Team Fortress 2 Has PC/360 Cross Platform Play

IGN has an in-depth article with Valve Engineer Robin Walker, TF2 Project Lead Charlie Brown, and Marketing Director Doug Lombardi, talking all about the Team Fortress 2 project. Along with details on class clarification, the look of the game, and map design decisions, the Valve folks confirm that 360/PC cross platform play is already in the game. "IGN: So you're actually playing now on Xbox 360s connected to PCs? Doug Lombardi: Technically it's done. Robin Walker: From our perspective, we did the Xbox port of Half-Life internally, and we did that because we wanted to have the expertise from doing that. Like controller expertise and all the sorts of decisions you've got to make that are different on consoles we wanted to have that in-house because we knew we'd be doing more Xbox titles and more console titles. And so the same guys that did that are working on TF2, we have all the tweaks we did to the controls, the sticks and everything."

Comments

finally

[Anonymous Coward]

a chance to demonstrate why KB+M > gamepad for FPS

Joypad vs Mouse+Keyboard

[onion2k]

Looks like the old "Joypad vs Mouse+Keyboard" debate might finally be resolved then.

When all of us PC gamers pwn the 360 players to hell, daily, using our superior control mechanism.

Err...yeah...sorry...that was my inner fanboy speaking.

Re:Joypad vs Mouse+Keyboard

[oni]

When all of us PC gamers pwn the 360 players to hell, daily, using our superior control mechanism. I just came in here to say the same exact thing - but I see that you have everything under control.

I predict 360-only servers will be set up after a very short time due to all the whining.

Re:Joypad vs Mouse+Keyboard

[MarcoAtWork]

what makes you think that you'll have to aim as precisely on the console as on the PC to score a hit? Also I think you'll be surprised by just how good some console players are... I wouldn't be surprised if at the top top top level maybe PC players will slightly edge console players, however at lower levels it will be a wash.

Re:Joypad vs Mouse+Keyboard

[Das Modell]

I recently played Doom 3 on the Xbox. I eventually got pretty good at controlling it, but it was still a far cry from playing with a mouse. Pad users will be totally slaughtered in a high speed game like TF2 unless mouse users are gimped or pad users are given heavy autoaim. Gimping mouse users will obviously make them extremely unhappy.

This can only end in tears. What is Valve thinking?

Re:Joypad vs Mouse+Keyboard

[brkello]

Because there is no way they are going to give you auto-aim in multiplayer even if you are using a controller. Think about it...it is just an input device. If they add the feature to auto-aim for the controller than KB+M players get it too.

I have no doubt there are people very good with controllers...but the precision and speed of KB+M just blows away a controller. It isn't a slight edge...it is a huge one and the top KB+M player will destroy the players using controllers.

No argument that there will be horrible players either way. I just don't think you understand how much precision you lose using a controller.

Re:Joypad vs Mouse+Keyboard

[Some_Llama]

"Also I think you'll be surprised by just how good some console players are"

They are good because they have mastered hand eye coordination WITH THE TOOLS AT HAND. The big difference here is that you have 2 completely different control schemes, one that allows for 1000 points of granularity (kb+m) and one that is a very limited range of direct movement (up/down/left/right/diagonal).

This isn't about a level playing field, the control mechanisms will completely skew this in favor of KB+M.

Then factor in the preset speed of movement with a console and it's all over...

If anyone wants a little first hand proof I submit the following.. go get a MS sidewinder game pad, hook it up to your PC and jump in a game of regular quake, CS, TFC, COD.

Let me know how good you do. (compared to normally using a KB+M)
(alternatively you could just count the number of PC gamers who use gamepads, one hand should do).

2 options

[ben there...]

1) Console players will get owned by PC players. Console gamers will either segregate to their own servers or give up.

2) They give console players auto-aim or some other cheat. There won't be a level playing field so you won't be able to tell how good a player actually is.

Re:2 options

[tacroy]

To be fair, if the dev's put in autoaim then it wouldn't be a cheat but a game mechanic that is a pro/con of the control you choose to use. Its class balancing for control schemes.

Control mechanisms

[deadhammer]

Differences in control schemes will make a difference, possibly eliminating a level playing field. This leads me to two conclusions: either they're going to somehow tweak the Xbox control scheme (and by "tweak", I mean "enable cheating"), or they're going to dumb down the PC control scheme. Odds on favorite: the latter.

Re:Controller versus Keyboard and Mouse

[TobyWong]

K&M is superior to gamepad for FPS and RTS games. In the same way, gamepad is superior to K&M for things like fighting, driving, and sports games (among others). It has nothing to do with what system you happen to be playing.

Not just the aim

[Ahnteis]

It's not just about the aim. It's about the ability to turn 90 or 180 degrees with the flick of a wrist. The same "insta-aim" that is possible with a mouse also makes for instant turning and THAT is a huge advantage that seems to be overlooked every time this debate comes up.

Re:The same interview also states

[Mprx]

For the PC gamers, the motivation is the same as for griefing in any game. Being able to repeatedly kill the X360 players with very little effort is amusing to some people, and given past experience of PC vs console FPS gaming this is exactly what will happen (Dreamcast Quake 3).