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Yes, I know we've all seen topics before about how successfull or un-successfull on-line gaming will be for the 3 next-generation consoles, but despite all this talk, i'm still not convinced it'll be such a big and successfull thing.
On-line gaming has become a big-thing for PC gamers, and is still growing. Especially with games like 'Worms' World Party', 'Counterstrike' and others. Yes, these games and similar ones will be appearing on the 3 consoles with on-line capabillities, but will they be as successfull or will people prefer the PC versions??
One reason why PC gaming on-line may come out on top is due to the control system for the games. Many on-line gamers have become used to and enjoy the keyboard and mouse system, where you look around with the mouse and control with the keyboard. A wide variety of buttons means you have access to a wide variety of combos and moves, and movement with a mouse is much more effective than with an anologue stick and buttons. I think the PS2 is currently the only console that will be able to adopt this system, as it is bringing out it's own keyboard and mouse, just like the Dreamcast. But I don't know wether this will happen with the GameCube, but as it's a Microsoft machine, I expect something to appear for the X-box.
If you look at the popular on-line games for the PC, you'll notice that they're only a few different genres that are commonly used. First Person Shooter (FPS's) are probably the most popular, as there's nothing quite like blasting off your mates head in a game of Counterstrike! And Real Time Strategies (RTS's) like Red Alert are also quite popular for hours of on-line fun. But what about the consoles, do they have these kinds of games?? Or even games that could become big on-line favourites???
We know that all 3 formats have FPS's. The GameCube has 'Perfect Dark Zero' (actually a 3rd-person view at times) and a future 007 game to look forward to. The PS2 has the PC's 'Half-Life', which could go on-line if the 'Counterstrike' expansion pack is released, aswell as another PC favourite 'Red Faction', and a few others. And you cannot forget Halo for the X-box, predicted to be game of the year for the X-box alone!
But are all of these games going to have on-line capabillities, and what else could go on-line beside FPS's??? A lack of variety for each console could see on-line gaming fail, and keep it as a firm favourite amongst PC gamers ONLY!
One important factor you cannot forget is money! Yes, you do need pay the £150-300 for the console, and around £40 for each game, but the internet isn't free either!
If you had a next-generation console now, and you were ready to waiting to play an on-line game, how would you set up your connection??? Surely you'd go for one of those £15 a month fixed-rate packages, but what if you've already got a PC connection?? Are you gunna try and connect up both console and PC to one connection, or will you need another phone line and connection, costing you even more money??
So as you can see, I feel that on-line gaming may not go down well with us console gamers, and could dissapear with the likes of the 64DD, never to be seen again. Lets just stick to a good old 4-way multiplayer!
On-line gaming has become a big-thing for PC gamers, and is still growing. Especially with games like 'Worms' World Party', 'Counterstrike' and others. Yes, these games and similar ones will be appearing on the 3 consoles with on-line capabillities, but will they be as successfull or will people prefer the PC versions??
One reason why PC gaming on-line may come out on top is due to the control system for the games. Many on-line gamers have become used to and enjoy the keyboard and mouse system, where you look around with the mouse and control with the keyboard. A wide variety of buttons means you have access to a wide variety of combos and moves, and movement with a mouse is much more effective than with an anologue stick and buttons. I think the PS2 is currently the only console that will be able to adopt this system, as it is bringing out it's own keyboard and mouse, just like the Dreamcast. But I don't know wether this will happen with the GameCube, but as it's a Microsoft machine, I expect something to appear for the X-box.
If you look at the popular on-line games for the PC, you'll notice that they're only a few different genres that are commonly used. First Person Shooter (FPS's) are probably the most popular, as there's nothing quite like blasting off your mates head in a game of Counterstrike! And Real Time Strategies (RTS's) like Red Alert are also quite popular for hours of on-line fun. But what about the consoles, do they have these kinds of games?? Or even games that could become big on-line favourites???
