Comments on: Valve’s Big Picture Could be a Game Changer

By: stuart

stuart — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 14:09:08 +0000

ya..this is neat but its not like a big change.. i’ve got an xbox controller for my computer and an hdmi cord and can play anything on my tv already..

the interface for that setup is a good idea though i guess and might change how other people think about it..

By: Cap

Cap — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 09:49:59 +0000

I think I have to agree with J Morales here – Big Picture does nothing to remedy the hardware problem, and as you, Paul, have pointed out yourself (I think it was in your Forbes column), there is no controller/console for BP yet, so users would still have to hook their PC to the TV, which…is the same thing I could have done years ago. So, unless Valve (which is by far my favorite gaming company) develops their own console or dips into the cloud gaming market, and lord knows, their servers seem to be big enough to handle that, BP will likely stay on the PC monitor.

By: Lex

Lex — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 02:39:04 +0000

I’ve had my PC hoked up to my TV for a loooong time, this is nothing new or revolutionary, it’s just a nice plus that lets me sit a little further back.

By: J. Morales

J. Morales — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 18:55:39 +0000

Draugr, dunno if I would put all PC gamers in that category. I like PC gaming but I don’t ever really bother with a lot of mods or other customization. Plus, it really is a question of how powerful your rig is. If, as many are predicting, consoles begin to decline, not everyone is going to buy an Alienware or build a top-notch PC rig. Cloud gaming could help keep PC gaming accessible for people who don’t have the time and/or money to have a supercomputer. Right now, most of these gamers probably stick to consoles but if consoles go away. . . . Well, it’s going to be an interesting next few years no matter what. I think that the video game landscape is going to undergo some major shifts and it’s hard to say what exactly will happen.

I do have to agree with you that this mode, while cool, isn’t a huge deal. Just using myself as an example, I already have my PC hooked up to my TV via HDMI cable. Big picture mode makes things look a little nicer but really doesn’t change any of the fundamentals, besides, I still play other things on my PC besides Steam games. So, if my PC was not already hooked up to my TV, big picture mode would not convince me to go and haul it downstairs.

By: Draugr

Draugr — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 18:17:33 +0000

Onlive doesn’t really hold an appeal to most PC gamers as it eliminates what PC gamers enjoy about PC gaming (customization, modding, etc.)

PLay skyrim all you want on Onlive, no matter how hard you try you’ll never be able to enjoy those mods people have made. Sure consoles suffer from the same limitations but if they are smart the ‘next gen’ of consoles won’t have that issue.

Honestly though, While this is cool/useful and everything, no one was waiting for something like this to hook their PC up to their TV, if they wanted to they have already done it.

Id say in terms of additions they should look into adding a ‘media’ section so video and music can be played from within big pic. mode.

By: Bad Acid

Bad Acid — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 16:03:31 +0000

So, forgive my ignorance, but how is this any advantage over using a simple DVI to HDMI converter and plugging a USB X360 controller into my PC? PC games have been playable on HDTVs for a long time. I remember seeing a display at CompUSA back in 2002 or so.

By: Tim W>

Tim W> — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 14:55:10 +0000

I was a Hero’s Quest (or King’s Quest) player, myself!

By: J. Morales

J. Morales — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 14:49:34 +0000

I don’t know if I’d write off cloud gaming just yet. The draw of cloud gaming is you don’t need a powerful rig. The server does all the heavy lifting. When I was stuck with my mediocre laptop, cloud gaming was great. I’ve upgraded my PC since then and so I’m not using OnLive as much anymore, however I don’t think cloud gaming will die just yet. Maybe I’m wrong but cloud gaming and Steam still have some pretty big differences between them.

Also, a minor correction. OnLive at least is not subscription based per se. They have two packages, one where you buy single games, the other where you subscribe and get a library of games to play. I’ve found that OnLive sales are comparable to Steam sales, they just have a smaller library, so that’s a problem.

Big Picture is pretty cool although I haven’t really explored it too much yet. I usually just boot up the game I want to play so I haven’t played around with the UI too much yet.

By: zligo

zligo — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 14:07:58 +0000

This is their best album, so I wouldn’t mind buying it 5 times…