I just hate when a console game comes to PC completely without the scaling features we are used to on a PC. Rainbow Six: Vegas springs immediately to mind.
R6: Vegas PC had scaling features. There was a good deal of things you could turn on/off; switch b/t low, medium, and high; even drop the res' to 640x400 if you wanted; etc etc....
It's just that the damn game just ran like junk on most PC's, regardless of what settings you set it ob
Modern games were running ok on my old PC, then suddenly R6V comes over from the 360 and wants a 3.0 Ghz CPU and 1 GB of RAM minimum.
See, that's the REAL problem -- many of the really good console games are being ported quite lazily into our PC market, asking for quite stiff system requirements upon their original release.
I mean, look at the requirements for many of UbiSoft's ports -- GRAW 1 PC, GRAW 2 PC, SC: Double Agent, R6: Vegas, Assassin's Creed; now that's just to name a few. All of their requirements, for their time, were high. Not only that, even on high end systems for time of the game's release, most of these ones didn't run well there even.
Control: It shouldn't be an issue since PC can plug controllers in, but somehow it still is. Hopefully now that MS has XInput and the 360 controller for PC that it can stop being an issue.
The reason it's still an issue is b/c your brand new computer DOESN'T come w/ a X360 For Windows Control Pad. If every brand new computer shipped w/ one of those, this wouldn't be much of an issue really.
When one person buys a X360, it comes w/ that X360 Controller -- and best of all, it'll plug into your brand new PC. So, if you buy a game for the PC that supports and/or reccommends a PC gamepad, now you don't gotta' buy another control for your PC; just plug your X360 gamepad in. One controller to rule them all; you got two birds killed her with one stone. Problem solved.
There are many games that have no controller support, and its just mind boggling. Fable and Beyond Good & Evil are 2 that stick out in my mind.
Look at Res Evil 4 PC -- biggest problem w/ that was if you have no PC gamepad controller, you might as well tossed the game out the freakin' window. If you have the controller, you'd really be doing yourself a favor to play Res Evil 4 PC; it's a damn good game.
About Fable, why it didn't support the control-pad, that's beyond me -- I mean, it was already a console game, so it would make sense to have it support PC gamepad on the PC version of it, just in case the KB/mouse controls weren't that good. But fortunately, the PC KB/mouse controls were good.
Same goes for Two Worlds PC -- why they opted to not support the PC gamepad, especially since it was on the X360 (and that PC's do support X360 Controllers anyways), was way the hell beyond me. But thankfully, the PC KB/mouse controls were fine for Two Worlds PC.
Its a hard thing to put your finger on but they could do more to reduce the "consolitis" feeling most multiplatform/ports have, thats all. Look at GTA3+. You'd never know they were console games originally if no one told you. Thats the way to do it.
Control-wise, GTA3 was great -- whether using a KB/mouse or gamepad, you couldn't go wrong either way. That's how to do a port, control-wise. Me, I use my KB/mouse on foot, while my gamepad for driving.
But, many people had issues galore w/ GTA3 PC. All kinds of bugs, crashes, graphic tears, and other issues out the box. I was lucky enough to not have any. The first GTA3 PC patch pretty much killed most of those issues, anyways.
But, if we're going to talk about GTA: VC PC and GTA: SA, I never had any problems w/ performance issues and framerate issues on either of those two. Hell, I had better performance on GTA: VC on my (now much older) PC than I did w/ GTA3 on that same PC!
Also PC gamers don't like it when a PC series doesn't go multiplatform...it goes console only. Example: Crimson Skies.
When they do all console and PC versions at once, they scares me -- b/c usually, this is when the UI and controls often gets borked; b/c you're trying to make "All versions" happy, instead of specializing the game for a specific platform.
Ultimately, I'd prefer a game to be first on PC, then consoles -- b/c I'm PC-minded like that.
Instead of doing the multi-platform for all systems at once, I do *prefer* a game to be released first for consoles so it can letter get a true PC port. That's b/c I want them working on just the PC version alone by itself -- and results have shown, this usually works out best for the PC version of the game b/c the PC version gets all the care and attention it deserves; especially since the game will be made in mind w/ numerous sets of hardware PC owners will have. I mean, just look at all of Bioware's console to PC ports, Fable PC, GTA PC ports, Condemned PC port -- these are prime examples of what I'm talking about.
I'm surprised Oblivion turned out as well as it did, being developed for all platforms at once. And Fallout 3 does worry me b/c BethSoft has already said their primary attention is really on the X360 version. That does worries me. I'm really hoping FO3 PC's system requirements won't be stiff and that the game will actually perform well, as I'm really looking forward to playing this ASAP on the PC.
