Has PC gaming become pointless?

[Ethan_Hunt]

Half an hour? Nah barely takes 10-12 mins depending on the game.The last game that took me half an hour or more like close to 40 mins was Gear of War which was one of the most pathetic & longest installations ever in the history of gaming.The decompressing process took roughly upto 20 mins.

 

[nish_higher]

decompressing??i think its installation is similar to Halo 2 which installs as u play the game.

 

[Ethan_Hunt]

Yea the same sh*t based properitary installer which MS has been smitten by for their GFW products.It's really very frustrating if you ask me.

 

[Zeeshan Quireshi]

Installer was Always propreitary mate . Most games use MSI installer which was developed by MS for windows ^_^

 

[ring_wraith]

1st of all very good thread...it is indeed a debatable question....but the tread name is misleading though



Well my dear friend that is PC gaming....as per Dr. Moore's law technology doubles itself in approximately 18 months...well in my case I spent close to 70K in March to build my new system...but going by the latest products in the market my system is obsolete but is it?



No you dont...dont have to feel like an idiot...companies have to keep churning out new products to cut a niche in the competitive hardware industry...well looking from a macro perspective you might not get the clear picture but at a more micro level I say look around....how many of your neighbours do think really have a system like yours...believe me...not many...that's called socio economic trend...for eg. there are different kind of cars on the highway but few of them are sportcars...in otherwise most of the cars on the highway are just commuters...hence you would find slow moving traffic...Coming back to the point Companies know this...they will offer you all hardware that you want offcourse backed by your affordability...but as you said most people wont spend a lot of money upgrading systems continuously they minimum requirement to play most of the PC games will always remain surprisingly low...but then you dont expect to drive a 1942 model car on the freeway do you...I mean you have to have a decent config...get it...

[Qoute]Mordern consoles are really pushing hardware to the limit. And the Xbox 360 and particularly the PS3 are far more powerful than most systems out there that cost 4-5 times as much, and the resolution of games they output is no longer a crappy 640x480, its full glorious HD. And lets admit it , it is definetly more fun playing action, racing and adventure games with a remote control as compared to the keyboard. Sure RTSs and FPSs need a mouse and kb, but the PS3 does support them, and I am willing to bet that the Xbox 360 soon will.And they no longer keep you away from your music. The Xbox 360 and the PS3 have fantastic Media Center Capabilities. And both allow you to replace in game music with your music. And considering that both have good capacity hard disks even those with very large music collections will not be disappointed.
Dedicated and standalone are the words that describe consoles...no doubt they are nice sounding words but I somehow hate these words...nothing beats the pleasure of using a powerful desktop....I'am a little old school type..



Well you got a point there...but hey blame the Indian Government's pricing and duty policies for that...moreover any product tends to become cheaper backed by it's demand...if its highselling then its oughta be cheaper and vice versa...



I hate UT so I'am spared for now atleast



No not really...dont spend a lot of time on optimising my pc...one thing that I do is actually downloading all kinds of automatic updates...the PC does it for me....



Never really felt interested in the concept of console gaming...lucky me...

Great post, with some very good points.

However, i don't agree with most of them.

You say that it is natural for computers to evolve. This is exactly my point. We have come to the point where they are evolving at such an alarming pace that attempting to keep up with them is a grave mistake. You say that min. req. will always stay really low. You would be surprised with how many of my friends who have lower configs cannot even play the latest games. And let's face it, there are very few gamers out there who wouldn't mind turning off all the settings or setting them to min. and playing on a res of 800x600.

You say you spent 70k on a pc, and already find it obsolete. If you did send 70k on it, you should be able to atleast play all games on it at min. settings for about 1-2 yrs..... but are you honestly telling me you will not upgrade it when games refuse to work at 1024x768 at medium settings?

That is where the beauty of consoles lies. Games will always look good on them. And when they cease to look good [which will be no less than 3-4 years as history has shown us] there will be a new console to replace it. Imagine, spending just 20-30k once in 4 years to get you gaming fix. Ahh.. bliss. Compare that to PC gaming and imagine how much you would have spent in 4 years to play all the latest games at a decent res and decent settings.

Why you hate dedicated is beyond me. No HAL, no Installation , all benefits!

You say you hate UT.... ok.... but my point was to prove that PC games are eventually appearing on, if not competely shifting to consoles. However, the opposite happening is very rare. Have you played God of War? It is easily the best action game I have ever played, and it only comes on PS2. Pretty soon almost every PC game will be on the console , but the reverse will be completely false.

This is due to a very simple reason. The console gaming population is steadily increasing. and Game Devs are finding it harder and harder to ignore consoles.

