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Dear Xbox Live and Shadowrun,

Let me first open by saying I think it's neat that gamers from both Vista and Xbox360 worlds can play with each other online. Cross-platform anything is cool. However, "neat" isn't always something you push to production without considering the drawbacks.

My complaint is regarding this feature and the first person shooter (FPS) genre. This complaint is about the effect that this feature has on gaming. Allow me to clear that I'm not upset that I suck at Shadowrun and die a lot. Heck, it's fun to play even when I die constantly. Except against users who are clearly average or better gamers on Vista.

As anyone who grew up playing FPSs on the computer, my first distaste for the console FPS was the aiming system. The mouse allows you to more quickly and accurately input directional data to the game than does an analog thumbstick. A mouse lets you turn around instantly and accurately with the trained flick of a wrist. Thumbsticks are a far cry from this. Everyone knows this.

So why, then, do we bridge the gaming worlds of PCs and Consoles? Why, when the aiming device (mouse, trackball, whatever) has several distinct advantages over the thumbstick? Who knows.

All I know is, I'm tired of teleporting 3 times across someone's view and his shots follow me exactly, assumedly because he's using a mouse. Maybe he's really good, and I know I'm really bad, but my gut tells me that most of the time these players are on PCs.

For other games, sure, let's join the worlds, where the tools on both sides don't grant significant advantage.

All I want is a checkbox that says: "Only play with gamers on my platform."

If I played on a PC, I'd ask for this same feature, because it would be an absolute slaughter: me against console players.

Pretty please? A checkbox isn't so hard, is it?

Love,
Me, an Xbox Live and Shadowrun fan.


3 responses to 'Dear Xbox Live and Shadowrun,'

Showing last 3 comments... (Click here to view all comments)

null wrote at Thu Sep 6 12:04:44 2007...
PC vs 360 is balanced in Shadowrun due to the blooming target reticle. I know; I play on both platforms.

Jordan Sissel wrote at Thu Sep 6 12:12:25 2007...
Is it? It blooms on the xbox 360 version too, which is often why I miss. Are you saying it blooms in the 360 version but not the PC version? That seems like more imbalanced because you miss more often with that.

null wrote at Sat Sep 8 15:03:18 2007...
It blooms on both platforms.

Check out some of better player vids on MLG and you'll see controller players with absolutely sick sniper skills. (registration required on MLG... here's a good one that doesn't: http://useruploads.mythica.org/view/ShadowrunFuryBig.wmv.html)


You can tell he's on 360 from the HUD layout. So odds are the guys who seem to be making impossible shots on you are just that good w/a controller since 360 players seem to outnumber Vista players better than 10 to 1 (just guessing).


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