PC to console "dumbing down" AKA "Holy crap, what were they thinking?"

[TehCookie]

A lot of console to PC ports have absolute terrible saving systems. Like how Assassins Creed you were unable to save manually so you couldn't make a second save before your favorite part. Or another petty one that annoys me is how in Skyrim they don't let you name your saves. I got so many I completely forgot which ones I had which mods installed.

You just have to press the button to the left of the 1 key, usually ~, It will bring up the console and just type in save [save name here](remember to put in the space oh and no spaces in the name.

That makes me wonder how would they expect any gamer to figure that out, but thanks. Though it is ironic how "streamlining" is actually making more work.

 

[The_Lost_King]

A lot of console to PC ports have absolute terrible saving systems. Like how Assassins Creed you were unable to save manually so you couldn't make a second save before your favorite part. Or another petty one that annoys me is how in Skyrim they don't let you name your saves. I got so many I completely forgot which ones I had which mods installed.

You just have to press the button to the left of the 1 key, usually ~, It will bring up the console and just type in save [save name here](remember to put in the space oh and no spaces in the name.

That makes me wonder how would they expect any gamer to figure that out, but thanks. Though it is ironic how "streamlining" is actually making more work.

Your welcome, but that has always been true for the Elder Scrolls series . You could never name your saves unless you were on pc and used console commands.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

Consumerism demands dumbing down of content to raise profits.

 

[Vkmies]

I am very annoyed with console simplification. Here is how it used to go down.
"Let's make a game a complex as we want!"
*Makes games like Deus Ex or Half Life on PC*
"Let's give console gamers it too!"
*Makes games like Deus Ex or Hald Life work as well as they possibly can on a console*

This is how it goes down now:
"Let's make a game fitting into the limitations of a console!"
*Makes games like Deus Ex:Human Revolution*
"Let's just give the PC the same experience even though it could handle much more!"
*Port to the PC*

 

[drizztmainsword]

I am very annoyed with console simplification. Here is how it used to go down.
This is how it goes down now:
"Let's make a game fitting into the limitations of a console!"
*Makes games like Deus Ex:Human Revolution*
"Let's just give the PC the same experience even though it could handle much more!"
*Port to the PC*

You say that like Human Revolution is a bad game?

 

[tsb247]

I am very annoyed with console simplification. Here is how it used to go down.
"Let's make a game a complex as we want!"
*Makes games like Deus Ex or Half Life on PC*
"Let's give console gamers it too!"
*Makes games like Deus Ex or Hald Life work as well as they possibly can on a console*

This is how it goes down now:
"Let's make a game fitting into the limitations of a console!"
*Makes games like Deus Ex:Human Revolution*
"Let's just give the PC the same experience even though it could handle much more!"
*Port to the PC*

This is exactly the way I see it as well.

My main problems with ports are the fact that games tend to lose very important features when they are developed to work with the (limited) capailities of consoles.

Here are some features that are usually either poorly implemented or non-existent on ported games. This list will also include 'features' that greatly limit playability on a PC:

- No concrete save system in favor of 'checkpoints.'

What if I WANT to save my game and play a portion again? What if I get frustrated by having to start from a checkpoint that is a LONG ways away from the difficult portion that keeps killing me? The fact is that the limitations of consoles do not always allow for a saved game system. It irritates me to no end that many PC games are losing this fundamental feature!

- The inclusion of 'Checkpoint' save systems.

Continuing from the last topic, the implimentation of checkpoint style save systems is extremely annoying for a PC gamer. PCs are capable of saving vast amounts of data, including game save states! What really makes it criminal is that PC games have been offering save systems for almost as long as PC gaming has existed. It has become commonplace to remove that feature now, and that is absolutely stupid. Pure and simple.

- Few options for optimization.

Some games that are guilty of this are the latest Wolfenstein game and Operation Flashpoint: Dragon rising. There were precious few options for adjusting grapics options, controls, sound, etc. Many console games are designed with full knowledge of the hardware they will be running on. There is not point in developing more visually appealing games without first having a more powerful console. The fact is that consoles are limited in their nature, so many features that PC gamers may need, like the ability to adjust anti-aliasing or post processing effects may be non-existent on a console port. That is not cool at all!

