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Deus Ex 2 and Thief 3 first on console

by Sander Pilon, May 19, 2001 12:55pm PDT
Related Topics – Games: PC

According to PC.IGN, some Ion Storm titles (Deus Ex 2 and Thief 3) will be released for consoles first, and then ported to the PC. It is, however, not a marketing decision - but rather an idea of the developers:

The reason behind these changes is apparently developer driven. We were told that because of the particular restraints of the consoles, whether it be RAM, or otherwise, that by programming a game with more restrictions first, it will be easier to open up the games to PCs, which give developers much more freedom, particularly in the RAM department.
I haven't really figured out if this is good or bad. The good thing would be that there is simultaneous development for PC and console, which might mean there's a larger budget - and as a result a better game. The bad thing would be that games would not utilize the power of the PC, the faster processors, the higher resolution and the massive amounts of RAM.


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56 Threads | 238 Comments
  • #202
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    By: drazz x
    Reply
    I think it would be useful to look at some recent games that have come out simultaneously on console (PS2) and PC (meaning, therefore, "designed with a console in mind"):

    Alice: most linear, pretentious-adolescent game I've played in a very long time. Absolutely nowhere to explore because, of course, they needed to fit the Q3 engine into the tiny PS2. This wouldn't be a problem if it had been designed for a console first, of course, because then there wouldn't have been anywhere to go AND it would have looked cheap.

    MDK2: started out fun, degenerated into jumping puzzles until I became furious and quit. Did it get better? Heh, too bad! I prefer games that don't feel like busy-work. I do enough work at work.

    Oni: I actually enjoyed this but most of you guys didn't, so let's call it a miss. Graphics definitely suffered because of the PS2/Mac targetting, though.

    Blade of Darkness: lovely graphics but really quite tiresome once you get past that. Some very annoying design decisions, but since this was that team's first game, we can't really say it's the fault of the console though they were designing it for FOUR YEARS...

    So console targetting DOES dumb down the game. They say they're going to "enhance it for PC", but what exactly does that mean? They could literally just replace the textures and perhaps the meshes, but the gameplay would still be lame.

    OBVIOUSLY it would be better for us if they did the big impressive PC version first and then pared down stuff for the weaker consoles and Macintoshes. But they are in a business and the point is to do less work and generate more money more quickly.

    And that's why we will get shafted on this deal.
    May 19, 2001 6:09pm PDT

    Thread Truncated. Click to see all 3 replies.

  • #51
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    By: sexninja!!!! This person is cool! x
    Reply
    whats gonna happen is that theyre gonna have all these l337 ideas for the games, and then when they get to making it theyll be like "well shit this console cant handle this and this and this, we'll just have to scrap those ideas"

    plus, since the console platform is static, games developed now are gonna look like ASS by PC standards a few years from now when they are realsesd, as the pc arcitechture will be way ahead of the console that the PC version is to be "ported from"

    and you know that by the time it comes to "add PC features" theyre gonna be at the point where they're like "fuck it" and maybe make it higher res -- but you can forget about any real game-play features or any serious graphical revamping

    >:(
    May 19, 2001 1:34pm PDT