It's nice to see that you do not optimise your PC. SO you would say you are the no-nonsense kinda guy who prefers to put a game in and start playing wothout all tham optimising and stuff. Again, consoles shine here. The games are optimised already to the max and hey, no installation.

 

[sabret00the]

^^^ thanks a lot for that detailed answer dude...well let me try to put it from a different perspective...1st of all I'am completely alien to consoles so it would be complete sin for me to rubbish them..so I would steer clear of that..Now see what I meant to say is that even I'am fed up of this rat race...as we speak there is someone trying to peddle some quadcore or octacore...or some PCI-E 2.0...or some DDR3 somewhere trying to take phase out what we know today as cutting edge computing...The worst hit is the GPU industry...they evolve so fast that the rest of the hardware fail to keep face...

Now my point is so what can we do about this....well nothing much...PCs are not always bought for gaming...yes I certainly built my RIG as a gaming system but then again I also need it for other stuff...all the stuff that computers can do...thats the reason why I would bet my money on a PC and not spend the same on a console. Agreed you will never get the same performance and quality as a standalone dedicated device but that's where I would strike a balance by choosing a PC and making the compromise with quality and performance....a PC would definitely be a lot more VFM...

But this point I will certainly agree that a 5mp Mobile camera will never even be close to a 5mp prosumer digital cam...

 

[Ethan_Hunt]

You say you hate UT.... ok.... but my point was to prove that PC games are eventually appearing on, if not competely shifting to consoles. However, the opposite happening is very rare. Have you played God of War? It is easily the best action game I have ever played, and it only comes on PS2. Pretty soon almost every PC game will be on the console , but the reverse will be completely false.

Not entirely true.God of War is developed by SCE & hence would directly mean no PC port being made.Thats how bad Sony wants their game to remain exclusive.If you take games like Bungie's Halo series,Epic's Gears of War (which mind you was 360's first hit game),Capcom's Lost Planet & some others which I can't recollect for the time being had all been boasted as Xbox 360/Xbox exclusive & then slowly made their way onto PC.So it's not only the PC games which are migrating onto Console but console 'exclusives' are slowly making their way on PC too.Apart from Sony exclusives I see very rare titles which would not come up on the PC.

 

[ring_wraith]

I said the opposite happening is very rare... and i said rare because of Gears of War, halo etc.... however what about GTA, Rainbox Six, UT, Prey, Bioshock, Medal of Honor etc.... these were all PC games that over time shifted over to consoles. I'm sure you will agree that it is a rare thing to see a console game ported over to PC, but quite common to see PC games ported over to consoles.

 

[MetalheadGautham]

Installer was Always propreitary mate . Most games use MSI installer which was developed by MS for windows ^_^

some downloadables use NSIS

 

[nish_higher]

well u guys took it wrong i think.i was saying that the installer has 2 options.one to install the game while u play.other to install full game at once which does not take more than 10 minutes with Halo 2 on vista.there's nothing like uncompressing stuff.i was asking if Gears of war installation is the same?i think it is.

 

[ring_wraith]

No, the Gears of War install is genuinely long. And it's not like you play the game at the same time....

 

[Ethan_Hunt]

I said the opposite happening is very rare... and i said rare because of Gears of War, halo etc.... however what about GTA, Rainbox Six, UT, Prey, Bioshock, Medal of Honor etc.... these were all PC games that over time shifted over to consoles. I'm sure you will agree that it is a rare thing to see a console game ported over to PC, but quite common to see PC games ported over to consoles.

Medal of Honor titles had been there for Playstation 2 earlier as well.Bioshock & P.R.E.Y were not ports but they were multi platform right from the begining.In fact GTA San Andreas was touted to be a PS2 exclusive for a long time after it's release but Rockstar realising the PC demand had eventually ported the game over.

@nish: Gears of war has heavy texture compression based installer.Once it installs the basic files it starts to uncompress the remaining which takes hell a lot of time.

 

[ring_wraith]

allwyndlima, i said these were shifted over time. I'm sure you agree that GTA 1 & 2 were only for PC, but the series eventually shifted to consoles. Same goes for all the others. I wasn't being specific in saying which got ported when, i just was trying to make everyone realize the trend game devs are following now.

 

[s18000rpm]

Q. Has PC gaming become pointless?

A. Nope, as long as there's the modders community

on consoles, the game's are like "use & throw".

e.g. GTA SA.
play it on PS2/Xbox, after a while it gets boring, same cars, same map...
on PC - you can install a mission mod/ car mod/ map mod (vice city) , play online 'MP'...

sales of gta sa
PC=PS2+Xbox

gta sa for pc sold more than gta sa for PS2 & xBox combined.

