okr said: vlad321 said: okr said: vlad321 said: okr said: No. - PC always had and still has the most exclusive games - RTS, point&click - MMO, browser games - indie games developing & publishing on your own without costs for development kits etc. - PC still gets big multiplats (RE5, ME2, ACII etc.) - Civilization 5 (some day ) I think that was supposed to be Civilization Revolution. How dare you, sir! CivRev was a very good, but downgraded Civ version for console/handheld, definitely not Civ 5. That's how I tried to rationalize Deus Ex: The Invisible War as well.... http://www.civilization5.com/

You sir just made my whole god damn month!

WHen they say Fall 2010, do they mean that the official website will be up in the fall or the actual game?

At least to me, PC gaming is getting more popular over the years, and tends to become a stronger market than the console gaming, in my opinion.

@vlad: The actual game: http://www.firaxis.com/news/news_detail.php?id=761
(though I personally had hoped for a 2011 announcement to celebrate 20 years of Sid Meier's Civ with game #5, but anyway).

Holy crap they JUST announced it, and here I thought you were hiding this from me for the whole thread. I was too blinded by the SC2 beta starting to notice this, but holy hell, that is awesome. This is the greatest day EVER. Should make an entirely separate post for this, that's how awesome the news is.

PC gaming isn't dying, but it is definitely becoming more of a smaller niche dedicated gaming platform relative to console gaming.

PC gamers like to point out how a sub $100 VGA card performs better than any console by leaps and bounds (unquestionably), but they're still not cheaper (even with a sub $600 "hobo" box) and definitely not more convenient or easier to use than any console either.

The thing is, to the average gamer, that doesn't even matter. They just want to play the latest games and all the hottest titles are available (often exclusively) on one or more consoles. They want convenience, low hardware price and an all in one box (not a kit) solution. Only the true PC enthusiast will nitpick over the differences in the same games to justify the time and money spent on building a respectable, if not envy inducing gamer rig.

Often, the PC gaming industry is driven by consumers who seem to care more about building and buying hardware than dedicating all their free time to buying and playing games.

And many of the most fervent PC gamers, who do dedicate ridiculous numbers of hours to gaming, often play the same games pretty much for as long as they keep gaming. Counter Strike, Team Fortress 2, Star Craft, WoW, etc. are the types of games many gamers dedicate most if not all of their gaming time into rather than continually buying the latest new releases, which is what obviously drives the business end of the industry. Not buying 4 VGA cards to run in SLI/Crossfire mode, or replacing VGA cards every 6-12 months if you thrive off game benchmark stats.

But PC gaming will never die, even if retail distribution becomes almost entirely DD through Steam and Direct To Drive, etc.

Onlive could potentially make "PC" gaming more mainstream as it theoretically takes all the hardware requirement issues out of the equation. Unfortunately, it takes all the hardware requirement issues out of the equation, meaning PC game consumers no longer have to buy PCs, specifically all those game centric high performance VGA cards that ATI and Nvidia have to sell to PC gamers to keep business healthy enough to continue to heavily invest in continuing R&D.

If nothing else, PCs will likely always have MMORPGs to keep it viable as a gaming platform. And while Flash games will always have players, they really don't count since they don't drive the game industry in any way, regardless of how popular they may be to people who play games yet aren't "gamers" from the standpoint that they spend hundreds of dollars a year on new games. Most of those games are being played on laptops with integrated video totally unsuitable for 3D gaming at playable levels.

And the majority of laptops, which have become (or will shortly) the most popular type of computer for the general consumer, are in this same category. Inexpensive, with integrated video. Far from ideal for playing the latest 3D games if they even meet the minimum requirements at all.

Netbooks, if they continue to thrive as a PC replacement for low power users, will only make this trend worse.

double post

PC Gaming is definitely cheaper than Consoles if you buy a $600 PC. You save A LOT on PC games.

THe fact that so many people play games like Starcraft and Counter-Strike for so long means that only PC can offer games with that much quality and addictive gameplay.

The fact that more and more PC gamers are buying laptops and netbooks means that PC developers will further work more on optimization and lower specs, which is good for everyone.

And $600, or even less, is only the initial investment, a good MoBo can last two or three updates, a DVD burner too, RAM, as long as the MoBo, you just add some if needed, a good case even more, HDDs, you can keep the old ones and add another if needed (and FDD, I still have the one from my first 1997 PC, but I didn't mount it on my last one). So for $300 you can do a major update, CPU and GPU, and unless you are a graphics whore, it will last quite long, and you don't just use it for gaming.

I don't know why people get so attached to their motherboards. Unless you buy an enthusiast board that costs well over $300, they're worth replacing as they get older, even if they are compatible with newer CPUs.

Regardless of whether your motherboard will or will not be compatible with CPUs being released 3, 4 or even more years down the line, doesn't it occur to everyone that there will be new data transfer standards, interfaces, etc. making the prospect of keeping a motherboard for 5-10 years or whatever ridiculous number far from optimal as new standards are introduced?

If you bought a new motherboard even within the past year, you'll have good reason to replace it within the next couple years if it isn't USB 3.0 (yes, you can buy a USB 3.0 add on card) and SATA 3.0 compatible (SOL if you want to use new 6.0Gb/s storage devices) once devices using those standards become common and eventually the new standard.

Unless you update CPUs every 12-24 months or less, you're not going to get 2-3 update cycles out of your old motherboard unless you're okay with using dated storage device standards.

There's also the issue of memory speed compatibility if you upgrade to a newer processor with clocks that can take advantage of higher speed memory as it becomes available. Compatibility speeds are motherboard dependent which can be an issue if you keep it long enough.