Windows Live = PC vs 360 ... Coming May 8th

[SteelValor]

Merging the worlds of PC gaming and Xbox Live gaming M$ will be closing the gap between the two on May 8th. That's right starting with Shadowrun you will be able to play PC vs Xbox 360! This is a very exciting development. Gold Members of Xbox Live will automatically have access to Games for Windows Live Gold features without extra charge. Xbox Live Silver members will have access to the PC service's free Silver features.

Microsoft's complete list of features is below...

Silver Membership Features

· Single gamertag

· Common gamer profile

· Common gamerscore

· Single player achievements

· Private chat via text and voice

· Common friends list and online presence

· PC only multiplayer including browsing a list of active PC games

Gold Membership Features

· All Silver membership features

· Multiplayer matchmaking with friends

· TrueSkill™ matchmaking

· Multiplayer achievements

· Cross-platform gameplay

[Jarek]

makes you wonder if TF2 will go there, considering it is going to be console as well as PC from what i understand

[C-Aim]

Will there be an option for 360 players to keep it console? I mean, getting smoked by advanced mouse/kb/script users when you are relegated to the controller in FPS games doesn't sound like much fun.

[SteelValor]

My thoughts exactly. I'm fairly sure that will be the case that or the PC netcode will be nerfed to make up for controller reaction time.

[CHIPMAN]

Great news for gamers, in my opinion

And I'm sure they'll find a way to balance things, or maybe they'll just push a keyboard/mouse combo for the 360? who knows

[SUPITSREV]

im disappointed, xbl is gonna get even more laggy and buggy than it is now for the games i like to play

[Dion]

Now PC users can destroy Halo2 players and maybe it will convince Microsoft to add K/M support for the 360.

[Redneck]

I thought there was a KB/Mouse support for the 360 already. If it works like the Lik-Sang I use for Halo2 on my normal xbox, then the gap will not be nearly as immense as it would using controller vs. KB/Mouse.

[bad]

Now PC users can destroy Halo2 players and maybe it will convince Microsoft to add K/M support for the 360.

MY THOUGHTS

[rabidkevin]

I think a lot of you underestimate what people can do with controllers now.. I admit mouse is a little faster but I've seen some people work FPS games on the 360 that even I could not emulate

It will be interesting to see where this all goes

I think it would be neat if there was a trackball type device added to special 360 controller for quick precise aiming

[Janus]

Now PC users can destroy Halo2 players and maybe it will convince Microsoft to add K/M support for the 360.
Halo2 will not be supported.

[Dion]

Halo2 will not be supported.

ah :(

[typeA]

does this mean we can start hosting dedicated servers for 360 games?

[ffej-OD]

I think a lot of you underestimate what people can do with controllers now.. I admit mouse is a little faster but I've seen some people work FPS games on the 360 that even I could not emulate



I dunno.. many major gaming magazines have done K/M vs controller specials. I think PCgamer did the most recent (within last year) They had the top xbox halo team in the country play vs the editors. The editors used M/K, the xbox "pros" used standard controllers. Editors won by a fair margin. I believe they played controller vs controller later and the editors got completely raped.

[Kegman]

this will end the argument of pc vs console. we will have 10 to their 1 kill ratios

[rabidkevin]

I dunno.. many major gaming magazines have done K/M vs controller specials. I think PCgamer did the most recent (within last year) They had the top xbox halo team in the country play vs the editors. The editors used M/K, the xbox "pros" used standard controllers. Editors won by a fair margin. I believe they played controller vs controller later and the editors got completely raped.

ahh never knew someone did some testing, very interesting

[C-Aim]

How is this even a question in anybody's mind. Think about every time you get a flick shot kill in any game, then imagine trying to do that with a controller. You can't. You also can't snap back to look behind you and then snap forward with a controller.

And even if they release a KB/Mouse combo, for games that require precision aiming a superior kb/mouse combo on the PC will give a slight edge at least. Since I only play FPS on PC it doesn't make a difference to me personally, but if I was a console FPS player I would be pissed off if there was no option to find console-only servers.

[rabidkevin]

Maybe one day this (http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;361485560;fp;16;fpid;1) makes it to console/pc gaming soon and controllers will be a thing of the past..

[C-Aim]

Great, then the advantage goes to the smart people!

[SteelValor]

I just had a thought ... I bet M$ limits the mouse speed. That would even the playing field more.

[Malice]

limit mouse speeds? kinda dumb lol and it couldnt limit it since u can change speed within windows outside of the game and all mice are different, wouldnt work. about time they are doing this. good news for multiplayer games, makes it a ton bigger.

[C-Aim]

IMO if they limited the mouse speed then the game would suck.