PS3 + a PC, what does that leave for the 360?

[loki]

Originally Posted by NokkonWud

Snip........

For me Nokkon I would go PS3>PC>X360 whilst owning them all.

As I said in the other thread no issue with Xbox, the platform or the console but for some reason, it just hasn't grabbed me like the other two. The thing that puts me off is the whole achievement whoring that seems to accompany the Xbox scene, Games must be played to the absolute death in order to achieve the the mythical 1000 points and that just does not appeal to me. I play games on Steam and if I get an achievement in TF2 then great but I don't get on the boat of "MUST GET 1000th headshot !!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Originally Posted by Nokkon

There are the games, many times the games are on PC, but you wait for ages and inevitably there will be complaints about it being "another ****ty console port", or that it "needs a patch" or, quite laughably "Needs an Xbox360 pad to be played properly" as almost all games are made for consoles as the primary market and it's got to the point where only RTS games and MMO (this could be set to change, albeit on PS3) are better on PC.

Console games require patching no :s.

The majority of my PC games are purchased through Steam nowadays and patching (be it valve or 3rd party) simply is not an issue. If my PC is on all day then my games are patched, I play and it really doesn't get any more complex than that for me.

Originally Posted by Nokkon

There is Last.fm, Twitter and Facebook all coming as well as MSN. Avatars which are having customizable clothing and props depending on game unlocks so you can make your friends jealous on the friends list (this will be awesome). Then there is Xbox.com which I must click on about 10 times a day to read/write messages, check friends achievements out and see what they're playing. Again, it's all about interactivity and Xbox360 has it covered in every area.

Last FM, Facebook & Twitter I could care less about and certainly not a compelling reason for me to get an Xbox if I didn't already have one. I mean how many devices do I need to be socially networked to.

'Yay I am twittering from Xbox, I am now twittering from my PC, I am no longer on Xbox or PC but am twittering from my phone'. Sometimes it's just really nice to disconnect from the virtual world without it being an ever present on all technology platforms.

I know your very Xbox orientated but the whole PC gaming experience you talk about, I would have agreed with a good few years ago. I would concede that Xbox is undoubtedly a polished experience. I would say that it is a different experience to the PC and PS3. However, I think to suggest that it is years behind Xbox says to me it is someone who really hasn't given PC gaming a good chance over the past two to three years.

A lot of what you say about match making I get on Steam no problem. Company of Heroes, I can dive in against people of my skill level and experience. No messing about, no patching, no sync issues.

One thing that Console centric gamers always seem to forget as well is that when they wax lyrical about the 'perfect system that just works off the disk' is that invariably it is an entirely closed system of gaming. Many Many games I have purchased for PC 'just work', they are cheaper and I get a lot more bang for my (usually lower RRP) buck due to the addons, mods, skins expansions and maps ( in most cases) free of charge developed by the community.

[NokkonWud]

What I mean by patching is that on PS3 for example, the patches are around 200mb (using Killzone 2 as an example - a week after launch). It's the same for PC games (I've needed a big update for every PC game I've bought in the last 4 years), Xbox360 does everything within 10 seconds and just goes. Don't know how it's done, but it is.

Achievements don't need chasing, it's fallacy you 'need to', but it does add an extra element as it's a very social console (much more so than any other format) and comparing achievements or scores is, or can be fun.

I also never used them as reasons to get an Xbox360 (last, Twitter, Facebook), I was mentioning the social side of the console and how it's pushing its boundaries to allow for these things, much better for family use, no?

I use Steam as I need to for the SDK's and it's improved, but how people can compare it to Live is beyond me. It's better than it was, but it's still pretty poor. It's catching up with Live, I couldn't claim otherwise and it's ahead of PS3. But I was compariing them all against each other and LIVE is a strong feature.

What people mean by 'working off the disc' is that you put the disc in, you can play. No installing, no patching, no tweaking settings, all of this is inevitably done on PC. Addons, Mods, Skins are good additions (expansions are on consoles now), but truly, how many people have played a mod and stuck to it religiously? Desert Combat, Counter-Strike, Team Fortress and Day of Defeat (the latter still not comparible to the other 3). It's nice to have them.

