You’ve always needed a more powerful graphics card to run the same level of detail on a PC compared to a console. The games will look EXACTLY the same as they did at E3, because they are the exact same games as were running at e3, just optimised so that they look and run the same on less power hungry hardware.
The advantage of developing game engines for a console is that you know exactly what hardware you are targeting, and every user has exactly the same hardware, so you can optimise the hell out of it to achieve much more with much less (hardware power).
And I hope you aren’t under the illusion that the PS4 games were running on actual PS4 hardware and software. If either sony or Microsoft could run games smoothly and without crashes on finalised hardware then the console would be released next week. As it stands neither console will be released til late this year, thus neither console was running the games you saw at E3.
Wow, that multitasking with the email and images that was shown is just way ahead of any other tablet OS. Really looking forward to getting this on my surface RT.
As for the ‘mouse and keyboard experience’ it seems there has been a little progress, I now no longer have a problem with the start screen with 8.1, as you can set it to default to an ‘all apps’ list rather than the tiles. However bouncing back and forward between the two interfaces is still too jarring with a mouse and keyboard. I can cope with it but efficiency wise it is not ideal.
We should be able to run metro apps on the desktop. Windows has always been about flexibility, and we should be able to choose between 2 modes (touch and mouse/kb) when we first set up our new pc. Mouse/kb mode should allow the user to stay completely on the desktop, whilst still using metro apps from the store in windowed mode (just like modernmix does). The start screen could be the only shared element between tablet and mouse/kb mode.
There is no point in forcing the exact same UI on both touch and desktop setups. Metro was clearly designed for touch, just as desktop was designed for a mouse. While you can use the desktop solely with touch, or the metro interface with a mouse, it is still very clunky. Microsoft would be better allowing metro apps to run on the desktop just like regular applications. That way desktop users can use the same mail/music/videos apps without having to jump back and forward between UIs. This would make learning windows 8 far easier for the less computer savvy folks, and make it a much nicer experience for those of us who prefer the efficiency of the desktop. It would also allow users who like it how it is at the moment to continue using it that way. Flexibility. That’s the way to win over more users.
Why would you power this display off a laptop? You can’t move the display so you may as well have a cheaper, more powerful computer that you also cannot move. In the modern days of cloud syncing the disadvantages of having 2 devices vs one are essentially moot, windows 8 can keep all your files and settings synced. And the cost of a second device is not an issue for someone blowing $4k on 4k.
