WiHDRocks

Plot twists are an invaluable tool in the Arsenal of any game developer. Titles such as Tomb Raider, Perfect Dark and Crysis were all classic and highly successful games that twisted so hard, it was almost like playing a different game.

Sometimes, plot twists occur in between sequels. Now is such a time. Saint’s Row IV’s plot has twisted so much, it will leave you wondering WTF just happened to even give you that whiplash injury.

Probably not. But let’s face it, having a blog post that’s two words long is about as appropriate as a 9-year-old getting home from school and watching the local working girls enjoy a good time from the protagonist in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

Age ratings mean different things to different gamers and many are completely oblivious to their existence. It probably boils down to how strict your parents are or whether or not you grew up in a religious environment. Sometimes, unfortunately, bad things happen IRL, so should we just ban violent videogames? Hell no. So what’s the point in adding ratings?

Do Ratings Only Exist to Cover People’s Asses?

Probably, yes. But again, we are showing our hand too soon. It’s like pulling a knife on someone inCounterstrike when they’ve still got too much HP left. Or was that RL? Who can tell the difference these days?

The problem here really comes down to accountability (or, whose fault it is when something bad happens). Many more “mature” gamers would have enjoyed titles such as Double Dragon on old school consoles including the Nintendo GameBoy and Streets of Rage on the Sega Mega Drive as youngsters, and they also fall into the ‘completely oblivious that age ratings even existed’ category.

Others would not have been so lucky in the ‘liberal parenting’ department and may have found themselves relegated to Mario Bros and Ecco the Dolphin respectively.

So, are the above-mentioned either stomping around in news stories of unimaginable violence against their fellow citizens or singing Kumbaya and roasting gelatin-free marshmallows round the campfire of the local Greenpeace chapter?

No they’re not. The sad reality is, sometimes bad events do take place and they’re sometimes a lot worse than any of the scenes we may have seen in the average beat-em-up.

Can You Realistically Blame Games for Violence?

There’s such an epic philosophical and ethical debate here and we’re about to devote a short paragraph to it. As much as we want to say a categorical “no”, the reality is that a kid who’s been playing Manhunt obsessively for several months and then gone out and re-enacted some of the scenes probably got more than just a little inspiration from the game, as chilling as that may be.

On the other hand, as above we’re not all doing that. Sure, it probably didn’t help, but the real question is; would he have been doing that stuff anyway? There’s a whole lot more that goes into building a human being’s psychology than a few hours spent on a video game.

Parents of kids sure can’t go blaming the retail stores if the title is clearly labeled with an M certificate. Who’s to say a good clean game of Lemmings won’t see children lining up their classmates and encouraging them to walk forward, confident they would find a steel girder below their feet and deliver them to safety.

When Should Kids Start Playing Videogames?

We have no idea. But, if you’re going to get them started on the hard stuff early, make sure you’re there for them in general and give them an all-round loving, encouraging and positive environment to offset the violence experienced in whatever digital fantasy world of stress relief they may be engaging.

Few debates get our nerdy juices flowing more than discussing gaming platforms and which one’s best. Console gamers love mocking PC gamers for constantly having to upgrade their crazily-expensive rigs to handle the next title hitting the shelves while PC gamers ridicule console gamers for being the casual couch potato auto-aim lovers that they so obviously are.

So what about the new up-and-coming Xbox One and Sony PlayStation 4? Will PC gamers lose all bragging rights for the ‘best gaming visuals’ and be left only with the ability to alt+tab and enjoy endless libraries of high quality adult material after telling their teammates they’re “afk”?

In short, has the PC finally met its match? Let’s take a look.

Going Head-To-Head on the Visuals

One of the reasons this debate is a potentially tricky one is that there are many techie variables to be considered when looking at which platform produces the sexiest graphics, and it’s early days, too.

The PlayStation 4 looks like more of a PC rival than the Xbox One in terms of raw graphics horsepower at this stage a factor which may be the reason Microsoft seems unusually keen to push the TV-capabilities of its pending platform…

A number of early graphics comparisons videos have been leaking out and one great example is Epic’s Unreal 4 engine playing the ‘Elemental demo’. The PlayStation 4 is up against a gaming PC with an Intel Core i7 processor and an Nvidia 680 GTX graphics card.

