Forget Steam, hello Windows 8

[Dan]

Farsight, please read this article...why not learning from these guys?
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/06/12/no-7-samurai-skulls-of-the-shogun-goes-win-8-only/#more-111559

 

[Freelance]

It's going to be a long time before I even get Win 8 so if this trend continues, I wouldn't be able to play any games at all. I'm still on Vista and probably so is a lot of other people. I'm glad Farsight didn't go ahead with this route. TPA supports even XP, so I've got to hand it to them.

 

[jkonami]

I'm hoping for a steam release. Can't be soon enough though, it was the one platform I was planning to buy. I'm personally avoiding Windows 8 - there's of course the "every other release of windows is garbage" rule, so that might be the case, plus, I'm really content with 7 and have no plans to upgrade for a while.

I think the DLC tables will work pretty well on Steam too, once it's available - they have a pretty good DLC content system in place, plus no certification problems on the PC platform. That's the reason I haven't bought the 360 or PS3 version yet - there's 6 DLC tables out and none are available yet.

 

[Draftcard]

https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Steamworks#Auto-updating

"Auto-updating
Be confident that all of your customers are running the most current version of your game. Update and expand your game as you see fit. Your community stays current, and your support burden will be significantly reduced. With no certification process, you're in control. Update as much as you want, with as much as you want—there is no charge for bandwidth."

 

[Dan]

All our dreams and hopes and emails to Gabe Newell won't change the fact that unless something miraculous happens, Steam won't touch TPA.

 

[Jeff Strong]

All our dreams and hopes and emails to Gabe Newell won't change the fact that unless something miraculous happens, Steam won't touch TPA.

.....which is still insane, IMO.

 

[Heretic]

Umm why wont they? Its got more appeal than half the crap its got, i havent got this fanboy over a game in years, id live with steam for the best possible tpa.....hopefully without too much upgrade pain

Id imagine itd be a great thing for steam.....too much fps bull**** and no depth puzzlers i say.....what about goodoldgames while tpa is new they are very popular and much more sane than ive ever seen steam...

But then im an old opensource hippy

Edit - far as im concerned steam should thank farsight....cod25 : beating a dead donkey...pffft

Id love to understand some of that reasoning tho

 

[SilverBalls]

As much as I would love to get TPA on my 3-screen VP Virtual Pincab, I wouldn't be prepared to install Steam on it if that is the only way. The VP cabinets take a lot of tweaking to play the VP tables smoothly - ie: Streamlined WinXP install with only 7 or so services running, no Virus checker, no Firewall, no Internet, etc.

The only thing I can think of that is worse than installing Steam on a Pincab, is installing a Norton product.

Please Farsight - don't use Steam!

 

[Rooter]

They should just set up a Paypal account and charge for downloads from their own website. Screw the middle man and all this waiting!

 

[CptWasp]

I'm a Steam fan (and I'm a software architect, so I can say I'm totally aware of what Steam means), so I hope that a Steam version will be available. A problem with Steam can happen, but it's just SO practical, and with achievements, autopatching, support for DLCs and a lot of promotions it's a winner. Only my 2 cents

 

[SilverBalls]

I have been a software developer myself for 25 years and nowadays make a good living specialising in performance tuning and re-factoring over-bloated over-complicated client code and database code that people seem to love writing these days. I would imagine that FS optimise their code as much possible to achieve the smooth gameplay that can so far be experienced on iOs devices. Android devices don't seem to play as well and that is probably due to the crap people like to install like active wallpapers, etc. on their devices. PCs I suspect will have the same problems and it will be necessary for people to keep their PCs as streamlined as much as possible. I did have Steam installed on my 3-screen pinball cabinet at one point so I could get Slamit pinball, and it screwed things up, so much so I ended up re-installing XP, etc.

From my experience anything programmed by 100s of different developers in faraway locations should be avoided like the plague.

 

[Sir Cheddar]

Anything but Windows 8 would be fine by me. We don't know yet how Microsoft handles non-Metro apps in Windows Store - Microsoft Office is the only one in the store I'm aware off right now. I suspect they will prioritize Metro apps.
And if Farsight ports TPA to Metro - As far as I know Metro apps are very limited if it comes to handling multiple screens at the moment.
Also I don't see a way to start a Metro app from a non-Metro application, so Hyperpin is out.
You can't even overlay a Metro app with a classic application, if Metro stalls you still can use ctl-shft-esc to open the task manager, but it will appear behind the Metro start menu. You don't see it, you don't have access to it. The FPLaunch-Mod over here uses this technique, so that's out too.

What's worse, while I can sign up to any other packager free of charge Windows Store forces me to shell out about €70 ($87) for a Windows 8 license. Farsight won't see a single cent of that sum.

 

[Rooter]

I have been a software developer myself for 25 years and nowadays make a good living specialising in performance tuning and re-factoring over-bloated over-complicated client code and database code that people seem to love writing these days. I would imagine that FS optimise their code as much possible to achieve the smooth gameplay that can so far be experienced on iOs devices. Android devices don't seem to play as well and that is probably due to the crap people like to install like active wallpapers, etc. on their devices. PCs I suspect will have the same problems and it will be necessary for people to keep their PCs as streamlined as much as possible. I did have Steam installed on my 3-screen pinball cabinet at one point so I could get Slamit pinball, and it screwed things up, so much so I ended up re-installing XP, etc.

From my experience anything programmed by 100s of different developers in faraway locations should be avoided like the plague.

The PC version with be comparable to the Xbox 360 version, not the Android versions, especially since they are probably both going to be done in XNA. It is also been stated that the game is written for the 360 and then ported to the other platforms. Any PC with a decent video card should crush any Android hardware, streamlined or not.

 

[SilverBalls]

Any PC with a decent video card should crush any Android hardware, streamlined or not.

Agreed for any reasonably maintained PC, but for PCs with loads of bloatware installed running in the background, etc., there will be occasional (even though infrequent) lags - in most games you don't notice tiny 'stutters' it but in pinball your eye is on that ball the whole time and it will stand out like a sore thumb, and totally ruins the simulation.

Interesting what you said about them coding for the xBox and then porting over to the other platforms. Hopefully they will be the push the PC further when it comes to lighting, etc.