# What common traits do console AAA games tend to have? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [October 31, 2015, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-common-traits-do-console-aaa-games-tend-to-have/736245 "2015-10-31T07:15:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2015, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-common-traits-do-console-aaa-games-tend-to-have/736245/41 "2015-11-06T17:08:25Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > I’ve largely only done PC gaming. I haven’t owned a console since the original Playstation. > > Your inability to use a keyboard without moving your hand and misplaced snark aside, 104+ keys is certainly a hell of a lot more options than your console controller offers meaning that, once again, you have a lot more options for single-press keybinds than going through radial or drop down menus. > > Of course, I used to raid as a bard in Everquest but your World of Warcraft experience is cute as well 😉 Everquest had far fewer abilities than WoW, and IIRC in the earliest incarnation you didn’t even have the option of custom keybinds. The spells on your (single) hotbar were activated by number. It’s been a looong time so I could be wrong on that, but yeah, I played EQ too. 😛 But hands down, the gameplay in EQ was far more simplistic overall. On WoW I had 6-8 hotbars of 12 at any given time full of spells/abilities/items and most of them were keybound. So nice try on the retro one-uppage. You’re really not getting it, but I assure you SHIFT+CTRL+3 is tons more convenient a keybind than anything on the right half of the keyboard when your hand is glued to WASD constantly. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2015, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-common-traits-do-console-aaa-games-tend-to-have/736245/42 "2015-11-06T17:28:53Z")
> [@Rigamarole](#): > > Everquest had far fewer abilities than WoW You didn’t play a raiding bard, did you? > [@](#): > > It’s been a looong time so I could be wrong on that You’re wrong on that. You had 10 sets of hot keys. Granted YOU might have never used them but a whole lot of other players did (still do, really – now more than ever with so many inventory clickables and AAXP abilities). > [@](#): > > So nice try on the retro one-uppage. Not so much uppage but I’ve played both games as well which is why I found your little lecture so amusing. > [@](#): > > You’re really not getting it, but I assure you SHIFT+CTRL+3 is tons more convenient a keybind than anything on the right half of the keyboard when your hand is glued to WASD constantly. Ok, so you found a means that works for you and that’s great. Would you agree that you couldn’t do the same thing on a controller? Because that was kind of the original point. I mean, you COULD have bound SHIFT+CTRL+3 to some other single press key if you so desired. You couldn’t, however, have bound it to Left Bumper+Start+Y Button (nor would you want to). ---
**Author:** ![FasterThanMeerkats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/278dde/32.png) [@FasterThanMeerkats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FasterThanMeerkats)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2015, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-common-traits-do-console-aaa-games-tend-to-have/736245/43 "2015-11-06T19:43:54Z")
> [@Kinthalis](#): > > Wait what? > You think these things are harder to do with a mouse and keyboard interface? No… no. Depends on the game and how it was set up. I agree with you that radials absolutely suck with controllers and should go away, buttons that cycle between menus/tabs are much better. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2015, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-common-traits-do-console-aaa-games-tend-to-have/736245/44 "2015-11-06T21:35:01Z")
> [@Kinthalis](#): > > Holy cow, Nvidia did good with the GTX 970. It’s the most popular GPU after Intel’s HD 4000! “4GB of VRAM for 330USD!? It’s too good to be true!” Seriously though, Steam active accounts are near 150 millions? Strange that Steam doesn’t seem to have stats for the 980 Ti and the Titans, unless my Ctrl+F search missed them. What are the hardware and software differences between this generation’s consoles and good gaming PCs? How does that affect that PCs can or might be able to do? What’s the potential of PCs that lies largely untapped because many games are made for console first and merely badly ported to PC? It ought to be more than higher resolution, higher framerate and bigger textures. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-common-traits-do-console-aaa-games-tend-to-have/736245/45 "2015-11-09T14:44:51Z")
