[snip]
| Trust me - you don't want Nascar. Sierra's first PSX title and boy
| does it show. They will get better, but avoid this one.
I disagree, and I'm curious what precisely your complaints about it
are. It isn't perfect, but it runs at least as good as I remember PC
NASCAR running, and it has numerous new features.
[moved from thread Re: wanted: NASCAR Racing]
| >I disagree, and I'm curious what precisely your complaints about it
| >are. It isn't perfect, but it runs at least as good as I remember PC
| >NASCAR running, and it has numerous new features.
| I agree, keeping in mind the console it was designed for.
I take it you mean that it was made for "arcade" style games. But the
fact is, I am absolutely sold on the potential of home game stations
for sims or any computer ***- I bought this one (Playstation) for
F1 by Psygnosis, and I now find it hard to go back to doing any ***
or simming on my computer and it's comparatively tiny
monitor/speakers. I think it is the *culture* of home *** consoles
that hasn't completely cought up with PCs, and still thinks it must
make glorified "Pac Mans"- but the console horsepower is already at PC
level and beyond. My god, forget a P200- you'd need an Onyx to match
an N64 at game-playing horsepower! And when/if Nintendo ever starts
putting out quality racing sims, I'll pay the measly $200 or whatever
to have one; for now, I think the platform is just an amazing toy,
with incredible potential.
BTW, I don't think the Playstation is anywhere's near dead in terms of
potential- Fact is, the amazing leap in speed of the more recent batch
of games, now a year after the consoles release, demonstrates that
apparently there is still a lot the *programmers* have needed to
learn/discover to get at the horsepower of the platform. I'm not sure
NASCAR for PSX is optimized particularly well- it was Papy's first
attempt, and while it blows away my home PC for speed, it isn't nearly
as fast (to my eye) as the stuff Psygnosis is putting out for PSX. I
imagine if Papy does another project for PSX, it will be a lot faster.
I hope to god they decide to put out some sort of Indycar sim to
follow up their NASCAR sim. I just can't use it on the PC anymore. It
is sort of funny, but I am slowly switching to NASCAR over Indycar
because NASCAR is what runs faster, thanks to PSX.
No, not sn Onyx, just a $220(street value) 3DFX video card, which
simply blows away the N64. (ie..check out Tomb Raider-3DFX, you'll see
how supperior this card is)
The 3DFX has all the N64 features(mip mapping,anti aliasing,ect..) and
a few more, plus has about double the polygon power.(300k compared to
the N64's 160K)
Not to mention, it can display all these features in resolutions of
640*480 and higher.
I doubt you'll see detailed sims. from a system that can only offer 8
megabytes of it's pathetic storage meduim..called a cartridge.
The Playstation/Saturn would be obvious choices given their cd-rom
storage, however, unless programmers can tweek more from there limited
ram, i doubt you will see the huge playfields for sims. like U.S.
Navy Fighter 97.
In fact E.A. is having _big time_ problems converting Wing Commander 4
to the PSX, simply for lack of enough video and built in ram.
So i fear most sims. we will be seeing would be racing sims., givin
they have smaller playfields.
Basically, you don't have the rom storage in a N64, and enough built
in ram in a PSX/Saturn, to do a major sim.
I hope i'm wrong, but check out the lack of animation in games like
Madden 97,Gameday 97',Pennent Race,Disruptor...and so many others, it
seems many programmers are hitting a wall with just how much they can
do with the PSX's 1 megabyte video and 2 megabyte working ram.
I do believe it is being maxed out..or close to it, but i hope i'm
wrong.
Sure the newer games run at a faster frame rate, and even if
programmers can tweek much more(speed wise), they will always run into
the problem of lack of enough ram.
(if you compared NHL 97' to the PC version, it's almost laughable in
the amount of detail,polys,animation..and features like a play by play
announce, to the PSX version. All these features were mainly due to
the PC's additional ram. Then if you factor in higher resolutions and
the new boards like 3dfx, it's simply not even worth comparing.)
Don't get me wrong, i love the PSX,N64(except it's carts), and Saturn,
but _right now_, they cannot match the PC's graphical power(due to
more ram and new accerated 3-D cards), and with a videocard like the
3dfx,by winter 97' the gap graphically between PC games and console
games will be very large.
And personally i hate the hassles of the PC(control
problems,autoexec..config file problems, smaller screen, dealing with
DOS and Winhype 95', and they take up more space and are noisier,
_however_ there is no doubt with the recent upgrades in accelerated
cards(ie..3dfx), and a drop in memory(16MB is standard..32MB will be
by winter 97'), and speedier cd-roms(12x), and the options for future
dvd's, ect.. the sky is the limit for PC games.
I'm beginning to worry about these consoles, however...
Phil...
