We have some PC market data! Lets discuss...

[vlad321]

alephnull said:
I think it's hard to argue that console gamming hasn't at least somewhat negatively affected the quality of PC games this generation. How many PC games have you played in the last 3-4 years that have had an interface obviously tailored to console gammers? You never used to see this.

Certainly the maturity level of games has degraded precipitously, and console gamming is not exactly helping there. I can't think of a single console game this generation that has a premise I'm not embarrassed by. The alpha centauri used to have quotes from classics, the new civ has everyone talking in some obscure dialect of retard Esperanto.

However, all of these changes are more likely attributed to demographic shifts. Up until the late 90s a significant number of PC gammers were made up of older hobbyists. The decline of Computer Gaming World, and the rise of the FPS probably correlate with their decline fairly accurately.

When the FPS's started to dominate PC gaming it was all over. Games like rules of engagement, carriers at war, or SU-27 flanker would likely lose allot in a console port. FPS's tend to be pretty simple games at heart, and stand to lose very little in a port. And if that's all anyone plays what's the downside to moving to consoles?

 

Because PC does shooters far far better, without any limitations due to hardware. However you do bring up a a very good point, it's not just UIs that are affected, there have been changes to the overall contet and mechanics to shoehorn the games on the conosoles' demographic and the console's hardware. You'll keep hearing me say this, but UT3 was my eye opener of just how bad the consoles' infuence can be even, even if it is subtle. Because they ported the game over to the PS3, they completely ruined the UIs from the UnrealWindowsUI (which is the best menu ever created) and you had to actually go into your .ini files to configure settings. Yes... you had to go to your .ini files just because they weren't even displayed.... And then the gameplay, on the whole it seems very very similar and almost the same as UT99, however they've added a bunch of changes to a few mechanics here and there to make it more suitable for a console and the game has been reduced to utter crap because of them. The actual changes are VERY miniscule, and yet they have such huge.

Basically, if Microsoft and Sony stated that they are discontinuing their consoles tomorrow, I'd be leaping with joy. Nintendo has always aimed at the genres for which consoles are strong for, and not the PC-centric genres, so I'm actually quite happy they are around. They offer me something my PC hasn't been known to have the best games in.