Tom's Hardware Giveaway - Valkyria Chronicles

[Jsimenhoff]

General Info on How To Enter

Spoiler

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  ■ These giveaways now span 2 full weeks instead of 1. This means there's more time for you to enter!
  ■ There are now two ways to enter to win! Each person can only win once.
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    1. Enter the raffle via the gleam widget. All we ask for there is a name and a contact email. There will only ever be 1 copy of the game up for grabs with this method.
    
    2. Take part in the discussion in this thread! A discussion prompt will be provided each time. Just answer the prompt to be eligible to win! Eligible participants will be randomly selected to receive a copy of the game.

[widget="https://gleam.io/5x1zO/toms-hardware-steam-giveaway-valkyria-chronicles-", 400][/widget]

Hey everyone! We've got another great Steam giveaway for you!

This round, we're bringing you three (3) copies of Valkyria Chronicles! As always, one will be awarded via the raffle (found below) and two will be given away to participants in the discussion.

Valkyria Chronicles was recently remastered for those console gaming peasants on the PS4. We didn't want to leave you PC gamers in the dark! The PC version is just as good as the new console version, including all of the game's DLC and is also remastered in 1080p.

Here's your prompt for this giveaway:

What are your thoughts on the alignment between console gaming hardware and PC gaming hardware? All of the big three console makers (Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony) seem poised to release new console hardware on a much faster upgrade cycle. Does this bode well for PC gaming and the PC enthusiast market?

The contest will run until 12 p.m. EDT on Friday, June 10th. The game will be awarded to the winner as a Steam gift. A Steam account is required to receive the prize and play the game.

Good luck and happy gaming!

 

[docweird]

I think someone at M/S/N got a hint that some players are willing to drop 200-300 on a "hardware" upgrade every couple of years - so why not cash in.

I understand the logic and need for more power, now with VR coming, but in general the full potential of a gaming console hasn't been nearly realized at this point of it's life cycle. I mean, take a look at PS3/X360 games when they came out vs now. Same has always been the case; tools and programmers will get better over time and thus games will be more optimized.

With new, faster hardware released every 2-3 years, I fear the programmers will get lazy and optimize less (on the PC it's not so prevalent since people will use even older hardware to play your games).

So personally I'm not really for faster upgrade cycles on consoles. I'm still a "mixed player", though. Around 50/50 between PC and my consoles (PS4/3/X360/Vita).

 

[Bill Gerbode]

PC as a platform will always be more fluid, but consoles reach more consumers. This is only a good thing - get more games out to more people!

 

[jjim26]

Alignment is a good thing if it will mean better game with less bugs for any platforms.

console refresh will be good for pc because games designed for console will be able to use new tech as it comes out

 

[computers_are_freaky]

I think it could start to steer people away from consoles, because one of the main reasons people proclaim consoles to be better is that you don't need to upgrade as often, but with a faster refresh cycle, that isn't the case.
Also, as we've all seen with this latest batch of consoles, bugs aren't ase rare as they used to be, and with this added rush, it will hardly help the other major claim to console supremacy that is fewer bugs.

 

[glez13]

To me it seems like it could start to steer people away from consoles. Less bang for the money, basically gaming companies trying to milk every last penny every few years with new hardware, this could get out of hand and end up like the smartphone market. While this has basically already happened in the PC market where every year there is a new hardware offer this has been balanced by the open nature of the platform and the fact that even older hardware will still be able, within it's capabilities, to run future software.

 

[Laabsher]

The consoles do need a faster upgrade cycle for hardware, but I think it might hurt the PC. People will be buying the upgraded consoles instead of PCs or PC parts.

 

[jsgrant31]

What are your thoughts on the alignment between console gaming hardware and PC gaming hardware? All of the big three console makers (Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony) seem poised to release new console hardware on a much faster upgrade cycle. Does this bode well for PC gaming and the PC enthusiast market?

The contest will run until 12 p.m. EDT on Friday, June 10th. The game will be awarded to the winner as a Steam gift. A Steam account is required to receive the prize and play the game.

Good luck and happy gaming!

My first giveaway participation of the year! Hopefully I'll get as lucky as last year. Thanks again for offering these.

I'm definitely not an expert, but from what I've been exposed to it seems consoles and PC are starting to converge relative to before. The new consoles are running at x86, and newer engines (well at least Unreal 4 to my knowledge) are designed for easy development on consoles and PC.