The footage for the gaming PC is about 12 months old now, but the hardware used is still very much towards the high end of things. Honestly? There’s not much in it at this stage and PC PlayStation 4 does a damn fine job in rendering a stunning short movie.

Also to be considered in favor of the PlayStation 4 is that this is without the code having been highly optimized for the console by developers with some experience under their belts.

The short version is, it it’s going to be a close call.

The Future-Proofing Problem

If this debate sounds a little familiar to you, it’s not without a good reason. When Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 hit the market, it was the first time the consoles offered PCs a serious competition. There was much discussion about how these consoles were “PC-killers”, as seems to be fashion within the tech sector.

The problem is though, as developing consoles becomes increasingly complex and expensive, the life cycles involved between generations are getting longer. While no major improvements or upgrades are seen to the core hardware, companies such as Intel and NVidia stomp forwarded as Moore’s Law works its magic and these days, even a low to medium-end gaming PC will own an Xbox 360.

Graphics may be close on release, but it’s unlikely that even developer experience in optimizing code for the next-generation consoles will outstrip the exponential increases in raw horsepower on offer to PC gamers. It’s just massive shame enjoying the latest goodies is going to cost 4-5 figure sums of money. And so the great debate rages on…

Should PC Gamers Upgrade Right Away?

Whether or not to upgrade is a huge area involving many factors. Usually, PC gamers upgrade a when there’s a game coming out that their rigs won’t run at a smooth frame rate (25fps or above) at acceptable graphics levels.

You heard it here first, kids. Santa Claus isn’t real and size matters. Before we go into our ridiculous experiment where we use the state-of-the-art wireless HD-ready projector to enjoy a gaming session on the side of the building, let’s first consider the above colossal statement (the size thing, not the Santa Claus thing).

There was a time when size was a definite issue. The old glass screen CRT TVs and PC displays (what were they, like four pixels resolution?) were as expensive to manufacturer as they were easy to mount on the ceiling. Mercifully, advances in flat panel technology and the manufacturing processes behind them have meant the human race crawling slowly towards the standardization of appropriately massive televisions and displays. Good times.

The Contradictory Explosion in Mobile Gaming

If you were feeling slightly intimidated by our statement about size being important, you may be eager to point out the explosion in mobile gaming. Good point. But, within this platform there wages a battle of size. Even the iPhone with its previously perfect form factor has opted for corrective surgery, and now has a marginally more well-endowed 4” display compared to the 3.5” inch display of its predecessors.

In a grand show of exaggerated manliness in order to outperform its competition, Samsung has taken things to the next level with the Galaxy Note, a smartphone so big, you can barely fit the phone in your hand due to it’s girthy 5.3” display.

Of course, this raises the issue of tablet gaming. As we all know, anything you can play on smartphone is made better with the tablet version. For those of you feeling quite happy with the size of your iPad’s 9.7”, you may want to look away now as the Planar Helium PCT2785 tablet will emasculate you with its monstrous 27” display. PC Big-Screen Gaming

PC gaming is potentially a little different when it comes to the big screen. Sitting hunched over a keyboard and mouse means that anything much larger than 30” in front of you would involve far too much creaking of the neck to see from corner to corner, especially since it’s right in front of your nose.

That said, anyone who’s done PC gaming on a 27” display with a 2,560×1,600 resolution will know that the detail offered from upgrading in size produces a truly breathtaking experience, especially if it’s backed up with some powerful hardware for smooth frame rates.

What about when you’re playing a console-like or controller friendly game on your PC? Well, this is one of the reasons why WiHD is so popular. Without any extra hassle, you can enjoy PC goodness on your 52” plasma TV and kickback on your sofa with a controller while you play Portal 2 or your favorite indie titles.

It’s All about the Projectors

So, in mobile gaming there’s size war going on ready to prove the fact that bigger is better and with PC gaming, we’d choose a larger display at every chance. It goes without saying that our living rooms will be blessed with the biggest goddamn TV we can possibly afford and/or persuade the better halves to let us buy. So what comes next?