But to say PC games don't have problems is naive at best. I can check Overclockers and there will be complaining bitterly about the same things in every major release. PC has tried many things, Xfire and Steam are two that did well, but it's not a unified system which is where Live shines, I mentioned this above, every Live user uses that set up so everything is so well linked.

[loki]

Originally Posted by NokkonWud

What I mean by patching is that on PS3 for example, the patches are around 200mb (using Killzone 2 as an example - a week after launch). It's the same for PC games (I've needed a big update for every PC game I've bought in the last 4 years), Xbox360 does everything within 10 seconds and just goes. Don't know how it's done, but it is.

To be fair KillZone is a pretty poor example. A lot of other PS3 games I have in my library all have been micro-patched. UFC, Shaun Whites, FIFA, StreetFighter, SingStar to name but a few

Originally Posted by Nokkon

Achievements don't need chasing, it's fallacy you 'need to', but it does add an extra element as it's a very social console (much more so than any other format) and comparing achievements or scores is, or can be fun

I don't agree that it adds an extra element. Many Many hours I have played COD4 and not given 2 hoots if I was level 1 or level 55, PC Gaming is very social, status in game I accept comes part and parcel of gaming in general. Maybe thats why I never really got on board the whole MMORPG bus

Originally Posted by Nokkon

I also never used them as reasons to get an Xbox360 (last, Twitter, Facebook), I was mentioning the social side of the console and how it's pushing its boundaries to allow for these things, much better for family use, no?

I got and get all that with my PC, Laptop, Netbook, iTouch and Mobile, if I want to go and shoot some zombies or play games for half an hour its because I wan't to escape the social side of things

Originally Posted by Nokkon

I use Steam as I need to for the SDK's and it's improved, but how people can compare it to Live is beyond me. It's better than it was, but it's still pretty poor. It's catching up with Live, I couldn't claim otherwise and it's ahead of PS3. But I was compariing them all against each other and LIVE is a strong feature.

I think we are going to have to agree to disagree on this one Nokkon. We are coming at this from two completely different perspectives. I use Steam, it has all the functionallity that I need, it has a comms system, it has a storefront. It does what it is supposed to do efficiently and quickly on my PC and I can't ask for anymore. I think if you were to ask the guys at Valve they would say that they are not trying to catch up with XBL, they are developing and evolving a PC Gaming Platform nothing more. Like XBL just works for you, Steam just works for me. I really can't see anyway in which you can objectively compare them to suggest it's poor.

Originally Posted by Nokkon

What people mean by 'working off the disc' is that you put the disc in, you can play. No installing, no patching, no tweaking settings, all of this is inevitably done on PC. Addons, Mods, Skins are good additions (expansions are on consoles now), but truly, how many people have played a mod and stuck to it religiously? Desert Combat, Counter-Strike, Team Fortress and Day of Defeat (the latter still not comparible to the other 3). It's nice to have them.

I buy off steam so I have no media, I click play and it runs without the need for tweaking. The only difference is that I have to install. Given that steam is the supposed poorer relation, I would like to see both XBL and PSN have a lot more titles available via digital distribution. Done correctly, this is where both platforms need to catch up with Steam, D2D and Good old Games.

Originally Posted by Nokkon

But to say PC games don't have problems is naive at best. I can check Overclockers and there will be complaining bitterly about the same things in every major release. PC has tried many things, Xfire and Steam are two that did well, but it's not a unified system which is where Live shines, I mentioned this above, every Live user uses that set up so everything is so well linked.

Steam and Xfire are not the same thing at all though, the former being an integrated gaming platform with some of the functionallity of the latter. Im not suggesting that PC Gaming is not without it's problems because it quite clearly does. Unfortunately that's life though, people bitch moan and whine when it doesn't work, very rarely do they do say anything when it does work. As I have said before, I run my system at stock and can't think of many games that I have not been able to play once installed.

