The lights are on
I recently sold my Gaming PC, It cost me about $1500 to custom build it. I've always been into PC and console gaming. Being that I am a computer engineer I work with High-End PC's all the time. You see my problem with PC gaming lately is that it's so MMO and RTS oriented. Not that MMO's and RTS's are bad it's just that when you walk into a store and look at their PC section it's always soo pitiful. Of course nobody nowadays goes to the store to purchase PC games, they download them via Steam or Direct2Drive. But, even on those networks the PC game selection is skimpy at best and that's not counting how many of those games suck ass! Which is to say the least the majority of PC games. In fact very few PC games are any good, in fact in the past 3 years I can only think of a handful of PC games that were any good. Not to mention the lack of any good PC only games. The last 4 I can think of are Amnesia, Minecraft, Witcher 2, and starcraft 2. Moreover, all three of those games I just mentioned might come to consoles so much for them being "PC exclusives". So I found myself playing those free MMO's and RTS games such as League of Legends and Vindictus and as I played them I thought to myself WTF? I cant believe that I put all that money into this system to play this crap? I paid $1500 just to play a small handful of awesome games? When I could have used it to buy a *** load of console games and played the crap out of those.
Don't get me wrong PC gaming is awesome and it spanks console in performance any day of the week. But, what good is that if it's barely even used half the time? Modding, and tweaking graphics settings are just the surface of what can be done with a PC game, but nowadays few games even allow modding and fewer still get even half decent mods. What good is it if the games suck and only a few are any good? Lets be honest there's like 10 awesome console games for every 1 awesome PC game. Not to mention the total absence of J-RPG's on it and the over saturation of crappy MMO's that thank god some are free. My overall "jist" is that PC costs too much for too little in return. Many of it's games are for console as well and more often than not are better on console. For example Call of Duty is far better on console than it is on PC especially in Multiplayer. But, PC versions have better graphics and faster load times. For example on PS3 COD: MW2 takes about 30 secounds to load a stage and it's graphics while good are not even close to the PC version, but, close enough. On PC it loads in 5 seconds that's whole 25 seconds faster! Not to mention that on PC you can play the game the way an FPS is meant to be played with a keyboard and a mouse! So yes I acknowledge that performance wise a PC is superior. But, the real question is is the gameplay better? The truthful answer is no! COD: MW2 was better on console because on PC the MP sucked as it did not have edicated servers and the hosts sucked ass and the matches would lag real bad. This in fact is the case with many ports to PC and this is why I left PC gaming it's just not worth all that money. I rather game on console and leave PC to the MMO and RTS gamers.
That is exactly why I gave up my PC gaming but although PC was really good I have to say for me personally I love my xbox 360 but thats just me
great blog
Give it time... wait a minute....
Here come the PC elitists to tear you down *hears the slow approach of a stampede of warlocks and aliens*
You know what I say? Of course the graphics are better---it's a computer!!!! The 360 is almost 6 years old---the PS3 5 years old. So, when I hear PC gamers brag, it's quite ridiculous. I think you nailed the real drawbacks of PC gaming on the head.
It's true. PC usually gets the crappy ports and MMOs because anyone who's smart enough to build a gaming rig is knows how to pirate games. That's why nobody focuses on PC anymore.
Yeah i upgraded my PC a few weeks ago...The only games i've played on it so far have pretty much just been Minecraft and peggle...The sad part is i can't play any of my older games on it so i've actually been playing on my older computer more.
I used to be a PC gamer but the problem for me was that when I played FPS's I just want to play single player and rarely care to play multiplayer. It also didn't have any fighting games and or platforming games (I don't mean flash games, they usually suck ass) and if there were I prefer it on a controller, keyboards just don't cut it.
I think if someone were to complain that console gaming is too wrapped up in FPSes, that argument would be just as true (at least if you're looking at trends in Western Markets, and stores).
A friend of a friend put it best I think:
When you buy a game for a console, there is an understanding that it is going to work (incidentally this was before Fallout: NV came out). It's been designed with the hardware limitations in mind, it's been tested, and it is generally guaranteed that when you insert the disc/cartridge, it is going to operate correctly.
This is not so with PC games. The game may need alternate drivers installed, patches updated, screen resolution changed, or any of a million other problems, and even then your hardware may be outdated. Even with everything up-to-date, installed, and correctly set, it's still a gamble as to whether or not it will run correctly.
Also yes, the cost of constantly updating hardware racks up VERY quickly.
I would like to see this idea of your rewritten in much greater detail... I had started to write an in-depth reply a few times but decided against it as your write-up was just too vague.
Im both a PC and a console gamer but i have to say i lean more to the PC side.The main problem i see with console gaming is the companies that make the consoles.
Microsoft and Sony just wont allow anybody to do what they want.They try to gouge every last cent out of you which i don't appreciate very much. Valve gives out free updates for L4D on the PC but Microsoft made people pay for content valve would have liked to give out for free.
we also have a good modding community we dont always get tools with games nowdays but those are mainly the AAA shooters that were made for consoles that wanna get ur money for a map pack so they have to protect their investment. but we still have a great modding community especially around the source and unreal 3 engines.
PC gamers get a lot of great free games as well.I myself am a fan of league of legends i enjoy MOBAs maybe u didn't like it so much coming at it from an RTS viewpoint.Gloabal Agenda i find a fun shooter it launched with its fair share of bugs but its been cleaned up quite a bit and is free to play now.
I will say though PC games lately have been more of the strategy and MMO market. but i personally cant wait for battlefield 3 because its being built for PC first and foremost. i also have DOTA 2 to look forward too but its in the MOBA genre so probably not something u would be looking for. They also recently announced planetside 2 and it looks like its going to be awesome.But what can i say PC gaming isn't everyone's cup of tea.
P.S. COD in my opinion is one of the worst experiences u can have on a PC they completely ignored quality when porting it.