In the attempts at coming up with a title for this week's column, my mind kept coming back to Seinfeld. I suppose it's because the question kept popping up in my mind after I was trying to kill some time in my local GameStop. I'd peruse the aisles, looking at games and making mental notes as to what I'd consider checking out on Goozex to see if the prices were cheaper.
I needed to kill some more time, though. So, my journey into the PC gaming section of the store began. While I was going through these games, my thoughts weren't, "which ones should I buy" -- rather, they were "which ones should I pirate?"
For those of you who don't know me, I'm strongly against pirating console games and movies. I'm even going so far as to search eBay and elsewhere for a cheap Japanese PS2 so that I can play import games, and not be tempted by the ability to play burned discs. Why is it, then, that I felt absolutely no compunction about pirating these PC games?
I certainly don't disrespect PC games -- I realize it's a rather viable platform for all different areas of gaming. Personally, my interest in PC games was only with real time strategy and some first person shooter games. As time went on, I drifted away from FPS games, and eventually, I gave up RTS and computer games all together. There wasn't anything about the computer games that turned me off, it just happened naturally.
Part of this was because of the need to repeatedly upgrade my computer in order to play most any game. Well, not so much that, as the fact that I was running off of a Dell. The bastard of the Dell Latitude line, no less. So, I ended up missing out on games like Half-Life, Diablo, and Age of Empires III, simply because I didn't have the right specs to run the games. Really, the computer was that shitty that it had some problems running Half-Life. I've always wanted to get back into PC gaming, but I feel this urge to have something that's top of the line, and I know I just can't afford that to play PC games.
It's that idea of a variable experience that always gets me with a PC game. On a console, the system I got at launch will run games just as well as one bought today. This sort of accessibility is what has caused so many people to flock to console games. Console makers have strong relationships with the developers and publishers, helping to guide what comes out for each console. On the PC, it's pretty much the Wild West. While this does allow some really cool budget titles and free mods to be made, it makes it hard for people to justify buying any mid-level titles that sit between those cool budget games and the AAA titles.
What draws me to PC games is the genres that fit best on there. Like I mentioned before, RTS games certainly are only at home on the PC -- and I don't want any complaining from you Starcraft 64 fans. Besides that, I'm certainly a fan of FPS games on the PC as well. The thing is, there aren't a ton of genres that are a draw for PC gaming. We've seen the effect Halo has had on the market, drawing millions of frat boys to their Xboxes all across the country. The PC versions were considered inferior to their original versions -- which brings me to another point.
While Microsoft's Games for Windows initiative has been nice, as of yet, I don't believe it's doing much for PC gamers. I cite the Games for Windows magazine crew on this one, actually. They were talking about the differences in Shadowrun between online play for the PC gamer and the console gamer. Most of their complaintes revolved around there being a greater amount of penalization for PC gamers due to how they play with a keyboard and mouse. Sure, this is just one example, but it's certainly a less-than-stellar start for launching something to bridge the gap between console and PC players.
While it allows for a larger install base for a title, the Games for Windows initiative doesn't provide PC gaming with what it needs most right now -- someone to actively work with developers to create unique titles for the PC only, and have enough of a marketing push to keep them there. As of right now, it feels like PC gaming is too closed off of a society, and I'd be intruding on this elitist territory if I came in, all newb-like. I'm sure this isn't the case, but it's the sentiment that I feel, at least. I'm sure others feel the same way.
By it's nature, the PC crowd is completely hardcore. What I would suggest to Microsoft is that they work with developers to come out with more casual or introductory titles for people to pick up and play. I'm afraid to ever jump into online multiplayer for Half-Life 2 or any Battlefield game, simply because I'll surely "destroy the team's entire strategy" or some crap like that. Games that allow for a strong mix of newer and hardcore users without creating something very clique-y, like how Warcraft 3 can get, are the best bet for turning the tides on the number of people actually picking up PC games.
So, to get back to my original question, why is it that I felt no qualms with pirating those PC games? The gap between console and PC games feels so vast that even my morals don't stretch across it. I think that a big problem for me is that there's no coordination in the world of PCs. There are hundreds of different brands for full computers and for individual parts, that the information quickly becomes overwhelming -- before I've even gone and bought a game.
Much like with the music world, there are so few things that appeal to my tastes, that I manage to justify pirating these games by saying that "it's not really hurting the industry" and cry myself to sleep at night. Now, how can I stop this behavior? Getting myself more actively involved in PC gaming is pretty much the only solution to this that I can think of. If people have a more vested interest in an area, then they're less likely to sabotage it. I'm looking forward to the Half Life box set, and hopefully I'll pick up Age of Empires III and Rome: Total War, and it'll force me out of this mindset.
We here at Destructoid have been wondering: how many of you readers are actively involved with PC gaming? I mean, above and beyond WoW, do we have many people who spend too much time on their computer, playing those things called games?
DMV, I IS A STARCRAFT 64 FAN AND STARCRAFT 64 WUZ AWESOMM. WHY TEH HAET?
In all seriousness, I'm sort of in the same boat with you as far as pirating, and I don't know why. But I am an active PC gamer, although I've been coming back to it less and less the further we get into the current console generation. But I'm in the middle of the new Civ4 expansion right now, and I play quite a few FPS's as well. Hell, I wouldn't mind throwing down with some Dtoiders in FEAR Combat on a Friday Night Fight.
The last game I bought for my PC was S.T.A.L.K.E.R. which was a great game, but a frustrating performance experience. It had been 9 months since my gfx card upgrade and I'm borderline considering my next processor and RAM upgrade.
I've been absorbed in my 360 since I left WoW a year and a half ago, and have honestly enjoyed the guaranteed performance level of my console games. I've even started to withhold my PC elitest comments in any console FPS vs PC FPS debate I encounter. I still believe in the PC gaming experience but after 12+ years of "being hardcore", it's getting to be an expensive and frustrating cycle to upgrade.
After rewatching Jericho trailers this weekend and anticipating my purchase. I really am torn between upgrading my PC to get the experience I want out of Jericho, or just accepting the minor "downgrades" I'll experience for a guaranteed level of experience on my 360.
Still active. I play CSS BF2 Warhammer40k-Dark Crusade, starcraft, warcraft 3, Company of Heroes, Call of Duty 2, Oblivion (FAR superior to the console versions), and Hitman Blood Money.
I play BF2, BF2142, CSS, UT99, UT2K4, and I'm pretty sure that none of these games would really work on a console, but yeah. I'll agree that what consoles do have that PC's don't, is a 'leader'.
The xbox has MS, PS has Sony and Wii has Nintendo. PC has ... the half-assed effort of MS to sell more games for their own profit, mostly to shut out Apple and Linux, and we have the awesome AMD vs nvidia vs Intel war that keeps producing more expensive equipment every year. Not exactly ideal...
I actually bought a MacBook Pro this christmas, even though I had been a film student since 2004 (obviously most editing done at the student/entry level and beyond is done on a mac). I was a hardcore PC gamer for years and thus never wanted one, afraid to leave behind all of my old favorites (BG2, Deus Ex, etc.).
Switching has been great, however. If I need to play anything I just switch into bootcamp. I played HL Episode 2, Oblivion, and Supreme commander with no problems.
That's ALL I've played since the switch however. Just as consoles are a more user friendly and streamlined experience than PC gaming, so is the Mac OS to Windoze.
