SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
regift_of_the_gods writes:
"The results from the 2013 holiday season through January are leaking in, and they look grim: not great for Sony, bad for Microsoft, terrible for Nintendo. The PS4 seems to be outselling the Xbox One but both are far behind their respective sales totals of 2006/2007, when they faced off with the previous generation of consoles. An anonymous developer quoted in the TechCrunch piece notes: 'There are 2+ year old GPUs that outperform these boxes, and even budget GPUs releasing now in the $150 range outclass these machines... This means whilst the casuals are moving to mobile/web, the high end enthusiasts are moving to PC where games are better looking. The traditional consoles are caught in a pincer movement.'
Sony has just completed a round of layoffs at its Santa Monica game studio. Meanwhile, the future of Xbox within Microsoft remains cloudy, with the departure of CEO Steve Ballmer and the ascension of Stephen Elop as head of the Devices and Services group, which includes the Nokia/Lumia handsets and the Surface tablet as well as Xbox. There are rumors that Microsoft is negotiating to sell the Xbox division to Amazon, which seems to be trying to enter the game platform industry. Elop wrote the (in)famous 'burning platform' memo when he was CEO at Nokia, as a prelude to abandoning the Symbian and MeeGo operating systems in favor of Windows Phone; he also stated last year that he would consider divesting Xbox and Bing if he was named CEO."
(Score: 3, Informative) by naff89 on Monday March 10 2014, @07:15AM
PlayStation 3/4 and Xbox 360 controllers can already be used on PC's via USB/Bluetooth. Microsoft will also be releasing a PC version of the Xbox One controller.
So for a lot of games you can have your cake and use a potentially superior input method for it, too.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Rivenaleem on Monday March 10 2014, @01:17PM
"So for a lot of games you can have your cake and use a potentially superior input method for it, too."
It really depends on the game, unfortunately. Some games you have a clear winner on the input selection, FPS games as we all know favor the mouse, while hack'n'slash favor the controller.
2 games annoyed me no end though. GTAV and Far Cry 3. The shooting bits are better with mouse, while the driving bits are better with controller. This wouldn't be so bad if either game operated somewhat like Kingdom's of Amalur (great game) whereby it was always waiting for input on either device, so you could switch inputs quickly and easily. In Far Cry 3 you had to pause the game and navigate the menus to change input mode if you wanted to swap. I would swap between modes when I had to do one of the 'races' because I just terrible at controlling the vehicles with keyboard (Nostromo actually). In GTAV (at this point I'll point out I played it on XBOX360 using controller only) I cannot imagine trying to swap controls when you have to jump out of a car and be expected to start shooting right away, or be in a firefight and then try to escape in a car.
I would like to see if the Steam Controller solves this, I've heard reports that the touchpad interfaces are a great compromise between mouse and stick controls.
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Tuesday March 11 2014, @03:56AM
"GTAV (at this point I'll point out I played it on XBOX360 using controller only) "
Just a Question, I have never played GTA V, (Waiting for PC port) and only GTA IV on a computer with an Xbox controller. (Never played it on a console) If you hold down the left trigger you auto aim. Is this different with V? Or is it a computer/console thing?
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 1) by Rivenaleem on Wednesday March 12 2014, @08:49AM
Yes, you have the option of auto-aiming/tracking targets using the left trigger (aim assist). But I might as well not play the game if I don't have to aim whatsoever.
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Thursday March 13 2014, @05:53PM
I agree, I use KB/trackball for movement and aiming on the computer, and the 360 pad for driving. Somewhat inconvenient, but I used to play Mafia I with my steering wheel for driving and KB/Trackball for foot.
I wish I could use my wheel in Mafia II and GTA IV. The 360 emulators don't seem to work with my Thrustmaster Skuderia 430 cockpit wheel....(can't seem to make it controller 1)
I was just curious about V, since you're limited to the controller that can't aim worth a shit...and I haven't owned a system since the Sega Genesis.
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.