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Quake IV Confirmed For QuakeCon
Gamespot has the word that Quake IV will get some face time at QuakeCon this year. id CEO Hollenshead released the information at the Xbox Doom 3 launch event. From the article: "Over the past few years, PC game sales have either declined a little bit or stayed relatively flat, while console game sales have seen mostly double-digit growth. I don't know if we'll be releasing multiple SKUs at the same time, but as for PS3 and Xbox 2 and so on, yes, we will continue our development effort on the consoles."
A lot of the decline in PC games is the lack of marketing, lack of (good) original titles, and high initial cost to get started with it.
Lots of console games are being released on the PC, and a lot of PC games released on the consoles. Consoles attract more money to developers because there is a larger installed userbase, PC Gamers need to be a bit more tech savvy then their console brothers and sisters to get games to work, and the keyboard/mouse configuration is less intuitive then a gamepad.
Having said that, I like PC Gaming MUCH better.
one example of a ps2 keyboard can be found here: http://shop.store.yahoo.com/bre/blacplay2key.html mouse: http://www.ubid.com/actn/opn/getpage.asp?AuctionId =601416162&s=uwb70000
adapter for keyboard and mouse for xbox
http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?category=&product s_id=5438
these products do exist, and i suppose if you didn't own a computer, it might be a pretty decent deal
My own feeling is that it's only a matter of time before consoles start getting USB mice and keyboards as standard or at least common equipment for consoles. Consoles are slowly but surely evolving into low end dedicated gaming PCs. When that happens, I tend to expect that there will be an even sharper decline in PC games produced, though for moddable games, I expect PCs to be around as the modding development platform of choice.
but still no Duke Nukem Forever.
Why do you think the Playstation 2 has USB ports?
There's even an offically badged Playstation 2 mouse and keyboard: SCPH-10230 SCPH-10240, which are unavialable in stores.
I don't know what the big controversy is. I thought PS2 mice and keyboards have been out for a while now...
When Doom 2 disappeared, Quake filled the space marine void for the gaming industry. If someone made the game less dark, literally Quake 1, 2, 3 could have been Doom 3, 4, 5.
This will be the first time Doom III and Quake IV reach a prime more or less together. Some hardcore gamers might dispute, but besides the monsters and the weapons... the backdrop is way similar.
> and the keyboard/mouse configuration is less intuitive
> then a gamepad.
If you're NOT kidding, you're completely out of your mind.
Back in college, I had a group of non-CS-major friends who thought they were hot stuff on Goldeneye, for the N64. As I understand it, Goldeneye is STILL considered just about the best console FPS, and one of the best N64 games, ever released. I thought it was rather low-quality and pedestrian, myself. But whatever. A couple of them could even beat the game on "00 Level". Oooooo...
Eventually, I finally got them to come into the lab at night, and set up a Quake 2 deathmatch. For starters, only being able to play a game with just four people at a time, and being confined to one corner of the screen is lame. But I digress. I spanked them... even the "I finished Goldeneye on 00 Level" guys. And I don't just mean I won. I totally dominated. And on real FPSs, I was never really even that GOOD.... strictly average. But playing with those POS console controllers, and their associated crutches (cheats like auto-aim, for example) instilled so many bad habits into them that even the best were all but helpless against just an average "mouse and keyboard" player.
It'll be interesting to see if the xBox2 and PS3 versions of Q4 will be able to play on-line against the real version. Specifically, it'd be interesting to see the deathmatch kill stats between them. I'd bet good money that said stats would bear me out.
cya,
john
Imagine all the people...
If Doom was any indication of the visuals going into Q4, I'm anticipating an awesome game.
If Doom was any indication of the gameplay going into Q4, I'm anticipating a terrible game.
Ahm, your wording now seems to imply that you do not know that Quake IV is a sequel to Quake 2, not Quake III Arena, meaning its focus is on a single player campaign with the theme and setting from Quake 2 (Stroggos).
Somewhere some Raven dude said they would include a multiplayer mode that tried to recapture Q3As feeling - haven't heard more on that though lately.
I still remember the days when Nintendo games first started being rented out in video stores. PC Games were incredibly lacking at the time, and a friend casually asked a video store clerk when they will start renting out PC Games? They said they wouldn't because the market is much smaller. Even though PC Games grew incredibly over the next 20 years, the market in terms of number of games and originality has always been smaller than consoles. Hastings tried renting out PC games in the mid-90s, but stopped from either lack of rentals, or probably the hassle of people complaining they couldn't get the game running on their system (or piracy since CD burners just came out). In the end, I think 'the market' has a hard time looking at PCs as a game venue because of how retail outlets treat them.
PC gaming quite simply can not die And never will. Its impossible for a small independent company to release a game in any other platform and its more technologically advanced that any console in the market (and will always be since is upgradeable) MS mentioned in their keynote the PC will always a great lab for gaming and gameplay (and for once they are right).
Its expensive for developers to release boxed games for Pc's thats true. But is not as much if they get rid of the box and provide it as downloadable content. Im not sure how efficient that method is. But it certainly is the less expensive choice for any developer (no royalties to pay, no publishing, no international/national orders shipping and handling, nothing! all they need is a pc port of their game , a cc handler and a download source, thats it) another cool detail is that since pc gaming is less populated it could actually be considered a "niche" of sorts.
The only actual problem with pc gaming I see now, is how video card manufacturers are basically self destroying a part of the market, most probably they are aware than their newer card prices are unreachable for almost any pc enthusiast. Yet, they try to set them as the industry "standard" news flash: you can only call it an standard if the majority of the population prefers it over alternatives. (I mean seriously why cant new games WORK with an ati 9200 ? or geforce mx,5200 cards? those are actually affordable cards and to my knowledge they are still available in a good ammount of pcs)
Go ahead MOD my day!
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