It's all DS and 360 games for me. I use an R4 card on the ds and play roms, but I purchase games on the 360 for fear of the banhammer. It seems the older I get, the less I want to mess around with optimizing drivers and system settings to play a PC games. I enjoy the simplicity and guarantee console gaming provides, as well as the wonderful matchmaking experience on Xbox Live (friend codes are straight out of satan's asshole, btw).
The other thing that pisses me off about PC gaming is that many older games do NOT support widescreen displays, and I am not about to buy a 3:4 monitor just to boot up old favorites.
i hear that latitude crap. runnin off a d610. i could find a gaming laptop for the same price, and be able to run HL2 on it at a good medium quality set. other than that, i got LOTRO, Warcraft III, DoW: Dark Crusade, Rome:Total War (very occasionally), but yea, ill veg on my PC now and again.
defnly a performance issue for me. i downloaded halo 2 because i didn't trust that it would work on my two year old computer...and it doesn't. crashes out before i even get through the movie. would have been pissed if i bought the game and couldn't return it. pc gaming is hardly worth it. every new decent game that comes out once in a blue moon requires $500 worth of upgrades or a new computer. i have plenty of home console game options to keep me busy, i don't need the pain.
I'm a huge PC gamer, it's my primary platform pretty much. Always have been for the last 12 years. It's my gateway to gaming in every sense.
Yes it's expensive, but god damn I love it. It's that simple for me, I can justify the cost of any hardware components.
There's really not much you need to know to jump in on PC gaming, Dual Core helps, the more "pipelines" on a gfx card, the better usually. Being handy with patches doesn't hurt either. I'd definitely say, without stroking my ego, that I am a life-long pirate when it comes to gaming. I feel no remorse "ripping" games or whatever, it's so normal to me it's unreal. This mentality comes from the Amiga days I guess, I've always known a "friend" who would sort me out with whatever I ask and over the years, I've become that "friend" to everyone else that I know.
There are a few games I do have originals of. Half Life series, Quake series, Geometry Wars, Worms series etc but not much more than that. Same for DS, I have about 8 original games but the rest are roms etc.
DarQraven; As for companies competing with each other - this is what a free and open market is for. This drives innovation and consumer choice, which ultimately ends up in better technology for the world and it's people. It should never be any other way.
I don't really understand the point of your post. Basically you're saying that you don't like PC games.
Big woop
I spend more hours in a day on my PC playing games than I do in 2 weeks playing on either my Wii and 360. (well, except when I was still playing through guitar hero II)
I truly do not believe your statement that the PC has the most limited selection of game genre's. When I look at the games I play: multiplayer shooters, top down rpgs, first person rpgs, strategy, real-time strategy, hack-n-slash, mmorpg's, etc, I find that there are just as many or more genre's on a PC than the 360 or PS3 or Wii.
Well, actually, the Wii is in a class of its own now.
The customization of the platform is both the reason FOR its un-popularity and FOR its unique ability to hold genres the consoles simply can't: MMORPG's, extremely tactical shooters (shadowrun basically proved that the keyboard+mouse will always be greater than the analog sticks, but the wii remote actually might be the dawn of a new control style), RTS's.
You just can't do that stuff on a console, and not JUST because they don't have a keyboard and mouse, a lot of it too is the customization of your controls, the moddability of games (half life 2).
I play 20x more hours in Half Life 2 mods than I did the actual game or Counterstrike source or day of defeat source.
Games like Red Orchestra, fucking unbelieveable multiplayer shooters, simply cannot be done on a 360 or PS3 platform.
Gamers also are generally more interested in working as a team, playing fair, and treating eachother nicer, in PC games than on Xbox Live. I guess thats what happens when you give EVERY gamer a headset: even the assholes have them, whereas with a PC, only the people who WANT to be social and use teamwork will go out and buy an 8 dollar headset.
I'm really just tired of people trying to compare PC's to Consoles.
PC's will always be more expensive than a console, but you know what? When I compare the time I'm on my computer, whether it be for gaming or on the internet or chatting with friends, the money spent on my computer is used more than the money spent on my 360 and Wii. I actually feel like my 360 and Wii were wastes of money sometimes ( when I'm not using them, game droughts, etc.), whereas with my $2000 laptop, I feel like its the best $2000 I've ever spent. Plus I can play all my old games, (one thing great about Vista is it's backwards compatibility, something XP wasn't as good at), and all the new ones (yep, my Laptop can handle crysis, pretty well).
I guess what I'm saying is that comparing Consoles to PC's, is still like comparing apples to oranges.
They both have their advantages. But to say the PC gaming is dead, or inferior to console gaming is a very ludicrous statement. And for the graphics whores, it will always be their home. In another year or so, PC games will once again cast shadows of graphical superiority onto the consoles, and once again console owners will have to wait 4-5 years before they get another graphics upgrade.
HAY GUESS WHAT? That's how long my PC upgrading interval is! Ya don't say...
Okay, card games, puzzle games (bejewelled), 3D platforming games (Marble Blast Anyone?) RTS, Turn Based Strategy (Worms), FPS, Driving Sim, Flight Sim, Train Sim...
That was a retarded comment by every standard. PC has every type of game and then some, it's the consoles that are, well at least had been til recently, missing out on a lot of genre's.
BTW: while PC gaming is my primary gaming outlet, I do also own a 360 and a Wii, and planning on buying a PS3 eventually when there's shit to buy for it. Maybe late '08?
Also, my post wasn't all in direct response of your blog post, I wasn't accusing you of saying that PC gaming is dead, my above post is more of a response to these kinds of 'whats up with PC gaming? is it dead?' discussions in GENERAL.
so far the only PC games i ever pirated were ones i already had for my xbox. unfortunately the disks were scratched, so i just used bit torrent to get them on my computer.
I usually prefer to play console games, but I find PC games far more engrossing because it's easier to hack them apart to see how they work. And for those of us who played with Legos as kids, a full-featured creative environment like UnrealEd or Crytek's SandBox will always beat console-based "level editors". But I agree that it takes a lot more of an investment, and I'll be the first to admit that it's a HUGE hassle. Seems like an issue of personal preference to me.
I actually just finished building a new computer and have been PC gaming non-stop. I'm now finally able to run BF2 and HL2 at full graphics and hot damn is it nice! Of course when a game comes out for both xbox360 and PC I usually get the 360 version over the PC version even though it's easier to play and more puuuuuuurdy on the PC. I'm such a gamer points whore.....
PC gaming ... no. That's just not something I can see myself getting into. Wouldn't know where to begin, wouldn't be able to afford beginning, wouldn't be able to keep up.
I do. Just recently I dusted off my collection of old games and I am starting to play through them again. First up is the Thief trilogy. All great games that I never beat on expert so I wanted to go back through them. Next is Beyond Good and Evil, one of the best games ever.
As for pirating games, I don't have many games I like enough to waste the time downloading them let alone buy them. There are exceptions. I just bought the new expansion for Civ IV, I always loved that game. Personally I would love if companies would release a short demo of every game they sell. I would download anything that interests me and try it out. If its great I will buy it. Most of the people I know who do pirate games say it is because they have been burned so many times in the past buy a great looking game that turned out to be horrible. Demos would help this.
As to the amount of time I play. I find I spend more time playing my pc games than my console games. I still have several games waiting for me to beat them on the Wii that I haven't gotten to yet. Even then I only can spend a few hours a week playing games.
