The elderly statesmen amongst you might remember TosspoT's drunken scrawls as to why Alcohol Is Better Than BiO. It wasn't his greatest column, in fact, it's arguably one of his worse - a vitriolic attack on the ET community as a whole. But it's from his column I take inspiration, and recent events that set the scene.
You see you guys know me on here, I've been around for years. ET's in my blood, coursing through my veins (much like alcohol is to Stu). I've never played at the highest level, nor even a high level, my highest achievement barring mixes was reaching the playoffs of the ClanBase OpenCup Third League. However; I'm a competent player. I can aim, when playing consistently, at a reasonable standard. I know the camps, can read the game. Have an understanding of who does what where and why. This skill set obviously transfers across to publics, for which we can all compete. My point? I'm not a complete ignoramous. But every once in a while you've to take a step back from BiO and sample some of TosspoT's moonshine.
The catalyst for this betrayal was the destruction of my harddrive. The fan went, the pc made some crazy noises and I panicked. I raced down to my nearest PC world with what I thought was my harddrive (turned out to be the Floppy Disc Drive - oops!), raced back grabbed the correct hardware and bought an external usb connector. Why am I telling you this? Because when I finally made it home I tripped on the stairs and dropped the f%%king harddrive down the stairs!
My harddrive, my virtual life - like the virginity of Vanessa George's students, gone for good. I pined over the usual things, the photos, the videos, the goofy stuff - and then it hit me, the configs! Try as I might I just couldn't replicate the feeling of my old ET config.
So with a heavy heart I cast ET aside like a second rate manager (poor big Sam)and moved on. Life changed, got a new place a new job a better income, things were good - but there was still this nagging itch at the back of my mind - TV is dull, there's a better solution. So enthused I jumped onto Amazon and bought myself a shiny new Xbox 360. It's slimline, sleek, sexy - all those buzzwords, all that good shit.
And so I booted up and got to it. FIFA 11 my first purchase, free with the console. It played exactly as you'd expect it to, like every other FIFA title since 95. The latest feature playing as part of an 11 man team was fun but the repetitive and monosyllabic gameplay left me bored. Perhaps it's the genre not the console - so I scoured the second hand shops for a copy of Battlefield Bad Company 2.
That was it. I'm hooked. The gameplay is somewhat innovative. It's easy to pick up, easy to rack up the kills - you earn rewards the more you play unlocking increasingly cool shit. Wow I can zoom with a tank, awesome! Nice one my UAV can now fire a machine gun. Hours and hours of fun raging the multiplayer. Camping out choke points, utilising mines, mastering helicopters - even becoming competent at the twitchy aim system.
Around a week later, and getting increasingly confident at the game I started to notice something - I was slowly, gradually sneaking up the scoreboard. I'd gone from complete newb to best on the server, any server, in a week, having never really played any console shoot em up before.
The more invested I become the more undynamic the gameplay appears. The aim is erratic as you've only a sensory control over the cursor - it's clunky. You can adjust to this and learn to aim but it'll never achieve the accuracy of a mouse.
The movement is basic. No sorry, that's an understatement, the movement isn't movement as such, in that movement would require a skill - it's press down a button to sprint and point in the direction you want to go. The limitations this creates are immense. In one foul swoop they've eliminated a massively complex skill from any FPS.
And don't get me started on the hermaphroditic spawning system.
But that in essence is the point of console gaming. You can't shoot when you run. Can't aim when you walk. Can't estimate spawn times. Can't multitask at all. The game is based around doing one thing at once, and then moving on to another. There's zero multitasking, zero learning curve.
When you enter Enemy Territory you enter a complex world combining many skillsets. You've to master the art of movement, become adept at aiming, understand the gamestyle, utilise the spawns. Any and all of these qualities are a basic requirement for even fragging in Enemy Territory. This was hammered home hard tonight when I jumped on HBC server for half an hour this evening. I was destroyed. Not through lack of skill, but through having taught myself to do one thing at a time.
Admittedly the fundamentals are fundamentally the same. And the potential is there. But for as long as PC gaming remains more precise and allows for more variables it'll continue to be superior. Cheap cider is fun, it'll get you pissed but it'll never match up to the complex flavours fermenting amongst a good real ale. This is why PC gaming will always be superior to consoles (that is, of course, until Xbox release a sexy keyboard / mouse and make it standard).
