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Some time ago I read a preview in my favorite PC games magazine for a new and interesting first person shooter. The first thought I had was "What's for dinner?"... Then I returned my attention to the magazine article. It was previewing the game which you may have heard about known as Red Faction. The article promised many things, including the usual excellent story and brilliant graphics that are typical of First Person Shooters today, but one thing stood out about this game: The Geo-mod engine. The engine that i'm sure you'll know allows you to destroy practically everything you see. This obviously gives rise to a whole new way of gaming in which the usual thought of "I wish I could destroy that door instead of having to go back for a keycard" has no place (unless you run out of explosives). To make this more interesting they have based the game in a mine, so that should mean that you wont run out of explosives (although the temptation to try and literally destroy everything may be too strong for some).
Of course it doesn't stop there, they also intended to have realistic physics allowing bullets to ricochet around corners making it both dangerous and useful to miss in a metal corridor and also making it harder to always come out shooting if there's a chance that the strange lighting of the next room is less of a threat than the torrent of your own bullets that are trying to find their way back to you. Especially if it turns out that there are less alternative targets for your bullets to bury themselves in than you had first thought.
There's the Red Faction bit, but now for the other bit of the title. You were wondering if i'd get to that weren't you... Infact you've already stopped reading haven't you? well you better come back now then, that's it. So I had read all of these things about a game and was becoming quite enthusiastic about the progression, but then suddenly I thought it might have all been for naught. They were releasing it on the PS2 as well. So now I was worrying that they would end up with a game that was quite below the expected standard for a PC game because they would make the PS2 version and then just have the PC version the same and so loose out on the advantages a PC only game may have. It had happened before, the Playstation made GTA2 a simple replica of the original with slightly better graphics and worse music. It's a well know fact that the PC is capable of more than a console, so will a game released on both use only the capabilities of the console and miss out on the PC opportunities?
Well we've yet to find out, Red Faction wont be released for the PC until September(ish). This may be a good sign and show that they are making the PC version quite separate from the PS2 one and making the different version work well with what they have. Of course it may also be that they are merely doing some conversion work or something which they require to finish the PC version. Until it's release we'll have to wait to see if it disappoints PC owners with it's "not quite as good as it could have been" result or if the developers will have taken care to keep the two games seperate and work well on both formats.
So will games that are developed for console and PC at the same time be a bad thing or a good thing? Are they catering for all markets or just trying to make a cheap profit? Will consoles be the bane of PC progression or will they merely be a good friend who wants to cooperate? Let us watch and wait.
Of course it doesn't stop there, they also intended to have realistic physics allowing bullets to ricochet around corners making it both dangerous and useful to miss in a metal corridor and also making it harder to always come out shooting if there's a chance that the strange lighting of the next room is less of a threat than the torrent of your own bullets that are trying to find their way back to you. Especially if it turns out that there are less alternative targets for your bullets to bury themselves in than you had first thought.
There's the Red Faction bit, but now for the other bit of the title. You were wondering if i'd get to that weren't you... Infact you've already stopped reading haven't you? well you better come back now then, that's it. So I had read all of these things about a game and was becoming quite enthusiastic about the progression, but then suddenly I thought it might have all been for naught. They were releasing it on the PS2 as well. So now I was worrying that they would end up with a game that was quite below the expected standard for a PC game because they would make the PS2 version and then just have the PC version the same and so loose out on the advantages a PC only game may have. It had happened before, the Playstation made GTA2 a simple replica of the original with slightly better graphics and worse music. It's a well know fact that the PC is capable of more than a console, so will a game released on both use only the capabilities of the console and miss out on the PC opportunities?
Well we've yet to find out, Red Faction wont be released for the PC until September(ish). This may be a good sign and show that they are making the PC version quite separate from the PS2 one and making the different version work well with what they have. Of course it may also be that they are merely doing some conversion work or something which they require to finish the PC version. Until it's release we'll have to wait to see if it disappoints PC owners with it's "not quite as good as it could have been" result or if the developers will have taken care to keep the two games seperate and work well on both formats.
So will games that are developed for console and PC at the same time be a bad thing or a good thing? Are they catering for all markets or just trying to make a cheap profit? Will consoles be the bane of PC progression or will they merely be a good friend who wants to cooperate? Let us watch and wait.
I suppose it may depend on which format they originally concentrated on making the game for. If they were making it for the PC and using all the technology they could they may have made a toned down version for the PS2 but if they made it originally for the PS2 they should then be improving it for the PC version.
As you say though, we'll have to wait and see.
As you say though, we'll have to wait and see.
Don't worry, this isn't a sympathy post, I think you pose a very valid question.
The version (Port / Fresh Code) or effort put into a game, can and does affect sales and reviews a lot of the time; Thus having an effect on the gamers view of the company.
The fact that Red Faction is not released until September certainly looks good for PC owners, although as you'll know that isn't nearly enough time to code, test, de-bug and test and copy the game...
This suggests that some of the basic elements of the PS2 version may have been ported, although because of the delay in release dates, it is easy enough to suggest that the PC version will be just as beneficial to PC gamers as the PS2 version was/is to owners of that console.