I consider myself a pcgamer and yeah RTS mainly been playing on my computer since quake 1 over Printer cables making a LAN with my friends. There was a magic moment when I used to play n PC's and console but now am solely a PC gamer with the usual GH2 (ps2, my last console) here and there. I think all the console gamers do have that, 'upgrading every now and then' dilemma and I see your point, pc gamin also brings alot of bragging "my rig vs your rig" I think Ive come to ignore this part and just play the games my pc supports. Not sure if this post says anything helpful just wanted to point something out, anything.
I used to be a super-duper hardcore PC gamer. I used to always upgrade graphics cards, ram and processors very frequently, as well as buy the super-pricey gaming laptops from Alienware.
I got tired of it though. Its a huge money and time drain to keep up with equipment, drivers, patches, etc.
I got tired of the first thing that had to be done when I bought a pc game was download patch, upgrade graphics driver, reboot. On consoles, shit just works.
I play waaaaaay more consoles now; I thoroughly enjoy my 360, Wii, and PS3. My custom PC rig collects dust for the most part, even though I will play PC Gears of War, Starcraft, and whatever Blizzard's new IP will be when they come out.
So for now console will do it for me. Unless I get addicted to that grindfest World of Warcraft again; it may be enough to pull me back.
The problem is not the lack of genres on a PC. The problem is finding genres whose gameplay is actually better suited to the mouse and keyboard.
Obviously, RTS and most FPS games are better suited to this. As are most mouse-friendly God-games such as Sim City and Civilization. Casual games like Bejeweled and card games like Poker and Hearts are arguably "better" on PCs.
As I see it, that's about it. Consoles, with their combination of better seating [comfy couch vs questionable chair], optimized joypad controls, bigger screens, consistent performance, and easier local multiplayer have serious advantages in a variety of genres. Platformers, fighters, third-person shooters, JRPGs, Strategy RPGs, Shmups, PCRPGS, sports, racing... the list goes on and on.
Yes, all of these genres do appear on PCs. Yes, you can play most of them modestly well, provided you have a good selection of peripherals. That's not the point.
I know there are a loud anecdotal group of PC gamers who will swear up and down that playing a game like Psychonauts or emulating SNES classics is just as good an experience on the PC as it is on a console. NEWS FLASH: it isn't. It's like watching a movie while sitting six inches away from your PC screen vs watching a movie in your living room with a large TV. I would find it difficult to believe that you could ever equate the two experiences.
SIDE NOTE: I do see the argument of PC games having better graphics and an awesome mod community which will "never" happen on consoles. No argument here, that stuff is awesome, even if the quality of the latter tends to be fairly mediocre. But the games that get the majority of the mods tend to be FPS games that would suck on a console, anyway. Games like Oblivion are definitely an exception, but whether that particular title, sans mods, is more enjoyable overall on a PC or a console is a totally fair debate.
I didn't mean PC gaming only has FPS and RTS games, guys. I mean that those are the the areas in which they excel over consoles. People are turning more and more to consoles for their 3rd person action games, for example, and there isn't as much that's available on the PC that would provide such a markedly improved perspective that people would buy it on there as opposed to on a console.
I agree that the PC is "wildwestish" in a sense we do fend for our own.
Me dishing out the extra 300 for a graphics card when it will decrease in when I'm sure the 9 series comes out will make me want to put my dick in a drawer and slam it shut.
BUT I do enjoy the entertainment I did get for the time being....I can see AWL DUH LEEVZ IN WoW OMGZ I'm going to get more memory and get the controller adapter from Microsoft so I can make GoW a much more enjoyable experience, same for Halo 3 whenever it hits PC.
I was always a PC and console gamer. Equal mix of both, but I started on a PC with adventure games and whatnot. A solid 20 year history of loving both platforms.
I picked up a 360 in February, and found it covered all my gaming needs, for half the price (if not less!) of a PC upgrade that wouldn't even bring my PC up to the power of my 360. Since, the only PC games I've touched have been classics like Starcraft, System Shock 2, Warcraft 2, and some old shooters.
Also, it seems like everything interesting that's coming out on PC in the next year or so is also coming to 360, PS3, or both. And it's guaranteed to run on my console. Not so much on my PC.
With the current generation of consoles and in the future, I just don't see the point of PC gaming. It's lost to me.
The GFW initiative is a great idea on paper, it still could work, but the issue is there has been absolutely NO follow-up from MS. It turned out to be a half-hearted attempt and making the PC presentation a bit more aesthetically pleasing but thats the extent of it.
If they TRULY want to span the division, start producing 360 hyrbrid capable systems. Produce on-board chipsets to OEM manufacturers. Keep the systems seperate but also give people something cool and unique that will give the best of both worlds. MS is in an amazing position to transcend the current (and I hate this word) paradigm and leave Sony and Nintendo in the dust. What is the 360 but a proprietary PC and vice-versa. By doing this they could create a base standard for PC gaming developers to work from rather than target some vague system specs that are never accurate anyway.
I don't upgrade my PC that often. But I'm going to get Battlefield 2142 soon. Mind you, if it was still at full price I wouldn't even consider it. Though I don't meet the recommended requirements, I still want to get it.
It's not that Halo for PC was considered inferior to its console ports. In fact, it was generally considered to have improved. (Flying banshees in multiplayer, for instance.)
The problem was that what was good, even revolutionary, on the Xbox was still only mediocre by PC FPS standards.
I am kinda both. I tend to spend the week on my 360 offline and then the weekend is spent partly online on PC and partly online on 360.
When I do game online one thing I have always found is that the UK people you find online (if they have already hit puberty at least) are alright guys with the occasional dick and the US people are dicks with the occasional alright guy. The way I avoid this is by joining up with some sort of gaming commmunity (in my case its dontcamp.com) and we all play together. Because we know each other there is much more fun and winning doesn't seem to matter.
I can't remember my point so I will ramble on a bit. I find that PC gaming is a hell of a lot more expensive but the stuff you buy is used for a lot more than gaming so it almost justifies the price. And for future game developers the PC will always win against consoles because it has the tools to teach the skills needed.
some scattered thoughts:
If you could download pirated games directly onto your Wii/360/PS3, you'd probably do it.
As mentioned above, some people pirate PC games because they're not sure how it will run, so that makes buying a PC game a risky and uneasy experience. Even for hardcore games that put every detail of their PC's specs in their forum sig and boasts about their 'rig' at lan parties, its hard to know what you're getting into with a PC game. And then some games just run like shit, no matter what.
With a console game, theres a reasonable expectation that the developers thoroughly tested the game to make sure the framerate doesn't drop, the game doesn't crash, and there are no glitches.
On the other hand, PC games scale better so if you have the right hardware they can look really great. Many of them can be user-modified and theres a better sense of openness than with console games. That alone could make it worth it.
I think the psychology of sitting in front of a television and sitting at a PC factor in somewhere. On a computer, you can pretty much get anything you want, any time you want it, for free (legally or illegally).. and games get swept up in that. Buying a game, tossing it in your console and sitting back to relax in front of the bigscreen for hours playing halo or whatever is a different experience. I think this is particularly true for people who like the collectability of cartridges.
Even when I buy PC games, I usually neglect, lose, or throw away the discs they come on because the game is installed and the only thing of value is the serial number. Buying stuff from Steam makes it even more rewarding for me NOT to pirate, because I can always re-download games if I switch computers.
Computers have a built-in virtual console/live arcade... its called DOSbox and emulators, and sites like underdogs and dosgamearchive.