Maybe me and my friends are in the minority but ten of us have purchased, Battlefield 2, Call of Duty 4, Unreal Tournament 3, Company of Heroes and World in Conflict to name five of the many games we have played. All installed at the first time of asking and all played single player and multiplayer without a problem. Just because people bitch and moan does not mean it is representative of PC Gaming in general.

[NokkonWud]

The funny thing is, as I wrote what I did the game I was thinking of that was plagued with issues was Battlefield 2. Now this is a game I love, it was also the last game I loved on PC. But there was a VERY well known issue with sound on release that required the download of a file, something like OpenAL and needed replacing in the install directory. That problem crippled users when it came out as all they would hear was horrible feedback in their games which would snap, crackle and pop, or simply disappear, or in some cases, crash the whole game.

Where I was getting at Xfire is that it's something comparible to Xbox live, you can see users, see what they're doing, leap in to join, message users etc... But because it's not a standard, unified system it's never gonna be able to compete with something that is.

Well, on Xbox alone we have the Xbox Live Arcade which has an awful lot of games. Microsoft also have their NetFlix rental service for downloadable media which hasn't taken off here so much but is massive in the US. They also have classic Xbox titles that you can buy and download and they are also bringing in the ability to download full Xbox360 games and play them. So, I would say it has more than Steam.

I don't know about PS3, I didn't hear of any announcements at e3 about downloadable games on PS3, but they do have PS1/PSP games you can buy as well as PSN titles and we've already had both Wipeout and Warhawk.

[Aboobie]

Originally Posted by loki

I don't agree that it adds an extra element. Many Many hours I have played COD4 and not given 2 hoots if I was level 1 or level 55, PC Gaming is very social, status in game I accept comes part and parcel of gaming in general. Maybe thats why I never really got on board the whole MMORPG bus.

There aren't any COD4 multiplayer achievements; they're all sp.

[loki]

Originally Posted by Aboobie

There aren't any COD4 multiplayer achievements; they're all sp.

By that I meant levelling Lvl 1 you get a spud gun by Lvl 55 you have unlocked all the weapons

Although I only ever played single player COD 4 on PC and there was no achievements just the story line

[Streeteh]

Well, went to town to trade in most of my Wii games and was told i would get approx 50% extra if i used them as store credit as opposed to getting cash for them. Result of that is a 60GB Jasper, 800msp and Kameo for £120 out of my pocket.

Can't complain really!

Only problem is i retrieved my Live! for Windows ID onto my 360 and thus missed out on the free month of Gold. Where's the cheapest place to buy a years sub, and, is there anywhere that will just email me a code? Can't be bothered waiting

[EDIT] Oh and i've been fortunate and got the quietest 360 i've ever used, the disk drive is still stupidly loud but installing games doesn't bother me so i'm happy.

[Aboobie]

I bought mine from: http://www.play.com/Games/Xbox360/4-...&ob=Price&fb=0

playtrade from 'BuyGamingCodes' for £27.87 and got the code after a couple of hours with no hassle at all.

[NokkonWud]

A lot of places now offer the option to mail codes out, so that's great.
Have a look at my past played games and if I still have them you're more than welcome to borrow most of them (barring the few I still use, obviously). It's the least I can do .

Glad to see you join the gaming side.

[Psymonkee]

Originally Posted by Streeteh

Well, went to town to trade in most of my Wii games and was told i would get approx 50% extra if i used them as store credit as opposed to getting cash for them. Result of that is a 60GB Jasper, 800msp and Kameo for £120 out of my pocket.

Can't complain really!

Only problem is i retrieved my Live! for Windows ID onto my 360 and thus missed out on the free month of Gold. Where's the cheapest place to buy a years sub, and, is there anywhere that will just email me a code? Can't be bothered waiting

[EDIT] Oh and i've been fortunate and got the quietest 360 i've ever used, the disk drive is still stupidly loud but installing games doesn't bother me so i'm happy.

I have a free month sitting infront of me

Add me on XBL or something and it's yours