[360] Tri-Ace's Infinite Undiscovery

What the hell, did the Microsoft money run out? I'm not impressed at all with the latest trailers.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Tokubetsu

Why can't you just hope for both systems to get both games? Choice is always better.

Not really. A development focus on one system usually results in a better game. We need more games that focus on individual system strengths rather than getting a bunch of games developed for the least common denominator.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Multiplatform development is heavily restrictive still. If you are developing a game with two platforms in mind you must design your entire game down to each individual scene so both platforms can run them identically. Can't run 5 enemies on screen at once with AI on that Xbox 360? Gotta drop them down to 3 enemies on both versions. Can't push enough polygons for that scene on the PS3? Gotta drop the detail down on both versions. That's not to mention the huge Blu-Ray consideration for these types of games. Hell just consider the effect on the content in GTA4 if they didn't need to worry about DVD-9.

It's still very much a consideration for both platforms especially considering how different the two are in regards to CPU and GPU balance. It also adds a complex layer to design which has a huge impact of how a game turns out multiplatform over being platform specific.

We need less multiplatform games, not more. There is a reason why the most technically impressive games of this generation are largely exclusive to their platform. Not to mention multiplatform development costs money and more of that money is going into engine and technical development rather than content development when dealing with two platforms rather than one.

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Considering how small most of those strengths are on both sides, it seems like a far more sensible outlook to want to have other players experience the good games more than wanting them to miss out so you can have some mild to practically non-existant addition to your titles.

No I think this is a pretty dumb outlook. Is there some rule preventing people from buying more than one console that I wasn't aware of? I want the best games possible.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Well after the fact ports aren't so bad mostly because those tend to get an additional budget plus the original development usually doesn't have to keep the second platform in mind.

But this simultaneous platform development is killing these games. They pretty much get the same budget and development time as exclusive games but that budget is split between two sets of development teams rather than one. Plus framework creation takes longer so content creation ends up with a smaller time slice than exclusive development. You can bitch about the general state of the industry in terms of quality, but there really is no way in hell you are getting an equal game from simultaneous development with resources for the project being split across two platforms rather than those same resources being focused on a single platform.

How ya doing, buddy?

I got a good 6 hours in with this game today. It's an average Tri-ace game and reminds me a lot of Radiata Stories in that it has a lot of great concepts but they just couldn't bring them together very well. I'll finish it eventually but eh nothing much to mention about this one.

I was speaking idiomatically.