I think the variable experience thing only matters to a certain extent. For games that are all about reproducible gameplay and record-breaking, this could be critical. For example I used to play F-zero with friends in college, 10 years after its release mind you, and because of how smooth and consistent it was we would beat each others time trial record by hundredths of a seconds at a time. If we each played on machines with different specs, or if there were performance hiccups throughout, that kind of thing wouldn't be possible to the extent it was. Games like counterstrike, WoW et c. are a less precise, more non-linear experience, so the variability is actually a part of the game. For most games, this shouldn't be an issue.
Lastly, the point about no coordination in the PC game world. This should be a GOOD thing, but in practice it doesn't seem to work out that way. No licensing crap to deal with, no devkits to wrestle with, virtually no limitations on disk space, ram, and video anymore.. all double-edged swords, but they do allow to flourish the types of games you wouldn't see on a console. On the plus side, the lack of coordination and limitations creates a lot of competition, and the top sellers must be of the highest quality. One of the downsides is that there is no brand to identify with, everything is just a "PC Game." Until lately, there really weren't any game demos for consoles, so you sorta had to just buy something based on reviews and reputation, and hope it didn't suck. That gave the game companies the upper hand in a lot of ways.
Have you opened up an xbox360 yet? It's basically just a PC made to look like a console. Now I love my 360, but if you're saying that PC's flaw is that you have to upgrade then I'd have to disagree. I enjoy being able to upgrade my computer and just because new hardware comes out doesn't mean you have to run out and buy it. I can build a computer and it can run the top of the line games for a damn good while. Plus if there's a problem with my computer I can fix it, unlike some consoles that give you the "red rings of microsoft eating your money."
PC gaming WAS cool. 1999 cool. fast forward 2007... PC gaming IS shit. PC gaming IS for people who think they are so hardcore and purist that just play a 9 year old game just to prove how hardcore and devoted they are. Add the fact they run old games with new hardware to pull 28437483 frames per second and talk shit about how powerful almighty PC is.
This is just crazy. PC gamers who visit Destructoid are now console gamers. If they werent they would be at PC Gamer learning about all the new and exciting MMORPGs coming to PC. Why buy a thousand dollar upgrade on SLi/crossfire, quadcore, DDR2 to play the next FPS, Crysis? *crickets*. Just remember that any shit you buy now will be outdated in 6 months.
"Oh PC have the cutting edge on graphics" Well whatever. IF you take a $2000 PC to run Counter Strike then you are eating a turd sandwich. Just be aware that you rely too heavily on MODs to play "something new".
You know what I did with the money for the PC upgrade? I bought a 42" LCD and im $200 shy of a PS3. I will just buy it later 2008 for it to drop price as my 360 and wii keep me very entertained.I definetly think people upgrade PC's just to post specs trying to impress someone.
Well im now trying to grind anyone gears... im just sayin...
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"Okay, card games, puzzle games (bejewelled), 3D platforming games (Marble Blast Anyone?) RTS, Turn Based Strategy (Worms), FPS, Driving Sim, Flight Sim, Train Sim..."
Well, I have all that on my Xbox 360... with online play.... hmmmm wait... Dammit! I dont have a train simulator on Xbox 360!! Bummer... I always wanted to recreate a Silver Spoons train version in full 3d just to be like Edward Stratton III.
My most recent addictions have been: Hitman Blood Money, Oblivion (umm... hello, custom mods!), Civilization IV: Warlords (one of the best and most time-consuming games ever created), and Jade Empire Special Edition.
Honestly, a lot of those games are equal to their console counterparts, or far superior. Not to mention the games like Civilization which cannot be found on a console.
Even if the standalone game on the PC wasn't better than the console brother, there is always the modding aspect. I played through Oblivion and all of the DLC patches for it, including the Shivering Isles. After that is when my most enjoyable moments were... playing with custom mods made by the amazing community of Oblivion gamers. Simple things from new races to new armour... all the way to entire new cities and questlines. It really blows the whole world wide open.
So... that's why I play on my computer. Same great games, endless opportunities to expand!
(PS. I'm also a console gamer... but that's not what we're discussing!)
Many of the comments above kind of disgust me. Stop attacking PC gaming, its not dead, and its not shit. Don't like it? Big woop. Keep playing your consoles, I love them too.
I only play PC games when I buy a new computer every 6 years. Then I played 6 years worth of a backlog of games. It works for me, I pick up all the important PC games when they come out on consoles as well. I played Half Life and Deus Ex on PS2, and missed out on nothing. PC gamers are so elitest that they would shun such ports, but that is because they need to justify their wallet emptying version of gaming.
The average person is basically REQUIRED to have some sort of computer nowadays. Let's pretend that I'm not a CIS (That's Computer Information Science, not the TV show) major, and that I could be Joe Somebody who just needs something for word processing. Okay, so I have to still spend at least, what... $300 on a computer for my basic needs. Hardly wallet-emptying.
Granted, that won't play games. At least, not your Half-Lifes or your Oblivions. But, for a second, let's also consider the pretty penny you're spending on your 360 or your PS3. Not to mention your HDTV, or that nice HDDvD drive if you have a 360. All-in-all, we'll sum up that to get a console and play it with all the lovely add-ons you'll want (HDDs, extra controllers, mem cards, whatever)... you'll be spending about $600 on hardware for your console.
So, for your basic computer and your console hardware, you've forked out $900. Not bad, still under a grand... GOTTA be cheaper than 'elitest' PC players made our of money, right? Right?
Oh, whoops. That's right... my entire gaming rig only cost me $850 to build. That includes everything: speakers, wireless keyboard/mouse... everything except for a new monitor (Already had one... you don't necessarily upgrade your TV every console generation either... so eat me).
So, with a net GAIN of roughly $50 over you, I get to play the same games, with better graphics (Half-Life and Deux Ex suck on the PS2 compared to PC... just as an example), not to mention all of the custom mods we can use.
Damn. You win, Brain... what a money sink. I sure emptied my wallet here.
Oh, wait. You mean I could get one of those games and still just be even on the cost of your HARDWARE? Shoot, and I thought you had me, too!
(PS. AS I said, I'm also a console gamer. Just proving the point: trying to start a Console VS PC war isn't going to make you look smart)
Except for the part where you made someone buy an HDTV, only to follow by saying you didn't upgrade your monitor on the PC. Oh, and did your PC have an HD-DVD drive? If not, you can't really add that to your conjectured figures.
But more to the point: $600 on accessories for a console? Are you mad?
I think I've spent a grand total of $300 on gaming accessory costs in the last 15 years, the bulk of which was for extra controllers.
I'm a PC gamer only. It's not that I hate consoles, far from it. It's just that they don't really appeal to me, and I don't have enough money at the moment to buy one. It may be true that you need to have a lot of knowledge to succeed in PC gaming, but PC's are for the hardcore, plain and simple, though really, it's also the only gaming platform for those who are too young/cheap/poor to have a console, which opens up a lot of opportunities. One thing you failed to mention in the article, PC's are also hands down the best platform for MMO's, as pretty much anyone can attest to if they've ever tried to type with a controller(though that 360 keyboard does look pretty sweet). I'm a hardcore gamer, and I hate most types of MMO's. I think they're boring, repetitive, and devoid of motivation to succeed. I play two MMO's, and they are about as far from the average you can get. They are (don't laugh) Puzzle Pirates and Kingdom of Loathing. One is a game designed for kids, that would work great with a Wii, and the other is a text-based RPG, but by far the most original I've ever played. Besides those, my usual staple is RTSs and FPSs, no surprise there. I guess my point is, for gamers with the time/intelligence/money/desire to care about their gaming experience, they will invest in a PC.
Yeah, I really don't know where I'm going with this. Feel free to interpret it any way you want. Peace.
