Tei

A 51 screen vs a 20 inch screen.

Granted, I could drag my PC out into the living room, hook it up to the 51" screen, and game there if I wanted. But then I would still need a table to rest my keyboard & mouse on. The logistics just didn't work out for me.

lordargent

RogerWilco

cybereality

That and a PS3 with a nice build of Yellow Dog is a pretty sweet mix.

Replica23

That was when playstation came out. Just before that we were blowing in cartridges hoping our favorite games would ever run again.

I can't remember the last time I bought a game that didn't work on my PC right out of the box.

Low framerates? can you tell most console games are locked at 30fps?

liquidnumb

liquidnumb

Now the casual PC gamer, sure. I can see people that hate RTS games, Space-Sims, mouse and keyboard controls, etc to easily give up the PC to switch over to an option that requires less knowledge and more patience to deal with.

But a PC gamer that's been with the platform for 10 years or more isn't going be switching over. Certainly not a majority of them, at any rate.

Atheist Jew

bobtheduck

It's an interesting point, though. PC gaming isn't dying; it's just migrating into the living room in a mass-market friendly Trojan horse. I swear to God, though--the day I have to upgrade the graphics card on my console, HEADS ARE GOING TO ROLL.

Huh. I guess gaming has made me more violent.

JustThisGuy

muu

Id is on a good track, making an engine that can be ported easily among platforms, but I would need to see the differences between each version before I decide to buy the PC version.

boopadoo

The_nub_next_door

The_nub_next_door

Simple, consoles are becoming pc's, soon you'll need to install your games fully (at least microsoft will need to unless they shamefully use blueray.), downloads are already something they have taken onboard ,anyone expect consoles to come with changeable graphics cards next? That would be nice for the wii no? Kind of reminds me of the N64.

JamieA

LordPotato

Consoles are so much easier, but that's not why I'm a console player instead of a PC player. I'm a console player because the PC market narrowed once Age of Empires came out. The PC used to be a smorgasboard of experimental games and a million genres. That was when I loved PC gaming. Once some big hitter PC games came out (you know, the kind that forced people to upgrade, and being a teen without a job and parents who didn't shell out money for things they didn't see the benefit for, I didn't get to upgrade whenever I needed to) those other crazy genres started to disappear. Even the games I used to love became unplayable as windows progressed... XP removed DOS, and all the various games I enjoyed stopped getting made. Well, I stopped playing PC games before XP, but I'm just showing how things have continued to change.

As for why I hate Microsoft, it's because they tried to court PC devs. Not the PC devs of 95... The PC devs of 2002. The same devs that focused on those 5 genres that made PC gaming of that time... FPS games, RTS games, MMOs, Simulations, and American Style RPGs, which I detest (with the exception of Kotor / Mass Effect) And my favorite system is feeling it, not only from the market changing due to the "halo" effect, but also do to Microsoft buying up all the games I want to play, but they're killing those games... They're absolutely killing them. They won't survive on the 360, and the games I love are dying out because of Microsoft's courting of the PC gaming devs.

I hope that Japan comes out of it's rut and embraces new technology other than accelerometers again... I want to see the crazy, experimental Japanese games that drove the industry come back... That won't happen if things continue the way they are.

bobtheduck

Yeah, PC gaming has issues. Gearing new games towards lower specs would help solve a lot of them, methinks. But issues or not, as long as folks still use computers, PC gaming isn't going anywhere. It'll always survive, one way or another.

Now, here's my beef: WHY THE BLOODY FUCK DO I HAVE TO PATCH OR INSTALL A CONSOLE GAME? HOW 'BOUT YOU LAZY DIPSHIT DEVS SPEND A LITTLE MORE TIME IN QA? I buy consoles for a plug-and-play experience, specifically so I don't have to deal with that kind of shit. I only see this trend getting worse and worse.

JustThisGuy

ssh83

The_nub_next_door

pandafresh

ErskinPig

DeBurgo

The_nub_next_door

Heyyou27

Ghinn

@NateN: that idea is a step towards a hybrid Mac/Console world. This may be a very good idea, but on an open platform, hardware has to compete on function and it wouldnt be long before a "high settings" profile was swiftly superceded by NVIDIA coming out with a card that could do "very high settings", then ATI coming out with a card that could do "very high settings" at the same time as "pretty fast settings 2.0". That 11 isn't going to crank itself. We'd be back to square one in a matter of months.