/end preaching to the converted
Ps back up your configs!
You see you guys know me on here, I've been around for years. ET's in my blood, coursing through my veins (much like alcohol is to Stu). I've never played at the highest level, nor even a high level, my highest achievement barring mixes was reaching the playoffs of the ClanBase OpenCup Third League. However; I'm a competent player. I can aim, when playing consistently, at a reasonable standard. I know the camps, can read the game. Have an understanding of who does what where and why. This skill set obviously transfers across to publics, for which we can all compete. My point? I'm not a complete ignoramous. But every once in a while you've to take a step back from BiO and sample some of TosspoT's moonshine.
The catalyst for this betrayal was the destruction of my harddrive. The fan went, the pc made some crazy noises and I panicked. I raced down to my nearest PC world with what I thought was my harddrive (turned out to be the Floppy Disc Drive - oops!), raced back grabbed the correct hardware and bought an external usb connector. Why am I telling you this? Because when I finally made it home I tripped on the stairs and dropped the f%%king harddrive down the stairs!
My harddrive, my virtual life - like the virginity of Vanessa George's students, gone for good. I pined over the usual things, the photos, the videos, the goofy stuff - and then it hit me, the configs! Try as I might I just couldn't replicate the feeling of my old ET config.
So with a heavy heart I cast ET aside like a second rate manager (poor big Sam)and moved on. Life changed, got a new place a new job a better income, things were good - but there was still this nagging itch at the back of my mind - TV is dull, there's a better solution. So enthused I jumped onto Amazon and bought myself a shiny new Xbox 360. It's slimline, sleek, sexy - all those buzzwords, all that good shit.
And so I booted up and got to it. FIFA 11 my first purchase, free with the console. It played exactly as you'd expect it to, like every other FIFA title since 95. The latest feature playing as part of an 11 man team was fun but the repetitive and monosyllabic gameplay left me bored. Perhaps it's the genre not the console - so I scoured the second hand shops for a copy of Battlefield Bad Company 2.
That was it. I'm hooked. The gameplay is somewhat innovative. It's easy to pick up, easy to rack up the kills - you earn rewards the more you play unlocking increasingly cool shit. Wow I can zoom with a tank, awesome! Nice one my UAV can now fire a machine gun. Hours and hours of fun raging the multiplayer. Camping out choke points, utilising mines, mastering helicopters - even becoming competent at the twitchy aim system.
Around a week later, and getting increasingly confident at the game I started to notice something - I was slowly, gradually sneaking up the scoreboard. I'd gone from complete newb to best on the server, any server, in a week, having never really played any console shoot em up before.
The more invested I become the more undynamic the gameplay appears. The aim is erratic as you've only a sensory control over the cursor - it's clunky. You can adjust to this and learn to aim but it'll never achieve the accuracy of a mouse.
The movement is basic. No sorry, that's an understatement, the movement isn't movement as such, in that movement would require a skill - it's press down a button to sprint and point in the direction you want to go. The limitations this creates are immense. In one foul swoop they've eliminated a massively complex skill from any FPS.
And don't get me started on the hermaphroditic spawning system.
But that in essence is the point of console gaming. You can't shoot when you run. Can't aim when you walk. Can't estimate spawn times. Can't multitask at all. The game is based around doing one thing at once, and then moving on to another. There's zero multitasking, zero learning curve.
When you enter Enemy Territory you enter a complex world combining many skillsets. You've to master the art of movement, become adept at aiming, understand the gamestyle, utilise the spawns. Any and all of these qualities are a basic requirement for even fragging in Enemy Territory. This was hammered home hard tonight when I jumped on HBC server for half an hour this evening. I was destroyed. Not through lack of skill, but through having taught myself to do one thing at a time.
Admittedly the fundamentals are fundamentally the same. And the potential is there. But for as long as PC gaming remains more precise and allows for more variables it'll continue to be superior. Cheap cider is fun, it'll get you pissed but it'll never match up to the complex flavours fermenting amongst a good real ale. This is why PC gaming will always be superior to consoles (that is, of course, until Xbox release a sexy keyboard / mouse and make it standard).