@Tempus: Of course open market is important, but not in every situation. Cars, for instance. Competition between car brands is great. It creates a drive for improvement, being better than others, and ultimately results in lower prices for better cars.
However, now imagine that there were roads in your country that you could only drive on in a car no older than 1 year. Or roads that you could only drive on in cars that have 3 airbags. In that case, I'd rather there was a little less progress, at a slightly slower pace, so I could enjoy my brand new car for a little longer, instead of the next awesome-new-feature-which-is-maybe-useful being required to drive.
Also, another parallel would be a game for Xbox360, that you could only play with wireless controllers, not wired ones. Or only Piranha controllers, not the official MS ones. It's just a retarded situation if you look at PC as one system the way you would look at consoles.
Darn, I didn't mean that the progress should be slower, just that the 'required' upgrades should be introduced over longer intervals, and when things get more standardized/centralized, that's possible.
I can see why Kotaku calls Dtoid immature now. The catty, anti-PC comments here just go to show that the vast majority of people would rather rip into something than have a healthy debate, discussing the pro's and con's of each system.
I don't know why I thought I'd get a balanced discussion, this is the intarwebs and Dick obviously doesn't like teh gamezes :(
Ah well, I'll go back to Marble Blast Gold with custom scripts for 360 PC controllers... Safe.
Personally I find it more convenient to sit on the couch and play games on my TV. Whenever I sit down in front of the computer, I'll usually surf the web rather than play games. In fact, most of my PC gaming time is spent playing old console and arcade titles through Gametap. My girl probably games more on the PC than I do. I used to be all about the PC back when I lived by myself, but now it's just much easier to play in the living room.
I think that while the cost of PCs are higher, part of that can be justified in the fact that they do so much more than gaming. The amount of storage on the average hard drive allows you to stuff all sorts of music and video on there (legally even). Computers connect quite easily to your HDTV and home theater so you don't have to watch movies on a monitor in a chair 6" from it... I find that arguement a little silly. However, that monitor might be an excellent choice for watching if your television is still SD, as you can watch high def programming through your computer.
The only real issue when it comes to the PC you have in your home for music and movies vs the pc you use for gaming comes down to the video card. If you're not gaming, drop a $50 card in there and call it art. If you are, you can hit a top of the line card for $500-600... which if I recall is what you can buy a video game console for. Whatever is state of the art right now will run games very well for several years, so the upgrade cycle between PC and console is relatively similar... the only reason you would be upgrading every year is if you had money to burn and absolutely needed the e-peen.
If you're using a PC for gaming only, then dropping $1500 on a machine for that specific purpose is quite steep when you could just get a console. For those of us who use our PCs for a multitude of tasks and would own a PC regardless of it gaming, then adding gaming ability is just an issue of slapping in a video card that will handle modern games, and no more expensive than buying a console to play games would be. The only issue is a bit of technical know-how.
Ive got a wii, 360 and my Dreamcast (may it never die) hooked up to my TV right now, and plan on building myself a new gaming PC in the next couple of weeks. So this is just how I see things for my own self, rather than being a partisan of any one system.
Puzzle Pirates is NOT designed for kids. It is designed for casual gamers and puzzle fans alike, and is (currently) the best balance between chat, puzzles, and MMO staples like "guilds." The swordfighting, for instance, was the closest thing to online Puzzle Fighter that one could have outside of an emulator for the longest time.
KoL is also not a text-based game. That would imply that it plays like (such as) Zork, which is not the case, save for that one section (sort of). That said, it is hilarious and awesome.
I do find it funny, however, that we're both fans of these games, but our tastes outside of those two could not be further apart.
2) The installation process. You can't just pop the game disc in and go, at least not with modern games.
3) Copy protection fails often. I *HAVE* to get cracks for many of my games just to get them to work. It's easy to rebel against paying for stuff that doesn't always work.
You think PC piracy was bad? Every Amiga owner I ever knew had a basement full of pirated software, largely because of reason #3. Amiga copy protection was THE WORST. No, forget SecuROM. That doesn't hold a candle to the analog track-skipping techniques used on an 880K floppy, which you *couldn't* put on your hard drive at all.
As someone who just dropped a chunk of cash on an 8800GTS and some more RAM (along with that new 22" LCD I'd been eyeing for a while) I think I speak for all PC gamers when I say the purchase of more parts for your rig is part of the enjoyment.
I absolutely adore running Supreme Commander at native resolution with everything on high. I'm playing the game as it was intended to be played (if not as well as intended). Half-Life 2 is a dream, and Episode 1 moreso.
You know the cost, and gladly pay it. There is quality to be had from the PC arena, and I have no regrets in the investment. Besides which, it's not as horrible as people make out. It's just not quite as guaranteed as a console is.
pc gaming is great! its expensive, for sure, but obviously lots of people think its worth it. I love buying bits for my computer, whenever i manage to get enough money. Its cost me far too much money over the last couple of years, but i dont mind...
Dont ever be afraid to just jump in on a game! If the team is nice, theyll be helpful and understanding if youre new. If the team isnt nice, then destroying their strategy can be nearly as much fun as winning :P.
As for piracy... well much like music, its very easy - once youve got it, you just use d-tools or whatever, and then crack it, and youre done! No dvd burning or mod-chips or anything.
But also, theres often no guarantee that the game will run well on your pc, especially if its in the region between the minimum and recommended specs. Why pay for something if you dont know if itll work well enough for you to enjoy it? Whats more, if you dont pay, youve got more money to spend on your computer, meaning you should be able to play the game better! The 'right'(not moral) course of action here is obvious!
And finally, theres the inevitable 'is this game actually worth buying' question that pops up. For most people, there are very few games out there that they know that theyll like enough to pay ~$100(nz), before theyve ever played them. That ties in with the first reason - since its so easy to pirate games, you might as well... yes, of course youll buy the game if you like it, of course...
Yeah, I guess yer right about those two, but I do see a lot of kids playing Puzzle Pirates, and KOL could easily be played without any of the pictures, so I consider it text based. Tell me yer in-game ID, and mebbe we can go pillaging sometime.
You may have caught me if I had said you'd spend $600 on accessories alone... but that's not what I said. I said that, with accessories, you total for a console will be around $600. If you've spent $300 on accessories alone, then your total is most likely higher than that.
I didn't put in a price point for a HDTV because I didn't figure in a monitor for myself. However... if you want figures, I can get a nice 22" Veiwsonic monitor at Cosco for $299. You won't find any sort of HDTV for that pricepoint. The only reason I mentioned HDTVs is because if everyone is going to bring up that console HD gaming is so much better... then they will basically HAVE to get that TV to experience and justify their point.
So. I didn't say you'd spend $600 on accessories. Sorry.
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Contest:
1:13 PM on 07.29.2007
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In all seriousness, I'm sort of in the same boat with you as far as pirating, and I don't know why. But I am an active PC gamer, although I've been coming back to it less and less the further we get into the current console generation. But I'm in the middle of the new Civ4 expansion right now, and I play quite a few FPS's as well. Hell, I wouldn't mind throwing down with some Dtoiders in FEAR Combat on a Friday Night Fight.
I've been absorbed in my 360 since I left WoW a year and a half ago, and have honestly enjoyed the guaranteed performance level of my console games. I've even started to withhold my PC elitest comments in any console FPS vs PC FPS debate I encounter. I still believe in the PC gaming experience but after 12+ years of "being hardcore", it's getting to be an expensive and frustrating cycle to upgrade.
