By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - PC Discussion - PC gaming is a real pain

Mummelmann on 25 August 2008
NintendoTogepi said:

AGGGGHHHH

I need to reinstall every Sims 2 expansion...I think I am going to go INSANE.

 

Don't fret, this is a natural side effect of playing The Sims.



Around the Network
vlad321 on 25 August 2008
Legend11 said:

In my opinion this is the last generation that the PC will enjoy many major exclusives.

Next generation when all consoles have large harddrives and motion controls that rival the keyboard and mouse in terms of ease of control we'll see a situation much the same as the Wii has now with the PS3 and 360. Despite the graphic superiority of the PC even more gamers will go to consoles because the differences will be even less than they are this generation (especially when gamepads are no longer part of the mix).

I expect next generation is when MMORPG, Strategy, WRPG, and any other remaining genres currently dominated by PC will follow the same route FPSs did this and last generation.

Of course the line between console and PC will likely become even more blurred and it could be that what it means to be a console or a PC may change as well.

 

The only way such things will happen is if consoles start getting keyboards and mice. Motion controls are still less accurate than a mouse, mostly due to human error. For MMORPGs people will definetly need a keyboard for communication in between players, there is absolutely no other alternative that I can think of that doesn't make communication utterly annoying or very troublesome. Same thing goes for RTS games, you'd need somethign very precise and motion controls will not hold up after the user has played for say 5 hours straight, your hand just can't stay up and that precise without major rest. Console FPSes on consoles are still very mediocre and primitive in everythign except graphics and AI when compared to PC FPSes, this is mostly true due to the ridiculous communities and countless mods they spit out for any good FPS, I don't see that happening on a console either without any good way to interact and make mods/code/program on a console. Even if they do give keyboards and all different tools for this to happen, who wants to sit in fornt of their HDTV staring at code, forums, or any of that stuff?

Guess what I'm trying to say is that unless consoles become PCs designated only for gaming then I find it hard for many of your predictions to come true, but if that does happem, why the hell would anyone want to buy a PC knockoff? Eventually those "consoles" will start to have hardware upgrades and whatnot and before you know it you will end up with consoles with all the problems of normal PCs and the crappy uses of a console.



Tag(thx fkusumot) - "Yet again I completely fail to see your point..."

HD vs Wii, PC vs HD: http://www.vgchartz.com/forum/thread.php?id=93374

Why Regenerating Health is a crap game mechanic: http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=3986420

gamrReview's broken review scores: http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=4170835

 

Ickalanda on 25 August 2008

I am a hardcore PC gamer and have been playing them since I was 3 and really there are no issues with PC gaming if you actually know what your doing, and sorry to those who think they can't figure it out but it really isn't that hard...

Installing all you have to do is set a destination for the install file and let it do it's thing and for patches you just have to download and run it and same games such as the Blizzard ones patch themselves and it only takes a short amount of time (except for WoW where their patches are very large).

You only need to upgrade your drivers every once and a while and it usually takes at the most like 5 minutes just go to the website of the company for the piece of hardware you need the driver for.

Glitches? Those happen in the same frequency as they do in console games, only difference is they can be fixed more easily.

Reinstalling is the exact same as installing only you have to uninstall the game first, just run the uninstall program that came with the game it's not that hard people.

And key codes, this isn't even a remote issue unless you're a pirate, but nobody likes pirates.



PC Gamer
senortaco on 25 August 2008

PC & Wii a perfect marriage like the Cosby's<3. I'm going to FINALLY build me a new pc after 8 years, lol.

OP: If you have a good setup really you SHOULD have a problem running games. *shrugs*



The Interweb is about overreaction, this is what makes it great!

...Imagine how boring the interweb would be if everyone thought logically?

Kasz216 on 25 August 2008
NintendoTogepi said:

Upgrading, installing, installation errors, non-compatible drivers, glitches, patches, reinstalling, key codes etc.

I wish all of the good games weren't on PC.

Handhelds and consoles are a thousand times hassle free. I wish I didn't love simulation games and prefer mouse & keyboard by far, but I do :(

Anyone else find PC gaming a pain? I hate that it has all the good games.

