Sacred 2 - GDC Preview @ GameSpot

Dhruin

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GameSpot has a good preview of Sacred 2 from GDC. Here's a clip on a nice feature but head over to read about differences between the Xbox 360 and PC version that might disappoint some readers:
There's are a lot of promising features in the game. Randomly generated NPC behavior is one example, so if you play the game multiple times, you won't get the exact same reactions from the characters twice. Also, each class has its own exotic animal mount, ranging from a tiger to a flying dragon. There will be multiplayer support with cooperative play throughout the campaign, as well as player-versus-player gameplay. Then there's a dynamic weather system, along with time-of-day effects, and more.
More information.
 
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I honestly don't know much about the microprocessor structure and pipelining, but some of the stuff mentioned just doesn't make sense ... why is it that other games don't manage all of that?
 
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Randomly generated anything doesn't excite me at all. It always translates into "shallow and repetitive".

One thing I keep wondering is why multi-core processors on the PC are still so damn expensive and not widespread. It's incredibly frustrating to pay $400 for a new high end processor that can't handle what a console that costs $400 does. The X2 4800 processor that I recently bought is probably the biggest waste of money of my gaming life. If it's so cheap to mass produce a superb tri-core processor in the X-Box 360 then why doesn't Intel just mass produce that same processor for the PC and retail it for $250? They would put AMD out of business overnight and, apparently, they would still make a huge profit off of it. That is, unless, they are losing money putting it into the X-Box 360 and they need the money from PC hardware sales to subsidize it. But that wouldn't be a very good business decision. Nvidia found this out with the original X-Box (they supposedly lost money on that deal).

In another thread, we talked about the effect that Microsoft's business practices have had upon PC gaming. Maybe we also should have mentioned the major hardware manufacturers like ATI, Nvidia, and Intel. If these companies give high end hardware to Microsoft and Sony without making a profit and then rely on PC gamers to fund all of their R&D with $600 price tags for video cards, then they are truly fucking over the geese that lays the golden eggs, and they'll pay for it eventually. when that core business starts to die.
 
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Randomly generated anything doesn't excite me at all. It always translates into "shallow and repetitive".

True, but even that comes in grades ... some games *aim* for that shallow & repetitive experience, but make it better through interesting and/or challenging encounters. Then there are the rest ... I remember a couple of the early PSP games - Untold Legends (Action-RPG) and Coded Arms (shooter) - each had loads of 'random areas', and they were all really terrible. Enough to stand out amongst other terrible randomly generated games.
 
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One thing I keep wondering is why multi-core processors on the PC are still so damn expensive...

They aren't really. I upgraded in January from an AMD XP 3200+ on an nForce2 board to a Core 2 Duo E6300 for a little over EUR 200.00 total. The board (Core 2 Duo board that supports AGP and PC-3200 RAM with an Intel i865 chipset) was ~EUR 40, the E6300 was ~EUR 150 and the cooler for the CPU was ~EUR 15.
Besides, the CPU isn't really that important. A fast single core CPU will still run any game at acceptable frame rates.

If it's so cheap to mass produce a superb tri-core processor in the X-Box 360 then why doesn't Intel just mass produce that same processor for the PC and retail it for $250?

The reason might be that the Xbox 360 CPU is not produced by Intel but by IBM and IBM would probably get a little pissy with Intel if they just copied it :) .

They would put AMD out of business overnight and, apparently, they would still make a huge profit off of it.

No, they wouldn't because you can't compare a highly specialized CPU with a "regular" PC CPU. There's a good chance that the IBM CPU of the Xbox 360 would suck for anything other than gaming if you'd plug it into a regular PC. There's a reason that IBM is only a technology partner of AMD and not a competitor of Intel or AMD in the PC sector. They do not have a competitive product for that market. They have specialized in... umm.. yeah specialized special purpose CPUs :) for mobile devices, servers, supercomputers, graphics workstations, and -yes- gaming consoles (PS3 + Xbox 360 + Wii ... IBM has a "monopoly" on consoles).
 
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