 

[Zeeshan Quireshi]

That's only one side of the coin Dude , PC has very such killer hits .

Compare that to Halo 3 this year then which broke ALL game sales records ever set , it's sales besides being an exclusive were greater than of any game till date .

Consoles get a new classic every month , PC's get it once every 6 months .

And for your part of Console games being use and throw , well i think you've never played on Xbox Live , i never get bored of playing Burnout Revenge or DOA4 online

 

[adithyagenius]

Well here you go :

1) Resident Evil Series (1,2,Code Veronica , 3 , 4) (4 was ported to PC but gameplay is much better on Console )

2) Dead or Alive Series (1,2,3,4)

3) Sonic Series

4) Burnout Series (1,2,Takedown,Revenge,Dominator,Paradise)

5) Ninja Gaiden Series

6) Tekken Series

7) Halo Trilogy (Consoles got it much earlier)

8] Virtua Fighter Series

9) Gears of War(we got it one year earlier)

10) God of War Seires

i could go on and on about games that are Only Available on Consoles ond which are considered gaming classics .

So you mean to say you will play a game that is released today 1-2 Years Later and that too after spending so much time and money on just buying a GFX card . Cmon man games are for enjoying , wat's the fun if you spend som much time optimizing ur system .

Also , you can exchange games with your friends 5-6 of my friends have Xbox 360 so each person has 2-3 games and we all exchange with each other n play .

For me i've only bought Dead Or Alive 4 and Burnout Revenge but have completed more than 15 Xbox 360 games(since oct 07) .

@adithyagenius , also PC's cn never match the ease of use of a Console , Just put in a game disc and start playing , no installing , driver updating , etc etc .. Just pure gaming fun , because after all games are meant to be enjoyed .

Out of all the games you mentioned, I am somewhat interested in god of war. I only know its an RPG and I heard it has lots of button mashing which I dont like. Other games are beat em up type and can't keep me playing for more than 15 mins. MGS is good because of its story line but I don't like the gameplay that much. I played PC versions of MGS and the new one is coming out on PC too. I used trainer to just finish the game for story. Compare the console games to singleplayer PC games like half life, deus ex, system shock, farcry, starcraft, warcraft, diablo series. there is obvious difference between console and PC games. I hate console games because they look like evolved 8-bit games to me - tekken, doa, mario, sonic, DMC ( I like their Rajni kant unrealism videos). Consoles games might be fun to you, but very boring to me.

You seem to have quoted crysis. Crysis is anyway not on consoles. They are too resource hungry to come on consoles at that quality. I am not bothered if I play it late because I am being entertained by orange box (finished it), perseus mandate , hellgate london, overlord and lot more games that I have finished partially. I have yet to even play gears of war and I expect it to run at highest settings. I am skeptical about its immersion, it coming from consoles.

Regarding installs, I dont care because, it never adds to my wait time. I install game in background while I am doing some other work just like raring backups. I would prefer installations because I like to play multiple games through out the day without changing discs. I would rather double click desktop shortcuts. Regarding optimising and patching. Are you saying that you won't optimise and update your windows to your needs if you have console? I optimise every semsester and it doesnt take more than 15 mins, even if i am not going to play games on that pc. There are a lot of optimisations out there, that are simply useless and others create illusion of improvement although fps remains same. Ex: disabling a lot of services from black viper's guide, shifting swap file to different partition (this actually slows it down) and some lame registry tweaks. I only optmise accessibility settings (holding shift key causes some feature to be enabled) just for the sake of gaming.

 

[nish_higher]

well all games produced for PC by Konami\Capcom like Pro Evo Soccer or Resident evil dont look good on a PC.i've been observing that since PS1.

and as far as PC optimisation is concerned most of the games (well most..) include everything u need to run them.any other updates that are made are security updates or just graphic card drivers and i dont think this means that ppl without internet cant play games on a PC the way they are meant to be played on their configuration.i never optimised my PC to run games.its just install and run.after all windows vista is intelligent enough to make all the security updates itself

still i'd stick to console as long as i can and as long as i keep getting PC games on 360

 

[Zeeshan Quireshi]

Other games are beat em up type and can't keep me playing for more than 15 mins.

You seem not to have ever heard or played the Resident Evil series . They're one of the most refined and challenging games ever made and you have put in more brain to work through Resident Evil than mashing buttons .

I promise Anyone's who's played Burnout even once gets addited to it's gameplay and it's not am beat-em-up .