All of those are console problems now as well at least for some of them.

Non compatable drivers is rare... and as for Upgrading... if you do it right you shouldn't have to do it anymore then you would but a nwe console.

 



Around the Network
cwbys21 on 25 August 2008
shio said:
Garcian Smith said:

In the post you responded to, I made a point to say, "big-budget PC exclusives." If you would have bothered actually reading the post you responded to - which you seldom seem to do, judging by your past post history - then you could have avoided crapping out the majority of the above post. As such, I'm not dismissing anything. I'm simply trying to discuss big-budget games.

The amount of budget doesn't matter, because that does NOT measure the quality of the game. The fact that PC is an open platform and has lower costs of development means that PC games are always cheaper to make. Crysis, the most technically advanced game ever, only cost $22 millions (a far cry from the $40+ millions from Halo 3). Galactic Civilizations 2 cost less than $1 million.

Garcian Smith said:

Second, as per your list of RPGs: Eight are either MMOs or expansions to MMOs. That leaves five from your list: NWN2 and its expansion, The Witcher, Spellforce 2, and Titan Quest. Five versus three still leaves the numbers in favor of the PC, but neither lineup is very impressive: none of those games, either on the 360 or PC, scored above an 82% cumulative score on Gamerankings.

MMO is the technology, RPG is the genre. MMORPG is, and always been a sub-genre of RPG... that is why World of Warcraft won so many "Best RPG" awards.

You see, you are using that weak argument of "I don't like XXX, so I don't include them", just like many people who use that to discredit PC gaming, like:

Xbot: "X360 has better games than PC."
PCer: "No, PC has best."
Xbot: "No way, PC has nothing if you remove MMOs, niche games, indie games, casual games, low-budget games, etc..."
PCer: "...sigh."

But let's dissect better what the PC RPG lineup is like:

There were infact only 4 MMORPGs in my list and only 1 of them was an expansion, so I don't know how the heck you found 8 MMOs in there. The MMORPGs were:

  1. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (expansion)
  2. Lord of the Rings Online
  3. Age of Conan
  4. Tabula Rasa


There were 5 Action-RPGs. While 3 of them were expansions of Guild Wars, they were also full-fledged games that did not require the original game... infact, all 3 of them were rated better than any of the X360's JRPGs.

  1. Guild Wars Nightfall (standalone expansion)
  2. Guild Wars Factions (standalone expansion)
  3. Guild Wars: Eye of the North (true expansion)
  4. Titan Quest
  5. Dungeon Runners


There were 3 CRPGs. Mask of the Betrayer is an expansion, but it has possibly the best RPG story and narrative since Planescape: Torment.

  1. Neverwinter Nights 2
  2. Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer (expansion)
  3. The Witcher


And atleast, there was 1 Strategy-RPG.

  1. Spellforce 2: Shadow Wars

 

 

Resume of both platforms' variety:

X360:
3 JRPGs

PC:
5 ARPGs
4 MMORPGs
3 CRPGs
1 SRPG

Resume of the score of both platforms' RPGs: (Metacritic)

X360:
80+: None
70-79: 3

PC:
90+: 1
80-89: 8
70-79: 4

Garcian Smith said:

Third, so your opinion is that the PC has better racing games. That's fine. But don't try to state your opinion as fact.

That was not my intention, sorry. Let's just agree to disagree on this one.

Garcian Smith said:

Fourth, Portal, Audiosurf, and Braid are not casual games. I hate the "casual"/"hardcore" distinction as much as the next guy, but the normal definition of "casual games" is more along the lines of Bejeweled or Wii Sports.

I was "attacking" the big-budget part you said, not the casual part. I really don't know why you'd care about a game's budget if the game itself might be great.

And for the record, Audiosurf is 100% casual, so there's a casual game that does not have a "big-budget", but is an amazing game.

Garcian Smith said:

Fifth, I forgot about Stalker, but last I checked, everyone hated BF2142 and Red Orchestra. As for 360-exclusive shooters, there aren't many, but that was never my argument in the first place.