After rewatching Jericho trailers this weekend and anticipating my purchase. I really am torn between upgrading my PC to get the experience I want out of Jericho, or just accepting the minor "downgrades" I'll experience for a guaranteed level of experience on my 360.
But yeah its all FPS and RTS.
The xbox has MS, PS has Sony and Wii has Nintendo. PC has ... the half-assed effort of MS to sell more games for their own profit, mostly to shut out Apple and Linux, and we have the awesome AMD vs nvidia vs Intel war that keeps producing more expensive equipment every year. Not exactly ideal...
Switching has been great, however. If I need to play anything I just switch into bootcamp. I played HL Episode 2, Oblivion, and Supreme commander with no problems.
That's ALL I've played since the switch however. Just as consoles are a more user friendly and streamlined experience than PC gaming, so is the Mac OS to Windoze.
It's all DS and 360 games for me. I use an R4 card on the ds and play roms, but I purchase games on the 360 for fear of the banhammer. It seems the older I get, the less I want to mess around with optimizing drivers and system settings to play a PC games. I enjoy the simplicity and guarantee console gaming provides, as well as the wonderful matchmaking experience on Xbox Live (friend codes are straight out of satan's asshole, btw).
The other thing that pisses me off about PC gaming is that many older games do NOT support widescreen displays, and I am not about to buy a 3:4 monitor just to boot up old favorites.
Yes it's expensive, but god damn I love it. It's that simple for me, I can justify the cost of any hardware components.
There's really not much you need to know to jump in on PC gaming, Dual Core helps, the more "pipelines" on a gfx card, the better usually. Being handy with patches doesn't hurt either. I'd definitely say, without stroking my ego, that I am a life-long pirate when it comes to gaming. I feel no remorse "ripping" games or whatever, it's so normal to me it's unreal. This mentality comes from the Amiga days I guess, I've always known a "friend" who would sort me out with whatever I ask and over the years, I've become that "friend" to everyone else that I know.
There are a few games I do have originals of. Half Life series, Quake series, Geometry Wars, Worms series etc but not much more than that. Same for DS, I have about 8 original games but the rest are roms etc.
DarQraven; As for companies competing with each other - this is what a free and open market is for. This drives innovation and consumer choice, which ultimately ends up in better technology for the world and it's people. It should never be any other way.
Big woop
I spend more hours in a day on my PC playing games than I do in 2 weeks playing on either my Wii and 360. (well, except when I was still playing through guitar hero II)
I truly do not believe your statement that the PC has the most limited selection of game genre's. When I look at the games I play: multiplayer shooters, top down rpgs, first person rpgs, strategy, real-time strategy, hack-n-slash, mmorpg's, etc, I find that there are just as many or more genre's on a PC than the 360 or PS3 or Wii.
Well, actually, the Wii is in a class of its own now.
The customization of the platform is both the reason FOR its un-popularity and FOR its unique ability to hold genres the consoles simply can't: MMORPG's, extremely tactical shooters (shadowrun basically proved that the keyboard+mouse will always be greater than the analog sticks, but the wii remote actually might be the dawn of a new control style), RTS's.
You just can't do that stuff on a console, and not JUST because they don't have a keyboard and mouse, a lot of it too is the customization of your controls, the moddability of games (half life 2).
I play 20x more hours in Half Life 2 mods than I did the actual game or Counterstrike source or day of defeat source.
Games like Red Orchestra, fucking unbelieveable multiplayer shooters, simply cannot be done on a 360 or PS3 platform.
Gamers also are generally more interested in working as a team, playing fair, and treating eachother nicer, in PC games than on Xbox Live. I guess thats what happens when you give EVERY gamer a headset: even the assholes have them, whereas with a PC, only the people who WANT to be social and use teamwork will go out and buy an 8 dollar headset.
I'm really just tired of people trying to compare PC's to Consoles.
PC's will always be more expensive than a console, but you know what? When I compare the time I'm on my computer, whether it be for gaming or on the internet or chatting with friends, the money spent on my computer is used more than the money spent on my 360 and Wii. I actually feel like my 360 and Wii were wastes of money sometimes ( when I'm not using them, game droughts, etc.), whereas with my $2000 laptop, I feel like its the best $2000 I've ever spent. Plus I can play all my old games, (one thing great about Vista is it's backwards compatibility, something XP wasn't as good at), and all the new ones (yep, my Laptop can handle crysis, pretty well).
I guess what I'm saying is that comparing Consoles to PC's, is still like comparing apples to oranges.
They both have their advantages. But to say the PC gaming is dead, or inferior to console gaming is a very ludicrous statement. And for the graphics whores, it will always be their home. In another year or so, PC games will once again cast shadows of graphical superiority onto the consoles, and once again console owners will have to wait 4-5 years before they get another graphics upgrade.
HAY GUESS WHAT? That's how long my PC upgrading interval is! Ya don't say...
Okay, card games, puzzle games (bejewelled), 3D platforming games (Marble Blast Anyone?) RTS, Turn Based Strategy (Worms), FPS, Driving Sim, Flight Sim, Train Sim...
That was a retarded comment by every standard. PC has every type of game and then some, it's the consoles that are, well at least had been til recently, missing out on a lot of genre's.
*Gets off his high horse and walks into sunset*
Also, my post wasn't all in direct response of your blog post, I wasn't accusing you of saying that PC gaming is dead, my above post is more of a response to these kinds of 'whats up with PC gaming? is it dead?' discussions in GENERAL.
As for pirating games, I don't have many games I like enough to waste the time downloading them let alone buy them. There are exceptions. I just bought the new expansion for Civ IV, I always loved that game. Personally I would love if companies would release a short demo of every game they sell. I would download anything that interests me and try it out. If its great I will buy it. Most of the people I know who do pirate games say it is because they have been burned so many times in the past buy a great looking game that turned out to be horrible. Demos would help this.
As to the amount of time I play. I find I spend more time playing my pc games than my console games. I still have several games waiting for me to beat them on the Wii that I haven't gotten to yet. Even then I only can spend a few hours a week playing games.
I got tired of it though. Its a huge money and time drain to keep up with equipment, drivers, patches, etc.
I got tired of the first thing that had to be done when I bought a pc game was download patch, upgrade graphics driver, reboot. On consoles, shit just works.
I play waaaaaay more consoles now; I thoroughly enjoy my 360, Wii, and PS3. My custom PC rig collects dust for the most part, even though I will play PC Gears of War, Starcraft, and whatever Blizzard's new IP will be when they come out.
So for now console will do it for me. Unless I get addicted to that grindfest World of Warcraft again; it may be enough to pull me back.
Obviously, RTS and most FPS games are better suited to this. As are most mouse-friendly God-games such as Sim City and Civilization. Casual games like Bejeweled and card games like Poker and Hearts are arguably "better" on PCs.
As I see it, that's about it. Consoles, with their combination of better seating [comfy couch vs questionable chair], optimized joypad controls, bigger screens, consistent performance, and easier local multiplayer have serious advantages in a variety of genres. Platformers, fighters, third-person shooters, JRPGs, Strategy RPGs, Shmups, PCRPGS, sports, racing... the list goes on and on.
Yes, all of these genres do appear on PCs. Yes, you can play most of them modestly well, provided you have a good selection of peripherals. That's not the point.
I know there are a loud anecdotal group of PC gamers who will swear up and down that playing a game like Psychonauts or emulating SNES classics is just as good an experience on the PC as it is on a console. NEWS FLASH: it isn't. It's like watching a movie while sitting six inches away from your PC screen vs watching a movie in your living room with a large TV. I would find it difficult to believe that you could ever equate the two experiences.
