Valve are making a console?

A couple articles have popped up this morning mentioning that a new console may well be in the works from Valve would you believe. I really wasn't expecting this from the guys at Valve. I knew they must have been working on something as tweaking DOTA and CSGO won't kill all their time. While this is still only a rumour, I edge on the side of believing this as there was an interview with Penny Arcade I believe it was, where Gabe mentioned if they had to sell hardware they would. Now with the "Steam Box" rumoured, you start putting 2 and 2 together. If this is true and they are making some sort of console platform, I am going to put bets on now that it will have cross platform capabilities just as Portal 2 did between PC and Playstation. This is something that I would love to see, and not just from the "Steam Box" but all consoles. Microsoft could have been doing this for years with XBL and GFWL all they had to do would to counter the unfair skill gap between keyboard & mouse and controller, which is apparently why they never did it, would be to make the Xbox compatible with keyboard and mouse. It's not rocket science. Anyway I'm not going to get in to that rant because I've done it far too many times before and it will take to long for my likings. I will definitely be keeping an eye on this matter and I really hope they can pull it off because I could see this being the start of something awesome for gamers across the field. If they allow cross platform gaming I could easily see Sony and Microsoft doing the same at some point down the line to keep up.

PC Versus Console Gaming.

I came across an article on Gamerant about Id's John Carmack and his statement about PCs not being the lead platform for gaming and how Valve disagree. This obviously started I'd say a discussion but was more of a flame war about which was better PC gaming or console gaming. So here we are at the age old debate about the matter, so here are my thoughts about the matter.

While I am primarily a PC gamer, I do agree with John Carmack, and actually believe PC has never really been the lead platform for games, consoles have always been ahead, you can take this back to the days of early Nintendos and Segas and compare them to the likes of Amiga and Commodore, both of which were good platforms for gaming but I am sure consoles were ahead in sales back then as well. The fact of the matter is that console gaming will always be popular due to the fact of it's simplicity. What I mean by this is that you can go out and buy whatever console you want and buy a game for said console and you can play straight away. With PC gaming after you buy a disc of what ever game you want to play, you have to sit there and install the game so you are waiting 10 - 20 minutes or however long before you can actually play your game. That is 1-0 to console.

We then have the debate about cost and a lot of people have this notion that if you want to game on PC you have to spend thousands. While yes you can spend thousands if you're the kind of person that needs to have the latest tech possible, you will spend a ridiculous amount over the years. I bring up a point that console gaming could also cost a ridiculous amount if you want to have the latest version of which ever console you choose and go out and buy a new Playstation or Xbox etc every time they release a new one (and I don't mean PS2 to PS3 or Xbox to 360, I mean buying a new one when say you have a 250GB version and they bring out a 320GB version. There are people out there who do this, just as there are people who upgrade their computer every 3 months). The point I am getting to is that PCs don't have to cost £2,000. You can quite easily upgrade every 3-4 years and still have no problem running the latest games. The last time I upgraded was maybe 2 years ago (I can't remember so don't quote me on that). That was getting me up to a dual core chip, 4GB of Ram and a Radeon 5770 graphics card (which is the very minimum I would suggest for pc gaming, I am not sure of the Nvidia equivalent) costing me about £300 or so while it won't run the newest games at the highest graphical settings it runs them perfectly fine at the default settings, which is probably about on par with console graphics. Yes a 'gaming' PC is more expensive than any console counter part, but you also get a pc with your gaming platform if you choose to go down this road unlike consoles.

You could also debate the matter of exclusive games for consoles, and yes there are quite a few out there (and I'm not going to get in to a rant about Xbox exclusives that should be available for PC through GFWL). I would have to say PC probably do have a lot more exclusive games than consoles combined such as the obvious ones like WoW, Starcraft, Diablo and Total War series. Then you have the likes of Quake, Unreal, Hard Reset and Red Orchestra making an appearance on the shooter side of things. There are literally hundred, possibly thousands of PC exclusive games. Where as consoles each have very few in comparison.

It is obviously going to be easier for developers to create games for consoles as they have specific hardware specs so they only have to make one setting suited to that, while on PC they have to be able to support both high and low quality graphics. Which is why I believe PC gamers are seemingly more loyal and appreciative to companies that look after them, just look at Valve and Blizzards fan base.

Last point I am going to make is the keyboard and mouse versus controller debate. Frankly I find this stupid to be quite honest. Some people find controllers easier to use than keyboard and mouse and vice versa. Unless you are in to competitive gaming it doesn't matter. I prefer controllers for games which involve fighting, racing along with rpgs (final fantasy etc..), I prefer keyboard and mouse for shooters and mmos. They have made controllers compatible with PCs, it seems kb+m is starting to make an appearance over on the console side of things with the release of CS:GO for the Playstation. Why it took a pc developers to bring this to console god knows. But hopefully it's a sign of things to come so we can once and for all stop this pointless debate as it doesn't matter.