We know that all 3 formats have FPS's. The GameCube has 'Perfect Dark Zero' (actually a 3rd-person view at times) and a future 007 game to look forward to. The PS2 has the PC's 'Half-Life', which could go on-line if the 'Counterstrike' expansion pack is released, aswell as another PC favourite 'Red Faction', and a few others. And you cannot forget Halo for the X-box, predicted to be game of the year for the X-box alone!
But are all of these games going to have on-line capabillities, and what else could go on-line beside FPS's??? A lack of variety for each console could see on-line gaming fail, and keep it as a firm favourite amongst PC gamers ONLY!
One important factor you cannot forget is money! Yes, you do need pay the £150-300 for the console, and around £40 for each game, but the internet isn't free either!
If you had a next-generation console now, and you were ready to waiting to play an on-line game, how would you set up your connection??? Surely you'd go for one of those £15 a month fixed-rate packages, but what if you've already got a PC connection?? Are you gunna try and connect up both console and PC to one connection, or will you need another phone line and connection, costing you even more money??
So as you can see, I feel that on-line gaming may not go down well with us console gamers, and could dissapear with the likes of the 64DD, never to be seen again. Lets just stick to a good old 4-way multiplayer!
Yeah, even if it does kick-off soon money have a big say in it, like I said in my original post.
Maybe we're not ready for on-line gaming yet, but we could be in 2 years time??
We should all just sit down with the games we get and enjoy multiplayers at home, before they become worldwide popularities. But still, we expect it to happen and it could be great with Mario Kart for example.
Maybe companies should have tours around the country, where you can try out on-line console gaming?? Like when the X-box wenton tour.
On-line gaming with other consoles could be the thing that brings the Dreamcast back to action, and put up against the big boys!
Maybe we're not ready for on-line gaming yet, but we could be in 2 years time??
We should all just sit down with the games we get and enjoy multiplayers at home, before they become worldwide popularities. But still, we expect it to happen and it could be great with Mario Kart for example.
Maybe companies should have tours around the country, where you can try out on-line console gaming?? Like when the X-box wenton tour.
On-line gaming with other consoles could be the thing that brings the Dreamcast back to action, and put up against the big boys!
I'm not sure if online gaming will kick off. I'm not sure that us, or the console market are ready for it. Yes, PC games that have anything to do with shooting or killing in any way are mostly put into an online factor as well but this might not work very well on console games.
Another thing is, that on a PC at least the internet is a lot cheaper than it will be on a console, in which we may have to pay large amounts to play online and many people will stray away from online gaming because of that.
Another thing, will the 64DD's wastefullness of money put people off all this next-gen online gaming? Well we'll have to wait and see.
I agree with what was said earlier and I think we should just stick with a 4 player multiplay, or maybe 8 like on some Sony games.
Nice post Solskjaer!
Another thing is, that on a PC at least the internet is a lot cheaper than it will be on a console, in which we may have to pay large amounts to play online and many people will stray away from online gaming because of that.
Another thing, will the 64DD's wastefullness of money put people off all this next-gen online gaming? Well we'll have to wait and see.
I agree with what was said earlier and I think we should just stick with a 4 player multiplay, or maybe 8 like on some Sony games.
Nice post Solskjaer!
I've also wondered that too, but I also think it's not possible at this current point in time. But it's definitley something that should be considered for the future, and would only happend with the same game.
That way, people wouldn't necciarily need a P to play their mates (who have PC's) on a game like Worms for example. So it is a good idea, but I think almost everyone has a PC anyway, so maybe it'd only be more usefull for people who prefer console gaming to PC's.
That way, people wouldn't necciarily need a P to play their mates (who have PC's) on a game like Worms for example. So it is a good idea, but I think almost everyone has a PC anyway, so maybe it'd only be more usefull for people who prefer console gaming to PC's.
I think it is likely that all the downlaods will have to be downloaded directly onto the hard disk unit, whether you will be able to do anything else with them after that is another thing I guess.
The PS2's optical output should allow you to transfer music etc onto mini-disk players but I am not sure bout the X-Box or GC.
