I just recently was reading another thread talking about someone choosing to buy a whole new PC because essentially the xbox360 sucks and all its games come out on PC. It got me thinking about how much I enjoy PC gaming, though right now my computer is outdated and currently cant afford a full rehaul of all its major components. So i mainly stick to playing new games on consoles.
Plus, a lot of games that do come out on the PC tend to end up on the console anywayz, so i dont feel like right now im missing on too much. But this is where i start to see the problem. Does anyone remember like just 10 years ago when PC games were complex and allowed so much? Remember playing flight/ combat sims that had almost every key on the keyboard mapped out for some sort of function? Granted you never used most of the keys, but it did allow you to essentially get as in depth with the game as you felt was necessary.
A good example of complexity in a game series was Mechwarrior. There was a time when it had all sorts of different controls. Where setting up a Mech with weapons required you to acknowledge each limbs weight limits, how much armer to put on each limb, on top of the overall weight of the Mech. Then you look at the most recent adaptations (MechAssault) and its simplicity is appalling, just making sure the weapons fit in the boxes and dont cause too much heat. (PS. Chromehounds does try to bring back that sort of complexity, but i saw it as a pretty crappy game)
Another example is the Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six Series. Compare the originals to those series (originally PC games) and look at the grandchildren now, and all i see is a lack of tactical choose in these games, replaced with a simplified "squad control" scheme, that no longer really allows for as in depth tactical and strategic options as previous versions allowed for.
Theres tons of examples of this, i dont need to go through them all, but the basic question i ask; Are consoles essentially causing game developers to dumb down games and simplify them to be able to fit console control schemes? Are PC/Console ports being simplified in order to accomdate the growing number of "casual" gamers in the market and essentially increase revenue? More and more im seeing franchises of great games be simplified to fit on consoles. Is this because of consoles? Is this because theres more money in console games then PC games? Whats everyones opinion on this?
***PS: i would like to not have this thread filled with a ton of comments from 15 year old kids who've only play videogames on Playstation saying "ITS CUZ PC GAMES SUCK AND CONSOLES RULEZ!!!"
