Record PC game sales in 2011

[busydude]

EA is trying to mount opposition with Origin, and Gamestop with Impulse. Those two are probably in the best position to rival Steam. Reminds me of the Amazon vs. publishing houses battle that still rages on.

I personally think Amazon is also going to become a big player here, they have some amazing deals on PC games these days.

 

[paperfist]

Until consoles figure out a way to include kbm control schemes in all games where it is superior I and many others will never take them seriously. I miss the days when consoles stuck to what they were good at, 2d platformers, fighting games and top down rpgs. How the hell they decided to start making every other game a gamepad contolled fps, and why anyone would play them is beyond me.

There's no way they need to figure out how to include KB/Mice as there are 3rd party add ons for that. If they can build a console with motion detection then tech wise it shouldn't be a problem.

The big question is why don't they include it?

 

[thespyder]

I didn't buy DA2 as the original didn't really hold my interest but I just read up on what you are referring to by wave combat. This is pretty much the exact reason I only shell out full price for games developed first and foremost for the PC. Unfortunately, they are pretty few and far between, but you will never see a game developed first for the PC with an issue like that.

A good example of a well produced PC centric RPG "action" game, IMO, is Risen. Knowing the graphics and gameplay decisions were made based on PC tech I never felt like paying $60 upon release was going to end up being a bad idea. It also helped it was coming from a seasoned developer as well. On the flip side though, console design can suffer, as was shown with Risen 1. But that's also a good example of why we need PC and console centric games IMO. Ports can be ok, but it would be a welcome change to see a few more PC only big budget titles IMHO. And i'm not talking "Mass Effect" big budget either. Just something a little beyond indie really.

If you want a good example of the disparity between PC and Console, sometime check out DA:O for the console. It is SIGNIFICANTLY different from the PC version. Unfortunately, they got a lot of flack over that and thus came up with DA2. or in other words, the shoehorned the DA engine and crammed it down till it would work with console. And we got a game that was a HUGE disapointment.

I would be all for an indie RPG, but we haven't seen much in that arena of late. And with EA eating up all of the decent developer, we are unlikely to see much in the future. Hopefully that will change. Particularly as apparently some of the talent behind bioware has been leaving to go out on their own.

 

[mindcycle]

I would be all for an indie RPG, but we haven't seen much in that arena of late. And with EA eating up all of the decent developer, we are unlikely to see much in the future. Hopefully that will change. Particularly as apparently some of the talent behind bioware has been leaving to go out on their own.

Yeah, I just downloaded the iOS RPG/dungeon crawler Emissary of War from former Bioware team lead Tobyn Manthorpe. It's pretty fun but doesn't really compare to larger PC based RPG's for obvious reasons. It's fun too play for a minute here and there at work though..

What we need is for all of the former Bioware employees to team up and start developing a game together. No EA influence, smaller non-corporate environment, new ideas not stifled by needing to keep things "safe", etc.. That would be pretty great IMO. One can dream..

 

[Rambusted]

There's no way they need to figure out how to include KB/Mice as there are 3rd party add ons for that. If they can build a console with motion detection then tech wise it shouldn't be a problem.

The big question is why don't they include it?

Pretty sure the only game that appeared on consoles with native kbm support was unreal 3. Aside from that you have to use 3rd party devices that only mimic true kbm control in a substandard way.

 

[thespyder]

Yeah, I just downloaded the iOS RPG/dungeon crawler Emissary of War from former Bioware team lead Tobyn Manthorpe. It's pretty fun but doesn't really compare to larger PC based RPG's for obvious reasons. It's fun too play for a minute here and there at work though..

What we need is for all of the former Bioware employees to team up and start developing a game together. No EA influence, smaller non-corporate environment, new ideas not stifled by needing to keep things "safe", etc.. That would be pretty great IMO. One can dream..

Even if they were to take an older project and revisit it would be great. People have been talking about the Baldur's gate "Revival" that might potentially be going on. Lots of speculation on the net surrounding it. Hey, if someone actually went and too the old infinity engine and gave it a facelift it would be great. And if they were to actually do something story related with memorable companions like in BG2, even better. I bet the whole thing could be done with a minimum of start up capital.

Another idea I had would be to take something like the original Wasteland and turn that into something. sure it would be next to impossible to surpass fallout, but an Indie team might be able to license that (over the Fallout title) for a song and then put some money into an engine. Who knows what might come out of something like that?