Your specific opinion, mine, whoever you want to talk about, is always just them.

But since we're on the subject, I do see people claim that all of the above are better on keyboards. Hell, I just got done reading a thread on another board with a bunch of the GPCGMR screaming in revulsion at the very thought of playing a twin-stick shooter on a controller. And this is why I should never post questions about the latest Steam sales. But that's neither here nor there.

There will always be people who think that K+M is superior for any given genre. Which is even funnier given how they treat peripherals as some horrible insult to their oldschool gaming habits, when the idea that controllers were anathema only really showed up recently. But whatever.

I see I have one more response in my inbox. What will it be about?

The difference between keyboard and mouse and controller when it comes to flying is a night and day comparison.

Yeah, I mean, the controller is inferior in EVERY WAY!

Just testing my caps hypothesis.

 

[deathjavu]

As a longtime PC gamer, my initial reaction to the concept of this video...ended up being exactly the point Jim made in his video. So deliciously smug. Ah, schadenfreude, you warm my heart so.

I also get my jollies by telling dudebro console gamers (the COD/GTA/Madden/Halo and no other games ever subset of console gamers) that I got the entire GTA series for $12.50, to which they respond "whoa sweet man, how'd you do that?" They don't know what steam is guys, and they only know about minecraft because of south park. The real joke is that this is now the target audience for consoles, and I think they only have so many shits to give about games. They keep chasing this group of people that only buys a few games a year, do they really think they're going to beat Call of Duty and Madden out for their buylists?

Now if you'll excuse me, I have work to avoid in a pile of fantastic $5-20 steam games.

 

[ex275w]

no but it makes it easier for the dumb console people to get into the PC Market whose imaginary complexity scares away so many.

They already have consoles if what they want is a console.

And honestly, there's no need to call anyone dumb.

Have you ever tried to play Symphony of the Night on a keyboard? shit be wack yo. Actually a lot of those old platformers are annoying as hell to play on not a gamepad.

Well, that's clearly the fault of the developers designing things for filthy casuals instead of understanding the full superiority of the mouse and keyboard.

Or I was taking the piss and the fact that I directly contradicted a previous statement should have been a strong hint.

One or the other. Probably the latter.

Would everyone really be this uptight and defensive in real life over a joke?

I don't know, would they?

No need to capitalize a full word to prove your point, especially when it is just opinion.

I think you answered your own question.

Now, before anyone accuses me of retroactively claiming a joke out of what I really believe, I'd point to two things:

1. There was more context given in that post that would indicate otherwise.
2. I primarily game on a controller. I have very little time for Mouse+Keyboard setups. It probably doesn't hurt that I have a couple crippled fingers which in no way impact my ability to operate a controller, but do impact my ability to even type normally.

And honestly, if you do need further proof I wasn't serious, look at my posting history on the subject of controllers.

For me, the caps were aa way to punctuate the absurdity. It appears that everyone else took it as a message to ignore anything else I said.

Come now, isn't that being a little bit of a silly billy.

Yup.

What about platformers? Hack-and-slashers? Driving games? Hell, I even prefer third-person shooters with a controller as opposed to a keyboard and mouse, but that's just me.

Well, that's the thing. It is just you. Your specific opinion, mine, whoever you want to talk about, is always just them.

But since we're on the subject, I do see people claim that all of the above are better on keyboards. Hell, I just got done reading a thread on another board with a bunch of the GPCGMR screaming in revulsion at the very thought of playing a twin-stick shooter on a controller. And this is why I should never post questions about the latest Steam sales. But that's neither here nor there.

There will always be people who think that K+M is superior for any given genre. Which is even funnier given how they treat peripherals as some horrible insult to their oldschool gaming habits, when the idea that controllers were anathema only really showed up recently. But whatever.

I see I have one more response in my inbox. What will it be about?

The difference between keyboard and mouse and controller when it comes to flying is a night and day comparison.

Yeah, I mean, the controller is inferior in EVERY WAY!

Just testing my caps hypothesis.

The fact that a lot of people missed your "joke" implies only you saw the context of taking the piss off gamepad haters. You just came off as a PC MASTER RACE elitist tryhard. It's not your fault, the internet makes it hard to communicate sarcasm and jokes. (Also I'm not sure if anyone would will check your previous comments to see your real opinion of controllers)

As for the topic, if the Xbone and PS4 can't muster 1080p and 60fps in their early games, I'm worried about how long it'll take for developers to max out the consoles. In 3 years they will start saying they are being limited and need even more powerful consoles.

 

[Saltyk]

You know what I took away from this?

In Titanfall, you can double (maybe triple) jump and wall run in a FPS. And somehow that is revolutionary.

You know, words fail me. The only remotely cool thing is the mechs. I will admit that mechs are cool, though. Add mechs to Final Fantasy and you get Xenogears, after all. Still, for all the hype, actually seeing it is rather underwhelming.

Oh, and I don't care about the resolution. I care about the games and policies of the companies. Microsoft lost my business with the DRM BS way back when. Besides, Sony has some great looking games like Infamous and The Order. I'll still use the resolution to piss off Xbox fanboys, though.

 

[Dragonbums]

The thing I'd be most afraid of regarding the XBO, aside from it's terrible launch, is that Microsft's CEO forerunners are pushing for selling off the console.

Wait, that's actually(or supposedly) happening?

I know Microsoft shareholders weren't fond of the Xbox line to begin with, but are they really planning on attempting to sell off the line to another company? Or did you mean something else by it?


