XBox 2 Hardware

[wraithguard01]

I have played MW on both PC and XBOX, aside from the construction set, it is pretty much the same. True, you have to adjust yourself to the different control styles, but the gameplay is just about the same. The only thing on the PC version that would really help the XBOX version is the construction set. Otherwise, it is just like playing a game on the Gamecube, and then playing the same game on a PS2. Aside from very minor things (such as not being able to type stuff on a keyboard) they play the exact same, except on a computer, your hardwaremay suck, therefore affecting the physical gameplay.

[blackmage256]

Xbox 2 will have a great effect on the gameplay of oblivion because if you have read the specs at the beginning of the thread Xbox 2 has better specs than any but the best of gameing computers. The only exclusion is the memory being only 256MB but because there are no other procceses running unlike the PC (Windows or linux/unix/whatever else) plus the game will be made for the specs of the Xbox2 because it is being designed for it ... .if you have seen the screenshots for it posted in these very forums you can see the effect of the high end CPU and esspecially the GPU. And Most console RPG's are far more engaing than Baldur's Gate or Morrowind [B](IN MY OPINION)[/b] Because of the sheer amount of story and the loss of some freedoms Final Fantasy 7 for instance. Now back on topic...

As I have said before Xbox 2 specs will have an overriding effect on the gameplay of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Period . and it will be for the good of the game if you have a high end computer, and if you don't it wont be quite so fun due to frame rate issues. If you think about Radiant AI and the amount of calculations required of the system it is running on you will understand what I mean. Xbox 2 is the reason why it can happen. Because a console is the only way of producing a game that you can be sure of the performance which your customers will be experiencing. That is the reason for a Console. So to reiterate my point once again Xbox 2 is The most important thing on the minds of Bethseda when considering performance.

...Wow I've never posted like that before.... :P

--B

[Peregrine]

Xbox 2 will have a great effect on the gameplay of oblivion because if you have read the specs at the beginning of the thread Xbox 2 has better specs than any but the best of gameing computers.

 

So all us people running obsolete computers might have to upgrade for the next generation of games. Your point?

 

The only exclusion is the memory being only 256MB but because there are no other procceses running unlike the PC (Windows or linux/unix/whatever else)

 

Which is pathetic. Even with a ton of stuff running and only 512mb, I have way more than that free. Having nice performance in some areas means nothing if you have a huge choke point elsewhere slowing you down.

 

if you have seen the screenshots for it posted in these very forums you can see the effect of the high end CPU and esspecially the GPU.

 

Which are probably from the PC version. Those screenshots aren't too impressive, they're just the next generation of PC graphics.

And Most console RPG's are far more engaing than Baldur's Gate or Morrowind  (IN MY OPINION) Because of the sheer amount of story and the loss of some freedoms Final Fantasy 7 for instance.

 

You're insane. Completely and totally insane. Console RPGs are horribly lacking in both gameplay and freedom. And in any case, Oblivion is a PC-style RPG, not one of those disgusting console things. The xbox version will be just a translation of the PC one.

 

As I have said before Xbox 2 specs will have an overriding effect on the gameplay of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Period

 

Try again. The Elder Scrolls' core audience is PC gamers. PC hardware and the PC version will be the overriding factor.

 

. If you think about Radiant AI and the amount of calculations required of the system it is running on you will understand what I mean. Xbox 2 is the reason why it can happen

 

Nope, developments in PC hardware are why it can happen. Radiant AI is just the natural evolution of PC AI. It's more remarkable for its developer's attention to detail and realism than for the sheer processing power involved.

 

Because a console is the only way of producing a game that you can be sure of the performance which your customers will be experiencing.

 

And a PC is the only way you can produce a quality game that involves more than pretty framerate numbers. So I'd say it's even.

 

So to reiterate my point once again Xbox 2 is The most important thing on the minds of Bethseda when considering performance.

 

Try again. Bethesda's core audience is the PC gamers that love PC rpgs. The console market is just an afterthought, a way to make a bit of money for very little extra effort. The xbox2's hardware matters only as far as it matching PC performance is concerned.

[edstamos1]

The question was how the Xbox2 hardware will influence the design of Oblivion, not whether or not Xbox sucks, or whether the PC following is larger than the Xbox following.

