Multiplayer
We discussed this last year around the Xbox 360’s
launch, and we’ll discuss it again now. There’s simply no real analog to
the Xbox Live service for the PC (or the other consoles, for that matter).
Several applications try, but thanks to buggy interfaces and spotty sup-
port, they just don’t work well.
Let’s run down what Xbox Live has to offer: a game-independentfriends list, pervasive voice chat, the ability to send messages and
game invites to friends (even if they’re playing other games), matchmak-
ing, and a fairly robust banning/preferred-player mechanism. Live isn’t
perfect—there’s still a strong chance you’ll meet 14-year-olds exploring
the George Carlin sections of the unabridged dictionary—and it costs
money. However, we’ll happily pay a few bucks a month for the features
Live delivers. Winner: ConsolesAnd the Winner Is...
softWare
The software
round focuses on two areas:
platform-exclusive titles and
backward compatibility.
Backward compatibility is
new for both Microsoft and
Nintendo in this generation (the
PS2 can also play PS1 games),
which we think is pretty funny.
The PC has been backward
compatible since its inception.
With a few handy utilities, you
can run 20-year-old games
on a modern gaming PC, and
if you have a source for legal
ROM software, you can even
emulate arcade machines and
other older hardware.
As for platform exclusives,
the high cost of game develop-
ment is making them much less
prevalent this go-round. Expect
to see previously exclusive
third-party titles on multiple
platforms, including the PC
this generation. We wouldn’t
be surprised if the generation’s
only major platform exclu-
sives are developed by Sony,
Nintendo, and Microsoft, with
everything else showing up on
all four platforms. Winner: pChead 2 head Two Technologies enTer, one Technology leaves
I
f all you want to do is play games on the cheap, buy a Nintendo DS.
It’s the least expensive option for hardware and games. If you want
the absolute best possible gaming experience, however, not even the
“next-gen” consoles can compare to the experience of playing on a
high-end gaming PC. When you see the first DirectX 10 games, such
as Crysis and Hellgate: London, later this year, their graphical splen-dor will literally make your jaw drop.
Don’t get us wrong: We’re not anti-console at Maximum PC.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with console gaming; without
consoles, you’d miss out on great games like Guitar Hero, Katamari
Damacy , and Dead Rising. But there’s not a single editor at Maximum
PC who’d choose a console over a gaming PC.round 4
round^5
february 2007 MAXIMUMPC 17
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