5 ms·

>I've been enjoying much of the next-generation gaming experience already. You can't be serious. Although you can very soon be enjoying the next-generation gam

>I've been enjoying much of the next-generation gaming experience already. You can't be serious. Although you can very soon be enjoying the next-generation gaming experience, what's exciting to me about this as a PC gamer is that all next gen games will be designed with x86 in mind, which should make porting trivial compared to this generation.

mikelat 13y ago
They still don't budget enough time and money towards PC ports even today. I played Metro Last Light recently (released last week) and the secondary weapon selection was basically holding tab and then the menu emulated the mouse like it was an analog stick to select knives, grenades, etc. They are making huge money on the PC platform but still can't be bothered to make a proper UI or binds for an entirely different platform.
teamonkey 13y ago
Porting from console to PC is trivial. Getting it working well on an infinite number of configurations is not and supporting it is expensive.
- joenathan 13y ago
  That's what abstraction layers are for, think Direct X and OpenGL.
  - teamonkey 13y ago
    Those certainly help port it to the PC, but they don't guarantee it will work well on every combination of components.
- Maert 13y ago
  Often it's not the problem of it not working well, it's the issue of UX. Mouse and keyboard are miles away from controller. And these days they mostly don't even bother to do anything...
aclevernickname 13y ago
Sure I'm serious. Steam, and Front Row, are focusing on linux. Valve's making Linux X86 the target platform for their console. the Steambox is going to be another X86 PC of comparable speed to what I already run, but much smaller. I'm an early adopter of the same hardware you're all going to be enjoying this christmas, and many of the same games. Plus, I get a Virtual Console offering that Nintendo/Microsoft/Sony only wish they could match, and a television experience with Sickbeard/XBMC that not even Netflix can match, let alone whatever soon-abandoned toy Microsoft will be including with the XBO. You're absolutely right; Microsoft/Sony adopting the X86 platform for this generation is a perfect storm for Valve; release a Steambox running linux, and you can minimize the cost of porting to 20% of what those same efforts would require coming from a PPC architecture.

mikelat 13y ago

They still don't budget enough time and money towards PC ports even today. I played Metro Last Light recently (released last week) and the secondary weapon selection was basically holding tab and then the menu emulated the mouse like it was an analog stick to select knives, grenades, etc. They are making huge money on the PC platform but still can't be bothered to make a proper UI or binds for an entirely different platform.

teamonkey 13y ago

Porting from console to PC is trivial. Getting it working well on an infinite number of configurations is not and supporting it is expensive.

joenathan 13y ago
That's what abstraction layers are for, think Direct X and OpenGL.
- teamonkey 13y ago
  Those certainly help port it to the PC, but they don't guarantee it will work well on every combination of components.
Maert 13y ago
Often it's not the problem of it not working well, it's the issue of UX. Mouse and keyboard are miles away from controller. And these days they mostly don't even bother to do anything...

aclevernickname 13y ago

Sure I'm serious. Steam, and Front Row, are focusing on linux. Valve's making Linux X86 the target platform for their console. the Steambox is going to be another X86 PC of comparable speed to what I already run, but much smaller. I'm an early adopter of the same hardware you're all going to be enjoying this christmas, and many of the same games. Plus, I get a Virtual Console offering that Nintendo/Microsoft/Sony only wish they could match, and a television experience with Sickbeard/XBMC that not even Netflix can match, let alone whatever soon-abandoned toy Microsoft will be including with the XBO. You're absolutely right; Microsoft/Sony adopting the X86 platform for this generation is a perfect storm for Valve; release a Steambox running linux, and you can minimize the cost of porting to 20% of what those same efforts would require coming from a PPC architecture.