PC ports: good or bad for the Xbox 360?

[Uli]

Call of Duty 2, Quake 4, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, Oblivion and now Prey are some the best games from the still small line up of 360 games. but at the same time their PC counterparts are technically superior and cost up to 30% less. also, the little exclusive 360 content, e.g. Perfect Dark Zero, has disappointed many so far, and the one and only supposed killer-application Halo 3 is still a year away. i have friends who already gave up on the 360 because of this fact and invested some of their saved money in better PCs or hardware upgrades.

is the PC strong on the rise again and does this implicate the decline or even the fall of the still young 360?

[oblivion_6]

I guess it comes down to cost more, your going to spend more than the cost of a 360 to get a pc that can run at a similar appearance etc

I prefer the PC to the 360 but thats mostly down to the line up of games available, the ones you mention are the only ones Im interested in and I would rather play them on my pc as its way more powerful.

[marcus]

I have Prey on PC, and Oblivion, but play the 360 versions only, in fact the only PC game I play with any regularity is Out Run C2C, but if a 360 verson came out Id switch to that in an instant.

I found with gaming on the PC, I was never happy, instead of having a standard that you get with the 360, PC games can be tinkered with for hours to get a few frames here and there for example, and its then no longer an instant gaming fix for me because of all the other crap surrounding it. Also I find the inconvenience of having to use a mouse and keyboard far greater than playing the same game via pad, I no longer game on my PC monitor and so the benefit of using a simple pad to allow for me to sit in front of the plasma screen for gaming is a massive one.

Sorry to hear about your friends, each to their own, but the 360 is giving me everything I need in a console right now and its only the beginning.

So for me the 360 offers the best of both worlds, and the more PC conversions of good titles the better. A game is a game, who gives a crap about its origins.

[Matt]

I'm hopeful that once the next wave of 360 software kicks in, we'll see a noticeable improvement in graphic quality as so far, as you say, a decent PC trounces it (have you seen Prey on a midrange to decent PC, so much smoother and the textures are much better).

I can see the reason for some selling up and concentrating on the PC, but I like the 360 experience. Plus there are some really good looking 360-only games coming out soon, and Gears Of War looks totally stunning.

[sj33]

Ironically, I actually prefer the level of customisability that a PC offers, and the fact that you can tinker around with the hardware and software to your hearts content.

But as far as software line-up goes, the PC doesn't interest me. The few PC games I do play are just console ports which I bought to play in higher resolution.

[marcus]

Where games arent available for the 360, then I would always prefer the PC version because as you say, the high resolutions, Out Run C2C is a classic example of a game which benefits so much from the improved visuals. I dont think though that the difference between the PC and 360 is great at all, COD2 and Oblivion look just as good to me on the 360 as on my (high-spec) PC. There has been a few awful ports (Quake 4 for example), but on the whole Im really happy with them so far.

[sj33]

Depends how far a person wants to take it really. I mean, if a person has a really top-end machine, they can tweak Oblivion and most other games to look better than the 360.
But at what price? It's obviously stupidly expensive to have a top-end PC and keep it top-end. This is where consoles like the 360 shine, low cost, beast hardware that will continue to look awesome for years to come because the fixed hardware allows developers to optomise for the specific components.

I mean, I'm currently in the process of building a new PC (just waiting for nForce5 for Conroe in August). Core2Extreme X6800, 2GB DDR2, GeForce 7950 GX2... coupled with high-end case (Antec P180) and the like, setting me back just under 2 grand! For a machine I'm going to be using mainly for console ports as far as gaming goes ('course, my machine will be used for other things, or else I wouldn't bother).

Suddenly even a $599 PS3 looks like a bargin...

[charlesr]

My PC was ?200 more than a 360. It doesn't meet the recommended spec for any new PC game now.... (it does meet minimum spec though). I'd rather stick with a device that doesn't change spec thoughout it's lifetime. You'd be right annoyed if after buying a bluray player, they suddenly decided that you need to get an upgrade just to play the 50Gb discs in future. Also, I can't play PC games on my sofa on a big screen in decent surround sound.

The last time I tried PC gaming was the Battlefield2 demo. When installing it, I was told I needed a new GFX driver (that came with the download), which I duely installed. This broke my PC. So I rolled back and tried again. Still broke. I then tried the game without the driver and it worked fine.... So half an hour after finishing the download, I finally got started.... Give me an xbox version that JUST WORKS any day of the week.

The time before that was Call of Duty 2, which worked fine till half way through and then the graphics corrupted with multicoloured textures appearing everywhere.

PC gaming is for people with the time to spend faffing around with settings and making sure their PC is set up right. I don't.

Bring on the ports!

[El Leone]

Ghost Recon is not a port. The X360/PC/ Xbox + PS2 versions were built specifically for their respetive platform.

[eastyy]

Oblivion is a big example of the amount of customizing you can do

Also a few of the bugs i came across i could go into the construction kit and bypass them

Pc conversions are nice for the x360 but i feel it needs to have system exclusive not just console exclusive

[Brats]

also, the little exclusive 360 content, e.g. Perfect Dark Zero, has disappointed many so far

That argument is far too simple. In many people's opinions the best games on the 360 are PGR3, Ridge Racer 6, Amped 3, Chrome Hounds, DOA4 and Condemned. All are exclusive games.

Plus the argument that all PC games are technically better only applies if you have an uber PC, so the point that the games cost less is a non-starter.

I love PC games, but I hate PCs, so the ports to me are a god-send. The best thing about them though is that they are not being dumbed down. Whereas in the previous generations the consoles got dodgy knock offs of COD and ropey RTS games, we now get full on versions of Football Manager, BFME2, COD2 and others. It all adds to the variety on the 360, Bring it on I say.

[eastyy]

Unfortunetly one thing that seems to be happening (carried on from pc games)

Is bugs and patches oblivion being a prime example i just feel sorry for the people who have a x360 but do not have broadband

[squidman]

That argument is far too simple. In many people's opinions the best games on the 360 are PGR3, Ridge Racer 6, Amped 3, Chrome Hounds, DOA4 and Condemned. All are exclusive games.

I'm sure at least a few people think Oblivion is in that 'best games' category.

I've had my computer for a while, and whilst it's only got a 6600 GT graphics card, but it can quite easily handle the Doom 3 engine. So for games like Quake IV and Prey, well, I really wouldn't buy them on the 360. Because, well, you can get the PC versions of those games for cheaper. Much cheaper. Not to mention the port of Quake IV is juttery, frame-skipping ass and isn't worth the disc it was printed on.

Personally, i've got nothing against ports, they can port everything as far as i'm concerned, but for games like Prey and Quake IV i'd say they need a better reason to ask for ?50 RRP than "I can play it sitting on a sofa", Because my PC setup is pretty kushtey, too.

[Yoshimax]

To answer the subject - No, PC ports are not bad for the 360 - It's giving 360 owners more choice and I'd be surprised if there aren't people happier to spend ?280 or ?220 on a 360 and avoid spending the same if not more to upgrade their PC just for one or two games.

However there is a need for more 360 exclusive stuff - I think now that PS2 is finally being laid to rest and devs are getting up to full speed on next gen development we should see some uber results.

And I think PC and 360 GRAW ARE the same - But just check the PC spec required to get it running at the same level as the 360....

[Uli]

Ghost Recon is not a port. The X360/PC/ Xbox + PS2 versions were built specifically for their respetive platform.

true. but for many GR fans the PC version turned out to be more faithful to the values of the franchise, offers better visuals and physics (on high-end PCs at least) is cheaper and on top of that has downloadable content for free! i love my GRAW for 360 - it's my most played game on the system - but this made me think...