 

The Xbox2 specs are basically on par with todays high end desktops. By the time Oblivion comes out, most gamers will have athlon 64 3800+ CPUs or the Intel equivalent. They'll also probably be making use of Radeon x800s or the comparable Nvidia graphics card. In fact, I could probably build a computer for less than CA$1000 now that would play Oblivion just fine.

 

Basically they're using the Xbox2 specs to get an idea of what your typical player's computer will be able to handle. I'm confident that it will still play better on PC simply because you can play it on a BETTER PC with mods to take advantage of the extra power. The console market has it's limits, and since the console crowd is large enough to make a difference in profit, they have to ensure it will play smoothly on the console out of the box.

 

So what does that mean? The Xbox2 specs are influencing the graphics and physics engines primarily, placing a limit on what can be done, how many polygons are acceptable, how many NPCs' AI can be handled at once, how much data can be stored in memory at once, the ability to minimize load times.

The gameplay itself is not affected by the hardware specs. It's not going to become a linear story-based RPG simply because a console is affecting the game's graphical performance.

[Slaiv]

Not to say that it's being limited technically. XBox 360 has three 3GHz Power PC processors and a GPU that completely destroys anything available today.

[edstamos1]

Not to say that it's being limited technically.  XBox 360 has three 3GHz Power PC processors and a GPU that completely destroys anything available today.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Not limited in a negative sense, but in a literal sense. You can't (to my knowledge) upgrade the Xbox2 CPU or GPU so there is a limit. Whether or not the limit is reached by the games developed for it is another matter.

 

The processor does indeed look spectacular, although it may or may not be accurate. If it is, it definitely sounds good - a three-core processor with each core running at 3.5+GHz is nothing to sneeze at. (I didn't expect MS to ditch Intel in the xbox2 but whatever)

 

Remember, too, that these details are not official. There could very well be a 1GHz Celeron in the Xbox2 :P These details have been floating around for almost a year so I doubt they're accurate.

[Slaiv]

The people at Gamespy were given these specs from Microsoft. And yes, they are based on Alpha development kits, it is likely that the final system will have somewhere near that power.

 

And I know it is still physically limited - however, I haven't seen a personal PC with anywhere near 9 GHz [come to think of it, I haven't seen anything higher than dual 2.5 GHz processors on a G5.] It'll be a long time before the PC version is actually limited by XBox 360's power.

[Peregrine]

The gameplay itself is not affected by the hardware specs.  It's not going to become a linear story-based RPG simply because a console is affecting the game's graphical performance.

 

That wasn't the point. What I'm saying is that the xbox is a side consideration. If it's a choice between making full use of the xbox2 and making a game that most of the pc audience can play, Bethesday would be crazy not to go with the second. It's the pc hardware and its predictions for the future that are important.

 

And I know it is still physically limited - however, I haven't seen a personal PC with anywhere near 9 GHz [come to think of it, I haven't seen anything higher than dual 2.5 GHz processors on a G5.] It'll be a long time before the PC version is actually limited by XBox 360's power.

 

For good reason, multi-processor systems are extremely expensive right now. So there's three options here for what the Xbox2's claims mean:

 

1) The xbox2 is abandoning the typical console strategy of providing a much cheaper alternative to the PC, and is going to have a much higher price than earlier console generations.

 

2) Multi-processor systems are going to be dropping in price soon, and the xbox2's triple-processor system isn't going to be too impressive in a year or two. Even mid-range PCs are going to have something similar.

 

3) The xbox2's performance isn't going to be all that impressive. The triple-processors look good on paper, but aren't going to be a huge advantage over the average PC at the time of the xbox2's release.

[Slaiv]

Prices for next-gen systems are expected to be $200-$400 [u.S.] more than their predecessors. That might explain it...

[edstamos1]

First of all, it's not a 9GHz system. You can't simply sum the processing speed of all the cores and say that's the speed of the processor. The performance doesn't scale linearly adding extra cores. They do, however, allow for better performance of multithreaded applications. I'm not sure how much the physics and AI engines of Oblivion rely on multithreading, but if they do not make great use of it, the extra cores won't provide much of a performance gain at all. If they do, I'm sure it could give a nice boost in performance, but not nearly a threefold increase.

 

(BTW, could you imagine the power consumption of a 9GHz processor? It would fry before a system could past POST)