- The limitations of a controller limit the depth and scope of games.

The simple fact that a console controller has a limited amount of buttons when compared to a keyboard restricts how many commands the player can issue in-game. In essence, the player is restricted to a more limited number of abilities and/or commands on a console game.

PC games can be complex, but that's what makes some of them truly great. Flight sims such as Falcon 4.0 or DCS: Blackshark, FPS games like ArmA II, and any other open world games and/or RPGs have far more options available to them as far as interactivity when developed on the PC mainly because of the number of buttons available on a keyboard. Consoles rob games of funcitonality simply because of the limitations of the controller.

It's one thing to streamline a game - to work with fewer buttons to accomplish the same goal effectively. It's something completely different to limit interactivity based simple on having 'x' number of buttons available. It makes more sense to develop a game on the PC first and then port it to consoles. If that was done, then it could truly be called streamlining.

The biggest victim of this in my recent memory was Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising. If one was to play the original Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis and then turn around and play Dragon Rising, one would notice very quickly how much Dragon Rising sacrificed in order to run on consoles.

 

[Greni]

You just have to press the button to the left of the 1 key, usually ~, It will bring up the console and just type in save [save name here](remember to put in the space oh and no spaces in the name.

You can however do *press ~* save "my awesome savegame" (the quote marks do the trick that is). Learning the console in TES games is essential in any case. All those times NPCs disappear, quests halter and don't update, quests items get stuck in the inventory after the quest is finished and many many more. Thankfully UESP wiki has a section of bugs and how to 'fix them'.

OT: I don't know of any instance of a game that has come out worse after a pc to console port. The other way around is terrifyingly common though. Talking of Skyrim; the user interface was completely useless for mouse/keyboard, thank Óðin for the Sky UI mod.

As for hardware limitation of the consoles, how many officially released high res texture packs have you guys and gals seen recently?

Oh and I agree heartily with the "awesome button that is programmed for every function except walking" point above. Is it so hard to allow pc ports to adjust keyboard controls? Why do I have to edit ini files to turn off vsync? And why do I have to give the extra buttons on my mouse keyboard button functions so my game will recognize them?

 

[The_Lost_King]

You just have to press the button to the left of the 1 key, usually ~, It will bring up the console and just type in save [save name here](remember to put in the space oh and no spaces in the name.

You can however do *press ~* save "my awesome savegame" (the quote marks do the trick that is). Learning the console in TES games is essential in any case. All those times NPCs disappear, quests halter and don't update, quests items get stuck in the inventory after the quest is finished and many many more. Thankfully UESP wiki has a section of bugs and how to 'fix them'.

OT: I don't know of any instance of a game that has come out worse after a pc to console port. The other way around is terrifyingly common though. Talking of Skyrim; the user interface was completely useless for mouse/keyboard, thank Óðin for the Sky UI mod.

As for hardware limitation of the consoles, how many officially released high res texture packs have you guys and gals seen recently?

Oh and I agree heartily with the "awesome button that is programmed for every function except walking" point above. Is it so hard to allow pc ports to adjust keyboard controls? Why do I have to edit ini files to turn off vsync? And why do I have to give the extra buttons on my mouse keyboard button functions so my game will recognize them?

You quoted the wrong person. My post was telling TehCookie to do the exact same thing.

 

[Greni]

You quoted the wrong person. My post was telling TehCookie to do the exact same thing.

Sorry mate, got my quoting all messed up.

in Skyrim they don't let you name your saves. I got so many I completely forgot which ones I had which mods installed.

What I stated above.

 

[Vkmies]

I am very annoyed with console simplification. Here is how it used to go down.
This is how it goes down now:
"Let's make a game fitting into the limitations of a console!"
*Makes games like Deus Ex:Human Revolution*
"Let's just give the PC the same experience even though it could handle much more!"
*Port to the PC*

You say that like Human Revolution is a bad game?