At the end of the day, there will always be both PC and console gamer, and this debate always seems to happen when either a) a 'next gen' console is released, which is when the "death of PC gaming" is usually predicted or b) when a consoles are showing their age which is when the PC gamers seem to come out of hiding and go on about how consoles are dated tech and pc gaming is the way forward. We see to be getting toward the latter right now.

I will leave you with this final thought. If you enjoy gaming just go out there and game. It doesn't matter if you play on PC, Xbox, Playstation, Wii, Gamecube, N64, SNES, NES, Dreamcast, Saturn, Genesis, Master System, PSP, DS, Gameboy, Game Gear...... are we starting to see my point here. Stop bitching about how the console you don't have is worse than the one you have. Just play it and have fun, enjoy it. You know the reason behind them being created in the first place.

Fanboys piss me off!

Games I have been playing.

So I am bored and not got much to do so I decided I'd do a post on here about games I have been playing recently. I might do this every couple of weeks or once a month, if anyway it will be a record for me of what I have been up to.

I have got a bit nostalgic lately and broke out some emulators, only Nintendo ones at this moment in time, I have been thinking getting a Genesis one for road rash and of course some Sonic, I'll get it soon it's on the list.  Anyway the game that has had most of my attention the past week or so has been pokemon, yes I know I'm sad but the game is quite addictive. I started off on an updated version of the original red pokemon for the Gameboy Advance which is the same game but with fancy new (well old now but new back then) graphics but still pretty good for a handheld of its age. But due to the fact I have completed that game numerous times, I though I would give one of the many other pokemon games a shot. So I found myself downloading pokemon emerald which is quite good and I've put a good 4-5 hours into it already. The best part of it that I have come across so far is a pokemon called Lotad, I'm sure that's what it's called but can't honestly remember as I named him Steve and that is what the game refers to it as, anyway getting to my point when it evolved it turned into a stereotypical mexican called Lombre and I found it hilarious when it changed. So Steve the mexican is a pokemon. I am far to easily amused. Along side playing some gameboy, I also broke out the snes, so far I haven't really played much other than Final Fight (which I still can't beat after many years of trying) and Mario Kart.

The past couple weeks have mainly been emulator based and before that was pretty much my Dead Island play through but yesterday I started on the shooter games again. After a couple games of team fortress, I realised I kind of sucked at aiming as I hadn't been around many guns lately. So as I do every time my aim is frankly none existent, I booted up Quake Live for some instagib practice, within a few matches my aim was getting back up to scratch. I recommend this game if you ever want to improve your aim, it does wonders, you either learn to aim and move or die a lot. I will probably keep on at Quake for maybe the next week, give or take, then move onto some other shooters, more than likely a Valve title of some sort. I am thinking some Counter Strike is probably going to be on the agenda as it has been far to long since I last played.

Blizzard and Valve Want Console Unity

The two biggest PC game developers Valve and Blizzard want consoles to shed the barrier of who you can play with due to which console you may have, which you can read about here. I think this is a brilliant idea, and why PC developers had to come up with me is just plain ridiculous. I guess Valve are having there say due to their upcoming Counter Strike title that allows cross platform play between pc and playstation users. At the end of the day it would create a bigger and better gaming community and you would be able to play games with friends no matter if you have different consoles or not. Of course there are going to be console exclusives, such as Uncharted and Gears of War. But they idea would be great for games that are released on multi-platforms such as call of duty, battlefield and I'm going to say Counter Strike as this is what started Valves involvement into this issue. I look forward to hearing more about this in the future as it is frankly a spectacular idea, and for companies like Valve and Blizzard to be behind it with their PR status along with the fact they seem to listen to what there customers want, this can only be a good thing.

Lineup for WWE 12 announced

I'm not a massive follower of these kind of games, or any sport games either really. Which is probably why I only buy them every few years, it's practically the same games every year just with an updated roster, there is no point buying them yearly in my opinion. But as the last wrestling game I bought was the original Smackdown Vs Raw for the PS2, I'm not sure how long ago that was and frankly can't be bothered to look it up. Anyway I'm getting to the point of this post which is the announced line up for the game. It will of course have some of the old times featured with the likes: Steve Austin, Ricky Steamboat, Kevin Nash, The Road Warriors, Vader and of course we can't forget Mr Vinny Mac, who will all be making an appearance. I think it's about time I got a new wrestling game so I think I may just give this a purchase. If you want to see the full line have a look here.

Want a shiny new Xbox? Tough.

So the guys in the lab down at Microsoft are stopping production on Xbox's with a glossy case finish in favour of a matte finish instead. What brought on this ground breaking idea is any mans guess. Except the slight change in colour is there any other changes to better the Xbox? Not that I know of. I personally prefer the shiny version. Shiny things are shiny. So if you are wanting a lovely shiny Xbox instead of a bland matte finished one I would suggest buying one soon, otherwise you will have to get a second hand one. Not really much more to say on this matter really. So yeah discontinuing shiny versions.