Is the console comunity really worth ofp?

[Rheat]

I was reading some tests about OFP:E and watching some videos made by pcgame testers how they played ofp and i'm shocked. in the test i've read (Gamezone, german magazine) they gave ofp:e a rate of 4,5 of 10 i think and wrote in this test that the grafics were lame, the gameplay would be bullshit and everything else too. so i'm wondering if the console comunity really realizes what potential ofp has and if they're really worth taking so much time from bis to convert ofp to console. i don't know how much copy's been selled by now and i hope that someone will prove me wrong that the console players have no slight idea how great this game is. maybe i'm also a bit pissed because ofp:e stole the time for development which could have bin used on aa so don't blame me for my comment.

[Jtec]

Been mixed reviews from different mags. There is a topic somewhere quoting the scores the game has recieved so far. It has to be said alot of console games are soley based on how good they look and not on how they play. I havent played many console games tho that have lasted me a week, let alone 4 + years. There has been good things that have came out of BIS making this game for xbox so it hasnt been a waste of time.

[maxqubit]

When a gem like OFP:E comes along i'm playing it dead serious. That has absolutely nothing to do with hardware, monitor resolutions or kb+mouse vs gamepad. The platform changed (i used to be a pc gamer) but not my attitude towards the games.

OFP:E shows that 'it' can work on consoles and that there is a audience for it (be it small)

Fingers crossed for a OFP-next on 360 in the future.

-- Max Qubit

[meyamoti]

Its funny how much different console people are from PC people isn't it? PC usually has the room for sims and such,Janes series,Flight simulator (though I never really played that so I can't say),Lock on series,just a few examples,whereas most console games are all quick first person shooters,I haven't seen a sim on a console yet so I honestly believe most of the would missunderstand what OFP:E truly is,their probably thinking somethin like bf2 or something.

[Uziyahu--IDF]

I read about how awesome Counter-Strike was with seamless voice comm on the X-Box, but I tried Rainbow Six 3 and Ghost Recon 2 on X-Box Live and that's what converted me. These were amazing cooperative experiences.

Multiplayer gaming on X-Box Live is so stress-free.

[Longjocks]

maybe i'm also a bit pissed because ofp:e stole the time for development which could have bin used on aa so don't blame me for my comment.

So I take it that you do not see the benefits to Armed Assault or other future BIS products by working on this conversion? None at all? Now think for a moment and try to come up with at least five benefits. If this is done then you are one step closer to answering your own question.

[Dinger]

Proceeds from console sales regularly dwarf those from PC games. So on that basis alone, console versions make sense.

As for the rest: on the whole, the group of console players tend to be "less serious" than the PC players. After all, PC gamers include nuts who will spend thousands of bucks a year on hardware. It's hard to do that with a console.
Most people, in fact, don't want a complicated experience. They want something that's fun and that provides a bit of escapism. Things that take a lot of time to get good at, or even to understand aren't necessarily targeted at this core.

However, this situation is fluid. Twenty years ago, the market had three segments: consoles (Vectrex, NES, k.t.l.), computers that were good at games (C-64, Atari 800 series, Amiga, Atari ST), and computers that were good for business (PC and Mac). By the early 90s, the Amiga and the Atari ST were in their death throes and only a few certifiably insane coders were still making games for them. So PCs took over the games, eventually getting video cards. Consoles started to pick up.

Now Microsoft and Sony are making their bid for the living room. Of course, Microsoft's crippling their product to protect their Windows Media Center; and Sony's crippling their product to support a Langley-grade espionage system in every box. Still, they're looking to bite into the PC game market, and they might succeed. To expand the product, they need to bring in the rest of the living room.

The rest of the living room means games with less than universal appeal, and more "casual games" -- like the flash stuff you see people playing.
So there could be an argument for it.
besides, consoles have huge advantages over PCs:
1) Homogeneity of software. PC configuration testing sucks. Two major series of video drivers, two major types of CPUs, a bunch of audio stuff, and an unpredictable number of specific types of hardware. Plus every aspect of the system is liable to change in unknowable ways. With a console, you have one machine, and you make it work.
2) External quality control. There's someone out there to enforce homogeneity of functionality across games.
3) Piracy is not nearly at the same level as for PCs.
4) Cheating/Hacking is not a major concern for online play. For that matter, neither are bandwidth management, application collisions, software firewall u.s.w.

So yeah, the console community is probably worth it. It may be the future of PC games, in general, an order of magnitude more sales occurs, and unrivalled connectivity.
But don't expect every memeber of the current "xbox hardcore" raised on cookie-cutter FPSs to get it. No group is more harsh in criticism than a threatened elite.

Also don't forget that for these reviewers, trashing OFP:E is easy: OFP is four years old, and conventional wisdom says that four years to make a port cannot result in something good. Four years ago, when OFP made it big, the PC market was also very different. Nothing looked like or as good as OFP:CWC. We downloaded the demo, player around a bit, then looked at the map and said "No way the world is that big". Nobody else had an FPS featuring vehicles in any real way. When Ghost Recon came out the next year, many people were describing it as "Rainbow Six's answer to Operation Flashpoint". I'm sure OFP:E is a great game, but it may suffer from the fact that all the innovations that OFP:CWC brought have since become standard (or improved) in the intervening time.

[Rheat]

Taking the attention a bit more on the side of how console players are playing, i saw a video from a mag where they played ofp:e .i was really confused on how they played ofp. in this video the player ran around the map (steal the car from the singleplayer missions) and were shooting at anything that came in they're way without aiming, crouching or watching while lying on the ground. just like one would play doom or unreal tournament so i think this is a major difference between console gamers and pc gamers.i think one can go that far to say that pc gamers have more the understanding for this tactical and simulated type of gameplay but maybe the console community can be healed a bit from the thought that a game has to be fast du contain good action scenes. and yes when i'm thinkin about it i can really good imagine, that ofp:e will bring (brought) a lot of benefits to the upcoming ArmedAssault so good point on that.

[Uziyahu--IDF]

Eh, I remember OFP and GR being reviewed/previewed by Li C. Kuo of PC Gamer U.S.A. at about the same time. In Mr. Kuo's mind, GR was not the R6 answer to OFP. He was of the same camp as the present negative reviewers. As far as he was concerned, OFP would probably be shi'ite, and then when it wasn't, he said it was, anyway. In his mind, OFP was a failed attempt to be GR. His logic in shooting down OFP did not carry over to his opinions regarding GR. (Red Storm Entertainment and PC Gamer U.S.A. had a well-known mutually-beneficial relationship since Rainbow Six on the PC.)

Read these negative reviews. They lack reason, competence, and sincerity.

And these console gamers have seen the like of Full Spectrum Warrior, already, so they know that tactics can be important.

This is all to bolster sales of the mediocre competition. It's enough to make me want to disown America and move to the Czech Republic. The women there are more beautiful, anyway.

B.I. needs to either self-publish or get an American publisher that will really go to bat for them. OFP:E did not get a fair shake, here.

[maxqubit]

Give a UT pc gamer OFP on pc and he/she will do the same. Running, trying to frag, etc ... One has to get used to playing OFP 'in the right way', has imho NOTHING to do with pc vs console players.