Be Excellent To Each Other

If ever there was a POTW, this is it.

I still don't think it's likely at all.

Reports on UKHotDeals that CEX in Camden and Waltenstow have broken the street date. £70 for the privilege.

I thought CEX only dealt with second hand games? How does that work then?

Considering WH Smith are selling it after stopping selling all games four or five years ago, it's not surprising.

I'm out of touch. Is 'breaking the street date' the same as 'selling it early'?

It means Davina got hit by a car.

Hmm. My brother is currently in Camden and coming back here after.

It's also Sunday at 5:30.

Yes, basically.

Back when I worked at Game in the pre-internet days when a big game release was imminent (or at least pre-internet as we know it now) the various stores in town would send scouts out to the competitors to see if anyone had broken the street date, as soon as one did, it was basically open season and we all did.

Sometimes we'd get a phone call to say a store in Town X and Y had broken the street date and that we looking for signs of escalation.

The penalty for non-compliance was theoretically that the publisher might withhold future titles or at least not despatch them to the chain's stores in time for release date, although in reality that never happened, but then again that was when Game were basically the biggest name in videogame sales.

Utterly shit company to work for, by the way.

The 360 version was just a downloadable "Xbox Classics" emulated version of the Xbox version, though. Plus, San Andreas was out a good year before the 360 arrived. It wasn't a proper port, and, frankly, there wasn't really need for one. It was already an "old" game by the time the 360 and PS3 were around and GTA IV was well under way.

This is different. Next gen is next month! (Well, two months, but that sounded better.)

Yep.



How?

In that the new consoles are literally a month away and there's a PC version in the works that will result in a very easy port across to the new, more powerful consoles.

This is very much a "HD" game that won't take much in the way of "upscaling" to make it look even better on PC/next gen. San Andreas was very much a game limited by the consoles it was designed for, and the PC version reflected that by being, basically, the same game with the ability to display it at a higher resolution on a PC monitor.

There was a PC version of San Andreas. Why is this different?

Are you a developer now?

I explained above.

Are you suggesting that there won't be a proper port of this for the new consoles?

I'm not a developer, no. I'm as clued-in in that department as anyone else here. I play a lot of games and I have a basic understanding of how it all works.

Who twisted your pants today?

Nope. But I'm not the one saying how easy it is to port to different formats with no developmental experience.

Go and nitpick with someone else mate. I'm not going to argue with you today.

Woah there cowboy. I asked a single word question.

This is going to sell millions on consoles that already have massive install bases. I can't really see the point in them going to the effort to port it to the new platforms.

Because they'll be able to resell it as the MEGA HD EXPERIENCE in some kind of GOTY edition type arrangement.

Y'know, graphics like you've never seen before in a GTA game, faster and smoother, more detail, crisper than ever - the advertising blurb practically writes itself.

Classy! Before you blow up at me again I was asking why you contradict yourself within two sentences. Quite frankly it used to fuck me right off at work if someone came to me speaking from a point of absolute ignorance telling me that thing they wanted would be "easy".



mmm arguing. Not asking and debating. Arguing.

Apparently some of those code cracker hacker types have found lines of code in the leaked copy that suggests a PC/PS4 versions are in development.

I'm sure I read in a magazine sometime that they'd developed their in-hoose engine so it could convert to Xbox/PS3 quickly rather than creating two separate games. Maybe the engine would do the same for PS4/XB1. Maybe it'd be easier for PS4/XB1 conversions cause the architecture is closer to pee cees. Maybe I didn't read this and I made it all up. Maybe.

Precisely what angle are you working here? And to what end? Are you sticking up for overworked developers?

I called this "arguing" because, from where I'm standing, you're being contrary to no obvious end. You fancy a little bit of an argument. Or a "debate". You chose me. I'm not interested.

I think there'll be a next-gen and PC version of GTA V. I don't think it'd be particularly difficult for the developers to do. After all, there's definitely a PC version in the works and the next-gen consoles are basically PCs. What are your thoughts, Dimrill? Do you actually disagree? Or did you just want to ask some questions you already knew the answers to?

You know what? I'm outta here again! This time for good. I've just lost interest. If "arguing" (please, read my posts above to see just how tame this whole thing was) results in feeling guilty for apparently upsetting someone enough to make them post a passive-aggressive tweet, I... I just can't be arsed.

I'd rather discuss games with people who I'm not worried about upsetting and subsequently coming across as a bully. I haven't posted all that much any way really.

See ya!

It's not guaranteed to be easy to port. Each console has its wrinkles. The PS4's RAM has scads of bandwidth, but relatively high latency. The X1 has RAM much slower than GPUs normally have but that's obviates by an ultra-fast but manually-tuned lump of cache. Getting a port to run smoothly isn't something the intern does in an afternoon. Genuine effort is required.

What's worse, though, is the QA. Once you've done the port you need to make sure that it runs acceptably fast at all points through the game and at every point on the map in every combination of vehicles and if you're being chased by the cops or not chased or in a mission or not in a mission and so on. For every combination of game state, which is enormous in an open world game, some human often has to play the game into that state and confirm that nothing weird happens like slowdown or you vanished inside a solid object or the sky turned purple or any other obscure bug.

It's all tractable, and I think it's more likely than not to happen, but it's not as trivial as you suggested either. Far from it.

Why not utilise the nifty super-ignore function?

Taken to its logical conclusion, everyone on BEEX will end up super-ignoring everyone else and the forums will appear to be the ultimate paradise for all isolated users because we'll never have to interact with anyone else ever again! *

Woohoo!

* May not work very well in the real world.

Amazing, there he goes!

This place is hilarious at times

No it isn't you stupid face.

What a ridiculous turn of events.

FYI I haven't pre-ordered a copy because:

A) I'll just walk into ASDA or Tesco and pick up a copy without any difficulty. And a bottle of milk. And a cauliflower.
B) And a bag of Squares.
C) Ooh, and some sparkling water cause I'm classy.

I'm tired. I read that as 'parking water'.

I read it as 'everyone fuck off and die water'.

Then I read it again as 'frame rate water'.

I want a bag of squares.

You're a square.

It's almost Tuesday...

But will anyone get it tomorrow?!

*removes the 'Flounce Exit' and replaces it with a revolving door*

Right that's it, I'm out of here! That idiot Myp has pissed me off for the last time!

*flounces*

*soft whirring as the door rotates*

*returns*

Hi guys, how's things? Been a while!

*nods in satisfation of a job well done*

I will now.

I'm gonna wait for the next gen port.

The PC version, then?

Tuesday is also the day I get my sexy new originally released in 2011 awesomo camera!

OUR COMBINED EXCITEMENTS MAY DESTROY THE INTERNETS.

Err, got no console to play this, but thus far my fave GTA has been San Andreas by a long way, so I am quite an intrigued observer.

Review embargo lifts at 3pm.

Amazon pre-orders have been getting delivered today. Of course I ordered from Amazon sadly I'm going to work in an hour and don't get back until 8.

The Tesco pre-order I'd forgotten I'd made dispatched today. Whoo!

My Amazon order was despatched at the weekend, so may or may not arrive today.
I'm working from home, revising for the CCNA exam (again) on Friday, but that may suffer if it turns up.

Is it really important??? it will get 100/100 and 10/10 everywhere and it will be hailed as the citizen kane of gaming just as GTA4.

So those of us with no spare time to play it can live vicariously though the experiences of others.

*world weary sigh*

POST JUST ARRIVED...no GTAV

Stupid Runcle getting my hopes up.

Bad Runcle, bad.