Can the X-box cope

mrblue

My opinion of this console is generally LOW. However, it has a several quality titles coming out next year. Among these are a number of highly anticipated PC ports - namely Deus Ex 2, Half Life 2, Thief 3, Doom 3. For those of us who have neither the time or the funding to get a decent PC setup running, this makes the X-box an appealing option.

My question is this - given the advanced graphics techniques utilised by this new wave of PC titles, will the X-box cope, or will it be reduced to the hideous graphical shambles that was the console port of Jedi Knight 2? Show me the knowledge, techy types.

Shinji

For the most part it'll cope just fine. For a start, it gets to run those titles in 640x480, it gets free anti-aliasing off your TV setup, and it's got quite a nice powerful (GeForce 4 class) graphics card in there.

Some stuff it WILL struggle with though - particularly things which require a very beefy processor (I expect that Half Life's amazing physics may be dumbed down a little on Xbox) and things which require a LOT of RAM (it has 64mb total, whereas most PCs have that on their graphics cards alone).

It'll also suffer from Lazy Port Syndrome, sadly. Deus Ex 2 looks great on the PC at the moment, but the Xbox version of the game which was demonstrated at E3 looks TERRIBLE - muddy textures, great big pixel seams at the edges of polygons, and horrible low resolution surfaces where the PC is crisp and sharp. That's not limitations of the system, it's limitations of the amount of effort the coders are putting into the port...

mrblue

Curse them for farming off port jobs to second rate teams! Curse them ALL!!!

Doodee

Originally posted by Shinji
For the most part it'll cope just fine. For a start, it gets to run those titles in 640x480, it gets free anti-aliasing off your TV setup, and it's got quite a nice powerful (GeForce 4 class) graphics card in there.

ok, not too sure, but isnt the x-force a GF3 based chip, especially when u consider the box was out before the GF4.

also, im pretty sure that they are not gonna do lousy port jobs of the big games like HL2 and Doom3, cause that would be themselves shoot foot and so on.

not to mention, smaller companys such as torc are developing engines that look and act like the doom 3 one, but will not be as expensive and will more than likely run faster, this is just a RUMOUR but im sure if needs be alot of the big developers will use an engine that wont be as much of a strain.

also, again, there generally would not be as much slow down on teh x-box for games such as doom 3 as the game was initially developed with the GF3 capabilities in mind.

Matt Simis

The Xbox GPU is like a supercharged GF3, or like a tailor made console GF4.
Check out: http://www.anandtech.com/systems/showdoc.html?i=1561


Also bear in mind that Gearbox claimed that had to reduce the model detail in the PC port of Halo (1). The textures and res went up, but the model complexity went down a little. I would have imagined this was more for compatiblity with non-nVidia cards myself, but they claimed the XB was still ahead of PC GPUs in this one regard.



Matt

BLITZ_Molloy

The Xbox really shouldn't be relying too much on these PC ports. It badly needs more developers.

Smilebit and Bungie are keeping the whole thing afloat at the moment. The likes of Unreal Championship had bad framerates, bad controls etc. so I wouldn't expect the other big PC releases to be any different.

AM2 are developing Outrun 2 and Virtua Cop 3 so maybe that'll produce something engaging.

HL2, DE2 and Doom3 aren't definate XBox games. Sony could try and get some of them as exclusives.

Deadwing

Originally posted by BLITZ_Molloy

HL2, DE2 and Doom3 aren't definate XBox games. Sony could try and get some of them as exclusives.

Im not a big tech head, but i can say for sure there is NO WAY IN HELL that you could get something as good looking as Doom 3, HL2, or DE2 on the Ps2. The Ps2 is 3 years old now, so imagine trying to get those games running on a pc with 3 year old specs.
They HAVE actually been confirmed for the Xbox too, btw.
DE2 was originally slated for ps2 release, but now only Xbox and Pc are named in its release schedule. I know at the moment Ps2 developers are really pushing the machine (Silent hill 3 looks amazing, as does MGS3 and GT4) But ill be deep in the cold cold ground before i see Doom 3 running on the ps2, i think.

