gunsmoke on 7/1/2010 at 01:46
Jesus Christ. Get. The. Fuck. Over. Leaning. Already. The vast majority of the time, it is absolutely useless. It doesn't hide any more of your body from damage/sight. Thief is this forum's bread and butter. I get that. But all FPS games don't have to emulate Thief. Stop it.
And dethtoll has been dead on this last page or so. He has been making excellent points and I stand behind all of them.
Jason Moyer on 7/1/2010 at 01:58
It depends on the type of game. Leaning should probably be in Dragon Rising, and FEAR 2 initially felt weird without it because it made the first game play a bit more like a tactical shooter than a straight FPS. Not having it sucks, but it's not like you could lean in NoLF or Quake or a pile of other PC-only shooters. I couldn't even tell you if leaning is an option in any of the Source games because it never occurred to me to use it.
june gloom on 7/1/2010 at 03:01
Quote Posted by Nameless Voice
But isn't that the whole point of consoles? The specs and controls are standardised, so that games that work on a console should work perfectly for everyone who has that console. Whereas PCs have the issue of having such a large variety of possible components and devices, where it's impossible to guarantee that a game will work with all of them.
I fail to see what this has to do with the point. Most PC games over the years have operated on the simple premise of a keyboard and a 3-button mouse. It's assumed most people have these, as
they come with almost every goddamn PC ever made. When 5-button mice become more common then maybe complaining about lack of support would be more tolerable.
Aja on 7/1/2010 at 03:32
Leaning only ever really worked well in Thief. Other devs never quite got it right—even in STALKER (the game in which leaning is second-most-useful) it felt unnatural. But it's certainly possible on a console, Medal of Honour something or other uses it: when you're in the iron sight mode the strafe axis switches to lean.
SubJeff on 7/1/2010 at 03:34
I reckon for gamers they are more common than you think. Most of the better quality mice have 5 buttons and support would be nice. Its no biggie though because they should have software workarounds.
And I'm sure BioShock suffered from cross platform development, certainly in the character development. The lack of inventory too. And just everything.
june gloom on 7/1/2010 at 03:56
Honestly I doubt the poor writing had anything to do with cross-platform element. To say it does just hurts my head. Or are you just bullshitting?
Phatose on 7/1/2010 at 04:00
I think he means the system of gaining plasmids, weapons, and photo-based xp, not the writing.
june gloom on 7/1/2010 at 04:08
While I missed having an inventory and I thought having a hyperspace arsenal where you held all your weapons (up your asshole? maybe it's a plasmid) instead of being forced to specialize was kind of dumb, my bigger problem was with the writing. Or lack thereof, really. The frequent stream of splicers didn't help, either, as it effectively killed suspense.
Chade on 7/1/2010 at 04:18
We should distinguish genuine "consolitis" from "sloppy-port-itis" and "mass-market-itis". Issues like crappy coding, or accessible game design, are not consolitis.
I doubt BioShock would be substantially different if today's mass market played on PC: they'd still be the same audience with the same needs.
Nameless Voice on 7/1/2010 at 05:04
Quote Posted by Aja
Leaning only ever really worked well in Thief. Other devs never quite got it right
This. Thief and System Shock 2 were the only games with really good leaning. Proper leaning like that would be nice to see in other games, particularly those where stealth and caution are warranted.
And yes, console influence and mass-market influence are two different things.
For example, I found it a bit silly that Oblivion like to bring up giant popup windows spoon-feeding you exactly what to do next in each quest, without giving the chance to think about it first. It's a feature designed to make the game more accessible for casual gamers (who might not think to check the journal manually for hints). But did was that system put in place because the game was also aimed for consoles? I doubt it.
