It seems like there has been a struggle between quality physics and quality graphics in games as of late. Either a game has an incredibly nice physics engine with decent graphics or the opposite. I think this is trending towards gaming PCs and even consoles requiring a physics card in the future. Right now physics are handled by the CPU but with a dedicated physics card the CPU could be freed up to perform more base level engine code with the physics card picking up all of the slack.
There have been some attempts at this in the past but nothing has really stuck. I think this is primarily because no game developer wants to adopt a standard method of physics modeling which a physics card will require. Basically, no one has made OpenGL/DirectX for physics yet. A physics library like that would be incredibly useful though.
More and more titles are releasing full new games instead of DLC for their existing games that have the exact same functionality. The worst offender of this is Rock Band and Guitar Hero as you could probably have guessed. They add more songs, some background videos, and suddenly you’re expected to pay another $60 for this? These should be getting released as $20-$30 content packs for the original titles.
It’s really a shame to see gaming companies doing this but it’s even more sad that gamers are willing to put up with it and buy small upgrades as if they’re entirely new games. This ties into why I hate consoles in general though. If these games were on PC there would simply be modding communities churning this stuff out for free. By keeping it on consoles they’re allowed to get away with this robbery and the people tied to consoles eat it up because there are less titles for them since console developers are split between choosing which of 3 consoles to develop for.
Continuing on from my previous post on consoles. One of the major “advantages” of consoles is being able to play with other friends. However, almost all PC games can support split screen and multiple controllers they just don’t because the console market dominates that. Game manufacturer’s could include split screen and multiple input on PC games with only minor tweaks. For example, the last Unreal Tournament supported this. This is another example of them trying to restrict use to consoles because of the profitability bonuses it gives them at the expense of the consumer.
Lately I’ve seen a lot of people arguing over which console system is the best. Why is it that these people are blind to the truth that all consoles are bad for gamers? What they offer is a way for companies to ensure you’re paying for their games by making them hard to pirate, a way to market new products to you, and a way to bleed you for monthly service charges, etc. There’s really nothing good about them for consumers.
I got Street Fighter IV and I’m loving it. It’s great to be playing such a nostalgic franchise again especially since they kept to the original focus of the game unlike other fighters like Mortal Kombat. All the old characters handle very similarly in terms of fighting style and moves. The one complaint I have is that the joysticks on console controllers makes it hard to pull off the move you want every time. I might have to invest in one of those arcade style joystick addons. We’ll see how that goes.