I thought they were just going to shut down the department as a trim the fat kind of thing.

There's anarchy in the board room as they are trying to replace the departing Ballmer and some of the candidates have been mooting the possiblity of selling XBox for some short term gain and an Analyst with sketchy numbers that he didn't back up with any evidence started making noise about it. It's mostly political garbage to settle down short term investors and like most politicians, it's all election promises (Did prompt a rather curt reply from MS PR saying "We look forward to Bloomberg's further forays into fiction" regarding their reporting of Stephen Elop "Considering" selling off XBox and Bing)

Ars did a rather solid take down of the idea and why it's very unlikely to happen anyway (Because it would be extremely stupid and even more unprofitable thank keeping them)

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/11/microsoft-shouldnt-hire-any-ceo-who-wants-to-kill-bing-and-xbox/

When put that way, that makes a lot more sense. Then again common sense never prevented CEO's and exec from doing really stupid stuff.

We will see how it goes.

 

[Dragonbums]

no but it makes it easier for the dumb console people to get into the PC Market whose imaginary complexity scares away so many.

That's pretty spicy of you to say, and wholly unnecessary.
It's like someone who claims to be a console fan burned your house down and destroyed your credit.
"dumb" people already have personal computers. However a lot of "dumb" people don't really want to bother upgrading their PC into gaming PC's. Especially when they don't care to, or know the bits and pieces that really make up a computer. Hence a console for them is their go to choice.

 

[infinity_turtles]

I'm not one of those hardware knowy peoples, so I don't know if this could be a thing, but I suppose the bigger concern for me would be that if a multi-platform game wants to prioritize power for some sort of gameplay/ai/other feature rather then graphics, it can't really just run at a lower resolution and scale things down. It could be forced to cut or simplify things. Now, I shouldn't exactly expect that to happen because AAA derp, but a man must hope for a game with such priorities.

 

[RJ 17]

Was that Titan Fall that was taking up the majority of the gameplay video segments of this episode? If so.......wow, gotta say that looks like it could be a lot of fun....

OT: I've always thought that "recent" progress with gaming technology has sacrifice story and gameplay for good graphics and aesthetics. That's one of the reasons I gave up on the Final Fantasy series after FF10. FF's 1-6 didn't have amazing 3D graphics to dazzle and entrance, so they had to build those games off of good story and gameplay. And now look where they're at: games that play themselves and games that are basically just a long walk down a straight - but beautifully rendered - corridor.

And now they're getting booooo'd because their graphics apparently aren't good enough. Way to piss away all your money by hyping up what would lead to your own downfall.

haha i saw the footage for titanfall and thought the opposite " i dont have enough redbull or hyperactivity to play that these days"

I'm not huge on FPS games these days...but I don't know, something about watching that gameplay just really grabbed me. At first I was a bit hesitant when I heard that there'd only be (x) number of giant bots, but seeing all those crazy little bastards with jump-jets doing wall-jumps and stuff, flying around like crazy, it looks like they did a good job at balancing it out.

That said, if I do end up getting an XBone and if I do end up picking up Titanfall, chances are I'll be mediocre to crappy at it.

 

[otakon17]

I did not find the PC jokes that funny to be honest, but Jim you're right as it's a silly Goddamn thing to get so angry over.

 

[Megacherv]

Ok, I have 2 things here.

First of all, why can't these systems run at 1080p easily? I am so confused about this. I am running a computer I built 4 years ago and I was running at 1080p then. I still am running at 1080p even with recently released games. I am not angry as I have no investment in either console. I am just confused.

Second, I do care about graphics. Or at least I care about how good a game looks. Pikmin 3, for example, is a beautiful game and it would not be as good if it did not look so great. But a game looking good is not a direct result of power. Power helps, but only if you use it right. And I am not impressed by the games I have seen so far on either new console.

It's not the systems that can't, it's the developers. I think Jim did go a little bit overboard with the 'death of AAA studios' thing, but developers will soon be able to optimise and make games run at a much higher resolution. The biggest 'offender' of this whole resolution malarkey is Infinity Ward, who haven't actually upgraded the engine since Modern Warfare 2, so it looks old and horrible (seriously, looking at current-gen gameplay is just awful, and this is on the same console that The Last Of Us runs on), and then runs like shit when ported over to the new consoles.

The reason that 1080p is currently the standard for consoles is because that's what the standard currently is for HDTV broadcast meaning that TVs are built to support that; if the standard for HDTV broadcast was 2560x1440, for example, TVs would be built to support THAT resolution, meaning that the consoles would also target that resolution to make the most out of people's TVs.

 

[nima55]

Does someone care to explain to me why the Wii U (which is less advanced I've been told) can do 1080p but the Xbone can not. I genuinely curious as to the technical explanation.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

The game he was playing is called Titanfall

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanfall

its coming to PC, 360, and Xbox One in March of next year!

I had a feeling it was titanfall since the Gundams were called titans.

And GOOD, it's also on PC. I might pick it up. If my laptop won't run it, then hopefully by then I'll have replaced the piece of crap that is my desktop.

 

[Talvrae]

Your now review editor here on escapist so Jim.... Sorry but personally i take it as a terrible new... You let your crusade taint too much your reviews... Hope you will aply some restrain

Does someone care to explain to me why the Wii U (which is less advanced I've been told) can do 1080p but the Xbone can not. I genuinely curious as to the technical explanation.

From what i heard about that it's because of the kinnect gnawling some of the calculating power from the machine, another reason to hate the kinnect