 Two
of the most common questions get asked are "What
are the minimum specs to run the game" and "Why
Xbox? How is it different?" Oddly enough these two
questions have many similarities.
So what is the minimum spec? The correct answer is
that until we've fully tested the game across several
systems, and everything is optimized and in the game,
it's hard to say. It will be lower than you'd expect,
and we're adding things to let you run the game on older
cards. But you'll obviously have to scale the graphics
back. I'd hate to prematurely tell you a min spec that
is wrong.
What I can say is this…it runs great on Xbox.
And that's the Xbox answer. Why Xbox? Because we can
bring an RPG to a console unlike anyone has ever seen.
We can show those Final Fantasy fans the difference.
So it runs great, but how will it play? I've read many
discussions with console or PC fans smashing each other
with their view. "Console games stink!", "PC
Games stink!", "Consoles are only good for
platform action games!", etc. The fact is that
when doing a good console game vs. a good PC game there
are really only a few things you need to take into account,
provided what you are attempting lines up technically.
For what we are doing with Morrowind, Xbox is a great
technical fit. We were doing graphics for high-end PCs
at the end of 2001, and Xbox is slightly better than
that.
Many times a really good PC game makes a bad console
game because of a bad technical fit, whether it's speed
or memory. Overall the main things to take into account
when doing a console game are -- 1) the controller;
and 2) it's on a TV. Other than those two, the fact
that it is on a console has nothing to do with "good
game" or "bad game."
First, the TV part. This only prohibits you from putting
massive amounts of text on the screen, which you should
avoid anyway, regardless of the game or platform. This
obviously makes it hard to do things with lots of text
or small units. Mainly strategy games.
Second, the controller. Again, bad for most classic
strategy games, though I've seen some moves in the right
direction. Also, historically not a great 1st person
device when compared to a mouse. I don't think it ever
will be. But the new controllers are made with that
in mind, and the Xbox controller does a better job of
first person than most everything else (with the d-pad
and thumbstick across from each other).
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