BLITZ_Molloy

PC games don't port that well to PS2 alright. PC has high clockspeed, lots of memory, low bandwidth. PS2 has average clockspeed, feck all memory and high bandwidth.

You really have to rebuild a game from the ground up using the vector units properly to get GT4 quality graphics out of it. Shoe-horning in some code that isn't made for it doesn't work.

Bob the Unlucky Octopus

Yup, seems that the only way to experience the full quality of a game is to play it on the machine it was built for. Looks like a life of crime for me.


I agree with deadwing. Look at the nasty graphics on the PS2 version of deus ex 1. Now imagine doom 3 running at full speed, dripping with beautiful lighting, shadow & diamond sharp textures. Will this run on sony's humble machine? I think not. Not without a frame rate of 1. Per minute.

The way I see it, the PC world moves so much faster than console gaming in terms of specs that you'll either have to put up with piss poor ports or slow down the advance of PC gaming in order to keep releasing titles across all platforms the way they are doing at the mo. If you've put in the effort & finances into getting a fast PC, you deserve to have the best games ahead of time. Schmucks like me will just have to wait for the PS3 to play HL2 & the rest. Of course, by that time I'll have a proper job, & will be able to nurture my game habit in the way in deserves. Hurrah!

Ryo Hazuki

GeForce 4 class

I though it was a version of the GF3 Ti 500?

PC games don't port that well to PS2 alright.

Oh yes, Deus Ex for Example the Frame rate drops to below Ten (thats what it looks like) when your in a big fight.

But Quake 3 runs super-fine.

kensutz

Xbox will take off this year. XBOX Live is proving to be a huge success and I'm addicted to it. More and more Live games are coming out which will prolong the life of it. Never write off a console you dont own or know much about. Stick your heads back into a PS2 and fall into Sony's little magical world.

public_enemy

Originally posted by Doodee
also, im pretty sure that they are not gonna do lousy port jobs of the big games like HL2 and Doom3, cause that would be themselves shoot foot and so on.

i dunno if you've noticed or not, but games sell on hype as opposed to quality these days, the desperate x-box press will jump on anything even vaguely resembling a major title and people will buy it. the longer a game takes to come out, the more likely other games will catch up or surpass it, so a quick release is always preferable, and more often than not developers rush the port.

the question for me isn't will the x-box cope, its whether or not the developers will ever be able to create a console shoot-em-up where i don't end up screaming something along the lines of "THAT WOULD NEVER HAVE HAPPENED IF I'D HAD A MOUSE"

oh, and as for requiring an expensive pc, chances are that doom 3 will need a state of the art model to enjoy it properly, but deus ex 2 shouldn't require that much to look reasonable, and valve are currently claiming that hl2 will run with a tnt 2 card

Deadwing

Originally posted by kensutz
Xbox will take off this year. XBOX Live is proving to be a huge success and I'm addicted to it. More and more Live games are coming out which will prolong the life of it. Never write off a console you dont own or know much about. Stick your heads back into a PS2 and fall into Sony's little magical world.

Ehhhh....remember Dreamarena? And the Dreamcast? First ever console online, and with games like quake 3? That didnt save it, either. And even tho i love my xbox (basically cause its pretty much just a high end p.c under my t.v and i know ill be able to play doom 3 on it) i cant see Xbox live saving the xbox, or shooting it ahead of PS2 in the console war, namely, because not all of us have broadband, and not everyones willing to pay to subscribe to xbox live. Lets just face it, i LOVE my gamecube, i think its the best console ever, but NO WAY will it, or the xbox, EVER reach the mainstream appeal Ps2 has, and they will always live in Ps2's shadow.

