Rant the death of pc gaming?

[nath]

Well, MW2 is better on the PC than it is on a console. The online is wank on all formats. The game is the same except for better controls and better graphics on the PC.

Except that on the console version, when you realise that the single player is over in a heartbeat and the multiplayer is a big gash, you can sell it second hand. Thanks to mandatory steam integration on the PC version, if you buy it, it's tied to you permanently.

 

[Ch3tan]

The online on the consoles isn't that bad though, it's only on the PC where the loss of dedicated servers etc hurts. On the consoles that is the norm.

 

[nath]

I guess the lack of mouse precision helps hide the lag.

 

[Ch3tan]

I guess the lack of mouse precision helps hide the lag.

And the auto aim, it's only PC elitists that think FPS games are not as fun without a keyboard and mouse. They are different is all, precision aiming and speed is not as important. I can enjoy games on the PC and consoles, but I'm not so blinded by love for one or the other that I cannot talk about flaws on both, unlike some here.

 

[chipper]

I've seen this arguement a lot since MW2. I have only 3 words to counter that arguement...

Dragon Age: Origins.

which is available on consoles too undboutedly not as good but in essence the same game


pc gamers slag MW2 off alot me been one of em, the fact is its one of the most well recieved console game for years.

anyone remember goldeneye 64? fantastic fps game worked brilliantly infact one of my all time fav games over any format, fps games can and do work on consoles they are just a different experience.

ive just bought a 360 after much naggin off a mate and largely cos i wanna play dj hero. for years ive shunned consoles thinking them inferior but ive recently had a change of heart. consoles can be alot of fun whiled away many hours on pro evo with the lads before we headed out on the piss.

 

[nath]

which is available on consoles too undboutedly not as good but in essence the same game

Why does it matter that it's also on a console? There seems to be an expectation that because major titles are often multi-format that PC gaming is dying. It simply makes good financial sense to make things multi-format.

 

[chipper]

yes nath but what im sayin is its cheaper to make 1 game that fits over all formats to maximise profits, in doing so they dont do justice to the pc version which can generally handle more than a console.

this is the point there are few pc only titles anymore its seems that games are modeled around a mid range template to emcompass all formats and because they will sell well on consoles regardless theres little need to add extra work to the pc version which can handle so much more, why spend more money than you have to? consoles are bigger buisness than pc's.
from a financial point of view it doesnt make sense to spend more money to make a great game for a fraction of your fan base when you can make an average game and still gain profit from a portion of profits. knowing full well console sales will more than make a profit.

 

[nath]

yes nath but what im sayin is its cheaper to make 1 game that fits over all formats to maximise profits, in doing so they dont do justice to the pc version which can generally handle more than a console.

this is the point there are few pc only titles anymore its seems that games are modeled around a mid range template to emcompass all formats and because they will sell well on consoles regardless theres little need to add extra work to the pc version which can handle so much more, why spend more money than you have to? consoles are bigger buisness than pc's.
from a financial point of view it doesnt make sense to spend more money to make a great game for a fraction of your fan base when you can make an average game and still gain profit from a portion of profits. knowing full well console sales will more than make a profit.

Clearly it's still possible to make money from PC sales or they wouldn't bother. It's also clear that it's worth putting the effort in to make it decent - Dragon Age: Origins seems to be going down very well, Left 4 Dead 2 is very good (the demo is fabbo). Modern Warfare 2 shows that they're willing to try fucking over PC players presumably because they think they'll make more money that way. Time will tell if that's the case.

Either way, people are frequently concerned that PC gaming is going somewhere, but they have been for ages and it's still here. I'm not remotely concerned about its future. Indie games are becoming more common and some of them are aces. We may not see quite so many Crysis type games but meh, Crysis was pretty but ultimately a bit crap so I'm not too bothered.

 

[Ctuchik]

They want pick and play and no compatibility issues or fiddling, and that is where the console will win out.

wrong. a PC of ANY brand is compatible with any other PC that isnt a relic, even MAC's are compatible with PC's in many ways.

a PS3 isnt compatible at all with neither 360 or WII. wich in their cases isnt compatible with anything else either. only their own previous tier console games, if that.

when i can play for example a PS3 game on a WII/Xbox360 then i can agree with what your saying

but right now a console is probably the LEAST compatible gaming platform out there. because thats how they want it, otherwise they wouldn't have any "exclusives" to pull in sales with.

i mean, i cant even play a fucking xbox360 game on my windows PC without using dodgy emulators....

 

[nath]

I don't think that was his point. I think what he was saying is that if you have an X360, the 360 games work just as well on one as they do on the other. Same for PS3/Wii. With a PC you have to take note of your specs, how well will it run, do you have to faff about with activations etc. PC games are much more involved, consoles just work. Most people, as evident by sales, just want something to work, they don't want to faff about with any of that other stuff.

I do, however .

 

[Ch3tan]

Way to miss a point ctuchik.

 

[Ch3tan]

Oh and the point with Dragon Age: Origins. I have it ont he PC, it's a good game, but it is not ground-breaking or anything new, the graphics are okay. If I had got it on the 360 instead I would not have missed the pretty shiny graphics or the mouse interface.

I think that is the biggest issue with PC games, there is nothing ground breaking anymore. And we are expected to lap up stuff life Crysis, I'm sorry but I don't care about amazing life like graphics, give me a good game.

 

[Raven]

Come on, that's just daft. There is far more innovation on the PC than there is on consoles. Far more indi games where graphics mean little or nothing.

 

[Ch3tan]

I don't see half of them though, do they make money? Because that is the bottom line like it or not.

 

[PLightstar]

'Causual games' are a lucrative business and indie developers can make a fortune look at the success of games like Bejewelled, Peggle, Audiosurf and many more. Live Arcade has meant they can bring their games to another audience.

Just look at Popcap games, they turn over profit every year by making cheap addictive quick play games.

The gaming industry has slowed because of the cost of making the big games, across all formats but if this 'onlive' and other schemes take off what will happen to PC/Console gaming. I was chatting to my mates about it and they all agree at least in this country the internet infrastructure needs to be brought up to date, before anything like that can work.

 

[DaGaffer]

To be honest, if they gave me mouse/kb support and more server-based games on consoles (or some similar controller mechanism) , I wouldn't bother with PC games at all. I don't really care about uber-l33t graphics, playability is far more important. And I really don't understand why the console companies don't give mouse/kb type controls. They're happy to support all kinds of non-standard inputs (steering wheels etc) that would give an "unfair" online advantage, so why not mouse/kb?

 

[Raven]

Because most of their games are geared towards joypad. Can you imagine, K/b and mouse vs joypad. You would have to turn off the auto aim for a start, the joypad user would get royally spanked.

 

[DaGaffer]

Because most of their games are geared towards joypad. Can you imagine, K/b and mouse vs joypad. You would have to turn off the auto aim for a start, the joypad user would get royally spanked.

And you can make the same argument for steering wheels and other non pad peripherals, but they allow those.

 

[nath]

Steering wheels don't actually make racing games easier. I've found they actually make things a bit harder but it's more fun with them.

 

[mooSe_]

Using the wheel on mario kart wii is a good way to lose the race online