myoptikakaka wrote:
While I take your point about it being a superior game on the PC now, just remember that most of us were playing it over three years ago when it first came out. I remember people saying it was a shonky mess on PC at the time, and that was after I'd finished the whole thing on the 360 and moved onto something else.
Yeah I remember JC ranting on about it, not sure if it was before he came here or back at the last set of forums we both frequented, he had a pretty uber system for the day and it ran like shite. Indeed, Custom PC ran a double-page feature on how to get it up and running in some sort of vaguely acceptable manner. I did the sensible thing and didn't even try
Two things have happened since then of course, Rockstar have patched the game up, and PCs have moved on by leaps and bounds. So a PC that'd cost £600 now will outpace a PC that cost £2500+ three years ago.
TBH it's always been that way to an extent when it comes to PC gaming, I remember when Deus Ex first came out and I had to fiddle around for ages to get it (a) not looking like shit and (b) running properly (that was the first time I ever overclocked a graphics card), and it was certainly a long way off being on the top settings. (I clearly recall the same 'payne' with Max Payne, ha ha lol, funnies. And then Max Payne 2, whereby my graphics card of the time couldn't even render the reflections in the mirrors.)
In this regard the long tenure of the 360 as the 'top console' has been a blessing for the PC, as the 360 is basically a six year old PC in a small box and the specs haven't changed in that time, whereas the PC has evolved as it always does.
Since all console games are developed on PCs anyway, and then scaled back for the restrictions of the 360/PS3 hardware, what developers are able to do for the PC version is leave all the stuff they've had to trim back/leave out/scale down as options on the PC version. A really good recent example of this is DiRT3. (And by all accounts the coders are flexing their muscles for what they'll be wanting to do on the next generation of the consoles, it's just that PC owners can see it now.)
In the case of GTAIV, PC tech has 'caught up' with the game as it were, so even a relatively mid-range PC can run it at maximum loveliness. (And my PC is no ninja system, I could build a brand new PC to match mine for about £650 from overclockers).
Add in the fact that games are often dirt cheap on the PC (the recent Steam sale being a fine example) - and there's a lot to recommend the platform as a games machine, especially since XBox Live and Games For Windows Live are now essentially one and the same thing.
EDIT - And in fairness to Rockstar, they did say at the launch of the PC version that the PC to run GTAIV properly maxed out didn't exist yet.
EDIT2 - Also posted this to the PC hardware thread, kind of says just what I did in many ways
http://www.eurogamer.net/videos/egtv-pc ... -1?size=hd