/end preaching to the converted
Ps back up your configs!
The only drawback I can see is that a mouse requires a flat playing surface, unlike a pad which can be used anywhere. Whether that's insurmountable I dunno - but everythings wireless these days anways.
No need for a massive tower or a clunky monitor. Finally bring the PC into the living room, not have it hid in some mastubatory broom cupboard.
Though FIFA and sports games are somehow cooler on console.
Oh and since you mentioned the Xbox: Nothing can beat the Halo Trilogy on Xbox!
Nice read,keep it up!
Can someone please link me to this Tosspot BiO article? I'm curious. :)
Best quote ever.
-
It is a good thing that there are these two systems to amuse us. I just wish that game developers wouldn't make games for both at the same time...
On TosspoT's column, and on a slightly unrelated note:
Whilst the game quite clearly failed to keep interest levels up among most of the ET community, the public play always continued to carry that teamplay feel. Nobody would ever think twice to revive their fallen allies.
Won't ever happen, and if it will, won't change a thing, console games are broken by design to appeal rednecks and kids with attention deficit, there won't ever be complexity level to match Quakes/W:ET, or even damn CS.
but u should have bought a ps3 I'd say, atleast would be some kind of media player in ur house atleast + bluray.
fps just isnt meant to be on consoles...some other games are good though, always enjoy more football on ps3 than on pc though
and yes, et is et
Ahaha TosspoT is an absolute legend, i miss his columns. Nice read Nellie and i agree on most parts, hell my friends banned me playing cod4 on xbox against them cos it was just far too simple and i am no pro with a joystick. It is that competitive side of me that likes a challenge that kept me playing ET, plus the fact it was huge amounts of fun in the old days when u were beginning. Trying to make General on public xp save servers, checking splatterladder for your rank etc :D. Like any sport though, computer gaming - competitive gaming - is something that doesnt come natural to everyone just like some people suck and would never make a professional footballer. It can be harsh at times !
never occured to me that the nellie on HBC was you :o
although, they have a completely new server so I think he should be unbanned as of today! ill get the cunt back on there asap! after xmas!
and your columns are sick Nellie, always get everything perfect :D
Gotta man up & re-adjust!
And hey, the HBC server is horrible, anyone used to competetive ET will get destroyed there ;)
btw <TheSlacRoom> is a nice public server
although its good there is a seperation between pc and console
its like people getting an ipad and then wanting a keyboard and a stand and a webcam... buy a fucking laptop!
I grew up like every kid growing up in the 90's, which is basically playing a shitload of Mario and Metroid and Zelda and Final Fantasies and Donkey Kong and Castlevania and Killer Instinct and Tekken and Chrono Trigger/Cross and Goldeneye (yes, best fps game of all time despite being on console, any counter-argument is invalid) and many many more... Everyone who played those in their childhood will have to agree that those were not simply "videogames", it was really character building stuff.
Now I look at the pc games and yeah, that old feeling of experiencing something unique and timeless you got by playing some console games just doesn't exist anymore, with the exception of some diamonds of course (ET is included). It's like pc games have no heart, they seem to have lots of shinies as well as awesome production value, but other than that, theres nothing there. Surely you can say that alot of new console games are like that as well, but i blame it on the pc game influence. So sorry but every time someone says that pc games are better than console games, I just laugh hard.
Modern PC games = modern console game ports
Your examples = old games
That's why i love ET. That's why i prefer PC over console.
I tried Modern Warfare 2 on xbox and PC, PC won clearly in gameplay..
With a decent PC you have also better graphics.
Result: Game is more enjoyable.
But the negative aspects are the costs for new PC hardware to run the games smooth.
Another one would be the cheaters (which are still a big problem imo), lags which might occur, less support from developers.. etc
As i play only Shooters, i can only talk for them, so i can't agree with HellHammer.
Every shooter game was more kickin on PC.. more intensive, more talk.
Tbh, again, i don't notice that no heart stuff which you stated.
Yes :)
Playing CSS atm.
Pretty difficult for me, but yes.. i like the challenge, exactly like you.
Old times.. <3
You would remember doing 12 hour marathons almost every day when u didnt have school with 3 other friends playing Goldeneye or Perfect Dark if you had n64 :p
nice