Another thing I was thinking on is these days a lot of developers produce games for more than one console, will there be options to allow someone with an X-Box to play against someone with a PS2? It dosn't seem possible to me at this stage as the copies of the game are different and the way the consoles deal with certain aspects are different but maybe it is something which might be considered in the future??
The PS2's optical output should allow you to transfer music etc onto mini-disk players but I am not sure bout the X-Box or GC.
Another thing I was thinking on is these days a lot of developers produce games for more than one console, will there be options to allow someone with an X-Box to play against someone with a PS2? It dosn't seem possible to me at this stage as the copies of the game are different and the way the consoles deal with certain aspects are different but maybe it is something which might be considered in the future??
The speed of game on-line is a good point, as I know many quite a few people who play on-line PC games and get frustrated when it 'lags' and doesn't play like it would off-line.
And I think that with some X-box games you can download music to go in games?? That's a good idea too. And I think that downloading demos could be big if Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft were to release blank discs to store them on. But that could lead to more piracy problems. You've made some good points, and thanks for reading my post.
And I think that with some X-box games you can download music to go in games?? That's a good idea too. And I think that downloading demos could be big if Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft were to release blank discs to store them on. But that could lead to more piracy problems. You've made some good points, and thanks for reading my post.
There are a lot of advanteages and disadvantages in terms of the whole on-line gaming service that is soon to be a big part of the console industry. It is something new that hasn't been around for that long, first time was the dreamcast which wasn't a huge success. Which was no surprise, you can't expect these things to be perfect straight away.
A number of issues do need to be addressed, are the consoles capable of using the on-line network in a suitable way, what will the cost of all this be and especially here in the UK do we have the ISP's and connection speeds that allow on-line gaming to be used as a suitable speed.
To be honest I don't think we are ready for on-line gaming but I wish we were.
A number of good things could come from it, maybe mass player multiplayers were a large number of people take part, or what about the idea of teamwork games (Read Sonics post on Teamwork to get a better idea) where 2 or more people can play a game together and both play separate parts to completing it in a joint effort kind of way.
Also with other things like downloading demos, video clips, sundtracks and music and playing on-line it does have potential to be a good thing if and only if it is used in the right way and if the costs are reasonable.
I guess we will just need to wait and cross our fingers.
A number of issues do need to be addressed, are the consoles capable of using the on-line network in a suitable way, what will the cost of all this be and especially here in the UK do we have the ISP's and connection speeds that allow on-line gaming to be used as a suitable speed.
To be honest I don't think we are ready for on-line gaming but I wish we were.
A number of good things could come from it, maybe mass player multiplayers were a large number of people take part, or what about the idea of teamwork games (Read Sonics post on Teamwork to get a better idea) where 2 or more people can play a game together and both play separate parts to completing it in a joint effort kind of way.
Also with other things like downloading demos, video clips, sundtracks and music and playing on-line it does have potential to be a good thing if and only if it is used in the right way and if the costs are reasonable.
I guess we will just need to wait and cross our fingers.
Yes, I know we've all seen topics before about how successfull or un-successfull on-line gaming will be for the 3 next-generation consoles, but despite all this talk, i'm still not convinced it'll be such a big and successfull thing.
On-line gaming has become a big-thing for PC gamers, and is still growing. Especially with games like 'Worms' World Party', 'Counterstrike' and others. Yes, these games and similar ones will be appearing on the 3 consoles with on-line capabillities, but will they be as successfull or will people prefer the PC versions??
One reason why PC gaming on-line may come out on top is due to the control system for the games. Many on-line gamers have become used to and enjoy the keyboard and mouse system, where you look around with the mouse and control with the keyboard. A wide variety of buttons means you have access to a wide variety of combos and moves, and movement with a mouse is much more effective than with an anologue stick and buttons. I think the PS2 is currently the only console that will be able to adopt this system, as it is bringing out it's own keyboard and mouse, just like the Dreamcast. But I don't know wether this will happen with the GameCube, but as it's a Microsoft machine, I expect something to appear for the X-box.