> [@bump](#): > > PCs generally look better and can run faster, but the other thing that consoles (at least the Xboxes) do very well is have all the chat and party utilities integrated and working. No using Ventrilo or Skype to talk, or using your phones to text each other which game you’re in, etc… Xbox Live is pretty handy for all that. It takes a little bit of setup, but mumble is just flat out better than the console voice chat tools. > [@](#): > > For some games, the controller is better, and for others, the mouse/keyboard is better. Really depends on the individual game, IMO. You know you can use any kind of controls you want on PC, right? If a game is better with a gamepad, then play it with a gamepad. With your console gamepad, for that matter. > [@muldoonthief](#): > > But the _games_ on PC change over that time period. If I buy an Xbox One today, every game that comes out for it in the future will run on it - for say the next 8 years until they retire it. If I buy a high end PC and graphics card today, will the PC games coming out 8 years from now run on it? Or does my choice become to buy nothing but older games, or upgrade? Honest question. Unfortunately, gaming stagnants during console generations because most games are multiplatform, and while some developers will spend the extra effort making the PC version more technologically advanced, mostly we get the same games. PC still has a better experience due to post-processing, frame rate, resolution, configurability, mods, etc, of course. But if the games are forced to stagnate at a certain technological level, then PC hardware also becomes obsolete at a much slower pace. Some people see this as an advantage, which to me is pretty ridiculous. We wouldn’t be better off if console generations lasted 15 years and we were just now getting into PS1 territory, would we? Game requirements do tend to go up over time - I’m not sure if it’s because they try to cram new techniques into consoles as the generation becomes well known, or if they just become lazier with optimizing the ports because most gaming PCs have 10 times the power of consoles - so you could see your system gradually becoming outdated, but it happens about 1/5th or 1/10th as fast as it used to. A console-beating PC will probably stay console-beating throughout the lifetime of the console playing the same games, although they might add new techniques to PC versions over time as that technology becomes more common, so you may have to downgrade to console-like settings. > [@magnusblitz](#): > > One thing I always thought consoles had going for them over PCs was same-screen multiplayer. With PCs, everyone has to have their own machine; not so with consoles. Unfortunately, consoles have been largely starting to move away from this in certain genres - for example, Halo 5 no longer has the split-screen multiplayer that made that game so popular in the first place. Real shame. It’s unfortunate too because lots of people have PCs set up in a way that allows same-screen multiplayer. A lot of games that feature split-screen play on consoles just artificially disable it on PC. Not all do. Rocket league, as an example, allows 2-3-4 player split screen on the same PC. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-common-traits-do-console-aaa-games-tend-to-have/736245/46 "2015-11-09T15:51:41Z")
If there’s a benefit to the “Steam Box”, maybe it will help promote the PC as a platform for local co-op gaming. I don’t really try to argue for PC gaming based on machine cost. Consoles are mass produced to a single spec and backed by companies willing to sell at thin margins or even a loss to get their machine out there. You CAN save a lot in PC gaming on the games themselves – the halcyon days of a few years ago where everything hit 75% off in a few months are largely over but PC games do still tend to discount quickly and the vast digital catalog means that there are a lot of older titles available cheap whereas stores stop stocking physical media. But the primary benefits for me are a more powerful machine, a large catalog of available games (cost aside), wider access to game genres (strategy, simulation, etc) and the fact that I’m going to own a PC anyway so why not make it a multi-use piece of equipment. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-common-traits-do-console-aaa-games-tend-to-have/736245/47 "2015-11-09T16:10:09Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > It takes a little bit of setup, but mumble is just flat out better than the console voice chat tools. I had (R.I.P.) a set of Pulse Elite headphones and those things made Playstation voice chat an absolute dream, since the hardware integrated seamlessly into the PSN’s chat software. Voice chat on console or PC is heavily dependent on the hardware being used by everyone in the call. If the people you’re playing with have a crappy mic/headset setup, you’re going to have a crappy experience regardless of what you’re playing. If everyone has good gear, you’re going to have a good experience across platforms. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2015, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-common-traits-do-console-aaa-games-tend-to-have/736245/48 "2015-11-15T16:11:03Z")
Another thing I wondered about as relates to AAA games: It seems that there hundreds of thousands of labor hours are spent making static assets like walls/ceiling/floors, furniture, non-movable props. Yet, few elements are animated or can be interacted with. The gameplay mechanics are often basic. I don’t know how much tends to be spent on mechanics, interaction and animation. Arguably, gameplay mechanics through animated interactions are the core of the video game medium so resources would be directly primarily towards those 3 elements rather than what amounts to very fancy wallpaper. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-common-traits-do-console-aaa-games-tend-to-have/736245.md?page=2)