GMC

itsburnsie

kingmanic

That's my only response to things like this.

It's not that consoles is where everyone moved to, it's that game companies lack common sense. They need to concentrate less on making the fanciest game, and more on making good games that make a profit.

If most people don't have high-spec comps, why make games for high-spec comps? Make them for mid-speced comps- like Sins did.

In 2 years PC gaming will be coming back, and we'll be having this argument about consoles.

arstal

@GMC: I think game makers should get on the ball and have a "Unified profile system" or something like that. Most folks like their layout a certain way, so why not have game A save the layout in My Documents/Game Configs/3DShooter.cfg, and then Game B will automatically find it and load it for you after you install it?

Also, automated patching and graphics configuration should be required on all computer games these days, IMHO. Sure, let folks pick "Better performance" or "Better graphics" as preferences before configuring the graphics system, but give folks a good baseline and let them get to playing the game.

@Striderhayasa - Phillyyakk on PSN and Live.: Quake 4 was more Raven then ID, wasn't it?

NateN

I still enjoy a few select games on the PC, but mostly my 360 has made me a console convert. Once my PC reaches the point where upgrade is required (which won't be too far off, I'm still on DX9 cards), It'll just be a really bitchin' office PC methinks.

At least I'm relatively sure it'll be powerful enough to enjoy StarCraft II.

itsburnsie

Mr Elusive

I've got Crysis running on my new computer. It plays pretty well, too. But as soon as I enabled the framerate display, I kept wondering "So, what do I need to do different to get that number higher?" instead of realizing that even at relatively low framerates it still plays extraordinarily well.

I want some options. I want to be able to change some graphics up and tweak it a bit to make it run better. I DONT want so much that I wonder what I could cut back on without missing so that the game will run at optimum performance.

Unknown-User

kingmanic

Fonzy

The_nub_next_door

Xshinobi

Maybe its just my personality, but after configuring my windows system to run the game optimally, dealing with sound conflicts etc - configuring the games own options seemd like another chore. I think i'm maybe a bit obsessive, but playing for twenty minutes just to test out and constantly change draw distance, AA, resonlution, shadows etc was just plain hard work. Then i'd always be playing games with the thought "maybe if i tweaked the detail level a bit i could get this to look better" in the back of my mind.

I welcome the lack of configurability of the console. Back when i could be bothered, the logic mini-games of configuration were a pleasant challenge. Now, i just want to play the game and not think about how i could be polishing my experience further and further towards "perfection"

GMC

Even with my PC slightly fixed I still dont think it will run at a level that I would be able to enjoy playing at. :x

Witzbold

Why the hell would this make me mad?... And Plunkett could you atleast try to be profesional? Your fanboism shines through like gamma rays.

The_nub_next_door

a) Piracy. Not as big a deal as people would like to make it out to be, in most cases, as Sins of a Solar Empire demonstrated. People won't pirate games if they don't have a reason to-- or if they have a reason not to. Good games that are supported by the developer long after release will be purchases; developers have just gotten used to consoles where this type of long-term support is not expected, so now they don't feel like providing it.

b) Windows Vista- the OS that was pimped as excellent for gaming, and undoubtedly tricked a lot of gamers into buying it. Now it causes nothing but lower performance, BSODs, crashes, bad driver support-- all of the crap that makes PC gaming frustrating if you don't know what you're doing. The DX10 shenanigans made things needlessly more complicated as well.

c) Ridiculous system requirements- not every PC gamer runs top of the line. If you made a game that could run all the way back to Intel integrated graphics, it would have the potential for the largest installed base in existence. Of course, that isn't possible. But developers can try harder to get their games to scale backwards to older videocards, processors, etc. Many don't even bother-- and then wonder why their game only got purchased by a percentage of people who own Geforce 8 graphics cards.

d) Evil companies charging more than it is worth- if you build yourself your own gaming PC, a mid-range one should cost the same as a ps3 did at launch, and will last you through a console generation. But if Alienware does it for you, it will cost a few grand, and brick-and-mortar stores can be almost as bad. Prices need to come down so the installed base can increase-- but unlike consoles, PC-makers have no reason to sell at a loss or make less profit in order to sell games, since they don't get a cut of the profit.

e) Developers forgetting what system they are developing for- we've all heard people complain about consolization. What's sad is consolization isn't the BIG things-- usually gameplay is fine, graphics are fine... it's the little things. We want to be able to tweak all of our graphical settings, perhaps adjust our FOV, scale our HUD/crosshairs, have a functioning way to adjust our frigging mouse sensitivity. When games get ported to PC, they often leave out basic PC features, and this frustrates a lot of users.