Dead or Alive is a button mashing 3D Fighter for beginners . But lask any DOA Expert n you'l know that they just use well-timed and strategic stroked , not just mashing . But yeah button mashing helps too coz it's easy for Beginners to hook up to the game easily and they can keep improving as they discover the game . ( I n my frnd , both DOA fanatics have been playing DOA since DOA 2[Dreamcast] and now our matles last an average of greater than 10 minutes coz we use tricky moves and absolutely no button mashing )

 

[adithyagenius]

You seem not to have ever heard or played the Resident Evil series . They're one of the most refined and challenging games ever made and you have put in more brain to work through Resident Evil than mashing buttons .

I promise Anyone's who's played Burnout even once gets addited to it's gameplay and it's not am beat-em-up .

Dead or Alive is a button mashing 3D Fighter for beginners . But lask any DOA Expert n you'l know that they just use well-timed and strategic stroked , not just mashing . But yeah button mashing helps too coz it's easy for Beginners to hook up to the game easily and they can keep improving as they discover the game . ( I n my frnd , both DOA fanatics have been playing DOA since DOA 2[Dreamcast] and now our matles last an average of greater than 10 minutes coz we use tricky moves and absolutely no button mashing )

You got me wrong man. I wasn't referring to lameness of button mashing. I was talking about ergonomics and repeatitive stress injury. I play for hours and hours and I can't afford button mashing. One reason I am not playing diablo 1 ( it doesnt have hold left mouse button for auto attacking). I am not saying beat em up games don't have strategy and expertise. I am referring to what PC gamers want. Beat em up games are like time-pass for us when there is very short time. I want awesome story (deus ex, blizzard games) , immersion (half life, system shock) and adrenaline gunfights (fear , cod4 & farcry) which I can play for few hours forgetting about real world and my surroundings and all the classes I have attended and the tests I have to write in next few days. You have to understand the difference between hardcore gamer and casual gamer. Hardcore gamer's main hobby is gaming whereas for casual gamers its time-pass and lower in the list of hobbies. Hardcore gamers like me won't be satisfied by beat-em ups and demolition derbies only. I enjoyed carmageddon and oni a lot. PC does provide enough titles for time pass. Consoles on the other hand are more oriented to casual gamers. There is also the matter of taste. Console seem to more anime'ish with either high pitched girl voices for laidies (eternal sonata) or kiddish anime (final fantasy) for dragonball z fan type audience or way too cool chars with voice modulators in place of voice box ( MGS). I hate them in the descending order. I cannot take over the top, rajni kant action for too long like DMC series. Of course, there are few console game titles that would interest people like me, but they very few compared to PC. Also just look at nominees for gamespot 2007 awards on the on the spot 20/12/07. There is clearly a difference in the types of games.

@everyone posting here.
I noticed something
When you people are giving advantages and counters to disavantages, you are ganging the advantages and counters of all the consoles. Please stick to one console. If I get money to buy console right now, it would xbox360 due to the number and type of titles. It has the best titles IMO. So upgradability of hard-disks in PS3 for large music collection is pointless. Unless you are talking of buying both PS3 and XBox360 which means double expenditure, double the maintainence and adjusting wires and ergonomics every time I play title of other console. In that case its better to have a PC and a single console.
Talking about exclusives, each console has exclusives. Wii has wii sports and wii games satisfy wii audience but for me it would only be time pass. PS3 has heavenly sword, and Xbox has its own. there are certain exclusives that no longer remained exlusive like GTA SA, GOW and both I liked on PC more due to graphics and mouse aiming. These games are the few games which are wanted by all the audience. PC has its exclusives like all blizzard games and crtek games. yeah, yeah, console is getting keyboard and mouse but still blizzard is not releasing games for console. No starcraft 2 for console. Once , the best RTS, FPS games and RPG games start appearing on consoles, they I would shift to consoles without hesitation. Also, dip in PC gaming was due to vista, DX10 and all the issues those two created. this is just the calm before the storm.
Retor compatibility is another issue. Xbox 360 doesnn't have as many titles as PS because its new. PS3 is unable to play PS2 and PS1 games properly. I can play all old PC games thanks to compatiblity patches, compatibility mode, dosbox, grim etc. Only slave zero I was unable to play on XP. But then I didn't ahve internet to check for updates.

 

[Zeeshan Quireshi]

Dude wouldn't you call Resident Evil , Call of Duty 4 , Bioshock , Halo 3 Immersive .

Specially Resident Evil man , story is just plain awesome and you'll forget about the real world once you start playing it . Just try Resident Evil:Code Veronica once .

ANd as for a Hardcore Gamer , well i guess you can't call yourself a hardcore games if you haven't even experienced consoles yet . There's a whole new gaming world waiting out there for you just give it a try before you term it as trash .