SIDE NOTE: I do see the argument of PC games having better graphics and an awesome mod community which will "never" happen on consoles. No argument here, that stuff is awesome, even if the quality of the latter tends to be fairly mediocre. But the games that get the majority of the mods tend to be FPS games that would suck on a console, anyway. Games like Oblivion are definitely an exception, but whether that particular title, sans mods, is more enjoyable overall on a PC or a console is a totally fair debate.
If Microsoft has its way, PC games will become mere shadows of their console counterparts.
I agree that the PC is "wildwestish" in a sense we do fend for our own.
Me dishing out the extra 300 for a graphics card when it will decrease in when I'm sure the 9 series comes out will make me want to put my dick in a drawer and slam it shut.
BUT I do enjoy the entertainment I did get for the time being....I can see AWL DUH LEEVZ IN WoW OMGZ I'm going to get more memory and get the controller adapter from Microsoft so I can make GoW a much more enjoyable experience, same for Halo 3 whenever it hits PC.
Anyhow, good read.
I picked up a 360 in February, and found it covered all my gaming needs, for half the price (if not less!) of a PC upgrade that wouldn't even bring my PC up to the power of my 360. Since, the only PC games I've touched have been classics like Starcraft, System Shock 2, Warcraft 2, and some old shooters.
Also, it seems like everything interesting that's coming out on PC in the next year or so is also coming to 360, PS3, or both. And it's guaranteed to run on my console. Not so much on my PC.
With the current generation of consoles and in the future, I just don't see the point of PC gaming. It's lost to me.
If they TRULY want to span the division, start producing 360 hyrbrid capable systems. Produce on-board chipsets to OEM manufacturers. Keep the systems seperate but also give people something cool and unique that will give the best of both worlds. MS is in an amazing position to transcend the current (and I hate this word) paradigm and leave Sony and Nintendo in the dust. What is the 360 but a proprietary PC and vice-versa. By doing this they could create a base standard for PC gaming developers to work from rather than target some vague system specs that are never accurate anyway.
Bah...no one listens to me...
Other than that, I RARELY purchase PC games.
The problem was that what was good, even revolutionary, on the Xbox was still only mediocre by PC FPS standards.
When I do game online one thing I have always found is that the UK people you find online (if they have already hit puberty at least) are alright guys with the occasional dick and the US people are dicks with the occasional alright guy. The way I avoid this is by joining up with some sort of gaming commmunity (in my case its dontcamp.com) and we all play together. Because we know each other there is much more fun and winning doesn't seem to matter.
I can't remember my point so I will ramble on a bit. I find that PC gaming is a hell of a lot more expensive but the stuff you buy is used for a lot more than gaming so it almost justifies the price. And for future game developers the PC will always win against consoles because it has the tools to teach the skills needed.
If you could download pirated games directly onto your Wii/360/PS3, you'd probably do it.
As mentioned above, some people pirate PC games because they're not sure how it will run, so that makes buying a PC game a risky and uneasy experience. Even for hardcore games that put every detail of their PC's specs in their forum sig and boasts about their 'rig' at lan parties, its hard to know what you're getting into with a PC game. And then some games just run like shit, no matter what.
With a console game, theres a reasonable expectation that the developers thoroughly tested the game to make sure the framerate doesn't drop, the game doesn't crash, and there are no glitches.
On the other hand, PC games scale better so if you have the right hardware they can look really great. Many of them can be user-modified and theres a better sense of openness than with console games. That alone could make it worth it.
I think the psychology of sitting in front of a television and sitting at a PC factor in somewhere. On a computer, you can pretty much get anything you want, any time you want it, for free (legally or illegally).. and games get swept up in that. Buying a game, tossing it in your console and sitting back to relax in front of the bigscreen for hours playing halo or whatever is a different experience. I think this is particularly true for people who like the collectability of cartridges.
Even when I buy PC games, I usually neglect, lose, or throw away the discs they come on because the game is installed and the only thing of value is the serial number. Buying stuff from Steam makes it even more rewarding for me NOT to pirate, because I can always re-download games if I switch computers.
Computers have a built-in virtual console/live arcade... its called DOSbox and emulators, and sites like underdogs and dosgamearchive.
I think the variable experience thing only matters to a certain extent. For games that are all about reproducible gameplay and record-breaking, this could be critical. For example I used to play F-zero with friends in college, 10 years after its release mind you, and because of how smooth and consistent it was we would beat each others time trial record by hundredths of a seconds at a time. If we each played on machines with different specs, or if there were performance hiccups throughout, that kind of thing wouldn't be possible to the extent it was. Games like counterstrike, WoW et c. are a less precise, more non-linear experience, so the variability is actually a part of the game. For most games, this shouldn't be an issue.
Lastly, the point about no coordination in the PC game world. This should be a GOOD thing, but in practice it doesn't seem to work out that way. No licensing crap to deal with, no devkits to wrestle with, virtually no limitations on disk space, ram, and video anymore.. all double-edged swords, but they do allow to flourish the types of games you wouldn't see on a console. On the plus side, the lack of coordination and limitations creates a lot of competition, and the top sellers must be of the highest quality. One of the downsides is that there is no brand to identify with, everything is just a "PC Game." Until lately, there really weren't any game demos for consoles, so you sorta had to just buy something based on reviews and reputation, and hope it didn't suck. That gave the game companies the upper hand in a lot of ways.
alright, thats enough.
This is just crazy. PC gamers who visit Destructoid are now console gamers. If they werent they would be at PC Gamer learning about all the new and exciting MMORPGs coming to PC. Why buy a thousand dollar upgrade on SLi/crossfire, quadcore, DDR2 to play the next FPS, Crysis? *crickets*. Just remember that any shit you buy now will be outdated in 6 months.
"Oh PC have the cutting edge on graphics" Well whatever. IF you take a $2000 PC to run Counter Strike then you are eating a turd sandwich. Just be aware that you rely too heavily on MODs to play "something new".
You know what I did with the money for the PC upgrade? I bought a 42" LCD and im $200 shy of a PS3. I will just buy it later 2008 for it to drop price as my 360 and wii keep me very entertained.I definetly think people upgrade PC's just to post specs trying to impress someone.
Well im now trying to grind anyone gears... im just sayin...
---
"Okay, card games, puzzle games (bejewelled), 3D platforming games (Marble Blast Anyone?) RTS, Turn Based Strategy (Worms), FPS, Driving Sim, Flight Sim, Train Sim..."
Well, I have all that on my Xbox 360... with online play.... hmmmm wait... Dammit! I dont have a train simulator on Xbox 360!! Bummer... I always wanted to recreate a Silver Spoons train version in full 3d just to be like Edward Stratton III.
My most recent addictions have been: Hitman Blood Money, Oblivion (umm... hello, custom mods!), Civilization IV: Warlords (one of the best and most time-consuming games ever created), and Jade Empire Special Edition.
Honestly, a lot of those games are equal to their console counterparts, or far superior. Not to mention the games like Civilization which cannot be found on a console.
Even if the standalone game on the PC wasn't better than the console brother, there is always the modding aspect. I played through Oblivion and all of the DLC patches for it, including the Shivering Isles. After that is when my most enjoyable moments were... playing with custom mods made by the amazing community of Oblivion gamers. Simple things from new races to new armour... all the way to entire new cities and questlines. It really blows the whole world wide open.
