[Stuart Wright]

AV Podcast : Games : 17th Feb 2007
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34.8Mb, 38 minutes and 3 seconds

00:52 Gaming News
13:06 Rainbow Six Vegas for the Xbox 360 Review
20:07 We discuss Windows Vista and the possible effects on PC gaming.

[Sam24]

Within your podcast you made a mistake when you said that the additional 250 gamerpoints which are available from downloadable content MUST be free. Infact the content which allows you to achieve 1000-1250 gamerscore for a game can either be free or paid for. However any downloadable content to allow you achieve the INTIAL 1000 gamerpoints MUST be free.

This infomation can be found at the following link:
http://gamerscoreblog.com/team/archi...01/540575.aspx

I hope that clears up something for you and well done on the podcast!

[PioRow]

To say the PC gaming business is looking good is a dangerous statement. in my opinion the PC games business has never been in a worse state.
For example, if 3 months ago I had bought a mid to high end PC which came with a near top end graphics card I would be f*cked at the moment. Especially if it was a ATI card. I wouldn’t be able to get the most out of new games hitting the market even though I had a top end PC and graphics card and even if I did have a DX10 compatible card I would have to upgrade to a new operating system that is going to cost me money and give me a slight performance hit. To say PC gaming is in a good state is not true, its in a dire state.
The reason console gaming always has the edge on pc gaming in my opinion is that developers can write to a specific chip set and to a known system specification. They know the 360 has so much memory, a certain chipset, a defined CPU, therefore they can max out these components and get the most out of the hardware. With the PC developers have to write for every graphics card. DX is a good abstraction and allows you get a lot more from your graphics card than you could in the past but its still never going to be as good as writing directly for a specified piece of hardware.
On the podcast crysis was mentioned, I'm sure that this game will look amazing on DX10 but what about people with XP and a top end ati card, the developers have to make the game look equally as good on these cards as DX10 cards. Also the number of people on Vista is very small at the moment so they need to make sure that the game runs great under Xp and DX9. Just look how messy the PC games industry has become, all because DX10 is Vista only and you have to buy a new graphics card just to run DX10.
One last thing, look at god of war 2 on the PS2, looks amazing. Take the PC hardware that was available at the time the PS2 launched. That hardware under windows could of never produced a game as good looking as god of war 2. Developers are able to push the console hardware so much further than PC hardware. I suspect that with the raw power that the PS3 and to a lesser extent the 360 have I predict that console games will be as good looking as PC games for a very long time.

[Tantalus]

Excellent podcast guys. Glad you are spending some time on PC games / hardware.

I disagree with you Piorow: "For example, if 3 months ago I had bought a mid to high end PC which came with a near top end graphics card I would be f*cked at the moment. ....To say PC gaming is in a good state is not true, its in a dire state."

I bought a 6700 Core2 Duo, with nVidia 7950 GX2 (1GB card) in Sept last year (I use it for HDV editing) and its still great with current games. I am certainly not f****** as you describe. I am still very happy! The future of technology will ALWAYS be dire when it changes so quickly. It won't be till the end of 2007 perhaps early 2008 when there's a huge choice of DirectX10 games and I upgrade 18-24 months anyway.

And besides, being eco-conscious - don't forget the new DX10 cards seem to negate all of the power savings of the core chips!!!!

[Seth Gecko]

Originally Posted by PioRow

Take the PC hardware that was available at the time the PS2 launched. That hardware under windows could of never produced a game as good looking as god of war 2.

And AT THE TIME of the PS2 launch, neither did the PS2 - the fact is, it took them a long time to get to grips with the hardware - and lets be honest, the resolution the PS2 is running in is very different to the PC as well - Quake 1 and 2 looked better than the PS2 on Voodoo 2 cards due to the increase in resolution - and I'm not biased - I still have a PS2 (if you want a list of hardware - PS2, Gamecube, Dreamcast, Xbox, Xbox 360, Wii, Jaguar, 3DO, Gameboy SP, Gameboy DS, Atari Lynx and a couple of others too. Oh and a PC).

I stand by what I said - the PC looks exciting right now. Games such as Hellgate:London, S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Crysis and Bioshock are just the tip of the iceberg. Sure they've been delayed, but hey, what hasn't? Halo 3? GTA 4? It's no different.

I'll agree you have to keep up with hardware to a degree, but I'd rather change a graphics card every few years than lose all the software to the next console change. I do like my consoles, and clearly you do as well. Having had a PC since the 8086/8088 days, I'm probably more used to upgrading than some people.

As to the comment Tantalus mentioned - I'm with him on that one. It may not be the cutting edge card 3 months after you buy it, but that doesn't make it a dead duck - far from it. If I bought an 8800 now, I'd be kicking myself in a month or 2 when the DX10 ATI card arrives - then Nvidia will respond to that and so on. It's not different to other AV technology - it will always be improved, it's just the time frame it takes. You buy the best you can now and it will last you a reasonable amount of time - at which point you can whip it out and plug in the next big thing. You can't do that with a console - it has a set spec and that's it.

Thanks guys - am glad you're enjoying the podcasts!