No, there haven't been compromises for the lower-end. There have always been lots and lots of in-game graphics settings for faster machines.
However, these days the maximum graphics setting is usually equal to the console version (except for the higher resolutions) when the maximum setting should be way beyond the console version.
I enjoy gaming on the PC, but I've never installed a single mod. I just don't care.
A lot of modders seem to make things worse. Real Lifesis for example looks completely crappy.
And a mod like the Cinematic Mod for Half-Life 2 changes important components of the game. Alyx turns into Adriana Lima (WTF??), the atmospheric wide-open beach scene suddenly gets cramped by a huge bridge that wasn't in the original game etc.
Steam is the only place where I buy games anymore.
You mean 1600p. 7.9 times the resolution of 540p.
There is no "at least." For a really, really awesome 6-hour game I will gladly pay full price. And for a crappy 30-hour game I won't pay a dime.
What does a ticket to the movies cost (90 minutes to 2 hours of entertainment)? How about a concert ticket? It's all relative.
Oh, you typed this on your PS3, Omar?
They upscaled it, wow. How awesome. Not. Every 1080p display has to upscale the 720p signal anyway.
A handful of RED users who don't mind that the insanely low Youtube bit rate slaughters their videos.
4K is a niche format, pretty useless for something like Youtube.
I played it again last week. It's still as gorgeous as ever. And I love the replayability.
Who's Naughty Dog?
Every texture and every polygon consumes VRAM. 512 MB of combined RAM is very limiting no matter what. Framebuffers, texture resolution and geometry detail all suffer because of a lack of VRAM. It's simple math.
This was an awesome game. It shipped with some sort of magazine that contained all kinds of crazy stories. The magazine also contained galaxy coordinates needed in the game, but it took me days to figure that out.
LOL
2008 video game revenue Microsoft consoles: $5.0 billion
2009 video game revenue Microsoft consoles: $4.8 billion
2008 video game revenue Sony consoles: $6.4 billion
2009 video game revenue Sony consoles: $5.1 billion
2008 PC gaming revenue: $11.0 billion
2009 PC gaming revenue: $13.1 billion
http://w...
And even if all the games were already 1080p, why is it so difficult for people to imagine how to improve upon the visuals?
Do current games look like Avatar (the movie) or Beowulf (the movie)? No, they don't. Not even close. So there's plenty of room to improve.
"Double or triple" what a 5970 can do? A 5970 costs $700. You think in three years the consoles will have a graphics card with "double or triple" the power? That would be one expensive console.
And of course it's not needed. A normal 5970 would be a plentiful upgrade because it exceeds current-gen console hardware by a ridiculous margin (which should be no surprise if you compare the prices).
I don't know, 150ms sounds pretty bad actually. That's almost 1/6th of a second.
Steam obviously can't reduce the price of games without getting clearance from the publisher. Both the free weekend and the price cut must have been green lit.
You think we will go from Uncharted 2 to Pirates of the Caribbean in real-time? Think again.
Portal 2 won't push any hardware boundaries, not even close. And Rage actually looks pretty mediocre with disappointing textures and geometry detail.
Crysis 2 is really the only game that might make Nvidia and ATI rejoice because of a sales spike.
But even that's not certain. Since it'll run on consoles, practically any PC should be able to run it as well (albeit not on maximum settings). So people may not feel like upgrading for just one game when they ca...