*fires a shot at Owly*

[Brugdor]

 

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=17744

Recalls Lombardi, "I can remember this story coming around in the mid '90s... and then 3D accelerator came out, and Carmack released that patch for GL Quake, and everybody shut up, because all of a sudden PlayStation looked like crap. There's a big shift about to come in the post-GPU space... all of a sudden PC will leapfrog what's going on on the consoles, in many other ways besides graphics."

Interview with the Valve guys wherein they scoff at the notion that PC games are dying.

[Night Owl]

No doubt PC games can look better, because they will be made for the latest hardware - the console has a 3-5 year window, at the cost of being stuck at a tech level.

However, the cost to maintain an acceptable play speed, for the one or two truly worthwhile games a year (IMHO), isn't worth it.

Plus, my TV is way bigger, my recliner way more comfortable, and multiplayer... there's simply no comparison. And the store shelf collection of PC games keeps shrinking.

See, your story there references the mid 90's. A MUCH different time. Back then, the PC games section was aisles in most stores. That's not true now. So from that standpoint, it's a mere shell of what it was.  :bigcry:  (see, I'll shed a tear because I play both - I'm not biased one way or the other.)

[Brugdor]

*chuckle*

If you weren't biased you'd realize that what they are saying is true. PC gaming isn't dying and the numbers being thrown around by most people aren't taking into account huge revenue sources for PC game developers. Are the shelves shrinking? Yep but I'm sure that doesn't have anything to do with Steam, Fileplanet and other sources you can either download or order games online from. 

[Solwyn]

You both fail to realize how inferior they are to the cup and ball game.

[Jeff]

You both fail to realize how inferior they are to the cup and ball game.

I'm cupping my balls and I'm inclined to agree.

In all seriousness, a few points to make.

Alpha Centauri - unplayable on my dual-core system
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - buggy, absolutely unplayable waste of $50
Bioshock - heavily unstable on my system
Master of Orion 2 - was unplayable due to graphical glitches on my old PC
Half-Life, Fallout, Fallout2 - needed extra TLC to run under windows xp

I'm sick of gambling with my own money on whether or not a specific game will run properly on my system out of the box, will run properly once it's patched in a month, will run properly after I have to google for solutions for crashing issues, will never run properly or ever work at all, and lastly, will not function properly when I upgrade my machine next time. Frankly I'm fucking sick of it. I buy perhaps 2 games per year now, and am disappointed with half of them.

Bottom line, the PC game industry too frequently delivers to me a shitty product. I'm not pouring hundreds of dollars per year into their pockets anymore.

[Doombot]

http://ballinacup.ytmnd.com/

Ball in a cup! Mexico's favorite toy for the past 340 years.

(Sound at the link)

[Brugdor]

Alpha Centauri - unplayable on my dual-core system
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - buggy, absolutely unplayable waste of $50
Bioshock - heavily unstable on my system
Master of Orion 2 - was unplayable due to graphical glitches on my old PC
Half-Life, Fallout, Fallout2 - needed extra TLC to run under windows xp

I'm sick of gambling with my own money on whether or not a specific game will run properly on my system out of the box, will run properly once it's patched in a month, will run properly after I have to google for solutions for crashing issues, will never run properly or ever work at all, and lastly, will not function properly when I upgrade my machine next time. Frankly I'm fucking sick of it. I buy perhaps 2 games per year now, and am disappointed with half of them.

It sounds like you have system issues if you have problems with all of those games. Also, you could have just read a review of S.T.A.L.K.E.R before buying it heh.

However I will say that the only game I've had issues with on my PC is NWN2 and I do attribute that to poor programming.

[Ymir]

Huh?

Oh, sorry!

Someone said, "Shot," and I was on my way to the bar.

Cheers

[Petrarch]

There are indeed issues with some older software, and the route of the problem can be traced back to the advent of dual core CPU's.

While I've not had a problem with Fallout, Master of Orion 2 does have a tendancy to glitch out - usually in the form of a black screen with broken bits of the game showing through it. Bioshock runs fine on mine, but it's a very taxing on the hardware.

System Shock 2, Knights of the Old Republic 1 & 2, all heavily unstable if you use both cores.

Yes, you can get around it by telling the system to only use 1 core, but not everyone thinks or even knows to try that.

On a different note - I finally got onto Xbox Live yesterday when I upgraded my account to gold. Downloaded some old arcade games - Missle Command that comes in retro and revamped versions, Commander: Attack of the Genos, a retro styled turn based strategy and Trigger Heart Elixica, a Japanese shooter that originally appeared on the Dreamcast I think, a few content packs and all in all it's great fun. I've not decided what I'm going to do gaming wise yet, but I am tempted at a co-op Gears of War to start with.

[TK]

I've just completed KotOR on my dual-core Athlon and only really saw the occasional crash to desktop I remember seeing on my old single core setup.  I may just be lucky but after I get past the usual windows problems my x2 happily runs any older game I give it, it could have something to do with the x2 being a more elegant implementation of dual core than the core 2 though.

The core 2 is an amazing performer and I like my core 2 based p4 media center because it's quiet and fairly powerful but I perceive the x2 as being a more compatible solution for older games.

PC gaming is nowhere near as healthy as it used to be, I think it'll become comparatively niche because of all the hoops you need to jump through to get a game looking as good as it should, performing well and often; working in the first place.  I'm dismayed at the fact that my machine with a dual core processor an 8800gt and 2gb  of ram won't play F.E.A.R at max details and that it slows to a crawl if there are a lot of units on screen in supreme commander. (admittedly I'm not sure if I've played sup comm since I upgraded from my 7900GTX, but the fact that it slowed to a crawl on last gens flagship card irks me too)

The faff free nature of console gaming is starting to look more and more attractive as I get less and less interested in maintaining a gaming machine.

[Jeff]

It sounds like you have system issues if you have problems with all of those games. Also, you could have just read a review of S.T.A.L.K.E.R before buying it heh.

However I will say that the only game I've had issues with on my PC is NWN2 and I do attribute that to poor programming.

Point is, I'm finding myself having to guess at how much additional work I'll need to put into a game just to make it functional, out of the box or 3 yrs down the road on a new system. Which is kind of the antithesis of what I play games for - fun.

SMAC not running on dual-core systems (crashes on startup 100%) is a well-documented bug. HL, Fallout and F2 having troubles running under win XP is a well-documented bug. And lack of stability is a noted issue for Bioshock as well. I don't make this shit up for fun, Brug. Maybe you're just willing to accept a lower standard than me, I don't know.

[The SysMan]

There has been pretty much only one game I play with amazing frequency on my flatmates Xbox, and that was Jade Empire. He bought it for $30, and I've played it almost 15 times, 10 of those perfectly with every secret and story arc uncovered.
Yeah. Now that its "out" on PC, I'll wait til it also drops to $30, then I'll buy that. By then my flattie might have moved out and I wont see it again.


Oh, he's also getting an XBox 360 solely for Fable 2.
Eh. I'll play it, but I'll be thinking about my PC when I do