Graeme Clark
Senior HTF Member
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2000
- Messages
- 2,180
Porting is fine and all as it does give publishers the chance to make more money with little effort, and it is nice to not have to buy every single console to play all the games you want.
But as gamers, lets not forget some of the negatives (besides possibly buying the same game twice). In many cases, ports are shoddy. Either something is lost (is the case in most PC -> Console ports) or little to no changes were made to take advantage of the system it was being ported to, which in turn makes it pale in comparison to similar games on the same system.
I have litte doubt that Madden on XBox and Gamecube will only look marginally better than the PS2 version as they will basically be a port (same goes for NFL2K2). In comparison, the Link Removed at NFL Fever goes on and on about how detailed the game is and how it takes advantage of the system.
In many cases with a port, you're simply left wondering "what if?"
And lets not forget a games which is developed for multiple systems at the same time. In most cases, concessions are made on all versions are made to accomadate all the platforms being developed on. In some cases it may be beneficial to make one game that takes a system to it's limits and becomes a game that everyone must have instead of a game that just looks pretty good on all systems. In many cases, this is how a franchise is born.
As stated, I have no problem with games being put out on multiple platforms. But I don't think multiplatforming is neccessarily the savior of the industry that many currently think it is. There's give and take in each situation, and decisions have to be made on what will be best overall.
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But as gamers, lets not forget some of the negatives (besides possibly buying the same game twice). In many cases, ports are shoddy. Either something is lost (is the case in most PC -> Console ports) or little to no changes were made to take advantage of the system it was being ported to, which in turn makes it pale in comparison to similar games on the same system.
I have litte doubt that Madden on XBox and Gamecube will only look marginally better than the PS2 version as they will basically be a port (same goes for NFL2K2). In comparison, the Link Removed at NFL Fever goes on and on about how detailed the game is and how it takes advantage of the system.
In many cases with a port, you're simply left wondering "what if?"
And lets not forget a games which is developed for multiple systems at the same time. In most cases, concessions are made on all versions are made to accomadate all the platforms being developed on. In some cases it may be beneficial to make one game that takes a system to it's limits and becomes a game that everyone must have instead of a game that just looks pretty good on all systems. In many cases, this is how a franchise is born.
As stated, I have no problem with games being put out on multiple platforms. But I don't think multiplatforming is neccessarily the savior of the industry that many currently think it is. There's give and take in each situation, and decisions have to be made on what will be best overall.
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