This and the rest of your post is why when people suggest that there are "good" strategy games on consoles I, depending on my mood, scoff, roll my eyes or cringe.  Sometimes all three.  Sure, I played some of the early console strategy RPGs on the PSOne and then some on the PS2 and I still pick some up some for handhelds.  None of them match most of what I have played on a PC.  My favorite console strategy title....X-Com...a PC title.  There is nothing like a well made strategy title that actually involves meaningful strategic and tactical choices  rather than just a ton of features.  Plus, the subject matter, characters and graphics are infinitely more mature.  And a real storyline that does not include a brooding teen and a kidnapped, fully busted girl in distress.

Part of the shift you mention, I realize, is the younger target audience, installation base and ease of use that consoles offer.  There are a few exceptions, but PC gaming will always be my main platform of choice. That is unless Stardock figures how shoehorn the company's creamy goodness into a console title.  Of course, that would also mean me buying a current generation console, which my cheap-a__ will not allow.

I fear you won't be able to patch Elemental since it will require Impulse to install patches and you can't install Impulse on an always off line computer.

It would seem prudent for the DEV to make said patches available for download in a .exe format as well.

I believe that Impulse delivers a zipped/compressed version, that is then verified for integrity, then decompressed and installed. At least from watching it happen, and checking the HDD, that seems to be the case.

Perhaps he should get satellite internet.

I heard Satellites were quite expensive.

They Won't do that. I think it's set in stone somewhere that they don't....thanks a lot Impulse. Half way through the Gal Civ 2 they stopped those patches and made it so you had to go through them to get the patches. Kinda sucked when that happened because I always got my patches through FilePlanet and then suddenly that couldn't get them anymore and I had No Choice but to go through Stardock. Seeing as how it's Their Game though, they can do what they want with the patch devilry system and we have to "suck it" or deal with the consequences.

I lost a little love for SD that day, but I got over it and they've more then made up for it (to me at least) since then.

Well then I feel for those without permanent connections at home, or those who cannot offered to buy their own Satellite.

The need for Impulse to get patches might not be the best thing ever (mostly for people with offline computers) but it's a niceprice to pay for no DRM in disk.. as update through Impulse for account verification can be considered one. But if Steam fanboys can claim that Steamworks DRM is nothing because you have "offline" mode, then I can say that you need internet of any kind for updates so using only Impulse shouldn't be a problem. The real problem is that there is no standalone patches.

http://anywhere.impulsedriven.com/

With that option you can get your game and install it in an offline computer. Problem? You have to download it all. Which can be a problem, specially for those who has limited connections (by whichever reason). But at least, it's a whole universe better than Steamworks (imho, no need to agree with me) and a few universes better than Ubisoft's silliness (if you don't agree with me, you work for them... probably).

The impulse thing with the patches is simply so that pirates can't warez it and get all the freebie extras without paying anything to start with.  Impulse anywhere should help with offline issues, but in general people who play without internet connections don't usually get any patches to games anyway.

   That last line also summarizes all the movies coming out of Hollywood these days.  God help us all. 

Good post!

My issue with consoles presently is the 512MB limit they have.  

I can't remember the last game I made with 512MB (maybe in the 90s?).  Even Galactic Civilizations I (not II, but I) used up around 700 meg of memory (even if it were somewhat virtual).

Elemental, by contrast, I think needs around 128MB of video memory plus around 800MB of memory (real and virtual) and that's a minimum.  Now, on a PC, that's trivial.  But on a console, we'd be cutting things out.

That's not to say one couldn't make an Elemental Revolution or something for the console but it would be a different game.

I remember reading that the non beta Elemental would be able to be played offline if one wanted, if this is till the case then one would only need internet connection for the patches and updates and the installation of impulse. But once patched the game would be able to be played offline right? or will one have to play online all the time to have the patches and updates take effect?

You only need to be online IF you want to install a patch, and all patch installations are manual (you look for updates).

For whichever version(s) you happen to have, no internet connection is needed.

Kinda like how Civ IV was if you think about it. The only difference is that if you want to get patches, they are only found on Impulse.

Off topic a bit:

As much as I agree with Frogboy about the hardware, I can't help but wonder what the game could be with a community like XBL.  The Xbox hardware is inferior but having 10+ million people fire up a single breathing community on a daily basis is just amazing.  The fragmentation of the PC userbase has always been and will continue to be an issue.