Behold the power of titles.
Anyway long have there been divisions between different aspects of game playing devices. Arcade vs home console, console vs weaker console, console vs Amiga in the 16 bit era, and today we are still somewhat under the console vs PC paradigm.
However the nature console vs PC has changed, quite considerably at that over the last few generations. At one point one playing a PC version of a title might well be playing something rather different to the console versions, gameplay and start quality of resources. This magnitude of difference changed somewhat as the years rolled on, some might say for the worse as consoles then effectively started limiting scope of PC efforts (see Deus Ex Invisible War, or maybe the end of the PS360 and simultaneous failure of Vista and thus DirectX10). To that end what majorly different game or game altering change made a console version of a game radically different to a PC one in more recent times?
Resolution can count, however it would really have to be significant. Framerate even more so. Draw distance is something more to contemplate in this -- operation flashpoint, which often takes place at significant ranges, being an example of one here.
Mod support is an obvious one but at the same time is it that significant and also being free and easy I am generally inclined to skip it.
Mouse vs controller is a thing that encompasses some quite radical aspects of design but in the end autoaim et al get you most of the way there in most games. Still if it is a thing you reckon you can back up then by all means. On the other hand comparing some of the real time strategy games for the likes of the PS1 to the PC (WarGames: Defcon 1 being one of the go to examples -- PS1 was something of a vehicle combat game with some occasional AI partners, PC was a straight up real time strategy).
Handheld vs everything else is what many focus on, or inter generational ports when those are applicable (usually 1 or 2 years around the launch of a new one, maybe with a "oh wow because it is popular in some poor country we saw a version of some sports game/music game released 4 years on"). However I am less interested in this here for this thread -- we can and have done many discussions on the "lesser" ports and handheld games, even intergenerational handheld games (compare Pirates of the Caribbean on the GBA and DS, Tony Hawk on the GBC and GBA and possibly DS, any number of late stage GBA games that also saw DS entries). However this is not what we are after so make another thread if you want that.
We are however accepting things from the bizarre period wherein the console exclusives of the PS3 and 360, even some of the earliest, a few years back had a habit of appearing on the PC almost out of nowhere.
Examples is probably what we want to contemplate here, though from older consoles so you can get some idea of how different things used to be.
One of my favourite N64 games is Forsaken
Its PC version (there was also something of a remaster released more recently for PC and Xbone)
remaster
PS1 version just for giggles
You probably have to play a lot of these to see how different they are too.
Sticking with the N64 vs PC
Turok
N64
PC original and remaster
Original xbox Sniper Elite
PC
Xbox 360
Some might say this was just a bad port, however if end results are what matters
Risen Xbox 360 and PC
https://www.videogameszone.de/Risen...eich-zwischen-PC-und-Xbox-360-Version-696485/ (clickly slideshow thing down the bottom of the article)
Anyway long have there been divisions between different aspects of game playing devices. Arcade vs home console, console vs weaker console, console vs Amiga in the 16 bit era, and today we are still somewhat under the console vs PC paradigm.
However the nature console vs PC has changed, quite considerably at that over the last few generations. At one point one playing a PC version of a title might well be playing something rather different to the console versions, gameplay and start quality of resources. This magnitude of difference changed somewhat as the years rolled on, some might say for the worse as consoles then effectively started limiting scope of PC efforts (see Deus Ex Invisible War, or maybe the end of the PS360 and simultaneous failure of Vista and thus DirectX10). To that end what majorly different game or game altering change made a console version of a game radically different to a PC one in more recent times?
Resolution can count, however it would really have to be significant. Framerate even more so. Draw distance is something more to contemplate in this -- operation flashpoint, which often takes place at significant ranges, being an example of one here.
Mod support is an obvious one but at the same time is it that significant and also being free and easy I am generally inclined to skip it.
Mouse vs controller is a thing that encompasses some quite radical aspects of design but in the end autoaim et al get you most of the way there in most games. Still if it is a thing you reckon you can back up then by all means. On the other hand comparing some of the real time strategy games for the likes of the PS1 to the PC (WarGames: Defcon 1 being one of the go to examples -- PS1 was something of a vehicle combat game with some occasional AI partners, PC was a straight up real time strategy).
Handheld vs everything else is what many focus on, or inter generational ports when those are applicable (usually 1 or 2 years around the launch of a new one, maybe with a "oh wow because it is popular in some poor country we saw a version of some sports game/music game released 4 years on"). However I am less interested in this here for this thread -- we can and have done many discussions on the "lesser" ports and handheld games, even intergenerational handheld games (compare Pirates of the Caribbean on the GBA and DS, Tony Hawk on the GBC and GBA and possibly DS, any number of late stage GBA games that also saw DS entries). However this is not what we are after so make another thread if you want that.
We are however accepting things from the bizarre period wherein the console exclusives of the PS3 and 360, even some of the earliest, a few years back had a habit of appearing on the PC almost out of nowhere.
Examples is probably what we want to contemplate here, though from older consoles so you can get some idea of how different things used to be.
One of my favourite N64 games is Forsaken
Its PC version (there was also something of a remaster released more recently for PC and Xbone)
remaster
PS1 version just for giggles
You probably have to play a lot of these to see how different they are too.
Sticking with the N64 vs PC
Turok
N64
PC original and remaster
Original xbox Sniper Elite
PC
Xbox 360
Some might say this was just a bad port, however if end results are what matters
Risen Xbox 360 and PC
https://www.videogameszone.de/Risen...eich-zwischen-PC-und-Xbox-360-Version-696485/ (clickly slideshow thing down the bottom of the article)