I never played BF2142 or Red Orchestra, but I'm thinking it was more a wave of disappointment of BF2142 changes from it's antecessor (doesn't mean it's a bad game). I never heard anything bad about Red Orchestra.

If your argument was a matter of financial success, then that's hard to figure out since many companies don't disclose their figures, but I can't think of any FPS failure on PC in recent times. Crysis did good, Stalker did amazing, Quake Wars' success allowed to double Splash Damage's team, Bioshock passed 1 million, COD4 is selling like crack.

Everything you said in there was correct except that Eye of the North is a true expansion and requires Prophecies, Factions, or Nightfall.

 



God hates console fanboys.

16-bit gamer on 25 August 2008

PC gaming is a pain..So i only buy older pc games cause i know my pc can run them...Thats why i'm still Playing Pajama Sam, Spy Fox, Maniac Mansion, Megaman X and others



At the name of YESHUA, EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth (Philippians 2:10)

I have the biggest Wishlist on VGchartz

Domicinator on 29 August 2008

Part of the fun of PC gaming is getting things to run the way you want them to. It is a hell of a lot of fun to build your own PC, get everything set up exactly how you want it, and then opening up a fresh new game and playing the hell out of it. Along with that feeling of accomplishment comes driver updates, game patches that usually drop on the same day as the actual game, etc.

Here's my take. For a lot of years, I was exclusively a PC gamer. Before I got my 360, the last console I owned was the SNES, and I had been playing PC games before that as well. Why all the PC love? Because the PC offers the best graphics and the most versatile gameplay. It's even better now that we have HDTVs with VGA and DVI ports on them. If you have the power for it, an HDTV makes a terrific PC gaming monitor.

However, there is a downside. The money. And I don't care what you say, PC gaming is expensive, at least for a guy like me. If I'm going to spend money and time building a custom rig for myself just so I can have the very best possible gaming experience, then I'm going to be upgrading every year. Yeah, I know you can go out and get a $150 video card these days and build a box that will merely "handle" PC games, but for me that completely defeats the purpose of PC gaming. If I can't have at least 8x AA with smooth framerates at HD quality resolution, then why bother with a gaming PC?

Here's another thing that goes along with that. People often mention that multiplat games look better on the PC, and they do..........if you have the hardware. If I buy Gears of War on the 360, and then buy Gears of War 2 two years later, I don't have to get new hardware even though Gears of War 2 is supposed to be a gorgeous graphical upgrade compared to the first title. Now if I bought Gears of War for the PC (which I did), and then bought Gears of War 2 with that same graphical update two years later, I may need a new video card. My other option is to turn the settings down until the game will run. So yes, you can get the same games on the PC, but they will constantly need more power, and they are NOT being optimized to run well on PCs these days.

My point is that no matter how you stack it, these days PC gaming is a lot more of a "pain" than it used to be. It's a console world now. In my eyes, the PC is the ultimate gaming platform, but to truly take advantage of it you have to have cash flow, time, and patience. Yes, you can build a $600 box that will play PC games. But it will only play them for about 6 months. If you think otherwise, you probably don't have much experience with PC gaming.




guigr on 30 August 2008
Domicinator said:
 

If I buy Gears of War on the 360, and then buy Gears of War 2 two years later, I don't have to get new hardware even though Gears of War 2 is supposed to be a gorgeous graphical upgrade compared to the first title. Now if I bought Gears of War for the PC (which I did), and then bought Gears of War 2 with that same graphical update two years later, I may need a new video card. My other option is to turn the settings down until the game will run. So yes, you can get the same games on the PC, but they will constantly need more power, and they are NOT being optimized to run well on PCs these days.

 

You're talking about a past situation. Even if a game is not well optimized you will still be able to play any X360/PS3 games on a 2008 gaming PC because the console architecture are closer to PCs.

Second point is that recomended specs for games are not evolving as fast as the hardware is. A 2 years old 8800GTX is capable of running EVERY games on the market at max settings!

Btw Gears 2 is not coming going to be released on PC.



Rock_on_2008 on 30 August 2008

PC gaming does nothing for me either. I prefer gaming on consoles on a 50" Plasma. I use my PC to do assignments, email and surf the Web.