Battlefield 3

[spinbot]

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/03/battlefield-3-looks-amazing-but-we-still-know-nothing-about-it.ars

HOLY COW !!!!!!

Footage form PC version ....... start crying console fanboys

Can only imagine how awesome the PC multiplayer is gonna be

Looks like they have seriously raised the bar on this.

I'm a big BF2 fan on the PC and have been waiting sooooooooo long for this.

 

[guddler]

Hmm, gorgeous graphics and I wholeheartedly agree on the PC sentiments having just completely refreshed my rig. Shame about the content though. Every other game these days is a war based FPS or zombie killer. I suppose we had a lot of sci-fi based ones for a while though.

 

[dannyboy]

I can't wait for this too, absolutely loved 1942 and BF Vietnam. BF2 was ok but I didn't think some of the maps were that great. Didn't even bother trying 2142 as it looked a bit poo!

Been waiting for BF3 for what seems a very long time, I'm sure it'll be worth the wait though. It certainly looks rather tidy in that trailer, although I expect the hardware it's running on is some behemoth with a Core i9 and dual GTX580's

 

[Unit504]

is there an i9...? i thought it was just an i7..?

Core i9

Unit5042011-03-11 13:41:07

 

[guddler]

Not yet

 

[dannyboy]

Soon, I'm sure. I believe the i7 980x was originally going to be released as Core i9, but its name got got changed prior to release. A lot of people still seem to refer to it as i9 though (probably those who own it, to make it sound better

)

 

[saleem]

as long as it has better support than bc2 has had lately on 360.

 

[dannyboy]

A mate of mine sent me this promo clip from Youtube of the PC version. That Frostbite 2 engine is really looking rather tidy. I'm glad I upgraded my graphics card recently now

edit: just watched the clip again as I hadn't watched it for a couple of weeks. This game does look biblically good!


dannyboy2011-07-12 12:24:25

 

[trm]

Pretty indeed! I'm a bit surprised that the console manufacturers have slowed their hardware release cycle given how much better the PC releases are looking. Seems to me that the last 6 months of a console's life saw them beaten by PC gfx but then the next console would be out with new super awesome gfx, yet this time round the manufacturers seem quite happy to let PC gaming get way ahead.

Looking forward to Modern Warfare 3 too - anybody know which team is behind it? I'd have thought the development schedule meant that MW2 team couldn't have worked on it, plus there was the acrimonious split. DICE developed games have always seemed to be lacking something for me; I enjoyed the last Battlefield game but the field of view felt a bit off.

 

[muddymusic]

That's gotta be the best real time graphics i've ever seen.
My current pc spec is never gonna cope with that. Guess it's time for an 800 quid gpu upgrade

 

[DanP]

I think we might be reaching the end of what you can do with this gen of consoles (especially the 360). I'd kinda migrated away from PC gaming cos of the expense of keeping upto date enough for a decent framerate so I went PC for work, console for games. Hopefully the Xbox 720 or whatever it's called isn't too far away otherwise I'll have to rethink. Can't have graphics like that available and not be able to play em!

Dan

 

[guddler]

Well, I'm not even remotely interested in the game content but wow, those graphics look awesome.

Thankfully I went the opposite way and got a fully tricked out PC, leaving the consoles free for the wife. Mostly due to WoW and Rift. The PC is pretty close to bang up to date still too so it should be good to go

 

[dannyboy]

Pretty indeed! I'm a bit surprised that the console manufacturers have slowed their hardware release cycle given how much better the PC releases are looking. Seems to me that the last 6 months of a console's life saw them beaten by PC gfx but then the next console would be out with new super awesome gfx, yet this time round the manufacturers seem quite happy to let PC gaming get way ahead.

I guess the reason the console release cycle's getting longer is because the machines are increasingly complex to design each time, and tend to be designed around custom chips and architectures (maybe not so much XBox, but certainly the last two playstations).

Looking forward to Modern Warfare 3 too - anybody know which team is behind it? I'd have thought the development schedule meant that MW2 team couldn't have worked on it, plus there was the acrimonious split. DICE developed games have always seemed to be lacking something for me; I enjoyed the last Battlefield game but the field of view felt a bit off.

I wasn't sure so just googled this. Apparently 3 separate teams are all working on it - Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer Games and Raven Software. Interesting....I wonder how that arrangement is working out.....

 

[dannyboy]

Seems to me that the last 6 months of a console's life saw them beaten by PC gfx but then the next console would be out with new super awesome gfx, yet this time round the manufacturers seem quite happy to let PC gaming get way ahead.

btw, my perception was always the other way round really - i.e. new consoles were generally better than PC's for the first 6 months of their lives, but then PC's would catch up and overtake them again, with the next round of CPUs and GPUs being released. Guess it depends from which side of the fence you're watching the march of progress though

I suppose it's not just hardware either - the other big thing for PC gaming is that Microsoft have made some pretty big leaps with their graphics API in the last few years, from DirectX 9 to 10 and now 11. Sadly none of this seems to be stopping many people switching to consoles for gaming though, and making PC gaming an increasingly niche market

 

[guddler]

PC gaming is never going to vanish though as long as there's MMO's, MMORPG's etc., etc. And Blizzard entertainment in particular.

 

[trm]

IIRC I was reading recently about how the success and standardisation of DirectX had started to displace OpenGL! Pretty surprising thing to read really, especially if you consider their respective histories.

danny - you could be right about me looking at the wrong side of PC gfx tech vs consoles; I've mainly been a console gamer so wouldn't always be properly aware of the state of the art of PC gfx tech.

As for the future, it's not that far before real-time ray tracing (RT-RT) will be possible in an affordable fashion. I'm not suggesting everybody will move to ray casting engines, but more that if RT-RT is possible then Moore's law for GPU development is basically finished - what do you develop once you've got the power to do physically accurate photo-realism at a good resolution? 3D? Just twin the chips initially and then next iteration it'll be integrated into a single unit. HDTV version 2? Scale the ICs again.

Stick an RT-RT IC in a console and you've got a fixed, well-defined platform which would be lovely to develop for (subject to a decent devkit & docs) and also doesn't need replacing in 2-3 years when GPU state of the art moves on. PCs would lose their relevancy for gaming as devs won't be chasing the next GPU to give their game an edge and a console target means nobody has to worry about varying platform capabilities.

Then you fix the input device issues by coming up with a decent mouse interface method and a wireless keyboard and you can play anything you like on your 40-50" screen.

I can see that successfully enabling the provision of MMO on consoles. Until somebody comes up with something better than RT-RT

 

[guddler]

Problem with the keyboard / mouse on consoles (which you can do now but games don't support it) is that a keyboard and a mouse pretty much dictates you sit at a desk / bench / table. That kinda rules out the 50" TV's unless you really want to damage your eyesight!!