Cross-platform gaming: from simple ports to the Gates of Oblivion
Conclusion: No Quick AnswerIf you jumped straight to the last page to find out which platform is the best, I'm going to have to disappoint you. As performance and features on each platform vary from game to game, so does value for money. In the preceding pages we estimated the performance of cross-platform games on consoles - not an exact science, but our method of matching image quality as closely as possible, and then comparing performance should yield sufficiently reliable results. Value for money isn't solely based on performance, as we saw especially in the case of titles ported from another platform. We tried to present typical options for upgrading a PC and buying a new PC or console, but how well our suggestions and upgrade scenarios fit your needs is down to luck. Component prices are very volatile as well; during the course of researching for and writing this article, PC component prices changed enough to affect certain value for money conclusions. All prices listed in the article are averages, retrieved from Newegg.com and CNET Shopper at the time of publication. There is one possibly significant conclusion we can draw from our findings concerning the three games discussed in this article. The only game of the three to suffer minimally, if at all, from being multi-platform is Oblivion - it's also the only truly cross-platform game of the three, developed for two systems initially, and later ported to a third. This has to be taken as a good sign for things to come: games developed for cross-platform deployment can be good, and based on this rather limited data, are far superior compared to retrospective ports. Is everyone having as much fun in the cross-platform party we're just getting into? Check back on YouGamers for the next part of our cross-platform special feature, coming soon!
If you wish to comment on this article or discuss the games and hardware mentioned, then please head over to our forum - click right here (registration not required).
Related StuffTags |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
Articles: 