I don't see how the Geo-Mod Tech will be affected, but as you said, if the developers have time to code in some extra features it could be a very stong selling point for PC owners, although the PS2 owners may feel a little 'dupped' especially seeing as they've paid more for their game.
Either way, we'll have to wait until September!
Game
The version (Port / Fresh Code) or effort put into a game, can and does affect sales and reviews a lot of the time; Thus having an effect on the gamers view of the company.
The fact that Red Faction is not released until September certainly looks good for PC owners, although as you'll know that isn't nearly enough time to code, test, de-bug and test and copy the game...
This suggests that some of the basic elements of the PS2 version may have been ported, although because of the delay in release dates, it is easy enough to suggest that the PC version will be just as beneficial to PC gamers as the PS2 version was/is to owners of that console.
I don't see how the Geo-Mod Tech will be affected, but as you said, if the developers have time to code in some extra features it could be a very stong selling point for PC owners, although the PS2 owners may feel a little 'dupped' especially seeing as they've paid more for their game.
Either way, we'll have to wait until September!
Game
Some time ago I read a preview in my favorite PC games magazine for a new and interesting first person shooter. The first thought I had was "What's for dinner?"... Then I returned my attention to the magazine article. It was previewing the game which you may have heard about known as Red Faction. The article promised many things, including the usual excellent story and brilliant graphics that are typical of First Person Shooters today, but one thing stood out about this game: The Geo-mod engine. The engine that i'm sure you'll know allows you to destroy practically everything you see. This obviously gives rise to a whole new way of gaming in which the usual thought of "I wish I could destroy that door instead of having to go back for a keycard" has no place (unless you run out of explosives). To make this more interesting they have based the game in a mine, so that should mean that you wont run out of explosives (although the temptation to try and literally destroy everything may be too strong for some).
Of course it doesn't stop there, they also intended to have realistic physics allowing bullets to ricochet around corners making it both dangerous and useful to miss in a metal corridor and also making it harder to always come out shooting if there's a chance that the strange lighting of the next room is less of a threat than the torrent of your own bullets that are trying to find their way back to you. Especially if it turns out that there are less alternative targets for your bullets to bury themselves in than you had first thought.
There's the Red Faction bit, but now for the other bit of the title. You were wondering if i'd get to that weren't you... Infact you've already stopped reading haven't you? well you better come back now then, that's it. So I had read all of these things about a game and was becoming quite enthusiastic about the progression, but then suddenly I thought it might have all been for naught. They were releasing it on the PS2 as well. So now I was worrying that they would end up with a game that was quite below the expected standard for a PC game because they would make the PS2 version and then just have the PC version the same and so loose out on the advantages a PC only game may have. It had happened before, the Playstation made GTA2 a simple replica of the original with slightly better graphics and worse music. It's a well know fact that the PC is capable of more than a console, so will a game released on both use only the capabilities of the console and miss out on the PC opportunities?
Well we've yet to find out, Red Faction wont be released for the PC until September(ish). This may be a good sign and show that they are making the PC version quite separate from the PS2 one and making the different version work well with what they have. Of course it may also be that they are merely doing some conversion work or something which they require to finish the PC version. Until it's release we'll have to wait to see if it disappoints PC owners with it's "not quite as good as it could have been" result or if the developers will have taken care to keep the two games seperate and work well on both formats.
So will games that are developed for console and PC at the same time be a bad thing or a good thing? Are they catering for all markets or just trying to make a cheap profit? Will consoles be the bane of PC progression or will they merely be a good friend who wants to cooperate? Let us watch and wait.
Of course it doesn't stop there, they also intended to have realistic physics allowing bullets to ricochet around corners making it both dangerous and useful to miss in a metal corridor and also making it harder to always come out shooting if there's a chance that the strange lighting of the next room is less of a threat than the torrent of your own bullets that are trying to find their way back to you. Especially if it turns out that there are less alternative targets for your bullets to bury themselves in than you had first thought.
There's the Red Faction bit, but now for the other bit of the title. You were wondering if i'd get to that weren't you... Infact you've already stopped reading haven't you? well you better come back now then, that's it. So I had read all of these things about a game and was becoming quite enthusiastic about the progression, but then suddenly I thought it might have all been for naught. They were releasing it on the PS2 as well. So now I was worrying that they would end up with a game that was quite below the expected standard for a PC game because they would make the PS2 version and then just have the PC version the same and so loose out on the advantages a PC only game may have. It had happened before, the Playstation made GTA2 a simple replica of the original with slightly better graphics and worse music. It's a well know fact that the PC is capable of more than a console, so will a game released on both use only the capabilities of the console and miss out on the PC opportunities?
Well we've yet to find out, Red Faction wont be released for the PC until September(ish). This may be a good sign and show that they are making the PC version quite separate from the PS2 one and making the different version work well with what they have. Of course it may also be that they are merely doing some conversion work or something which they require to finish the PC version. Until it's release we'll have to wait to see if it disappoints PC owners with it's "not quite as good as it could have been" result or if the developers will have taken care to keep the two games seperate and work well on both formats.
So will games that are developed for console and PC at the same time be a bad thing or a good thing? Are they catering for all markets or just trying to make a cheap profit? Will consoles be the bane of PC progression or will they merely be a good friend who wants to cooperate? Let us watch and wait.