But PC gaming isn't going to die. Sony and Microsoft both have it in their best interests to make this generation last as long as they can. As this generation nears a close, a gaming PC many times more powerful than either console will cost around the same price. It happens every console generation.

What can be learned from this generation, however, is basically that developers need to stop skimping on basic PC-features, ensure that their game runs on as wide a range of PCs as possible, and, perhaps, find some form of copy-protection that doesn't infuriate more people than it sells copies. Then it will sell fine, regardless of PC gaming going through a recession =)

Harmatia

The industry needs to realize that they don't have to be top of the line to be good. Granted, lots of developers are starting to do this already, but there's a negative image (that may not necessarily be true) being built up around PC gaming that you need to spend a few thousand bucks every couple years just to keep up. Compare this to the price of a console every few years, and they're a great deal, especially considering their other uses.

I really, really don't want to see PC Gaming die. It's been a hobby of mine since I was very little. But there needs to be a few key turnarounds to help revitalize it.

Unknown-User

Giving credit where credit is due, Id should have released a true sequel to Quake 3:Arena which is still one of the greatest twitch FPS games every made. It's one of the only FPS games that can even be mentioned in the same sentence as UT2k4. It's a shame really. Id just isn't the company it used to be. I do have to say though, if Quake Wars comes to PS3 with m/kb support and a robust online component then I'd spend money on that. Go nicely with my UTIII.

Striderhayasa - Phillyyakk on PSN and Live.

uninterested gamer

Too many grab the game and think its battlefield when it plays nothing like those games, its very objective/mission based.

Kyle81

Fonzy

Collapse The Control

wicko

When games are being made as a harware showcase, they should know that they only target a limited number of PC gamers. If you take the hardware statistics on the steam pages, you'll see the number of users that have top of the notch PCs vs the number of users that have older graphics cards. The question is... who are you targeting, and what percentage of these users do you expect to reach with your product? There's an interesting view by Stardock's Brad Wardell on the whole non-issue. It's not that PC gaming is failing, it's more some editors are missing the point by proposing games that make you buy new hardware to enjoy it.

ClementXVII

Computers = creative/work apps.

Consoles = games.

njhardcoreguy

greeble

@Lateralus63: games released on consoles are not 100% compatible. blockbuster titles, thanks to rushed releases and porting hiccups, are more commonly getting to gamers plagued with bugs, glitches, and even poor/slow performance.

though id will be paying more attention to other devices for their game releases i doubt TOO MANY gamers outside the pc folks will care. also, the problems of consoles are mounting and will eventually number those of the PC. we are seeing every so often the high profile release with required install or the need of a patch to fix severe brokenness. oh yeah, the constant price of upgrading every too years? thats the same excuse we hear alot, granted it's mostly true but some people enjoy doing that more than buying a slogg of accessories and HDTV, i have never seen prices not even out in the end between the two.

Crazy_Buffet_Happens

@Kyle81: I really WANTED QW but my PC at the time just could not handle it. So I only could envy all the awesome footage that I could find on the net. D:::

Witzbold

Livid

Kyle81

peAr_nectAr

cybereality

Jackel2072

It's worked out OK - my laptop still runs Starcraft just fine and the consoles have everything else :)

randomnine

Unfortunately...they don't really make much good shit anymore...just shit.

rkalajian

elpierce

Silverwolf

McBonk

fyre

ragfragger

EgoMonk

The PC market itself needs to pull a Nintendo and slow itself down. Nobody's interested in investing so much money in tech thats only going to last a few years.

Lateralus63

EgoMonk

Thing is, im sure ive been through this cycle before. I will go through it again whenever i get a new PC. At that point i will be extolling the virtues of cheaper games, better graphics and better fpses over the middle aged consoles.I will alternate between these two postions for the rest of my days.

*rocks in chair, smokes pipe, looks out at prarie.

GMC

Who Know How To Correct When The Title's Broken?

Mahni

Zegridathes

Rubix42

UberSully

okenny :)

lilaliendog

okenny :)

SkutSkut

Rez23