Epic focusing on console titles claims PC gaming is currently in "disarray"

[Final-Fan]

naznatips said:

rocketpig said:

naznatips said:

Final-Fan said:
Moreover, PC prices are indeed falling but a PC in the same price range as consoles are NOT going to last as long for gaming as consoles.

This is a common misconception from people who don't understsand PC hardware. It's true that your PC will not play games on maximum settings for 5 years, but a PC built now will run all games over the next 5 years easily, and if you do want to continue running games at higher graphical power, the only thing you'll need to upgrade is your video card once every 2 years or so. Possibly your RAM as well.

Honestly I've never understood where people got this idea that PCs suddenly won't be able to play the games the consoles do. It's truly a ridiculous notion. My PC, from a technical standpoint, is simply far more powerful than either console. I have a better GPU, more RAM, and a better Processor. Where on Earth did you get the idea that I'm suddenly not going to be playing the multiplatform games 3 years down the line?

I swear, the complaints people come up with against PC gaming defy all logic. People who have no understanding of PC technology at all just hop on the bandwago.

While, as a PC gamer for years, I agree with most of what you're saying, I have a hard time believing any 2002 computer could run Crysis.

In the PC gaming world, you probably have more like three years (if you drop $1k on parts, not including monitor) of high-to-mid gaming on a PC. After that, you'll be struggling to run newer games at even midrange resolutions and horsepower hogs like Crysis won't run at all (though those types of games are pretty rare).

There are a few issues with your statement.

First of all, we crossed the Operating System barrier in there, which creates a leap in technology. If you see each operating system as a console generation, then it's fairly unreasonable to assume an early XP machine could play late Vista games.

Second of all, a 2002 gaming machine may not be able to run Crysis, but it could run CoD4, Bioshock, and the Orange Box with no trouble. The only real limiting factor for a PC is its CPU, and CPU recommendations for these games are simply not that high. Crysis was a technology leap game, and there is only one of these released every 5 years or so. Every game is not Crysis, nor will be every game released after Crysis.

So you're assuming that 5 years from now everyone will still be running Vista? 
W95-1995
W98-1998
W2K-2000
WXP-2001
WV-2006/7
It seems to me that XP's lifespan was the exception, not the rule.  Maybe 5/6 year lifespans for OSes is the new rule but then again maybe not. 

Now here we get into something that I truly don't know as I haven't closely followed computer hardware for more than a few years.  Would a 2002 PC that cost a MODEST amount truly run Bioshock and CoD4 without ANY newer-than-2002 hardware and without looking like week-old dogshit?  What graphics card would you recommend, and what did it cost at the time?