The Valve and Steam Platform Discussion Thread

[Metro]

Precisely. It's about marketing. If this is viewed as hip and cool people will buy it -- just like macs. My brother bought my Mom a $1,500 mac and all she does is occasionally browse the internet. Funny thing is she still mostly uses the old touchpad my other brother gave her when he got a new one.

 

[felipepepe]

Bullshit, marketing is not a insta-win button. For over a decade tons of companies tried to be the new Apple, none succeeded. Only premium PC stuff I can think about is Alienware and Razor, and it took years of heavy marketing & actually decent (if heavy overpriced) products.

There will definitely be cooler & more powerful Steamboxes, and also cheaper ones. Piston is just weak and overpriced, closer to Zune than to iPod.

 

[RK47]

..attach a half bitten apple sticker on it and watch ppl queue overnight mothafagas.

 

[Infinitron]

We need a Valve version of this.

 

[DalekFlay]

I'm about to upgrade my PC and am looking to spend around $1200. It does not escape me that I could own both next-gen consoles for that, plus some games and accessories.

PC gaming is cheaper if you don't mind being behind the curve by a few years. If you want to play new games on medium to high settings as a decent framerate it can be pretty expensive. That said, these pre-made PCs are for idiots.

 

[Infinitron]

My five year old PC with a three year old GPU plays new games at maximum settings with decent frame rates.

 

[DalekFlay]

My five year old PC with a three year old GPU plays new games at maximum settings with decent frame rates.

What CPU?

I think it's mainly my processor which is woefully out of date. It was a bargain processor when I got it 4 years ago. Sadly you have to upgrade everything when you change processors now-a-days. The settings that usually give me trouble in today's games seem to be things based on the processor mostly.

 

[Infinitron]

My five year old PC with a three year old GPU plays new games at maximum settings with decent frame rates.

What CPU?

I think it's mainly my processor which is woefully out of date. It was a bargain processor when I got it 4 years ago. Sadly you have to upgrade everything when you change processors now-a-days. The settings that usually give me trouble in today's games seem to be things based on the processor mostly.

It was a top of the line processor when it was new. Obviously bargain bin stuff ages faster.

 

[felipepepe]

It's a bad time to upgrade & buy PCs. A 3-4 years old processor can still run all games on ultra with a 1Gb graphic card and some RAM. Until the new generation arrives and we get to see what truly next-gen titles need, just stick with your current PC or do a minor upgrade.

 

[DalekFlay]

It's a bad time to upgrade & buy PCs. A 3-4 years old processor can still run all games on ultra with a 1Gb graphic card and some RAM. Until the new generation arrives and we get to see what truly next-gen titles need, just stick with your current PC or do a minor upgrade.

When the processor is what you need to change there's no such thing as a minor upgrade, sadly.

 

[Dexter]

I'm about to upgrade my PC and am looking to spend around $1200. It does not escape me that I could own both next-gen consoles for that, plus some games and accessories.

PC gaming is cheaper if you don't mind being behind the curve by a few years. If you want to play new games on medium to high settings as a decent framerate it can be pretty expensive. That said, these pre-made PCs are for idiots.

You can play almost any game on High or Highest settings with a ~$500-700 PC: http://www.logicalincrements.com/

The only exceptions I can think of would be Crysis 3 and ARMA 3. I would also go for a ~$1200 build though.

In regards to CPU, I still got my i7-950 Bloomfield from back in ~2009 or so and since then they've had several microarchitecture upgrades like Westmere/Sandy Bridge/Ivy Bridge/Haswell and have decreased the Die size manufacturing process from 45nm to 14nm with Broadwell nearly out, but I still see no need for upgrading since the performance increase has been rather miniscule the last several generations: http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/06/06/might-haswell-upgrade-your-cpu-not-for-your-desktop-rig/

 

[DalekFlay]

Well the point of me spending $1200 is to get something that will last a few years, rather than a stop-gap. I might replace the GPU eventually but everything else I want to last.

Sometimes I feel like getting a decent laptop for the classics and packing it all in though. Games like Dishonored, flawed as they may be, keep me upgrading. Not everything big budget is horrible... (yet).

 

[tuluse]

When the processor is what you need to change there's no such thing as a minor upgrade, sadly.

Motherboard, CPU, and ram should be all you need. Shouldn't be more than $600 if you get nice stuff (i5, 8 gigs of ram, nice mobo).

If you go AMD or i3, you could get that down to like $400, and still have a faster CPU than the Xbone or PS4.

 

[Wilian]

Half-Life 3 trademark filed in by Valve?

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=688589

 

[tuluse]

That seems wholly unnecessary as they should own the entire Half-Life brand.

 

[Dexter]

Even more hints from a bug tracker at Valve: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=688711

Apparently Half Life 3 has 46 developers working on it and Left4Dead 3 has 71. I'm guessing L4D3 will release first.

 

[Metro]

Goes without saying. People expect less out of Left4Derp3.

 

[Gragt]

Looks like the hype machine is already in action.

 

[Dexter]

Also what the fuck is this shit:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2697688/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2697668/

Production Co:
Bad Robot, Valve

http://www.imdb.com/company/co0044860?ref_=tt_dt_co

Bad Robot is the production company of J.J. "I am a huge giant ..." Abrams: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Robot_Productions

http://screenrant.com/jj-abrams-valve-half-life-portal-movies/

 

[Infinitron]

Dexter J.J. Abrams has been working with Valve for a while, actually. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/...e_what_it_takes_to_make_it_in_video_games.php

 

[Metro]

Portal could be a good comedy with the right actress. A Half Life movie would be awful.

 

[DalekFlay]

Yeah, Half Life doesn't even have a very unique story... alien invasion! Wow!

 

[Caim]

Portal could be a good comedy with the right actress.

I'm not even sure if they could pull off a Portal movie. That game's strength was discovering what the hell was going on by playing the game and encountering the Ratmann dens. I don't think this translates well to the big screen.

Yeah, Half Life doesn't even have a very unique story... alien invasion! Wow!

Yeah, Half-Life has its strength in the gameplay, not in the cinematics. And what would its genre be? Action/Survival Horror?

 

[Athelas]

Popularity is the deciding factor, not quality. They're also making a movie about WoW, after all.

 

[Morgoth]

A Half-Life movie is a paradox. Such an abomination must not be created lest open a portal with calamitous, unforseen consequences in our Space-Time-continuum.