On the contrary, it's a great game, but very clearly a CONSOLE game, looking at the differences between, let's say the original. Think of the sheer masterpiece that it could have been if it was first on the PC, utilizing all the possibilities of the machine to their fullest, and later ported to the console as the game we see today. It had major potential to be alot better, even though it was certainly good.

 

[T_ConX]

I own the PS2 version of Deus Ex. How do you get a game like Deus Ex to work on a console?

You make the default button for Sniper Zoom... Select...

Oh, but it had a love pre-rendered intro and endings:

 

[Zaik]

I just came here to say I miss leaning.

I know controllers don't have room for two buttons to lean back and forth with. I don't really care.

It was 1000 times better than automagical cover systems.

 

[ElPatron]

Its only rare that I ever came across this "dumbing down" syndrome

People say it happened to Crysis 2; I however did not see a single sign of that happening. Yes there were only 2 abilities, big deal. It allowed the game to flow at its own pace much better suited for urban warfare IMO.

Because it was urban warfare we needed [/sarcasm]. Crysis was dumbed down by giving you a few linear paths instead of a whole sandbox.

Crysis was about you giving yourself the experience you wanted. Crysis 2 was too restrictive.

Stealth made no sense in both games, even though I would certainly miss it if removed. It was nearly useless in the first one, and I even edited the configs to make the cloak consume less energy.

You say "Dumb downed," I say "Streamlined because over-complicating everything doesn't make a game good."

Because games like Crysis were so overcomplicated, right?

 

[ElPatron]

GRRG CONSOLES SUCK WE SHOULD ALL BE ON PC HER DUR RAAGEE!!! GARGLE HARGLE!

Seriously, does it offend PC-only gamers that we might perhaps have our preferences?

No, but it sure is funny to see that people read "consoles dumbing down games" and think it means "consoles have no place in gaming".

I find that Crysis 2 was a major improvement over the first in many departments, such as being more story-oriented

Yeah, because that's more important than gameplay and the story is actually memorable.

having a more streamlined control scheme

Pfft. 90% of Crysis was W A S D + 3 mouse buttons and the wheel. How much more streamlining you need?

for the suit powers and having greater variation in terms of weaponry.

Instead of futuristic US equipment and NK equipment, it had all futuristic gear with only a few more options. Of the three rifles, two are almost the same. They added a shotgun and two handguns.

Still think that Crysis Warhead had better weapons.

It also was quite well optimized, which can under no circumstances be said of the first game.

If you're bringing optimization, Crysis 2 also had worse physics and the support given to modders was pathetic compared to the original.

Also, it's 'interesting' that you complain about military jargon, as if A) that wasn't present in the first game

But Crysis was more like Aliens and less "whatever the Call of Duty equivalent in movies is". The jargon is there, but it's not repeated Ad Nauseam to impress the little kids.

 

[ElPatron]

So, you didn't like Crysis 2?

No, my point is: "You liked Crysis 2? Good for you". Because there is no way you can argue that the sequel was in any way superior to Crysis or even Warhead.

 

[Weentastic]

I haven't noticed much dumbing down for consoles from pc versions, but that's probably because I haven't played games on both systems. I definitely hate it when a new sequel or iteration gets dumbed down, but thats a separate issue. I'm looking at you, Skyrim.

What I would like to bring attention to is the original half life port to the PS2. From all I can tell, that is by far the best version of the game. Decay is loads of fun and really, really well designed, and they did a decent job of handling aiming issues. And the graphics for the console version were far better than the PC version. By some reports, even the Source port of Half Life just isn't as good as the PS2 version, but then again, I believe there is a team working on developing Decay for the Source engine.

 

[ElPatron]

Oh, my mistake, and here I thought it was a matter of opinion, not objective eternal fact.

We are not talking about "what game is better". My point is that Crysis had originality and the sandbox feel going for it. Crysis 2 does not have any of those things.

Crysis 2 should have went with a CoD style linearity. At the expense of alienating fans, at least it wouldn't be a silly hybrid and the "story oriented" gameplay would have made much more sense.