If you look at the popular on-line games for the PC, you'll notice that they're only a few different genres that are commonly used. First Person Shooter (FPS's) are probably the most popular, as there's nothing quite like blasting off your mates head in a game of Counterstrike! And Real Time Strategies (RTS's) like Red Alert are also quite popular for hours of on-line fun. But what about the consoles, do they have these kinds of games?? Or even games that could become big on-line favourites???
We know that all 3 formats have FPS's. The GameCube has 'Perfect Dark Zero' (actually a 3rd-person view at times) and a future 007 game to look forward to. The PS2 has the PC's 'Half-Life', which could go on-line if the 'Counterstrike' expansion pack is released, aswell as another PC favourite 'Red Faction', and a few others. And you cannot forget Halo for the X-box, predicted to be game of the year for the X-box alone!
But are all of these games going to have on-line capabillities, and what else could go on-line beside FPS's??? A lack of variety for each console could see on-line gaming fail, and keep it as a firm favourite amongst PC gamers ONLY!
One important factor you cannot forget is money! Yes, you do need pay the £150-300 for the console, and around £40 for each game, but the internet isn't free either!
If you had a next-generation console now, and you were ready to waiting to play an on-line game, how would you set up your connection??? Surely you'd go for one of those £15 a month fixed-rate packages, but what if you've already got a PC connection?? Are you gunna try and connect up both console and PC to one connection, or will you need another phone line and connection, costing you even more money??
So as you can see, I feel that on-line gaming may not go down well with us console gamers, and could dissapear with the likes of the 64DD, never to be seen again. Lets just stick to a good old 4-way multiplayer!
On-line gaming has become a big-thing for PC gamers, and is still growing. Especially with games like 'Worms' World Party', 'Counterstrike' and others. Yes, these games and similar ones will be appearing on the 3 consoles with on-line capabillities, but will they be as successfull or will people prefer the PC versions??
One reason why PC gaming on-line may come out on top is due to the control system for the games. Many on-line gamers have become used to and enjoy the keyboard and mouse system, where you look around with the mouse and control with the keyboard. A wide variety of buttons means you have access to a wide variety of combos and moves, and movement with a mouse is much more effective than with an anologue stick and buttons. I think the PS2 is currently the only console that will be able to adopt this system, as it is bringing out it's own keyboard and mouse, just like the Dreamcast. But I don't know wether this will happen with the GameCube, but as it's a Microsoft machine, I expect something to appear for the X-box.
If you look at the popular on-line games for the PC, you'll notice that they're only a few different genres that are commonly used. First Person Shooter (FPS's) are probably the most popular, as there's nothing quite like blasting off your mates head in a game of Counterstrike! And Real Time Strategies (RTS's) like Red Alert are also quite popular for hours of on-line fun. But what about the consoles, do they have these kinds of games?? Or even games that could become big on-line favourites???
We know that all 3 formats have FPS's. The GameCube has 'Perfect Dark Zero' (actually a 3rd-person view at times) and a future 007 game to look forward to. The PS2 has the PC's 'Half-Life', which could go on-line if the 'Counterstrike' expansion pack is released, aswell as another PC favourite 'Red Faction', and a few others. And you cannot forget Halo for the X-box, predicted to be game of the year for the X-box alone!
But are all of these games going to have on-line capabillities, and what else could go on-line beside FPS's??? A lack of variety for each console could see on-line gaming fail, and keep it as a firm favourite amongst PC gamers ONLY!
One important factor you cannot forget is money! Yes, you do need pay the £150-300 for the console, and around £40 for each game, but the internet isn't free either!
If you had a next-generation console now, and you were ready to waiting to play an on-line game, how would you set up your connection??? Surely you'd go for one of those £15 a month fixed-rate packages, but what if you've already got a PC connection?? Are you gunna try and connect up both console and PC to one connection, or will you need another phone line and connection, costing you even more money??
So as you can see, I feel that on-line gaming may not go down well with us console gamers, and could dissapear with the likes of the 64DD, never to be seen again. Lets just stick to a good old 4-way multiplayer!