Valve Hoping For 360/PC Play, Scared of PS3 Online

News Reader · Post by **News Reader** » March 30th, 2007, 12:00

Valve Hoping For 360/PC Play, Scared of PS3 Online
Valve's movement to the console space has been slow, but this year will see the release of Half-Life 2 on both the 360 and PS3. They seem to be having mixed reactions to that move. On the one hand (according to CVG), they're very much hoping that 360/PC crossplay will be possible for their upcoming Team Fortress 2. On the other hand (according to Game Informer and 1up), their reaction to the PS3's online component is one of fear. Valve's Marketing representative Doug Lombardi: "PS3 is brand new and PS3's online is kind of scary so we're hoping that EA is going to be a strong partner for us. (laughs) It's always the scariest thing when it's not all yours. With the PC it's all ours, Steam is all ours, code's ours, game's ours. On 360 we're making it, we've made it before, we know what the Live thing is, although it's Microsoft's so we kind of know it. PS3 we're not building it, we haven't made a PS3 title before, and we don't really know what PS3 online really is. It's always the devil you don't know that you're the most scared of."

Author: Zonk
Category: games
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Source: Slashdot: Games
Description: News for nerds, stuff that matters

Woo Elephant Yeah · Post by **Woo Elephant Yeah** » March 31st, 2007, 22:51

Blimey, didn't realise they were going to make TF2 crossplay.

I like the idea of crossplay, and if Valve pull this off with both the 360 & the PS3, then they are really pushing the boundaries of online gaming and making a good example for all the other game developers to follow suit.

Something tells me that this process is expensive and tricky to do, so I worry we won't see many titles become cross platform capable as they probably should be.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » March 31st, 2007, 22:58

It really shouldn't be that hard to make, I'm sure MS has covered most of the bases porting wise.

but still, FPS on a gamepad? *looks for vomit emote*
3...

Post by **ProfHawking** » April 1st, 2007, 1:53

Dr. kitteny berk wrote:but still, FPS on a gamepad? *looks for vomit emote*
3...

Yeah, i refuse to play GTA games on a console, and i saw a FPS on a ps3 today. Man, it sucked to aim.
Its not really gonna be a fair fight is it

spoodie · Post by **spoodie** » April 1st, 2007, 10:19

Hang on, they can't use two almost exactly the same words for total different things, it will confuse me:

Singleplayer + Multiplayer = Crossplayer
PC + console = Crossplay

ellachen · Post by **ellachen** » April 16th, 2007, 2:18

ProfHawking wrote:
Yeah, i refuse to play GTA games on a console, and i saw a FPS on a ps3 today. Man, it sucked to aim.
Its not really gonna be a fair fight is it

I never understood how console gamers got used to the aiming. No matter how many buttons or sticks I have in the pad, I still can't aim as good as I can with a mouse. I tried practicing with a gamepad on a PC FPS before, I felt like a one-legged man trying to win an ass-kicking game.

Post by **deject** » April 16th, 2007, 5:01

ellachen wrote:
I never understood how console gamers got used to the aiming. No matter how many buttons or sticks I have in the pad, I still can't aim as good as I can with a mouse. I tried practicing with a gamepad on a PC FPS before, I felt like a one-legged man trying to win an ass-kicking game.

They just use varying levels of auto-aiming. If you notice the PS2 version of GTA:SA has a lock on feature for most guns.

ellachen · Post by **ellachen** » April 16th, 2007, 5:17

Isn't that the equivalent of an OMGAIMBOTHAXBAN!! on the PC?

eion · Post by **eion** » April 16th, 2007, 5:19

ellachen wrote:
I never understood how console gamers got used to the aiming. No matter how many buttons or sticks I have in the pad, I still can't aim as good as I can with a mouse. I tried practicing with a gamepad on a PC FPS before, I felt like a one-legged man trying to win an ass-kicking game.

I actually find that I'm much better at Halo with the monstrous old xbox controller, compared to keyboard and mouse. Aiming might be a bit harder, but for me at least, stuff like circle strafing et cetera becomes so much easier that it more than balances out. Oddly though, I find Oblivion much better with a mouse and keyboard (probably cos I haven't taken the time to set the controller up right).

Porting-wise, for cross-platform play I think it all goes through the Windows Live gaming thing... at least that's my understanding of how Shadowrun (which is supposed to be out Very Soon Now) works. I suspect we'll see a lot more games cross-platform playable than you might think if that's the case.

buzzmong · Post by **buzzmong** » April 16th, 2007, 15:41

eion wrote:
I actually find that I'm much better at Halo with the monstrous old xbox controller, compared to keyboard and mouse. Aiming might be a bit harder, but for me at least, stuff like circle strafing et cetera becomes so much easier that it more than balances out. Oddly though, I find Oblivion much better with a mouse and keyboard (probably cos I haven't taken the time to set the controller up right).

Porting-wise, for cross-platform play I think it all goes through the Windows Live gaming thing... at least that's my understanding of how Shadowrun (which is supposed to be out Very Soon Now) works. I suspect we'll see a lot more games cross-platform playable than you might think if that's the case.

I'd just like to hop in a point out that Halo is optimised for the (older and better) controllers and the analogue sticks, it speeds up the longer you have it at the extreme's as well to a degree. The pc version of Halo I'm pretty sure was a hash job converting the controls, using the mouse always felt wrong on it, I would go and try again except my sweeped cd decided to shed it's covering like a snake sheds it's skin.
Did you know that cd's look quite boring when they're clear?

I'm not too sure on crossplatforming on certain game types, such as fps's or rts's. Turn based games should be alright though and should some rpg type games.

Note: I do believe it's highly possible to connect a mouse and keyboard to the xbox. Something to do with usb connecters.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » April 16th, 2007, 15:52

buzzmong wrote:I'd just like to hop in a point out that Halo is optimised for the (older and better) controllers and the analogue sticks, it speeds up the longer you have it at the extreme's as well to a degree. The pc version of Halo I'm pretty sure was a hash job converting the controls, using the mouse always felt wrong on it,

That, SO FUCKING HARD.

MrGreen · Post by **MrGreen** » April 16th, 2007, 16:31

There was a product which allowed you to play 360 with a k/b and mouse, it was around $60 and wasn't up to much unless you HAD to not use a game pad.

killslay · Post by **killslay** » April 19th, 2007, 14:58

i'm better using the game controllers than i am keyboard and mouse

Post by **TezzRexx** » April 19th, 2007, 16:14

For some reason, I found GTA to be easier to aim on the Console rather then the PC. I never had much trouble with it but you could never shoot someone from far away without the use of the scope/cross-hair provided by the sniper rifle or the machine gun respectively.