KdjaCL

Personally i wouldnt buy a Port, rent out maybe but as said above PC to PS2/xbox doesnt work unless coders do it right.
PC games are meant for PC and console games are meant for console.

Better of sticking with the games that were created specificaly for the consoles.

kdjac

Dcully

Nobody mentioned the terrible framerate on the xbox and PS2 versions of Medal of honour.
Ive seen countless PC games ported to consoles and they mostly all have inferior gfx and framerate, Max payne comes to mind.
Im not sure if its the developers being lazy or not, i suspect its the lack of ram and processing power.The GPU on the xbox atleast is decent but lacks that raw processing power that these games are going to need IMO.
AFAIK this is why the incredible Battlefield 1942 was cancelled for xbox.

BLITZ_Molloy

I think the bottom line is that the XBox could really do with more big titles developed specifically for it. After the awful sales Panzer Dragoon and Jet Set Radio Future got though the future of the platform for anything but PC games is kind of iffy.

40coats

Originally posted by Dcully
Nobody mentioned the terrible framerate on the xbox and PS2 versions of Medal of honour.
Ive seen countless PC games ported to consoles and they mostly all have inferior gfx and framerate, Max payne comes to mind.
Im not sure if its the developers being lazy or not, i suspect its the lack of ram and processing power.The GPU on the xbox atleast is decent but lacks that raw processing power that these games are going to need IMO.
AFAIK this is why the incredible Battlefield 1942 was cancelled for xbox.

i think the only reason 1942 was cancelled was EA's unwillingness to support Live. As a single player game it was judged rightly or wrongly not to warrant the effort. As for inferior gfx and framerate, well the gfx will always suffer if only because you play on a TV rather than a monitor. But taking into account the lockdown hardware of a console, surley all but a tiny few of current PC games could be ported without framerate issues if the time was taken to fully optimize the code for any of the three consoles (with Xbox presumably being the easiest and PS2 being the most profitable).

mrblue

Consoles shouldn't have to rely on PC ports any more than the PC should have to rely on console ports. Sadly, consoles lack a mouse, so the majority of the best shooters will be released onto the PC first. Personally, I don't begrudge my spotty PC playing friends, as they have had to wait what seems an age to get their hands on a shooter that stands up to half life, deux ex etc. I only hope that the next wave of shooters advances gaming in general as much as these classic titles did.

Sir Random

When Sony announced the PS2, I was surprised that the controls were limited to the conventional gamepad. I expected to see a mouse + LeftHand controller combo (like Nostromo N50 speedpad or Sidewinder Strategic Commander) but no.

Then, when microsoft announced the X-Box, I was convinced that Gates would include the mouse/WASDcontroller combo (or at least, physical ports for them to be added) but no again. My only conclusion is that Gates didn't want the X-Box to take too big a share of the PC Games market.

I have to say, I would have considered buying a PS2 or X-Box if either had included the option of adding mouse/keypad controls. I watched a friend playing RTCW on the PS2 and it was painful to see him struggle with the keypad and still not come close to the freedom of movement we take for granted on the PC.

Dcully

I used to play Halo via link cables with some friends.
We were masters of it using a pad but could not get the thought of Keyboard /mouse combo out of our heads.
Halo and indeed xbox wore off soon .
Atleast 8 of us bought xbox but out of that 8 im the only one left with one [ i use it only for DVD under my TV].
It lasted about 3 weeks but died a quick death.
Once you go back to any PC shooter with the fluid, crisp controls you really see how dumb a pad is for FPS games.Only the other day i was watching a cousin of mine play Halo and my god it was painfull seeing him struggle to kill this one particular enemy.
I was sitting there thinking id have him and 7 or 8 more dead by now with a mouse,yes it was painfull watching this.
Give me Battlefield 1942,CS,Day of Defeat,UT2003,MOHAA,RTCW,Soldier of Fortune 2,Operation Flashpoint,Ghost Recon on PC anytime.
I cannot understand why consoles dont have better mouse support.