So... that's why I play on my computer. Same great games, endless opportunities to expand!
(PS. I'm also a console gamer... but that's not what we're discussing!)
I knew this post would attract r-tards
The average person is basically REQUIRED to have some sort of computer nowadays. Let's pretend that I'm not a CIS (That's Computer Information Science, not the TV show) major, and that I could be Joe Somebody who just needs something for word processing. Okay, so I have to still spend at least, what... $300 on a computer for my basic needs. Hardly wallet-emptying.
Granted, that won't play games. At least, not your Half-Lifes or your Oblivions. But, for a second, let's also consider the pretty penny you're spending on your 360 or your PS3. Not to mention your HDTV, or that nice HDDvD drive if you have a 360. All-in-all, we'll sum up that to get a console and play it with all the lovely add-ons you'll want (HDDs, extra controllers, mem cards, whatever)... you'll be spending about $600 on hardware for your console.
So, for your basic computer and your console hardware, you've forked out $900. Not bad, still under a grand... GOTTA be cheaper than 'elitest' PC players made our of money, right? Right?
Oh, whoops. That's right... my entire gaming rig only cost me $850 to build. That includes everything: speakers, wireless keyboard/mouse... everything except for a new monitor (Already had one... you don't necessarily upgrade your TV every console generation either... so eat me).
So, with a net GAIN of roughly $50 over you, I get to play the same games, with better graphics (Half-Life and Deux Ex suck on the PS2 compared to PC... just as an example), not to mention all of the custom mods we can use.
Damn. You win, Brain... what a money sink. I sure emptied my wallet here.
Oh, wait. You mean I could get one of those games and still just be even on the cost of your HARDWARE? Shoot, and I thought you had me, too!
(PS. AS I said, I'm also a console gamer. Just proving the point: trying to start a Console VS PC war isn't going to make you look smart)
They've already decided that PC gaming= frustration/no games/expensive, etc.
You're not going to change their mind.
Real gamers don't care what the platform is, they just STFUAJPG
Except for the part where you made someone buy an HDTV, only to follow by saying you didn't upgrade your monitor on the PC. Oh, and did your PC have an HD-DVD drive? If not, you can't really add that to your conjectured figures.
But more to the point: $600 on accessories for a console? Are you mad?
I think I've spent a grand total of $300 on gaming accessory costs in the last 15 years, the bulk of which was for extra controllers.
Yeah, I really don't know where I'm going with this. Feel free to interpret it any way you want. Peace.
However, now imagine that there were roads in your country that you could only drive on in a car no older than 1 year. Or roads that you could only drive on in cars that have 3 airbags. In that case, I'd rather there was a little less progress, at a slightly slower pace, so I could enjoy my brand new car for a little longer, instead of the next awesome-new-feature-which-is-maybe-useful being required to drive.
Also, another parallel would be a game for Xbox360, that you could only play with wireless controllers, not wired ones. Or only Piranha controllers, not the official MS ones. It's just a retarded situation if you look at PC as one system the way you would look at consoles.
I don't know why I thought I'd get a balanced discussion, this is the intarwebs and Dick obviously doesn't like teh gamezes :(
Ah well, I'll go back to Marble Blast Gold with custom scripts for 360 PC controllers... Safe.
The only real issue when it comes to the PC you have in your home for music and movies vs the pc you use for gaming comes down to the video card. If you're not gaming, drop a $50 card in there and call it art. If you are, you can hit a top of the line card for $500-600... which if I recall is what you can buy a video game console for. Whatever is state of the art right now will run games very well for several years, so the upgrade cycle between PC and console is relatively similar... the only reason you would be upgrading every year is if you had money to burn and absolutely needed the e-peen.
If you're using a PC for gaming only, then dropping $1500 on a machine for that specific purpose is quite steep when you could just get a console. For those of us who use our PCs for a multitude of tasks and would own a PC regardless of it gaming, then adding gaming ability is just an issue of slapping in a video card that will handle modern games, and no more expensive than buying a console to play games would be. The only issue is a bit of technical know-how.
Ive got a wii, 360 and my Dreamcast (may it never die) hooked up to my TV right now, and plan on building myself a new gaming PC in the next couple of weeks. So this is just how I see things for my own self, rather than being a partisan of any one system.
I just wanted to point out one small thing-
Puzzle Pirates is NOT designed for kids. It is designed for casual gamers and puzzle fans alike, and is (currently) the best balance between chat, puzzles, and MMO staples like "guilds." The swordfighting, for instance, was the closest thing to online Puzzle Fighter that one could have outside of an emulator for the longest time.
KoL is also not a text-based game. That would imply that it plays like (such as) Zork, which is not the case, save for that one section (sort of). That said, it is hilarious and awesome.
I do find it funny, however, that we're both fans of these games, but our tastes outside of those two could not be further apart.
2) The installation process. You can't just pop the game disc in and go, at least not with modern games.
3) Copy protection fails often. I *HAVE* to get cracks for many of my games just to get them to work. It's easy to rebel against paying for stuff that doesn't always work.
You think PC piracy was bad? Every Amiga owner I ever knew had a basement full of pirated software, largely because of reason #3. Amiga copy protection was THE WORST. No, forget SecuROM. That doesn't hold a candle to the analog track-skipping techniques used on an 880K floppy, which you *couldn't* put on your hard drive at all.
I absolutely adore running Supreme Commander at native resolution with everything on high. I'm playing the game as it was intended to be played (if not as well as intended). Half-Life 2 is a dream, and Episode 1 moreso.
You know the cost, and gladly pay it. There is quality to be had from the PC arena, and I have no regrets in the investment. Besides which, it's not as horrible as people make out. It's just not quite as guaranteed as a console is.
That said, I still own a 360 and a PS2.
Dont ever be afraid to just jump in on a game! If the team is nice, theyll be helpful and understanding if youre new. If the team isnt nice, then destroying their strategy can be nearly as much fun as winning :P.
As for piracy... well much like music, its very easy - once youve got it, you just use d-tools or whatever, and then crack it, and youre done! No dvd burning or mod-chips or anything.
But also, theres often no guarantee that the game will run well on your pc, especially if its in the region between the minimum and recommended specs. Why pay for something if you dont know if itll work well enough for you to enjoy it? Whats more, if you dont pay, youve got more money to spend on your computer, meaning you should be able to play the game better! The 'right'(not moral) course of action here is obvious!
And finally, theres the inevitable 'is this game actually worth buying' question that pops up. For most people, there are very few games out there that they know that theyll like enough to pay ~$100(nz), before theyve ever played them. That ties in with the first reason - since its so easy to pirate games, you might as well... yes, of course youll buy the game if you like it, of course...
Yeah, I guess yer right about those two, but I do see a lot of kids playing Puzzle Pirates, and KOL could easily be played without any of the pictures, so I consider it text based. Tell me yer in-game ID, and mebbe we can go pillaging sometime.
You may have caught me if I had said you'd spend $600 on accessories alone... but that's not what I said. I said that, with accessories, you total for a console will be around $600. If you've spent $300 on accessories alone, then your total is most likely higher than that.
I didn't put in a price point for a HDTV because I didn't figure in a monitor for myself. However... if you want figures, I can get a nice 22" Veiwsonic monitor at Cosco for $299. You won't find any sort of HDTV for that pricepoint. The only reason I mentioned HDTVs is because if everyone is going to bring up that console HD gaming is so much better... then they will basically HAVE to get that TV to experience and justify their point.
So. I didn't say you'd spend $600 on accessories. Sorry.