Then you have the console makers ready to release new systems about two years after release relative to the last cycle which was seven years long if I recall. I think the big thing here is the technology jumps in the last couple of years have already dated the consoles. It makes me think of one theory that we're sitting on the cusp of a large exponential growth in computing power, akin to Moore's Law. This particular article talks about artificial intelligence; there's a section on the implication of computational power on AI development.

Spoiler

So the world’s $1,000 computers are now beating the mouse brain and they’re at about a thousandth of human level. This doesn’t sound like much until you remember that we were at about a trillionth of human level in 1985, a billionth in 1995, and a millionth in 2005. Being at a thousandth in 2015 puts us right on pace to get to an affordable computer by 2025 that rivals the power of the brain.

Source Note: I'm just picking out a snippet of this that talks about calculations per second. There's of course a lot of other things at play.

In addition to pure computational power, I'm guessing other advancements such as 4k and VR have spurred the big three to release newer hardware to keep up. I think the supposed Playstation 4.5 will be a good example of this.

I think all of these do bode well for the PC enthusiast market. We're getting compatible architectures and engines with newer hardware in the consoles, all of which is basically to keep up with advances in PC tech. I would hope this would make the side-by-side development of console/PC games much easier. From the consumer standpoint, it's also possible people would move from console to PC to avoid buying a new console every two years and just upgrade PC parts as it becomes necessary.

 

[razvanc]

The alignment is great. It means less work from developers which could translate into having a more polished game. Maybe less first day updates?
As for a faster refresh cycle. I'm not sure this is as good. This is going to translate into more work for developers for multi-platform support. Less spit and shine. Or, we'll probably get VR games that only work on the new consoles while all the other games will be held back (in terms of graphics) by the older consoles in order to keep the experience the same on all platforms (what's happening now with PS4 and XBOX One games).

 

[ZeroRequiem]

What are your thoughts on the alignment between console gaming hardware and PC gaming hardware? All

It certainly helps porting console games to PC. Just think back what happened in the previous generation. Consoles having similar HW to PC also speeds up development cycles which isn't bad either.

And about the new consoles: well there are really two options, shorter cycles with cheaper hardware OR a bit longer cycles with more expensive hardware (PS3 for example). I'm sure we'll find out more about these next-gen consoles pretty soon.
I'm always looking forward to the next cycle. It almost always means improved graphics, bigger worlds, more life in general in the games the only downside is the AI is still average at best.

 

[Alan Caldwell]

Natural evolution is for consoles to become x86 compatible hardware, in the course of time both Sony and Microsoft have already embraced this as we can see in the PS4 and Xbox one respectively, and Nintendo is set to do the same with the upcoming Nintendo NX. In the meanwhile technology is developing so fast that if they don’t, in every 3-4 years release a new console their games are going to look very dated compared to a moderately spec’ed gaming PC . So it is actually good thing for PCs. x86 hardware is cheaper too. It's a good thing for PC gaming as console gaming will always be years behind PCs due to design phase, time frame, and cost implications.

It also means that porting games from console to PC is a much simpler process and in theory means there should be less port related bugs. However it actually has a complication, console games have become noticeably more buggy due to the ease of mistakes you can make on x86 architecture and the fact x86 will try to work around issues/continue with errors where it can as long as the EXE is stable, If that makes any sense. And the fact that games often launch cheaper and drop in price faster with more prominent sales for PCs. So PC gaming will not be affected so it’s a win-win situation. PC’s are easier to upgrade and cheaper too, so PCs have longer life than consoles.

The alignment between console gaming hardware and PC gaming hardware is a good thing IMO. It bodes well for PC gaming and the PC enthusiast market as many console gamers will look forward to PC gaming as it's cheaper and better in the long run.

 

[Jsimenhoff]

Congratulations to our randomly selected winners ultraglorious and computers_are_freaky! Expect a PM from me later today.

Our third winner (picked through our online raffle) will be contacted via e-mail. If you didn't win this time time, good luck in the next Steam giveaway, starting on Monday!

 

[Questcraft]

Congratulations ultraglorius, computers_are_freaky, and 'Gleam winner'.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

...good luck in the next Steam giveaway, starting on Monday!

which Monday? i haven't seen any new Giveaway started since this one ended.